Chapter Summaries

Lynn ordered Wanda, Gwen Stacy, and Susan to kill every mutant in the ruins, turning Stryker’s assault into a brutal execution. Toad transmitted the slaughter’s final images before Gwen killed him, leaving William Stryker to discover the deadly power Lynn commanded.

• Lynn ordered Wanda, Gwen Stacy, and Susan to leave no mutants alive, promising the top-floor spot to whoever killed the most.
• Susan trapped the fleeing mutants inside an expanding force field while Gwen electrocuted Arclight and Wanda erased three escapees with Chaos Magic.
• Susan crushed the remaining mutants under the contracting force field while carefully keeping blood off Lynn’s coat.
• Toad escaped into a sewer and tried to send footage to Stryker, but Gwen caught and killed him before noticing his transmitter had sent images.
• William Stryker watched the footage of the massacre beneath the Pentagon and saw Lynn standing with the three powerful women.

After a brutal battle, Lynn used spatial stitching to save the mortally wounded Natasha, who clung to him even while unconscious. Her desperate grip provoked Wanda, Susan, and Gwen Stacy, whose murderous powers and weapons turned toward them.

• Lynn found Natasha impaled and near death in the ruins, and she begged him to let her die after failing to defend his territory.
• Lynn ordered Natasha to stay alive and used his force field and Space Stitching Technique to reconstruct her destroyed organs and close her wound.
• Natasha screamed and convulsed from the pain as Lynn held her down and completed the repair.
• As she lost consciousness, Natasha grabbed Lynn's wrist and pressed her cheek against his hand.
• Wanda unleashed a pillar of scarlet magic, Susan sent water surging outward, and Gwen Stacy drew electrified web daggers as all three focused on Lynn and Natasha.

Lynn confronted Natasha after saving her from fatal injuries, and she confessed that failing to protect his territory made her feel unworthy of living. He claimed ownership of her life and forbade her to die without his permission, leaving Wanda, Susan, and Gwen poised to attack her in a jealous frenzy.

• Natasha clung to Lynn and blamed herself for failing to protect his territory, saying he should have let her die.
• Lynn seized Natasha and told her that her life and soul belonged to him, forbidding her to die unless he ordered it.
• Natasha accepted Lynn's claim and became fiercely devoted to him.
• Lynn wiped blood from Natasha's mouth, provoking Wanda, Susan, and Gwen to unleash their powers and threaten her.

Lynn stopped Wanda and Susan from attacking the wounded Natasha, then learned that Stryker and Weapon X were behind the mutant attacks. As the group headed back to the Baxter Building with Natasha, Stryker panicked and ordered the Sentry prototype activated.

• Wanda and Susan tried to kill Natasha out of jealousy, but Lynn’s power stopped them and warned them not to touch her without permission.
• Gwen Stacy gave Lynn a bloodied chip marked Weapon X, revealing Stryker’s role in the attacks.
• Lynn sent Gwen away with the chip and ordered Natasha taken back; Susan created a sterile force-field bed and earned Lynn’s praise.
• Natasha, watching Susan’s obsession with Lynn, resolved to become more useful as the group traveled toward Manhattan.
• At the Pentagon’s underground black prison, Stryker saw footage of Lynn crushing Sabretooth’s claws and ordered the Sentry prototype activated.

Lynn ordered Susan to transport the wounded Natasha and then had Wanda extract information from Sabretooth’s memories. As Wanda began the painful memory extraction, the fragments revealed Stryker’s Underground Black Prison and Nick Fury, suggesting a larger plot against Lynn was beginning.

• Lynn ordered Susan to carry Natasha back, and Susan formed a sterile invisible force-field operating table that protected her from the rain and stabilized her injuries.
• Susan earned Lynn’s brief praise, provoking Wanda’s jealousy while Gwen and Natasha watched the women compete for his favor.
• Lynn questioned the crippled Sabretooth about who had freed him and ordered Wanda to pry through his memories without killing him.
• Susan restrained Sabretooth and used her force field to expose his brain, while Wanda and Susan argued over whose powers were more useful to Lynn.
• Wanda tore memory fragments from Sabretooth’s brain, and Natasha saw images of Stryker’s Underground Black Prison and Nick Fury.

Lynn and Wanda searched Sabretooth’s memories and found Stryker’s underground base beneath the Pentagon, but a deeper memory revealed that Nick Fury had made the mutants bait for his Blind Spot Program. Lynn returned to the building with his allies, preparing to hunt Fury and discover what he had released.

• Wanda used chaos magic to tear through Sabretooth’s mind while Susan restrained him, and Lynn saw Stryker order Sabretooth to attack him and the mutants so Stryker could perfect his Sentinels.
• Wanda uncovered coordinates and a structure diagram locating Stryker’s underground base beneath the Pentagon.
• Lynn sensed a hidden mental lock and ordered Wanda to break it, but Sabretooth died when she shattered the barrier.
• Lynn saw a memory of Nick Fury telling Stryker that Sabretooth was bait for phase one of the Blind Spot Program, then ordering phase two and saying to let something out.
• Lynn told Wanda, Susan, Gwen Stacy, and Natasha that the game had just begun and ordered everyone back to the building to prepare for the hunt.

After Lynn ordered the Brotherhood of Mutants’ remains turned into a warning, Wanda created a vast Scarlet Eye above the ruins that destroyed surveillance equipment. In Washington, Stryker saw the warning and activated the Sentry prototypes, preparing to attack Lynn.

• Lynn ordered Susan and Gwen Stacy to build a tower from the dead mutants’ bodies and top it with Sabretooth’s head.
• Lynn told Wanda to mark the ruins, and she created a giant Scarlet Eye that traced and destroyed surveillance signals.
• Lynn, Susan, Gwen Stacy, Wanda, and Natasha left the ruins through a Negative Zone portal to the Baxter Building.
• At the Stryker Secret Base, Stryker watched the footage fail as the Scarlet Eye burned out the surveillance hardware.
• Stryker rejected the adjutant’s suggestion to request reinforcements and activated all the Sentry prototypes.

Lynn took control of the Baxter Building and its technology, then watched Wanda, Susan, and Gwen compete for his favor while injured Natasha offered to secure the building. The chapter ended with Wanda and Susan poised to fight over remodeling the top floor.

• Lynn returned to the Baxter Building with Susan and Natasha, and Susan presented him with control of the building, its laboratories, patents, satellite network, and Negative Zone Energy Matrix.
• Wanda arrived and threatened to remodel the Baxter Building, prompting Susan to defend the domain she had given Lynn.
• Wanda and Susan clashed with their powers as Gwen appeared above Lynn and claimed the high ground around his bedroom.
• Natasha offered to eliminate S.H.I.E.L.D. surveillance backdoors, and Lynn ordered Susan to give her a terminal and bring him coffee.
• Wanda began spreading magic across the floor to reshape the top floor, and Susan confronted her over the building's structure.

Susan assigned the Baxter Building’s rooms to establish herself as Lynn’s closest companion and housekeeper, provoking Wanda into unleashing chaos magic. The chapter ended with Susan’s force field clashing against Wanda’s power as Gwen Stacy dove into the confrontation.

• Susan brought Lynn coffee and used a hologram to assign herself the master bedroom while placing Natasha in the basement, Gwen Stacy on perimeter patrol, and Wanda on the thirtieth floor.
• Wanda tore through the leather chair and objected to being treated like hazardous material, while Susan defended her room assignments as the safest arrangement.
• Wanda destroyed the holographic equipment and sent chaos magic through the Baxter Building, triggering alarms about damage to its structure.
• Wanda threatened to remake the building as a cage for herself and Lynn, and Susan raised a force field to stop her.
• Gwen Stacy dropped from the ceiling and drove her electric dagger toward the clash between Susan and Wanda.

Wanda transformed the Baxter Building’s top floor into a lavish manor and fought Susan while Gwen Stacy launched a sneak attack, pushing the damaged building toward collapse. As all three women prepared to destroy one another, Lynn set down his coffee cup just before the building gave way.

• Wanda used Chaos Magic to remodel the Baxter Building’s top floor and reshape Susan’s force field into Roman columns while Lynn watched from a throne.
• Wanda claimed the manor as her home with Lynn, and Susan threatened to cut its life-support systems as the building’s structure began failing.
• Gwen Stacy attacked Wanda from above with an electrified dagger, but Wanda blocked the strike and drove Gwen away with a magical whip.
• Susan and Wanda clashed again, while Wanda’s magic corrupted the building’s energy matrix and Gwen waited for another chance to strike.
• As the building neared collapse and Susan, Wanda, and Gwen prepared for further attacks, Lynn set down his coffee cup.

Lynn crushed Wanda, Susan, and Gwen Stacy’s attacks, forced them to accept his authority, and rewarded Natasha’s fanatical loyalty by healing her and tasking her with uncovering Nick Fury’s plans. As the women competed to destroy Fury’s intelligence network, Fury contacted Lynn with a file bearing an X emblem, and an unknown energy intrusion triggered red alerts on Lynn’s system panel.

• Lynn overwhelmed Wanda’s chaos magic and Susan’s force field, halted the Baxter Building’s collapse, and subdued Wanda, Susan, and Gwen Stacy.
• Lynn declared that only his rules mattered, while Natasha left the medical pod and knelt before him, offering to serve despite her wounds.
• Lynn praised Natasha, healed her injury, and ordered the other women to prove their value; Natasha offered to investigate S.H.I.E.L.D.’s remaining plans, while Susan and Gwen volunteered their own abilities.
• Lynn challenged the women to tear apart Nick Fury’s intelligence network, promising that the winner could stay on the top floor that night.
• Natasha detected an encrypted transmission from Nick Fury, who claimed the Blind Spot Program was intended to find someone capable of dealing with Lynn.
• Fury revealed a dust-covered file marked with an X emblem, and an unknown energy intrusion triggered red alerts on Lynn’s system panel.

Natasha endured severe injuries and anesthesia to prove her usefulness to Lynn, who rewarded her loyalty after she traced Fury’s communications. Susan, threatened by Natasha’s place beside Lynn, opened Reed’s sealed laboratory to offer him the Negative Zone’s energy.

• Fury’s psychic attack failed against Lynn’s mental shield, and its aftershock knocked the bloodied Natasha unconscious.
• Susan sent Natasha to the medical pod for anesthesia, but Natasha tore open her wound, escaped the pod, and refused to sleep.
• Lynn praised Natasha’s refusal to surrender consciousness and promised her a place beside him, intensifying Wanda’s and Susan’s jealousy.
• Susan opened Reed’s sealed laboratory and vowed to place the Negative Zone’s limitless energy before Lynn.

Natasha gave Lynn S.H.I.E.L.D.’s hidden intelligence and became his intelligence officer, while uncovering Fury’s attempt to recruit Charles Xavier against him. As Lynn and Natasha headed upstairs, Susan unleashed the Fantastic Four’s Negative Zone energy matrix, setting up a confrontation over her bid for Lynn’s favor.

• Natasha extracted S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Safe House locations, sleeper-agent list, weapons caches, and Fury’s encrypted contact frequency, then pledged herself to Lynn.
• Lynn named Natasha his intelligence officer and healed her wound with Chaos Magic, which also suppressed the latent dangers of her Super-Soldier Serum.
• Natasha uncovered a message showing Fury was using Stryker’s mutant research to approach Charles Xavier in Westchester County.
• Lynn recognized Fury’s plan to enlist the X-Men against him and decided to wait and see whether Charles would accept the offer.
• A surge of destructive blue energy shook the building, and Lynn identified it as Susan’s Negative Zone energy matrix.
• Lynn took Natasha toward the upper floors to see what Susan and the other women had planned.

Susan presented Lynn with the Negative Zone Energy Matrix and bound its limitless energy to his biological profile. As Susan’s achievement heightened Wanda’s fear of losing Lynn’s attention, Wanda’s Chaos Magic began to stir, leaving Lynn ready for her possessiveness to erupt.

• Susan gave Lynn the Negative Zone Energy Matrix, which she had stolen from Reed Richards and reprogrammed to bind its power to Lynn’s vital signs.
• Lynn pricked his finger and activated the matrix, which took over the Baxter Building’s power supply and brightened lights across Manhattan.
• Susan told Lynn the matrix could provide enough energy to destroy a country or cut power across North America, and Lynn praised and kissed her.
• Wanda watched Susan’s offering and remembered Natasha’s intelligence network, then crushed the throne’s armrest as she worried she had nothing to offer Lynn beyond destruction.
• Wanda’s possessiveness intensified, and scarlet particles began rising around her as Lynn watched, expecting her Chaos Magic to erupt.

Wanda used her Chaos Magic to create an absolute defense barrier centered on Lynn, annihilating anyone who approached with malice. Watching from the shadows, Gwen decided to abandon her humanity and become Lynn’s tireless, lethal hidden protector, beginning a dangerous contest with the other women.

• Wanda ignored Susan’s force field and confronted Lynn, insisting that she wanted only to keep him alive and whole.
• At Lynn’s challenge, Wanda sacrificed her blood and origin magic to create a fifty-kilometer barrier that detected and annihilated threats to him.
• Wanda collapsed in Lynn’s arms and taunted Susan, whose earlier urge to kill Wanda had triggered the barrier’s hostility warning.
• Gwen secretly watched the women protect Lynn and, feeling she had nothing to offer, resolved to become his unseen guard and kill anyone who threatened him.
• Lynn noticed Gwen hiding in the shadows and concluded that she, too, had become completely obsessed with him.

Lynn assigned Wanda, Susan, Gwen Stacy, and Natasha missions that exploited their obsessions while preparing them to serve his growing power. At a secret Weapon X base, William Stryker responded to his defeat by ordering three unstable Sentry prototypes activated and aimed at Lynn’s property.

• Lynn ordered Wanda to extend her magical network through New York’s underground and drain the life force of military and S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives who approached Manhattan.
• Lynn tasked Susan with restarting the Baxter Building’s weapons production within forty-eight hours and challenging Stark Industries.
• Lynn sent Gwen Stacy to silently eliminate the military’s hidden lookouts and ordered Natasha to uncover Stryker’s finances, base coordinates, and communications with Nick Fury before dawn.
• At the Weapon X base, Stryker learned that Sabretooth and the Brotherhood of Mutants had been killed and that Nick Fury had cut off their shared frequency.
• Stryker ordered the activation of three untested Sentry prototypes and directed them to attack the Stark Industries stock building Lynn had acquired.

Lynn watched Stryker activate three unfinished Sentinel prototypes and send them toward Manhattan, where they targeted the Stark Industries Stock Corporation Building. He disabled the building’s air defenses and prepared to let Susan, Wanda, and Gwen face the machines as the Sentinels closed in.

• Natasha showed Lynn a live feed of Stryker’s underground base and reported that she had taken control of its surveillance.
• Stryker ignored Pentagon orders, activated the Sentinel prototypes, and shot up the console when the military tried to stop him.
• Three Sentinels launched from the base, and Natasha reported that they were approaching New York at Mach three.
• Natasha identified the Stark Industries Stock Corporation Building as the Sentinels’ target, prompting Susan and Gwen to ready themselves.
• Lynn ordered Natasha to turn off the building’s air defenses and prepared to let the women fight the incoming Sentinels.

Lynn intercepted a recording proving that Nick Fury had let Stryker’s Sentries target Manhattan to test Lynn’s powers. As the Sentries approached, Lynn stopped the women from fighting and proposed a game to greet them.

• Natasha intercepted Nick Fury’s encrypted orders to abandon Stryker and use the Sentries to probe Lynn’s abilities.
• Wanda and Susan argued over who should destroy the Sentries, while Gwen waited hidden in the ceiling vent.
• Lynn calmed the women and summoned Natasha, who brought the Sentries’ flight paths and Stryker’s base layout.
• Lynn sat down to dinner and proposed a hunting contest for the approaching machines.

At dinner, Lynn revealed that Stryker had sent three Sentinels to attack the Stark Industries building and used the threat to provoke his four devoted women into competing to defend him. As Wanda, Susan, Natasha, and Gwen Stacy fought over who would go, Lynn stopped them and announced that they would follow his rules.

• Susan served Lynn wine, but Wanda smashed the decanter and threatened her, while Natasha and Gwen prepared to attack the others.
• Lynn revealed that Stryker's three Sentinels were about to enter Manhattan airspace and target the Stark Industries shareholding building.
• Wanda, Susan, Natasha, and Gwen each vowed to destroy the Sentinels and threatened rivals who tried to take the mission.
• Lynn told the women to sit, then asked which of them would swat the approaching Sentinels for him.
• As the four women competed for the mission, Lynn tapped the table to stop them and said they would follow the rules.

Lynn set up a points-based contest for Wanda, Susan, Natasha, and Gwen to destroy three Sentinels and locate or eliminate Stryker’s base, promising the winner a night alone with him. The women raced out to meet the approaching Sentinels while Natasha headed for the supercomputing center to cut off their escape routes.

• Lynn awarded points for destroying Sentinels, finding Stryker’s base, and wiping out the base with Stryker, and offered the highest scorer a night in his bedroom.
• Wanda, Susan, Natasha, and Gwen accepted the contest, eager to win the promised time alone with Lynn.
• Lynn warned the women not to harm civilians or damage his building, or they would lose points and be disqualified.
• Wanda, Susan, and Gwen rushed out to confront the Sentinels, while Natasha took the elevator to the supercomputing center to block their escape routes.
• Lynn watched the radar as three Sentinel prototypes approached Stark Industries and the four women moved to intercept them.