Captain America runs into Rick Jones outside Avengers Mansion. Cap has called a meeting of the Avengers and coincidentally Rick has something he wants to tell them.
Cap explains to Rick that it wasn't himself who turned on his young partner the last time they met in CA#116, but Red Skull in disguise.
Cap convenes the meeting and offers Iron Man and Thor's apologies for not attending, plus Black Panther's who is still in Wakanda.
Cap tells the assembled Avengers that SHIELD wants them to investigate the disappearance of 3 top New York officials. Dum-Dum Dugan (with Gabe Jones and Jimmy Woo in the background) contacts them to add that the sign of Scorpio (a baddie from SHIELD #1 and #5) was found in their apartments. And that Nick Fury, head of SHIELD, is dead, killed by Bulls-Eye in SHIELD #15.
After that video-conference, Rick interrupts to explain why he is here, which will be relevant. He tells them that, after being rejected by 'Cap', he went to Fury's apartment an hour ago, looking for a job in SHIELD. But he found Scorpio there, who temporarily knocked him out, but dropped a list of the 3 missing men.
Rick doesn't tell the Avengers of his recently acquired symbiosis with Captain Marvel. He just says Marvel popped up and fought Scorpio until blasted by the Zodiac Key.
Then Scorpio appears on their viewscreen and informs them that this has all been an elaborate plot to gather them together. He then blasts them unconscious with the Zodiac Key (through the viewscreen!). They wake up in stasis in his secret HQ.
Scorpio introduces them to 11 other costumed criminals, each embodying a sign of the zodiac. They are an international crime cartel called Zodiac led by Aries. Scorpio has captured the Avengers (as many as he could) to make up for the failure of his last 2 missions. He now returns the Zodiac Key to Aries.
Scorpio explains that Zodiac are intent on world domination, at least of the criminal element, and want to kill the Avengers to impress prospective subordinates.
The Avengers are immobile in the stasis field. But Wasp and Yellowjacket have combined mental powers to send ants to disrupt Scorpio's machinery. the heroes break free and attack the villains. To be joined by Scorpio who whips off his mask to reveal himself as Nick Fury.
The heroes are winning until Aries starts to use the Zodiac Key on them. But Rick, who has resisted swapping places with Mar-Vell to assert his independence, grabs Aries' arm and diverts his shot to blow a hole in the wall. Through which Zodiac escape.
Fury tells the Avengers about the ending of SHIELD #5 where he discovered the identity of Scorpio, who was presumed dead at the end of that issue. It is only here that he reveals that Scorpio was his brother Jake. He claims that since then he has been moonlighting part-time as Scorpio to infiltrate Zodiac. While he was in Scorpio-mode an LMD took his place at SHIELD. And it was this LMD that was shot in SHIELD #15, which only Dugan knows about.
Fury engineered the current situation to get the whole Zodiac cartel in the grasp of the Avengers. If Wasp and Yellowjacket hadn't freed them he would have done it himself. Unfortunately Zodiac got away.
Cap praises Rick for saving them from the Zodiac Key, and asks him to return as his partner. But Rick turns the offer down because Mar-Vell needs him.