The Gatherers visit Earth-355 just minutes before that alternate world’s total destruction, finding Earth-355’s Avengers dead except for the Coal Tiger, whom they abduct and take back with them to Earth-616. The Gatherers have been recruiting alternate-reality Avengers like this for some time, though the process unsettles rookie Gatherer Swordsman. The group reports to their leader Proctor, who voices his hatred of the Avengers’ Sersi once he is alone. Elsewhere, Sersi’s fellow Eternal Sprite has approached her on behalf of the other Eternals, who are worried about Sersi’s mental stability, but Sersi brushes off their concerns. Back at Avengers HQ, the team has discovered that cloaked intruders have penetrated the HQ repeatedly, so Black Knight and Vision develop a new scanner designed to catch these intruders. Meanwhile, the growing mutual attraction between Black Knight and Crystal is complicated by Sersi’s passionate romantic interest in the Knight, who can’t quite fully resist Sersi’s charms, and Black Widow responds to Hercules’ oddly shy romantic interest in Taylor Madison by inviting Taylor to dinner at the HQ. Straining to stabilize the Coal Tiger’s brain chemistry, Proctor realizes the only permanent solution is to find and kill the Tiger’s Earth-616 counterpart. Proctor sends the Gatherers to steal information from Avengers HQ’s records, but the Avengers catch them in the act. Battle ensues until Cassandra fells the Avengers with an unexpected psychic blast and the Gatherers escape.