Recaps

Richard arranged for Simmons to study at Columbia University and take charge of a medical laboratory, then hired Carl Frank to find a laboratory outside New York and secured an auditing place at Columbia University Business School. The chapter ended when Sorcerer Mordo tumbled through a portal, badly wounded, and warned Richard that the New York Sanctum had been attacked.

• Richard left the secret vault’s money in place and called Carl Frank to arrange the acquisition of a medical laboratory outside New York with a budget of thirty million dollars.
• Richard called Professor Phillips, explained why Presbyterian Hospital had dismissed him, and told him about his research plans and need for a Columbia University Business School auditing place.
• Professor Phillips secured the auditing place, and Richard told Simmons to report in three days.
• Richard returned from the supermarket and began preparing lunch when Sorcerer Mordo emerged from a portal covered in wounds and said the New York Sanctum had been attacked.

Richard rushed to the New York Sanctum, where he used portals to rescue the mages and attack the Gateway of Hell. After his strike made the gate swell toward an explosion, he contained it in a Mirror Dimension, was badly injured, and left the remaining defense to Mordo and the others.

• Richard entered the New York Sanctum and used portals to kill two reaper demons while helping the mages retreat.
• Richard and Mordo helped Master Camille gather the surviving mages behind a defensive array as minotaurs battered it.
• Richard went after the Gateway of Hell, leaving Mordo to support the defensive array, and created one hundred magical clones.
• Richard sent one hundred Holy Swords into the Gateway of Hell, cracking it and causing it to expand toward an explosion.
• Richard enclosed the Gateway of Hell in a Mirror Dimension, suffered severe injuries, and told Mordo and the others to handle what remained before escaping through a portal.

Richard was taken to the hospital after collapsing, while Ancient One faced Mephisto, Nightmare, and Chthon in a dimensional rift. Dormammu manipulated Kaecilius in dream space, leaving him suspicious of Ancient One, and Richard eventually woke beside Christine.

• Mordo and Mage Camille led the Kamar-Taj mages in driving the remaining hell demons back as Richard fell into a coma and was taken to Manhattan Presbyterian Hospital.
• Ancient One confronted Mephisto, Nightmare, and Chthon in the dimensional rift while the dimension lords demanded her surrender.
• Dormammu trapped Kaecilius and the London Sanctum mages in dream space, then challenged Kaecilius's faith in Ancient One.
• Kaecilius returned to the London Sanctum questioning whether Ancient One had deceived him.
• After Chthon departed, Mephisto and Nightmare retreated, and Ancient One returned to Kamar-Taj wondering what Kaecilius would choose.
• Richard woke in Manhattan Presbyterian Hospital, and Christine greeted him with relief.

Richard woke in the hospital and reunited with Christine, then learned that Manhattan Presbyterian Hospital had lost emergency patients after he left. A board member, Karen Thomas, visited him, leaving Richard to face the hospital’s leadership.

• Richard reassured Christine that he would explain why he had passed out once they got home.
• Lina, Lilith, and Mary visited Richard, teased one another, and were led away by Head Nurse Jenna.
• Christine told Richard that patients had stopped coming to Manhattan Presbyterian Hospital’s Emergency Department after he left.
• Director Pansy brought board member Karen Thomas to visit Richard and introduced him.
• Karen Thomas offered to arrange anything Richard needed, while Richard and Christine responded coldly to his visit.

Richard refused the hospital board’s offer to return to Presbyterian Hospital and was discharged. On his way out, he offered to take Jonathan Pangborn, whose paralysis doctors considered incurable, to Kathmandu for a chance at treatment.

• Karen Thomas offered Richard the position of associate director of the emergency department, but Richard refused because he no longer trusted Presbyterian Hospital.
• Richard completed his discharge and left the hospital with Christine.
• Richard found Mrs. Pangborn and her paralyzed son Jonathan after Dr. Strange’s assistant turned them away.
• Richard examined Jonathan’s medical records and said modern medicine could not cure his condition.
• Richard suggested taking Jonathan to Kathmandu, Nepal, and Mrs. Pangborn agreed to try.

Richard learned that the Federer medical laboratory was for sale and arranged for Attorney Carl to negotiate its purchase. At Kamar-Taj, he discovered that Kaecilius carried Dormammu’s energy, and Ancient One confirmed it without saying whether she had warned him.

• Professor Jennings told Richard that Wal Federer was selling the Federer medical laboratory for $25 million after losing the Federer Group’s working capital gambling.
• Richard asked Attorney Carl to negotiate for the laboratory and offered a bonus for every million dollars he could shave off the price.
• Richard returned to Kamar-Taj, where Mordo told him that Ancient One had held off Mephisto, Nightmare, and Chthon during their simultaneous attacks on Earth.
• Richard encountered Kaecilius outside the main hall and sensed a familiar abnormal energy within him.
• Richard asked Ancient One about Kaecilius’s energy, and she confirmed that it came from Dormammu.

Richard urged Ancient One to help save Kaecilius from his destined fall, but she sent him away without promising to intervene. Back at Greenpoint Apartments, Richard tried to convince Christine that he was a mage and startled her by demonstrating a portal spell.

• Richard learned that Ancient One had foreseen Kaecilius's future fall but had accepted him at Kamar-Taj because he could become an excellent mage.
• Richard argued that Kaecilius could still be pulled back from the edge and insisted that people could conquer destiny, prompting Ancient One to call him a variable and a brand-new future.
• Ancient One sent Richard out of the main hall, and he went to the library to borrow the Kamar-Taj Advanced Magic Compendium.
• Richard returned to Greenpoint Apartments, where Christine teased him about his strange outfit and dismissed his claims that he was a mage.
• Richard opened a portal and reached through it to pat Christine's shoulder from across the room, frightening her when she realized what had happened.

Richard revealed his magic to Christine and told her about his studies at Kamar-Taj. After armed intruders attacked their apartment and killed themselves rather than be captured, Richard woke Christine and prepared to flee with her.

• Christine saw Richard use magic and excitedly asked him to explain how he had become a Mage.
• Richard told Christine about his journey to Kamar-Taj and answered her questions about magic and the Multiverse.
• While studying the Advanced Grimoire, Richard sensed intruders approaching and expanded the Mirror Dimension around the apartment building.
• The intruders opened fire, and Richard twisted space so their bullets struck one another.
• The surviving intruders shot themselves before Richard could question them, leading him to suspect a secret force had ordered his assassination.
• Richard woke Christine and told her they had to leave immediately because assassins had broken into their apartment.

Richard moved Christine to Kamar-Taj for safety after she recalled a burned girl whose rapid healing and escape may have drawn the attackers. After entrusting Christine to Mordo, Richard disposed of the intruders’ bodies and called Dean Elwin, who revealed that Dr. Palmer had also been attacked.

• Richard packed Christine’s belongings and planned to hide her after warning that she could be targeted as his weakness.
• Christine recalled a severely burned girl who woke during treatment, healed rapidly, and fled the hospital, leading Richard to suspect the girl was connected to the attackers.
• Richard brought Christine through a portal to Kamar-Taj, where Ancient One agreed she could stay and Mordo promised to look after her.
• Richard returned to New York, threw the intruders’ bodies into the Pacific Ocean, and called Dean Elwin.
• Dean Elwin exclaimed that Dr. Palmer had also been attacked.

After learning that doctors connected to a burned patient had been attacked, Richard traced the case to Director Alex Bulwer and uncovered his link to Wall Federer and an escaped experimental subject. Richard went to the Federer Laboratory, where he found it burning and exploding, then learned Wall had died suddenly and feared Alex was next.

• Director Elwin told Richard that five doctors had been attacked and revealed that Director Alex Bulwer had issued a gag order about the burned girl.
• Richard secretly listened to Alex’s call with Wall Federer and learned they were searching for an escaped experimental subject and discussing human experiments.
• Lawyer Carl told Richard that Wall had suspended the laboratory acquisition, and Richard obtained the lab’s address.
• Richard arrived at the Federer Laboratory as it burned and exploded, shielding himself from flying debris with the Rings of Raggadorr.
• Lawyer Carl reported that Wall Federer had died of a sudden heart attack, and Richard realized Alex Bulwer might be in danger.

Richard investigated Alex Bulwer’s death and searched the homes of Alex and Wall Federer, but found their valuables and records had already been removed. After suspecting HYDRA was behind the operation, he returned to his apartment, where Phil Coulson appeared at the door.

• Richard used Clairaudient Eavesdropping to locate Alex Bulwer, then found that Alex and the truck driver had both died in a staged collision.
• Richard hired Rupert Rhodes to locate the homes of Alex Bulwer and Wall Federer.
• Richard searched Alex Bulwer’s villa and found that the safe in his study had been emptied.
• Richard traveled to Wall Federer’s Beverly Hills villa and overheard security guards say Wall had died of a heart attack.
• Richard returned to Greenpoint Apartments and opened the door to find Phil Coulson waiting.

Richard suspected S.H.I.E.L.D. had uncovered his sorcerer identity, but learned Professor Jennings had recommended him for a medical role. After Richard accepted an external consultant position, he weighed the risks of joining S.H.I.E.L.D. and called Jennings to ask about Wall Federer’s death.

• Phil Coulson visited Richard and invited him to join S.H.I.E.L.D., prompting Richard to prepare to attack before a phone call interrupted him.
• Professor Jennings told Richard he had recommended him to S.H.I.E.L.D. and assured him he could accept or refuse without pressure.
• Coulson explained that Richard would provide medical support rather than work on the front lines, and Richard agreed to join as an external consultant without fixed hours.
• Coulson reported Richard’s acceptance to Nick Fury, who then sent him to investigate Tony Stark’s invention at Stark Industries.
• Richard considered the benefits and risks of joining S.H.I.E.L.D., then called Professor Jennings to ask whether he knew Wall Federer had died of heart disease.

Richard investigated the mastermind behind Wall Federer's death while Christine began training as a sorcerer apprentice at Kamar-Taj. Jonathan Pangborn arrived seeking help for his paralysis, and Ancient One said his recovery could change the established destiny.

• Richard told Old Professor about the fire at the Federer Laboratory, prompting Old Professor to investigate.
• Richard agreed to let Christine register as a sorcerer apprentice, though she struggled to perceive magical energy and runes.
• Mordo brought the paralyzed Jonathan Pangborn and his mother to Ancient One, who let them stay at Kamar-Taj.
• Ancient One sensed that established destiny was beginning to change.
• Christine told Richard about the new arrival, and he recognized him as Jonathan Pangborn.

Richard reunited with Jonathan Pangborn at Kamar-Taj and helped arrange for Mordo to train him. After Mordo accepted Jonathan as his student, Richard returned to his dorm with Christine, who scolded him for calling her a dummy.

• Mrs. Pangborn welcomed Richard and told him that she and Jonathan had reached Kamar-Taj, where Jonathan had hope of recovering.
• Richard warned Jonathan that training at Kamar-Taj would be difficult and require perseverance.
• At breakfast, Jonathan asked Richard to mentor him, but Richard recommended Mordo instead.
• Richard praised Mordo and urged him to take Jonathan as a student, and Mordo eventually agreed.
• Christine pinched Richard for calling her a dummy, and he apologized before she let him go.

After developing powerful fire and frost spells, Richard arrived at a S.H.I.E.L.D. secret base for onboarding and was immediately ordered to treat five critically injured patients. He saved them through hours of surgery, while Nick Fury watched from a monitor and praised his work.

• Richard refined three increasingly powerful versions of Fireball into Pyroblast and created the defensive frost spell Ice Block, which could cause frostbite or suffocation if used carelessly.
• Phil Coulson arranged for Richard to travel from New York to a desert S.H.I.E.L.D. base, where director Andre Berkeley completed his onboarding.
• As soon as Richard received his specially modified phone, Phil Coulson called with an emergency request to save five critically injured patients.
• Richard examined the patients' extensive blast wounds and shrapnel injuries, then performed surgery with help from the base's doctors and nurses.
• After more than three hours of surgery, Richard left the remaining work to the medical team, and Nick Fury watched from the secret base and praised him.

Richard was unable to sleep and went to Stark Industrial Park after hearing Pepper Potts and Phil Coulson were under attack. He rescued them from Iron Monger and remained behind to face Obadiah.

• Richard heard gunfire and Pepper Potts screaming during a call with Phil Coulson, then opened a portal to Stark Industrial Park.
• Richard reached the sixteenth underground floor and used his Floating Shield to protect Pepper Potts and Phil Coulson from Iron Monger's missile blast.
• Richard sent Pepper Potts and Phil Coulson through a portal to the Stark Industries Headquarters gate.
• Obadiah charged Richard in Iron Monger, and Richard braced himself against the suit's impact with his Floating Shield.

Richard taunted Obadiah and escaped Iron Monger’s weapons before Tony arrived to fight him. As Tony struggled against Obadiah’s armor, Richard prepared a blue-white fireball to strike Iron Monger.

• Richard provoked Obadiah until Iron Monger unleashed its weapons, then escaped through a Portal.
• Tony arrived, and Iron Monger burst from the ground; Tony asked Coulson to escort Pepper away while he faced Obadiah.
• Iron Monger trapped Tony in a crushing embrace, but Tony fired incendiary rounds and escaped into the smoke.
• Richard transported Pepper and Coulson to the headquarters rooftop and reassured Pepper that he would help Tony when necessary.
• Tony told Pepper they needed to overload the reactor, but Richard launched a blue-white fireball at Iron Monger and warned Tony to get clear.

Richard saved Tony from Obadiah by destroying Iron Monger with a fireball redirected through a portal. After Tony and Pepper reunited, Richard arranged to obtain a medical laboratory through a partnership with Stark Industries so he could begin research on directed stem cell migration and visual center compensation.

• Obadiah targeted Tony with Iron Monger's weapons, but Richard's fireball melted the suit and Obadiah before Richard diverted the blast into the ocean through a portal.
• Tony landed on the rooftop and thanked Richard for saving him, then embraced Pepper and apologized for putting her in danger.
• Richard asked Phil Coulson for help finding a medical laboratory, and Tony and Pepper offered Stark Industries' facility near Long Beach through a 51-to-49 percent technology-equity partnership.
• Richard told Tony that his research would focus on directed stem cell migration and visual center compensation, which he intended to use to treat Tony's chest injury.
• Richard opened a portal to the National Mall for Phil Coulson, who stepped through and saw the Washington Monument.

Richard revealed that he was a sorcerer of Kamar-Taj, then rescued Professor Jennings from armed assailants after learning the professor had found clues about Junior Federer's death and the Federer Laboratory explosion. Richard captured one attacker and began probing another attacker’s soul for information.

• Phil Coulson left to report his discovery to Nick Fury, and Tony asked Richard what he had done at the Washington Monument.
• Richard revealed that he was a formal sorcerer of Kamar-Taj and demonstrated his magic to Tony and Pepper.
• Professor Jennings called Richard with clues about Junior Federer's death and the Federer Laboratory fire and explosion, but armed intruders interrupted the call with gunshots.
• Tony and Jarvis traced the call to Professor Jennings's Manhattan apartment, and Richard opened a portal and rescued the unconscious professor from two assailants.
• An attacker fired a rocket-propelled grenade, so Richard escaped through a portal with Professor Jennings, then separated Bald Eagle's soul from his body and used Spirit Vision Retrospection.

Richard traced the attackers to Phoenix Biotech and learned that New York state senator William Samson was likely connected to the organization behind Eagle’s Nest. After finding erased memories and a dangerous trap in Samson’s mind, Richard was left with the identity of the hidden mastermind still unknown.

• Richard searched Bald Eagle’s memories, found the name Phoenix Biotech at Eagle’s Nest, and asked Tony Stark to investigate it.
• Jarvis identified Phoenix Biotechnology Company and found an eighty percent probability that state senator William Samson was behind its founder, Enoch Adam.
• Richard learned that Professor Jennings had been drugged and attacked because of events at Manhattan Presbyterian Hospital, then returned him home and put him to bed.
• Richard teleported to William Samson’s location and found him asleep with a woman, whom Richard knocked unconscious with soul energy.
• Richard discovered that Samson’s memories had been altered to erase someone he had reported to, then triggered a sinister trap while probing his mind.

Richard discovered that William Samson's memories were protected by a magical trap, so he planted a counter-trap to track whoever was behind it. After Richard warned S.H.I.E.L.D. that Professor Jennings had nearly been kidnapped, Nick Fury ordered the professor moved to safety and revised Richard's Avengers Initiative file to identify him as a suspected mage.

• Richard found a linked trigger trap in William Samson's brain and decided not to read his memories directly.
• Richard planted a fabricated memory and a matching trap in William Samson's soul that would release a tracking spell if William saw the person behind the scheme.
• Richard returned to his apartment and called Phil Coulson to report that Professor Jennings had been drugged and nearly kidnapped.
• Richard told Coulson the kidnapping was connected to a severely burned girl at Manhattan Presbyterian Hospital and declined to explain his abilities.
• Nick Fury ordered Coulson to move Professor Jennings to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Science Academy and updated Richard's Avengers Initiative file with the codename Mage.

Richard explained to Christine that belief and willpower shaped the practice of magic, then used his dimensional travel ritual to reach a world where a familiar red-and-white umbrella logo appeared. He arrived in the Arklay Mountains and opened a portal toward the building displaying the icon.

• Christine lamented that Jonathan Pangborn had begun sensing dimensional energy and learning to spark energy flames, while she struggled with magic.
• Richard told Christine that Jonathan’s determination and belief in magic were helping him cross the threshold, and explained that magic and science could coexist.
• Richard told Christine he would leave the next day, then traveled from a Pacific island through a dimensional portal.
• Richard arrived in the Arklay Mountains, sensed his surroundings, and opened a portal toward a nearby office building.
• Richard spotted a red-and-white umbrella icon on the building’s glass wall and recognized it as familiar.

Richard found his Resident Evil counterpart, a Raccoon City rookie officer who gained power after sharing spirituality and memories but resented Richard for withholding his strength. After Richard met Jill Valentine and escaped through a portal, Jill realized another officer named Richard had just left the station.

• Richard sensed his counterpart inside the Raccoon City Police Department and entered Mind Space to share spirituality and memories with him.
• The rookie officer returned to work delighted by his newfound power and imagined joining S.T.A.R.S., while Richard suspected he might attack him if given more power.
• Richard concluded that some counterparts were selfish and considered killing them to take everything they had.
• Jill Valentine confronted Richard outside the police station, but he escaped through a portal after teasing her.
• Jill vowed to catch Richard and then realized the rookie officer who had just left the station also seemed to be named Richard.

Jill pursued the departing rookie Richard but learned he had taken leave, then received orders to respond to a hostage situation at Raccoon City Park. Meanwhile, Richard entered the Hive Laboratory, killed Spence Parks, and slaughtered zombies from B1 to B3 before a girl confronted him near the B4 stairway.

• Jill asked Kevin about the rookie who had left and learned that Richard had taken several days off for family business.
• Jill received a radio order to take a team to rescue hostages at Raccoon City Park.
• Richard drove east in a Ford Raptor, used a police siren to make a pursuing police car slow down, and crossed East Bridge.
• Richard entered the Hive Laboratory, recognized Spence Parks, killed him, and found the T-Virus and serum in a case inside Spence's backpack.
• Richard fought through the zombie hordes from B1 to B3 with two Pure White Swords, then heard a young girl ask who he was near the B4 stairway.

Richard confronted the Red Queen in the Hive and explained that he intended to take her motherboard, while exposing weaknesses in her containment protocols. Meanwhile, his Alter Ego encountered zombie dogs on the highway and began fighting them.

• Richard told the Red Queen he planned to remove her motherboard from the Hive.
• The Red Queen warned that shutting down the base mainframe could release the T-Virus, but Richard pointed out that the ventilation, drainage, and rat holes allowed infected creatures to escape.
• The Red Queen’s hologram flickered out, and Richard headed toward B4.
• Richard’s Alter Ego stopped his Ford Raptor when a large wolf pack fled across the highway, followed by seven zombie dogs.
• Three zombie dogs approached the vehicle while the others pursued the wolves, and the Alter Ego killed one dog with three shotgun blasts.
• The two remaining zombie dogs charged, and the Alter Ego fired at the one on the right as it tried to dodge.