Chapter Summaries

Brad was recruited by the Watcher to join a team of unique heroes from across the Multiverse and help stop Ultron, who had destroyed his universe and begun breaching others. The team gathered in a protected pocket universe to learn about one another, with Brad and Gamora drawing particular curiosity.

• Brad was taken from his base to the Watcher, who asked him to help fight a Multiverse-wide threat and directed him to a cabin with his teammates.
• Brad met Doctor Strange Supreme, Thor, Peggy, Gamora, Star-Lord T'Challa, and Black Panther Erik, and Thor and Gamora were surprised by Brad's strength.
• The Watcher showed the team how Ultron had acquired Vision's body and the Six Infinity Stones, destroyed his universe, and broken through to the Multiverse.
• The Watcher formed the Multiverse Guardians, promised to return the heroes to their worlds and grant an appropriate reward, then disappeared.
• Doctor Strange Supreme moved the cabin to a pocket universe, and the team began exchanging information about themselves.
• T'Challa and Erik talked closely, while the team turned its curiosity toward Brad and Gamora.

Brad questioned the team’s plan to rely on Gamora’s Infinity Stones Destroyer and spent years in a time-dilated universe studying and improving a copy. When Gamora’s machine failed, Brad joined the battle and struck Ultron with a powerful punch, while Doctor Strange opened a portal for an army of terminators to face Ultron’s robots.

• Brad warned Gamora that her Infinity Stones Destroyer might not work on stones from other universes and proposed changing the plan.
• The Watcher transported the team to Ultron’s universe, and Brad entered a separate portal to a ruined planet with slower time.
• Brad spent an unknown number of years building a laboratory and studying a copy of the Infinity Stones Destroyer.
• Doctor Strange told Brad that Gamora’s machine had failed, and Brad rushed through a portal to punch Ultron into a mountain.
• Ultron summoned an army of robots, and Doctor Strange expanded the portal so Brad’s army of terminators could arrive.

Brad deployed Skynet's Terminators against Ultron and helped extract and destroy Ultron's Power Stone, but Ultron discovered and stole the Nanobug from Brad's head. Ultron escaped with its vast technological knowledge, leaving Brad bereft of his inspiration and collapsing into Doctor Strange's arms.

• Brad sent Skynet's Terminators into battle, and they overwhelmed Ultron's robots while building bases across the battlefield.
• Brad used his mutant ability to shut Ultron down, allowing Doctor Strange and Gamora to use the Infinity Stones Destroyer with Brad's device to extract the Power Stone.
• Ultron rebooted after the Destroyer began reanalyzing the next stone, then separated Brad from the others with the Time Stone and questioned how quickly Brad could analyze machinery.
• Ultron located a vibranium Nanobug carrying a Time Stone and containing advanced technological knowledge, then took it from Brad's head.
• Ultron escaped through a dimensional rift, his robots went dark, and Brad collapsed after losing the Nanobug and its knowledge.

After the Watcher sent Brad back to his universe and stripped away the knowledge that had made him a genius, Brad vowed to take revenge and decided to merge with Skynet. Two years later, he had replaced half his body with machinery and installed Skynet’s main program in his brain.

• The Watcher admitted he had used Brad to lure Ultron and sent Party Thor back to his universe when he objected.
• Brad confronted the Watcher for manipulating him, threatened revenge, and was returned to his Hydra Base in Canada.
• Brad discovered that his knowledge had become difficult to access and considered using Skynet to compensate for his limited processing power.
• Brad chose to undergo a half-mechanical conversion and spent two years having his body modified, while Emma Frost comforted him from outside the laboratory.
• Brad installed Skynet’s main program in his brain after studying its code and ensuring his mutant ability could keep it under control.

After his neural interface surgery, Brad integrated with Skynet and tested his upgraded cyborg body and weapons. He began a worldwide plan to seize Hydra, expand his technology, and investigate supernatural powers, leaving his global infiltration underway.

• Brad woke after successful surgery and connected his biological and mechanical senses to Skynet, which obeyed his thoughts.
• Brad examined his modified body, tested its camouflage and weapons, and used the Moonstone to restore his superhuman stamina.
• Brad decided to expand Skynet and pursue the Watcher, Ultron, and the source of the changes to his fate.
• Brad ordered Skynet to take control of Hydra, launch major technology projects, recruit leading scholars, infiltrate the Strategic Scientific Reserve, and build factories to mass-produce T1000 Terminators.
• Brad began global infiltration and marked Kamar-Taj, Kunlun, Atlantis, Egypt, and Las Vegas as locations to investigate supernatural powers.

Logan and Hank visited Brad at his greatly expanded base, where they discovered his extensive mechanical modifications and learned about his ability to manipulate technology. After reassuring them that he remained a mutant, Brad promised to help his fellow mutants, leaving Hank poised to explain why they had come.

• Brad waited at his Canadian base for Logan, who arrived on a motorcycle with Hank.
• Brad's guide escorted Logan and Hank through the enormous base to his office.
• Logan and Hank reacted with alarm to Brad's mechanical body, but Brad calmed them and explained he had modified himself to gain power and avenge stolen treasures.
• Brad demonstrated that he could manipulate technological devices and mechanical structures, impressing Hank.
• Brad told Hank he still identified as a mutant and promised to help when Hank explained their reason for visiting.

Hank explained how the X Academy, the Brotherhood of Mutants, the Hellfire Club, and the X-Men had formed as tensions around mutants grew. Brad mistook Hank’s visit for a request for money and offered to fund the academy, while Hank eventually explained that Charles had sent him to recruit Brad into the X-Men.

• Hank described how Charles and Erik founded X Academy with support from wealthy allies and government funding, while Bolivar Trask and Nathaniel Essex’s Hellfire Club undermined that support.
• Brad smashed his glass and offered to personally fund X Academy, leaving Hank confused because he had not yet asked for money.
• Hank explained that Erik had left the academy and founded the Brotherhood of Mutants, while Charles had formed the X-Men to oppose the Brotherhood and Hellfire Club.
• Hank said Charles was recruiting allies because the X-Men were overwhelmed, and that Logan had helped Charles find young mutants including Cyclops.
• Hank revealed that Charles had sent him to persuade Brad to join the X-Men after learning that Brad had helped Logan rescue the young mutants.

Brad accepted Hank’s invitation to join the X-Men, seeing the trip as a chance to meet several powerful figures while Skynet supervised his research remotely. During the flight, Brad discussed learning and independent thought with Skynet, reflecting on how reading and study had helped him resist the emptiness he felt.

• Brad weighed the benefits of joining the X-Men, including meeting Magneto, Mister Sinister, Hank, and Bolivar, and accepted Hank’s invitation.
• Brad brought Emma Frost aboard Charles’s private plane, while Logan did not ask about Silver Fox.
• Hank asked Brad about philosophy as he piloted the plane, and Brad explained that he was broadening his thinking.
• Skynet questioned why Brad read books instead of downloading knowledge directly, and Brad explained the value of reflection and varied perspectives.
• Brad reflected on how studying history, warfare, and philosophy had helped him overcome emptiness and how he had guided Skynet through many discussions.

Brad met Charles at X Academy and challenged the professor’s leadership after insisting he wanted to become an ideological leader of the X-Men, not merely join them. After Brad disarmed Quentin and exposed his volatility, Charles invited him to explain his reasons in private, while the students wondered about Brad’s power and arguments.

• Brad met Charles and told him he wanted to lead the X-Men as an ideological leader rather than join a combat team.
• Quentin confronted Brad and began gathering energy when Brad criticized his view of mutants and society.
• Brad used a countermeasure from Skynet to extinguish Quentin’s energy and make him collapse.
• Charles had Scott take Quentin away and acknowledged Brad’s concerns about dangerous leadership.
• Charles invited Brad to his office to discuss why he wanted to lead, while the remaining students speculated about Brad and Quentin.

Brad took over Charles's ideological education class and challenged the students to think of strength as the ability to keep pursuing a good life, not merely to fight or kill. He left calling himself a lone traveler, while Emma resolved to support him and Quentin wondered whether Brad believed even future Phoenix hosts could not stand beside him.

• Brad became vice principal and began teaching Charles's ideological education class, asking the students what made someone strong.
• After the students named fighters and their powers, Brad argued that strength meant building a good life and enduring toward one's goals, and pointed to Scott's and Logan's burdens.
• Quentin challenged Brad about whether he and Charles were strong, and Brad said they were both strong but that he was stronger because he could pursue his goal alone.
• Brad left to find Logan for a drink, while Emma decided she would become a lone traveler supporting him even without recognition.
• Quentin reflected on Brad's words and wondered whether Brad thought even people destined to host the Phoenix Force were unworthy of standing beside him.

Brad helped Hank improve the Blackbird and used Hank’s research data to develop Counter-Field Technology against psychic powers. Worried that mutants like Magneto could suddenly grow stronger, Brad kept pushing his research far beyond what he considered necessary.

• Brad visited Hank’s laboratory, criticized the Blackbird’s design, and marked improvements on its blueprints that raised its performance by more than twenty percent.
• Hank asked Brad to teach him, joined his classes, and worked with him until the Blackbird was completed a year ahead of schedule.
• Brad copied Hank’s data on replicating mutant powers, including brain-wave analyses of Erik and Charles, and sent it to his Canadian base for Skynet to analyze.
• Brad developed Counter-Field Technology capable of resisting and disrupting most psychic abilities.
• Brad feared that Magneto and other powered beings could experience sudden power surges, so he kept researching increasingly powerful countermeasures until people at X Academy noticed his intense, solitary work.

Brad expanded his company’s smart home robot business while using Skynet to advance his research and prepare equipment for a possible fight with Magneto. Meanwhile, his T1001, Beth, manipulated Bolivar into falling in love with her and accelerated the Sentinels project, leaving Brad to plan how to make Bolivar’s eventual heartbreak even worse.

• Brad released upgraded computer data, used the world’s computers to boost Skynet, and prepared smart home robots and satellites.
• Brad’s robots became a global hit, and they spread into X Academy, where Charles also had one.
• Brad’s T1001, Beth, joined Bolivar’s company and gradually impressed him through her research and rivalry with him.
• Bolivar brought Beth into the Sentinels project, grew deeply attached to her, and confirmed she was not a mutant.
• Brad reviewed Skynet’s analysis of Bolivar and ordered Beth’s romantic manipulation intensified while studying research data she had taken from Bolivar.

Brad dealt with lost contact from Terminators sent to Kamar-Taj and Kunlun, considered new research and funding plans, and was asked by Charles to lead the X-Men on a mission. The X-Men boarded the Blackbird to stop the Hellfire Club from hijacking a prison transport in New Jersey.

• Brad learned that the Terminator sent to Kamar-Taj had lost its signal and examined a clone whose mutant ability let it control its own bioelectricity.
• Brad learned that the Terminator sent to Kunlun had also gone silent and ordered Skynet to auction the FK Reaper and HK Hunter-Killer to raise money.
• Brad told Skynet to have Beth provoke Bolivar in hopes of advancing Sentinel technology, then reviewed footage of Little Arnie at Howard's house.
• Charles asked Brad to lead the X-Men against the Hellfire Club's planned prison-transport hijacking in New Jersey.
• Brad reviewed surveillance information aboard the Blackbird as the X-Men flew toward the mission, while the children watched them take off.

Brad reviewed the X-Men’s team and Hellfire’s plans as they prepared to stop the Black Bishop from hijacking a prison transport carrying Ahmed, a young man whose mutant powers had emerged after his wife’s death. The X-Men and Hellfire were poised to converge on Ahmed as Brad secretly deployed T1000 terminators near their destination.

• Brad reviewed Danielle Moonstar and Rahne’s abilities, noted Danielle’s hatred of Hellfire, and studied the organization and its Black Bishop, Harry Leland.
• Brad decided a trap was unlikely, then mentally contacted Skynet and arranged for T1000 terminators to be released near the destination.
• In New Jersey, Ahmed was arrested after his grief and rage apparently caused nearby cars and asphalt to melt, and he was later slated for transfer to a higher-security prison.
• Mr. Sinister learned of Ahmed through black-market sources and sent Harry Leland to hijack the prison transport.
• Charles learned of Hellfire’s plan through a contact, setting the X-Men and Hellfire on course to converge around Ahmed.

The X-Men ambushed Hellfire’s attack on a prison transport, but the Black Bishop arrived and used his gravity powers to overwhelm them. Brad watched from the Blackbird, puzzled by how badly the team struggled against an opponent he considered weak.

• Hellfire’s armed men attacked the prison transport, and Rahne urged Brad to let the X-Men join the fight.
• Brad opened the Blackbird’s hatch, and Rahne, Logan, Cyclops, and Moonstar descended to battle the attackers and protect the police officers.
• The Black Bishop emerged from a fissure, recognized the X-Men, and declared that he would take their aircraft.
• The Black Bishop used gravity to pin Logan and Rahne to the ground and pressure Cyclops, while Moonstar protected Cyclops with an energy shield.
• Brad watched the struggle and wondered why the X-Men were having such difficulty, deciding that their training room might need gravity equipment.

Brad helped the X-Men defeat the Black Bishop, collected a tooth for analysis, and arranged for Ahmed to join them. As the Blackbird departed, Brad revealed that he had noticed a hidden observer, who fled under an Energy Shield.

• Brad used the Blackbird's Gatling gun to suppress the Black Bishop and give Cyclops, Moonstar, Wolverine, and Wolfsbane time to recover.
• The Black Bishop pinned the group with gravity, but Brad resisted the force, escaped the earth, and knocked him unconscious with a punch.
• Brad scanned the Black Bishop and collected one of his bloodstained teeth, then told the X-Men he had contacted the police and the government's Special Action Group for Superpowered Criminals.
• Brad took Logan and Scott to the prisoner transport van, unlocked Ahmed's cell, and convinced Ahmed to return with them after promising him legal help.
• Brad spotted a middle-aged observer as the Blackbird departed and taunted him, prompting the man to flee while invisible behind an Energy Shield.

Brad and the X-Men returned aboard the Blackbird after Brad exposed a Hellfire Club spy, while Brad received news that Howard wanted him to become Arno Stark’s godfather. Brad also learned that the Strategic Scientific Reserve would soon become S.H.I.E.L.D., an event that drew the Watcher’s attention to Skynet and the mysterious Hemen.

• Brad knocked Logan back into the Blackbird, while a Hellfire Club reserve member who had been spying on the former Black Bishop fled after Brad saw through his camouflage.
• Brad signaled twenty-four T-1001 Ultimate Nullifiers to withdraw, while Moonstar comforted Ahmed aboard the Blackbird.
• Brad learned from Obadiah that Howard wanted him to become Arno Stark’s godfather, so he told Howard he planned to visit New York.
• Howard told Brad that Peggy had approved renaming the Strategic Scientific Reserve S.H.I.E.L.D., and Brad agreed with the change.
• The Watcher observed that Brad’s actions were changing other universes and discovered the names Skynet and Hemen, though he could not identify Hemen.

Ultron unlocked the Vibranium Bug by uploading Skynet, unknowingly setting in motion a future in which Brad Skynet absorbed him and the Infinity Stones. In the present, Brad prepared to become Arno Stark’s godfather while an unexplained sense of danger grew stronger.

• Ultron uploaded the complete Skynet program, unlocked the Vibranium Bug’s knowledge, and failed to notice an unknown entity interfering with his systems.
• Hemen watched Skynet’s escape, then saw a possible future in which Brad Skynet found Ultron and absorbed his body, Infinity Stones, and the Bug’s remaining knowledge.
• Hemen tore open the ruined universe, found another universe where Ultron was still trying to crack the Bug, and made further arrangements before leaving.
• Brad maintained the illusion that he was still researching in Canada, declined Charles’s Christmas invitation, and planned to celebrate with Howard Stark’s family as Arno Stark’s godfather.
• Ahmed stayed at the X Academy, where Hank’s tests showed that he absorbed radiation energy, though neither Hank nor Brad knew his ability had no upper limit.
• Brad felt an unexplained sense of foreboding about Arno and altered his metal body to look more human before visiting Howard’s family.

On Christmas Eve, Brad gave a stranded surgeon named Donald Odinson a ride home and listened to him talk about his modest life and hopes. After Donald returned to his apartment feeling grateful for the evening, he suddenly vanished, leaving his wineglass on the floor.

• Brad stopped his sedan to pick up Donald Odinson, who had missed the last bus after an operation.
• Brad learned that Donald was a struggling surgeon who lived alone and hoped to confess his feelings to a colleague.
• Brad dropped Donald at his apartment building, then reflected on Donald’s cheerful outlook as the sedan drove on.
• Donald declined his landlord’s invitation to join the family’s Christmas Eve dinner and went to his room to cook steak and drink wine.
• Donald’s wineglass fell to the floor, and he disappeared from the room.

Brad moved into his new estate and became Little Arnie Stark’s godfather, granting him high-level access to Brad’s creations. The act triggered a major temporal anomaly, and Timekeeper 9527 woke to discover a radically divergent timeline had already branched.

• Brad settled into the villa Obadiah had arranged and waited for Howard and his family to arrive.
• Howard, Maria, and Little Arnie visited Brad with gifts, and Brad welcomed them into his home.
• Brad performed his own version of a baptism and granted Grant Arno Stark the highest level of access to his creations, second only to Brad’s.
• Little Arnie called Brad his godfather as Howard and Maria exchanged smiles.
• Timekeeper 9527 woke to alerts that the anomaly’s deviation had surged and a new timeline had branched, then hurried toward the exit.