Chapter Summaries

Three Sentinel prototypes attacked the Stark Shares Building while Lynn watched, confident that his allies would stop them. As the Sentinels prepared to fire, the space above Stark Tower twisted, marking the start of the counterattack.

• Lynn watched three Sentinel prototypes descend over Manhattan and terrorize civilians near the Stark Shares Building.
• Natasha reported that Stryker was watching from a bunker beneath the Pentagon, and Lynn ordered her to let him witness the Sentinels’ defeat.
• Lynn sensed Wanda, Susan, Gwen Stacy, and Natasha preparing to attack the Sentinels from different directions.
• The Sentinels opened their chest cannons and charged them while Lynn counted down.
• Just before the Sentinels fired, the sky above Stark Tower contracted and folded into eerie blue distortions.

Susan Storm destroyed the first Sentry with her invisible force field while Lynn watched and awarded her ten points. As the remaining Sentries activated an anti-mutant shield, a blood-red storm tore across Manhattan, signaling a new threat.

• Susan Storm emerged through a spatial rift above Stark Industries and attacked Sentry 01 with her force field.
• Susan crushed Sentry 01 into a metal sphere and hurled it into an abandoned construction site, earning ten points from Lynn.
• Sentry 02 activated an anti-mutant energy shield and began analyzing Susan’s force field.
• Lynn noticed a suffocating smell of blood and saw dark red light spread across Manhattan’s sky.
• A scarlet storm streaked through the night with killing intent and magic.

Wanda descended over Manhattan and erased Sentry 02 with Chaos Magic after taunting Susan and receiving Lynn’s praise. As Sentry 03 began a nuclear self-destruct, Gwen Stacy appeared behind it with her electrified Silk Dagger.

• Wanda descended above the Stark Shares Building and confronted Susan over breaking Lynn’s rules and claiming the spotlight.
• Sentry 02 targeted Wanda, who tore apart its shield and erased its armor, circuits, and existence with Chaos Magic.
• Lynn awarded Wanda twenty points, and she boasted to Susan before targeting Sentry 03.
• Sentry 03 initiated its self-destruct protocol, exposing its overloading miniature nuclear reactor.
• Gwen Stacy emerged from optical camouflage behind Sentry 03 and raised her electrically charged Silk Dagger.

Gwen disabled Sentry No. 03 with a precise bioelectric strike, preventing its reactor from exploding and earning Lynn’s praise. After Natasha traced Stryker’s underground base, Lynn ordered the women to destroy it, while Stryker prepared to trigger the base’s self-destruct.

• Gwen stabbed Sentry No. 03’s neck armor and flooded its core with bioelectricity, shutting down the machine before its reactor could detonate.
• Gwen told Lynn she had protected his building, and Lynn awarded her thirty points for destroying the Sentry fastest.
• Natasha traced the signal to a bunker six hundred meters underground and switched the screen to show Stryker’s control room.
• Lynn ordered the women to follow the signal and leave the underground base in ruins.
• Stryker, cut off from communications, raised the console’s red cover and hovered his finger over the base’s self-destruct button.

Natasha took control of Stryker’s underground base and cut off his communications, defenses, and oxygen, earning Lynn’s praise. Wanda and Susan reached the base, and Lynn sent them in to finish the hunt.

• Stryker tried to trigger the base’s self-destruct, but Natasha’s system takeover locked the protocol and seized control.
• Natasha hacked North American Aerospace Defense Command, grounded the fighters at Andrews, locked the base’s blast doors, and cut its backup power and ventilation.
• Natasha taunted Wanda and Susan over the public channel until Lynn silenced them and awarded Natasha ten tactical points.
• Stryker was left trapped in the dark, airless base as Wanda, Susan, and another high-energy signature struck above it.
• Lynn ordered the attackers to break Stryker’s bones inch by inch.

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.