As the Civil War rages, the Thinker and the Puppet Master have cooked up a scheme to eliminate a large number of heroes all at once. They feed Captain America's side information about the Government's prisoner transportation, to ensure that he'll be able to attack it. With both sides fighting each other, the Puppet Master can control all of the non-super-powered people nearby to cause chaos, and attempt to destroy the transports while the captive heroes are still inside. Ben Grimm is caught in the middle of the conflict, and is the only one to figure out what's going on. When a member of the Yancy Street gang is killed by the explosion, Ben makes his decision... he doesn't believe in the registration act and can't support it, but won't fight against the government either so he decides to leave the country.