Chapter Summaries

One week after the Washington disaster, Zhao Fan learned that D.O.D.C. would become an independent agency with authority over battlefield salvage, and he ordered the team to secure the Helicarrier wreckage. He examined his growing abilities and began planning armor powered by a Stark reactor, while preparing to face military observer Brock Rumlow.

• Evelyn told Zhao Fan that D.O.D.C. was being reorganized as an independent enforcement agency with priority rights over battlefield remnants, subject to oversight from the military, government, and Stark Industries.
• Zhao Fan ordered Evelyn to seek resources from Tony Stark and accepted the Washington cleanup assignment, where Brock Rumlow would serve as the military observer.
• Zhao Fan reviewed his abilities and realized that absorbing more energy was overloading his body, so he sought a core that could govern and strengthen his powers.
• Zhao Fan analyzed the Next-Generation Repulsor Engine Core and planned to use it as an external power source for a custom suit of armor.
• Old Dog warned Zhao Fan that Rumlow had become a pain-insensitive killing machine with experimental prosthetics, and Zhao Fan welcomed the coming confrontation.

One week after the Washington crisis, Zhao Fan and S.C.U. settled into their secret base while Evelyn warned that Rumlow was building a Hydra-backed team. She proposed using an art competition and a D.O.D.C. job to protect Maya Chen, leaving Zhao Fan to accept that his growing power would reshape the lives of those close to him.

• Zhao Fan adjusted to his enhanced energy perception in S.C.U.'s new Queens base as he questioned whether the group had become heroes or a necessary evil.
• Evelyn told Zhao Fan that Rumlow had formed Rattlesnake to gather escaped Hydra agents and pursue superhuman threats.
• Evelyn revealed that she had investigated Maya Chen and considered Zhao Fan's connection to her a vulnerability.
• Evelyn proposed that D.O.D.C. invite Maya to win an art competition and become director of its publicity department, with secure housing and protection.
• Zhao Fan agreed to let Evelyn arrange Maya's recruitment, then thanked her for protecting him and those he cared about.

At D.O.D.C.’s New York art exhibition, Evelyn Reed used the event to assert the agency’s independence and announce Maya Chen’s appointment as its first public relations director. Zhao Fan watched from the shadows, believing D.O.D.C. would protect Maya even as her new life became an invisible cage.

• Maya Chen attended D.O.D.C.’s exhibition, where her sculpture, “Seed Beneath the Ruins,” drew the most attention.
• Zhao Fan and Old Dog Jose monitored the gallery from a rooftop, while Zhao explained that D.O.D.C. had secured the building and its systems.
• Evelyn Reed rebuffed Senator Stern’s, Stark Industries’ representative’s, and General Phillips’ attempts to influence D.O.D.C.’s funding, assets, and salvage operations.
• Evelyn named Maya the exhibition’s gold prize winner and announced that D.O.D.C. had hired her to lead its new Department of Propaganda.
• Zhao ended the rooftop watch and left, while Maya celebrated her new position inside the gallery.

Zhao Fan uncovered twelve unstable Hydra phase-change energy rifles in the Triskelion wreckage, but Brock Rumlow arrived with armed soldiers to seize them. Zhao Fan used legal authority, communications interference, and hidden sentry turrets to force Rumlow's convoy to withdraw, leaving him secretly tracked by a Nanobug.

• Zhao Fan discovered a sealed Hydra crate containing twelve fully charged phase-change energy rifles and ordered S.C.U. to move it to the New York base.
• Brock Rumlow arrived with a military convoy and demanded that Zhao Fan hand over the Hydra materials, but Zhao Fan cited D.O.D.C.'s authority and warned that the soldiers lacked proper protection.
• Rumlow knocked Zhao Fan's tablet aside and ordered his soldiers to aim their weapons at Zhao Fan and the cleanup crew.
• Benjamin disrupted the soldiers' communications, and Zhao Fan revealed hidden Tarantula sentry turrets that forced Rumlow to lower his weapons and leave.
• Zhao Fan revealed that he had secretly attached a tracking Nanobug to Rumlow's exoskeleton.

Zhao Fan and Evelyn Reed managed disputes over the Washington cleanup site while protecting the S.C.U.’s recovered Hydra technology from military and corporate claims. Evelyn arranged Maya Chen’s promotion and invited Zhao Fan to her celebration, but he chose to remain at the ruins, where Rumlow’s hostility still threatened them.

• Evelyn Reed refused General Ross’s demand to send troops into a Class A energy contamination zone and complained that the military, politicians, and Stark Industries were trying to claim wreckage and technology.
• Zhao Fan told Evelyn that he had secured twelve Hydra Phase-Change Energy Rifles and two exoskeleton thrusters in Underground Vault Three, where Benjamin was disabling their chips.
• Zhao Fan explained that Brock Rumlow’s Rattlesnake team had tried to seize a crate of quantum hard drives, and Evelyn warned that Rumlow would retaliate after Zhao Fan humiliated him.
• Evelyn gave Zhao Fan Maya Chen’s appointment letter and described her new director position, secure office, apartment, and surprise celebration at D.O.D.C. headquarters.
• Zhao Fan declined to fly to New York for Maya’s celebration and chose to stay at the Washington ruins, while Evelyn locked the unopened appointment letter in her safe.

Zhao Fan tested the Nightmare prototype, a bio-armor powered by the Helicarrier’s repulsor core, but its metal frame melted under the heat and energy. After the test revealed that vibranium could solve the material problem, he planned to steal some from Ulysses Klaue and recruit Kestrel for the operation.

• Zhao Fan and Evelyn prepared a full-system coupling test for the Nightmare prototype using titanium alloy plates and the salvaged repulsor core.
• Zhao Fan connected to the armor and fired an amplified blast that melted a steel target, but the armor’s conduits overloaded and its frame began to melt.
• Benjamin cut the power, and Evelyn diagnosed the prototype’s failure as a lack of heat resistance and energy conductivity in its materials.
• Zhao Fan’s system identified vibranium as a suitable material, so he revealed intelligence about Ulysses Klaue’s stolen stockpile in Africa.
• Zhao Fan decided to recruit Kestrel for an illegal operation and told Benjamin to offer knowledge and a chance to survive the coming chaos.

Zhao Fan defeated Kestrel and recruited her, revealing her identity as Yelena Belova and promising to fund her younger sister’s treatment. He equipped her at the S.C.U. base and prepared the team to steal vibranium from Ulysses Klaue in Africa.

• Zhao Fan stopped Kestrel’s attack with his powers and offered her medicine and work in the S.C.U.’s special operations auxiliary team.
• Kestrel accepted Zhao Fan’s offer on the condition that he pay her little sister’s remaining treatment costs, and revealed her name as Yelena Belova.
• Zhao Fan introduced Yelena to Old Dog, Ben, and Evelyn at the S.C.U. base, where Evelyn assessed her physical abilities.
• Evelyn gave Yelena nanofiber body armor and high-frequency alloy blades made from recovered mothership material.
• Zhao Fan briefed the team on their mission to steal vibranium from Ulysses Klaue’s shipyard in Africa and ordered them to return alive.

Zhao Fan’s team prepared to raid Ulysses Klaue’s shipbreaking-yard base in Africa and seize his Vibranium, which Zhao Fan needed to build a stronger energy system. As the Quinjet approached the Gulf of Guinea, the system assigned Zhao Fan a mission to take all of Klaue’s raw Vibranium and offered rewards for completing it.

• Benjamin Lee briefed Zhao Fan’s team on Klaue’s Vibranium theft, sonic weapons, and fortified base, and Zhao Fan assigned roles for the raid.
• Zhao Fan explained that Vibranium could contain and redirect his unstable energy, then gave Yelena Belova modified Widow’s Bite bracers.
• Old Dog Jose and Benjamin prepared their equipment while Evelyn Reed stayed behind to cover the operation from New York.
• Zhao Fan, Yelena, Old Dog, and Benjamin boarded the Quinjet and flew toward Klaue’s base, planning to disable its power and alarms.
• Klaue dismissed a radar anomaly and prepared his sonic bombs as Zhao Fan’s team approached; the system then assigned Zhao Fan a mission to seize Klaue’s raw Vibranium.

Zhao Fan, Yelena, Old Dog, and Benjamin launched a coordinated assault on Ulysses Klaue’s scrapyard to seize its vibranium. After Yelena disabled the command center and Zhao Fan fought through the guards, Klaue attacked him with a sonic cannon.

• Yelena infiltrated the scrapyard through a hidden waterway, eliminated sentries, and followed Benjamin’s directions to the command center.
• Old Dog detonated a thermobaric bomb in the southern fuel storage area, drawing away Klaue’s guards as Yelena entered the command center and Benjamin disabled its defenses.
• Zhao Fan crashed through the main gate, withstood the mercenaries’ gunfire, and forced a minor leader to reveal where Klaue and the vibranium were located.
• Zhao Fan sensed the vibranium and advanced toward Klaue’s palace while Old Dog attacked the remaining mercenaries.
• Klaue emerged with a sonic cannon, damaged Zhao Fan’s hard carapace with a high-frequency attack, and fired a sonic projectile at him.

Zhao Fan and his team defeated Ulysses Klaue by destroying his sonic weapons and exploiting a gap in the Sonic Maze, then captured him and seized his Vibranium. They escaped the shipyard with the ore and sonic technology as Zhao Fan prepared to return to New York with new resources for his armor.

• Zhao Fan dodged Klaue’s Sonic Crusher, then used heat and electricity to disrupt its sonic wave and destroyed the weapon with an internal shock.
• Klaue activated the shipyard’s Sonic Maze, but Zhao Fan found a weakened southern sector and directed Benjamin to disable its control system.
• Yelena wounded Klaue, and Zhao Fan and Yelena kept him alive as a captive and bargaining chip.
• Zhao Fan tore open the Wakandan-marked door and discovered raw Vibranium and an incomplete Sonic Solidification Generator blueprint.
• Zhao Fan ordered his team to collect the Vibranium, search for research materials, erase evidence, and keep Klaue alive.
• The team left the shipyard aboard a Quinjet, and Zhao Fan examined the Vibranium beside the Repulsor Engine Core in System Space.