Chapter Summaries

After Kang threatened the Negative Zone’s finances, Wanda analyzed the trace he left behind and found evidence that the Council of Kangs was divided and that his actions were likely unauthorized. She detected a separate, faint signal from another faction reaching toward Earth and recommended continued monitoring.

• Lynn asked Hela, Gwen Stacy, and Wanda for their thoughts on Kang’s threat, and Wanda proposed reverse-engineering his communications band.
• Lynn authorized Wanda to prioritize the Technology Integration Department’s computing resources and produce a technical analysis report.
• Wanda used the Chaos Furnace to analyze Kang’s communications band and discovered conflicting encryption logic that indicated divisions within the Council of Kangs.
• Wanda’s report concluded that Kang’s actions against the Negative Zone were more than ninety-five percent likely to be unauthorized overreach by one individual.
• Wanda detected a second, faint contact signal using council-consensus encryption and added a recommendation to monitor it.

Hela secretly ordered the Undead First Assault Squad to interrogate the detainees at 14-B Subway Station, but Lynn exposed her disobedience and suspended her authority over external military operations. As Hela left the meeting in fury, Jean Grey stopped her and offered her a document envelope.

• Hela ordered the Undead First Assault Squad to bypass the Liaison Office's perimeter and physically interrogate the detainees at 14-B Subway Station.
• Lynn summoned the Negative Zone Standing Committee and confronted Hela with her unauthorized operational order.
• Hela defended the order as a high-pressure psychological intervention, but Lynn revealed that the squad had already infiltrated the station.
• Lynn denied the operation, ordered the squad to hold for the Liaison Office, and temporarily suspended Hela's authority over external military operations.
• Hela left the hall in anger, and Jean Grey stopped her in the corridor and held out a document envelope.

Kang severed the Negative Zone’s official energy and communication links to the Reality Dimension, leaving it trapped and facing a rapid depletion of supplies. Lynn ordered strict wartime rationing and conservation, then uncovered a hidden red telephone and dialed a secret number.

• Wanda reported that higher-level permissions had blocked all official energy interfaces, while Gwen Stacy confirmed that the Negative Zone had lost contact with the outside world.
• Hela urged an attack on Kang, but Wanda explained that the severed Reality Anchors had disabled their stargates and jump engines.
• Lynn ordered Wanda to cut noncombat energy use, Hela to withdraw defenses and put most of the Undead Legion into dormancy, and Gwen Stacy to inventory supplies and impose rationing.
• Lynn required every department head to assess how long they could operate without outside supplies, then dismissed them to carry out his orders.
• Lynn opened a hidden compartment in the White Bone Hall, found an old red telephone, and dialed a secret number.

Lynn arranged a three-month security contract with the remnants of S.H.I.E.L.D. in exchange for supplies, then tasked Jean Grey with moving them through the mutant underground network. After the deliveries stabilized the Negative Zone, Jean reported that Roxxon planned to redevelop Queens and demolish Abandoned Subway Station 14-B.

• Lynn secured a deal with a S.H.I.E.L.D. contact to provide supplies in exchange for nighttime supernatural security in New York City.
• Lynn ordered Jean Grey to use the Mutants Management Committee’s underground network to transport supplies into the Negative Zone.
• Jean coordinated deliveries of food, water, medical supplies, energy cells, weapons, and ammunition, easing the crisis across the Negative Zone.
• At the committee meeting, Hela and Wanda recognized Jean’s role in restoring the organization’s supply lines.
• Jean gave Lynn the final shipment list and relayed Fury’s warning that Roxxon was pressuring officials to demolish Abandoned Subway Station 14-B.

Lynn responded to Kang's threatened demolition of the subway station by directing Gwen Stacy to anonymously alert Kang's rival factions to his procedural violations and attempted seizure of council assets. Gwen sent the dossier, and an unknown recipient confirmed it had been received.

• Lynn ordered Gwen Stacy to use the intercepted communications band to send Kang's rivals an anonymous dossier about his actions in Test Zone 616.
• Gwen rewrote the technical report as a politically useful account of unauthorized deployments and threatened losses to the Council of Kangs' collective assets.
• Gwen simulated the dossier's likely effects, then sent it through the encrypted communications port.
• An unknown recipient replied, "Dossier received. Well done."

After the Negative Zone’s power was restored, Gwen Stacy reported that the Multiverse Coordination Committee had withdrawn its restrictions and agreed to consultations, giving Lynn a provisional victory. As Lynn authorized the Liaison Office to handle negotiations, an emergency alarm announced a crisis at Abandoned Subway Station 14-B.

• The Negative Zone’s energy connection was restored, and the Multiverse Coordination Committee sent a revised letter.
• Gwen Stacy reported that the committee regretted its inspection group’s conduct, accepted the provisional legality of the group’s detention, and revoked restrictions on the Negative Zone.
• Lynn agreed to friendly consultations and gave the Cross-Dimensional and Special Threat Liaison Office authority over the details.
• A highest-priority emergency report came from the detention site at Abandoned Subway Station 14-B, but the report was cut off before it revealed what had happened to the detained subject.

Lynn and his companions investigated B-15’s unexplained death in a sealed holding cell and found a coded message naming Battleworld. Gwen Stacy recognized the encryption as her father’s, leaving the group with a new and personal connection to the mystery.

• Lynn, Wanda, Gwen Stacy, and Hela rushed to the holding cell after the Undead Centurion reported that B-15 had died by self-termination.
• Lynn’s group found B-15 dead in an intact sealed room, and Hela confirmed his soul had been completely annihilated.
• Wanda detected scratches beneath B-15’s hand and deciphered their outermost layer as the word “Battleworld.”
• Gwen Stacy recognized the code’s encryption habits as her father’s.

Lynn rejected Hela’s attempt to remove Gwen Stacy from the investigation, assigning the Liaison Office twelve hours to produce preliminary results on the Battleworld code. As Gwen resumed decrypting it, she remembered her missing father’s instructions to find a file about the Tahiti project in a Queens police archive.

• Gwen Stacy said the code’s encryption resembled her father’s personal habits, and Hela used the connection to propose Gwen recuse herself from the investigation.
• Lynn blamed the Stability Maintenance Office for B-15’s death and argued that removing Gwen would hinder the effort to decrypt the Battleworld code.
• Wanda said Gwen’s familiarity with the encryption logic was necessary, and Lynn ordered the Liaison Office to lead the decryption with the Department of Technology’s support.
• Lynn required preliminary results within twelve hours, ordered Hela to submit a self-criticism report, and told Gwen to set aside her personal emotions and solve the case.
• Gwen returned to the code and recalled her father telling her to find the file about the Tahiti project in the metal cabinet marked L-74 at the old Queens Police Department archives.

Lynn secured temporary access to sealed files so Gwen Stacy could investigate the code and her father’s history. The records suggested George Stacy’s death had not been an ordinary accident, but the key details of his secondment order were missing.

• Gwen Stacy asked for an isolated environment and sealed S.H.I.E.L.D. and New York Police Department files, especially cases handled by her father.
• Lynn called Nick Fury, who warned that George Stacy may have been made into an accident by a secret department and opened a one-time access port.
• Gwen Stacy heard Fury’s warning and learned that her father’s death might not have been accidental.
• Gwen Stacy searched the archives and found a top-secret file on Project T.A.H.I.T.I. that listed George Stacy as an external security consultant.
• Gwen Stacy found George Stacy’s secondment order, but its requesting department and reason had been deliberately torn away.

Wanda demanded the Liaison Office’s raw TVA communications data so she could decrypt the code from B-15’s corpse, but Gwen Stacy blocked the transfer by citing interdepartmental security regulations. Their standoff was interrupted when the code revealed a twenty-four-hour countdown to the Systemic Purification Program.

• Wanda told Gwen that she needed a dictionary to interpret the encrypted code and demanded all TVA communications frequencies and raw data logs held by the Liaison Office.
• Gwen offered to provide targeted, sanitized data packages instead of transferring the raw intelligence.
• Wanda accused Gwen of using procedure to delay a top-level directive, but Gwen invoked regulations that prohibited direct transfers of raw intelligence rated class A or above.
• Wanda and Gwen reached a stalemate as each considered how to advance their position.
• A technician alerted Wanda and Gwen when the code reassembled and displayed a twenty-four-hour countdown to the Systemic Purification Program.

Lynn confronted Gwen Stacy about her shaken state, then gave her the highest-access key and the choice to continue decoding the encrypted code. Gwen used the authorization to uncover the code’s links to S.P.E.A.R. and Battleworld, and decoded it just before the countdown ended, revealing coordinates in Manhattan.

• Gwen Stacy told Lynn that Wanda’s request for raw TVA communications data had been rejected and that the encrypted code had started a countdown of twenty-three hours and forty-one minutes.
• Lynn pointed out Gwen’s panic and offered her the choice of resting while Wanda took over or using a black key to access restricted files and decode the code herself.
• Gwen took the key and used it in the Liaison Office’s Independent Analysis Room to unlock the highest-access archives.
• Gwen found records connecting Project T.A.H.I.T.I. to S.P.E.A.R. and revealing that her father had participated in a S.P.E.A.R. prototype called Battleworld.
• With three seconds left on the countdown, Gwen decoded the code and discovered that it contained precise physical coordinates in Manhattan.

Lynn ordered Hela to quietly seal off a Manhattan location using a municipal fire safety exercise, without entering the building. At the cordoned-off Community Library, Hela discovered an underground shield whose energy signature matched the self-destruct program that had killed B-15.

• Lynn asked Hela how many mobile forces the Stability Maintenance Office could deploy in New York and sent her the Manhattan coordinates.
• Lynn ordered Hela to secure the target without alerting it, using a fire safety exercise coordinated with the New York Mayor's Office as cover.
• Hela led the operation personally, sealing off three blocks around the Community Library with personnel disguised as police officers and firefighters.
• An Undead Centurion reported that probes detected a high-intensity shield underground that defined them as nonexistent.
• Hela recognized the shield's energy signature as identical to the self-destruct program inside B-15.

Lynn received an invitation from a faction opposing Kang to discuss the Battleworld project and chose to use the contact to gain leverage rather than wait. He ordered Gwen to send a cautious reply with reports about B-15’s death, then learned the proposed meeting site was the sealed Manhattan community library.

• Lynn reviewed Hela’s report that an unanalysable energy shield beneath the library matched B-15’s self-destruction signature and rejected her recommendation for a forced entry.
• Lynn recognized the Multiverse Coordination Committee’s anonymous invitation as a plea for help from Kang’s political enemies, who wanted him to expose the unauthorized Battleworld project.
• Gwen warned Lynn that the invitation could be a trap and recommended waiting, but Lynn argued that their difficult position required seizing the opportunity to divide their opponents.
• Lynn told Gwen to accept a preliminary information exchange and attach the investigation report on B-15’s death and the Stability Maintenance Office’s dereliction notice.
• Gwen confirmed that the proposed meeting location was the community library that Lynn’s forces had sealed off.

Lynn arranged a restrained security plan for a meeting at the Manhattan Community Library, assigning Gwen to record it and Jean to guard against psychic interference while Hela and Wanda monitored the perimeter. At the meeting, Gwen recognized the representative’s pocket watch as identical to the one her father wore when he disappeared.

• Lynn rejected Hela’s plan to breach the library and Wanda’s proposal to join the meeting, choosing a low-profile approach.
• Lynn assigned Gwen to coordinate and record the meeting, Jean to maintain psychic shielding, Hela to lock down the library area, and Wanda to monitor energy activity from a command post.
• Lynn, Gwen, and Jean entered the library basement and met a suited representative seated at a tea table.
• Gwen noticed that the representative wore a pocket watch matching her missing father’s watch.

Lynn used the investigation into B-15’s death and her link to the Battleworld project to reject the representative’s empty offer and press for answers. The representative handed over five of Kang’s Earth anchor points, including Krakoa, leaving Lynn with a new target tied to Jean Grey’s Mutants Management Committee.

• The representative offered to rescind the wanted notice against Lynn’s organization and restore its seat in the Multiverse coordination mechanism.
• Lynn had Gwen Stacy record the discussion and argued that B-15’s death at his detention site required a formal investigation.
• Lynn connected B-15’s final code to the representative’s Battleworld project and insisted he could not let the matter go without an explanation.
• The representative offered substantive assistance and revealed five Earth anchor points Kang planned to activate for Battleworld.
• Lynn noticed that the final location on the list was Krakoa, the sanctuary of Jean Grey’s Mutants Management Committee.

Jean Grey found that the TVA anchor on Krakoa was attached to Erik Lehnsherr, also known as Magneto, leaving her with a dangerous political crisis. With only twenty-four hours before Hela’s forces intervened, Jean faced the prospect that arresting Magneto could ignite civil war.

• Hela proposed a military assault on Krakoa, while Wanda offered to locate the anchor by accessing its private data; Jean warned that both approaches risked unrest and overreach.
• Gwen Stacy proposed an internal investigation led by the Management Committee, with Hela and Wanda’s departments on standby, and Lynn approved her plan.
• Lynn gave Jean twenty-four hours to locate and remove the anchor before Hela’s Stability Maintenance Office moved in.
• Jean searched Krakoa’s records and used a psychic resonance test to identify the anchor’s host as Erik Lehnsherr, Magneto.
• Jean realized that arresting Magneto could provoke civil war, then heard the secure telephone ring in the data center.

Lynn rejected Hela’s forceful plan, Wanda’s risky technical approach, and Jean Grey’s inaction, then used a routine medical examination to lure Magneto away from Krakoa. The operation appeared to succeed until Magneto vanished from the medical vehicle, leaving a Battleworld card behind.

• Jean Grey identified Erik Lehnsherr, also known as Magneto, and advised postponing action to avoid provoking civil war on Krakoa.
• Hela proposed killing Magneto and using the resulting conflict to purge Krakoa, while Wanda suggested suppressing his powers through a technical operation.
• Lynn rejected both proposals and Jean Grey’s preference for inaction, then ordered an official medical examination for Krakoa’s standing council members as a covert way to isolate Magneto.
• Jean Grey issued the notice, Magneto agreed to cooperate, and a Stability Maintenance Office convoy escorted him from Krakoa in a medical vehicle.
• The White Bone Hall received an alarm when Magneto disappeared from the vehicle without signs of struggle, and Gwen Stacy saw a Battleworld card left on the empty seat.

Lynn reclassified the transport disappearance as an attack by hostile foreign forces, defusing the growing dispute between Hela and Jean Grey and directing the departments toward retaliation. The conflict reached the Management Committee building when Brotherhood of Mutants representatives broke through security and demanded to question Jean Grey.

• Hela accepted responsibility for the failed escort mission but blamed the Mutants Management Committee's planning and rejected backup-route recommendations.
• Jean Grey argued that the plan had been approved collectively, while Hela pressed her for an explanation and Wanda and Gwen Stacy watched.
• Lynn ended the meeting and classified the disappearance as an organized kidnapping and sabotage by illegal foreign forces.
• Lynn postponed internal accountability until the missing person was recovered and ordered all departments to focus on striking back.
• A communications officer reported that Brotherhood of Mutants representatives had breached the outer security perimeter and demanded to question Jean Grey face-to-face.

Jean Grey defused the Brotherhood's demand for answers about Erik by presenting evidence that the TVA had taken him and recruiting Brotherhood members into a joint rescue investigation. A report from Wanda then suggested the card's teleportation followed an old interdimensional extradition treaty.

• Torch confronted Jean Grey and demanded to know where Erik was, accusing the Management Committee of failing to protect him.
• Jean Grey showed the Brotherhood surveillance footage and a replica of the Battleworld card, linking Erik's disappearance to the organization that had tried to prune their timeline.
• Jean Grey announced a special joint investigation team and authorized the Brotherhood to send three members to gather leads and prepare a rescue.
• Torch agreed to provide members for the investigation and left with his companions.
• Jean Grey received an encrypted preliminary analysis from Wanda stating that the card's teleportation closely matched provisions of Interdimensional Extradition Treaty No. 7.

Wanda reported that Erik-Magneto had been taken through an old treaty’s emergency extradition procedure, leaving the Negative Zone vulnerable to political and legal isolation if it retaliated by force. Lynn banned military action and ordered a legal counterattack, while the Multiversal Coordination Committee declined to act on the dispute.

• Wanda told Lynn that the Battleworld card matched an old S.H.I.E.L.D. treaty allowing the compliant extradition of high-risk variants, and that the treaty might still carry legal force.
• Gwen Stacy warned that using force could make the Negative Zone appear to violate multiversal rules, and Hela reluctantly accepted Lynn’s ban on military action.
• Lynn ordered Wanda’s department to analyze every detail of the treaty and tasked Gwen with forming a legal team to find grounds to invalidate it.
• Gwen received the Multiversal Coordination Committee’s reply, which acknowledged procedural defects but said the legacy project was outside its jurisdiction.