Recaps

Susan, Wanda, and Gwen Stacy tore through Stryker's underground base while Lynn and Natasha watched, each woman competing for Lynn's favor. Cornered in the main control room, Stryker activated a hidden mechanical reactor-meltdown switch, leaving the assault team in immediate danger.

• Susan drilled through the base with her force field, and Wanda annihilated the guards behind a titanium blast door while Gwen Stacy infiltrated the vents to disable the systems and hunt enemies.
• Susan and Wanda repelled the counterattack with lethal force, while Gwen Stacy silently killed isolated soldiers and arranged their bodies as a display for Lynn.
• Lynn watched the assault and told Natasha to monitor Stryker, warning that a cornered enemy could strike back; Natasha admitted she felt like the leash holding the women.
• Stryker discovered that Black Widow had cut off the network and locked down the electronic self-destruct system, then rushed to a hidden mechanical safe in the control room.
• Stryker pulled the physical lever that would eject the reactor's cooling rods and trigger a meltdown as Wanda reached the main control room doors.

Lynn remotely exposed Stryker’s failed safeguards and Fury’s betrayal, then ordered Wanda not to let him die quickly. The chapter ended as Wanda broke through the control-room door and fixed her gaze on Stryker.

• Stryker’s manual detonation lever failed because Gwen Stacy had cut the system’s drive shafts.
• Lynn mocked Stryker over the screen while Natasha explained that his base’s defenses were disabled.
• Lynn told Stryker that Fury had abandoned him and used the Blind Spot Program as bait, and Natasha confirmed the military had removed him from its air-defense network.
• Gwen Stacy entered the control room, but Lynn ordered her to stand down.
• Lynn summoned Wanda and told her not to let Stryker die quickly.
• Wanda melted through the blast door and entered the control room as Stryker cowered in the darkness.

Wanda brutally tortured Stryker before using Chaos Magic to tear his underground base apart, while Lynn let Nick Fury watch the destruction. The chapter ended with Lynn appearing on Fury’s screen and demanding payment for watching the show.

• Wanda tortured Stryker in the control room while Lynn watched, and Natasha revealed that Nick Fury was secretly monitoring the feed.
• Lynn told Natasha to let Fury watch, and Wanda unleashed Chaos Magic that shook the underground base and tore it from the earth.
• Wanda split the base in half, and its reactor exploded, destroying Stryker, the Sentry Data, and the Mutant Gene Bank.
• Lynn praised Wanda and promised her access to his room that night, while Susan and Gwen reacted jealously over the communications channel.
• Fury watched the destruction from a safe house in the Alps, and Lynn appeared on his screen to demand that he pay for his ticket.

Lynn overwhelmed Nick Fury by breaching the Alps Safe House and ordered him to accept Lynn’s control over Earth’s dark side. After evacuating, Fury chose to seek help from the X-Men and Charles in Westchester County.

• Lynn revealed that Natasha had breached the Alps Safe House’s defenses and threatened to cut off its oxygen.
• Lynn told Fury that S.H.I.E.L.D.’s era was over and warned him not to interfere again.
• After Lynn ended the call, Fury ordered Agent Hill to evacuate and destroy the Safe House’s data.
• Fury opened a physical safe and found an old envelope bearing the X-Men emblem.
• Fury decided to seek Charles’s help and ordered Hill to prepare a private aircraft for Westchester County.

Wanda, Susan, Gwen Stacy, and Natasha returned from their attack on Stryker’s base and competed for Lynn’s favor, each claiming her contribution was greatest. Their rivalry erupted into a fight that threatened the Baxter Building, leaving Lynn poised to intervene.

• Wanda returned first and claimed she had destroyed Stryker’s base and killed him.
• Susan arrived and argued that she had defeated a Sentry while preserving the building.
• Gwen Stacy and Natasha arrived, each claiming credit for helping secure the mission and Lynn’s interests.
• The four women argued over who had earned time alone with Lynn, and Wanda’s attack triggered a clash of their powers and weapons.
• Their fight damaged the Baxter Building’s glass and strained its load-bearing columns as Lynn stopped tapping his fingers and raised his head.

After the four women’s reckless actions during the battle, Lynn reprimanded each of them and refused their hoped-for special privilege. He shut himself in the bedroom, leaving them to keep watch outside through the night while he believed his punishment had begun to tame them.

• Lynn unleashed his power to stop Wanda, Susan, Gwen Stacy, and Natasha from fighting, then condemned their actions during the Sentry battle.
• Lynn rebuked Wanda for triggering a nuclear explosion, Susan for abandoning coordination, Gwen Stacy for recklessly entering Wanda’s magic, and Natasha for provoking the front-line fighters.
• Lynn rejected Wanda’s attempt to stop him and locked himself in the bedroom, leaving all four women distraught.
• Wanda, Susan, Gwen Stacy, and Natasha each settled outside the bedroom door and kept vigil through the night.
• Inside the bedroom, Lynn listened to them and privately considered the night’s cold treatment the first step in taming them.

After reprimanding four powerful women, Lynn watched them spend the night fearing that he would abandon them, while he deliberately let their remorse deepen. By morning, the women had agreed to stop fighting, and Lynn unlocked his bedroom door, preparing to reward them.

• Lynn watched Wanda, Susan, Gwen Stacy, and Natasha silently panic and blame themselves outside his bedroom door.
• Lynn decided that fear of being abandoned would keep the four women under control.
• Susan, Wanda, Natasha, and Gwen Stacy agreed to stop fighting and prove they were useful to Lynn.
• Lynn slept for a few hours, then saw that the four women were still waiting outside his door.
• Lynn pressed the handle and unlocked the door as the women held their breath.

After Lynn disciplined Wanda, Susan, Gwen Stacy, and Natasha, he soothed them and restored their hope of remaining by his side. At breakfast, Natasha presented a salvaged data drive containing the Sentinels' Source Code and Stryker's global X-Gene Core Sample Database, catching Lynn's interest.

• Lynn ordered Wanda, Susan, Gwen Stacy, and Natasha to drink coffee, then told Wanda to wash up and warned her not to lose her temper again.
• Wanda clung to Lynn and apologized, while he told Susan to make breakfast and accepted Gwen Stacy's promise to stay obediently by his side.
• Susan prepared breakfast, and the women sat quietly with Lynn as their conflict gave way to desperate efforts to keep his favor.
• After the meal, Natasha presented Lynn with a data drive she had salvaged from Stryker's Underground Base.
• Natasha revealed that the drive contained the Sentinels' Source Code and Stryker's global X-Gene Core Sample Database, and Lynn reacted with keen interest.

Natasha offered Lynn Stryker’s X-Gene database, and Susan decrypted it, revealing dormant mutant genes that Lynn hoped to use to build an army of enhanced followers. When he examined the Alpha-Level samples, one called “Unnamed-001” triggered a dangerous cosmic imprint that resonated with his chaos magic and seemed to notice him.

• Natasha gave Lynn the X-Gene Core Sample Database and explained that it contained mutant research and the locations of people with dormant X-Genes.
• Susan decrypted the database and revealed its records, including genetic data on newborns and other civilians.
• Lynn ordered Susan to filter the database for Alpha-Level candidates, leaving fewer than thirty samples on display.
• Lynn reacted violently to the sample labeled “Unnamed-001,” and Wanda sensed something looking at him through it.
• The simulator warned Lynn that the sample carried an unknown cosmic-level mental imprint, which had resonated with his chaos magic across space.

Lynn discovered that the gene sample labeled Unnamed-001 contained a cosmic-level mental imprint connected to Jean Grey and the Dark Phoenix Force. He made contact with the imprint and resolved to pursue its power, while Wanda attacked the presence through the data link.

• Lynn's resonance with the gene sample triggered dangerous energy fluctuations, and the Dark Phoenix's mental imprint focused its attention on him.
• Wanda shielded Lynn and tried to destroy the Holographic Screens as the imprint probed his energy.
• Susan warned that the energy was tracing their physical coordinates, but Lynn let it continue and touched the genetic map.
• Lynn experienced a brief mental clash with the Phoenix Force and saw an enormous firebird that yearned to devour him or be devoured.
• Wanda mistook Lynn's contact for a response to the unknown presence and sent chaos-magic blades through the network link to attack it.

Lynn used Wanda to sever a psychic probe from Jean Grey, damaging Jean’s defenses and hastening the Dark Phoenix’s awakening. As the Dining Room settled into silence, Lynn saw the conflict as bait successfully set and prepared for what came next.

• Susan warned Lynn that the Supercomputer Matrix was overheating and urged him to cut the connection, but he seized the dark-gold psychic energy instead.
• Lynn directed Wanda to find the source of the psychic probe, and Wanda attacked it out of possessiveness toward him.
• Wanda’s psychic assault tore apart the dark-gold firebird’s defenses, destabilizing the Dining Room and forcing Gwen Stacy and Natasha to take cover.
• The psychic link broke, and a brief image revealed Jean Grey suffering in an ancient castle as Dark Phoenix energy flared in her eyes.
• The System Panel reported damage to Jean Grey’s psychic defenses and increased Dark Phoenix’s awakening progress, while Natasha memorized the castle’s features and Lynn watched the women amid the wreckage.

Lynn traced the psychic attack to Xavier's School and used the lingering energy from Jean Grey to observe her awakening Dark Phoenix personality. After Charles Xavier's probe into Lynn was rebuffed, Jean's power erupted, and the X-Men prepared to take her to Manhattan.

• Natasha traced the data trail to Xavier's School, and Lynn identified Jean Grey's energy as the Phoenix Force while using its residue to establish a psychic mirror.
• Lynn saw Wanda's Chaos Magic damage Jean's mental barriers and watched Jean's Dark Phoenix personality awaken and become fixated on him.
• Charles Xavier tried to probe Lynn's mind, but the system's concealment mechanism rebounded against him and left him badly injured.
• Jean hurled Scott Summers into a wall with an eruption of Dark Phoenix energy and declared that she wanted to go to New York.
• Wanda threatened Jean, but Lynn calmed her and said they would wait for Jean to come to them.
• Charles ordered Storm and Wolverine to prepare the jet and take the X-Men to Manhattan, while Lynn watched and welcomed Jean's approach.

Lynn retaliated against Charles Xavier’s Cerebro probe with a devastating mental backlash, then allowed the X-Men’s aircraft to approach Manhattan. He ordered Stryker’s X-Gene samples analyzed as he prepared to build power of his own.

• Lynn opened a crack in his concealment and showed Charles Xavier a mirrored image of the dangerous powers within him, destroying Cerebro and severely damaging Charles’s mind.
• Natasha reported that a Blackbird carrying X-Men was heading for Manhattan, and Lynn ordered the building’s landing pad opened instead of firing on it.
• Wanda restrained herself from attacking the aircraft, while Susan raised the building’s defenses.
• Lynn ordered Natasha and Susan to decrypt Stryker’s X-Gene Core Sample Database and send it to Laboratory One.
• Lynn instructed the system to prepare a Genes Mapping Analysis as the elevator descended to the underground laboratory.

Lynn ordered Susan and Natasha to use Stryker’s mutant genetic data and S.H.I.E.L.D. funds to develop a stable enhancement drug and mass-produce a rational, obedient superhuman army. Seeking to strengthen himself against looming threats, he injected Omega-level mutant genetic fluid and triggered a system alarm when it revealed a dangerous fluctuation matching the one from the data disk.

• Natasha told Lynn she had stolen S.H.I.E.L.D.’s offshore funds and recovered genetic maps and medical histories for thousands of mutants.
• Lynn rejected Sabretooth’s unstable healing factor and ordered Susan and Natasha to combine selected mutant traits with the Super-Soldier Serum to create an enhancement drug.
• Natasha began preparing the genetic data while Susan reshaped the laboratory’s equipment into a biological production line.
• Lynn entered his private chamber and decided to use Stryker’s Omega-level genetic fluid to break past his physical limits.
• Lynn poured the fluid into a wound in his wrist and used his chaos-derived ability to assimilate it as his existing serum and spider genes fought back.
• The system warned Lynn that the genetic fluid contained a hidden, violent fluctuation identical to the one he had sensed in the data disk.

Lynn endured a violent clash between the Dark Phoenix imprint, his super-soldier serum, spider genes, and chaos magic, then used the Space Stitching Technique to fuse them into his body. His transformation vastly increased his physical power, but its energy ripple pierced Earth's dimensional barrier and disturbed an ancient seal in Asgard.

• Lynn disabled pain suppression and used the Space Stitching Technique to stitch the Dark Phoenix imprint into his other powers.
• Lynn survived the process and emerged with healed flesh, a transformed left arm, and strength enough to crush the air with his fist.
• Lynn's energy ripple spread through the Baxter Building, and Wanda strengthened her barrier over Manhattan to contain it.
• A trace of Lynn's Dark Phoenix power pierced Earth's dimensional barrier and reached Asgard's Underground Abyss.
• The ripple opened a crack in Odin's ancient seal, and a pair of eyes opened in the darkness.

After absorbing the Dark Phoenix flames, Lynn discovered that his enhanced body had pushed Earth’s spacetime beyond its safe limit. As he prepared to repair a growing fissure, a deathly psychic presence reached through it and targeted him.

• Lynn tested his fused strength by snapping a chunk from a titanium alloy workbench and evaporating water against his overheated skin.
• The Till Death Do Us Part Simulator warned that converging energies had exceeded the universe’s carrying capacity and that Earth’s spacetime barrier was cracking.
• Lynn recognized that Wanda, Susan, Gwen Stacy, and the Dark Phoenix flames had overloaded Earth’s fragile spacetime through their connections to him.
• Lynn prepared to use the Space Stitching Technique to repair a fissure above New York, but a deathly psychic tendril emerged from the abyss beyond it.
• The psychic tendril pierced the Baxter Building’s defenses and locked onto Lynn in the third basement level.

Lynn faced a deathly fissure that connected him to Hela, imprisoned beneath Asgard, and refused to back down as she targeted him. Hela’s assault formed a black crown in the Baxter Building basement, where Lynn prepared to strike back with chaos magic.

• Lynn sensed a deadly presence through a fissure and followed its mental power to Helheim beneath Asgard.
• Hela detected Lynn’s energy and soul, grew enraged at the women whose brands marked him, and rose against Odin’s restraints.
• Hela’s movement triggered Odin’s runes and lightning, but she forced her power through the fissure and declared that Lynn was hers.
• Black ice crystals formed a crown before Lynn as Hela announced that she had found him.
• Lynn reached toward the crown with chaos magic and challenged Hela to withstand his fire.

Lynn crushed the crown linked to Hela and survived her psychic intrusion, but the Asgardian goddess continued to watch and threaten him from afar. The chapter ended with Hela's crown appearing in frost on his mirror.

• Lynn resisted the deathly cold surrounding the crown and crushed it with his bare hand, closing the Spatial Rift.
• The System identified the crown's source as Asgard's Helheim and warned that Hela had placed Lynn under psychic observation.
• Lynn cleaned himself in the Baxter Building's bathroom and felt the immense powers within him respond to his thoughts.
• Hela invaded Lynn's mind, mocked the women around him, and threatened to kill them and chain him beneath her throne.
• Lynn rejected Hela's threats, and her black crown appeared in frost on his bathroom mirror.

Lynn destroyed Hela’s psychic mark with his combined powers, severing her connection to Earth and enraging her into an even stronger desire to possess him. As Hela vowed to reach Midgard when her chains broke, an emergency alert sounded at the Baxter Building.

• Hela sent a psychic mark toward Lynn through the bathroom mirror, but Lynn fused the Dark Phoenix mark, Chaos Magic, and his strength to smash the mirror and sever the connection.
• Lynn healed the cuts on his knuckles, dressed, and decided he would deal with Hela after handling the women on Earth.
• Hela suffered backlash in Helheim, tasted Lynn’s lingering energy, and became more determined to conquer him once Odin’s restraints failed.
• A high-level alert from Natasha’s Intelligence Terminal sounded at the Baxter Building, prompting Gwen, Susan, Wanda, and Lynn to turn toward the underground supercomputing center.

After confronting Hela’s psychic tendril, Lynn ordered Susan and Wanda to seal the Baxter Building and Manhattan against outside detection while Gwen guarded him. Natasha then revealed that Nick Fury had leaked the location of Mjolnir in New Mexico, and Lynn saw the hammer as an opportunity to reach Asgard and pursue Hela.

• Lynn ordered Susan to isolate the Baxter Building and Wanda to reinforce Manhattan’s magical barrier, while Gwen took up a guard position beside him.
• Wanda sensed death energy on Lynn and grew jealous, but she obeyed his command and annihilated the energy traces around the building.
• Natasha arrived with a bleeding wound and told Lynn that Nick Fury had used a security key to spread a secret file across S.H.I.E.L.D.’s dark web.
• Natasha showed Lynn a reconnaissance photo of Mjolnir embedded in a crater in New Mexico, whose location Fury had made public.
• Lynn stopped Gwen from pursuing Fury and considered the hammer a stepping stone toward Asgard and a future hunt for Hela.

Lynn recognized the hammer in Nick Fury’s message as Mjolnir and decided to go to New Mexico despite realizing Fury was trying to lure him out of his defenses. Wanda, Susan, Gwen Stacy, and Natasha all demanded to accompany him, leaving Lynn to decide who would go and who would stay behind.

• Nick Fury sent Lynn an image of Mjolnir, and Lynn recognized it as an overt trap meant to draw him out of New York.
• Lynn decided he needed Mjolnir to study its power and seek resources that could help him face Hela.
• Wanda tried to block Lynn from leaving, while Susan, Gwen Stacy, and Natasha each argued that she should accompany and protect him.
• The four women’s rivalry threatened to tear apart the living room as Lynn weighed whom to take and whom to leave guarding the Baxter Building.

Lynn divided the women between guarding the Baxter Building and accompanying him to New Mexico, where he arrived near Thor’s hammer. The System announced a new Till Death Do Us Part simulation as Lynn prepared for the hunt.

• Lynn ordered Wanda, Susan, and Natasha to protect the building and assigned Gwen Stacy to accompany him as his shadow.
• Susan opened a portal to New Mexico, and Lynn and Gwen traveled through it.
• After Lynn left, Wanda and Susan resumed their hostility while Natasha went to the elevator.
• Lynn arrived in the desert near the hammer, and the System warned that a new simulation would begin.

Lynn began a simulation set during Hela’s rebellion against Odin, entering the battlefield as a low-ranking Asgardian soldier. He deliberately walked through Hela’s deadly sword barrage until she noticed him and demanded to know why he dared look her in the eye.

• Lynn locked onto Hela as his simulation target and told Gwen Stacy to guard his body while he entered the simulation.
• Lynn arrived on a battlefield strewn with dead Valkyries and soldiers as Hela slaughtered Odin’s forces.
• Hela summoned a rain of Night Sky Swords to kill the survivors, and Lynn walked toward her without dodging.
• Hela noticed Lynn’s fearless stare, stopped the swords in midair, and asked what gave him the nerve to look her in the eye.

Lynn defied Hela on the battlefield, provoking her with taunts about Odin and urging her to claim the throne she deserved. Hela became interested in the defiant soldier and prepared to torture him with Death Force.

• Lynn resisted Hela’s supernatural pressure and refused to kneel, claiming that standing gave him the right to meet her gaze.
• Lynn insulted Hela and accused Odin of using her to conquer the Nine Realms before discarding her and imprisoning her in the Abyss.
• When Hela pressed a Night Sky Sword to his throat, Lynn seized the blade and praised her as Asgard’s rightful ruler.
• Hela laughed at Lynn’s audacity, then dismissed her sword and said he had earned her interest by angering her.
• Hela gathered Death Force at her fingertip and moved to press it into Lynn’s chest, promising to torture him.

Lynn endured Hela’s Death Force in a brutal test, taunting her and forcing her to drive it deeper until she gained a twisted admiration for him. While Lynn remained unconscious beside Mjolnir in New Mexico, Gwen detected Coulson’s approaching S.H.I.E.L.D. team and moved to intercept them.

• Hela pierced Lynn’s chest with Death Force, but Lynn disabled his pain suppression and endured the agony without kneeling.
• Lynn taunted Hela, seized her wrist, and forced her to push the lethal energy toward his heart as he challenged her to kill or be conquered.
• Hela’s contempt shifted to perverse admiration, and she grasped Lynn’s wrist after licking his blood from her cheek.
• In the New Mexico desert, Gwen sensed danger approaching Lynn and spotted three unmarked S.H.I.E.L.D. SUVs closing on the crater.
• Gwen charged her daggers with bioelectricity and slipped into the darkness to hunt Coulson’s task force.