In the crossover, A.I.M. received a distress call from Rick Jones when he is taken into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody. Hawkeye decided to break with S.H.I.E.L.D. for good and supported a rescue mission. Hulkling, Wiccan and Squirrel Girl, the only three dissenters, were expelled from A.I.M. and teleported to the desert – Sunspot also conferred the name of "New Avengers" on them. The remaining A.I.M. field team successfully rescued Rick from the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s battlecarrier. In response, the U.S. military launched an attack on Avengers Island with the American Kaiju (a Marine corporal transmogrified into a giant lizard monster) – as A.I.M. evacuated the island, they battled the monster with the mentally-controlled giant robot Avenger Five. Meanwhile, S.H.I.E.L.D. also launched a counterattack as led by John Garrett, forcing Songbird to reveal that she had been a deep-cover S.H.I.E.L.D. mole. The American Kaiju was defeated by forcing it back into human form. Rick Jones got cold feet about throwing in with A.I.M. and fled, and as a result S.H.I.E.L.D. successfully detained Hawkeye. The remainder of A.I.M. successfully evacuated to Avenger Two, a secondary base in the Savage Land run by Sunspot's old friend Cannonball.