Chapter Summaries

Coulson accepted Lucian’s terms and agreed to leave Fitz and Simmons behind to work on Vought’s technology projects. Lucian then revealed that the new member joining Coulson’s team was already waiting by their plane.

• Coulson accepted Lucian’s proposal after realizing his team had no room to resist.
• Lucian brought Fitz and Simmons to the lounge, where Coulson told them they would stay and assist with Lucian’s research.
• Coulson warned Fitz and Simmons to follow Lucian’s instructions, avoid asking questions, and not touch anything they were not told to.
• Coulson praised Fitz’s and Simmons’s skills to Lucian and asked about the new member joining his team.
• Lucian said the new member was waiting outside the plane’s cabin door and led Coulson toward the landing pad.

Lucian detained Fitz and Simmons, then gave Coulson Pietro as a replacement teammate to help hunt Skrulls. After sending Coulson’s team away with Ward, Lucian ordered Jade Balance to begin the Compound V injections under his personal supervision.

• Simona took Fitz and Simmons to the genetics lab to work with Dr. Banner while Coulson watched, unable to intervene.
• Lucian recruited Pietro to join Coulson’s team and search for Skrulls, giving him an encrypted infiltration analysis report.
• Coulson introduced Pietro to May and Skye aboard the transport and told them Fitz and Simmons had been assigned a top-secret mission in New York.
• Lucian searched Ward’s memories, found no information about the Obelisk, and planted a psychic mark that would alert him if Ward learned anything about it.
• Lucian sent Ward back onto Coulson’s aircraft and ordered Jade Balance to tell Simona to begin the Compound V injections, which he would oversee personally.

Lucian reviewed the first 5,000 Compound V recipients, whose abilities reached roughly the strength of ordinary Chitauri infantry, and explained that the free injections were meant to expose the drug and draw out people who would lose control. He warned Simona that Earth faced threats far beyond its apparent disasters, leaving her to prepare for the chaos the new superhumans would cause.

• Simona reported that the first 5,000 Compound V injections were complete and showed Lucian Jade Balance's assessment of the recipients' abilities.
• Simona told Lucian that more than 100,000 people had applied and that nearly 300 identified spies from various factions were among the selected recipients.
• Lucian said the free injections were intended to reveal Compound V to the world and create an opportunity to make examples of people who misused their powers.
• Lucian predicted that some recipients would commit crimes or test their abilities, and told Simona that greater violence would subdue them.
• Lucian looked over New York and said Earth had suffered many disasters, while the Chitauri invasion and the Eternals' battle were minor events from the perspective of higher-order life.

Lucian explained that he wanted to spread superhuman abilities so humanity could fight back against disasters, while using strict controls to contain anyone who abused Compound V. He prepared to launch the first injections and watched the subjects as the countdown began.

• Lucian told Simona that he wanted ordinary people to gain the power to resist threats rather than depend on a handful of heroes.
• Lucian gave Simona a radiation-infused metal and ordered her to make suppression modules, track the first recipients, and publicly strip the powers of anyone who committed crimes.
• Lucian announced that Compound V would move from a free trial to expensive commercial sales, forcing rival organizations and wealthy interests to compete.
• Simona left to prepare the operations teams as Lucian ordered the first round of injections to begin that afternoon.
• Jade Balance reported that the first subjects were ready and began showing Lucian surveillance feeds of the injections.
• Lucian told Jade Balance to set the alarm system to its highest response level and start a countdown.

Simona oversaw the injection of deep blue serum into five thousand volunteers, who endured agonizing genetic changes and emerged with superhuman abilities. After guards suppressed a violent outburst, the subjects registered their abilities, while embedded spies wondered why Vought imposed so few restrictions.

• Jade Balance announced that the serum injections were beginning, and automatic needles injected all five thousand subjects at once.
• The volunteers screamed through the painful transformation before recovering and discovering that many had gained superhuman strength or other abilities.
• A newly empowered bald man attacked a Vought guard with a fireball, but the guard cut it apart and knocked him down as energy cannons targeted the would-be rebels.
• Simona ordered the subjects released, split into fifty lines, and sent to register at electronic stations.
• Most subjects signed Vought's testing and conduct agreements, while nearly three hundred spies questioned why the terms lacked secrecy or employment restrictions.

Lucian let the newly enhanced subjects leave Vought Tower while preparing to monitor what they did with their powers. As dangerous recipients began attracting the attention of New York’s vigilantes, Lucian decided to let the Avengers and Matt Murdock serve as a free patrol squad.

• Jade Balance reported the first-stage results for all five thousand subjects, and Lucian ordered field units to prepare suppression modules.
• Steve, Natasha, and Barton identified suspicious subjects outside Vought Tower and planned to gather evidence of their crimes to persuade Lucian to impose character screening.
• Matt recognized Roman, a released thug among the enhanced subjects, and followed him to catch him committing a crime.
• Lucian used his psychic perception to watch the Avengers and Matt, then told Jade Balance not to remove them because they could monitor the subjects for free.

Lucian brought Maya Hansen from Killian’s Miami facility to Vought and offered her a choice between handing over the Extremis research and joining Vought’s lab. Maya chose to stay, asked Lucian to stop Killian and restore Extremis to medical use, and wanted Tony Stark to see the perfected results.

• Simona brought Lucian Maya’s identification card and reported that Hydra’s mole had extracted her safely from AIM.
• Lucian explained that the agents who removed Maya were legitimate but no longer worked for the World Security Council, then offered her two options for the Extremis formula and research logs.
• Maya chose to work at Vought and explained that Killian had used unstable Extremis on disabled veterans, turning them into human bombs for attacks and private security deals.
• Maya asked Lucian to stop Killian, secure the formula for medical use, and show Tony Stark the perfected research inspired by his old formula.
• Lucian said Killian would not live much longer and promised that Tony could attend the project’s launch.

Lucian recruited Maya to develop Extremis-based human enhancement research and ordered his agents to monitor Roman, while allowing the spies following him to escape with their samples. Roman used his new strength to attack a convenience store, where Daredevil confronted him.

• Lucian offered to fund Maya’s medical research on the condition that she adapt Extremis technology for his enhancement serum, and Maya agreed as long as there were no live human self-detonation tests.
• Lucian had Jade Balance grant Maya research clearance and send her to work with Dr. Helen Cho.
• Jade Balance reported that Roman had entered an abandoned warehouse district with Daredevil following him, and Lucian ordered agents to track them while letting the spies leave with their samples.
• Lucian ordered his agents to strip violent enhanced individuals of their powers and turn them over for trial, and Simona dispatched teams carrying radioactive metal restraints.
• Roman ripped apart a convenience store’s security mesh and attacked the clerk, but Daredevil’s baton flew past Roman’s head and Daredevil appeared in the doorway.

Matt fought Roman, whose enhanced strength and durability overwhelmed him as Matt struggled to keep from using lethal force. Vought agents disabled Roman with radioactive metal and a tranquilizer, then left Matt behind, deepening his sense that his efforts had been pointless meddling.

• Roman recognized Matt and attacked him with enhanced strength.
• Matt struck Roman with his Twin Billy Clubs, but the blows barely affected him, and Roman sent Matt crashing into a utility pole.
• Matt hesitated to attack Roman's fatal weaknesses, and Roman prepared to finish him off.
• Vought agents arrived and threw a box of radioactive metal into the store, draining Roman's powers.
• A Vought agent tranquilized Roman, and the agents took him away after promising the clerk compensation.
• Matt overheard that Vought had recorded Roman's abilities as data and was ordered to ignore him, leaving Matt angry and disillusioned.

Steve, Natasha, and Barton watched Vought agents swiftly capture a serum-enhanced gang leader, leaving them unable to collect evidence against Lucian. Aboard S.H.I.E.L.D.'s command plane, Coulson's team learned the Skrulls had stolen powerful genetic samples and feared they would use them to create super soldiers.

• Steve, Natasha, and Barton prepared to arrest a biker gang leader after Barton reported the man displaying superhuman strength.
• Vought agents used a gray metal box to weaken the gang leader, then tranquilized him and captured him and his two accomplices in under twenty seconds.
• Steve called off the planned intervention, while Natasha reflected that Lucian always seemed to make a winning deal.
• Coulson briefed S.H.I.E.L.D.'s team that the Skrulls had kidnapped a Vought geneticist and stolen samples including Hulk's blood and Asgardian cells.
• Ward and May warned that the Skrulls could combine the stolen genes with the geneticist's technology to create super soldiers, and Coulson urged the team to find their base.

May, Skye, Ward, and Coulson settled on using facial recognition and supply monitoring to find the Skrulls, while Pietro casually approved their plan. In Manhattan, Lucian reviewed the results of his superhuman injections and decided to return to Kamar-Taj to advance his mystic arts and seek a chance to copy the Ancient One’s abilities.

• May suggested facial recognition, and Skye proposed finding Skrulls by tracking identical faces appearing in different places at the same time.
• Ward recommended tracing restricted biological equipment and radioactive materials, and Coulson approved the two-pronged plan.
• Coulson asked Pietro for Lucian’s position, but Pietro misunderstood the subtext and simply gave the plan his approval.
• Simona reported that her team had arrested thirty-seven troublemakers and preserved complete evidence, including records of Roman’s injuries.
• Lucian reviewed the ability summaries, ordered the next injection plan to continue, and asked Simona to monitor Helen Cho and Maya’s new Compound V.
• Lucian decided to visit Kamar-Taj as the Sanctum sorcerers rotated back, hoping to improve his mystic arts and copy abilities from the Ancient One, who had previously avoided his touch.

Lucian’s accumulated debts to several extradimensional powers triggered a violent magical backlash as he tried to open a portal. He used the Vishanti’s Purification Spell to expel most of their influence, leaving only a small mark and turning the demand for full payment into indefinite installments.

• Lucian began tracing a portal, but his accumulated magical debts triggered a painful backlash.
• Dormammu, Cyttorak, and an unknown purple power tried to claim Lucian’s soul and control his mind.
• Lucian resisted the invading forces with his enhanced body and powerful mental defenses, then called on the Vishanti.
• Lucian cast a Purification Spell that drove the foreign energies from his body over nearly half an hour.
• Lucian found a tiny gray energy seed remained, but the Vishanti’s power and his resistance had reduced the demon gods’ claims to a negligible installment debt.
• Lucian vowed to keep paying in installments if the demon gods demanded payment again.

Lucian inspected Bruce Banner’s prototype Skrull detector, developed with Fitz and Simmons, and asked Banner to improve its range and coverage. After Fitz and Simmons requested Vought’s enhancement drug for Coulson’s team, Lucian rebuked them before agreeing to advance it as a reward for their work.

• Jade Balance told Lucian that Banner, Fitz, and Simmons had completed the first Skrull detector prototype, so Lucian went to the laboratory.
• Banner explained that the device used a gamma pulse to detect Skrulls’ conserved transformation gene and could identify them within a thirty-meter fan-shaped range.
• Lucian praised Fitz and Simmons for their help, forgave their unauthorized server intrusion, and took three prototypes for testing.
• Lucian asked Banner, Fitz, and Simmons to develop a detector with enough coverage to scan a city or country.
• Simmons asked Lucian to give enhancement drugs to Coulson’s team, and Lucian reminded her that their work had settled the debt for their hacking.
• Lucian then offered Fitz and Simmons an advance on their pay, delighting them as Banner watched.

Lucian delivered Compound V and Skrull detectors to Coulson’s team, then returned to Kamar-Taj and greeted its sorcerers while collecting their Mystic Arts abilities. He reunited with Wanda and interrupted Wong in the library, where Wong reprimanded him for disrupting the grounds.

• Lucian opened a portal to Coulson’s aircraft and delivered blue Compound V and two Skrull detectors, explaining how to use the devices to find disguised aliens.
• Lucian told Pietro to watch Skye and report anything unusual before the portal closed.
• Lucian offered Fitz and Simmons improved benefits and a Manhattan apartment bonus if they expanded the detector’s range to cover a city.
• Lucian returned to Kamar-Taj and solidified Mystic Arts abilities from several sorcerers by greeting them and asking about their spells.
• Wanda welcomed Lucian and happily accepted the cheesecake he had brought from Manhattan.
• Lucian entered the library with Wanda, and Wong scolded him for making noise and disrupting Kamar-Taj.

Lucian asked Wong about a spell that could locate specific soul fluctuations, but Mordo interrupted and condemned Lucian’s use of otherworldly magic. The confrontation escalated in Kamar-Taj’s library, where Lucian stepped between Mordo and the others.

• Lucian asked Wong whether Kamar-Taj held a large-scale array for identifying or tracking souls, and Wong recalled an ancient Babylonian scroll.
• Mordo entered the library and told Wong not to provide Lucian with forbidden knowledge.
• Mordo accused Lucian of using magic from other dimensions and pursuing forbidden soul arts despite suffering backlash.
• Wanda bent her fork and prepared to defend Lucian as Wong tried to calm the confrontation.
• Lucian pulled Wong behind him and reassured Wanda, who suppressed her magic but remained wary of Mordo.

Lucian humiliated Mordo by transmuting the library door into an immovable alloy, while the injected agents struggled with their new abilities. The chapter left Ward eager to report Lucian’s serum to Hydra and challenging May to a fight.

• Lucian challenged Mordo’s authority, then transmuted the library door so Mordo could not open it.
• Mordo left through a golden portal, and Wanda, Lucian, and Wong laughed at his failed attempt to slam the door.
• Skye’s heightened hearing overwhelmed her, and she threw a notebook at Pietro when he offered her chips.
• Ward smashed a training bag with his new strength and planned to send Hydra information about Lucian’s serum.
• May confronted Ward, and he challenged her to test his newfound strength.

May easily defeated Ward despite his enhanced physique, while Coulson obtained police surveillance access using his Instant Rapport ability. Skye used the recordings to identify a hidden group of at least seventy abnormal heartbeats beneath an underground warehouse.

• May dodged Ward's charge and knocked him down, then told him that his stronger body left him with too many openings.
• Coulson used Instant Rapport to persuade a senior police official to give him surveillance access, leaving Pietro amazed and Coulson uneasy about relying on the ability.
• Coulson presented surveillance recordings and building plans to the team, and Skye offered to locate the Skrulls by interpreting sounds and vibrations.
• Skye mapped an abandoned factory from its recording and detected guards and people playing cards inside.
• Skye heard at least seventy unusually fast heartbeats behind a wall cavity on the third basement level of an underground warehouse.

Coulson’s team infiltrated a Manhattan warehouse to rescue Rosa, using Skye’s enhanced hearing to locate the Skrulls and their captive. They reached the blast door where Rosa was held and prepared to breach it as a countdown device ticked nearby.

• Skye mapped the warehouse and detected seventy Skrulls, Rosa’s weak heartbeat, and a ticking electronic device in her compartment.
• Coulson used his instant rapport ability to convince the guard to let the team through the gate and direct them to the emergency stairs.
• Skye guided the team through the basement while Ward and May silently took down two Skrull sentries.
• Skye located Rosa behind a blast door, with four guards outside and one inside, and Coulson ordered Ward and May to draw fire while Pietro breached the door and extracted her.

Ward, May, Coulson, Pietro, and Skye rescued Rosa from the Skrull laboratory, but the Skrulls inexplicably let them pass as a powerful underground shockwave struck. Skye was overwhelmed by the vibrations, and a fast-moving creature burst through the floor in the darkness.

• Pietro broke open the blast door, and Coulson freed Rosa, who begged them to kill her and said the Skrulls had put something inside her.
• Skye sensed more than seventy Skrulls converging, but they stood silently along the evacuation corridor and left the team a clear path to the exit.
• Coulson urged everyone forward, and Pietro prepared to carry Rosa to safety.
• A huge underground blast triggered a citywide shockwave that flooded Skye's senses with vibrations, leaving her bleeding and unconscious.
• The emergency lights burst, and an unidentified blur erupted from a hole in the ground ahead of the team.

A patchwork monster overwhelmed the team in the New York ruins, killing May and Ward and critically injuring Pietro. Just as the monster cornered Pietro, Coulson, Skye, and Rosa, Lucian, Wong, and Wanda arrived through a portal.

• Pietro tried to stab the monster, but it caught his vibranium dagger and crushed his chest with a Hulk-like fist.
• May forced Coulson and Skye into a storage room, then died after the monster shattered her baton and struck her.
• Ward attacked the monster, broke his wrist, and was killed when it crushed his neck.
• Lucian sensed Ward's psychic mark shatter and learned that Ward had died.
• Pietro rescued Coulson, Skye, and Rosa, but the monster blocked their escape and prepared to strike them.
• Lucian stepped through a portal with Wong and Wanda, and the three faced the monster.