Chapter Summaries

As news spread that the road near the ferry crossing might reopen, Sami and the other children revealed that a boy had left alone the previous night carrying a bomb to attack the soldiers blocking the route. Hamid learned what happened and began questioning the children while Lylla went to count who else was missing.

• People at Darukh Second School heard that officials were negotiating to open the road near the ferry crossing, and they began preparing to leave.
• Sami and the children recalled that a boy had left the previous night with dry rations, hoping to reach the crossing ahead of their truck.
• The children admitted that they had helped Sami make a small explosive device and had drawn lots to choose who would go; the short boy left alone with the bomb.
• Worried that the boy might be in danger, the children decided to tell the adults rather than go after him themselves.
• Sami and the other children told Hamid that the boy had gone to attack the soldiers blocking the vehicles, and Hamid ordered Lylla to count the children before asking them where the boy had gone.

Chen Mo found the boy who had taken an explosive device toward the ferry crossing and brought him back after confirming the road had reopened. The school welcomed the boy home as the vehicles began moving, while Joker watched the celebrations and contemplated how suffering would continue.

• Hamid contacted Chen Mo through the water bowl and told him a schoolboy had left with a bomb, so Chen Mo followed the old man's directions while Peter helped map the route.
• Chen Mo found the exhausted boy near the road sign, removed and secured the explosive device, and showed him footage confirming the ferry crossing was open.
• The boy admitted he had drawn the lot and hoped people would remember him; Chen Mo told him the others were waiting and that he would take him back.
• Peter arrived with water, checked the boy's injured feet, and carried him toward the school after showing him a bus passing through the crossing.
• Lylla, Hamid, Sami, and the other children welcomed the boy back as news of the reopened road prompted people to cheer and begin traveling.
• Joker watched the celebrations on television, mocked the hope that the reopened crossing offered, and toasted the crowd while laughing about shared suffering.

White Widow sold Nadir Hassan intelligence on the districts of Jerusalem, then tipped Batman off about the purchase. Batman, Peter, and Chen Mo connected Hassan’s plans to a prayer and charity event in two days and suspected he intended to bring a nuclear bomb into the city.

• White Widow sold Nadir Hassan updated intelligence on the Jerusalem districts under her control after he paid her inflated price.
• White Widow contacted Batman and revealed that Nadir had bought her intelligence because he already possessed information on the rest of Jerusalem.
• Batman matched Nadir’s transaction records with recovered arms-channel data and identified him as the previously unnamed buyer.
• Chen Mo and Peter saw that the city’s districts would attend a prayer and charity event in two days, while Batman connected the timing and map purchase to Nadir’s earlier communications with Joker.
• Batman, Peter, and Chen Mo concluded that Nadir and Joker might bring the nuclear bomb into Jerusalem and detonate it during the event, and Batman ordered them to prepare for the worst.

Chen Mo, Peter, and Batman searched Jerusalem for Nadir Hassan while posing as ordinary visitors. They identified Hassan in disguise by combining facial analysis with Batman’s observation of his gait, and the chapter ended with Hassan standing across the street from them.

• Batman sent Chen Mo and Peter a rendezvous location and drove them toward Jerusalem in a disguised identity.
• Chen Mo and Peter entered the city in ordinary clothes, using their phones and hidden armor cameras to scan faces while Batman watched the streets.
• The group searched locations connected to Hassan’s missing information as preparations began for a food distribution event.
• Chen Mo, Peter, and Batman independently recognized Hassan among the pedestrians, despite his changed hair, beard, and face.
• Batman identified Hassan through his distinctive gait, while Chen Mo and Peter confirmed his identity with facial analysis.

Batman, Chen Mo, and Peter infiltrated Nadir Hassan’s trading compound and silently subdued the guards while searching for the nuclear bomb. They found no bomb, but discovered that Joker and Nadir were upstairs and prepared to enter the office from several directions.

• Batman, Chen Mo, and Peter followed Nadir Hassan from Jerusalem to a walled trading compound outside the city.
• Batman disabled the compound’s external line, and Chen Mo and Peter split up to help him infiltrate the yard.
• Yusuf’s guards searched for their missing men as Spider-Man and Batman picked them off and restrained them with webbing.
• Batman, Chen Mo, and Peter searched the vehicles, warehouse, and underground storeroom but found no nuclear bomb.
• Batman detected Joker and Nadir in the second-floor office, spotted a secret passage, and signaled Peter and Chen Mo to take alternate positions before reaching for the office lock.

Batman, Chen Mo, and Peter captured Nadir and Joker while investigating a planned attack on Jerusalem. Joker revealed that he had abandoned the missing M-17 nuclear device somewhere in the desert, leaving them with a vast search area and the possibility that scavengers had found it.

• Batman, Peter, and Chen Mo cornered Nadir in his office, captured him, and caught Joker trying to escape.
• Nadir claimed Joker had the M-17, but Joker denied possessing it and admitted he had taken it out for a drive after the plane landed.
• Batman and Peter questioned Joker and marked the airport and a broad desert search area using his vague recollections of the trip.
• Joker revealed that he had unloaded the nuclear device in the desert and left without noting its location.
• Joker suggested scavengers might have found the device, and Chen Mo stopped Batman so he could punch Joker himself.

Hamid and Lylla weighed their community’s urgent needs against the danger of selling a buried warhead, then let a scrap dealer haul it away for four hundred dollars. Meanwhile, Peter, Batman, and Chen Mo realized someone might already have found the missing nuclear weapon, as the dealer’s truck carried the smiling-face warhead south.

• Workers and families sought scarce jobs around the new gathering point while Lylla struggled to divide their limited money among medicine, flour, and diesel.
• Scrap collectors discovered a huge warhead buried in the desert and brought photos of it to Hamid, who told them not to return or handle it.
• Lylla showed Hamid the community’s debts and shortages, and Hamid agreed to let a scrap dealer inspect the warhead if he removed it whole.
• The scrap dealer identified the military transport frame, negotiated a price of four hundred dollars with Hamid, and winched the warhead onto his flatbed truck.
• Peter, Batman, and Chen Mo discussed the vast search area for the missing nuke, and Peter raised the possibility that someone had already picked it up.
• Hamid gave Lylla the four hundred dollars for supplies, while the scrap dealer’s truck continued south with the warhead hidden beneath a tarp.

Chen Mo and Batman traced the missing M-17 nuclear bomb after learning that several men who handled it were suffering suspected radiation exposure. The bomb had been sold through a chain of smugglers and was now headed back to Gotham, leaving Chen Mo to wonder why the city was its target.

• Chen Mo discovered that Tony Stark's suit had roller skates, while Batman secured the data and resources needed to search for Bruce Wayne and the bomb.
• Wayne Enterprises approved Alfred's emergency search plan, and Barbara used the Stark suits' analysis interfaces to narrow the vehicle search to seventy-three trucks.
• Hamid reported that several men who had dug around the bomb were sick, and Chen Mo's suit identified suspected acute radiation exposure; the team arranged medical help and isolation.
• Using Hamid's account and a scrap dealer's details, the team identified the bomb's route from a flatbed truck to an arms broker and then a transnational extremist group.
• Barbara traced the bomb's latest shipping route across the Atlantic to Gotham, and Chen Mo questioned why the group planned to attack the city.

Chen Mo, Peter, Batman, and Barbara uncovered a terrorist plan to frame Russia for a nuclear attack on Gotham and provoke a war between the United States and Russia. As both countries prepared to retaliate, Batman sent them evidence of the conspiracy and warned that the bomb belonged to a third party.

• Barbara recovered a video in which a masked man explained that his group planned to use a nuclear bomb in Gotham to trigger a war that would destroy the United States and Russia.
• Peter and Batman found that the Russian transport orders were forged after the fact, and that their trail deliberately pointed back to the account that paid for the bomb.
• Barbara reported that a cargo plane carrying a heavy, unidentified load was flying toward Gotham while an attack on an American aircraft carrier was blamed on Russian forces.
• The United States prepared retaliatory strikes, and Russia ordered its nuclear forces to prepare to launch after seeing American military movements.
• Batman assembled a rapid verification package and connected to both governments’ emergency channels.
• Batman told the United States and Russia that the nuclear bomb belonged to a third party and warned them that they were completing the terrorists’ plan.

Chen Mo and Peter intercepted the cargo plane carrying a nuclear bomb, and Chen Mo used his spatial powers and webbing to halt and reverse its fall. Superman arrived to carry the bomb into space, leaving Chen Mo and Peter safe aboard the plane.

• The United States and Russia refused to act first, so Batman, Chen Mo, and Peter boarded the Batplane to intercept the nuclear bomb.
• Chen Mo opened a spatial rift and brought himself and Peter to the cargo plane, where the bomb had already started falling from its ramp.
• Chen Mo caught the bomb with webbing and used the strange lines in the sky to stop its descent, then hurled it back upward.
• Peter reported that the bomb was rising, while Batman updated its coordinates over the channel.
• Superman caught the bomb and carried it out of the atmosphere, and Peter pulled Chen Mo back to the cargo plane.
• Chen Mo rested against Peter and complained that Batman had not told him Superman was coming.

Chen Mo and Peter helped stop the nuclear threat, returned Joker to Arkham, and learned Bruce Wayne had already been rescued. Chen Mo failed to open a rift back to Peter’s New York, leaving Peter in Gotham with him for now.

• Superman removed the bomb from the cargo plane, and Chen Mo revoked Batman’s suit-data access while keeping him on team communications.
• Superman carried Chen Mo and Peter to the Batplane, where Peter coaxed Chen Mo into drinking a recovery potion; Superman explained that Batman had sought him out to ask about Chen Mo.
• Batman handed Nadir to investigators and brought Joker back to Gotham, while Superman stayed behind to help people affected by the warhead and deliver supplies.
• Chen Mo tried to open a rift to Peter’s New York but failed, then blamed Batman and privately began inventing a tragic romance between Bruce Wayne and Batman with Barbara.
• Barbara shared news that Bruce had been rescued an hour earlier, and Batman revealed he had arranged it before leaving Tahlara Palace.
• Batman locked Joker in Arkham, and Chen Mo told Peter they could try opening a way home again after he rested for a few days.

Chen Mo returned to the Batcave with Peter after Superman agreed to watch the US military’s arrival in the Middle East. Bruce examined Chen Mo, reunited him with Venom, and made plans for his new car, money, and schooling, leaving Chen Mo wondering how Bruce would arrange enrollment for him and Peter.

• Chen Mo turned Batman’s aircraft around after hearing the US military would enter the Middle East, but Superman stayed behind to protect people there.
• Batman showed Chen Mo and Peter two sports cars, but neither of them had a driver’s license, and Batman insisted Chen Mo get a medical examination first.
• Bruce found evidence of many old fractures and a new Healing Factor in Chen Mo’s examination results, then returned Venom to him.
• Chen Mo inspected the Spider-Mobile and proposed changes for carrying injured people, so Bruce delayed its delivery and revised the design.
• Chen Mo learned Wayne Enterprises was preparing to launch an artificial intelligence, then received cards for spending and investing and heard he and Peter would attend school.
• Chen Mo questioned how he and Peter could enroll without proper records, and Bruce laughed.

Chen Mo began college at Gotham University, choosing fine art while he and Barbara discussed Peter’s failed attempts to return to New York. Meanwhile, Peter and Dick encountered an armed school-bus guard and caught Jason Todd removing a wheel from the bus; Jason accepted Peter’s bandage and gave his name.

• Alfred dropped Chen Mo and Barbara at Gotham University, where Barbara explained that Bruce had donated two buildings and helped Chen Mo enroll.
• Chen Mo told Barbara that he and Peter still could not return to New York, and he insisted on studying fine art in Gotham.
• Chen Mo described how his Nanotech Armor had stopped a criminal’s gunfire and argued that Gotham’s criminals were glad Spider-Man had returned.
• Peter met Dick at the school bus and was startled to see its security guard carrying a machine gun.
• Jason Todd removed a wheel while students were aboard the bus, but Dick caught him as Peter steadied the tilting vehicle.
• Peter offered Jason a bandage for his scraped hand, and Jason accepted it and introduced himself as Jason Todd.

Chen Mo met Pamela Isley and helped her carry a plant to the greenhouse, while Peter and Jason confronted students dealing drugs near their school. Dick told Peter that the evidence against Penguin was sufficient to send him to Blackgate, and Peter agreed to join the operation that night.

• Chen Mo caught Pamela and her plant when she stumbled, then walked with her to the greenhouse and exchanged phone numbers with her.
• Peter, Jason, and Dick saw students dealing drugs and coercing a younger boy outside the school.
• Peter restrained the students, Jason intervened, and Dick called the police, who took the students and drugs away.
• Jason warned Peter to be careful in Gotham and told him to come find him if he needed anything.
• Dick told Peter that the evidence against Penguin was sufficient to put him in Blackgate and asked if he would join the operation that night; Peter agreed.

Chen Mo sent Penguin to Blackgate after checking his handover arrangements, then joined Peter for a night patrol in Gotham. The chapter ended with the two Spider-Men responding to a convenience-store robbery and resuming their sandwiches after Batgirl confirmed Penguin had reached prison.

• Chen Mo confronted Oswald about keeping the nuclear-bomb key for three years and ordered him to go to Blackgate, while Batgirl verified the workers’ wages and deliveries would continue.
• Oswald revealed a hidden Spider-Man shrine, and Chen Mo made him take down the statue before leaving the office.
• Batman’s group escorted Oswald to the police car, and Chen Mo and Peter set off on patrol after taking sandwiches from the Batmobile.
• Chen Mo disarmed a convenience-store robber while Peter helped customers escape, caught a thief stealing a wallet, and returned it to its owner.
• Batgirl reported that Oswald had arrived at Blackgate, and Peter told Chen Mo that he now believed what Chen Mo had once told him.

Batgirl uncovered evidence that Wayne Enterprises had seized equipment keeping Victor Fries’s wife alive, while Bruce suspended further removals. Harvey Dent pushed to investigate the nuclear bomb’s source despite pressure to stop, and Victor tried to prevent the remaining life-support unit from being taken as workers prepared to shut it down.

• Batgirl found Victor Fries’s objection among the warehouse records and sent Bruce the documents, prompting him to suspend disposal of the equipment and investigate who approved its removal.
• Harleen Quinzel began assessing Joker in Arkham and questioned him about taking the nuclear bomb, while he offered to talk at length.
• Harvey Dent and Gordon found documents linking a senior city official to the nuclear bomb’s collateral transaction, and Harvey refused an order to remove the official from his investigation.
• At Gotham University, Victor Fries pleaded with the equipment-recovery crew to leave the cryogenic unit supporting his wife, Nora, in place.
• When the supervisor reached for the power switch, Victor seized his wrist and shouted that Nora was still inside.

Chen Mo learned that Victor Fries’s cryogenic equipment had been seized and urged Bruce to restore it, while a lab accident left Victor unable to survive outside the freezing chamber. Victor stayed beside Nora and kept the Wayne Enterprises clearance form that he blamed for what had happened.

• Pamela showed Chen Mo plant photographs at a café, and Barbara joined them while Chen Mo slipped away to stop two carjackers as Spider-Man.
• Pamela told Chen Mo and Barbara that Victor Fries’s cryogenic equipment had been removed despite his efforts to save his ill wife, Nora.
• Chen Mo called Bruce, who halted the disposal, arranged for the auxiliary units and funding to be restored, and began contacting the professor.
• In the laboratory, Victor’s cryogenic reagents spilled over him after the supervisor shoved him, leaving him unable to breathe in warm air.
• Victor returned to Nora’s chamber, saw the Wayne Enterprises clearance form, and tucked it into his pocket.

Victor learned that funding for Nora’s treatment had been restored, but his exposure to the chemicals left him transformed and consumed by hatred for the supervisor who abandoned him. The next morning, Bruce, Barbara, Chen Mo, and Peter discovered evidence of the supervisor’s misconduct and joined Harvey’s investigation.

• Victor read that Nora’s project funding and equipment would be restored, then hid his injuries from Bruce Wayne and insisted that her machines not be touched again.
• Victor recalled the supervisor leaving him injured in the laboratory, decided he would kill the man, and began preparing a portable source of cold as Mr. Freeze.
• Peter counted more than eighty incidents from his and Chen Mo’s overnight patrol, while Chen Mo defended their work over breakfast at Wayne Manor.
• Barbara showed Bruce a worker’s statement revealing that the supervisor had stopped him from getting medical help for Victor and concealed the incident in the report.
• Bruce contacted Gordon and Harvey, who connected the supervisor to records from the warehouse where Penguin stored the nuclear bomb.
• Bruce, Barbara, Chen Mo, and Peter set out to meet Harvey and investigate the supervisor.

Chen Mo, Peter, and Batman stopped Victor Fries from killing the supervisor who had caused his condition and learned that Fries’s cryogenic equipment kept him alive. After seeing Nora safe at the university, Fries agreed to return to the laboratory, though he said he would not forgive the supervisor.

• Chen Mo entered the supervisor’s office and rescued him from Victor Fries, while Peter and Batman helped disarm and restrain Fries.
• When Fries’s cooling hose kinked, Batman repaired it, and Chen Mo realized the device on Fries’s back was keeping him alive.
• Fries grieved over the supervisor’s role in his condition, but Chen Mo persuaded him not to kill the man and urged him to return to his research and Nora.
• Batman showed Fries a call from Barbara at the university, where Nora and the returned auxiliary unit were waiting.
• Fries agreed to return to the laboratory for an examination beside Nora, said he would not forgive the supervisor, and asked Chen Mo to walk slowly with him.

Chen Mo helped Victor Fries restore his wife’s cryogenic chamber and looked for ways to prevent Pamela’s tragic future, then finished a romantic Batman-and-Bruce comic. After the Spider-Car’s successful test drive, Dick and Peter read the comic, and Bruce caught Chen Mo and Barbara pretending not to know what it was.

• Chen Mo and Peter helped Victor Fries into a medical transport, while Harvey stayed behind to review documents and appeared to have avoided becoming Two-Face.
• Victor Fries returned to the university and helped the doctor restart his wife’s cryogenic chamber; Chen Mo then contacted Pamela to arrange a visit and learn about plants.
• Chen Mo finished a comic depicting Bruce Wayne and Batman falling in love and marrying, while Barbara helped with the drawings and teased him about Pamela.
• Bruce showed Chen Mo and Barbara the completed Spider-Car, and they drove it around the Manor grounds before returning.
• Dick and Peter read Chen Mo’s comic and were caught by Bruce; Chen Mo and Barbara denied knowing its contents, but Bruce told them to bring it upstairs.
• Bruce accepted that the comic had a happy ending and asked Chen Mo and Barbara to bring it up, while Dick and Peter waited to read it again.