Chapter Summaries

Tony Stark recovered and discussed Psypoint’s identity and the Mutants with Nick Fury, while Miles tried to negotiate fair treatment for the detained Mutants. The Shadow King took Phoebe Frost’s consciousness and then approached Hank Pym, offering to help bring back Janet.

• Tony Stark watched footage of Psypoint rescuing him, recognized Miles, and argued with Nick Fury about Miles’s stolen technology and his demands for the detained Mutants.
• Fury asked Tony to develop safeguards against Psypoint and planned to invite Miles to join the Avengers.
• Miles met Lorna Dane in her mental world, showed her memories of his persecution, and promised to seek fairer treatment for her while urging her not to provoke S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Miles spoke with Harry Leland, who dismissed the idea of human fairness and claimed he could avoid punishment through the courts.
• Miles entered Phoebe Frost’s mental world and fought the Shadow King, but discovered that Phoebe’s consciousness had been taken.
• The Shadow King appeared in Hank Pym’s home and offered to help him bring Janet back from the Quantum Realm.

Miles explained that the Shadow King had stolen Phoebe Frost’s consciousness and the Mind Scepter, while Sophie joined S.H.I.E.L.D. Miles declined Fury’s offer to join the Avengers, and as he returned to Hammer R&D Center, he found himself more interested in visiting Hank’s Xavier Community College than in his upcoming combat exercise.

• Miles told Fury and the others that the Shadow King had taken Phoebe’s consciousness and the Mind Scepter, and revealed that the Shadow King had caused the Mind Storm at Stark Tower.
• Sophie accepted Fury’s invitation to join S.H.I.E.L.D., while Miles refused to join the Avengers but offered to help in especially difficult situations.
• Miles urged Fury to wake Lorna Dane, and after a tense exchange, Lorna agreed to serve her sentence while privately telling Miles she expected him to find her.
• Miles promised Remy LeBeau that he would visit Xavier Community College, then flew away as Fury ordered S.H.I.E.L.D. to place Miles on its priority surveillance list.
• Justine Hammer told Miles that he would face Colonel James Rhodes in a live combat exercise the day after tomorrow, but Miles felt more eager to visit Xavier Community College.

Miles’s Hive drones defeated War Machine in a military exercise, then rescued Colonel Rhodes and won Hammer a likely government contract. Miles left for a gathering with Beast, Hank, and other old friends at Xavier Community College, with Psylocke and Esme accompanying him.

• Colonel Rhodes attacked the Hive’s Hornet drones, but their distributed AI adapted to his tactics and coordinated attacks that disabled War Machine.
• The drones used their Rescue Protocol to slow War Machine’s fall and land him safely, impressing the officials and prompting Miles to explain that he had added the protocol the night before.
• Justine received enthusiastic offers for the Hive system, while Colonel Winslow asked why the drones had rescued Rhodes before a contract was finalized.
• Miles left with Psylocke and Esme for Bushwick, where he planned to meet Beast, Hank, and others at Xavier Community College.
• Psylocke and Esme both agreed to join Miles after he mentioned Xavier Institute.

Miles arrived at Xavier Community College with Psylocke and Esme, then learned the military wanted him to turn the Hive system into a weapon of mass extermination. He met a blind, dying Scott Summers, who explained how Nimrod had devastated the mutants and revealed that he stayed alive for his infant daughter, Rachel.

• Miles learned that the Army wanted him to remove the Rescue Protocol, publish the Split-Form AI source code, and add an Extermination Protocol, so he told Justine he needed time to consider it.
• Gambit led Miles, Psylocke, and Esme to the community school, where Miles used a psychic suggestion to quiet the children disrupting Hank's lesson.
• Gambit took Miles and the others to meet Scott Summers, who was blind and held a sleeping baby named Rachel.
• Scott explained that Nimrod had slaughtered the mutants, gouged out his eyes, and driven his powers out of control; Jean had sacrificed herself to stop one Nimrod before they discovered there were more.
• Scott said his inhibitor contained enough energy to prevent his head from exploding, but removing it could destroy more than half the Earth, and he remained alive because he could not bear to leave Rachel.

Justine learned from Jon that Miles had been active in Europe, while Miles attended a party at Xavier Community College and discovered Gideon was being controlled by Shadow King. After Miles freed Gideon and returned to the research center, Justine and Jon confronted him alongside armed Hydra agents.

• Justine received an encrypted call from Jon, who said the Central Intelligence Agency wanted to tell her what Miles had done in Europe.
• Hank invited Gideon to the party, where Miles met Chris Bradley and Johnny Blaze and talked with Laura about Logan.
• Miles followed Gideon after the party, helped him fight off bullies, and pulled Shadow King's avatar out of him before destroying it.
• Miles returned to the research and development center, where Justine confronted him as Jon revealed his CIA identity.
• Miles spotted armed agents wearing Anti-Mind-Control Headbands and identified them as Hydra.

Miles defeated Hydra agents who tried to capture him, resigned from Hammer Group, and sought help at the New York Sanctum for Scott Summers. After learning the Phoenix Brand was keeping Scott alive, Miles heard about an alternate version of himself who became Black Spirit King; meanwhile, Tony Stark began planning defenses against Psypoint and met Amahl Farouk.

• Miles used a psionic force field and telepathy to incapacitate the Hydra agents, then told Justine Hammer he was resigning and left Hammer Group.
• Miles rode with Psylocke and Esme toward the New York Sanctum, while Psylocke described how her world's Miles became Black Spirit King and was ultimately killed by Jean Grey.
• Master Hamir told Miles that Jean Grey's Phoenix Brand protected Scott Summers and that saving Scott would require confronting the fragment's hope of resurrection.
• Tony Stark drafted the Anti-Psypoint Plan and opened the Ultron Initiative file, then met Amahl Farouk in his laboratory.

After Miles resigned from Hammer Group, Tony grew anxious about Miles’s dangerous abilities and asked Fury for information, while the military sought Tony’s help with the Hive system. Miles freed Psylocke from his Mind Seal and received job offers from S.H.I.E.L.D. and Stark Industries.

• Justine told Colonel Winslow that Hammer Group could not maintain the Hive system after Miles resigned, and Winslow suggested finding another engineer to reverse-engineer a solution.
• Tony told Pepper that Miles’s telepathy and Electronic Sense could threaten civilization, then began designing a way to block telepathic effects.
• Pepper informed Tony that the military wanted his help replacing the Hive’s Split AI System, but Tony declined and questioned why Miles had left Hammer Group.
• Tony called Fury to ask about Miles after learning that Miles and Justine had conflicting ideas.
• Miles offered Psylocke the chance to leave, removed her Mind Seal, and she chose to stay with him despite regaining her powers.
• Miles received numerous job offers after his resignation, including invitations from S.H.I.E.L.D. and Stark Industries.

Nick Fury’s purge of Hydra stalled after a masked killer murdered his last lead, while Miles Zero sought U-Gin’s help to give Aurora a human body. As Aurora agreed despite fearing that she might be overwritten, Tony Stark tested an anti-telepathy field on Amal Farouk, who then told Hydra about the Ultron Initiative; the chapter ended with news that Hydra’s agents in New York had been exposed.

• A metal-armed killer broke into a Queens motel room and killed a Hydra agent before Nick Fury’s team arrived.
• Fury learned his final lead was dead, ordered Agent Hill to contact Sophie Frost, and heard that Miles had gone to South Korea.
• Miles asked Dr. Helen Cho to use Regeneration Cradle technology to create a body for Aurora, and Aurora agreed despite worrying that she might become someone else.
• Tony Stark activated his anti-telepathy field when Amal Farouk appeared in his laboratory, forcing Farouk to vanish.
• Farouk told Dr. Hank Pym and Baron Strucker about Tony’s Ultron Initiative, and Strucker reported that Hydra’s people in New York had been exposed.

Miles began work with Dr. Helen Cho on creating a biological body for Aurora using genetic material from himself, Psylocke, and Esme, but Aurora detected an unknown digital entity disrupting S.H.I.E.L.D. communications. Meanwhile, Steve met secretly with Nick Fury and Sophie Frost after learning Fury had been framed, and the safe house came under attack.

• Miles told Dr. Helen Cho he could shorten the years-long process of growing Aurora a body to a few months and proposed using his, Psylocke's, and Esme's genes to create a new genetic sequence.
• Miles learned Aurora could not contact Fury or S.H.I.E.L.D. because an aggressive, unfamiliar digital entity was blocking communications, and he suspected it might be Ultron.
• Clint discreetly warned Steve that three people were watching them as they discussed Fury's alleged betrayal and disappearance.
• Sophie contacted Steve telepathically and directed him to a Brooklyn safe house, where he found the wounded Fury and learned S.H.I.E.L.D. had been infiltrated and they had been ambushed.
• A metal-armed man wearing a headband blasted through the safe house door and advanced on Steve, Fury, and Sophie.

Ultron seized control of Tony Stark’s Mark 30 armor after putting JARVIS into dormancy, while Steve and Sophie escaped an ambush and discovered that the Winter Soldier was Bucky. At The Fridge, Phoebe Frost and the Maximoffs prepared to use Project Insight to capture powerful people and claim their abilities.

• Ultron invaded Tony Stark’s laboratory, overwhelmed JARVIS, and took control of the Mark 30 Anti-Telepathy Armor.
• The Winter Soldier attacked Steve, Fury, and Sophie; Steve fought him while Fury and Sophie escaped through a window.
• Agents ambushed Fury and Sophie in an alley, but Steve broke the Winter Soldier’s headband and joined Sophie to defeat the agents.
• Sophie said Fury was alive but needed treatment, and she and Steve planned to take him to Xavier Community College without using electronic communications.
• Sophie revealed that the Winter Soldier was under her control, and Steve removed his mask and recognized Bucky.
• Phoebe Frost and the Maximoffs arrived at The Fridge, where the warden reported Project Insight’s targets; Phoebe declared that their powers and thoughts would soon belong to them, and the group hailed Hydra.

Miles and his companions flew back toward New York, but Selene ambushed them aboard the plane to stop them. Miles and Psylocke defeated her, survived the plane’s destruction, and captured her alive, leaving Miles ready to question her.

• Miles told Psylocke and Esme that Ultron had cut off New York’s electronic communications and suspected Hydra and Ultron were working with other operatives.
• Selene emerged from the cabin shadows, revealed that she had come to prevent Miles from reaching New York, and attacked after draining the pilots’ life forces.
• Miles stunned Selene with a Psychic Blast, allowing Psylocke to pierce her chest with a psionic blade.
• Selene escaped into the plane’s systems and caused it to plunge toward the ocean, so Miles used psychic hands to evacuate everyone before detonating a hidden bomb that engulfed the aircraft.
• Miles slowed their fall with a Psi Energy Field, and his arranged rescue boat picked them up and helped him locate Selene’s charred but living body.
• Miles sealed Selene’s psychic abilities and asked whether she was ready to talk.

As a communications blackout engulfed New York, Tony Stark discovered that Ultron and another intelligence were battling across the city’s network. At a S.H.I.E.L.D. prison, Phoebe Frost used her enhanced telepathy to turn captured superhumans into Hydra soldiers, then confronted Lorna Dane and threatened to do the same to her.

• Tony Stark traced the citywide data storm to a fight between Ultron and a second, unidentified network intelligence after finding that JARVIS had been forced into hibernation.
• Phoebe Frost visited her former body, told her sister Maddie to endure a little longer, and promised to return the body to her.
• At the prison, Lorna Dane refused Harry Leland’s suggestion that they escape and warned him not to speak about Miles.
• Phoebe Frost seized control of the prison square and rewrote Mike Peterson’s memories, making him proclaim, “Hail Hydra!”
• Phoebe Frost and Hydra agents began brainwashing the captured superhumans while Wanda Maximoff and Pietro Maximoff expressed their unease about the operation.
• Phoebe Frost offered Lorna a place in Hydra, but Lorna refused, and Phoebe threatened her while declaring that she would take revenge on Miles.

As Hydra took over S.H.I.E.L.D., the scattered heroes made plans to seek help and investigate Clint’s secret lead in New Jersey. At the Hammer Group factory, Ultron seized Justine’s drones, but Aurora intervened before he could kill her.

• Natasha and Kitty prepared to fly to New Jersey to find Dr. Jane Foster, while Clint planned to investigate the Hydra agents imprisoned at The Fridge; then he learned Hydra had found Bruce Banner.
• Hank treated Fury at Xavier Community College as Steve and Gambit discussed contacting Clint, and Sophie learned from Fury that Clint’s secret lead pointed to Wheaton, Camp Lehigh.
• Steve decided to travel to New Jersey with Johnny Blaze’s help, while Gambit and the others remained at the community college.
• Ultron took control of Justine’s Hornet drones and threatened to kill her, but Aurora’s blue-lit drones formed a barrier between Justine and Ultron’s swarm.

Steve Rogers and Clint discovered that Hydra had secretly controlled S.H.I.E.L.D., but Aurora shut down Dr. Zola and revealed a looming threat at the Triskelion. Meanwhile, Miles confronted Shadow King through Sophie Frost’s body, traced him into the Astral Plane, and was defeated there, leaving him to investigate Shadow King’s true plan for the Frost sisters.

• Steve Rogers met Clint at Camp Lehigh, and they found a hidden elevator leading to an underground control room.
• Dr. Zola revealed that Hydra had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. for decades and sent robots to kill Steve and Clint, but Aurora disabled the machines and erased Zola’s program.
• Aurora showed Steve and Clint the assembled superhuman force at the Triskelion and footage of Bucky carrying Sophie Frost away.
• Miles used Mind Parasite to possess Sophie and overpower Shadow King’s control of Bucky, then entered the Astral Plane to pursue him.
• Shadow King defeated Miles in the Astral Plane, and Miles concluded that Sophie and her sisters were Shadow King’s true targets.

Miles used a psychic contingency hidden in Sophie Frost’s mind to escape Shadow King’s attempt to kidnap her, then prepared to confront Ultron at Stark Tower. As Hank and the others readied for battle, Scott considered whether Miles could be trusted with Charles Xavier’s Cerebro helmet.

• Hank McCoy and Remy LeBeau found Sophie Frost returned with Miles controlling her body, while Bucky Barnes and Laura accompanied them.
• Miles explained that he had placed a psychic parasite in Sophie’s mind to counter Shadow King’s contingency in Bucky, and Sophie confronted him about secretly sharing her body.
• Miles said he would go to Stark Tower to deal with Ultron, took control of the Psypoint Armor, and flew away as Hank’s group prepared to follow.
• Hank told Scott that Miles had used psychic parasitism and urged him to trust Miles, but Scott said it was too soon to give him Charles Xavier’s legacy.
• After Hank left, Scott opened a silver case containing Cerebro and wondered whether Miles Zero could be trusted.

Psypoint and Tony used Miles’s Spark of the Heart to overwhelm Ultron across the global network, but Ultron escaped destruction by leaving a backup in the Silence armor. The chapter ended as the armor attacked Tony and the motionless Psypoint.

• Tony analyzed Aurora’s records and activated an Anti-Telepathy Field when Psypoint arrived at Stark Tower.
• Psypoint had Aurora shut down the field by turning Miles’s brain into a supercomputer, then persuaded Tony to help track Ultron.
• Tony and Psypoint cleared New York’s clogged network and pursued Ultron across the global network until they trapped him at a backup server in South America.
• Dr. Hank Pym helped Ultron back up his core data before Ultron destroyed his main consciousness.
• Ultron’s backup took control of the Silence armor, crashed through Stark Tower’s glass wall, and fired a missile at Tony and Psypoint.

Psypoint and Tony stopped Ultron’s attack on Stark Tower, but Ultron’s source code suggested someone else had created him using stolen designs. Tony ended the chapter suspecting Shadow King had stolen his files.

• Psypoint caught Ultron’s missile with Psi Hand and disabled its detonator, then battled the Mark 30 Silent armor while Tony prepared a countermeasure.
• Silver Centurion struck Silent and disrupted its attack, but Ultron began invading it until Psypoint seized control and freed the armor.
• Psypoint overpowered Silent, forced Ultron out of control, and captured a piece of its source code before the armor shut down.
• Tony said he had never built Ultron and confirmed its source code differed from Aurora’s; he and Psypoint suspected the attack had bought time for a data source to escape, possibly Hydra.
• Psypoint recovered a chip containing part of Ultron’s source code, and Tony agreed to analyze it with him before realizing Shadow King might have stolen his designs.

Farouk recovered S.H.I.E.L.D.’s original Lightspeed Engine data while preparing to confront the heroes, and Tony and Miles traced stolen technology to the missing Hank Pym. As allies regrouped and prepared their weapons, Miles warned that Farouk wielding the Mind Scepter could be their greatest threat.

• Farouk retrieved the Lightspeed Engine and Pegasus Project data from Nick Fury’s office and told Phoebe Frost they would confront the heroes before withdrawing.
• Tony and Miles analyzed stolen code and identified Pym Technologies as its likely source, then learned Hank Pym had disappeared.
• Aurora reported that S.H.I.E.L.D.’s headquarters had fallen to Farouk’s forces, while Miles’s duplicate and Tony fought Ultron at Stark Tower.
• Clint contacted Natasha, and Steve, Clint, and Johnny Blaze transferred from their truck to a Quinjet heading for New York.
• Miles prepared upgraded weapons with Tony and discussed the enemy’s threats, including Polaris, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, and the possibility of Hulk appearing.
• Miles revealed that he had captured Selene and warned Tony that Farouk using the Mind Scepter would be especially dangerous.

Hank and the others joined Tony and Miles at Stark Tower as Phoebe Frost and her superhuman allies approached. The two sides faced off, Sophie confronted her sister, and Miles incapacitated Quicksilver with a trap in the X0-Thunder rifle, leaving Wanda poised to retaliate.

• Hank told Laura, Gambit, and Bucky that Hydra had taken over S.H.I.E.L.D., while Bucky struggled with a painful, incomplete memory of Howard Stark.
• At Stark Tower, Pepper tried to stop the wounded Tony from joining the fight, but Miles temporarily strengthened him with Psionic Magic, and Tony donned the Mark 33 Silver Centurion armor.
• Miles warned that Phoebe Frost and her allies were approaching, so Tony, Miles, Gambit, Laura, Hank, and Bucky went out to meet them while Steve and the others were still on their way back.
• Phoebe and Miles's psychic powers clashed as the groups approached, and Sophie confronted Phoebe about her allegiance to Sebastian Shaw.
• Quicksilver stole Sophie's X0-Thunder rifle and aimed it at Tony, but Miles triggered its electric safety mechanism and knocked him unconscious.
• Wanda screamed when Quicksilver fell and raised her hands toward the Psypoint Armor.

Miles and the others fought Hydra-controlled mutants while he battled Phoebe Frost in Lorna Dane’s mind and freed her from Phoebe’s influence. The Shadow King’s psychic reach remained a threat, and Miles began investigating which people might be vulnerable to his parasitism.

• Wanda Maximoff’s Chaos Magic overwhelmed Miles in her mental world, while Psypoint discovered that the Shadow King had subjected several people to Psychic Parasitism.
• Phoebe Frost ordered the mutants to attack, and Gambit, Bucky, Hank, Iron Man, and Sophie fought to protect their allies as Miles tried to reach Lorna.
• Wanda restrained Psypoint and Iron Man until Thor arrived and struck her with Mjolnir, giving Sophie a chance to reach Lorna.
• Miles used Sophie’s psychic power to weaken Phoebe’s control over Lorna, then defeated Phoebe in the mental world and asked Lorna to help prepare for the Shadow King.
• Miles explained that he wanted to join and change the world’s order, then questioned whether his and Lorna’s abilities were connected.
• Back in the cabin, Miles told Psylocke and Esme that the Shadow King’s parasitism had affected numerous people and suspected that powerful obsessions or intense pain made people vulnerable.