Chapter Summaries

Coulson brought the Ox Talisman to Old Man, who revealed its power and warned that gathering all twelve talismans could turn someone into the Fire Demon. After Coulson left, Ned noticed a strange transformation overtaking Manhu Street in Oak City and moved toward it.

• Coulson asked Old Man to identify the talisman S.H.I.E.L.D. had found, and Old Man freed it from its diary and activated its glow.
• Old Man identified it as the Ox Talisman and explained that it granted boundless physical strength.
• Old Man showed Coulson an illusion of all twelve talismans and warned that collecting them all could make someone the Fire Demon.
• Coulson left the Antique Shop and called Nick Fury, who had the Snake Talisman and Horse Talisman beside him.
• In Oak City, a hooded man passed along Manhu Street as webs appeared and the street transformed, unseen by its numb pedestrians.
• Ned noticed the strange street and began walking toward it.

Natasha invited Frank to join the Avengers Initiative, and he agreed to consider it after learning his family’s killer had died. Meanwhile, the Avengers deployed to investigate strange changes in Oak City, where Shendu’s physical body awakened after acquiring the Rat Talisman.

• Natasha showed Frank files confirming that the man responsible for his family’s murder had lost his power and died, then explained the Avengers Initiative.
• Frank said he would think about joining the Avengers and discuss it with Old Man before leaving the city.
• A S.H.I.E.L.D. agent reported that strange figures had been digging and making other changes on Manhu Street, and that four additional streets in Oak City had changed within two days.
• After hearing the report, Steve prepared to investigate, and Nick Fury ordered the Avengers to move out.
• Shendu awakened in his physical body after obtaining the Rat Talisman and suspected someone had deliberately restored it to him.

Shendu escaped the room where he had appeared and set out to find the Talismans while Freddy prepared to summon another demon. At the Cold Wind Building, Bone Spikes killed Sitwell, Frock, and their team, and Coulson discovered unreported basement levels beneath the S.H.I.E.L.D. property.

• Shendu declared that he would return to rule the world, then left the room to search for his Talismans.
• Freddy continued preparing a demon-summoning circle and scattered pages from a book as part of his plans.
• Sitwell and Frock arrived at the Cold Wind Building with a security-coded lockbox and found it deserted.
• A Bone Spikes leader and its minions attacked, killing Sitwell, Frock, and the accompanying soldiers.
• Nick Fury sent Coulson to investigate, and Coulson found at least three secret basement levels beneath the building.

Nick Fury reviewed footage showing a demonic formation and discovered that a garlic experiment had summoned a demon into the human world. As an emergency evacuation began in New York, the Moon Demon Chiu Lan appeared and faced police officers and a supernatural response team.

• Coulson returned to the Triskelion with surveillance footage, and Hill played it for Nick Fury, Pierce, and Deputy Director Woda.
• Nick Fury rejected Woda’s suggestion to seal away the recording and argued that S.H.I.E.L.D. had to investigate the unknown threat.
• Nick Fury examined the experiment records and found that Experiment 183 used garlic, had no supervising officer, and showed a demon entering the World of the Living.
• S.H.I.E.L.D. announced an emergency in New York and issued a city evacuation order.
• The Moon Demon Chiu Lan appeared in New York, unleashed his gravitational power, and adapted to the world’s forces as patrol officers fired at him.
• A police supernatural response team arrived, and its captain organized the members into a formation against Chiu Lan.

Chiu Lan devastated the battlefield as the Military struggled to stop the Moon Demon, while Hulk and Zhang Fei joined the fight and were quickly overwhelmed. Old Man used lotus buds and an Exorcism Spell to open a magical gateway and banish Chiu Lan, who protested that he belonged on Blue Star.

• Chiu Lan unleashed a storm of rubble and debris against the Military, collapsing buildings and injuring soldiers and police officers.
• Hulk attacked Chiu Lan but was bound by his gravitational power, and Zhang Fei plunged in to help before both crashed into separate craters.
• Chiu Lan unleashed more supernatural attacks as Old Man and Frank prepared lotus buds for an exorcism.
• Old Man chanted the Exorcism Spell while holding the Dried Lizard and the Dried Pufferfish, opening a magical gateway.
• Chiu Lan began to be banished through the gateway and cried that he was a creature of Blue Star who wanted to live there.

Shendu watched S.H.I.E.L.D. take Chiu Lan away and planned to stir up trouble while searching for the remaining talismans. Meanwhile, the Tesseract began releasing energy and transmitting information on its own, leaving Nick Fury facing the risk that it could reveal Blue Star’s location.

• Shendu hid among the onlookers, watched Chiu Lan being taken away, and vanished into the crowd after predicting trouble for S.H.I.E.L.D.
• After the demon crisis, Nick Fury tried to recruit Frank and continued his secret work on the Tesseract.
• Barton reported that the Tesseract had begun emitting chaotic energy and signals despite experiments having stopped three days earlier.
• Nick Fury reached the underground base as staff evacuated and learned the Tesseract repeatedly shut down and restarted.
• Dr. Holger confirmed that the Tesseract was transmitting information, and explained that cutting the power would not stop it because the Tesseract was itself an energy source.

The Tesseract opened a portal into S.H.I.E.L.D.’s laboratory, bringing Loki and Ebony Maw to Blue Star. Loki took control of Barton and escaped with captured S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, while Shendu emerged from underground and watched the chaos unfold.

• Nick Fury hoped S.H.I.E.L.D. could harness the Tesseract, but Doctor Holger warned that its energy pulses suggested someone was trying to open it from the other side.
• The Tesseract formed a portal, and Loki and Ebony Maw arrived at the S.H.I.E.L.D. base.
• Loki recognized that he had returned to the same point in time and introduced himself to Nick Fury as Asgard’s future king.
• Loki controlled Barton with the Mind Scepter, while Nick Fury escaped after throwing bombs; Barton and Doctor Holger were captured.
• Loki and Ebony Maw left the base with Barton, Doctor Holger, and other mind-controlled agents as Shendu emerged from underground.

Ebony Maw and Loki attacked sites across Cherry Blossom Country, but Deva Path Pain stopped their assault and fought them off. The pair escaped with the Tesseract and Doctor Holger, leaving Nick Fury to inform Coulson and Hill that S.H.I.E.L.D. had lost the artifact.

• Ebony Maw and Loki attacked a laboratory near Mount Fuji, raining fire and debris onto the island.
• Deva Path Pain arrived and destroyed Ebony Maw’s attack, then battled him while Loki watched from the sidelines.
• After dozens of exchanges, Ebony Maw obscured the area with dust and escaped with Loki.
• Ebony Maw and Loki appeared at several other locations, plundered them, and prepared to open a Portal.
• Nick Fury told Coulson and Hill that Loki had taken the Tesseract and Doctor Holger.

Loki was captured by Tony Stark, Krillin, and Captain America, while a second Loki arrived and was imprisoned aboard S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Helicarrier. The alternate Loki questioned Nick Fury about the Tesseract, and the chapter ended with Loki hinting that he knew something about Ebony Maw.

• Nick Fury ordered Coulson to contact Captain America, Tony Stark, Zhang Fei, and others for help against Loki and Ebony Maw.
• Tony Stark and Krillin attacked Loki at Ston Church, and Captain America recovered the Mind Stone scepter after Loki fell.
• Tony's armor malfunctioned when a freezing wind swept through the aircraft, and he ordered JARVIS to begin an Anti-Loki Armor file.
• Nick Fury questioned the alternate Loki in a Helicarrier cell, and the alternate Loki challenged him about experiments with the Tesseract.
• Loki placed the Casket of Ancient Winters on the conference table and told Steve that he knew a little about Ebony Maw.

After the Tesseract vanished, Nick Fury mobilized S.H.I.E.L.D. and the world to search for it and prepare for an alien threat. On the Helicarrier, Tony presented evidence that Loki’s group was gathering materials to open a portal, while Loki went to question his parallel counterpart.

• Loki explained that Thanos was unlikely to launch a full-scale attack on Blue Star, and Nick Fury asked him to question the man from a parallel world.
• With the Tesseract missing, Nick Fury gained World Security Council and White House approval to mobilize S.H.I.E.L.D. and launch a global search for the artifact and suspected aliens.
• Nick Fury summoned Superhumans to the Helicarrier, where Frank and Natasha joined representatives Luke Cage and Emil Blonsky.
• Tony showed the assembled team where Loki and Ebony Maw had gone and what they had taken, then suggested they were collecting materials to create a portal.
• Banner discussed Tony’s analysis of iridium in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s teleportation guns with him.

Tony modified spectrometers to track the teleporting aliens, while Frank explained that Tony’s Zanpakutō could make him a target of the Soul Society. The instruments detected dozens of enemy locations across Blue Star, as Ebony Maw abandoned Loki’s plan and prepared a full-scale attack.

• Nick Fury welcomed Frank, and Tony and Banner discussed how the aliens’ teleportation made tracking them difficult.
• Tony upgraded several spectrometers with his Zanpakutō, and Frank recognized the weapon and asked Tony how he had obtained it.
• Tony told Frank that the Pure Land had given him his Zanpakutō, and Frank warned that the Soul Society hunted outsiders who acquired such weapons.
• The spectrometers detected enemy forces at dozens of locations across Blue Star, alarming Tony and Banner.
• Ebony Maw concluded that the alternate Loki had deceived him, abandoned Loki’s plan, and returned to his strategy of attacking on all fronts before breaking through at key points.

Shendu agreed to cooperate with Ebony Maw, who planned to use the Tesseract to bring Thanos’s army to Blue Star. Meanwhile, Steve’s team investigated a gamma ray zone, where Steve awakened the Shield of Protection but lost four agents.

• Shendu received Ebony Maw in his palace and agreed to cooperate after Ebony Maw offered him dominion over Blue Star in exchange for helping Thanos obtain what he sought.
• Ebony Maw revealed that he would use the Tesseract to open a space portal and bring Thanos’s army to Blue Star.
• Steve, Natasha, and their team entered a gamma ray zone where strange weather and altered gravity trapped the agents in mud.
• Steve summoned the Shield of Protection and shattered a tree concealing a pile of components, ending the immediate danger.
• Steve found that four agents had died and worried that his team could not safely continue searching for Ebony Maw’s portals.

Loki identified the suspicious-site devices as weather weapons, and Tony realized they could alter Blue Star’s climate across nearly all habitable land. As S.H.I.E.L.D. struggled to respond, Doctor Holger’s team secretly prepared to relocate their underground laboratory before it was discovered.

• Loki identified the recovered fragments as Celestial Phenomenon Weapons used to change planetary climates.
• Tony and Banner modeled the suspicious sites and found that together they covered almost all of Blue Star’s habitable land.
• Loki explained that weather weapons were cheap and easy to obtain, while the Tesseract could open passages for other life-forms if the climate changed.
• Doctor Holger praised Barton for recruiting many researchers who opposed S.H.I.E.L.D. and had joined the laboratory voluntarily.
• Barton told Doctor Holger to prepare to relocate because S.H.I.E.L.D. would soon find their underground laboratory.

Ebony Maw traveled to meet Freddy and the Wilder Sect, intending to discuss an alliance but deciding that he might instead subjugate them. After Freddy tested his strength, Ebony Maw effortlessly defeated the Shadow Ninjas, and Freddy agreed to a partnership.

• Ebony Maw studied the Wilder Sect’s history in the murals and reassessed its strength after learning it had once commanded nearly ten Red-Clothed uncanny beings.
• Ebony Maw sensed that Hawkeye was beginning to resist the Mind Stone’s control as he waited in the corridor.
• Freddy arrived on a palanquin carried by Shadow Ninjas and demanded that Ebony Maw explain his purpose.
• Ebony Maw introduced himself as Thanos’s subordinate and proposed cooperation with the Wilder Sect.
• Freddy sent the Shadow Ninjas to test Ebony Maw, who cleared the corridor with two buttons controlled by his powers.
• Freddy acknowledged Ebony Maw’s strength and agreed to a fruitful partnership.

As distrust grew aboard the Helicarrier, Tony exposed S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Tesseract weapons experiments, but Shendu attacked before Nick Fury could explain. Shendu targeted the Talismans, and the Helicarrier’s engines began failing as the chapter ended.

• Tony showed Nick Fury JARVIS's report on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Phase Two Tesseract weapons plan, and Steve and Banner demanded an explanation.
• A sudden alarm and shaking interrupted Nick Fury as Shendu burst into the Helicarrier and attacked the room holding S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Talismans.
• Shendu's scorching beams tore through the Helicarrier, killing agents and opening a hole that Tony quickly repaired in the conference room.
• Nick Fury realized Shendu was after the Talismans, while Tony, Steve, and the others focused on assessing the damage and protecting the people aboard.
• The Helicarrier's engine control panel showed two of its four engine status lights going dark after successive explosions.

Tony and Nick Fury struggled to prevent the damaged Helicarrier from crashing into New York, while Banner fought to repair an engine with Hulk’s help. The third engine was destroyed, sending the Helicarrier into a rapid plunge as Ebony Maw watched.

• Nick Fury told Tony that the Helicarrier was over New York and had only two engines left, so Tony sent teams to protect them and calculated the danger of a fall.
• Nick Fury used a syringe to stop his bleeding, contacted about half the research teams, and ordered them to change the Helicarrier’s heading, but the steering system was badly damaged.
• Banner persuaded Hulk to let him control their transformed body and began repairing an engine while Steve, Natasha, and the others waited anxiously.
• The Helicarrier shuddered when its third engine was destroyed, and Natasha warned everyone that it was going down.
• Ebony Maw watched the Helicarrier plunge while holding the Mind Scepter he had recovered.

Freddy joined Ebony Maw aboard the Helicarrier and attacked Tony, Krillin, and Tien Shinhan while Loki confronted Ebony Maw. After the Helicarrier lost its final engine, it plunged toward the city as people below struggled to escape.

• Tony's armor was destroyed by a beam, and Ebony Maw revealed that Freddy and the Wilder Sect had joined his side.
• Freddy sent Sadako's Videotape, Kayako's villa key, and Jason's electric saw after Tony, Tien Shinhan, and Krillin, then vanished from Tony's sight.
• Tony caught the videotape and found himself trapped in a repeating scene in New York, where Steve appeared and Tony was knocked unconscious.
• Loki confronted Ebony Maw and questioned him, but Ebony Maw revealed the Mind Stone and Space Stone as the Helicarrier's final engine exploded.
• The Helicarrier plunged toward the city, and people below fled, prayed, or waited as rescue efforts struggled to maintain order.

Tony Stark broke free of Sadako’s illusion and used his Zanpakutō to keep the damaged Helicarrier airborne, until Krillin and Tien Shinhan dismantled it to avert a major crash. Ebony Maw then revealed that the Helicarrier’s fall had not stopped his plan and opened portals across Blue Star, prompting Loki to recognize the Space Stone’s power.

• Tony Stark endured thirty-six soul-cutting strikes from his Zanpakutō and regained his senses, feeling more alert and able to wield it more naturally.
• Nick Fury woke in the Helicarrier’s medical bay and realized the aircraft had stopped falling, while its systems continued to fail.
• Tony learned the Helicarrier was only 621.5 meters above the ground and struggled to keep its remaining engines overclocked as his spiritual energy ran low.
• Krillin and Tien Shinhan cut the Helicarrier into pieces and hurled them away, preventing it from crashing onto New York.
• Ebony Maw told Loki that his plan had only begun and summoned his armies.
• Beams of light rose across Blue Star as Ebony Maw opened portals, and Loki recognized the power of the Space Stone.

The Giant Spirit God, Pain, and the Dumb-Hair King shut down several of Ebony Maw’s teleportation points, while Shendu killed Ebony Maw and learned that nine more portals were nearing activation. In New York, Tony and the others safely landed the damaged Helicarrier, leaving Nick Fury to face political pressure and worry over the Avengers Squad’s prospects.

• The Giant Spirit God used his golden axe to close the Hong Kong portal, and Pain and the Dumb-Hair King shut down portals near the Land of Akatsuki and in Europe.
• After eleven teleportation points were disabled, Shendu killed Ebony Maw and took the Tesseract, then learned that nine portals could open in about a day.
• Tony, Krillin, and the others brought the damaged Helicarrier safely down in New York while protecting the agents aboard.
• Military and police forces cordoned off the Helicarrier as politicians, officials, reporters, and interest groups pressured Nick Fury for answers.
• The World Security Council reprimanded Nick Fury, who accepted responsibility but became more concerned about the damage to the Avengers Squad’s prospects.

Shendu and Freddy took over Ebony Maw’s plan and continued preparing to summon alien armies, while Nick Fury gathered the few remaining allies to assess the threat. Gen Ohtori began explaining the universe’s forces, leaving the group with an incomplete picture of Thanos’s military strength.

• Freddy questioned Shendu about the sealed Teleportation Points, and Shendu claimed the plan could still proceed because of an unusual history of territorial divisions on Blue Star.
• Shendu and Freddy’s takeover of Ebony Maw’s plan became known, and Nick Fury received reports that they intended to summon alien armies and weapons.
• Nick Fury assessed his depleted forces and asked Mage Cheng and Gen Ohtori to come in for help.
• Nick Fury met with Gen Ohtori, Banner, Frank, Rhodey, and other available allies to review intelligence about Thanos and his armies.
• Gen Ohtori described the many factions in the universe and explained that Asgard’s legions relied heavily on powerful individuals such as Odin and Tyr.