Chapter Summaries

After Yang Ming closed the Gate of Limit, his arms were badly injured, but he returned to the Yang Clinic and helped treat people wounded in the alien invasion. As Manhattan’s fighting subsided, Barton woke up and asked whether the Tesseract had been taken.

• Yang Ming returned to the rooftop after stopping the Chitauri mothership, checked on the remaining enemies, and sent Thor, Steve, and Tony to protect civilians while he went back to the Clinic.
• At the Clinic, Yang Ming organized the rescue and treatment of wounded civilians while Peter, Gwen Stacy, Harry, Thor, and others evacuated people from a collapsed subway station.
• Yang Ming and the Clinic staff treated an injured old man and a child whose airway was blocked, and the child began crying after Thor brought oxygen.
• After the fighting in Manhattan tapered off, Steve brought the unconscious Barton to the Clinic, where Yang Ming found no external injuries and treated Steve’s leg wound.
• At 4:17 a.m., Barton woke and asked Steve whether the Tesseract had been taken; Steve confirmed it and told him not to blame himself.

After the Battle of New York, Yang Ming treated the wounded, billed S.H.I.E.L.D. for the clinic’s costs, and watched public fear and political pressure rise against the heroes. As Fury sought refuge at the clinic, Hydra began stealing Chitauri technology to advance Project Insight.

• Thor cleared the last alien corpse from the clinic entrance while Yang Ming and Gwen Stacy cared for the wounded, and Steve reported that Barton was stable.
• Yang Ming demanded another seven and a half million dollars from Fury, who warned that the Tesseract had escaped with its alien captors.
• Fury showed the team military forces seizing alien wreckage, while Frank reported gangs stealing weapons and selling energy cells on the black market.
• News coverage praised the heroes before blaming them for the destruction, and Fury told Yang Ming that the Council was demanding superhumans’ identities and genetic records.
• Fury arranged to use Yang Ming’s clinic as a paid safehouse, and Yang Ming told him to explain the space-bomb explosion by saying, “God sneezed.”
• Alexander Pierce and Rumlow brought stolen Chitauri weapons to a warehouse, and Pierce said Hydra would use them to arm Project Insight and establish a new order.

Yang Ming organized investigations into Hydra’s distribution of Chitauri weapons while Fury began purging S.H.I.E.L.D. and Steve went to the Triskelion. Yang Ming started interrogating captured Hydra agent Brock Rumlow, and Tony traced the alien energy cells to Brooklyn’s Pier 14.

• Fury paid Yang Ming seven and a half million dollars for using the clinic as a temporary safehouse, and Yang Ming put Thor and Peter to work unloading supplies.
• Tony gave Steve the decrypted authorization showing that the World Security Council had ordered the nuclear strike, and Yang Ming identified Alexander Pierce as Hydra.
• Matt and Frank reported that gangs were trading modified Chitauri guns, so Yang Ming assigned teams to investigate their source and track the weapons’ radioactive signals.
• Yang Ming opened an Anywhere Door to an abandoned auto repair shop, where he interrogated captured Brock Rumlow about the factory making the guns.
• Tony traced the energy cells to Brooklyn’s Pier 14, and Steve rode there on his motorcycle.

Steve reached S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters to block Pierce and Hydra from controlling the building while Fury began his purge. At Pier Fourteen, Yang Ming and his team watched Hydra’s alien-powered exoskeleton shipment draw a three-way battle, then entered the docks as the fighting intensified.

• Steve rode through Washington’s military checkpoints and arrived at the Triskelion, where his presence was meant to prevent Hydra’s leaders from mobilizing the guards.
• Yang Ming, Tony, Matt, and Frank surveilled Hydra agents assembling exoskeletons controlled by neural intrusion modules and powered by Chitauri energy cores.
• Yang Ming stopped Frank from shooting the Hydra commander, predicting that other factions would come for the conspicuous shipment.
• Bullseye arrived with Kingpin’s gang and attacked Hydra using his Chitauri-powered mechanical arm, while the Hand approached by silent speedboat.
• Hydra, the gang, and the Hand clashed over the alien weapons as Hydra’s exoskeletons entered overload mode and the battle spread across the docks.
• Yang Ming opened the Anywhere Door onto a shipping container, and he, Matt, and Tony descended into the melee while Frank covered them.

Yang Ming defeated Bullseye at Pier 14 while Tony, Matt, and Frank helped rout Hydra and seize its Chitauri shipment. Back at the clinic, Steve reported that Pierce had erased evidence, and Yang Ming warned that S.H.I.E.L.D. was about to collapse over Project Insight.

• Bullseye attacked Yang Ming with his Chitauri-powered prosthetic, but Yang Ming dodged his darts and countered with strikes that relied on his legs and shoulder.
• Yang Ming used a scalpel to disable Bullseye's neural interface, then crushed the prosthetic's control node and told him to inform Kingpin that he was taking the shipment.
• Frank shot the Hydra commander, Matt disabled exoskeletons, and Tony helped turn the battle against Hydra as the Hand's ninjas retreated.
• Yang Ming arranged for Stark Industries to take custody of the Chitauri materials and returned to the clinic through an Anywhere Door.
• Steve told Yang Ming that Pierce had destroyed records of the deployment and that Fury suspected alien technology had been added to the three Helicarriers for Project Insight.
• Yang Ming warned Steve to enjoy the next few days because S.H.I.E.L.D. was about to come crashing down.

Yang Ming claimed the seized Chitauri wreckage as payment and Tony Stark upgraded the Defenders’ equipment. Meanwhile, Hydra sent Bucky Barnes to kill Nick Fury, but Steve Rogers intervened as Bucky reached Fury’s overturned SUV.

• At Pier 14, Tony Stark took custody of the Chitauri wreckage and flew it to Hell’s Kitchen.
• Yang Ming counted the cargo and treated its value as payment for Fury’s debt and rent owed by S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Tony gave Peter a new Spider-Man suit, upgraded Mindy’s pistols, and modified Dave’s armor and Harry’s Goblin Glider.
• Alexander Pierce learned that Kingpin’s men and S.H.I.E.L.D.’s transport team had failed, then ordered Nick Fury and the clinic’s allies removed.
• In Siberia, Hydra brainwashed Bucky Barnes and ordered him to recover Project Insight data and eliminate everyone with relevant knowledge.
• Hydra operatives ambushed Fury’s SUV in Washington, and Bucky broke its window before Steve Rogers arrived and blocked him with the Vibranium Shield.

Steve and Fury fought a masked attacker who escaped with Fury’s flash drive, while Steve recognized the attacker’s movements as those of a long-dead friend. Fury identified him as Barnes, the Winter Soldier, leaving Steve and Yang Ming to confront the revelation.

• Steve fought the masked man and stopped him from killing Fury with a grenade launcher.
• The attacker dragged Fury from the SUV, but Steve rescued him before the vehicle exploded.
• The attacker escaped through an abandoned mall and stole Fury’s flash drive, while Fury prevented Steve from throwing his shield at a van carrying bound guards.
• Steve recognized familiar battlefield movements in the attacker and doubted that his long-dead friend could be alive.
• Yang Ming arrived, and Fury told him that Barnes was the Winter Soldier.

Steve learned that the Winter Soldier was his old friend Bucky Barnes, whom Yang Ming had known was alive and had kept under Hydra control. After Yang Ming revealed that Barnes had also murdered Tony’s parents, an encrypted signal appeared near the Clinic, leaving the group bracing for a Hydra attack.

• Fury showed Steve footage linking the Winter Soldier to Bucky, and Steve recognized his old friend’s movements and red-star insignia.
• Yang Ming treated Steve’s reopened wound and explained that Hydra had captured, brainwashed, and repeatedly frozen Barnes after his fall from the train.
• Fury revealed that the Winter Soldier had stolen a drive containing Project Insight’s algorithms and a list of Hydra’s opponents.
• Yang Ming told Steve that Barnes had assassinated Howard and Maria Stark in 1991, and Fury and Yang Ming decided not to tell Tony yet.
• JARVIS detected encrypted signals near Washington and Hell’s Kitchen, and Yang Ming opened a portal to the Clinic as he warned that Hydra might send more than one Winter Soldier.

Yang Ming and his allies fought Hydra death squad soldiers and armed attackers defending the Clinic while Pierce’s forces prepared to destroy the building. With the Clinic facing two bunker-buster missiles and Yang Ming unable to use his hands, he opened the Anywhere Door with a scalpel held in his teeth and sent the missiles to Hydra’s temporary command base.

• Four Hydra death squad soldiers burst through the Clinic’s basement floor, and Steve, Tony, Peter, Mindy, Gwen Stacy, and Harry fought them.
• Yang Ming realized the soldiers’ glowing reactors were bombs and warned everyone not to attack their power cores.
• Hydra forces opened fire on the Clinic as Matt detected attackers surrounding the building and JARVIS reported an approaching helicopter carrying two bunker-buster missiles.
• Yang Ming used a scalpel held in his teeth to trace open the Anywhere Door as the missiles entered the basement.
• Yang Ming sent both missiles through the door to Hydra’s temporary command base in northern Washington, D.C., then closed it.

Hydra attacked Yang Ming’s clinic, but Yang Ming and his allies drove the agents back and recovered a file tying the Winter Soldier to Howard and Maria Stark’s deaths. After Tony watched the recording and heard the murders, he and Steve were left facing the revelation in silence.

• Pierce survived a missile strike that destroyed his office and ordered his staff to keep his location secret while investigating the attack.
• Yang Ming directed Steve, Tony, and the others as they fought off Hydra agents surrounding and invading the clinic.
• Tony and JARVIS recovered a corrupted file dated 1991-12-16, and its restored footage identified James Barnes as Howard Stark’s killer.
• Tony played the hidden audio track, which recorded Howard and Maria’s deaths, while Steve and the others listened.
• Tony shut down the playback and turned toward Steve as Yang Ming warned him that his racing pulse could lead to ventricular fibrillation.

Tony confronted Steve after learning that Bucky had killed his parents and Steve had concealed it, then attacked him in Yang Ming's Clinic. Yang Ming stopped Tony from killing the wounded Steve, and Tony demanded the full truth about Bucky and Steve's decision to hide it.

• Tony admitted that Steve had known Bucky killed Tony's parents and aimed his repulsor at Steve, but Yang Ming redirected the shot with a metal tray.
• Tony attacked Steve through the Clinic, and Yang Ming intervened when Steve's injuries left him close to shock.
• Yang Ming knocked Tony away with conqueror's haki and a punch, then ordered Dave to bring a stretcher for Steve.
• Steve explained that Hydra had made Bucky the Winter Soldier, and Yang Ming described how Hydra had kept him controlled and in dormancy.
• Steve admitted he had hidden the truth because he feared Tony would not distinguish Bucky from the Winter Soldier, and Tony accused Steve of putting his parents' deaths second.

After Tony and Steve agreed to find Bucky and bring him back alive, Pierce launched all three Helicarriers before Project Insight was ready and ordered them to attack Hell's Kitchen. Yang Ming opened a portal to the Helicarriers, and he, Steve, and Tony went through to stop them.

• Tony demanded to see Bucky and said he would kill him if he remained under Hydra's control, while Steve vowed to stop him if necessary.
• Yang Ming treated Steve's thigh wound as Tony searched for Bucky using Stark's satellite and surveillance network.
• Pierce ordered all three Helicarriers launched and assigned Yang Clinic as their first target, despite the missing Project Insight core algorithm.
• Hill warned Fury that the Helicarriers had locked their weapons onto Hell's Kitchen, prompting the clinic to prepare for an attack.
• Yang Ming sent Dave and Mindy to evacuate the wounded, then opened a portal to Washington, D.C., and stepped through with Steve and Tony.

Yang Ming and the others fought to stop Hydra’s three Helicarriers from crashing into Washington and New York, discovering that the flagship’s reactor depended on a living pilot, Dr. Erik Selvig. As all three carriers prepared to fall, Yang Ming began surgery to save Selvig while Tony and Steve tried to hold back the other ships.

• Yang Ming opened an Anywhere Door to divert the flagship’s cannon beam into the clouds, while Tony damaged its propulsion nozzles.
• Steve disabled the restraints on the second Helicarrier, escaped the Bridge, and watched Rumlow trigger the ship’s fall toward downtown Washington.
• Yang Ming entered the flagship’s Power Chamber, defeated its Death Soldiers, and found Dr. Erik Selvig wired into the reactor.
• Yang Ming realized Pierce planned to bring down all three Helicarriers, and chose to save Selvig before dismantling the flagship.
• Tony flew to stop the third carrier from reaching New York, Steve moved to stop the second carrier, and Yang Ming anesthetized Selvig and began brain surgery.

Yang Ming freed Selvig from the Neural Module and disabled the first mothership, but Tony became trapped inside the third mothership as it fell toward Manhattan. Yang Ming opened an Anywhere Door to New York and prepared to seek help before the ship struck the city.

• Yang Ming operated on Selvig during the first mothership’s descent while Tony flew to the third mothership and entered its cannon barrel to stop it firing at the Clinic.
• Steve fought Rumlow aboard the second mothership, rejected Rumlow’s claims about his beliefs, and tried to stop him from accelerating the ship’s fall.
• Yang Ming endured Pierce’s electrical defenses and tore the Neural Module from Selvig, shutting down the first mothership’s weapons while leaving its Antigravity Engine running.
• The third mothership lost power and began falling toward Manhattan with Tony trapped inside its cannon barrel, so Tony detonated a Micro-Missile and destroyed the cannon’s support.
• Yang Ming opened an Anywhere Door to the sky over New York and considered how to save the city from the falling mothership.

Yang Ming brought Clark Kent to New York to stop a falling mothership, and Clark saved the city by carrying it out to the bay. With New York safe and the Washington mothership left to Steve, Clark returned to Metropolis while Yang Ming demanded payment from Fury and Tony.

• Yang Ming opened an Anywhere Door to Metropolis and asked Clark Kent to help stop the mothership falling over New York; Lois let Clark go after he promised to return.
• Clark caught the mothership and slowed its descent while Yang Ming and Tony coordinated with him.
• Clark carried the mothership to the bay, where Yang Ming opened a door for Tony to escape from the ship.
• Clark learned Steve was handling the remaining mothership in Washington and returned to Metropolis through Yang Ming's door.
• Reporters and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents failed to identify Clark, while Yang Ming demanded payment from Fury and Tony for the rescue.

Yang Ming helped capture Pierce and Bucky, then oversaw their medical care as the team began rebuilding the clinic. The chapter ended with Fury discovering that the Mind Scepter in custody was a fake while Yang Ming was unreachable in Metropolis.

• Yang Ming and Frank stopped Pierce's convoy, and Peter helped Yang Ming disable Bucky's mechanical arm and capture him alive.
• Fury arrested Pierce after confronting him with recordings and evidence, while Hill reported that Hydra operatives involved in the mothership operation had been taken into custody.
• Yang Ming treated Selvig and Bucky, set limits on Tony and Steve's access to Bucky, and returned to help repair the clinic with Thor and Peter.
• Yang Ming invited Clark to dinner, and Clark asked Lois whether he was still in time to join her.
• Fury opened the sealed trophy crate and discovered that the Mind Scepter inside was a hollow replica, then called Yang Ming and received no answer.

Strucker manipulated Pietro and Wanda Maximoff into blaming Tony Stark for their parents’ deaths and recruited them into Hydra. After learning Hydra planned to abandon them, the siblings used Wanda’s power to silence the order and accepted a mission to approach the Avengers and destroy Stark.

• Strucker showed Pietro and Wanda footage of their childhood entrapment beneath rubble beside an unexploded Stark Industries warhead and blamed Tony Stark for their parents’ deaths.
• Pietro and Wanda fought Hydra’s training machines, revealed their powers, and insisted on using their own names rather than being treated as weapons.
• Strucker showed the siblings edited footage of Stark and Sokovia’s ruins, then recruited them to make the Avengers distrust one another and target Stark.
• A Hydra evacuation order called for the Scepter research files to be destroyed and dismissed the siblings as uncontrollable, but Wanda cut off the communication.
• Strucker told Pietro and Wanda they would be sent to New York to approach the Avengers, and Hydra recorded their codenames as Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch.