Captain America calls the Avengers together to announce that he’s quitting the team to focus on being Steve Rogers. Shocked by the unexpected departure the Avengers go their separate ways, with Hawkeye visiting Natasha while Hank and Jan take a vacation. Hercules returns to Mount Olympus, but finds it inexplicably abandoned. Meanwhile, at Garrett Castle, Dr. Dane Whitman’s experiment at interstellar communication puts him unexpectedly in contact with Magneto, who has been confined on an alien world by the Stranger. With Dr. Whitman’s experiment an apparent success, his assistant Norris knocks the scientist unconscious, seeking to claim the discovery’s glory for himself. Using Whitman’s magnetic device he transports Magneto and Toad back to Earth, but Magneto thanks his savior by placing both Norris and Whitman in the dungeon, then broadcasts an anonymous message for Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, seeking to re-recruit them for his cause of world domination. The two Avengers soon arrive at the castle, battling the castle’s defenses before Magneto confronts them. When they turn down his recruitment offer, he knocks them unconscious.