Chapter Summaries

Lynn turned the Earth-838 Wanda from a potential threat into a supervised associate researcher at a new Chaos Energy Research Institute. Just after the appointment passed, an alert revealed that an unknown force was erasing her vital signs on a conceptual level.

• Wanda and Hela recommended destroying or banishing the Earth-838 sample, while the sample said she would do whatever Lynn wanted.
• Lynn proposed creating the Multiverse Chaos Energy Research Institute and appointing the sample as a supervised associate researcher with no independent authority.
• Hela and Gwen supported the appointment, and Wanda agreed to set the research assessment standards.
• Lynn signed the appointment, making the Earth-838 sample a probationary associate researcher.
• A technician reported that an unknown force was remotely erasing the sample's vital signs, and her body began turning transparent as the Illuminati's backdoor program activated.

An Illuminati attack from Earth-838 began erasing Wanda-838, an employee of the Negative Zone Management Committee, during a meeting. Lynn ordered the attack meticulously recorded as evidence of a severe cross-dimensional treaty violation, while Wanda warned that the woman had only minutes left before complete erasure.

• A technician reported that Wanda-838 was disintegrating under a conceptual attack triggered remotely through a backdoor in her structure.
• Wanda identified Earth-838 as the attack's source and recommended isolating the target, while Hela prepared to act.
• Lynn ordered the alarm shut off and declared that the Illuminati had violated their agreement by attacking an officially appointed employee without notice or handover.
• Lynn directed Gwen Stacy to preserve comprehensive, encrypted evidence of the attack and Wanda-838's deterioration.
• Wanda reported that Wanda-838's structure had disintegrated by more than seventy percent and that she would be erased within three minutes.

Lynn used an emergency asylum order to authorize the Negative Zone’s systems to sever the Illuminati’s remote erasure link and save Wanda-838. Afterward, Wanda, the minister of technology, confronted Lynn about where the newcomer would sleep.

• Lynn ordered Gwen Stacy to draft an urgent document granting Scarlet humanitarian asylum and registering her as a protected strategic asset.
• Lynn signed the document, and Gwen Stacy archived and issued it to the Management Committee’s departments.
• The document activated Chaos Energy and Jean Grey’s Phoenix Force, which traced the attack to the Illuminati and severed its remote command link.
• Wanda-838 recovered from the erasure attempt, and Gwen Stacy saved the intervention data as an emergency report for Asset K-01.
• Half an hour later, Wanda, the minister of technology, entered Lynn’s office and asked where Wanda-838 would sleep that night.

Lynn defused Wanda’s concern by affirming her place in the Management Committee, then laid out strict rules for Wanda-838’s probationary role. After reviewing the costs of protecting her from the Illuminati’s erasure attempt, he ordered Gwen Stacy to send Earth-838 a bill.

• Lynn redirected Department Head Wanda’s personal question toward her responsibilities and reassured her that the Technology Integration Department would remain hers.
• Lynn summoned Wanda-838, forbade her from kneeling, and explained that she was a probationary Associate Researcher whose survival depended on following the organization’s rules.
• Wanda-838 accepted her position and left the office after Lynn warned that the Management Committee could dispose of her asset status if she failed to comply.
• Lynn reviewed Gwen Stacy’s recording of the Illuminati’s attempt to erase Wanda-838 and examined the damage assessment of the intervention.
• Lynn called Gwen Stacy and ordered her to send the Illuminati of Earth-838 a diplomatic note demanding payment.

Lynn ordered Gwen Stacy to send the Earth-838 Illuminati a formal claim demanding three trillion standard energy units for ecological damage and disruption caused by their attempted cross-dimensional release. After sending the letter as a pretext to escalate the conflict and involve other forces, Lynn summoned Ravonna Renslayer to review a document.

• Lynn reviewed the report on Wanda-838's condition and the costs of the emergency response.
• Lynn instructed Gwen Stacy to draft a stern diplomatic note accusing the Earth-838 Illuminati of violating interdimensional biosafety regulations and demanding three trillion standard energy units within forty-eight hours.
• Gwen Stacy prepared a detailed itemized claim, and Lynn approved and sent the letter.
• Lynn regarded the claim as a pretext to provoke the Illuminati and draw other forces into the conflict.
• Lynn called Ravonna Renslayer and asked her to come review a document in person.

Lynn used Ravonna to involve the TVA in the dispute with Earth-838, then received Wanda-838’s request to become his personal security advisor. Hela and Wanda saw the request together, and their hostile reactions left a new conflict brewing in Lynn’s office.

• Lynn summoned Ravonna and showed her the Management Committee’s formal claim against Earth-838, demanding three trillion in ecological restoration costs.
• Lynn instructed Ravonna to submit an independent report to the TVA Discipline and Inspection Commission describing the Illuminati’s actions as a serious cross-dimensional security incident.
• Ravonna agreed to file the report and left Lynn’s office, understanding that it would draw the TVA into the dispute.
• Lynn received Wanda-838’s application to serve as his twenty-four-hour personal security advisor but did not approve or reject it.
• Hela and Wanda entered together, saw Wanda-838’s application, and reacted with ominous surges of energy.

Lynn deflected Hela and Wanda’s dispute over Asset K-01’s application to become his personal security advisor by ordering a joint political and technical assessment. Hela and Wanda left with the task of agreeing on evaluation criteria, while the appointment remained undecided.

• Hela and Wanda confronted Lynn after seeing Asset K-01’s application for the Director’s personal security advisor position.
• Lynn acknowledged the applicant’s questionable background and assigned the Stability Maintenance Office to conduct the political vetting.
• Lynn tasked Wanda’s Department of Technology with testing the applicant’s abilities, stability, obedience, and judgment.
• Lynn required both departments to submit a jointly signed assessment report before he would consider making the appointment.
• Hela took the application and told Wanda they needed to discuss the assessment criteria immediately.

Hela and Wanda jointly devised an impossibly harsh assessment plan for Wanda-838, but Lynn approved it while ordering the Management Committee to provide her the best support. Wanda-838 passed the tests with astonishing results, intensifying Wanda’s rivalry, just as Gwen arrived with an urgent TVA response about Ravonna.

• Hela and Wanda drafted severe political and technical assessments for Wanda-838, and Lynn approved the plan while promising her full logistical support.
• Three days later, Wanda-838 had passed every test and delivered a Negative Zone defense proposal that could improve efficiency by over 30%.
• Wanda ordered her department to review and stress-test the proposal, accelerated the Singularity Barrier project, and plunged the Technology Integration Department into overtime.
• Gwen Stacy rushed into Lynn’s office and announced that the TVA Commission for Discipline Inspection had sent an expedited, top-secret response concerning Ravonna.

After the TVA Commission for Discipline Inspection opened an inquiry into Earth-838, Lynn used the investigation’s rules to request attendance and independent evidence-submission rights for the Negative Zone Management Committee. Cornered by the inquiry and Lynn’s compensation demand, Reed ordered Susan to infiltrate the Negative Zone and find Lynn’s weakness before the hearing.

• Gwen told Lynn that the TVA Commission for Discipline Inspection had sent Earth-838 a formal inquiry and required the Negative Zone Management Committee to cooperate with evidence collection.
• Lynn instructed Gwen to formally request permission for his office to attend the investigation and submit supplementary evidence independently.
• At Illuminati headquarters, Reed and the others reviewed Lynn’s three-trillion-unit compensation demand and the TVA inquiry; Peggy Carter warned that the investigation could freeze their routes and resources.
• Reed decided to send Susan into the Negative Zone with a quantum cloaking device to investigate Lynn and uncover a weakness before the TVA hearing.

Facing the TVA inquiry and Lynn’s compensation demand, Reed ordered Susan Storm to infiltrate the Negative Zone and gather intelligence for the Illuminati. Susan crossed into the Management Committee’s jurisdiction undetected until her wrist terminal warned that her coordinates had been conceptually locked.

• Mordo called Lynn’s demand and the TVA’s inquiry humiliating, while Peggy Carter warned that the investigation could freeze the Illuminati’s routes and resources.
• Reed dismissed the compensation demand and said the Illuminati needed intelligence before the TVA hearing.
• Reed assigned Susan an unauthorized mission to infiltrate the Negative Zone using a quantum cloaking device and learn about Lynn and his command center.
• Susan accepted the mission, then used the cloaking device to cross the jurisdictional boundary and evade a patrolling undead fighter.
• After entering the Negative Zone and moving among its buildings and energy conduits, Susan’s terminal displayed a warning that her coordinates had been anchored.

Lynn used the Border Defense Network to detect Susan Storm’s covert entry and ordered the Stability Maintenance Office to lure her into the Delta-9 isolation zone while recording her actions as evidence. With Susan trapped and unaware she had been detected, Lynn planted a file about the Illuminati’s secret agreement with the TVA on a terminal in her path.

• The Border Defense Network detected an invisible intruder, and Lynn identified the target as evidence the Illuminati had sent into the Negative Zone.
• Lynn ordered Hela and the Stability Maintenance Office to lure the intruder into the Delta-9 isolation zone while the Department of Technology recorded everything.
• Susan Storm evaded the patrols and entered an apparently empty backup passage, believing she had found a safe route toward the central area.
• The surveillance system tracked Susan into Delta-9, and the technicians sealed the outer passages and activated the trap.
• Lynn ordered a file about the Illuminati’s early secret agreement with the TVA uploaded to Storage Station Four, where its title appeared on the terminal.

Susan Storm read a dossier detailing the Illuminati’s secret bargains with the TVA and surrendered to Gwen Stacy’s officers after her faith in Reed and the group collapsed. Meanwhile, Mordo entered the TVA’s Cross-Dimensional Supreme Court expecting the hearing to be a formality.

• Susan opened a dossier in the quarantine zone documenting the Illuminati’s agreements with the TVA, including the exchange of mutant data and abandoned populations for favors and resources.
• Susan discovered that Ke'er’s three-hundred-billion energy debt funded payments tied to TVA timeline purges, and she questioned the motives behind Reed’s mission.
• Gwen Stacy and a squad of officers arrested Susan for unlawful intrusion and theft of classified information.
• Susan deactivated her Quantum Cloaking Device and allowed the officers to place energy shackles on her wrists.
• Mordo entered the Cross-Dimensional Supreme Court, confident that the Illuminati’s memorandum and reputation would make the hearing a formality.

At the TVA court hearing, Gwen presented evidence that Earth-838’s Illuminati had attacked the Negative Zone, attempted a targeted execution, and sent Susan Storm to infiltrate a quarantine zone. As the judge established a preliminary case against the Illuminati, Mordo invoked their Final Judgment procedure and began gathering magical power, while Lynn rose from the gallery.

• Mordo argued that the Illuminati’s actions were lawful preventive monitoring and called the Negative Zone’s compensation demand extortion.
• Gwen submitted an audited damage report showing losses of three trillion seventy-two billion one hundred million standard energy units.
• Gwen presented energy analysis matching the attack to the Illuminati’s Erasure Directive and footage of Susan Storm’s illegal infiltration and arrest.
• The presiding judge ordered the evidence archived and established a preliminary case against the Illuminati for contempt of court and obstruction of justice.
• Mordo objected, invoked the Illuminati’s Final Judgment procedure, and began gathering magical energy as Lynn rose from his seat.

Lynn’s statement persuaded the TVA court to uphold the charges against the Illuminati of Earth-838 and order severe penalties, including three trillion standard energy units in ecological compensation. The first payment reached the Negative Zone, but the Illuminati then demanded that Lynn’s committee extradite Susan Storm.

• Lynn argued that the Illuminati’s actions threatened the TVA’s authority and the multiverse’s legal order.
• The Presiding Judge upheld the charges and ordered the Illuminati to pay three trillion standard energy units, froze its Class A and higher cross-dimension routes, and placed Mordo and Susan Storm in TVA custody.
• TVA enforcement transferred the first trillion standard energy units to the Negative Zone Management Committee’s public account.
• Gwen Stacy brought Lynn an official letter in which the Illuminati acknowledged the judgment but demanded Susan Storm’s immediate, unconditional extradition.

Lynn used administrative procedures to delay Susan Storm’s extradition to the Illuminati and arranged for her to meet Wanda-838. After learning how the Illuminati had betrayed them both, Susan shared intelligence and applied to remain with the Negative Zone Management Committee for observation.

• Lynn told Gwen Stacy to agree to Susan Storm’s extradition while classifying her for administrative detention review and setting bail based on the Illuminati’s compensation payment.
• Lynn asked Gwen to arrange a meeting between Susan and Wanda-838.
• Wanda-838 told Susan how the Illuminati had manipulated her and that Reed Richards had ordered her destruction, breaking Susan’s remaining trust in them.
• Susan volunteered intelligence about the Illuminati’s structure, technologies, and Reed Richards’s private laboratories.
• Susan visited Lynn and submitted an application to remain with the Negative Zone Management Committee for observation.

Lynn accepted Susan Storm as an External Observer and ordered a major upgrade to the Negative Zone’s defenses. As the Management Committee’s power grew, a scroll bearing the Living Tribunal’s emblem appeared in his office after reality fell silent.

• Lynn reviewed Susan Storm’s application and the intelligence she had provided about the Illuminati and Reed Richards’s laboratories.
• Lynn ordered Gwen Stacy to appoint Susan an External Observer and lead a task force analyzing Earth-838 records under dual review by the Liaison Office and Cross-Dimension Coordination Office.
• Lynn allocated TVA compensation to Susan’s task force and signed an order to upgrade the Conceptual Defense Array across the Management Committee’s territory.
• Wanda-838’s institute worked around the clock on the defense upgrades while Hela’s Undead Fleet sealed the routes out of the Negative Zone.
• Lynn sensed an impossible silence, then found a golden scroll bearing the Living Tribunal’s emblem hovering over his desk.

A golden scroll bearing the Living Tribunal’s seal appeared in Lynn’s office, and he ordered Gwen Stacy to contain it as an unknown high-risk item rather than engage with it. After the scroll was sealed inside a No. 7 Lead-Mercury Shielding Box, the equity face on its emblem flashed and a countdown began inside.

• Lynn identified the golden scroll’s seal as the emblem of the Living Tribunal and summoned Gwen Stacy.
• Lynn classified the scroll as a top-secret item of unknown origin and ordered Gwen Stacy to carry out the Class A physical isolation and receipt procedure.
• Gwen Stacy obtained authorization and directed technicians to place the scroll in a No. 7 Lead-Mercury Shielding Box.
• The technicians sealed the box, and Gwen Stacy activated its cold-treatment procedure.
• The equity face on the box’s emblem flashed, and a ticking countdown sounded from within.

Lynn had the countdown summons analyzed and treated it as a routine inquiry with incomplete procedures, replying that he could not attend and requesting more details. Wanda then found that the summons’s coordinates were logically connected to the core database of the seized Illuminati Earth-838 Project Insight spacecraft.

• Lynn ordered the summons sealed and analyzed under the Management Committee’s highest-level alert procedures.
• The Technology Integration Department determined that the countdown was a conceptual deterrent and that the document summoned Lynn to the Omniverse Hub to answer questions about anomalous dimensional disturbances.
• Lynn identified missing information about the grounds and parties involved, then told Gwen Stacy to classify the summons as routine correspondence and request a postponement or representative along with case details.
• Wanda reported that the summons’s coordinates were not the same location as the seized Earth-838 Project Insight spacecraft’s coordinates, but shared the same underlying source.

Lynn rejected Hela’s and Wanda’s proposals to destroy the Omniverse Hub or erase the Golden Scroll, and set a measured, procedural response to the Living Tribunal’s inquiry. After ordering new defensive measures, he learned from Ravonna that the TVA had classified its Golden Scroll discussions at the highest level and that He Who Remains was concerned.

• Hela proposed that the Stability Maintenance Office erase the Omniverse Hub, while Wanda offered to destroy the Golden Scroll with Chaos Magic.
• Lynn criticized both proposals for lacking adequate risk assessments and established a lawful, measured policy for responding to the inquiry.
• Lynn directed Gwen Stacy to request a postponement and supplementary materials from the Living Tribunal.
• Lynn ordered Hela to activate level-one border controls and Wanda to mask energy signatures and prioritize the S.H.I.E.L.D. Protocol upgrade.
• After the meeting, Ravonna told Lynn that the TVA had classified its Golden Scroll discussions and that He Who Remains was highly concerned.

Lynn turned the TVA from a neutral observer into a party jointly responsible for the Living Tribunal’s inquiry by ordering an official liability letter. As Ravonna hurried to report the news, Susan Storm contacted Lynn with a possible precedent from the Illuminati’s archives.

• Lynn rejected Ravonna’s attempt to gauge whether he would seek support from He Who Remains and called Gwen to draft an official letter to the TVA.
• Lynn ordered the letter to cite the TVA’s memorandum on the Negative Zone and argue that TVA pruning had caused the anomalous disturbances under investigation.
• Lynn demanded that the TVA join a working group and cover at least seventy percent of the costs and potential penalties.
• Lynn told Ravonna to relay the letter as part of her duty, forcing the Coordination Office adviser to leave and report the matter to TVA leadership.
• Gwen informed Lynn that Susan Storm had found a potentially useful precedent in Earth-838’s old Illuminati archives and requested an urgent meeting.