Appearing in "The Flaw In All Things: Part 4"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- S.H.I.E.L.D.
- Field Director Phil Coulson
- Agent Jemma Simmons
- Numerous unnamed agents
Antagonists:
- I.D.I.C.
- Adam Roderick (First appearance)
- Numerous unnamed agents
Other Characters:
- God (Yahweh) (Mentioned)
- Charles Xavier (Photo)
- Sarah Roderick (Mentioned)
- William Roderick (Mentioned)
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Earth
- Transia
- Tower of Wisdom (Mentioned)
Items:
Vehicles:
- S.H.I.E.L.D. Battlecarrier Pericles
Synopsis for "The Flaw In All Things: Part 4"
Pausing briefly to think about the building he is about to enter - a cult stronghold built on the graves of prehuman gods - Karnak leaves the Battlecarrier Pericles to pick his path through the field of defenders he killed, and recover the young man he was tasked to find.
The stronghold, the Church of the Single Shadow, is vast, incorporating Gothic architecture, an Art Deco silhouette, and biological shapes. Karnak is left to ponder that these I.D.I.C. cultists want large stages to perform on, want to be seen... and almost misses that in the center of the church is a single shadow. He looks up - and is suddenly attacked by a squad of chalk-white humanoids on aerial silks!
Fighting back, Karnak barely has time to see that the aerial silks are actually umbilicals, connecting them to a structure on the ceiling, a cyclopean eye with a black sun for an iris.
Fighting back, Karnak proceeds to comprehensively defeat the humanoids, though their ability to projectile-spit a black substance is initially a challenge. Standing over their corpses, Karnak is suddenly greeted by Adam Roderick and a group of bodyguards. Roderick is conversational, which stumps Karnak, as he was originally hired to rescue Roderick. Roderick explains that the cult rescued him. He thought he had come through the terrible miracle of his Terrigenesis as nothing, but they showed he could change the world with his new gift. Adam Roderick works his will on the world, in his words, like drawing. He wanted to create an eye that could see to the end of time and fight all efforts to close it, and the Church of the Single Shadow occurred in response.
Karnak explains that his parents miss him very much, but Roderick withdraws from the issue. He says his parents never wanted anything for him, or anything from him, only that he be happy. He is happy. But he has grown beyond them. Nevertheless, he asks Karnak to tell them that he loves them, and that he is drawing again.
Karnak jumps forward to punch a bodyguard, but strikes a forcefield. With a wave of his hand, Roderick teleports himself and the bodyguards away, leaving Karnak to lament that murder is a perfect solution to almost all human problems.
Going outside the Church, he contacts Phil Coulson on the battlecarrier and asks for his message to be recorded. Then he formally notifies S.H.I.E.L.D. that the Church of the Single Shadow, in his opinion, constitutes an existential threat to continued Earthly life, and requests that S.H.I.E.L.D. demolish it.
Solicit Synopsis
• A death cult has abducted an Inhuman child and installed him as their messiah.
• Magister Karnak of the Tower of Wisdom, hired by the family to retrieve the boy... might be finding that the death cult members are not the bad guys.
