Marianne Rodgers was a girlfriend of Stark's, starting from #36. She developed psychic powers which drove her mad, and was last seen in #107. She now escapes from the Stark-owned private mental institute in California, because she has a sudden urge to see Tony Stark. (I don't remember Marianne being the accomplished athlete as she appears to be here.)
The escape is watched by a figure wearing Madame Masque's mask. It appears to me that she has something to do with Marianne's escape, but this is never made clear anywhere.
Meanwhile Priests of Pama hack through the jungles of Vietnam to find their Temple of Agaphaur gone. Note that their cry of 'Kreelara' derives from their Kree origins.
It's a few days after the Avengers reunion in Avengers: The Crossing, and Iron Man is executing a one-man war on crime in L/A. Then Stark opens a park he's paid for.
Tony contacts the Avengers' government liaison Peter Gyrich on a private line and agrees that the Avengers are getting out of control. He brushes off security chief Bethany Cabe's concerns about his secret phone calls and shutting her out.
In that lab robot Machinesmith updates Stark with progress on various projects, and has deduced how Stark intends to use them in the Starcore project. One of the projects is the so-called weather regulation process, which is probably the chronographic weapon we will learn about in Force Works #19, intended to move Earth out of its timeline. The revolutionary communications uplink is probably how the secret computer in Force Works basement will control the weapon when it is installed in the Starcore satellite.
Tony switches Machinesmith off when he gets a private call. But then fades to black, during which time he has a vision of a girl, familiar to us from Avengers: The Crossing, who again utters cryptic sentences.
When he returns to conciousness he is in his kitchen with no knowledge of how he got there. Bethany is making a meal when she sees a female outlined by a flash of lightning. Tony has gone outside to try to make sense of what's happening to him.
The Crossing continues in
AVENGERS #392.
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