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Short Story
The door to Alpha Flight’s training room opens and team leader, Heather Hudson walks in, announcing to Eugene Judd a.k.a. Puck that she is here for her battle training. Upon seeing Heather, Judd shouts No! – for she is wearing the costume of her dead husband, Alpha Flight’s former leader – Guardian. Heather smiles and asks her diminutive teammate if something is wrong before reminding him that she always felt rather inadequate as Alpha Flight’s team leader without having any powers to call her own. Heather reveals that she found the power, a battle-suit just like the one Mac wore, and now she wants Puck to supply the training.
Judd thinks to himself that Heather briefly encountered power in their most recent adventure with the X-Men, and after the way she was victimized by two villains recently – Deadly Earnest and Scramble – he should have foreseen that Heather might try to make herself equal to those whom she leads. Judd reminds Heather that the costume couldn’t keep Mac from dying, as it was the suit’s power pack that blew up. Heather flies up above Judd and declares that the costume didn’t kill Mac but his lack of combat skill did, for Mac was a scientist not a soldier, while Heather was just a secretary then, his wife.
Heather reminds Judd that he and the rest of Alpha Flight saw fit to elect her as team leader and now she wants him to give her the edge that Mac lacked. Make me a warrior, declares Heather as she is propelled through the air by the electromagnetic battle suit. Watching from the training room’s control room are Roger Bochs a.k.a. Box and Alpha Flight’s ally Madison Jeffries. Bochs declares that the battle suit responds to Heather’s every thought, and Jeffries reminds him that he servo-linked the circuitry to Heather’s brainwaves. Jeffries declares that those very same circuits let “Dark Guardian” mimic the original and he figured he could make them work for Alpha Flight.
Bochs admits that he is not too thrilled Heather is wearing the remains of the robot that tried to kill Alpha Flight and murdered her husband, however he is comforted in the fact that of Delphine Courtney’s remains her malevolent “brain” was not among the scrap. Bochs adds that from all the instrument indications the suit is functioning flawlessly. Jeffries says bugger the instruments, Boxxie, let’s put it through its paces in a real test. He reveals that Alpha Flight’s “Danger Room” was patterned after the X-Men’s, but with one important exception, as he is a transmutator of metal and machines, it is he who runs the whole show.
Jeffries smacks one of his hands into the other and with that gesture two large beams zoom out from the walls and clamp together – Heather dodging them just in time. Judd looks up and remembers that when Heather asked him to train her he thought it would be just basic defensive tactics and that it never occurred to him she would have Bochs and Jeffries re-create the Guardian suit. However he can understand why she did it, but Mac learned the hard way they one cannot just acquire super powers. Most of Alpha Flight were born with powers, while Judd himself never needed more than his own agility.
Judd springs over the beams while thinking that Heather is coming to this job literally from a desk job, however combat is not a “9-5” job and he knows he has to talk some sense into her. However as he is in mid leap he is struck by the pain that he is so often struck by. Judd lands awkwardly while knowing that now is exactly the time when he would strike him, when he knows that he will forget to focus past the pain due to concern over the one he loves.
Deadly balls with spikes on them are shot up at Heather who manages to keep herself from harm thanks to the suit’s forcefields. Heather thinks that it is more than just the suit as she can almost feel the power flowing through her. Heather is so exhilarated that she has forgotten about Judd, however he is incapable of forgetting about her and sprinting back into action reminds himself that he has held the pain in check for too many years to let it overwhelm him now. However every move he makes to reach Heather sends new agony into his body. Heather however is not in any need of assistance and Jeffries and Bochs are both happy with the way the suit is performing.
Bochs suggests that they test Heather, wondering if she can cut it in a combat situation. Jeffries makes another gesture and the machinery he commands obeys, in the form of a giant claw coming from the ceiling and clamping down on Heather. Heather manages to slip free and realizes that if someone more powerful than Jeffries had been controlling it, it might have crushed her. Heather remembers what Wolverine once said when he was still with Alpha Flight – The best defense is an offense. Heather uses concussive energy-beams on the claw before asking Judd if it isn't the Mayor of New York who is known for asking How’m I doing?
Judd reminds Heather that this is a simulation, designed to mimic real combat conditions and in a real battle one cannot afford to get cocky or distracted. Heather asks Judd if he is going to offer advice now after refusing to train her and snaps at him, saying that she is doing just fine without either. Just then a metal beam shoots out at Heather and knocks her in the air, causing her glasses to fall off. Judd thinks that it was idiotic of Jeffries and Bochs not to have advised Heather to wear contact lenses before putting on the battle suit. Judd tells Heather not to be concerned as he will get them – however he misses them and they crack as they land on the hard ground.
Up in the air, Heather asks Judd why he called out, reminding him she is near-sighted and therefore can’t see him. Bochs admits that he is not so sure about this but since Heather wanted the danger levels high he tells Jeffries to let loose the hunter-seekers. Jeffries does so while saying that Heather better be up for it as the hunter-seekers can really knock you around if they connect with you. Heather can hear something rushing towards her, and as it comes into her plane of vision she sees that they are missiles. Heather realizes she has to get away from them, but they track her every move.
Backed up against a wall, Heather tells herself that any self-respecting enemy of Alpha Flight would know about and devise weapons capable of locking onto the suit’s electronic fields and realizes that if she is going to survive this game she has to out think as well as out fight her foes. Shocked, Bochs declares that the instruments are not registering any power flow from the battle suit’s electromagnetic array. He wonders if it has failed as Jeffries declares that Heather has shut it off, and the missiles are moving too fast for him to do anything.
Judd looks up at Heather – who with the suit turned off starts to fall from the air, just as the missiles fly past her and smash into the wall. Heather declares that her plan worked and Judd realizes that the suit didn’t fail as he catches her in his arms. Heather tells him that of course it didn’t, but as long as the power pack was on she figured the missiles would keep homing in on her, so she turned it off to throw the missiles off, and looking at Judd tells him she knew he would be there to catch her.
Judd tells himself that the pain almost prevented him from doing so, but he knew he had to do it to save the woman he loves. Judd calls Heather a fool, and leaping from his arms Heather takes to the air, asking if she is a fool because she wants to be able to share the dangers she sends her team into or because she wanted to survive the way her husband could not. Heather reminds Judd that he has seen more combat and survived more battles than all of Alpha Flight combined and thought that he would be able to help train her. Picking up her broken glasses and getting back onto the ground Heather informs Judd that if he will not help train her she knows someone else who will.
Bochs and Jeffries enter the training room and Jeffries tells her she was great, Bochs agrees and informs Heather that both she and the suit performed above expectations. Heather looks at her glasses and states that she survived, as opposed to the glasses. Roger tells her that he noticed that and has devised a solution. He hands Heather some goggles, which can be attached to her costume and as Heather puts them on Bochs informs her that they are the correct prescription. Heather proclaims that they look and feel like her sunglasses and Jeffries informs her they are her sunglasses, just altered somewhat. Bochs reveals that the glasses have been super-hardened and specially treated to be unbreakable.
Heather thanks Roger and Madison, and walking from the training room she tells them that they have provided her with the power she needed to make herself a contributing member of Alpha Flight. Heather adds that all she needs to do now is find someone sympathetic enough to train her in the use of that power. Bochs turns to the silent Judd and asks him if he has any idea whom Heather is referring to. Bochs turns his back and mumbles that he has a good idea before Roger tells Judd that he knows he has feelings for Heather and asks why he will not give her the training that she wants. Judd starts to walk from the training room and tells Roger that Heather is a novice in a profession notably lacking in pity when it comes to apprentices. Judd declares that he doesn’t want to see Heather get hurt because he cares for her and because I’m just a lousy little dwarf who lacks the right to tell her so. Roger tells Judd that he is being rather hard on himself and offers some help, to which Judd turns down, asking what kind of help a cripple could offer another cripple.
As Judd walks through a corridor in one of the sub-levels of Mansion Alpha he belittles himself for alienating the woman he secretly loves and a friend who never did him any harm. He wonders if he has been a loner for so long now that he is afraid of anything that might change his status, however he thinks he already made that change when he joined Alpha Flight. Suddenly, Judd keels over from the pain, which he thinks is worse than ever. Judd knows that it all started again when he used Nemesis’ sword to kill Deadly Earnest, however he had no choice, as he had to kill Earnest to save Heather, breaking his promise to Guardian that he would never kill again when he was paroled into Beta Flight.
Puck manages to get himself into a elevator and falls over inside it, he realizes that breaking the promise really shook him up, even if Earnest did deserve death, adding to that the way he feels about Heather getting herself hurt has him all torn up inside and when he is confused he knows he cannot focus past the pain. Judd knows that he senses that, and after decades of torturing him from within he has found his chance to get out. Judd wonders why he should suffer still, for he has suffered enough, and it would be so easy to stop fighting and let go, enabling him to offer himself to Heather as he was, not a half-man anymore. He wonders if dwarves deserve happiness too and Judd collapses, not because the pain gets worse but because it stops, and a strange darkness flows from his body and begins to rise towards the mansions roof.
Outside, on top of the rood, the twins, the handsome mutant speedster Jean-Paul “Northstar” Beaubier and his flighty sister Aurora are admiring the view they get from where they are, however Jean-Paul tells his sister that they did not come to discuss the natural beauty of the British Columbian island which their headquarters sits on, but about what has happened to both of them. Aurora declares what’s done is done and asks why they cannot let the past die as their beloved Walter did and face the future together. Annoyed, Jean-Paul tells Aurora that that is exactly what they cannot do, for they now find themselves cut off from physical contact with each other because they now negate each other’s powers. Aurora reminds her brother that it was the result of an experiment gone awry, Northstar knows the experiment was conducted by Walter who sought to realign Aurora’s genetic structure to prevent her persecution as a mutant. Walter succeeded in altering Aurora’s powers, but Northstar asks what if the scientist did more, as there could be other effects of which they are unaware of.
The twins’ attention is drawn suddenly to the other side of the rooftop where Heather rushes out the rooftop access door. Aurora thinks she sees Guardian, but realizes it is someone wearing his costume, and Jean-Paul sees that it is Heather. As Heather takes to the sky, Northstar calls after her, but she does not respond. Jean-Paul declares that Heather’s battle suit is as powerful as the one Mac wore and Aurora wonders why she is wearing it and where she would be going. Hands on hips, Northstar says that Heather has probably gone to prove herself worthy of stepping into Guardian’s shoes and mocks that she may end up doing something foolhardy which will cause Alpha Flight to choose a real leader. Aurora starts to ask her brother how he can be so callous and cruel when she diverts his attention to one of the mansion towers.
Black cloud billows from the tower enclosing the elevator, which Judd was using to get to the rooftop when he collapsed. Aurora and Northstar look down into the elevator, Aurora mentions that the shaft just erupted without the heat or noise that should follow such explosion. Jean-Paul motions to the black clouds over them, which encircle the figure lying in the elevator. Aurora adds that it is hard to make him out through all the smoke but he appears to be hurt and she suggests they help him. Suddenly a face pushes forth from the smoke and angrily tells the mutant twins to keep away, as the body is his. The mysterious foe declares that no one will touch the keeper and that he claims Giant Judd as he claimed him. As the twins edge backwards the as the enemy declares that all who seek to aid Judd will fear the black-blade of Razer! Northstar asks if the over-sized man lying in the elevator is Puck and Aurora thinks it is impossible but declares that whomever it is they have to save him. Northstar agrees, providing they can save themselves first and Razer’s sword swipes at the twins.
Meanwhile, in one of the workshops in the mansion, Bochs sits at a desk while Jeffries asks him what he can help alter on Box next other than a new color job. Bochs declares that it almost felt as if the whole mansion shook for a moment, but Jeffries says that it cannot be an attack as the mansion has more alarm systems than the Bank of Canada. Bochs boasts that instincts are more accurate that instruments sometimes and declares that he has an inkling that something is not right. Bochs phases into the re-colored Box armor and Jeffries informs him that he could reach the rooftop by flying up the launch tube, reminding his friend not to stay inside the armor for too long unless as he may never get out of it. As he flies up the launch pad, Bochs replies that when he commands the robot’s power he sometimes wonders why he would ever want to leave the robot.
As he flies through the opening to the rooftop Box sees the twins flying around the Black Razer and realizing they are under attack wonders why the alarm did not sound. Northstar informs Box that this appears to be a mystical being in origin, something that their instruments are not attuned to detect. Aurora adds that if Shaman or Talisman were still members of Alpha Flight, or if Snowbird were at the mansion today they might have sensed Razer’s assault. Box asks who Razer is and Northstar informs him that this is how the horror they fight introduced himself after strangely altering and striking Puck down. Suddenly, Black Razer strikes Jean-Paul through his middle declaring that he now knows the power of the black-blade. Jean-Paul falls to the rooftop and Aurora sees that the strike left her brother six inches shorter.
Box flies through the black smoke, wishing that Talisman and Shaman had not walked out on the team even though their mysticism scared him they both would have been better to deal with not only Razer but also better at coping with Nemesis, especially as he is only a robot hero straight out of the pages of “Popular Mechanics”. Bochs wonders if Razer is real or incorporeal as his built in monitors don’t register him at all, and his eye beams do not pick up anything – which is why Razer is so easily able to strike Box down with his sword. Roger knows that while he feels no physical sensations when merged with the Box armor, he cannot avoid the psychological shock of knowing that when a black-blade slices through robotic steel, one should and must experience excruciating pain. Overwhelmed by his own perceptions, Box falls while shrinking in size as Northstar did.
Meanwhile, Judd climbs up from the elevator shaft, telling himself that he cannot let Razer do to Alpha Flight what he did to him. Aurora sits by her fallen brother’s side and declares that she and Jean-Paul used to need to hold hands in order for both of them to emit a blinding white light. However; Walter’s experiment changed that and now Aurora can glow on her own, except when she makes contact with Northstar. As Black Razer looms over Aurora she knows that her light kept Razer at bay would soon return when she leaves her brother’s side, but Jean-Paul is unconscious and unable to escape. Aurora makes the decision to abandon her brother if she has any chance of saving both of them.
Madison Jeffries has made it up to the roof and walking onto the roof sees Judd – or some basket-ball player wearing his costume – and as he rushes over to him, Judd declares that he is the real Judd. Jeffries helps Puck up and asks him how he can be, as he is no longer a dwarf, but about six-foot-six – and when he sees Judds face, Jeffries realizes that Judd must be about one hundred years old. ‘Seventy-one’ Judd corrects Jeffries, who asks him if Razer aged him and where he came from. Jeffries suggests Judd give him the Readers Digest version as he may be able to help, adding that Aurora is holding her own at the moment against him. Judd informs Jeffries that Razer is a sorcerer- or was a sorcerer before, centuries ago until he became a wraithlike manifestation of mystical force. Judd declares that it wasn’t Razer who aged him, but if anything it was their shared existence that has extended his life. Judd reveals that he was born in 1914 and from then lived an adventurous existence as a soldier of fortune’…
(Flashback, 1939)The rare treasure known as the Black-blade of Baghdad had come to Eugene Milton Judd’s attention and certain dealers in antiquities had made their desire for the ancient blade known to him. However, Judd’s own curiosity would have compelled to obtain the blade without their retainers. So in Baghdad he entered the palace, as Judd regarded the unraveling of riddles as more important than human life and was not afraid to kill those who stood in his way, for the Black-blade of Baghdad was an enigma with origins shrouded in the super natural. Judd had only skirted such paths before and it excited him to do so, and he only did what excited him.
Coming across the black-blade, Judd reaches out for it, perhaps doomed from the moment he intended to double cross those who had hired him, for he knew the moment he set eyes on it that it was one treasure he would not offer for resale. The black-blade seemed to respond to Judds dishonest thoughts as well as his touch as if it sensed a kindred spirit, a sinister scream sang along from the ebony steel and Judd was knocked backwards as something sprung from the sword. In an instant his mind was flooded with legends of a renegade sorcerer imprisoned by the spells of Persian mystics inside a shining white scimitar.
The Black Razer thanks Judd for freeing him, declaring that he must now slay him for the fear that he will contemplate incarcerating his spirit again. Judd cartwheels out of Razer’s sword swipe, wanting only to get out of the palace in one piece. However the Black Blade strike him, cutting him in two – but it didn’t kill him. Judd sees that his about six inches shorter for Razer’s blade must have stole some of his life force, and with it reduced him in size.
Judd struggles to get the blade from Razer, admitting that he now knows why Razer’s fellow sorcerers sought to contain him, as he would make men small and steal their souls, reducing them to nothing only to make his own power grow. Judd and Razer struggle for the sword some more and Razer boasts that most found their reduced size a sweet surrender. Judd declares that obviously some did not, otherwise there would not have been enough left with the power to oppose or contain him. Razer reveals that he has corrupted the light that once shone from the blade in which he was imprisoned and those who forged it are long dead. As Black Razer slides the sword into Judd through his face he boasts that Judd is not the equal of the mystics.
Judd knows he is not a mystic but had been around some before and though he never practiced himself, he remembered some of the lessons they tried to teach him. The black-blade began to whittle Judd down in body and soul while he reminds Razer that sorcery bound him centuries ago, the sorcery of the sword, which is not a sentient being. The blade could not prevent Razer from corrupting it so that it would release him when grasped eons later by one who had forgotten the legends. Judd declares that a living vessel might sacrifice itself to do the task of senseless steel, and declares that stealing souls can be a two-way-street. He asks Razer of he wants his soul, and sucking Razer into himself due to a mystical spell, Judd shrinks further in size, informing Razer that he can have his soul, but that he will be his prison instead of the sword.
(Present)Judd tells Jeffries that the years became decades of unending pain as the force within him struggled to escape, and his current crisis of conscience gave it the chance it needed. So you’re free at last? asks Jeffries, and Puck replies that he has been freed, but now Razer menaces his teammates. As Judd rushes to Aurora’s side, Jeffries asks him what about the pain should he try to contain Razer again, and Judd declares that he hopes he can find another way.
As Aurora keeps Razer at bay with her light powers she asks Judd if it is really him, and leaping past Razer, Judd informs her that it is, though a little taller and slower than she is used to, but ready to do what must be done. Seeing Aurora glowing he assumes Northstar is revived and tells Aurora to keep Razer at bay some more while he gets to her brother, as they will need his help. Reaching Jean-Paul, Judd tells the amazed mutant that it is really him and while he would like to stroll down memory lane he already had the conversation with his sister and he thinks they both agree that they have more pressing matters to tend to.
Jean-Paul agrees and asks Judd what they can do. Judd replies that he wasn’t sure until he saw Razer cower from Aurora’s light, but realizes that light can contain Razer’s darkness, either the sorcerous light shining off the blade of a mystical forged sword, or the light of a spirit fighting to survive. Judd declares that he never fully realized it, but it was the light of his own spirit that defeated Razer’s darkness. However Razer has now grown stronger and Judd regrets that the twins can no longer shine as one. Northstar declares that they cannot, but they will not just lay down and die either and rushes into action.
Jeffries helps Box over to Judd and Box suggests that he and Jeffries could make up some kind of light projector. Judd replies that Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four would appreciate that kind of solution, but he is afraid they need someone like Shaman or Talisman to tap into and attack Razer with the light drawn from living souls. Northstar speeds around Black Razer creating a vortex and while he is unbalanced the enemy soon recovers. Judd asks the twins to keep up their actions for a bit longer.
Jeffries grabs Puck and asks him what is going to happen then, reminding him he has already said that nothing other than a mystical master could contain the Black Razer. Judd corrects Jeffries, for what he said was the light of a living soul is what will contain Razer, as he would eventually corrupt any other vessel like he did the black blade. However a living soul can resist corruption and fight back, imprisoning Razer as long as it takes. Jeffries reminds Judd that whoever makes that sacrifice gives up normal life as a “reward”. Frowning, Judd reveals that there are advantages, not the least of which is immortality. He declares that he cannot ask anyone else to make such a sacrifice as there would also be an infinity of pain, though can he make that kind of sacrifice again?
Judd declares that after resuming his rightful age he wonders how many years he has left. He admits to Jeffries that he thinks he would like to go on living – at any price. He excuses himself and walks over to the Black Razer, his time to play warden has come again. As Judd approaches, Razer asks him if he is mad that they are free of each other at last. Judd informs the enemy that he is free of the pain he has inflicted upon him all these years, but in turn Razer is free to inflict even worse pain on mankind. Judd knows that the latter is his own fault, which makes it his own responsibility. He tells Razer that they have been together too long now for him to live without him noting that already their contact has caused him to condense, and as Razer shrinks he asks Judd why he is reaching for the blade.
Judd stands tall and informs Razer that as he used the blade to steal men’s souls he is going to use it to release the light of his soul, and to let the same light that empowers Razer bind him and his darkness to Judd once again. Judd shoves the blade into him, seemingly splitting Pucks’ skull, letting the light of his spirit stream forth and ensnare the writhing Razer. At the time same time, Judd releases the life forces stolen from Jean-Paul and Box and they are returned to normal height and strength. The trade-off is that some of Judd’s soul is lost in the process and as a result he shrinks down in size again. The Black Razer screams as he is drawn into his prison, where he will be contained as long as Judd lives out his eldritch-extended life. Judd kneels over on top of the roof, and Jean-Paul, Aurora, Box and Jeffries can only silently stand around him.


[User]
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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Honor
Alpha Flight’s Omni-Jet streaks across Canada, bound for New York, however inside it is only one member of Alpha Flight who is headed for the U.S. – the diminutive Eugene Milton Judd a.k.a. Puck. Judd radios back to Tamarind Island and apologizes to his teammates for taking off in their only jet without permission, but because it is his fault that their leader, Heather Hudson, has run away from them. He reminds them that he tried to protect Heather when he should have been training her to use the power of her battle suit to protect herself. He declares that he has to now find Heather, apologize and tell her that he will train her – before he does.
Inside Mansion Alpha, Madison Jeffries, Alpha Flight’s ally and resident transmutator asks the question on his companions lips – ‘“he” who?’ Judds face can be seen in a view screen as he declares that “he” is the only other person alive that Heather would turn to for training now that she has adopted the costume of her late husband, one of the original members of Alpha Flight – Wolverine! Roger Bochs, a.k.a. Box informs his teammates that he is tracking Judd and Heather as they vector in on New York, both headed for the X-Men, but there is no way he could overtake them. Arms folded, the sultry Aurora informs Box that he couldn’t, but her brother Northstar could, should he choose to. The handsome mutant speedster, Jean-Paul Beaubier declares that he does not want to.
Northstar reminds everyone that Heather was only named team leader because her husband led Alpha Flight, a simple gesture of sympathy on the team members’ behalf, but since then her powerlessness has nearly gotten everyone killed. Northstar defiantly declares that he is glad Heather is gone so that a true leader can take her place. Aurora turns to her brother and raising her voice she tells him that it is only because he is her brother that she has allowed for his callousness, but no longer! Aurora proclaims that Jean-Paul’s cruelty towards Heather proves that he is incapable of loving anyone but himself. As Aurora turns her back from Northstar, Jean-Paul tells her that he loves her and would die for her should such a sacrifice be necessary. Aurora tells Northstar that she would rather he learned to live – for others.
Judd tells Alpha Flight via the communicator that he doesn’t want them to follow him, as he has to do this on his own. He declares that he can live with the pain of being trapped inside his dwarfish body, but not the pain of living without Heather. Judd has cleared himself with U.S border patrol and he flies into American airspace.
Back at Mansion Alpha, Bochs realizes that this is all because Puck loves Heather and declares that they should still go after them despite his requests. Bochs asks if Alpha Flight is a team or a ‘bunch of hot-headed individuals going his or her own way?’ Northstar boasts that he never saw anything wrong with that and Aurora declares that if they are not allowed some individual freedom then Alpha Flight would feel like a prison. Jeffries tells Bochs that ‘speaking of prisons’ he has been inside the Box armor for too long now. Mockingly, Roger Bochs says that he dare not possess the power of Box too long lest he is able to give it up. As he phases out of the Box armor, Roger wonders why he would want to exchange the armor for his wheelchair, but supposes he will keep his options open for now.
Suddenly the intruder alarm sounds and in his wheelchair, Bochs informs his friends that some unauthorized fool has set foot on Tamarind Island and declares he will check it out. While he was in the elevator going from the basement to the first floor Bochs checked the monitors which revealed that a seaplane is moored at the dock and two beings were approaching the door, the one in the arms of the other radiating incredible but erratic power. Roger declares that all the hidden defense systems are focused on the pair and that if they make on threatening move towards him they will be immobilized.
Opening the door Roger is shocked at who stands before him. Doug Thompson introduces himself and holding Snowbird in his arms he declares that his wife is ill and he didn’t know where else to bring her. Bochs is surprised to learn Snowbird is Thompson’s wife, and when he esquires about it Thompson informs him that there is no time to explain, as Snowbird is in pain and keeps asking for… ‘Shaman!’ cries Snowbird as she turns to face Roger Bochs, revealing to him for the first time her True Fires.
Someone who is more familiar with Narya’s True Fires is the man her husband brought her to Tamarind Island to see – Dr. Michael Twoyoungmen, a.k.a. Shaman, the man who attended to Narya’s birth, however he is not on Tamarind Island, but on a mystical quest for peace. Shaman sits before the spirit of his Grandfather who informs him that he is Fortieth in a long line of Sarcee mystics, thus he came into a rich heritage. Shaman’s Grandfather tells him that he gifts bestowed upon him were great but that a man is only as strong as his faith in himself. Shaman tells his Grandfather that the fact his ghost is even talking to him now indicated that he already knew of Michael’s failures even in the land of the Great Spirit.
Shaman reminds his grandfather that as a doctor he failed to save the life of his beloved wife, while as a hero he nearly lost his daughter Elizabeth. Shaman’s Grandfather tells him that as now sets forth on this pilgrimage into the Barrenlands seeking power once again. Shaman tells his Grandfather that he needs to know whether any power existed within him rather than from within the bag of tricks. The Grandfather reminds Shaman of how he once believed that the magicks of the medicine were of his own conjuring, Shaman adds that they were plucked from some other realm when the need arose, but that the realm almost took his daughter and he must be free of it! Shaman asks if he has no powers of his own, to which his Grandfather replies that to determine it he must be tested by the spirits who attend this place of power.
Shaman gets up and continues to walk as the spirit of his Grandfather fades as he tells his grandson to walk across the Barrenlands following the cairns raised by his ancestors many years ago, as the trail will lead him to the power…or death!
Westchester, New York, where Heather Hudson has found solace with her old friend, Wolverine, formerly a member of Alpha Flight, now of the X-Men. However during Heather and Logan’s reunion they were interrupted by a woman called Lady Deathstrike who, armed with an army of samurais has come for Wolverine. Logan unsheathes his claws and tells his mysterious foe that by her calling him a thief it tells him that she is looking for a fight. Deathstrike informs Wolverine that though the truth may be hard to bear for a man of honor it is nevertheless the truth, and declares again that his power is misappropriated and must be returned to her.
Heather steps forward and asks Logan if he and the mysterious woman are speaking Japanese before hurling a dozen other questions at him, such as did he learn it after he left Alpha Flight and who the woman is why she is threatening him and what she wants. Logan tells Heather that he cannot give her any answers until he finds out himself. In Japanese Logan tells his foe that his friend wants to be introduced but he didn’t catch her name. Deathstrike re-introduces herself and adds that she has come to avenge the honor of her clan and father.
Logan asks Deathstrike how she knows who he is and she informs him that she only knows him by his reputation, adding that from what little information is available of him that she heard he was once an operative of the Canadian Secret Service and now the X-Men, not to mention betrothed to Lady Mariko Yashida of the Clan Yashida. Logan snarls that Deathstrike knows as much about him as he knows about himself.
Armed with a sword, Deathstrike reveals that clan Yashida is second only to the Emperor of Japan in power, to which Wolverine declares he is aware of, and as she points her sword at Logan, Deathstrike admits that Clan Yashida would stop at nothing until Logan’s death had been avenged. Deathstrike adds that she did not expect to find Logan in possession of that which he stole from her father but honor compels her to reclaim it, despite he threat of future retribution, and whether or not Logan actually had anything to do with it. Logan declares that he understands honor and Heather sees him getting ready to fight Deathstrike so she asks him what is going on.
Deathstrike speaks English now, telling Logan that for his companion’s sake- so that she may recount the reason for his death to those who inquire of it - that she has come to recover the fruits of a scientific experiment conducted by her father, stolen from his laboratory over a decade ago and implanted into a human subject. Deathstrike says announces that she has come to claim Logan’s adamantium skeleton, shocking both him and Heather. Deathstrike reveals that the adamantium skeleton and retractable adamantium claws that extrude from Logan’s reinforced skeleton were never his, but a product of experiments conducted by her father, Lord Darkwind, and she begins the tale of the origin of adamantium.
(Flashback)
It was Lord Darkwind’s dream to resurrect Japan’s honor by creating an army of invincible warriors, but the dream was dashed by the intervention of American hero Daredevil, who sought to prevent Darkwind from mending the shattered spine of his mortal enemy, Bullseye. However, Lord Darkwind’s death came at the hands of his own daughter! Yuriko hated her father for the mark he had caused her brothers and herself to bear, a scar setting them apart from others, marking them as loyal to their father’s cause whether they were or not.
With Darkwind’s death however came tragedy for Yuriko, as her lover was one of Darkwind’s most fanatical followers, and many of Darkwind’s followers felt themselves unable to live without him, Yuriko’s lover Kira was one of them. Yuriko fled from her father’s house, but there was no escaping her father’s fervor, as she could not flee his memory. As Yuriko’s grief ebbed she began to wonder who her father truly was and what he stood for that inspired such devotion in others, and she found that she knew so little about her father’s past.
(Flashback, ca WWII)
Yuriko learned that her father had been a war hero in 1945, a famous pilot, who volunteered for a kamikaze suicide mission when the tides of war turned against Japan. Honor had compelled Darkwind to crash his explosive-laden plane into an American ship, but his deadly cargo failed to detonate and he was denied a glorious death. Scarred and shamed, Darkwind became a prisoner of war, but from that day forth he was determined to restore Japan’s tarnished honor and his own.
Darkwind’s code of honor attracted devotees and he scarred his children as he himself had been scarred as a sign of superiority. As a soldier of the empire, Darkwind believed that one must be strong in both mind and body. In his quest for the ultimate warrior he turned to science, inventing a process for bonding to brittle human bone the very rare near-invincible metal called adamantium. Then Darkwind’s formula was stolen, he never knew by whom. It took Darkwind precious decades to reinvent the process, only to die after seeing it successfully restore the paralyzed Bullseye.
(Present)
Deathstrike concludes her story by telling Logan and Heather that after she understood what drove her father, after slaying him she eventually came to embrace his goal of restoring their homeland’s honor through the creation of super-soldiers. However, the secret died with Darkwind and she knew that she had to find someone who had benefited from the process, which meant tracking Bullseye by his adamantium implant. But to Deathstrike’s surprise, that search led her to Wolverine. Logan asks Deathstrike if what she is saying is that whomever stole her fathers process used it on him. But no one is as shocked as Heather, who remembers seeing something….
(Flashback)
Heather became Mac’s secretary when he was head of Department H an assigned to gather unique individuals with super powers. Heather walks into Mac’s office and declares it is ‘tea time’ and asks Mac if he is ready. Mac quickly shoves a file he was reading under several others and tells Heather he has to file them first. Hugging her husband, Heather tells Mac that she can do that later for him, but Mac replies that he will do it as some ofd them are pretty private and he wouldn't even know where to ask Heather to put them yet. ‘What else is new?’ Heather mumbles glancing down at the files….
(Present)
It seems odd to Heather as she remembers how quickly Mac rose to embrace her, as if to keep her from seeing the titles of the reports lying across his desk, one of which was “A report on the process of bonding adamantium to the human skeletal structure”. Heather remembers that a year after that, she and Mac discovered Logan roaming the hill country a raving wild man, whom it later appeared had been reduced to that state by the shock of having his bones bonded with adamantium. Heather quickly wonders if their finding Logan was not an accident, but that Mac knew he would be there….
(Flashback)
Did Mac choose their honeymoon location hoping they would find his “creation”, of that Logan would find them? When Logan attacked, was it out of hunger, or hatred for the man who made him a monster? When Mac left Heather alone with the pain-wracked Logan, was that part of some secret “experiment” too? Did Mac really ski away to get help, or did he deliberately abandon his new bride with Wolverine…to see if beauty could calm the killer beast?
(Present)
Looking at Logan, Heather wonders what kind of friend and husband Mac really was to use her and Logan that way, adding that if Logan had indeed known about it he might have killed Mac, and proclaimed his love for her. Heather wonders if she would have had Logan, and thinks that if she had known what Mac did to them both, then she would have. But it is too late now, as Logan has moved onto the X-Men and Mariko Yashida, while Heather is left with suspicions which a dead man’s lips cannot dispel.
Ready for battle, Logan tells Deathstrike that he does not know if his bones came from her father’s process, but that if she wants to have them back, then she is going to have to carve them out of him. ‘Wanna try?’ With her army behind her, Deathstrike boasts that she does, when suddenly, Heather fires electromagnetic blasts and declares that no one is going to cut Logan open and hurt him again. Wolverine tells Heather to keep out as it is not her fight, and Heather tells him that it is their fight, one they will fight together. Heather thinks to herself that by using her husbands battle suit she may be able to save his creation. Her electromagnetic blasts cut through the ranks of Deathstrike’s samurai and in Japanese, Deathstrike tells her warriors that although Logan’s companion possesses power she must not be allowed to impede their plans, and she orders them to kill Heather, and take Wolverine, dead or alive.
One warrior leaps forward boasting that they are sworn to Deathstrike’s service as they were sworn to her father, thus honor compels them to obey. The warrior charges into Logan, who informs the samurai as he crashes into him that sometimes honor can get a man killed. As Heather attacks another samurai she realizes that Logan could have disemboweled his attacker but retracted his claws at the last second to just incapacitate him, meaning Logan is not the killer Mac tried to make him. Heather realizes now that Logan is teaching her that when you possess power you have to exercise restraint.
Wolverine and Heather rush through the forest and Logan congratulates Heather on how well she has handled everything thus far. As they rush through the forest Heather asks Logan why they are running away as they have nothing to fear from Deathstrike. Wolverine tells Heather that she has seen how much Deathstrike and her army has to fear from them, and asks why take a chance on hurting them when they can try and ditch them. Heather supposes Logan is right and flies off in a separate direction when he tells her to split.
One of the samurai tells Deathstrike that the forest is hiding her enemies and Deathstrike finds it amusing that Logan talks about honor then runs away. Deathstrike reminds her warriors that their wristbands contain detectors attuned to Wolverine’s adamantium laced bones and orders them to find him. Wolverine finds that amusing and wonders why no one else ever thought of tracking him that way. Logan knows he is a hunter, but is not so sure he likes being the hunted.
The samurai’s detectors go off and one of them wonders if he is behind the tree. Preparing to attack, the samurai is knocked out when Wolverine drops from the tree and declares that he was in it when suddenly a spiked blade is thrown at him.
Flying high over the forest, Heather worries because she hasn’t seen Logan or Deathstrike’s samurai emerge from the woods, and realizes that Logan must be trying to protect her again. Heather swerves backwards and swoops down towards the forest declaring that she will not have it, for it is Logan’s past that is haunting him and his past is intertwined with hers. Heather proclaims that it is the tragedy of the past that she must vindicate. Heather remembers that “vindicate” sounds like the name Mac chose for himself after he dropped the code-name “Weapon Alpha”. Later, Mac would lead Alpha Flight as Guardian, the name the world would know him by.
Heather remembers the Vindicator name again and deciding she likes it and that it suits her, she declares that that is who she will be. She fires electromagnetic blasts at the samurai in the forest and tells herself that in striking out to save Wolverine she is striking out at Mac’s memory. For months she has mourned him but realizes that to hate him now would be too simple, as he was a good man, but she sees now that he sometimes forgot where being a hero ended and being a husband began.
Two more samurai attack Logan and call him a thief, to which he declares that he didn’t like being called a thief by Deathstrike and he does not like being called one by them. He cuts the warriors deeper than he intended and recognizes the anger seething within him as preceding that more berserk state where he cannot control his bloodlust. Deathstrike approaches Logan, telling him that he shatters the swords of her samurai as if they were brittle ice, but that he will find hers was forged in fire!
Back up in the sky, Heather continues to fight samurai, who remind each other that Deathstrike does not care if “this one” lives or dies. One of the samurai tells the others to kill Heather and be done with it. Heather – Vindicator – remembers that Mac designed the battle suit’s forcefields to withstand attacks by ultramodern weaponry. As the samurai hurl their weapons at Vindicator, her forcefields deflect them. Heather wonders how Deathstrike ever hoped to subdue Logan with such anachronistic arms, or for that matter her original target, Bullseye. Heather boasts that Deathstrike’s strategic error becomes her advantage and she dives into the forest, setting off a small electromagnetic pulse she defeats her opponents and flattens some trees, before realizing that the henchmen may be here to divert her, while the real battle takes place elsewhere!
Deathstrike’s sword clashes with Logans claws, and Deathstrike informs Logan that her blade does not break, like his claws. Logan asks her if it is adamantium, but Deathstrike reveals that it is electromagnetically tempered, and that there is no other blade like it. She adds that it was another of her fathers inventions and boasts as she aims to strike Logan that it is fitting she shall reclaim with it what was stolen from her father. Logan dodges the powerful blade, and it swings past him to strike a tree. Logan recalls that he told the X-Men to stay out of this and now he wishes they were here to hold him back, for each time Deathstrike calls him “thief” he wants to kill her. He knows that would be the honorable thing to do and it would clear his name, and while he would like to do it, it is not the X-Men’s way.
High above the forest, the Omniship soars and Judd sees that its instruments have locked onto the electromagnetic waves emitted by Heather’s battle suit, meaning she is somewhere below him. Looking out the window he wonders where she could be, he cannot see her for the forest is very dense, until he spies a unnatural clearing with two duelists facing off against each other. Judd steers the Omnijet downwards and decides that because one of them is emitting a strong electromagnetic pulse it must be Heather. Judd declares that he knew she would need help.
The Omnijet drops silently and Deathstrike sees it coming but gives no sign. Wolverine does not see the Omnijet, but as Judd zeroes in on the electromagnetic pulse he recognizes the former Alphan just moments too late – and Wolverine is knocked to the ground. Whether he can hear her or not, Deathstrike tells Logan that before she uses her sword to carve out his skeleton she will show him how keen the sword is – and she slices the underneath of the Omnijet.
Puck manages to jump ship just in time, before wondering what damage he must have done. Vindicator hears the crash but swerves towards Deathstrike when she sees her standing over the fallen Wolverine. Heather flies straight into Deathstrike telling her that she will not practice vivisection while Vindicator is around. Deathstrike is knocked back against a tree, and when she gathers herself she admits to Heather that she is even more powerful than she first thought, however her armor bore most of the assault. Seeing that Heather wears no armor, Deathstrike asks her if her costume will protect her from her metal-slicing sword. ‘Try me Deathstrike’ declares Vindicator.
Leaping towards Vindicator, Deathstrike declares that she shall and as Logan gets up off the ground, he informs Heather that the sword is as powerful as his own claws. Judd rushes towards Heather as he tells her to get back, asking if she wants Deathstrike to do to her what she did to the Omnijet. Wolverine sees Judd and realizes that it was he who ‘conked my adamantium skull’, and Judd apologizes, blaming the darkness, but Logan tells him to forget it as Heather is not moving and they need to get to her before –
Too late. Deathstrike’s sword slices in on Heather – but it cracks and splinters against Heather’s electromagnetic forcefield. Vindicator tells Deathstrike that her sword is ancient history, as is her scheme to take back Wolverine’s bones. Deathstrike stands humiliated beside Vindicator and Wolverine is astonished that Heather shattered it. Heather informs him that the electromagnetic shields did. Logan jokes that Mac built better than Lord Darkwind, and Heather agrees, before telling Logan and Judd they have both seen what Vindicator can do, and asks them if they still want to offer her their protection. Logan and Judd just frown.
Meanwhile, deep in the ocean Marrina is still being pursued, and though she has swum much of the ocean, not all of it can keep them from her, for Marrina is beginning to tire and he speed dwindles to less than one hundred knots. She is overcome by pain and screams – just as her body betrays her, her pursuers catch their prey and she is netted. An order comes from within the Atlantean fish-shaped vessel to ‘reel her in’, and as Marrina hears that harsh command she abandons all hope that he who chased her was her once beloved Prince Namor. Inside the vessel, an Atlantean informs the commander that Marrina has been placed in a holding tank, and the commander steps forward, ordering for Marrina to be well guarded as befits a special prisoner of Attuma, Warlord of Atlantis!


[User]
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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Homebody!
This midsummer evening, if you happened to be walking past the grounds of Tamarind Island, home to Canada’s premiere super hero team – Alpha Flight – you might have heard, over the sighing of the sea breezes, a strange disembodied cry…I am alive! …But what has become of me? I feel as if I were everywhere – and nowhere – all at once! I don’t understand! Could I have been wrong? Is this…death? It cannot be! How can I be dead and yet remember my past, ponder my present and experience such an overwhelming of such…powers?
The voice flows through various parts of the large mansion on Tamarind Island, but stops when it comes to the dinning room – where eight very special people are getting ready for dinner. Seven of these eight comprise the team Alpha Flight, the other is their ally, Madison Jeffries, mutant transmutator. Team leader, Heather “Vindicator” McNeil Hudson carries some food to the table and declares that punching a dinner-program into the kitchen computers and having it prepare the meal makes cooking a dream! With a book in his hands, Eugene Milton Judd, a.k.a. the diminutive Puck tells Heather that supper might be a nightmare if it wasn’t for her recipes, while Jeffries asks Judd if it is not impolite to read at the table.
Seated down from Jeffries, is the paraplegic Roger Bochs, who tells his teammate, the mutant Aurora, whom he has a crush on, that the dinner is ready. Aurora leans seductively over the table and tells the scientist that she has no thought for food – only for him. Sitting on the other side of the table are the outsiders of the team - Aurora’s twin brother the handsome speedster Jean-Paul “Northstar” Beaubier, and the beautiful goddess Narya, a.k.a. Snowbird, while Michael Twoyoungmen, the new Talisman sits not at the table, but stares out the window. Northstar puts his hands to his eyes, so he does not have to watch his sister fawn over Bochs, but nevertheless he wonders how she can fawn over such a cripple.
The mysterious voice realizes that some of the power it sensed emanates from the people in the dining room, but wonders who they are and what it is that they are doing in its house.
Aurora asks Heather why she feels compelled to cook for them, to which Heather replies that it is habit, for being the oldest of seven siblings she often cooked for her mother, then for her late husband Mac, and now - since Alpha has become her “family” – for them too! She adds that Bochs’ “servobots” make thing easy for her, and with the government’s funding they have been able to make the isolated island into a state-of-the-art paradise! Jeffries asks Judd what it is he is reading, and Judd replies that he is reading a play about his namesake, Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. Northstar snidely remarks that he is sure the team’s enemies would relish in the image of Vindicator as a happy homemaker.
Aurora tickles her “Dear Rogair” on the chin and asks him if he can design her something to make her as happy as his drones make Heather. Roger reminds Aurora that Jeffries is who makes the inventions real, and that if she could give him some idea of what it is she would like… “Like?” Aurora asks before declaring that she likes to have men around her – men with brawn and men with brains. Roger thinks to himself that it is his genius that helped him to create his Box armor, that fascinates Aurora – because he thinks she can’t possibly see much else in a wheelchair bound paraplegic. He realizes Aurora is so physical, and wonders how long his intellect alone will continue to satisfy her.
Northstar turns to his fellow loner, the sultry Snowbird and reminds the goddess that she is a shapeshifter and asks her if she could assume the form of Aurora’s last lover, Sasquatch, and show his sister what a real man is like. Narya replies calmly that Sasquatch is the name given to one of the Great Beasts, and as its spirit corrupted the soul of Walter Langkowski, so would it corrupt hers should she assume it too long.
Judd asks Jeffries if he has never read the Bard, and Jeffries replies that he thinks he caught something he wrote on public T.V before switching to the hockey. Heather asks Shaman if he is joining them for dinner, he does not respond and she calls to him again. Michael Twoyoungmen thanks Heather, but reveals that he no longer eats food.
The mysterious voice wonders if the world has gone mad, or if it is just itself – for these beings, mortals and immortals, dwarves and cripples – seem to be imbued with as yet un-guessed powers, but none of them perceives its presence. Am I indeed dead then? A spirit in my own house? For sanity’s sake, I must know! The voice flows throughout the mansion, examining various rooms in the great building. Madness! This was my kitchen, but I recognize it not! And this is my study, yet where are my books? It thinks that the corridors seem the same as when it last walked them, but senses hidden power behind the wainscoting, throbbing beneath the floorboards. The voice enters the elevator and takes it to the lower levels, believing that no matter whom the interlopers might be, they could not have discovered the hidden laboratory!
But the “interlopers” have discovered the laboratory, and turned into a swimming pool and gymnasium. Furious, it passes through more rooms until it eventually comes to a halt in the computer chamber of Mansion Alpha. It declares it needs to know what has become of it and its house and senses it will find its answers in this room. It examines the computer and learns that its home is now called Mansion Alpha and is occupied by beings that the world calls Super Heroes. The voice thinks that it recognized one of them earlier…Yes! Aurora, the hussy invaded my home some time ago…in the company of a talking orange ape who called himself my grandnephew!
The mysterious being reads from the data in the computer that Sasquatch is dead and thinks that it is a pity, for death is too good after what he and his tart did to it. But what did they do to me? it wonders, and thinks perhaps the machines may be able to reveal what happened to it. Data stored in the Alphanex computer is summoned and analyzed, and soon, shuddering from foundation to topmost turret, Mansion Alpha screams…for the being has learned it is dead.
The Alphans seated at the table are thrown off their chairs, as Aurora asks if it is an earthquake or an attack. Roger declares that the sensors should have given them plenty of warning either way, and Judd remarks that Twoyoungmen’s spirits would have also. Northstar correctly declares that he sometimes gets the feeling that one of the chief virtues everyone places on belonging to a team, is the fact they can all share the blame for not being prepared. Heather rudely remarks that she gets the feeling the only reason Jean-Paul has remained an Alphan is because he would have no one to criticize if he were all alone. When the shock subsides, Heather suggests they go find out what caused it.
Back in the computer room, the mysterious spirit thinks that the answer is as astounding, as it is unbelievable, for in the aftermath of the battle with Sasquatch and Aurora, though it was not defeated, it did not die, but somehow, the spirit passed into the house. As Alpha Flight thought the mysterious entity dead, they remodeled the mansion and took up residence. It also realizes that it took some time for its own consciousness to re-form…but now it is mistress of the house again, and thinks she could use Alpha Flight’s technology against them and destroy their headquarters.
But, she thinks, her most fervent desire is to live, and she sees stored in the Alphanex computer files on various villains, including a file on the very man who can help her achieve reincarnation…Diablo, Master of alchemy, her former lover, but as she has learned he is currently incarcerated, it is she who must first help him. Something passes through Mansion Alpha and into Roger Bochs’ workshop and laboratory. There, chemicals carefully segregated from each other suddenly commence to mingle and mix, while a futuristic “modemphone” begins to auto-dial a number a continent away.
The mysterious woman has not forgotten any of the alchemical secrets her beloved taught her and can enhance her experiment with the enormous power she senses coursing through the cables in the walls. When the experiment is completed, some electrical creature-like-thing is created and the woman boasts that not even Diablo himself has ever raised such an electrical element. She orders her demon forth to fetch her lover and bring him to her, and it does, entering the mouthpiece of the phone….
In Oswego, New York, a fortress of high walls and well-armed guards keep the inmates of this state prison from getting out, telephone lines carry transmissions and other things dispatched from the outside world in. A phone rings and a officer picks it up, but hears nothing coming through the phone – but something does emerge – an electrical demon that quickly attacks and subdues the guards. Through the phone, the mysterious woman’s voice can be heard ordering her demon to go to “him”.
The electrical creature sweeps its way through the prison seeking the self-styled master of alchemy, eventually finding Esteban Diablo, who is surprised to see such a creature. As the creature hovers in the room, Diablo orders the guards to keep it from him, reminding them that they are charged with his safety. One of the guards points out that the bars are charged with electricity and that they don’t want to touch them.
The demon sways mesmerizingly before Diablo like a cobra, and he realizes that it is an alcemically conjured creature, and wonders who but he, who has mastered such arts over the eleven centuries of his extended life, could have raised such a demon. There is only one person – she that he trained and divulged all of his secrets except of his longevity…’but she is dead! She must be!’ The guards watch as the electrical demon zaps Diablo, and converts him to an electrical current, in which the demon brings its prize back into the telephone cables that carries them both away from the prison and across international borders, between the United States and Canada, over 3000 miles of continent, and through underwater cables that link the mainland of British Columbia to Canada.
Somewhere in Mansion Alpha, a telephone is answered before it even rings. No member of Alpha Flight is any the wiser. Vindicator, Jean-Paul, Twoyoungmen, Jeffries and Puck are in the computer room, and Twoyoungmen asks if none of their instruments detected any earth tremors. Vindicator asks what it was that struck the mansion, and sitting at a computer, Jeffries declares that he is trying to find out, but has so far found nothing.
Puck reminds Twoyoungmen that since he has donned the tiara of the Talisman, he has gained the power to command spirits, and is hinting at using them, but Twoyoungmen cuts Judd off and declares that he uses that power sparingly, if at all. Northstar reminds Twoyoungmen that he doesn’t eat or sleep – that he hardly seems human anymore. Shaman just stares at them and declares ‘I am…what I am’.
The mysterious spirit thinks to herself that as a “Binder of Spirits” Twoyoungmen presents perhaps her greatest threat, but of equal concern is Jeffries and his mutant transmuting powers. Jeffries supposes he should run a systems check, and Heather proclaims that all the technology in the mansion responds to his touch, so he should do what he knows. But as for the rest of them, she is calling a team alert and wants everyone to search the house and island for any signs of intruders, including Twoyoungmen, as his spirits should know if anything is wrong. Shaman albeit reluctantly agrees to request the aid of the spirits. Jean-Paul leaves the room on his way to find Aurora and tell her that she is needed, ‘That is if she can tear herself away from her pudgy paraplegic’.
Jeffries is left alone in the computer room and thinks how “nice” Northstar is, and guesses he loves pulling wings off flies. Jeffries doesn’t think he understands Jean-Paul, after all he is more at home with machines than people. He starts to check why the systems he and Bochs rigged up didn’t register any anomaly when he touches a button he is electrocuted. He thinks how odd it is that he received a shock, especially as machinery is supposed to respond to his command. He wonders if the machinery is booby trapped, and makes his way to the elevator where he plans to warn the others.
In the elevator though, the doors close on their own, and the weakened Jeffries falls to the ground, while the mysterious voice declares that she cannot let Jeffries go, not now and not ever, and gives him the occasional electrical shock to keep him unconscious.
Elsewhere in the mansion, Judd asks Michael exactly what it means now that he has become the Talisman. While summoning some spirits, Twoyoungmen informs Judd that ancient Indian myths state that the Binder of the Spirits is one with those he binds. The duo enters the elevator and Judd asks Shaman if what he means is that he is one with the Spirit World. Twoyoungmen tells Judd that what it means is that his concerns are different from those of other humans. Judd asks Michael if that is what he wants – to transcend such cherished human attributes as love and longing – even life itself.
Judd points out that the elevator is not going up, and both men are pulled off the ground by a whirling center force. Judd asks Shaman to summon more spirits and make it stop, but Twoyoungmen is unconscious. Judd thinks that perhaps mentally, Shaman is beyond being human, but physically he isn't as able as he is to withstand the incredible increase in centrifugal force the spinning elevator is exerting on them. ‘Pleasant dreams, Alphans’ whispers the woman.
In a hallway, Jean-Paul walks in search if his sister, but feels that someone is watching him, mocking him. He ponders the idea that some unseen enemy has assaulted Mansion Alpha, and that if so he must see to Aurora’s safety, so he speeds along the hall. But the mysterious enemy has already learned that Northstar is a speedster, but boasts that not even the ability to race at incredible speeds will enable him to reach his destination, as the hallway keeps growing longer and longer, Jean-Paul’s destination retreating as swiftly as he races towards it.
Outside, the beautiful Narya sits on a rock, and Vindicator sees her as she starts to search the Island perimeter. Heather asks the Goddess why she isn't aiding the search, and the sultry Snowbird replies that ever since the decision to bear a mortals child cost her not only that husband and baby, but also her God-hood, she has no desire for anything except for death. Narya believes that in death she may be able to transcend her loathsome existence and dwell among her fellow Gods.
Heather asks Narya if she is contemplating suicide and tells her that it is quite selfish of her – but cannot continue her sentence, as the mansion porch begins to collapse on her. Snowbird sees her friend under attack and races towards the porch to aide her – transforming into an Albino Sasquatch as she goes, for Narya thinks it will take physical strength mightier than her own to wrest Heather free, even if it comes at a risk.
Snowbird pummels through the broken porch in search of the swallowed Heather, but Heather manages to burst free herself, by using an electromagnetic blast. Heather asks Narya if she has gone crazy, reminding her that she knows the dangers of assuming the form of a Great Beast, even if she did it to aide her. Heather informs Narya that whatever caused their porch to collapse she was in no danger, as her battle suit comes equipped with a forcefield.
Snowbird informs Heather that the evil of the form can only affect her if she remains in it for longer than is necessary, which she wont, but in the meantime it is a mighty force in which to face a strong foe. ‘What for?’ asks Heather, although she did presume the sudden attack on her did stem from the same source as the shock wave earlier, but they have no idea who the enemy is.
Snowbird reveals to Heather that it is not “who”, but what, for she senses that it is Mansion Alpha directly responsible for the attack. The mysterious enemy realizes that somehow Snowbird knows, but even so, thinks her knowledge will do her little good, and she slams all the windows to the mansion shut, for neither Snowbird nor Vindicator can inflict serious harm on her without endangering their teammates held hostage within the mansion.
Heather fires an electromagnetic blast at the mansion, shocked that their own headquarters is sealing itself off and sealing them out, but even as she attacks the building, it seems to resist even further. Snowbird, in the Sasquatch form, proclaims that they must get in if they are to save their teammates. It is only immersed in this action that Narya can find solace from her sorrows.
In the gymnasium, Aurora and Bochs are relaxing, both kept deliberately unaware, by the mysterious spirit, of the attacks being launched on their teammates. Sitting on the edge of the pool, Aurora apologizes to Roger for having to turn the room to full light, ruining the romanticism, but the dark scares her. Aurora points out that Roger swims well, and he informs her that having no lower body, he has developed a lot of upper body strength.
Aurora tells Roger that Northstar has no right to deride him as overweight, and Roger asks Aurora if her brother thinks of him as a ‘legless fatty’, adding that he doesn’t think Northstar likes him. Aurora reveals to Roger that Northstar doesn’t like any man she likes, and snidely, Roger suggests Jean-Paul might be jealous. ‘Oui, maybe’ smiles Aurora. Roger begins to ask Aurora if she truly likes him, when suddenly his Box armor, which was standing beside the pool, begins to fall towards Aurora. Aurora tells Roger that of course she likes him, and he pushes her out of the way as his armor is almost upon her.
However, the result causes the Box armor, which weighs a quarter of a ton to fall on Roger, in the pool. Aurora slinks back to the wall-to-wall mirrors and calls to Roger, when suddenly, she is pulled into the mirror, the mysterious assailant telling Aurora that she cannot help Bochs now, for she has more need of her body than Bochs ever did! As she is pulled slowly into the mirror, Aurora declares how dark it is, and her captor reveals that all the mirrors in the house not only severed as her eyes but due to her alchemy are now portals leading into her dark heart, which only she or those she touches can penetrate. With a blinding flash, Aurora has been fully pulled into the mirror, and is at the mercy of the mysterious woman.
Roger, now in the Bochs armor, leaps out of the pool calling to Aurora, while revealing that while he was pinned beneath the armor he realized that he could phase into the armor and save himself – but now Aurora has been seized.
Meanwhile, in Bochs’ lab, electricity surges through the phone mouthpiece, and Diablo emerges, becoming corporeal again. He wonders where he is, and at that moment, Mansion Alpha heaves a sigh – and Diablo finds himself experiencing the sickening sensation of being held in a disembodied embrace. He is overcome with revulsion and runs from the corridor, as the mysterious woman calls Don’t, my darling, not after I’ve waited so long!
Diablo however runs straight into Box, ‘A metal man’. Roger asks Diablo who he is and how he got into Mansion Alpha, not to mention where he has hidden Aurora. This is all too much for Diablo, and after being sent to prison after being defeated by the Fantastic Four, he has sworn never to be so stupid as to oppose super beings again. Box declares that he wants answers, and Diablo proclaims that he would gladly give some – if he had any!
The mysterious woman tells her beloved that he has nothing to fear of this bludgeoning behemoth and she causes the walls to shrink in towards Bochs. Bochs thinks it is Diablo’s doing and asks him if he has telekinesis, but Diablo replies it isn't him and begins to run from Box, who sarcastically remarks that it must have been his invisible friend, and will show him how much he believes it when he breaks free!
Diablo does not know where he is however and therefore knows not where to flee to, but the mysterious woman seems to be guiding him, by opening an elevator for him. Entering the elevator, Diablo wonders if it is a trick by the metal man or an unseen foe. The mysterious woman whispers that Diablo is still so suspicious, but supposes that is how he has managed to stay alive for all these centuries. Perhaps I can allay your suspicions? and Diablo sees on a table before him an array of chemicals.
The master of alchemy is familiar with chemicals, but he has never witnessed them mix themselves! Smoke begins to form before him, and the woman informs him that this is an interim measure, which she has realized must be taken to that he may see and hear her, and as such she will become more-or-less a creature of chemical mists. Hardly preferable to the real flesh and blood maiden you once held in your arms.
The woman continues, informing Diablo that now he is here he will help her to regain the flesh form she lost. The smoke dissipates and a woman stands before Diablo. Dressed in white, she asks him why he stands and stares and why he doesn’t rush to the eager of embrace of…Gilded Lily!
The evil woman holds out her arms, as Diablo remembers the woman’s voice and the features from which the horrible golden mask was modeled, it is the same, but has been over 100 years since he last lay eyes on her! But he thinks this woman cannot be alive, it would be impossible! Lillian von Loont walks slowly over to her beloved, declaring that her return is no more impossible than it was for him to walk the streets of 9th Century Spain.
Lillian von Loont reminds Diablo that he unfolded to her the wonders of alchemy, and she finally discovered the secret of immortality for herself. Gilded Lily wraps her arms around Diablo’s neck, and reveals to him that in her case, since he never taught her the secrets of immortality, something went wrong in her experiment, and she only gained immortality of the consciousness, while her body decayed away. She boasts that she has longed for they to be reunited so he could help her attain true immortality, in body and soul.
Gilded Lily, in a stern voice, tells Diablo that he will help her, as she helped him, and uses her powers to garb him in his costume. Diablo seems surprised to learn that Lillian helped him. Gilded Lily tells Diablo that it must have been an affront to his dignity to have been incarcerated in that prison. Diablo proclaims that he was safe from enemies in the prison, and Gilded Lily tells him that he must jest, for the Diablo she knew would never seek safety, but supremacy over mankind.
Gilded Lily asks Diablo if he doesn’t recall how he found her, hurt and hideously deformed from a motor car accident, lying at the gates to his castle in the Transylvanian Alps. Lillian wished only to die like her new husband had. However, Diablo helped her, and awoke love in a heart that she thought incapable of ever loving again. Soon, Diablo became her tutor as well as her lover, and she learned all of his alchemical arts. However, before Diablo could reveal to Lillian all of his secrets, a superstitious rabble hunted him down when his powers were at their weakest, and sealed him away in a crypt, for, what Lillian thought, would be an eternity.
Lillian informs Esteban that she grieved, but went on to revenge herself on his attackers. With that task done, she ensconced herself in her ancestral house on Tamarind Island, never dreaming he was still alive, and she sought in her own fashion, the immortality Diablo had found. Though it came at a cost – her beauty and her body – when her accursed grandnephew tore away her life-giving gold mask from her face, and she thought death had come to claim her at last. But as she began to crumble, she managed to make it to a secret hideaway, her laboratory, though nothing would halt the progress of decay.
Now though, Gilded Lily knows that although she crumbled to dust, her consciousness lived on in that dust until they were both mixed into the very mortar of from which her home was reconstructed when it became the new headquarters of the super team Alpha Flight. Diablo is more concerned about the “super team” comment than anything else Lillian has mentioned and asks if there are more than just the metal man he met in the hallway. Gilded Lily tells him that they are a powerful assemblage and that one of them possess a body both young and lovely…and that in her form, Diablo can help her attain immortality!
Diablo tells Lily ‘No!’ and the stern-faced woman stands still, shocked at his answer, she tells him he better explain himself. Diablo tells Gilded Lily that he is done with fighting super heroes, as never in all of his encounters with them has he been victorious, and that if he were to help Gilded Lily possess one of their number, dooming her so that she herself may live, then the heroes would never rest until they had his head. Gilded Lily tells Diablo that together, their power pooled, they could defy the heroes and the world too. Diablo replies that he doesn’t want to be joined ‘to some century old female fury who’s every bit my alchemical equal’. ‘WHAT?’ shrieks Gilded Lily, and again, Mansion Alpha shakes.
Outside, Narya’s mystical senses feel their foe’s attention drift elsewhere and uses the lapse to smash her way into the mansion. Vindicator flies ahead, declaring they need to find the others. The male members of Alpha Flight also benefit from Gilded Lily’s lapse: in the elevator, Shaman manages to call forth spirits to aide him and Judd, while in the other elevator, Jeffries is no longer being shocked and can transmute an exit through the metal. Box smashes the enclosing walls, while Northstar finally finds himself free of the never-ending corridor.
Gilded Lily tells Diablo that he will help her, but the male alchemist sternly replies that he won’t. Gilded Lily wonders how she could have ever loved such a spineless specimen of humankind such as Diablo, and declares again that he will use his powers to help her attain immortality, and pointing to the oncoming heroes, she declares she shall let them have him. ‘Oh no, not them!’ cries Diablo watching as Vindicator, Snowbird, Northstar and the rest rush into the room.
Box motions to Diablo and declares that he is the creep he told them all about, but now he has a costume and a girlfriend. ‘And Aurora, I’ll bet’ adds Jeffries, while Judd remarks that from what he has seen of their powers so far, they better brace themselves for a fight.
Gilded Lily turns to Diablo and asks him what he has decided. Diablo announces that he is still the Master of alchemy, and that all of his potions – his weapons – are restored. Lillian reminds him of what he said himself earlier – that none of it has ever won him anything other than defeat. Diablo starts to curse Gilded Lily, until she puts a hand on him and asks again for him to join with her and she will deliver him from his enemies, for she has developed new tricks even he didn’t dream of.
Albeit hesitantly, Diablo agrees, and as Alpha Flight approaches their antagonists, a hole appears in the floor, and the villains drop through it. Heather orders Alpha Flight to follow them, although Box points out that they are in the sub-basement now, so there is no where to go. Not that they could go where Lillian and Diablo are going, for the hole has closed up. Northstar declares that where the villains have gone is no doubt where they will find his sister. Box smashes at the ground, expecting the hole to re-open, and Heather tells Twoyoungmen that there has to be another way, to which the sorcerer replies that there are doorways between reality, and begins to cast a spell.
Beneath the ground, Diablo stands in a dark makeshift lab and calls to Lily, asking where she is. From within a mirror comes Lily’s voice, beckoning him to the mirror. Diablo looks into the mirror where he sees Gilded Lily holding Aurora, ‘a sweet, young thing is she not?’ Lily asks. Gilded Lily declares that it is lucky, as she learned when she and Aurora first met, that due to Aurora’s strict upbringing in a religious orphanage, it left her prey to personality disorders, and one that causes her to paralyze when she finds herself trapped in the dark.
Aurora thinks she is back in the orphanage and begs to the nuns that she has done nothing wrong. Lily boasts that it is very dark where she is holding Aurora – the body she wants Diablo to help her make both immortal and her own. She tells Diablo that he must formulate his unique potion, adding the dust of her remains to it so she will enter and control the immortal body. Diablo realizes Lily would then look like Aurora and exclaims that he spoke too soon when he said he had no wish to spend eternity by her side, ‘we would make such a splendid match after all!’
At that moment, Alpha Flight have found the secret cavern, and burst in. Roger wonders exactly where this is, and Judd points out that the cavern shouldn’t even exist below Mansion Alpha. Everyone rushes towards Diablo, Heather pointing out that if Lily could take over the mansion, then perhaps she could hide the existence of the cavern from them. Jean-Paul recalls that Aurora told him that Gilded Lily once owned the island. Judd suggests that there may be even more hidden mysteries.
Diablo looks frightened as Alpha Flight approach him, but from inside the mirror, Lily tells him to hold them off, as he has to finish the formula, but it is no use, as Diablo has frozen with fear. Since Gilded Lily needs him for now she acts to save them both, and uses her own immortal dust, with the dust that lay on the cavern floor to animate the environment as easily as she controls the mansion, by creating a dust storm. Box’s armor is equipped with video-sensors, not eyes and exclaims that he is going to rescue Aurora.
As Alpha steady themselves in the dust storm, Diablo points out to Lily that it is not stopping them, but Lily tells him to just finish the work while she sees to his safety. Judd points out that the dust is hardening around them and that they are consuming all the air in the cavern very fast. Box reminds everyone that he doesn’t need air to breathe and tries to bust them out.
Gilded Lily sees what the Alphans are attempting and form inside the mirror casts a spell, trapping everyone inside rock. But Vindicator has other ideas, and declaring that she loves this house that she has tried very hard to make a sanctuary for a special group of people who cannot live anywhere else, so that when their home comes under attack it is up to her as leader of Alpha Flight who fights the hardest to defend it, and she uses an electromagnetic pulse to blast free of the rock prison.
Heather extends the pulse of her super suit, designed by her late husband, Alpha’s original leader, Guardian, and frees her teammates as well. Box proclaims that they will protect their hearth and home and along with the others, he rushes towards Diablo, set on rescuing Aurora, whom they can now see in the mirror along with Gilded Lily, who boasts that no one can reach either of them from within the mirror. Box points out that Diablo is an alchemist and bets that he knows a way they can rescue Aurora. He suggests they take him down before he can use the potion he is holding on them.
Diablo tells Alpha Flight to stay back, declaring that he will deliver their teammate to them, that he will do anything to avoid being hurt. But his plea comes too late, as Jean-Paul and Judd both strike Diablo down, sending the vial with the potion flying – right into the mirror, and the clutches of Gilded Lily. Gilded Lily smiles with the realization the immortality is almost within her grasp – until Aurora breaks Lily’s hold and informs the villainess that she has made a serious mistake.
Aurora uses her power to create light to dispel the darkness, she shines brightly, a power she was once only able to do in tandem with her brother, until a “mutual friend” altered her genetic structure. Aurora grabs the vial and reveals to Lillian that all it took was the light let in by her armor breaking the surface of the mirror to restore her to her true self, and while she is unclear as to everything that has happened, she is now stronger than ever. ‘Let us discard zees potion, shall we?’ asks Aurora.
In the cavern, Jean-Paul discovers Diablo’s hidden chemicals in his gloves and gets Judd to help disarm him before asking his sister if she is all right. Aurora calls out from inside the mirror, telling her brother that she is, but that she is unsure what to do with Gilded Lily or the potion, and that Lily is struggling, but she doesn’t want to drop the potion because of the unknown results. Box orders Diablo to reveal what the potion does and to tell them how Aurora gets out of the mirror.
Diablo warns Aurora that whatever she does she must not spill the vial as it is extremely volatile and combines with organic molecules. Scared, Diablo tells himself that this cannot be happening, for all he wanted was to be left alone, and his time in prison was nearly up! He doesn’t think anyone will believe him when he tells them that he didn’t arrange his escape and they will probably add more time on to his sentence. He decides that he cannot go back to prison, but that he will not let himself get hurt by the “heroes” either. He thinks that there still might be a chance with Lily as Aurora is confused and if he tricks her into drinking the potion, Lily’s will be free to defend him, not to mention he will have a good-looking woman in his possession. He knows he has to decide, but cannot! Diablo fears though that if he waits much longer Aurora will spill the potion and kill everyone – ‘why wont they all just leave me alone?’
Aurora turns from the verbally silent Diablo to his “lovair” and informs Gilded Lily that he is not answering her, and that she cannot help from dropping the potion much longer if Lily keeps struggling. Aurora realizes that it must combine with one of them to stabilize, and motioning towards Lily she tells her that she chooses her for the experiment, and forces the villainesses mouth open with her lightening speed, and shoves the potion down her throat, while all Lily can utter is a feeble ‘No!’
Flying through the mirror into the cavern, Aurora declares she made the right choice, and motions to the disintegrating form of Gilded Lily, which also created a portal for her escape. Jean-Paul and Box are relieved to see Aurora unharmed, while Diablo reminds himself that his immortality formula contains both Lily’s essence and her own potion, which neutralized her and caused all her years to catch up with her.
Later, Alpha Flight have gathered at the lakeside of Tamarind Island and are holding Diablo as the RCMP arrive. Box points out their arrival, informing the villain that Jeffries has a key to give them which will let him out of the bonds he is in, adding that he is lucky he wasn’t injured for endangering Aurora. Diablo thinks to himself that he is not lucky for his indecision cost him everything. Vindicator tells Diablo that he is lucky, as he will probably only get another five to ten years added on for his escape and asks him what that is for someone who has lived as long as him.
One of the Mounties calls to Vindicator, informing her that they are ready to take the prisoner for extradition of the United States. As the RCMP leave with Diablo, Heather suggests to her team that it has been a long night, and walking beside Aurora and Box, followed by Twoyoungmen, Jeffries and Puck, and walking at the back of the group are Jean-Paul and Snowbird, and Heather says ‘lets go home’.