- "You allow S.H.I.E.L.D. to fill your veins with poison and parade you around as an example. Of what? S.H.I.E.L.D. claims to be a beacon for humanity, what it really is is a safe haven for Inhumanity."
- ―Superior to Jeffrey Mace[src]
The Kidnapping of Jeffrey Mace was an attempt by the Superior and the Watchdogs to exact revenge against Phil Coulson for the deaths of his former SVR colleagues.
Background[]
- "I am a soldier. In a war to protect humanity. I can still be that soldier."
- ―Tucker Shockley to Superior[src]
Tucker Shockley blowing up Ellen Nadeer
Watchdog Tucker Shockley discovered, much to his horror, that he was an Inhuman when he shattered a Terrigen Crystal intended to affect Senator Ellen Nadeer. He underwent Terrigenesis and his newfound powers were released, triggering a massive explosion at the United States Capitol. Shockley escaped but was ultimately captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. and taken to Zephyr One. There, he tried to blow up the plane to kill all people onboard before being ejected out by Jeffrey Mace and Leo Fitz. Shockley exploded and rebuilt his body before calling his Superior and confessing that he was an Inhuman. Despite the Superior's disgust, Shockley resolved to keep working as an Inhuman hunter.[3]
Attack[]
Mace's Abduction[]
S.H.I.E.L.D. sees the incoming Watchdogs
- "Let those animals destroy each other. We have the Inhuman Director of S.H.I.E.L.D."
- ―Superior to Patriot[src]
While Quake worked on a way to defuse Tucker Shockley's power using his own and Leo Fitz designed a containment sphere to capture him, Shockley blew up a motel, forcing S.H.I.E.L.D. to track him down. They found him down a road in the desert and Quake confronted Shockley. Quake figured out that since she was unable to defuse him, she would make him explode again and again to exhaust him. However, S.H.I.E.L.D. figured out that Shockley had lured them into an ambush for them to be captured by the Watchdogs.
Director Jeffrey Mace chose to sacrifice himself and ran towards the Watchdogs vehicles, blocking them while Jemma Simmons and Leo Fitz escaped. Although Mace tried to fight back, he was quickly overrun and subdued with Taser Rods, rendering unconscious before he was captured by the Superior. Meanwhile, Fitz, Simmons and Quake managed to contain Shockley in the containment sphere and returned to the Playground to devise a plan to rescue Mace.[3]
Mace was taken to the Superior's base in Krasnoyarsk Krai, where he was locked in a cell and put in chains, his powers weakening as the effects of the Patriot Serum slowly disappeared. Mace managed to break his chains and tried to evade from his cell before being caught by the Superior, who defeated him in hand-in-hand combat and locked him up again. Mace was tied up to a chair and when he regained consciousness, the Superior expressed his disgust at Mace as he was merely posing as an Inhuman. During his interrogation of him, the Superior drew one of his knives and began cutting into Mace's skin, before eventually stopping.[4]
Rescue Attempt[]
S.H.I.E.L.D. assaults Anton Ivanov's base
- "They've been baiting us this whole time. We may face strong opposition. Trap doors, sharks with lasers, who knows? It doesn't matter. What matters is getting our people back, so let's get ready."
- ―Phil Coulson[src]
Meanwhile, S.H.I.E.L.D. kept investigating Jeffrey Mace's kidnapping, learning about the existence of the Superior and his obsession for Phil Coulson, who he suspected to be responsible for all the alien-related events that had recently occurred on Earth. S.H.I.E.L.D. eventually located the Superior's base at Krasnoyarsk Krai and decided to storm the place. The team split up to find Mace and take control of the base. Coulson was found the Superior who confronted him about the events of the Infiltration into the Burkov Mining Facility. Before they could fight, Quake joined them and decided to take down the Superior herself while Coulson left to find Mace. After a violent fight, Quake collapsed the ceiling on the Superior, heavily wounding him.
The Life-Model Decoys posing as agents
While Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons went to the communications room, they heard about the presence of Aida, prompting Simmons to try to find her with James Davis. In the meantime, Coulson and Alphonso Mackenzie found Mace being beaten and tortured by several Watchdogs, who they got rid of before rescuing Mace. However, as the different agents were separated, four of them were captured and replaced by Life-Model Decoys: Coulson, Mackenzie, Mace and Fitz.[4]
Aftermath[]
LMD Invasion[]
S.H.I.E.L.D. agents locked in the Framework
- "The timetable of this mission is bothering me."
- ―Jemma Simmons[src]
Phil Coulson, Jeffrey Mace, Leo Fitz, and Alphonso Mackenzie were all connected to the Framework, where they lived a rewritten life in which their greatest regret had been removed, while Life-Model Decoys imitating them were sent to the Playground. Only Jemma Simmons and Daisy Johnson returned safely to the base without having been replaced.
Once she was back, Simmons realized that there was something wrong about the timetable of the whole event: in particular, there was an interval of time during which no one has been in contact with someone else and which could not be explained. She voiced these concerns to Leo Fitz, unaware that he had been replaced by an android. Soon after, she found out that Coulson, Mace, and Mackenzie had been replaced by LMDs, leaving her surrounded by enemies.[4]
New Bodies[]
- "See, good as new. And stronger it seems."
- ―Aida to Anton Ivanov[src]
As the Superior had been heavily wounded in the battle, Aida assumed it would be better for him to be given mechanical android bodies he could remotely control instead of trying to heal his wounds. Thus, Aida severed Ivanov's head, keeping it alive with sophisticated equipment, while she created a robotic body he could control. Although Ivanov was at first disgusted by this new way of living, he got used to it and created several mechanical bodies of his own, remotely and simultaneously controlling them all.[5]