Chapter Summaries

Mercer, a struggling high school student in a world where Peggy Carter became Captain America, was caught in Abomination’s attack while eating stew in Carter’s apartment. As Abomination reached for him, the Infinite Hero Card System activated and granted him the blacklight virus.

• Mercer watched Tony Stark reveal that he was Iron Man while worrying about his lack of money and imminent eviction.
• Peggy Carter paid Mercer’s rent, invited him to eat beef stew, and gave him a key to her apartment before leaving on a mission.
• Mercer guessed Carter’s eyes reminded her of Steve Rogers, then went to her apartment and began eating the stew.
• Abomination crashed into the apartment, spotted Mercer, and reached out to attack him.
• The Infinite Hero Card System activated in response to Mercer’s life-threatening danger and awarded him the blacklight virus.

After the blacklight virus enhanced Mercer, he emerged from Carter’s apartment and fought Abomination, who had interrupted his beef stew. Mercer overwhelmed Abomination with his speed and strength, leaving the battle ongoing as he continued his barrage of punches.

• Mercer felt his movements and perception accelerate after the blacklight virus entered his body, and the system issued a mission for Blacklight’s debut.
• Carter saw the damage to her apartment, realized Mercer might be inside, and ordered S.H.I.E.L.D. forces to evacuate civilians and secure the area.
• Mercer emerged unharmed after sending Abomination flying from the building, surprising Carter and the watching soldiers.
• Mercer rushed Abomination and punched him into the air, displaying strength and speed that astonished Carter.
• Mercer leaped after Abomination and pounded him with more than a hundred punches, while Abomination struggled to track his movements.

Mercer defeated Abomination but held back from absorbing him in front of the crowd. After escaping, he converted Abomination’s Blood into a B-rank card and wondered why it was rated so low.

• Mercer battered Abomination until he was nearly defeated, then refused to absorb him because onlookers were watching.
• Abomination surrendered and was tranquilized and captured by special forces soldiers.
• Rumlow’s unit surrounded Mercer, but Carter ordered them to lower their guns, preventing Mercer from attacking them.
• Mercer leaped into the air and glided away, while onlookers’ photos of his profile made him a viral mystery online.
• On a rooftop, Mercer used the system to convert Abomination’s Blood into a B-rank card that granted a small portion of Abomination’s enhancements.

Mercer absorbed Abomination’s Blood, gaining Blacklight Claws, combat skills, and fluent English, then decided to investigate S.H.I.E.L.D. for information on Abomination. At the Triskelion, Nick Fury and Natasha Romanoff reviewed footage of Mercer before he suddenly appeared in Fury’s office.

• Mercer turned some of his blacklight virus into a card and saw that its level was infinite, with an unknown upper limit to its evolution.
• Mercer absorbed Abomination’s Blood and formed Blacklight Claws, which cut cleanly through a reinforced wall.
• Mercer gained combat skills and fluent English from Abomination’s Blood and decided to find Abomination at the Triskelion.
• Nick Fury and Natasha Romanoff watched footage of Mercer defeating Abomination and discussed investigating him.
• Mercer suddenly spoke from inside Nick Fury’s office, offering to answer their questions.

Alex Mercer infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. and bargained with Nick Fury for the right to deal with Abomination in exchange for future intelligence. Fury released Abomination’s location and guards, while Mercer left for the facility and Fury ordered an investigation into him.

• Mercer appeared unnoticed in Fury’s office, blocked Fury from pressing an alarm, and asked for Abomination’s location and the right to handle him.
• Fury agreed to the exchange, and Natasha gave Mercer Abomination’s location after Fury ordered the guards withdrawn.
• Mercer shared future information about Banner, Stark, Agent Carter, an arrival in New Mexico, and Project Insight, shocking Fury and Natasha.
• Mercer left for Abomination’s location, while Fury sent Coulson to New Mexico and ordered Natasha to investigate Mercer’s identity.
• A thumb-sized blob of black slime wriggled out of the office after Fury and Natasha finished speaking.

Mercer went to the detention center, killed Abomination, and absorbed his blood, gaining armor-like skin he could control. Abomination’s memories revealed that Alexander Pierce and Hydra had experimented on him, and Mercer expected Hydra to come after him.

• Mercer entered the evacuated detention center and destroyed its cameras before freeing Abomination from his cage.
• Mercer overpowered Abomination, cut off his head, and absorbed his body and blood.
• Mercer transformed as Abomination’s hardened gray skin spread across him, then became red-and-black Blacklight Armor that he could summon or dismiss.
• Mercer received Abomination’s memories, which showed Alexander Pierce and Hydra scientists forcing Emil through experiments that turned him into Abomination.
• Mercer concluded that Hydra had sent Abomination and prepared for them to come looking for him.

Mercer collected bonus system rewards, including the Darksaber and Lockdown, after Abomination disappeared from S.H.I.E.L.D. custody. He summoned Lockdown outside S.H.I.E.L.D.'s surveillance range and learned that the Transformer was programmed to serve him, though he would also accept payment.

• The system awarded Mercer the Darksaber and Lockdown cards and unlocked the Otherworld Card Collection Branch.
• Mercer told Nick Fury that he had taken care of Abomination, declined Natasha's offer to exchange numbers, and left the S.H.I.E.L.D. Building.
• Nick Fury and Natasha resumed discussing the Avengers while Rumlow reported Abomination's disappearance and began making arrangements.
• Mercer summoned Lockdown in Lamborghini form and watched him transform into a robot.
• Lockdown told Mercer that his programming required loyalty but that he would accept payment.

Mercer returned to his apartment to pack, where Carter joined him before a sniper ambushed them. Mercer leaped out to pursue the shooter, who was waiting on a rooftop and heard Mercer approach.

• Mercer examined the Dark Saber, returned to his apartment, and began packing while Carter confronted him about his secrets.
• A suppressed sniper fired at Mercer, and he and Carter took cover after spotting the bullet hole.
• Carter located the sniper on a high-rise rooftop about eight hundred meters away, and Mercer told her to wait as he jumped from the seventh floor.
• Mercer ran along the building walls and leaped between buildings to reach the rooftop.
• The sniper remained aimed at the apartment building and heard Mercer arrive behind him.

Mercer defeated a Hydra assassin, absorbed his memories, and learned Hydra had targeted him. While driving with Carter in Lockdown, Mercer discovered several vans were pursuing them and prepared to escape their ambush.

• Mercer blocked the assassin’s bullets with a Blacklight shield, crushed him, and absorbed his body.
• Mercer learned from the assassin’s memories that Hydra had sent him to eliminate or capture Mercer, and he resolved to visit Hydra.
• Mercer met Carter downstairs, and they rode in Lockdown while looking for a place for Mercer to live.
• Lockdown spotted a black van following them, and Carter recognized its concealed windows as specially made bulletproof glass.
• Mercer identified more Hydra vehicles ahead and told Lockdown to deal with them while he handled the van behind; he told Carter to prepare to eject.

Mercer and Lockdown intercepted a Hydra convoy, and Mercer captured a soldier who carried a poison tooth. Carter recognized the soldier and suspected Hydra had returned, so she took him away for interrogation.

• Lockdown transformed from a Lamborghini into a robot and destroyed two vans carrying special forces soldiers.
• Mercer used the Dark Saber to slice a speeding armored van in half and easily defeated a Hydra soldier who crawled from the wreckage.
• Mercer stopped the soldier from biting his poison tooth and frightened him by reshaping his face into the image of Satan.
• Carter recognized the soldier as Kaijeno and identified his poison tooth as evidence of Hydra, an organization she believed had been destroyed seventy years earlier.
• Carter asked Mercer to keep the soldier alive and leave the scene, and Mercer knocked him unconscious before departing with Lockdown.

Mercer took Abomination’s money, bought a villa, and examined the new Otherworld Card Collection Branch. He unlocked a card depicting Nine-Tails Kurama, while Tony Stark began investigating Mercer and Lockdown.

• Mercer found Abomination’s safe house, took its cash and bank cards, and went looking for a place to live.
• Tony Stark watched footage of Mercer and Lockdown, questioned JARVIS about them, and decided to seek Mercer out.
• Mercer bought a villa with a garage for Lockdown, then went to bed.
• Mercer opened the Otherworld Card Collection Branch and saw its tree of mostly dim cards.
• Mercer touched the glowing card at the bottom of the tree and recognized the image of Nine-Tails Kurama.

Mercer examined his Otherworld Card Collection Branch and prepared to visit Naruto’s Konoha during the Nine-Tails’ Attack to collect chakra. Back in the Marvel Universe, he considered how to strengthen the Blacklight Virus and began testing whether it could absorb energy from the Kyber Crystal inside the Dark Saber.

• Mercer discovered that reaching for additional cards caused severe dizziness, so he decided to collect the Nine-Tails’ chakra before trying to take another card.
• Mercer activated the Kurama card and read that he needed to register the Nine-Tails’ chakra and would travel to Konoha during the Nine-Tails’ Attack.
• Mercer examined the Blacklight Virus and its armor, noting that traces of Abomination’s Blood remained undigested and that he had gained no weapons.
• Mercer considered absorbing powerful villains or energy entities to evolve the Blacklight Virus, but worried that Infinity Stone energy might kill him.
• Mercer chose the Kyber Crystal as a safer energy source to test, activated the Dark Saber, and sent blacklight matter through its hilt until he sensed the crystal inside.

Mercer tested whether the blacklight virus could absorb energy from a Kyber Crystal and build resistance, then went to question a captured Hydra soldier. He used a new ability on the prisoner, leaving Nick Fury, Carter, and Natasha watching in confusion as the man writhed in agony.

• Mercer armored blacklight threads to draw a small amount of energy from the Kyber Crystal and began building the virus’s tolerance.
• Mercer told Lockdown he would not attack Hydra outright and called Carter to offer a way to learn what the captured soldier knew.
• Mercer drove to the S.H.I.E.L.D. safe house, where Carter, Nick Fury, and Natasha had been unable to make the Hydra soldier talk.
• The prisoner recognized Mercer as “Satan” and reacted with terror.
• Mercer touched the prisoner’s hand and used a new skill, making him convulse in pain while the others watched, unable to tell what was happening.

Mercer tortured a surviving Hydra soldier until he revealed that Hydra had survived and infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. Carter vowed to avenge Steve Rogers, and the chapter left Natasha and Nick Fury shocked by the scale of Hydra’s presence.

• Mercer used blacklight threads to torture the Hydra soldier, who passed out before revealing anything.
• Carter invited Mercer to join S.H.I.E.L.D., but he refused because he valued his freedom.
• Carter showed Mercer a pocket watch with Steve Rogers’s photograph and said Hydra had killed her comrade, leaving her determined to avenge him.
• Natasha woke the Hydra soldier, who confessed everything he knew while she recorded his statement.
• The confession revealed that Hydra had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. and that at least half its personnel belonged to Hydra.

Nick Fury, Natasha, and Carter believed Mercer's warning that Hydra had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. and made plans to conceal their discovery. Mercer accepted a level-eight S.H.I.E.L.D. credential, but after returning home, he was ambushed by someone with a metal arm.

• Nick Fury decided to pretend S.H.I.E.L.D. knew nothing about Hydra's infiltration, while Natasha staged the captured Hydra member's death and Carter watched Rumlow.
• Nick Fury thanked Mercer for warning them, and Carter and Natasha offered him S.H.I.E.L.D. credentials.
• Mercer accepted a level-eight clearance and asked Carter and Natasha to send his credentials to his home.
• Mercer bought cola and fried chicken on his way home, where an attacker struck at him as he opened the door.
• Mercer caught the attacker's fist and realized the attacker had a metal arm.

Mercer stopped an assassin who turned out to be Steve Rogers, now a Hydra-controlled Winter Soldier, and healed his shattered knees with blacklight matter. After they shared fried chicken, Mercer questioned Rogers about his memories, and Rogers began clutching his head in pain.

• Mercer identified his attacker as Steve Rogers after his armor stopped the dagger, then incapacitated him with a blow to the neck.
• Mercer realized Hydra had made Rogers the Winter Soldier and used blacklight matter to heal his injuries before leaving him unconscious.
• Rogers woke, found his knees healed, and joined Mercer for fried chicken and cola.
• Mercer asked Rogers what he remembered, and Rogers clutched his head as his thoughts seemed to clash.

Mercer subdued the brainwashed Rogers and kept him bound while Carter delivered his S.H.I.E.L.D. documents. After exploring the files now available to him, Mercer discovered signs that Thor had arrived on Earth and suspected Loki’s invasion was near.

• Rogers resisted Hydra’s commands briefly before falling under their control again and attacking Mercer.
• Mercer bound Rogers in Blacklight Matter, sealed his mouth, and left him wrapped up while he went to sleep.
• Carter brought Mercer his S.H.I.E.L.D. identification and clearance documents, then declined his invitation to come inside.
• Mercer accessed S.H.I.E.L.D.’s files and read records about The Ancient One, Peter Parker, and a hammer that had fallen in New Mexico.
• Mercer recognized the hammer as Thor’s and concluded that Loki’s invasion of Earth was approaching.

Mercer traveled to New Mexico to absorb thunder power from Thor’s cursed hammer and activate a system card, while avoiding absorbing Thor himself. He reached the town near the hammer, where S.H.I.E.L.D. had secured the site, and Hydra’s agents had already become aware of him.

• Mercer received a Thunder Collection Card mission that required him to infuse the card with enough thunder power before Thor lifted the hammer again.
• Mercer flew to New Mexico and overheard three Hydra agents discussing their operation, the Winter Soldier’s failed assassination attempt, and Mercer’s threat to them.
• Mercer silently absorbed all three Hydra agents during the flight, and they vanished without a trace.
• Mercer arrived in the town and learned from a local man that people in black had blocked access to the hammer.
• Mercer recognized that S.H.I.E.L.D. had secured the hammer under Coulson’s watch after Nick Fury learned of its arrival.

Mercer visited Mjolnir at S.H.I.E.L.D.’s restricted site and discovered that his Thunder Collection Card absorbed the hammer’s lightning when it touched it. After completing the collection, he chose the Rumble-Rumble Fruit ability from the card’s options.

• Mercer ran to Mjolnir’s location and showed his S.H.I.E.L.D. ID to the soldiers guarding the restricted area.
• Coulson welcomed Mercer and explained that nobody had been able to lift Mjolnir, which emitted a small, steady amount of energy.
• Mercer failed to lift the hammer and asked Coulson to clear the area so he could study it alone.
• Mercer’s Thunder Collection Card accidentally landed against Mjolnir and began absorbing its lightning.
• The completed card offered Mercer four lightning abilities, and he chose the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.

Mercer ate the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, discovered he could transform into lightning, and exposed Loki’s presence near Mjolnir. After Loki confronted him, Mercer struck him and pursued him, leaving the guards watching as Mercer prepared to test his new powers.

• Mercer chose the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, ate it, and transformed his body into lightning before returning to human form.
• Mercer sensed and struck Loki, revealing that the God of Mischief had been hiding nearby and had witnessed Mercer’s attempts with Mjolnir.
• Loki summoned his Asgardian attire and accused Mercer of declaring war on Asgard, but Mercer challenged his claim to being God King.
• Mercer vanished at lightning speed, blasted Loki through the area, and chased after him.
• Coulson told the guards to lower their guns and asked Mercer if he needed help, but Mercer told them to watch as Loki struggled to his feet.