Iron Man is supervising the sealing off of Avengers mansion. The Avengers abandoned it last issue, after the deaths of Yellowjacket (Rita DeMara), Marilla and Gilgamesh, and an enemy Neut coming through the door in the basement. The Avengers have temporarily relocated to Janet Van Dyne's estate.
Iron Man, Giant-Man and Vision investigate the basement where Marilla was killed (and where the mystery door is). Giant-Man finds an interesting fragment of technology which Iron Man takes, claiming it belongs to him and is irrelevant. Vision leaves in response to a call from Avengers' ally Swordsman (Philip Javert), who was told to contact the Avengers by Tuc and a Priest of Pama last issue.
Swordsman, in the grounds of Stark's country retreat, is confronted by a green plant being, a Cotati, dressed like Swordsman. The mystery woman from The Crossing 1-shot appears through a portal, this time not as an insubstantial vision, but riding a chair. She uses the chair to control the portal, and brings Malachi and Tobias with her to attack the Cotati. Swordsman and Vision defend him. Tuc (from the last 2 issues) arrives and tries to help them, but someone stops him. Malachi and Tobias defeat Swordsman and Vision, and capture the Cotati. The mystery woman stops Malachi and Tobias from killing Swordsman and Vision by reminding them they must all go back through the portal with the Cotati before it closes. Capturing the Cotati was their mother's prime objective.
Note that Tobias has eye-beams like Vision's and Malachi has a jewel in his forehead like Vision's. They are the twins the mystery woman warned about in The Crossing. And here she refers to them as her cousins.
Tuc says things aren't happening as history recorded. (But then this isn't necessarily a bad thing, as in his history the Avengers lose.) 'She' (the assailants' mistress) shouldn't have captured the Cotati. Vision believes the mystery woman's sympathies lie on the Avengers' side.
Young Luna tells her parents Crystal and Quicksilver she saw Yellowjacket murdered in The Crossing.
Note that Black Widow and Hercules sit this issue out. As does Wasp, even though the Avengers are living in her house.
Tony Stark is surprised to find the 'interesting fragment of technology' in his pocket, and is mentally transported to a void where a woman orders him to kill young Luna because she is a witness.
Malachi's group make 'a great crossing'. Malachi and Tobias's father is away 'on a tour of the borders', but they take the Cotati to their mother. She is the woman from Stark's void. She is Mantis, and greets the Cotati as her ex-husband.
The Crossing continues in
IRON MAN #321.
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