Chapter Summaries

At Vought International’s Icelandic hot spring resort, Vi explained how the company turned victories into comfort and profit, prompting Carol to compare Vought’s support with the Kree Empire’s betrayal. Carol ended the chapter drinking vodka and wondering what she should do next.

• Carol soaked in the hot spring while Maria played with Monica nearby.
• Vi offered Carol Absolut Vodka and dismissed her worries about alien threats, saying Vought’s people and technology would handle them.
• Vi told Carol that her role at Vought was to win and enjoy what victory brought.
• Carol recalled Dr. Lawson’s sacrifice and considered how little the Kree Empire’s promises had given her.
• Carol drained her glass of vodka as the peaceful scene with Vi, Maria, and Monica continued.

Soldier Boy appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy and presented himself as a dependable World War II hero who had secretly fought alien enemies for years. His remarks about masculinity won over conservative viewers, and Vought’s campaign rapidly turned him into a popular symbol of traditional American values.

• Jimmy welcomed Soldier Boy to the show, where Soldier Boy asked to be called Benjamin and joked about being presumed dead.
• Soldier Boy claimed he had fought hidden enemies alongside Human Torch with Vought’s support, then fumbled with a new phone for laughs.
• Jimmy introduced edited footage of the desert battle, and Soldier Boy warned that aliens could take human form while reassuring viewers that heroes were protecting them.
• Soldier Boy called the new generation of heroes too soft and urged them to show more masculinity, prompting enthusiastic audience and viewer reactions.
• Hans Landa watched Soldier Boy’s search popularity and trending hashtags surge as Vought’s campaign shaped him into a guardian of traditional American values.

Hans Landa launched a series of lavish short films portraying Yasuo as a silent, elegant swordsman, and the videos made Yasuo a worldwide cultural sensation. Luxury brands and a major game company sought deals with him, while Chanel called Hans about a new fragrance.

• Miranda Priestly reported that Soldier Boy's appearance on The Tonight Show had broken a decade-old viewership record and increased support among white men over forty.
• Hans Landa planned the Rurouni Kenshin short-film series to market Yasuo's mystique and Eastern-inspired aesthetics to young audiences.
• Vought News Network uploaded the first Rurouni Kenshin video, and viewers worldwide celebrated Yasuo after he split a waterfall with a leaf.
• The next two videos spread Yasuo's fame, inspiring the #YasuoHaiku trend and turning him into a cultural symbol.
• Miranda told Hans that Cartier, Nintendo, Gucci, Armani, and Patek Philippe wanted deals with Yasuo, and Chanel called about its new men's fragrance.

Amin Arnold offered Talos a new home for the Skrulls on Kepler-186f in exchange for cooperating with Vought’s research into their abilities. Talos realized Vought intended to copy and replace his people, and Amin left him facing a choice between captivity and the survival of his species in another form.

• Talos remained confined in a comfortable Vought facility and asked Amin Arnold when he could leave.
• Amin showed Talos Kepler-186f and offered Vought’s help in establishing it as an exclusive Skrull colony.
• Amin revealed that Vought wanted Talos to submit to research into Skrull mimicry, memory reading, and thought imitation.
• Talos understood that Vought planned to reproduce Skrull abilities and could eventually erase the original Skrulls.
• Amin told Talos he could refuse and live in comfort as a captive or cooperate to give his species a chance to continue in another form.

Victoria Hand led a Strategic Operations Department meeting over afternoon tea, approving plans to kill two targets and turn an unstable Vought hero’s death into a profitable public spectacle. The chapter ended with Victoria arranging more lemon tarts for Dr. Lecter’s return.

• Victoria Hand approved a plan to kill Joseph Kalombe with a drug-induced heart attack during a public speech.
• Victoria Hand ordered the French branch to exploit chef Julien’s brother’s debts so Julien would poison Ivan Petrov’s pufferfish.
• Victoria Hand approved Contingency Plan 7-B to stage Quake Fist’s heroic death in a disaster and capitalize on his posthumous fame.
• Victoria Hand adjourned the meeting and asked her assistant to order more lemon tarts for Dr. Lecter’s return.

Leo tried to access Vought's classified files about Soldier Boy and was caught by Motoko Kusanagi and Rorschach. The chapter then showed how Vought employees revered CEO Lynn Morris, leaving Emily inspired to continue her work.

• Leo used a back door to reach an omega-level file about Soldier Boy, but Motoko Kusanagi appeared on his screen and exposed his activity.
• Rorschach confronted Leo, said the truth was not for people like him, and dragged him out of the office as his coworkers watched.
• Vought erased Leo's accounts and access, and HR prepared to remove his belongings.
• Emily saw the light on in Lynn Morris's office and recalled the stories that fueled employees' reverence for him.
• Emily left energized, believing she was contributing to Lynn Morris's plans, and went home to work on a hero's promotional tagline.

Victoria Hand and Dr. Hannibal Lecter celebrated the clean assassinations of two targets, while Hans Landa turned Quake Fist’s staged death into a lucrative heroic legacy. The chapter ended with Vought’s funeral scheme boosting Quake Fist’s brand and charity donations.

• Victoria Hand reviewed news reports confirming General Joseph Kalombe and Ivan Petrov had died in staged accidents, then discussed the cleanup with Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
• Hannibal praised Victoria’s work and gave her an ornate edible eyeball as a gift.
• Hans Landa delivered a eulogy at Quake Fist’s grand funeral, presenting Mark Hansen as a hero who died saving Detroit.
• The chapter revealed that Vought had staged the chemical plant crisis and used it to eliminate Quake Fist.
• Quake Fist’s death sparked public attention, sold-out merchandise, and more than ten million dollars in donations to his purported widow’s foundation.
• Miranda Priestly reported the surge in Quake Fist’s brand value, and Hans and Hannibal exchanged praise for their successful scheme.

Yon-Rogg woke restrained in Dr. Horton's laboratory, where Horton extracted his bone marrow and revealed plans to use his genes to create a loyal army. As Yon-Rogg broke down, Horton ordered Sinclair to cut out his vocal cords and instructed his staff to experiment on the captured Kree Starforce as well.

• Yon-Rogg awoke restrained in Dr. Horton's laboratory, his injuries repaired and his body unable to move.
• Dr. Horton told Yon-Rogg that Talos had revealed Kree secrets and that the scientists wanted to study Yon-Rogg's genes.
• Dr. Horton extracted Yon-Rogg's bone marrow while Sinclair monitored his vital signs.
• Dr. Horton explained his plan to combine Yon-Rogg's genes, Compound V, and a stable energy source to create an obedient army modeled on Carol Danvers.
• Yon-Rogg broke down laughing as Dr. Horton ordered Sinclair to cut out his vocal cords and directed the staff to experiment on the captured Kree Starforce.

Dr. Phineas Horton discovered that Skrull transformations were controlled by a unique mental frequency and built a machine to detect and disrupt it. He told Lynn Morris that the device could identify Skrulls and kill them by making their cells collapse.

• Dr. Phineas Horton overclocked the telepathic probes studying the Skrull corpse and detected a faint, stable quantum frequency.
• Dr. Phineas Horton concluded that a mental frequency guided Skrull transformations and directed the lab to build a detector.
• Dr. Phineas Horton and the researchers completed the Eye of Truth prototype, which identified living Skrull tissue by its frequency.
• Dr. Phineas Horton tested a slightly altered frequency on the tissue, causing it to lose its biological structure and die.
• Dr. Phineas Horton called Lynn Morris and reported that the device could identify Skrulls and kill them with a wrong frequency.

Vought used the Eye of Truth and worldwide panic to pressure Talos into revealing that the surviving Skrulls were aboard a cloaked ship in low Earth orbit. After extracting the ship’s approximate location from Carol Danvers’s memories, Lynn ordered Gin to lead Operation Eden and capture every Skrull alive.

• Vought’s Eye of Truth devices identified Skrulls as humans were driven into a worldwide hunt for aliens.
• Amin showed Talos the spreading panic and offered Vought’s Eden as protection in exchange for cooperation.
• Talos revealed that the surviving Skrulls were aboard a cloaked ship in low Earth orbit, though he did not know its coordinates.
• A psychologist extracted information from Carol Danvers, allowing Vought to estimate the laboratory’s location and plan to find the ship.
• Amanda Waller told Lynn Morris that Vi and Carol Danvers were in a relationship, but Lynn dismissed it and summoned Gin.
• Lynn ordered Gin to lead Operation Eden, capture all Skrulls aboard the ship alive, and operate with an elite tactical squad and Clock Tower intelligence support.

Gin’s team captured Talos’s Skrull people and the Tesseract, while Amin revealed that Kepler-186f was a lie and that the Skrulls would be used as a gene pool. Lynn then learned that Carol Danvers had reached her Binary form after an energy explosion during a romantic encounter with Vi.

• Gin led a Vought squad onto the hidden Skrull ship, where sonic weapons incapacitated its inhabitants and the team captured 175 Skrulls and the Tesseract.
• Talos confronted Amin Arnold about the promised home, and Amin admitted that Kepler-186f was a lie and that the Skrulls were experimental materials for a gene pool.
• Lynn Morris reviewed the Eden project report as Selina Kyle informed him that Carol Danvers and Vi had blown up a villa in an energy resonance.
• Selina reported that Carol and Vi were unharmed but that the incident had fully activated Carol’s Binary form.
• Lynn studied a photograph of Carol surrounded by golden flames and wondered how romance had awakened her god-tier power.

Carol left Earth to explore the universe and settle scores with the Kree, promising to return home. By 2000, Vought was exploiting rising fear of Metahumans and preparing the genetically engineered New Guardians as manufactured celebrity heroes.

• Carol told Vi she would return to Earth, then flew into space toward Hala.
• By 2000, Metahumans and crime had spread, and Vought used public fear to strengthen its influence.
• Hans Landa and Miranda Priestly planned an advertising campaign and a staged crisis to introduce Vought's New Guardians.
• Dr. Phineas Horton explained that the Chimera Project had created powerful heroes using Kree genes, Skrull gene fragments, and Compound V, but their minds were blank and loyal to Vought.
• Lynn Morris told Horton he wanted marketable stars rather than expendable soldiers, and Horton offered to give the New Guardians customized personalities.

Hannibal Lecter ordered a plan to destroy Phantom’s reputation rather than kill him, and Vought staged a break-in using a Skrull impersonator. The chapter ended with the real Leo Cohen seeing the fabricated accusation on the news and realizing he had been framed.

• Hannibal Lecter rejected killing Phantom and ordered Victoria Hand to ruin his public image with a staged crime.
• Ada Wong oversaw Skrulls No. 07 impersonating Leo Cohen and teleporting into a girl’s bedroom as part of the Violet contingency plan.
• When the girl’s parents arrived, the impersonator escaped and left a replica of Leo’s glove behind as planted evidence.
• Nina Williams and Vought security secured the scene while Vought News prepared a story accusing Phantom of trying to molest a girl.
• Leo Cohen watched the breaking news report accuse him and dropped his beer in shock.

Hans Landa and Vought turned public opinion against Leo Cohen by framing Phantom as a criminal and psychopath, then introduced the New Guardians as his pursuers. Exhausted and trapped in the sewers, Leo questioned everything he had believed as something began to change inside Phantom.

• Hans Landa watched panic and hatred for Phantom rise as Vought's trolls flooded the internet with fabricated evidence and turned the public against him.
• A homeless man Leo had helped defended Phantom, but angry citizens accused him of being the hero's accomplice and crushed the food he had been given.
• Leo fled through familiar hideouts, but Vought's teams had laid traps at each one, forcing him to escape into the sewers.
• Hans ordered VNN to air a fake expert's diagnosis portraying Phantom as a controlling psychopath, and the New Guardians announced they would hunt him down.
• In the sewer, Leo examined the Vought supplement he had intended to give to the homeless and struggled to understand the injustice as something began to go wrong inside Phantom.

Nick Fury investigated Vought International and discovered that most of its executives had no traceable past, then ordered Maria Hill to find Leo Cohen. Hiding in a New York sewer, Leo realized Vought had used him as a scapegoat and began considering how to make the world remember him.

• Fury asked Barbara Minerva to bring him every file on Vought International.
• Fury reviewed Vought’s records and found that most of its core executives, including Hans Landa, Ada Wong, and Hannibal Lecter, had no verifiable histories.
• Maria Hill reported to Fury, who ordered her to find the real Leo Cohen and bring him in as a witness against Vought.
• Leo watched a news interview in which the New Guardians and a Vought charity were praised for bringing justice to the family he had supposedly attacked.
• Leo concluded that Vought had made him a stepping stone for the New Guardians and wondered how he could make everyone remember him.

Vought staged a sham trial that condemned Leo Cohen, prompting Nick Fury to classify the corporation as a top threat. Lynn Morris learned S.H.I.E.L.D. had found the Blood Orchid in the Amazon and sent Soldier Boy and others to retrieve it, where they might face S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.

• The New Guardians captured Leo Cohen, and Vought broadcast a rigged trial that convicted him of fabricated crimes and sentenced him to 300 years in prison.
• Nick Fury and Maria Hill learned that Vought had arranged Leo Cohen’s arrest and trial within hours, and Fury recognized the corporation’s growing power over public opinion and the justice system.
• Lynn Morris received Barbara Minerva’s report that S.H.I.E.L.D. had located the Blood Orchid’s range in the Amazon.
• Lynn ordered Motoko Kusanagi to send Soldier Boy and the others to the Amazon to retrieve Blood Orchid samples.
• Motoko briefed Soldier Boy on the mission, which permitted lethal force against hostile S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, and he welcomed the chance to fight.

After his defeat in the Phantom incident, Nick Fury recruited four Metahumans to form a covert team targeting Vought. As Fury believed the Wild Dog Project could undermine Vought, Lynn Morris learned that David Chen was secretly a Vought operative and the team’s formation had been reported.

• Nick Fury recruited Iris Jones, whose touch rusted metal, to his team.
• Fury approached Marco, who controlled shadows, and invited him to steal from Vought.
• Fury recruited mechanic David Chen, unaware that David secretly sent Vought a message identifying himself as Artisan.
• Fury persuaded former soldier Sarah Miller, who healed rapidly, to join his covert team.
• Fury assembled Iris, Marco, David, and Sarah on an abandoned subway platform and named their operation the Wild Dog Project.
• Lynn Morris reviewed Tali Zola’s report revealing that Vought had infiltrated David and knew about Fury’s team.

Marco Crono, a Hydra agent turned devotee of Lynn Morris, sabotaged the Wild Dogs’ first mission against Mole Man to make them look incompetent and the New Guardians look heroic. After the failed operation, Fury comforted the squad, unaware that Marco’s undercover work had only begun.

• Marco recalled how Professor Pyg’s course and Lynn Morris had converted him, and how a fabricated backstory helped him pass Fury’s screening.
• Fury briefed the Wild Dogs on their mission to stop Mole Man from attacking Diamond Arm’s home, and Marco secretly prepared to undermine the squad.
• During the fight in Queens, Marco deliberately shot Sarah, while David froze and the team’s defenses collapsed as Mole Man’s monsters threatened the house.
• Marco and the Wild Dogs appeared to fail in front of a VNN News helicopter, then the New Guardians arrived and defeated Mole Man and his monsters for the cameras.
• Back at the subway station, Fury reassured the battered squad, while Marco concealed his satisfaction and continued his undercover mission.

Barbara Minerva helped Soldier Boy, the Human Torch, and Yasuo ambush a S.H.I.E.L.D. team searching for Blood Orchids in the Amazon, then posed as the lone survivor and blamed the massacre on Hydra and the Winter Soldier. Fury believed her account enough to launch security measures and prepare a plan against Hydra, unaware that the supposed enemies were part of the same operation.

• Barbara Minerva led Jackson and his S.H.I.E.L.D. team to a hidden basin of Blood Orchids, where an enormous python attacked them.
• The Human Torch, Soldier Boy, and Yasuo ambushed the team, killed the agents, defeated the python, and collected the Blood Orchids.
• Barbara injured and dirtied herself to look like the sole survivor, then returned to S.H.I.E.L.D. and told Fury that the attackers included the Winter Soldier.
• Hill questioned whether Barbara had betrayed the team, but Fury trusted Director Carter's judgment and ordered the Amazon operation concealed.
• Fury raised S.H.I.E.L.D.'s security level, suspended Blood Orchid research, ordered a review of the Winter Soldier files, and activated the Wild Dog Project contingency plan.

Hans Landa rejected Yasuo’s lucrative endorsement offers and partnered with Chanel to create a perfume built around Yasuo’s image and ideals. As they left Paris, Hans told Miranda that Yasuo’s symbol alone was worth a billion dollars.

• Miranda Priestly told Hans Landa that Yasuo’s film had earned one billion dollars worldwide and that endorsement offers exceeded five hundred million.
• Hans Landa shredded the endorsement list, rejected the offers, and told Miranda to announce that Yasuo would continue his journey of cultivation.
• Hans Landa flew to Paris with Miranda and impressed Chanel designer Calvin by discussing Yasuo’s philosophical significance and the modern longing for solitude.
• Hans Landa and Calvin named the perfume Unfettered Blade, and Calvin ordered a high-priority partnership contract.
• On the private jet, Hans Landa told Miranda that Yasuo’s symbol was worth a billion dollars even without his personal involvement.