On a storm-swept cliff in a space-time abyss, Lloigoroth grants Grim Reaper the power he craves, which Reaper uses to crash an airliner into farmland, killing all on board. Sent by the Pentagon to investigate, the Avengers recover the black box recorder, along with strangely glowing wreckage. Meanwhile, in the subways beneath Manhattan, Reaper teleports an entire subway train through a yawning vortex. Later, at Avengers HQ, Reaper materializes out of the recorder and challenges the Avengers to meet him in the caverns where he died. Racing to the site, the Avengers descend into the caverns. Reaper sends mystical conjurations of night creatures against the Avengers, but when Crystal destroys all the creatures in a burst of flame, Reaper summons a giant vortex that swallows the Avengers.