Chapter Summaries

Loren seized S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Vibranium and used it to upgrade 2B, replacing her skin and skeleton and giving her an Adamantium frame. After a week in his laboratory, he completed the modifications and left 2B ready to awaken with greatly increased strength.

• Loren took twenty kilograms of Vibranium from S.H.I.E.L.D. and dismissed Natasha and the others after warning them not to return.
• 2B questioned Loren about letting them go, and he praised her for remembering his lessons before beginning the upgrades.
• Loren told Tifa to guard the laboratory, then spent a week researching and modifying 2B.
• Loren replaced 2B’s skeleton with Adamantium and reinforced her artificial skin with Vibranium mesh and a temperature-regulation device.
• Loren completed the upgrades, raising 2B’s maximum strength from around six tons to eighteen tons.

Loren activated 2B after upgrading her with a temperature-regulating device, an Adamantium skeleton, and Vibranium-thread armor. 2B delighted in feeling more human, while Loren tested her strength and defenses and ended by accepting her flirtatious plans to use her combat skills for intimacy.

• Loren activated 2B and watched her discover that her upgraded body felt softer, more flexible, and warm.
• 2B thanked Loren for giving her a human-like body temperature, which she had long wished for.
• Loren explained that her Adamantium skeleton could let her exert around twenty tons of force and that Vibranium armor protected her internal components.
• Loren fired several bullets at 2B's head, and she found that the shots had left no marks.
• 2B said she would use her hand-to-hand combat skills to warm Loren's bed, and Loren gave up arguing with her.

Loren gave 2B a 160-centimeter Adamantium Miao Saber and explained its strength, along with the limits posed by other Adamantium weapons and the absent Mutants. After hinting that Mutants might appear someday, Loren turned to his newly upgraded third-generation Bat Armor.

• Loren explained that the Miao Saber combined the qualities of a sword and spear, and 2B thanked him for the gift.
• 2B tested the Adamantium blade by slicing Loren's steel workbench in two.
• Loren warned 2B that other Adamantium weapons existed and described Wolverine, while explaining that Mutants did not exist in their universe.
• 2B expressed interest in meeting the monster Loren described, and Loren hinted that such a meeting might become possible.
• Loren walked over to his third-generation Bat Armor, which had been upgraded with modular components and miniature anti-gravity devices.

Loren completed the third-generation bat armor, which 2B named the ripper bat armor, and rested after days of work. After waking, he learned the Stark Group had invited him to its technology exhibition party that evening, where he planned to see Tony Stark.

• Loren equipped the bat armor with adamantium claws and a vibranium-threaded cape, and 2B named it the ripper bat armor.
• 2B offered to test the armor in combat, but Loren declined because her strength far exceeded his.
• Loren went to sleep, and after waking thirty-one hours later, he found Tifa beside him and learned 2B was out testing her body.
• Tifa told Loren that the Stark Group had invited him to its technology exhibition party because he owned twenty percent of its shares.
• Loren learned the party began at seven that evening and told Tifa to get his clothes so he could see Tony Stark.

Nick Fury reprimanded S.H.I.E.L.D. agents over their failed intelligence on Loren, ordered continued surveillance, and sent Natasha to Stark Industries’ gala to try to recruit him. At the gala, Loren arrived with Tifa and was greeted by his high school classmate Gwen Stacy.

• Nick Fury berated his agents for underestimating Loren and ordered Natasha to keep watching Morgan Manor while placing Loren on the S-class dangerous individuals list.
• Nick Fury gave Natasha his invitation to Stark Group’s technology showcase gala and told her to try to win Loren over for the Avengers.
• Tony Stark prepared to attend the gala, where Pepper Potts told him the Morgan Family had arrived and Loren was there as a major shareholder.
• Loren arrived at Stark Industries Tower with Tifa as his companion, and Gwen Stacy ran over to greet him.

Loren reunited with Gwen at Tony Stark’s invitation-only gala and learned that Harry and Peter had come with her. After greeting Harry and Peter, he was surprised to find that Harry noticed how much taller Loren had become.

• Loren teased Gwen when she explained that Harry had brought her and Peter to the gala as interns at Osborn Group.
• Gwen noticed Tifa and asked who she was, and Tifa introduced herself as Loren’s butler, secretary, and companion for the evening.
• Harry approached Loren, greeted him with a hug, and remarked that Loren had grown much taller since they last met.
• Harry pulled Peter beside Loren to compare their heights, and Peter greeted Loren while hiding a flicker of displeasure.

Loren reunited with Gwen and Peter at Tony Stark’s party, then drew attention away from Tony when the reporters recognized him as the Morgan heir. After Loren allowed them to photograph him, Tony was left in the background.

• Loren greeted Peter and led Gwen, Peter, and their companions toward the banquet hall.
• Tony Stark hurried out with reporters to welcome Loren, and the reporters stopped taking pictures when they realized Loren was the Morgan Family’s sole heir.
• Loren told Tony they were on the same side as Stark Group’s second-largest shareholder, then went to join his friends.
• A green-haired woman asked to photograph Loren, and he invited her to discuss photography with him privately later.
• Loren gave the reporters permission to photograph him, and they made him the center of attention while Tony stood aside.

Loren attended Tony Stark’s banquet with Gwen, Harry, and Peter, where the guests treated him with deference because of his Morgan family status. As they discussed their lives and Peter’s internship, Loren became interested in Gwen’s mention of Professor Curt Kang.

• Loren ended the reporters’ photoshoot and led Gwen, Harry, and Peter into the banquet hall, where guests warmly greeted him.
• Harry marveled at Loren’s standing and lamented being seen as a wastrel, while Loren joked that Harry had failed the basic duties of a rich heir.
• Loren called himself a prince, and Gwen steered the conversation toward her and Peter’s internships at the Osborn Group.
• Gwen said she worked as a receptionist and that Professor Curt Kang had made Peter his assistant and errand boy.
• Loren asked who Professor Kang was, and Gwen identified him as the leading expert in genetic biology.

At a banquet, Loren watched Peter Parker struggle with insecurity about his future and wondered whether Peter or Gwen was this world’s Spider-Man. After Iron Man made a flashy entrance, Gwen, Tifa, and Peter left the table, and Loren slipped away with a green-haired reporter while Harry wondered about Loren’s arms-factory purchases.

• Loren congratulated Peter on becoming Professor Connors’s genetics assistant, but Peter dismissed his prospects and Gwen comforted him.
• Gwen praised Peter, who began to respond before Iron Man descended into the banquet hall and drew the guests’ attention.
• Gwen took Tifa to the restroom, Peter followed, and Harry privately asked Loren whether his arms factories signaled an upcoming war.
• Loren left Harry with a green-haired reporter, claiming he needed the restroom and taking her toward the VIP rooms.

Loren exposed the green-haired woman as Madame Hydra, Viper, and turned the tables on her attempted seduction and poison attack. After Viper believed her gas had immobilized him, Loren revealed he had only been pretending and grabbed her.

• Loren followed the green-haired woman into a VIP room, where she kissed him and tried to overpower him.
• Loren recognized the woman as Viper from the scent of poison and mocked her after she attacked him.
• Viper admitted Loren had identified her and asked whether he had killed her subordinate Maeve.
• Viper released green poison gas, and Loren pretended it had paralyzed him.
• Viper approached to taunt Loren, but he suddenly grabbed her and revealed his deception.

Loren subdued Viper and forced her to thank him after shielding her from an explosion. He then recognized Iron Monger attacking the banquet hall and sent 2B to kill him.

• Loren resisted Viper’s poison, overpowered her, and dismissed her threats to kill him.
• An explosion tore through the VIP room, and Loren covered Viper to protect her while preventing her escape.
• Loren slapped Viper until she reluctantly thanked him for saving her.
• Loren saw Iron Monger fighting Iron Man in the ruined banquet hall and recognized him as Obadiah Stane.
• 2B arrived, and Loren ordered her to kill Iron Monger; she charged into the fight.

Loren subdued Viper while 2B fought Iron Monger and incapacitated Tony Stark. As 2B prepared to finish Stane, a masked figure in a black suit pulled Iron Monger out of her reach.

• Viper asked Loren about 2B's ability to fly, and Loren taunted her before revealing that she was twenty-seven.
• Loren threw a desk to deflect a grenade, then choked Viper and threatened her before knocking her unconscious.
• Loren ordered Tifa to take Viper to the manor and left to check on 2B.
• Loren found Tony Stark unconscious and Iron Monger crippled as 2B dodged Stane's grenades and cut off the mech's remaining arm.
• As 2B raised her blade to finish Stane, a strand of Silk pulled Iron Monger away, revealing a masked figure hanging from a utility pole.

2B continued her mission to kill Iron Monger while Spider-Man intervened, and the two fought across the street. Spider-Man’s hood was cut away, revealing golden hair, and Loren recognized her grip on 2B’s blade as electrostatic adhesion.

• Spider-Man pulled Iron Monger out of the way as 2B tried to crush his head, then 2B attacked Spider-Man instead.
• Spider-Man dodged 2B’s slashes and swung to a streetlamp, warning her to stop, but 2B refused and attacked again.
• 2B activated her Anti-Gravity Flight Device, caught up with Spider-Man, and slashed her hood open, revealing her golden hair.
• Spider-Man caught 2B’s Miao Saber with her bare hand and held it fast, matching 2B’s strength.
• Loren identified Spider-Man’s ability to cling to the blade as electrostatic adhesion.

Loren watched 2B and Spider-Woman battle, then learned Spider-Woman was likely Gwen Stacy when they both rushed to save him from a falling sign. As Gwen and 2B went after Stane, a trapped man wondered why Gwen had saved Loren instead of him.

• Spider-Woman restrained 2B's Miao Saber, and the two traded powerful blows until they abandoned their weapons and fought hand to hand.
• 2B gained the advantage over Spider-Woman, and Loren prepared to stop their fight.
• Stane fired two missiles at Stark Industries Tower, causing an explosion that loosened a steel sign above Loren.
• Spider-Woman and 2B stopped fighting and shoved Loren clear of the falling sign, then Spider-Woman hurried after Stane.
• Loren told 2B that Spider-Woman was her future good sister and ordered her to kill Stane.
• A man trapped beneath rubble asked why Gwen had saved Loren instead of him.

2B killed Stane and blamed Spider-Woman’s mercy after Peter was found gravely injured beneath the rubble. Loren learned Peter’s arm could not be saved, while Natasha secretly recorded the battle and reported the events to Coulson.

• 2B hurled her Miao Saber through Iron Monger’s armor, killing Stane, and Spider-Woman struggled with 2B’s lethal methods.
• Harry called for help when he found Peter unconscious beneath rubble with his right arm crushed, and Loren and Spider-Woman rushed to him.
• 2B accused Spider-Woman of letting compassion cause harm, then fled, while Loren sent Gwen away before she returned in civilian clothes.
• An ambulance took Peter to the hospital, and Alice told Loren that Peter’s arm could not be saved because of severe bone and nerve damage.
• Loren left to see Viper after learning she had awakened, while Natasha emerged from the rubble with footage of the battle and spoke with Coulson about another attack on their network.

Natasha took the unconscious Tony Stark to S.H.I.E.L.D. after failing to capture Loren, while Loren watched her through a holographic feed. The system rewarded Loren with a Nano Suit blueprint and a neurotoxin formula, leaving him eager to begin research.

• Natasha told Coulson that Viper, a Hydra leader, had taken Loren before she could capture him, and Coulson complained that Loren's cyberattacks were crippling S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Natasha spotted the unconscious Tony Stark and proposed recruiting him to help S.H.I.E.L.D. improve its cybersecurity.
• Natasha dragged Tony Stark into her car and drove him to a S.H.I.E.L.D. secret base after Coulson sent Barton to assist her.
• Loren watched Natasha through a holographic projection and told Alice he had deliberately let her spy on him.
• The system awarded Loren a Nano Suit blueprint and a neurotoxin formula, along with twenty points for his roles in the Iron Monger and Viper incidents.

Loren learned that Hydra had implanted a device in Viper's head to punish her if she stayed away from its base too long. After Alice disabled the device, Loren sent Viper to his secret laboratory to begin his first human enhancement experiment.

• Tifa told Loren that Viper had woken up and was urgently demanding to see him, so he ordered everyone else away and entered her room.
• Viper begged Loren to let her return to Hydra's base before midnight, promising to submit if he did.
• Viper revealed that Dr. Zola had implanted a device in her head that caused unbearable pain after seventy-two hours without a signal from the base.
• Loren had Alice scan Viper and identify the device as an encrypted electrical-discharge implant connected to her cranial nerves.
• Alice decrypted and disabled the device, and Loren ordered Viper taken to his secret laboratory for his first human enhancement experiment.

Loren finished modifying Viper, removing Dr. Zola’s control device but installing a Neurotoxin device that punished thoughts of harming him. After enhancing her body and freeing her from the operating table, he left Viper eager to serve him.

• Loren removed the electrical discharge device from Viper’s brain and showed her the bloodstained device in a metal box.
• Loren revealed that he had installed a Neurotoxin release device that activated whenever Viper thought about killing him.
• Viper suffered the device’s effects, then promised to submit to Loren and never betray him.
• Loren told Viper that he had injected her with a temporary enhancement serum that gave her strength comparable to a super-soldier.
• Viper saw her taller, firmer, more beautiful body in a mirror, lost her hostility toward Loren, and asked him if he wanted to do something with her.

Peter Parker survived emergency treatment but lost his right arm, while Tony Stark learned that S.H.I.E.L.D. had developed a fast-acting wound-healing medicine. The chapter left Tony asking what kind of organization S.H.I.E.L.D. was as Nick Fury identified it.

• Loren responded to Viper's sudden attempt to seduce him by charging at her with his weapon.
• Peter woke in the hospital to learn that his right arm could not be saved, and Aunt May, Gwen, and Harry discussed his future prosthetic.
• Peter asked to sleep, so Gwen and Harry left; Gwen rejected Harry's suggestion that they seek Loren's help and departed in anger.
• Natasha treated Tony's wounds with a painful medicine and told him it could heal him in three days.
• Tony asked what organization had developed the medicine, and Nick Fury entered and said it was S.H.I.E.L.D.

Nick Fury and Coulson tried to recruit Tony Stark into the Avengers, but Tony refused until S.H.I.E.L.D. showed him intelligence about Miss 2B and Loren and revealed that Howard Stark had helped found the organization. The conversation ended when Barton reported finding a man frozen in Arctic ice.

• Nick Fury and Coulson introduced S.H.I.E.L.D. to Tony and confronted him with how badly Miss 2B had beaten him.
• Nick Fury asked Tony to join the Avengers, but Tony refused and insisted he could handle threats on his own.
• Natasha told Tony he had survived only because Miss 2B showed him mercy.
• Nick Fury showed Tony intelligence reports about Miss 2B and Loren, then revealed that Howard Stark was a S.H.I.E.L.D. founder.
• Barton reported finding a man frozen in Arctic ice, and Nick Fury said they had finally found him.