Chapter Summaries

Su Ming tested and upgraded Word Becomes Law, discovering that it could control local weather and restore damaged objects at a substantial energy cost. He considered using the talent to make Tony dance the next time he met him.

• Su Ming found that his declaration about workers had no effect, but his command made a glass float toward him before it struck him and shattered.
• Su Ming reviewed the Level 2 and Level 3 upgrade options, then spent 1.2 trillion USD to raise Word Becomes Law to Level 3.
• A storm formed over the area around Su Ming's base, and he dispersed the clouds with a command, using 6% of his energy.
• Su Ming commanded the broken glass and spilled water to return to normal, then wondered whether to make Tony dance next time they met.

Happy investigated Killian's suspicious associates, was badly injured in an explosion, and Su Ming went to the hospital to help him. Su Ming secretly healed Happy, who woke and teased Tony.

• Happy followed Killian's group, stole a metal vial, and fought a man whose wounds healed rapidly.
• The man who sniffed too much of the substance exploded, injuring Happy, while Savin escaped with his wounds healed.
• Pepper called Su Ming and asked him to protect Tony, so Su Ming opened a portal to Happy's hospital room.
• Tony questioned why Su Ming had come empty-handed, and Su Ming restored Happy's internal injuries with his ability.
• Happy woke and joked that Tony looked like a corpse after spending three days in the intensive care unit.

Su Ming used Word Becomes Law to heal Happy and make Tony dance, then reminded Tony to be angry about Happy’s attack. Tony left to confront the waiting media, while Su Ming restored Happy’s IV and followed him out.

• Tony was stunned to find Happy awake and apparently recovering, and Happy asked for peanut butter sandwiches.
• Su Ming prompted Tony to celebrate Happy’s recovery, and Tony danced wildly around the hospital room, pulling out Happy’s IV.
• Tony stopped dancing when Happy called out and tried to explain himself before announcing that he would avenge Happy.
• Su Ming reminded Tony that he should be angry and that the media were waiting downstairs, so Tony stormed out to confront them.
• Su Ming restored Happy’s IV and the blood on his arm, then followed Tony from the room as Happy wondered if Su Ming was God.

Tony publicly challenged the Mandarin after the attack, while Su Ming used his power to control the reporters and backed Tony’s threat. Su Ming later visited Tony and revealed that the suspicious explosion site was in Tennessee.

• Tony left the hospital furious and challenged the Mandarin on camera, giving him the address of Tony’s home.
• Su Ming calmed the reporters and answered questions, then warned the Mandarin that he could not help him against Tony.
• Tony returned home and investigated the explosion with JARVIS, finding temperatures above 3,000 degrees Celsius but no shrapnel.
• Su Ming appeared through a portal and told Tony that the suspicious location was in Tennessee.
• Tony confirmed Tennessee was a likely lead and asked why Su Ming had come; Su Ming said he was visiting a patient.

Su Ming revealed that Pepper had hired him to treat Tony’s suspected PTSD, then demonstrated his power by forcing Tony to dance. Tony accepted that Su Ming could help, but their conversation was interrupted by helicopters approaching his mansion.

• Su Ming told Tony that Pepper had hired him for ten billion dollars to help with his suspected PTSD, and Tony objected to the expense.
• Su Ming asked Tony about his reaction to Happy’s injury, then used his power to make Tony dance against his will.
• Tony realized his behavior around Happy and the Mandarin had been abnormal and acknowledged that Su Ming could help him.
• Tony stopped dancing, and JARVIS explained that reporters knew the mansion’s address after Tony had given it to them.
• Several helicopters appeared over Tony’s Malibu mansion and adjusted their positions as if preparing to attack.

Su Ming admired Tony Stark’s armor while Tony argued with Pepper and Maya, until a missile struck the seaside villa. As the villa collapsed under a helicopter attack, time froze around Tony, leaving him wondering whether the Internet had been cut off.

• Su Ming explored Tony’s armor collection as JARVIS introduced the suits to him.
• Maya arrived seeking Tony’s support for her Extremis research, and Pepper confronted Tony about his former girlfriend.
• Maya spotted a missile approaching the villa, and it exploded, throwing Tony, Pepper, and Maya through the air.
• Su Ming survived the blast by flying through the collapsing laboratory and shielding himself with defensive energy.
• Pepper’s armor protected her and Tony as three helicopters attacked the villa, which began collapsing toward the sea.
• Tony slid beside a falling pillar, then found everything frozen in place and wondered if the Internet had been cut off.

Tony Stark survived the attack on his home after Su Ming froze the collapsing building and missiles, then reclaimed his armor from Pepper and insisted on fighting alone. His prototype armor malfunctioned during the battle, and Tony ended up trapped underwater beneath a rock.

• Tony panicked as missiles struck his home, but Su Ming froze the missiles and halted the collapse to save him.
• JARVIS confirmed Pepper had evacuated safely, and Tony summoned the Mark 42 armor from her to cover his body.
• Tony refused Su Ming’s offer of help, so Su Ming released the frozen moment and let the building continue collapsing.
• Tony’s prototype armor lacked working flight and missile systems, but he destroyed two aircraft with a piano, a repulsor blast, and a thrown missile.
• The collapsing building dragged Tony into the sea, where a cable pulled him underwater and a rock pinned him as his armor began flooding.

Su Ming rescued Tony and Pepper from the wreckage of Tony’s home and destroyed the last attacking helicopter. Tony’s unconscious armor then flew toward Tennessee under JARVIS’s control, leaving him to wake mid-flight as its energy ran low.

• Su Ming used Magnetic Control to pull the unconscious Tony out of the sea and back to Pepper.
• Su Ming stopped the helicopter’s bullets and missiles, crushed the aircraft, and let its returning weapons destroy it.
• Pepper thanked Su Ming and realized Tony had likely kept him from intervening earlier.
• Mark 42 activated and flew away, with JARVIS following Tony’s commands to head for Tennessee.
• Tony woke as JARVIS warned that the armor’s energy was below five percent, and he screamed while the suit lost altitude.

After the bay villa was destroyed, Su Ming agreed to follow Tony and ensure his safety, while Pepper pressed him to finish the commission by helping Tony recover. Su Ming caught up with Tony in Tennessee and used Word Becomes Law to relieve his exposure to the cold, then decided he needed to cure Tony of his reckless need to show off.

• Pepper asked Su Ming to find Tony and make sure he was safe, and Su Ming concluded that his commission would not be complete until Tony recovered from his trauma.
• Su Ming sensed Tony traveling at high speed, said goodbye to Pepper, and flew after him.
• Tony's damaged Mark 42 ran out of power and dropped him in the snow near Rose Hill, Tennessee, where he struggled to find shelter and keep warm.
• Su Ming followed Tony's tracks to a house and used Word Becomes Law to make Tony no longer feel cold.
• Tony left Pepper an apologetic message from a phone booth, while Su Ming appraised the damaged Mark 42 at four billion dollars.
• Su Ming remembered that Tony would eventually destroy his armors to show off and resolved to treat Tony's habit of showing off.

Su Ming devised a plan to help Tony recover while protecting his suits, but Tony’s fears resurfaced when young Harry Keener questioned him about an explosion’s victims. Meanwhile, Pepper followed Maya to meet about Killian, who was secretly behind the Mandarin’s attacks.

• Su Ming decided to separate Tony from his suits and make him rebuild his confidence, while also preventing him from destroying the suits.
• Tony refused to pay Su Ming enough to move Mark 42, so he dragged it himself and took shelter in a nearby garage.
• Harry Keener discovered that Tony was Iron Man and showed him a newspaper reporting that he was presumed dead.
• Maya told Pepper she suspected Killian worked for the Mandarin and said she would explain more somewhere safer; Pepper went with her.
• Tony, Su Ming, and Harry visited the site of an explosion, where Harry’s questions about the victims’ shadows triggered Tony’s fear that his actions had sent the Avengers to their deaths.
• Killian arranged another filming session with the actor playing the Mandarin, revealing that he controlled the attacks from behind the scenes.

Su Ming secretly helped Tony as Tony fought Killian’s Extremis-enhanced agents at a bar and nearby restaurant. Tony escaped the woman’s attack, but Savin trapped him beneath a collapsed water tower and captured Harry, leaving Tony pinned and Harry apologizing.

• Su Ming changed clothes and returned to watch Tony investigate Ms. Davis’s document at the Tennessee Bar.
• An Extremis-enhanced woman attacked Tony, burned the sheriff, and shot him while Harry distracted Savin with his modified toy gun.
• Tony escaped through a window, and Su Ming used Magnetic Control to strike the woman with a frying pan, giving Tony a chance to fight back.
• Tony set off a microwave explosion that blasted the woman onto power lines, but Savin collapsed a water tower and pinned Tony beneath its wreckage.
• Savin captured Harry and brought him to Tony, who comforted the frightened boy and told him the situation was not his fault.

Su Ming arrived just in time to stop Savin from killing Tony and used his energy-absorbing ability to subject Savin to extreme cold and heat. Savin was left terrified as Su Ming promised that the torture was only the first sauna.

• Tony reminded Harry how to respond to bullies, and Harry used a flashbang to escape Savin.
• Tony blasted Savin with an energy cannon, then tried to free himself from the steel frame pinning him down.
• Savin attacked Tony again, but Su Ming appeared and caught Savin's wrist before he could strike.
• Su Ming absorbed the heat and energy from Savin until he became cold, then poured energy back into him until he overheated.
• Savin begged Su Ming to stop, but Su Ming told him this was only the first sauna.

Su Ming killed Savin for taking Harry hostage and absorbed the energy from his three-thousand-degree explosion, leaving Tony and Harry stunned. After Tony complained that Savin and his car had been reduced to ashes, Su Ming answered a call from Alisha, who said Mandarin was being far too arrogant.

• Tony comforted Harry and praised him for firing the gun that helped save Tony's life.
• Su Ming recalled a child abducted by human traffickers and tortured Savin with extreme shifts between heat and cold.
• Savin begged for mercy, but Su Ming pushed his temperature past three thousand degrees and killed him in an explosion.
• Su Ming compressed Savin's fireball with his bare hands and absorbed its energy, raising his energy progress to 185%.
• Tony brought Harry back to Su Ming and complained that Savin's destruction left them without a car to borrow.
• Su Ming answered a call from Alisha, who complained that Mandarin was too arrogant.

The Mandarin’s televised hostage killing enraged the U.S. government, and Rhodey set out in the Iron Patriot to find him. Meanwhile, Su Ming and Tony escaped in a magically activated Audi, Tony examined a document linking the attack to AIM, and Rhodey received a bizarre phone call.

• The Mandarin broadcast a hostage execution and threatened the president with a final lesson on Christmas, prompting the president to order Rhodey to find him.
• Rhodey arrived at the traced signal’s location in the Iron Patriot and confronted a group of people.
• Su Ming activated Savin’s Audi, and Tony drove away with Su Ming while Harry stayed behind.
• Su Ming took control of the Audi and drove automatically so Tony could study the document, which identified Killian’s company as AIM.
• Rhodey answered a phone call while confronting the group and heard someone ask about a woman glowing orange during sex.

Tony and Su Ming traced the Extremis plot to Killian and located the Mandarin in Miami, then Tony insisted on entering the terrorists’ lair without his armor. The chapter ended with Tony stuck on the far side of a wall, silently nursing his injured back while Su Ming listened nearby.

• Tony asked Rhodey for his satellite account details and learned that AIM had redesigned Rhodey’s armor.
• Tony hacked AIM’s backend and discovered that Killian’s Extremis Virus restored a disabled woman’s arm but could cause recipients to explode.
• Su Ming called Alisha, who used the base’s equipment to locate the Mandarin in Miami.
• Tony chose to investigate without armor, and he and Su Ming bought supplies that Tony turned into weapons.
• Su Ming declined to enter the terrorists’ lair with Tony, who climbed over the wall and declared himself Iron Man.
• Tony landed awkwardly on the other side, wrenched his back, and stayed silent so Su Ming would not realize he was hurt.

Tony infiltrated Killian’s compound, where he learned that the Mandarin was an actor and Killian had orchestrated the terrorist attacks to cover up Extremis’s failures. After Tony was captured and Pepper was injected with Extremis, his Mark 42 arrived as a sparking portal opened nearby.

• Tony used improvised weapons and traps to defeat the guards, seize a handgun, and enter the compound, where he learned Killian was behind the attacks and the Mandarin was an actor.
• Su Ming stopped the reinforcements’ bullets and caught a rocket, then turned the bullets on the fleeing guards.
• A guard struck Tony from behind and carried him away while a woman with Extremis knocked Rhodey down inside Iron Patriot.
• Killian showed Tony that Pepper had been injected with Extremis, then shot Maya when she tried to stop him.
• Tony heard his children’s watch alarm as Killian left to deal with Rhodey, and a crackling portal opened nearby.

Su Ming recruited Peter Parker to help protect Tony Stark’s armor and brought him to the place where Tony was being held. Peter met Tony and introduced himself, while Killian tried to force Rhodey out of the Iron Patriot.

• Killian searched for Savin, then heated the Iron Patriot until Rhodey escaped and struck a guard before surrendering to Killian’s threats.
• Tony activated part of the Mark 42, but Su Ming froze the guards and Peter arrived to help.
• Su Ming asked Alisha and Ned to locate Tony and assigned Peter to help protect Tony’s armor during the coming battle.
• Alisha and Ned found Tony and the Iron Patriot together, and Su Ming brought Peter through a portal to the holding site.
• Tony mocked Peter’s Spider Suit until Su Ming defended him, and Peter removed his mask and introduced himself to Tony.

Su Ming, Peter, and Tony discovered that Killian had sent a disguised enemy to abduct the President aboard the presidential plane. As Tony pursued the enemy and the battle damaged the plane, Su Ming sealed its hull and left Peter to protect the passengers while he went to rescue the falling officials.

• Harry broke open the warehouse lock, and Peter helped Tony control his incomplete armor while they fought off reinforcements.
• Su Ming had Alisha locate Iron Patriot, and Ned discovered that it had gone to the President's plane.
• Killian's man used Iron Patriot to abduct the President and breach the plane, where Tony arrived to fight the Extremis-enhanced enemy.
• Peter freed the trapped crew and tried to seal the plane's breach, so Su Ming reshaped metal fixtures into plates that restored cabin pressure.
• Tony rushed through the plane's hull after the enemy, causing another breach, while Peter stayed behind to patch it and Su Ming opened a portal to aid the thirteen officials falling below.

Peter patched the plane while Su Ming used Word Becomes Law to stop thirteen falling officials and built a giant ice slide over the sea for their rescue. The officials remained suspended above the course as Su Ming prepared to release them.

• Peter secured loose luggage and patched the plane’s breach with suitcase panels and webbing.
• Su Ming opened a portal outside the plane and waited as Tony struggled to catch the falling officials.
• Su Ming froze the thirteen officials in midair, leaving Tony stunned and prompting an exchange with JARVIS about an armor self-destruct protocol.
• Su Ming raised seawater into looping bridges, froze them into a slide, and drew a crowd along the coastline.
• Su Ming smoothed the ice course with a heated metal scraper and snapped his fingers to release the officials.

Su Ming opened portals beneath the falling officials, sending them onto an ice track while Tony Stark used his armor to bridge its gaps and keep them safe. The officials began enjoying the ride as Tony grew exhausted and continued searching in vain for Su Ming.

• Su Ming opened Sling Ring Portals beneath the officials, and Tony realized he had to save them by repairing gaps in the ice track.
• The officials entered the track and discovered a gap ahead as Tony flew down to help them.
• Tony used his Mark 42 armor to bridge each gap while all thirteen officials slid over him.
• The officials grew excited and called out to Tony whenever they spotted another gap, while Tony became increasingly exhausted.
• Tony searched for Su Ming but could not find him, then kept moving to the next gap as Su Ming watched and taunted him.