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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Resurrection
Pink clouds line the morning sky on Tamarind Island, home of Canada’s premiere super hero team, Alpha Flight. But this is no ordinary morning, for this is the funeral of one of Alpha Flight’s finest. Snowbird is dead.
Narya, in her Albino Sasquatch form lies in a clear casket, with her estranged husband, Doug Thompson of the RCMP and their dead baby beside her. Standing on the hillside is the rest of Alpha Flight – Jean-Paul Beaubier, a.k.a. Northstar, one of Snowbirds closest friends. He stands away from the group, as does his unstable mutant sister, Aurora. Clustered together is team leader, Heather McNeil Hudson a.k.a. Vindicator, the woman in part responsible for Narya’ death; Madison Jeffries, Eugene “Puck” Judd and Dr. Michael Twoyoungmen the new Talisman, as well as Beta Flight member Kara Kilgrave the Purple Girl.
‘Dead’ thinks the solemn Heather as she recalls how Narya had gone North to seek the villain, Pestilence, who had possessed and corrupted the body of their son. They found him, and it cost Thompson his life. It was soon after that when Pestilence exercised his previously demonstrated ability to control the Great Beasts and gained power over Narya because she had transformed into her Albino Sasquatch form.
Pestilence sensed that the child’s purity was corrupting his soul and that only the infant’s death would free him – so he commanded Snowbird to slay her infant son. Heather recalls how she knew she had to stop Narya, that the child needed to be saved – that Pestilence had to die. But Heather had trouble with this, Snowbird was her friend, so she hesitated and the baby was killed. Then the worst happened – to prevent Pestilence from possessing Snowbird, Heather had to kill her.
Judd looks up at the woman he has a crush on and sees that Heather is tearing herself apart because she is Alpha Flight’s leader and therefore she takes the blame for the inevitable casualties that must occur in their line of work. He thinks that it is to be expected of Canada’s official super powered defenders. Judd reminds himself that he loves Heather and would do everything in his power to comfort her – if only she would let him.
But Heather turns to Madison Jeffries and throws her arms around him. Madison tells Heather that everyone is strung out and pulls her closer so she can lean on him. Judd turns away, for it has become increasingly obvious to him that Heather has chosen another who is better able to console her than a dwarf old enough to be her grandfather.
The Purple Girl looks at the body of Snowbird’s son, ‘They’re all dead! Even the baby!’ Heather and Jeffries pull Kara towards them, Heather asking Kara if she has never seen anyone die. Jeffries tells the young mutant that it happens, not just to infants, but to heroes. He reminds her how he promised her mother when she agreed to let her join Beta flight that he would look after her. ‘We both will,’ declares Heather. Kara tells Heather and Jeffries that she believes them and adds that she thinks they are her family already. ‘While I am on the outside looking in,’ thinks Judd to himself.
Northstar, still nursing a cold and wounded arm, thinks that if only Snowbird had heeded his and the others warnings not to adopt the accursed form of one of the Great Beasts, he says they would not for the second time be mourning the passing of a Sasquatch. Aurora reminds everyone that the first Sasquatch was her lover, Walter Langkowski. She exclaims that they were so happy together, until the evil inside of him forced Snowbird to slay him. Though Walter’s soul survived, in the robot armor of Box, he wanted to be a machine, not a man, and so sought a mindless, living body to occupy in another dimension – only Walter chose oblivion rather than to rob Bruce Banner of his Hulk body.
Northstar tells his sister that it was she who drove Walter to such extremes by threatening to choose a living lover while he was trapped in the armor, while she now does the same thing to Roger Bochs who is also trapped in the robot armor. Aurora tells Northstar that he may be her brother, but that doesn’t give him any right… when Jean-Paul cuts her off and asks her if she was going to say ‘No right to condemn your fickle flirtations that drive men to court death for your love?’
Jean-Paul begins to ask his sister whom she will heed if not him, when he is overcome by a coughing-attack. He clutches his wounded arm while remembering that when Pestilence kissed him he said he was accelerating the decay within him, and hinted that he would soon die of a pre-existing disease. Jean-Paul attempts to hide both his fear and illness from his teammates by turning away from them.
Jeffries asks anyone if they know any prayers, and Kara thinks that they should say something before sending their souls off into the ether. Twoyoungmen declares that there must surely be a better final resting-place than the endless void for a child of the Gods! The aged Alphan raises his hands to the sky and summons Snowbird’s pantheon. Hodiak informs Talisman that they heed his call, and Snowbird’s mother Nelvanna asks the medicine man why he has used his power to bind Narya’s sprit to the Earth.
The nameless Shaper exclaims that Earth is as good a grave as any for Snowbird foreswore paradise when she chose to marry a mortal. ‘Did she, Shaper?’ Twoyoungmen asks, before asking if so, was Narya’s crime any worse than that of her mothers, who herself mated with a mortal so that a champion might be born to battle the Great Beasts while the Gods were imprisoned in Paradise?
Twoyoungmen informs the Gods that Snowbird died trying to destroy Pestilence, whose evil exceeded even that of the Great Beasts. Nelvanna asks Twoyoungmen if he petitions them to forgive Narya and admits that it is done easily, for her heart wills it. Nelvanna extends her arms to Snowbird who rises from her coffin. Nelvanna bids her daughter to set her soul free from that loathsome form and assume her rightful place in paradise.
‘No, mother!’ exclaims Snowbird, before adding that she will not so long her mortal husband and demi-god son are rejected. Snowbird tries to convince them that she loved Doug Thompson, at least when she married him, but would have gone on loving him had her immortality not been stripped when she was forced to chose between her husband and paradise. Narya reveals that to her shame, she almost chose the latter – and her family perished because of it.
Snowbird declares that her family’s souls must rise along with hers, or she will travel eternally into the void with theirs. Hodiak, Narya’s grandfather reminds the other gods that they were prepared to let Snowbird’s immortal spirit remain Earth-bound and suggests they leave her on Earth. ‘I forbid it!’ protests Nelvanna, as the Shaper contemplates the idea of raising mortals to God-hood.
Twoyoungmen informs the Shaper that it has been done by other Gods in other times. The Shaper does not refuse and to echo those other deities raises Thompson and the baby from their coffins, where they will dwell in paradise until their final fates are revealed. Thompson is bewildered at what is going on, but grabbing her estranged husband’s hand, Narya tells him that they shall be together for all eternity. With that, Snowbird enters paradise.
Alpha Flight has watched what transpired and Twoyoungmen declares that their bodies may now be buried, for they are now mere soulless shells. Kara exclaims that her mother is never going to believe this, to which Heather informs her that she will not be able to tell her mother, as Alpha’s loss remains Alpha’s knowledge alone.
As everyone heads back to the mansion, Heather reveals that she does not feel so guilty now, for in the end, death brought Snowbird and her loved ones together. Shaman then announces that in the aftermath of their deaths, the time has come for the Talisman to take leave of Alpha Flight. Heather asks Michael if he has decided, but Shaman tells Heather it is she who decided for him, when she ordered him to obey him. He reveals that as Shaman he might have been able to go on, but having become the Binder of the Spirits he finds he can no longer heed any mortal.
As Shaman begins to disappear through some magickal portal, Heather calls to him, asking what she should tell his daughter, Elizabeth. Twoyoungmen calls back, asking Heather to tell Elizabeth that although he has abandoned this Earthly plane, he will love and watch over her forever. ‘Two Alphans gone in one day?’ coughs Jean-Paul, but motioning to the dock, Judd declares that maybe another has returned.
Jeffries peers to the dock and reveals that there is a motor-launch moored there. Aurora wonders if they have visitors, and Heather asks Jean-Paul to race on ahead and see – but the mutant speedster has another coughing fit and cannot. Heather asks the founding Alphan if he is all right, to which Jean-Paul declares that he is just tired.
Kara points out that there is no need for anyone to get weird, as if they were enemies, would the early-warning systems have alerted by now? Jeffries tells Kara that she is learning fast and declares that they are not enemies, as he can see the name on the boat – New Life. Aurora exclaims that New Life is the name of Jeffries’ brother’s clinic. Jean-Paul declares that Scramble has come to Tamarind Island, as Vindicator flies towards the dock, wondering if Box is with him.
Jeffries leads the way to the dock, as Aurora wonders if her lover, Roger Bochs is really free of the Box robot he was trapped in after a critical case of the bends. She recalls that she promised to love him if he ever emerged again, but knows deep down that her brother is right, she does make many promises to many men – and keeps none of them. Flying towards the mansion, Aurora tells herself that toying with the legless Rogair was a diversion, ‘but I am too much woman – for half a man!’
Soon, inside Mansion Alpha, the Jeffries brothers hug, and Heather warns Madison to watch out for Lionel’s hands. Dr. Jeffries’ intern, Whitman Knapp is quick to point out to Heather that Dr. Jeffries controls his flesh transforming powers now. ‘Is anyone glad to see me?’ asks Box. Aurora walks up to Roger and hesitantly asks him if he is cured. Lionel asks Roger if he would like to show them, and Roger is only to happy to comply, he phases out of the armor – complete with legs.
Roger stands before his astonished teammates and reveals that all of his baby fat was used to build a new set of legs. ‘Rogair, you are…beautiful!’ exclaims Aurora as she leaps into her lover’s arms. ‘That’s what Scramble’s mirrors told me, Aurora!’ Roger boasts, before telling Aurora that hearing it from her more than makes his day – it makes up for his whole rotten life.
Motioning towards Roger, Lionel asks Vindicator if he has redeemed himself, but Heather is too much in awe to speak. Madison tells Heather that it is time to bury the hatchet with his brother, while Jean-Paul thinks to himself that his sisters behavior is disgusting, as Judd wonders if Scramble could cure him of his dwarfism as Anodyne once did, ‘and could Heather then love me?’
Roger kisses Aurora as he reminds everyone that he has been trapped inside ‘that big tin sardine can’ for weeks, and declares that as he is now out of it, he wants to show what this years model Roger Bochs can do, and with that he carries her up the stairs towards his room.
‘Well, Aurora certainly is…’ Heather starts to say, with Madison finishing off her sentence – ‘what she’ll always be – putty in the hands of some hunk’. Jeffries then asks Heather how she feels about making his brother an honorary Alphan. Lionel tells Madison that he is honored it should even be suggested, but that he has his hands full at New Life, and as he and Whit take their leave, Lionel informs the Alphan he will be there if they need him. Whit smiles and waves at the Purple Girl – who is waving back. He thinks that she is sort of cute, and wonders if she likes him.
The Purple Girl walks out of the room and tells herself that she likes Whit, as Jeffries suggests to Heather that they call it a day. ‘Yes Mr. Jeffries, peace at last’ Heather replies. But as everyone leaves the room, no one sees the shrunken form of Smart Alec watching them from behind a chair – meaning the peace is not quite there.
Outside, night has fallen over Tamarind Island, and something is stirring in Snowbird’s grave. Something pushes through the dirt – and the Albino Sasquatch rises!
Looking out a window at the moon, Heather is unaware of the night’s impending menace as self-doubt makes a shambles of her desire for sleep. Heather tells herself that at least when she is sleeping she doesn’t ask herself why the happy housewife is leading her late-husband’s super team. ‘Cooking, cleaning, some shorthand and sten…those were my credentials’. She thinks that at least Mac was a scientist, and besides designing the Guardian battle suit that Heather now wears as Vindicator, Mac also understood the psychology of super-beings.
Heather walks across the room as Smart Alec races in the other direction behind her. Hugging herself, Heather wonders if maybe Mac just used Alpha Flight as some cold-blooded experiment like he did when he turned Logan into Wolverine. Heather thinks that she might not be miscast after all, as Mac lead with his head, and it killed him, while she leads with her heart and despite the team’s losses, Alpha Flight has survived. ‘More than survived, we have become a family’’ she boasts.
Out of the corner of her eye, Heather sees something scuttle across the floor. Picking up a lamp she thinks that if it is a mouse she will just die, but as she shines the light on it she sees it is Smart Alec. Immediately, she throws the lamp at her enemy, who jumps out of it’s way while trying to tell her that he is not who she thinks. But the tiny voice is lost against the crash of the lamp and the angry snarl of a woman set on revenge.
Heather informs Smart Alec that she still holds him and the rest of Omega Flight responsible for Mac’s death, although admits that she thought he had been punished when he sneaked a look into Shaman’s medicine pouch and was left mindless as a result. She tells Smart Alec that she did not object when Shaman reduced his size and sentenced him to exile in the medicine pouch.
Smart Alec tries to hide under a chair, but Heather reaches for him as she tells him she is not sure how he got his mind back, or how he escaped the other-dimensional void within the pouch…but as she picks him up by the foot she tells him that now that she has the chance she intends to find out. ‘Talk you little creep!’ Smart Alec tells Heather that he has been trying to, and that if she will just give him a chance – when suddenly, the Albino Sasquatch breaks into Heather’s room growling.
‘Sasquatch? Snowbird?’ The only reply the beast gives is a smack, knocking her against a wall. She rolls with the impact so she will not break any bones, but when she smacks against the wall she is winded and drops Smart Alec, who lands up against the unoccupied Box armor.
Hearing the commotion, Jean-Paul, Jeffries, Judd and the Purple Girl run from their bedrooms. Jean-Paul is shocked at the possibility his friend Narya has risen from the grave, but Jeffries asks why she would be attacking Alpha Flight. Judd tells the other men to look at the fury in her eyes and listen to her growling, he points out that it is not Narya’s soul directing the form of the Great Beast, and Jeffries realizes something must be possessing her corpse.
Judd tells Jeffries he suggests they solve the mystery, after Heather is out of danger and using his acrobatic skills he flips past the Sasquatch – who has suddenly become involved in a battle with the Box armor. But as he dodges past the Sasquatch, the beast strikes out and claws Judds’ back. Puck cries out in pain before picking Heather up and carrying her to the others. As Heather looks at his wounded back, Judd informs her that he was once raked by a Bengal tiger, and that the pain is comparably bearable, while thinking to himself that he would risk far worse, for the chance to hold Heather in his arms.
Heather tells Judd he made a foolish risk, as she was in no immediate danger. Jean-Paul points out that not so long as Box holds the beast’s attention, when walking down the stairs with Aurora, and wearing nothing but a towel, Roger reveals that he is not. Everyone is shocked at this revelation as Heather declares that she is starting to understand, and informs everyone that just before the Sasquatch burst in, she was hunting Smart Alec.
‘The evil Omegan who Shaman imprisoned?’ asks Judd to clarify, to which Heather reveals that Shaman left his medicine pouch here when he departed earlier in the day. Judd realizes Smart Alec must have emerged from it but asks whose mind was in the body. Heather reminds everyone that there was another soul floating free in the other-dimensional void, searching for a body to inhabit so he could return to Earth… and a shocked Aurora declares ‘It cannot be!’
But the Box armor turns to the Alphans, Aurora in particular and says ‘Hello beautiful! Miss me?’ Even though the voice is processed through the circuitry of the Box armor, it is unmistakably that of… ‘Walter Langkowski?’ exclaims Roger. ‘Mon Cher,’ declares Aurora as Jeffries reminds everyone that Walter occupied the armor for a time and could have phased into it again.
‘But who, or what, is animating Sasquatch?’ asks Heather. The reply comes from the beast itself, and the evil voice asks Heather if she did not think she could so easily banish the ‘unslayable soul of…Pestilence?’ With that one word, Heather McNeil Hudson’s self-confidence takes a nosedive.
Aurora flies towards the battling behemoths and reminds Heather that she is their leader. Jean-Paul asks Heather what the plan is, but slumped over on the stairs, Heather tells everyone not to ask her to decide, reminding them that it was her failure to act decisively that stopped her from slaying Snowbird before she slayed her own son, thus releasing the soul of Pestilence, which would have perished left in the possession of the baby’s life force.
As she blinds Pestilence with her light powers, Aurora tells Heather that what is done is done and that her reborn Waltair may die if they don’t do something now. Judd throws himself against Pestilence, informing his teammates that as she blames herself for Pestilence’s return Heather is paralyzed which means they will have to act on their own. Walter announces that he thought Heather was their leader in name only, to which Judd tells his friend that much has transpired since he was away.
Jean-Paul declares that he must help, but a coughing fit prevents him, and Jeffries points out that he hardly has the strength to stand. Kara suggests she tries, but Jeffries pulls her back, reminding her she is only a Betan. ‘Synonymous with baby, to be pampered?’ asks Kara before reminding Jeffries that he knows her power and made her part of the team because of it. Walking up to Pestilence, Kara tells Jeffries to let her use it before there is any loss of life.
Jeffries realizes Kara’s powers might work against Pestilence, but stands right behind her in case it doesn’t, and Kara orders Pestilence to freeze. ‘Die!’ is the villains’ reply, and realizing it didn’t work, Jeffries pulls Kara out of the way, suggesting that Pestilence is more spirit than man, or perhaps because he is in the form of a Great Beast, he is immune to her power.
Jeffries tells Kara that he doesn’t care about anything except getting her out of here alive. Using the metal that lines Mansion Alpha, Jeffries’ transmutating powers create a wall between Pestilence and him and Kara – but not for long, as in the form of the Great Beast, Pestilence is capable of reducing it to scrap. Jeffries gets caught by a sharp piece of metal, and Kara pulls him to safety, while Walt, Aurora and Judd continue to fight Pestilence.
Heather watches as Alpha Flight begins to flounder, lie a ship without a rudder, yet she knows if she assumes the helm she assumes the responsibility, and any harm that befalls anyone will be on her head. She wonders how she can take the chance that her leading Alpha may lead them to destruction. But realizing she seems to be the only one with any idea of how to save them, how can she not act?
As she begins to race up the stairs, Heather reminds Walt that he has been Sasquatch longer than anyone has and knows its power, so she asks him if he can hold it. Walt reminds Heather that he also occupied the Box armor and knows its strengths too – the armor is not even half of Sasquatch’s strength. Before she has gone, Heather remarks that Box’s power lies in more than the armor’s strength, and tells Walt to keep close to Pestilence and not let go.
Aurora thinks Heather is risking her man while she seeks safety, “My man?” Roger thinks to himself, but Walt tells Aurora that if Heather is risking him it must be with a good reason. He wonders what Heather meant by the power of the Box armor lying in more than just its strength. He jokes to himself that his journey into limbo must have pickled his brain when he remembers that the armor has an internal power pack, and if the super-charged current is channeled out…he begins to do so.
Roger tells Walt he is a fool, for if he expends the armor’s energy without killing Pestilence he will be left helpless. Running back down the stairs, Heather reveals that that was the risk she asked Walt to take, while she retrieved Shaman’s medicine pouch!
As Pestilence is purged from Snowbird’s Sasquatch form, the villain declares that if one host body is endangered he will merely seize another. Walt feels his energy depleting and declares that he can’t stop Pestilence – but Heather announces that she can, and as she reminds Pestilence he longed to be immortal, and tossing the medicine pouch at his spirit form she tells him to feast his eyes on infinity ‘your future and final resting place’.
Within the medicine pouch lies a great and ongoing endlessness. A realm of the ethereal soul. Only the corporeal stand any chance of escaping the void, as he lacked a mind Smart Alec never tried, but possessing Smart Alec’s body, Walter Langkowski succeeded. He tries to dodge the pouch, and a look of horror spreads across one who has caused so much horror’s face, as he enters the pouch, and being a pure spirit, Pestilence doesn’t stand a chance of ever escaping.
Box continues to hold up the Albino Sasquatch as Judd picks up the body of Smart Alec and remarks that there is now no host-form within the pouch for Pestilence to possess. ‘Oh! The poor little man!’ exclaims Kara when she sees Smart Alec’s body. Jeffries informs everyone that Smart Alec’s body must have gotten squashed during the battle, but Heather points out that with Walt’s mind phased into Box, Alec never felt a thing.
Looking at the lifeless Box and Sasquatch, Aurora asks what of her Waltair? She wonders if in expending all of his energy to shock Pestilence’s spirit from the Sasquatch form, did he doom himself? Suddenly, Sasquatch says ‘Might have – but didn’t!’ Grinning, in the Albino Sasquatch form of Snowbird’s body, Walt declares that he should have known Heather wouldn't let him shut down the Box armor unless she knew he had an alternative body to occupy. ‘Break out the bubbly, Alpha! Sasquatch’s back!’
Sasquatch picks up Aurora in his arms, and grabbing Walt back, Aurora tells him she missed him so much. Roger frowns and turns away, realizing that Aurora is ecstatic by the return of Walt, even after all the risks he tool to win her love. Sasquatch tells Aurora that he too missed her and remarks that floating around in the void may have been fine for some man of the cloth, but he has always hankered for the temptations of the flesh!
Walt declares that he is sorry about Alec, for it was his body that got him out of Limbo, but with no mind he has no use for it, ‘and I'm right back to where I started – Sasquatch – again, despite the color shift!’ Aurora asks if he can transform back into her beautiful Walter’, and Walt begins to, for he doesn’t see why not.
But when Walt has completely transformed from beast to human, the shocked Alphans see not the handsome Walter Langkowski holding Aurora in his arms, but a white-haired woman. ‘W-Waltair?’ asks Aurora, as Bochs grins, thinking to himself ‘Ma Cheri!’ Heather declares that she doesn’t understand, but Judd informs everyone that it is not quite simple, for apparently white fur was not the only change Walter inherited in assuming Snowbird’s Sasquatch form – but her female body as well!


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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Friends ... and Lovers
New Life Clinic, where Dr. Lionel Jeffries, uses his mutant power to control flesh to help those who are beyond the help of any conventional medicine. Today however, one very special patient has come to see him, along with the member of Canada’s premiere super hero team, Alpha Flight: Jean-Paul “Northstar” Beaubier; Aurora; Heather “Vindicator” Hudson; Madison Jeffries; Eugene “Puck” Judd; Roger “Bochs” Box and the Betan, Kara “Purple Girl” Kilgrave. The patient…is Walter Langkowski…who is now a woman!
Standing beside her former lover, Aurora tells Dr. Jeffries that there must surely be something he can do to transform her boyfriend back into a man! Walter – who as a joke has decided to call himself Wanda – tells Aurora to calm down as she is getting hysterical. ‘Zat ees easy for you to say!’ Aurora snaps back. ‘Not really,’ mumbles Wanda. Dr. Jeffries asks if he really understands this: ‘Walter Langkowski once became Sasquatch, only to lose control of that entity’. Judd informs him that Walt lost control due to the Great Beasts, who through him tried to emerge back on Earth. Following that, Jeffries recalls, Snowbird slew Sasquatch, and as Heather points out, Walt’s mind was temporarily housed in the battle-robot belonging to Roger Bochs.
Heather reminds everyone that Walt was a ‘full-blooded Canadian male’ and in love with Aurora, so the predicament soon became unreasonable, adding to the problem the paraplegic Bochs wanted his robot body back. Together they devised a plan to seek in other dimensions a mindless body for Langkowski to occupy, but the first attempt failed and Walter’s soul was lost in limbo.  Judd points out that Snowbird then began to assume the form of Sasquatch with alarming frequency for the physical power it possessed. Northstar recalls how his friend, under assuming the from that was once the spiritual avatar for a Great Beast could then become under the command of one who controlled such death spirits.
The Purple Girl points out that it was Pestilence who had possessed Snowbird’s baby, except the baby’s purity began to corrupt Pestilence, so the villain commanded Snowbird to slay her son and set his evil spirit free. Kara suggests to Jean-Paul that while they are at New Life he should have Dr. Jeffries take a look at his cough. ‘I need no advice on my health from you, Purple Girl!’ snaps Jean-Paul.
Bochs reminds everyone that in trying to save the child, Vindicator had to slay Snowbird, but fortunately for Narya, her soul and the souls of her mortal husband and son were admitted into paradise by Snowbird’s fellow Arctic Gods. Jeffries adds that the Albino Sasquatch body Snowbird was inhabiting remained behind, and was possessed by the evil spirit of Pestilence, who would have destroyed Alpha had Langkowski not emerged from Limbo in the mindless body of Smart Alec who was imprisoned there by Shaman. Walt’s soul then merged with the Box armor before finally ending up in Snowbird’s Sasquatch body – much to Rogers’ misfortune, since he had fallen in love with Walt’s ex – Aurora. Jeffries thinks to himself that it was to Bochs’ delight that when Langkowski turned into a human again, he found he had become a woman because he was in Snowbirds’ body, much to Aurora’s dismay.
After everyone has said their piece, Wanda tells Dr. Jeffries that obviously Alpha met him some time after she “died” and so she doesn’t know who he is or what powers he possess, but ‘Can you really turn Wanda Langkowski into Walter Langkowski again?’ Dr. Jeffries tells Wanda that she must have heard that his is the power to reorder flesh, and did recently cure Roger Bochs, making the once paraplegic man whole. Roger leaps out from the Bochs armor, displaying his new set of legs as he runs up to Aurora and reminds her that he only assumed the risk because of his love for her.
As Roger grabs Aurora by the arm, the flighty mutant pulls away in disgust, and turning her back to everyone, she informs Roger that she was lonesome after Walter died and needed a distraction, that their affair offered her some…amusement. ‘Amusement? Is that all?’ asks Roger, upset. Wanda tells Aurora that she guesses it was naïve to think she would have remained faithful to her memory. Aurora informs Wanda that she placed flowers on her grave, but the memory of Walt could not dispel the darkness that crowded close on so many lonely night.
Wanda begins to suggest something Aurora could have tried, before announcing that she is even starting to feel feminine and telling Lionel that if he has a cure now is a good time to use it. Scramble informs Wanda that it will require a “laying on” of hands, to which Langkowski declares that she does not consider this body hers and trusts him not to take advantage. Watching the process, Heather wonders to herself if she trusts Scramble, for he almost destroyed Alpha Flight once, but now, apparently his madness is cured, and he has helped them when Alpha has needed him. But Heather does not like the idea of relying on Dr. Jeffries to patch her team up after every battle, for such dependence can be dangerous.
Moments later, Wanda stares at Jeffries as nothing happens. Scramble declares that he is letting his power flow, commanding the body to change right down to the cellular level so that the brain, flesh, blood and bone of woman will be transmutated into that of man. But nothing happens. Uh…maybe I should try Sweden?’ jokes Wanda, as the annoyed Aurora exclaims it didn’t work. Jeffries finds it odd that the body did not respond to his powers.
Stepping forward, Jeffries’ intern Whitman Knapp suggests that he knows why. Jean-Paul asks what could a mere intern know, Madison tells Jean-Paul that everyone has to start somewhere, while Kara thinks to herself that Whitman is cute. Knapp informs Dr. Jeffries that while he was attempting to change the gender of Langkowski, he took the liberty of training some probes on the modified subject, which reveal that the ‘lovely lady before us’ is not precisely human, but an amalgam.
Heather realizes what is going on and continues for Knapp, announcing that the amalgam is of the man Walter Langkowski was, the woman and Goddess that Snowbird was and the Great Beast they had both become. Dr. Jeffries realizes that since his power only affects human organisms, that would explain his failure. Wanda asks if she cannot become a man again and as she transforms back into the Albino Sasquatch she supposes anything is better than being a ghost and reaches out to Aurora, who pulls away, telling Wanda not to touch her, and flying out of the room, she tells Wanda that so long as she is what she is, ‘never touch me!’
Bochs tells Langkowski that she has lost Aurora, which means she is fair game for him. But as he gets back into his Box armor, Jeffries tells Roger that he is deluding himself to think that the fickle Aurora will ever – Roger doesn’t want to listen and crashes his way out of the room as he reminds Jeffries that they may be friends, but to have a care about the way he talks of the woman he loves.
Once Bochs is out of earshot, Jeffries tells him that Aurora doesn’t love him back. Wanda suggests that it may have been best for everyone if she just stayed in Limbo. Jeffries has accepted the new Langkowski and tells Wanda that it isn't her fault, and that the problems lie in Bochs’ heart and Aurora’s head. Kara declares that the two fleeting Alphans have headed back to Mansion Alpha, and Jean-Paul suggests they can follow in the Omni-jet. Heather shakes Scramble’s hand and thanks him for trying, as Lionel reminds Heather that he is forever in Alpha’s debt.
Alpha Flight leave, while in New Life Clinic’s hidden sub-basement Whitman tells Jeffries that while he doesn’t have his powers, he has learned so much about novel approaches to medicine from him and has hesitated to question some of the radical cures he achieves as Scramble. ‘But you feel to know?’ asks Jeffries. Knapp informs Lionel that it was the strange splotches he noticed on Bochs’ new legs – almost as if they were decomposing. Jeffries turns to Whit and grabs him, in doing so, his powers do something strange to Whitman. Jeffries tells Whit to be quiet or else he will transmutate him into unrecognizability, for even it he could not cure Langkowski, his power over human flesh must be unquestionable. Walking away from Knapp, Jeffries announces that were he ever to doubt his ability, he might go mad! Whit, somewhat scared, wonders if because Jeffries has threatened to use his power on him, who has served him loyally, maybe he already has!
Flying across the straits of San Juan De Fuca, Box calls to Aurora, who turns to him and asks him if he cannot leave her alone to her misery. Roger exclaims that he cannot, for he loves her, and ‘unlike Langkowski, I can love you!’ Aurora calls Roger a pig before streaking off ahead of him.
Tamarind Island, home of Alpha Flight, later that night, Heather finishes entering the latest team information into the Alphanex computer by ending with the return of the original Sasquatch in a somewhat unexpected capacity. Sarcastically, she tells herself that this is a fascinating way to spend an evening, but even so, the data stored in the computer provides a sense of continuity and helps her put things in perspective. “Just scrolling down memory lane has shown me where Alpha’s been and how far I’ve come!’
Reading the computer screen, Heather recalls how when her late husband, James MacDonald Hudson got government authorization to reorganize his super powered allies: Northstar, Snowbird and the rest at Department H into Alpha Flight, she played no part at all, was just being a happy housewife, while her husband went off to do his super work. But then Mac died…then Sasquatch…and Heather was forced to put on the Guardian battle suit to become Vindicator. However, in order to preside over Alpha Flight – an Alpha Flight without Snowbird, Marrina and Shaman.
This leaves Heather with Alpha Flight as it is currently constituted, but she can rely on recent memory for that, and visual images, as Alphanex’s video-monitors scan the public areas of Mansion Alpha and can show her what her people are up to. Heather sees Aurora walk up to Judd in a living room where he is reading. Aurora tells Judd that he is the only person who expresses no disgust over her behavior. Judd informs Aurora that it is because he too knows what it means to yearn after an impossible love.
This surprises Aurora, and Judd asks her if she thinks it is preposterous that a dwarf should love. ‘No, its just I came here to discuss…me!’ whines Aurora. ‘Of course’ remarks Judd as he sarcastically tells Aurora it was foolish of him to have forgotten that Aurora’s longest running love affair has always been with herself. Aurora storms off, declaring that she sees she will get no sympathy here.
Feeling like a spy, Vindicator scans on, and looks in on the mansion sub-basement swimming pool, where Jean-Paul and Wanda are. Looking at herself in a mirror, Wanda tells Jean-Paul that if she were Walter she would say she was a knockout. Sitting on the diving board, Jean-Paul informs Wanda that like his sister, he preferred the man that she was. Wanda turns to Jean-Paul, surprised, at this, she asks if he really did. As Wanda walks over to Jean-Paul, the handsome mutant informs her that he cried when they thought they lost her/him. ‘I never knew! I’m…sorry,’ exclaims Wanda. Northstar brushes Wanda off, informing her that he needs neither her condolences nor her concern. And walking away while coughing, he exclaims that neither can help one who is doomed. ‘Doomed?’ asks Wanda, while Heather wonders what Jean-Paul is referring to – the cough?
In an effort to learn, Heather follows Jean-Paul’s movements seeing him enter a corridor where he storms past both his sister and the Purple Girl. In French, Aurora tells Northstar that they need to talk, but Jean-Paul just snaps back that he has no time for her flirtations, no time for anything. Aurora asks what use is the common blood they share, snarling that it would have been better if their relationship was never revealed. Kara asks Aurora if something is the matter, only for Aurora to call her an ‘Eavesdropping little brat’. Taken aback, Kara exclaims that she doesn’t even speak French, and as Aurora storms away, Kara informs her that she will get what is coming to her – maybe she already has.
Kara enters a room where Jeffries is, and as she walks in, Jeffries asks her if she has done her homework. Kara tells Jeffries that she thought she would do it near him, in case she needed help. Jeffries informs her that he got his schooling on the street, but adds that he doesn’t mind the company and reminds Kara that he did promise her mother that he would see to her education when they inducted her into Beta Flight. Kara senses something is wrong with Jeffries and asks him if he is upset over the way Aurora is treating Bochs. Jeffries reveals that he is upset over the way Bochs is reacting to it, and informs her that they go way back, even before they were involved with Department H, adding that Bochs was never the most stable person to begin with.
Heather is surprised by the revelation of Jeffries and Bochs’ history, but remembers that not all of her people’s histories are in Alphanex, for Mac did respect their privacy. Heather thinks to herself that after observing Jeffries concern for his friends and care of Kara, she has come to like him a lot. Heather wonders why she shouldn’t be able to love someone again, for it seems to be the hot topic around the mansion at the moment.
Heather watches the camera monitor, having lost track of Northstar, she finds Aurora – who is standing outside of Bochs room. As Aurora grabs the door handle, Heather wonders if she will go in – but she turns away, to her own room. Heather thinks that is too bad, but knows that not even a team leader can control emotions. She tells herself to stop spying and get to bed.
Had Heather continued to watch, she would have seen a light from under Bochs’ door turn on. Were she to continue to listen, she might have heard a muffled muttering from within, and could she make out the words, she might toss concerns for privacy away, and peer inside Bochs room, in time to prevent disaster.
Bochs sits on his bed, picking at the splotches on his legs, he declares that everyone thinks he is a fool, and they are right – he is a fool – Aurora’s fool! He proclaims that she led him on, made him love her and made a fool of him when he fell for her. He turns to his armor and declares that Aurora will pay for that – he will make them all pay. The terrifying undertone, beneath the muttering, the incessant sound of scratching…and flaking of flesh falling upon the covers of Bochs’ bed.
In Aurora’s room, later that night, she lies in bed, huddled in her covers as she tells herself she will not turn on the light, for she must conquer her fear of the dark, just as she must conquer her emotions. She wonders how can she though – both the night and men make her tremble – the first with fear, the second with ecstasy. When faced with both, she knows she loses control, and both fears are so easily dispelled, for she can turn on her own inner light, as easily as she can turn on her lovers.
‘Both your lust and your light – are evil!’ Aurora turns quickly at the voice and sees before her the Sisters of Madame Dupont’s School for Girls. The Sisters reminds Aurora that it was they who raised her, when her ‘Satan spawn parents perished!’ The Sisters tell Aurora that they had hoped and prayed that they had driven sacrilege out of her soul, just as they had remade her in a more acceptable image.
Aurora gazes up to a mirror in her room and sees her other-self – Jeanne-Marie. ‘So we meet again, tramp,’ Jeanne-Marie says before informing Aurora that she wants her stolen body and soiled soul back. ‘No! I am not Jeanne-Marie! I am Aurora, lady of light!’ exclaims Aurora, who knows that Jeanne-Marie would make her into some cowed, cringing victim, paralyzed by despair. Aurora proclaims that she rejects hat side of her, for it dwells in the darkness, and knows she has the power to drive it away, all she needs to say is ‘Let there be…light?!’ At that moment, Box bursts into Aurora’s room.
Alpha Flight and the Purple Girl gather at the bottom of the staircase, they all heard the loud crash. Wanda wonders if it is an attack, before asking if the mansion doesn’t have an alarm system. Standing at the top of the staircase is Box, holding an unconscious Aurora in his arms, Box informs Langkowski that Mansion Alpha is protected by numerous and over-lapping early warning systems, however, they are not programmed to react hostilely to a former friend.
Northstar points out that Box has his sister, and Box holds her high above his head, boasting that the tramp is his to do with what he wants – and he wants to punish her, so that the minx will never deceive any man ever again. Heather tries to calm Roger, telling him he cannot mean that, for she knows Aurora has hurt him, but she knows also that he hasn’t stopped loving her. Heather whispers to Sasquatch and asks her to go up the back elevator. The Albino Alphan complies, as Judd reminds Box he is an Alphan.
Box tells Judd that it is irrelevant and Jean-Paul threatens Box, who tells him that if he tries he will kill Aurora. Kara asks Heather if she can try her powers on Box. Jeffries protests, but Heather points out that Box is a living robot and Kara’s manipulation pheromones affect his sensors. Heather thinks that they may be able to end this standoff and tells Kara to try. The Purple Girl walks up some of the stairs as Roger tells her to stay back. Kara reminds Bochs that he knows she cannot possibly hurt him, but Bochs points out that he knows what her powers are. Kara remembers that she has used her powers on his cyborg brain before, but as she tries this time it is not working.
Kara walks up some more of the stairs and orders Box to let Aurora go – but Roger calls Kara a fool and asks her if it never occurred to her that he would modify his sensor receptors to prevent her pheromones from reaching his mind and he kicks her down the stairs. Jeffries catches her, and asks Bochs how he could have done that.
Box tells Madison to get up off his knees, telling him he is not fooled, Box reminds Jeffries that they were friends since the institution. Roger declares that he stayed Jeffries’ friend, but that Jeffries switched loyalties – to them. Judd comes up behind Box and announces that the “them” is Alpha Flight and reminds Box that they welcomed him, despite his troubled past, because the team became his family. Judd grabs Aurora out of Box’s arms and leaping to the ground level, he tells Roger not to throw it away.
Sasquatch puts her arms around Box and tells Box that they are still his friends, but Roger tells them that by choosing to defend Aurora, they are rejecting him. ‘You’re crazy’ declares Wanda, to which Roger points out that everyone always said that, but plans to show them all they were wrong. ‘Who’s they?’ asks Wanda.
Judd thinks to himself that Sasquatch couldn’t possibly know, for Walter was inducted straight into Alpha Flight, not Beta, and thus passed over the Clinic for Socially Maladjusted Super-Beings where he, Jeffries and Bochs were tested. Puck recalls that they graduated to Alpha when he was presumably cured, but it appears some of them merely disguised their maladies. Judd asks Aurora if she is all right, but Aurora is acting strangely and exclaims that she is sorry to the Sisters, that she didn’t mean to blaspheme and will be good, and begs them not to lock her away in the darkness again.
Judd realizes that Aurora’s exposure to Bochs’ madness has triggered her latent psychosis as Heather pushes everyone out of the way when Box and Sasquatch tumble down the stairs. Aurora is frozen, unable to move, so Judd shoves her to safety – but at the expense of his own, as the heavy behemoths roll over him. Sasquatch expresses her concern for Judd, but Box tells her that the dwarf is no worse off than she shall soon be and grabs her, stunning her by sending masses of electro-currents into her.
Sasquatch falls to the floor as Vindicator stands in front of Jean-Paul, Aurora, Jeffries and Purple Girl, she tells Box that it is enough, that it is over. Box replies that it is not over until he ends it, but Heather snaps back that she will be the one who ends it, and though she had not wanted to do it, for Box is family she unleashes a powerful electromagnetic blast on him. But Box is one of Alpha Flight, and Heather is responsible for all of Alpha Flight. Box however, is not responsible for the madness that has unhinged him. The choice then – the one or the many.
Box swats Heather away, declaring that he knew everyone was against him. Jeffries puts up a metal barrier between Box and the others as he informs him that he was with him all the way, and would have stayed with him, not lifting a finger – if he hadn’t just hurt Vindicator. As Judd kneels beside Heather, he realizes that Jeffries does love Heather as he suspected.
Box smashes through the barrier, asking Jeffries if the way he shows his allegiance is by transmutating ridiculous barriers between him and those he hates. ‘Nope, between you and those I love!’ exclaims Jeffries. Judd wonders if Heather loves Jeffries, and realizes that of course she would, for it would be so much easier than loving a dwarf.
Box tells Jeffries that if he were his friend he would stand with him. Jeffries replies that he would, so long as Box stood with Alpha, but Bochs exclaims that Alpha stands against him. Jeffries puts up another wall, trying to hold back the attacking Box, and tells him that he is talking crazy, that everyone just wants to help him. Box smashes through the barrier, exclaiming that he needs no help and informing Jeffries that his betrayal shows him he must stand alone.
Jeffries tells Bochs is being paranoid and reminds him that he suffered from it before, back when he was a fat paraplegic cursing the whole world for the loss of his legs, when it was no one’s fault bate fate. That was what the doctors at the institution had tried to tell Roger, who smashes through another barrier boasting that every doctor has lied. Jeffries tells him that they actually told the truth, by telling Bochs that he couldn’t keep using his brain to get back at the world for hurting him, just as they told Madison he could not keep building mechanical barriers between himself and the rest of the human race.
Jeffries reminds Bochs that they both didn’t believe him, that they didn’t need anyone but each other – until James Hudson came along and informed them that the very powers that made them crazy were exactly what he was looking for, though this time they had to stop using those powers to hurt humanity, and help it instead. Jeffries reminds Bochs that he believed Hudson then and asks what has changed.
Bochs tries to hit Jeffries who is backed up against a wall, and declares that it will not work and that Jeffries is trying to unbalance him. Jeffries dodges Boch’s blow, informing him that he is already unbalanced, so it has to work. Box asks why, to which Jeffries informs him that if it doesn’t work, if he cannot get his best friend to stop attacking the people that love him, then he is left with one choice.
Box tells Jeffries that he is the one who is mad, for Bochs possess the power of the robot, the fruits of his own genius and so long as he does he needs no man. Jeffries tells Bochs that he doesn’t deny the fact it was his brains that designed the robot, ‘but it was me ya come to ta build it!’ exclaims Jeffries, adding that what his powers transmute metal can make, his powers can also take control of.
With that, Jeffries forces Bochs, who screams, out of the Box armor, and himself into it. Bochs kneels on the ground as everyone gathers around. Jeffries tells Roger that he is sorry, but Roger just declares that it is not possible that he should have been phased out, for he designed the robot to accommodate only his mind and genetic matrix. Jeffries reminds Roger that he had him modify it in the past, to accommodate others, such as Langkowski, and that he never saw no need to modify it to use the modification to kick him out of it until now.
Bochs tells Jeffries that he thinks he planned this all along, from the very start scheming behind his back, waiting for the chance to steal his robot and betray him, to steal his place in Alpha Flight and steal Aurora from him. Calmly, Jeffries tells Roger that the only basis for that argument, is in his own twisted mind, and with that, walks away, leaving a crazed Roger Bochs on the floor, picking at his decaying legs.


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

[Assistant]
The Fire Inside
The South Pole: The continent that surrounds it comprises nearly a tenth of the world’s land mass, but is owned by no one. One may wonder who could desire an environment where darkness prevails for six months each year and where temperatures rarely rise above negative nine degrees centigrade and where the landscape is as blank and hostile as the moon. There are however, a number of nations willing to send teams of scientists to seek new forms of energy. Canada is one such country willing to do that.
The winds wail in over Cape Evans, threatening to tear Ice Station Readleaf from its moorings on the glacial shelf. Inside, the research station, several scientists are going about their business. ‘Quite a blow, eh, MacGill?’ an older scientist says to a handsome younger man. Pouring the older scientist a hot drink and calling him Barstow, MacGill tells him it will be the last one they will hear forever. A woman sits on the floor and feeds several dogs as she asks MacGill if he is not coming back.
MacGill smiles and tells the woman, Shaw, that the only thing he will miss about Project Hotcore is having spent six months in isolation with a lovely lady such as she. ‘I’ll give my fiancee your endorsement’ Shaw jokes. Barstow tells Shaw that there is still time to change her mind and marry one of them. The young man at the radio control, Davenport, chews on a pencil as he exclaims they could have worn down Shaw’s resistance if Ottawa had given them another year down here. He declares that it is just like a government bureaucracy – send an exploratory team to pinpoint vast geothermal currents beneath the Pole – then cut off their funding just when they were getting close.
At his computer console, Barstow declares that they are getting close, as their monitors have been recording signs of massive geothermal buildup. He wishes that power source could be tapped – but MacGill cuts him off exclaiming what he has obviously heard before – ‘We know! We know! Nations could scrap nuclear power and turn to clean energy!’ ‘Not to mention simply boiling huge pots of tea!’ exclaims Shaw, when suddenly the dogs begin to howl.
Davenport asks what it is that has startled them, but Shaw doesn’t know. Suddenly, books and equipment begin to fall all over the floor when some tremors start. MacGill calls everyone outside, as Barstow wonders what an earthquake would be doing in Antarctica. Davenport calls into the radio, shouting ‘Mayday! Mayday!’ as he calls to Icebreaker Montclair.
Outside, Barstow informs the others that Davenport has gotten the SOS out, so help should be on its way – his voice trails off when he gazes up at what Shaw and MacGill are looking at – ‘like I said’ says Barstow ‘a massive geothermal buildup’. MacGill asks if it is a geyser of steam coming from the Earth’s core, and Shaw points out that it appears to be melting the ice on its way up.
Suddenly, the ice surrounding the Redleaf Station slips away, Davenport calling to Montclair declaring that they are falling into the sea – and within seconds, he and the station have sunk into the freezing waters. Shaw calls to Davenport, but MacGill declares that he has gone, and exclaims as he looks at dinosaurs and cavemen running towards them that Davenport may have been the lucky one. The trio of scientists run from the approaching pre-historic men, but one of them grabs Shaw as the others knock the two men out, and leave their bodies as they leave with Shaw.
Soon, but too late: the Montclair Icebreaker has made its way through the snowstorm and a group of scientists paddle their way over to land in a small boat. Someone declares that there is no sign of life, when suddenly a huge green dinosaur falls into the water beside them. Someone exclaims that it is a pteranodon, but someone else asks what it is doing at the South Pole, let alone in the Twentieth Century someone else adds. One of the scientists tells the others that they need to find Redleaf, but getting onto the ice, they see no sign of the Station.
One of the Montclair crew tells the others that they must be too far in land, but someone else reminds the others that it has fallen into the sea. One of the scientists looks through his binoculars and finds MacGill with a crushed skull.
Another scientist discovers another dinosaur and calls his colleagues over, ‘Allosaurus … I think,’ someone says. Huddled up against the dead dinosaur is Barstow – who is alive, but barely. A scientist discovers Barstow has a bad head wound, and figures he must have been struck down before crawling beside the dinosaurs warm carcass to keep himself from freezing. He gets out a flask and tells Barstow to swallow some of the brandy in it, but Barstow can barely mumble ‘Beware…’
A week later: ‘Now this is what I can being really shipshape!’ exclaims Madison Jeffries, a.k.a. the Alphan known as Box, who has used his mutant powers to manipulate the metal of the Box armor, turning himself into a jet, to transport the other members of Canada’s premiere super hero team on their new mission. Sitting in a chair, Wanda “Sasquatch” Langkowski exclaims ‘Go Alpha – and leave the flying to Box!’ ‘It’s the only way to travel,’ Jeffries replies. Alpha Flight’s team leader – Heather McNeil Hudson a.k.a. Vindicator turns to her friends and asks them for a little less levity, given the seriousness of the situation.
Vindicator casts her mind back, to earlier in the day, when a priority call Gary Cody made to them interrupted life as usual at the team’s headquarters on Tamarind Island. Via a communications screen, Alpha’s government liaison informs Alpha Flight of the situation and declares that Ottawa thinks only Alpha Flight can investigate in time. Heather seems somewhat hesitant about having to go to Antarctica, especially with the Station being gone for a week. Wanda declares that there is probably no chance the missing scientist is still alive, but Jeffries exclaims that he doesn’t think the missing woman is what the fuss is all about.
‘Meaning what, Mr. Jeffries?’ asks Cody. Jeffries tells him that he thinks Redleaf discovered the source of the geothermal energy they were looking for, and Canada wants it whether or not the expedition survived. Gary Cody quickly reminds the heroes that Alpha Flight is sworn to defend Canada’s interests – ‘No!’ exclaims Heather cutting Gary off as she asserts herself, declaring that Alpha exists to defend the land, not the people who govern it. Wanda thinks to herself that Snowbird and Shaman would be proud to hear Heather say that as she changes into her Sasquatch form.
Gary tells Alpha that he knows relations between them and Ottawa is somewhat strained and declares he is asking them as a friend. Heather tells Gary not to beg, for she already decided they will go – for the missing scientist’s sake. Jeffries jumps into his Box armor, exclaiming that as far as their transportation goes, there is something he has always wanted to try, and transmutates his armor into a ship. The two Beta Flight members, Manikin and Purple Girl watch through a window and are impressed that Jeffries has turned himself into an aircraft. ‘Sorta small though?’ asks Whit. Madison informs everyone that they will have to carry equipment so will add its mass to that of the Box armor and “grow with the flow”.
Now: Heather admits that she detected the uncertainty and the contempt in Cody’s voice. She thinks that despite all the changes Alpha Flight has been through, to Gary Cody, Alpha Flight is still Mac’s team, and even though she wields the power of Vindicator, to everyone at Ottawa, she is still just the wife of the late Guardian. ‘But Mac’s Alpha is dead, disbanded, while mine is doing quite well, thank you,’ Heather exclaims.
Jeffries asks Heather if she is still brooding about Cody and tells her that she does not need to prove her ability to lead to that twerp. Heather tells Madison that it is not Gary or Ottawa that she needs to convince – but herself. ‘Excuse me for eavesdropping, but that’s bull!’ exclaims Sasquatch who reminds Heather that she has “done time” in both Alpha Flights and can categorically say that this Alpha Flight, while numerically smaller may be just as strong as the original, ‘given that this gaggle of misfits and malcontents are far more stable’.
Sasquatch reminds her friends that the original team was always on the verge of tearing itself apart, and even had Mac lived, she doubts he could have held it together much longer. Sasquatch tells Heather that she means no disrespect to Mac’s memory, but that he tried to be everything – hero, warrior, scientist, leader and in the end he spread himself too thin – and it killed him! Wanda tells Heather that her strength lies in recognizing her own limitations while bringing out the best in the rest of them.
Turning to a computer console, Sasquatch asks Box if he reads what she is seeing. ‘Yeah, a volcano erupting at the South Pole!’ A little known fact about volcanic activity, is that the release of such geothermal energy is capable of producing atmospheric disturbances  - one such disturbance strikes the Box aircraft, shocking Jeffries and knocking him out, sending him plummeting to the land below.
Sasquatch grabs the manual control, Heather asking her to use her strength to pull them up out of this dive. Glancing out the window, Heather is “greeted” by flying dinosaurs! Heather gets up from her seat as she tells Wanda that the scientist who visited the site of the ice station reported finding the corpses of such creatures. ‘Lucky us to go on location! Live! They’re attacking us!’ Heather tells Sasquatch to save Box while she flies out into the open sky.
‘I’ll tend to these creatures!’ she exclaims, blasting one of the flying prehistoric beasts with her electromagnetic powers. Heather is shielded by the forcefields in her battle suit and defends her team like the leader she is. She glances to the Boxship, and sees that Sasquatch has taken control and is pulling it out of dive, meaning they will land. Heather’s thoughts are for others – and never for her own safety – much to her loss as she is struck by the atmospheric disturbances and because her electromagnetic suit is linked to her nervous system, she thinks this costume is also a weapon– but there is a downside.
When the battle-suit’s formidable force fields are penetrated, by lightning for instance, what the suit feels, Vindicator feels. She plummets from the sky, downward to the ground, passing through a small hole and into a lush world below.
Sasquatch doesn’t see Heather through the storm clouds and realizes that she must have gone down. ‘And so are we!’ she exclaims as the Boxship lands with a thud on the Antarctic continent. A large growl and a shadow looming over Sasquatch signals the arrival of a dinosaur, to which Sasquatch looks up at it and after it growls, she asks it if that is the extent of its vocabulary.
The dinosaur lunges at Sasquatch, who barely dodges its razor sharp teeth. Sasquatch jokes that she was just asking about the vocabulary thing and tells the dinosaur that there is no need to get snappy – although it does seem determined to have her for lunch. The dinosaur roars and Sasquatch jumps onto it, exclaiming that she agrees that small talk can be maddening, ‘so lets cut the chatter and dance, shall we?’
Box regains consciousness and sees Sasquatch on the back of the large dinosaur. Jeffries transforms his body from a ship, back into an over-sized version of his regular form, supposing that the “Great Beast” within Sasquatch cannot resist a good fight. Jeffries jokes that the critter Wanda is fighting is ten times her size, but that she could probably score a TKO given time.
But they do not have the time, and as he transforms his body into a metal dinosaur to match the one Sasquatch is fighting, Jeffries exclaims that they have to find Vindicator. ‘Somebody’s always trying to cut in!’ jokes Wanda as she jumps onto the Jeffries-dinosaur as he rams the real dinosaur, telling Sasquatch that his interest in her dancing partner is purely platonic! After knocking the dinosaur onto its back, Jeffries leaps onto it, informing his teammate that it is spreading himself thin to get to this size, and hopes that the critter does not get a good slash in.
He opens his mechanical jaws and goes for the real dinosaur’s throat, ‘I oughtta be ashamed of myself for killing an extinct species!’ he exclaims before joking that it is a good thing Greenpeace is not here to see him now. Box exclaims that he will send Greenpeace a donation and whole lot of dinosaur-skin belts when he gets home, before asking Sasquatch where the critters came from. Wanda motions towards the volcano and tells Jeffries that it is emitting steam, not lava.
Sasquatch suggests to Box that the same geothermal current the missing scientists were searching for must have created a tropical pocket inside the earth, keeping the dinosaurs alive for all these millions of years. Box declares that the dinosaurs are an unacceptable by-product of the geothermal energy and thinks they should seal the crater and leave. Sasquatch tells Jeffries that they cannot, and when the armored Alphan asks ‘why?’ Wanda reveals that Vindicator is down there.
‘Where am I?’ asks Heather as she comes to in a small clearing beside a river. ‘Who am I?’ The lightning strike apparently did more than just short out Vindicator’s now-tattered battle-suit – the shock has also induced memory loss. But as a large snake slithers towards Heather and wraps itself around her body, she doesn’t need to know who she is to know that she is going to die!
Instinctively however, Heather tries to channel power through her gauntlets – but nothing happens and so she wonders what it was she was trying to do. But not for long, as she has to deal with the snake hissing at her. The creature bares its fangs as it prepares to strike the injured Alphan, But Heather cries ‘No!’ and reaching for a thick branch on the ground, she grabs it and shoves it into the snakes’ mouth, causing the snake to release. Heather runs away, leaving the snake slithering around with the branch rammed down its body.
Heather runs into a forest, when suddenly, she trips and falls against a large tree trunk. But looking up, she sees not a tree, but an enormous long-necked dinosaur. “Grunk?” the dinosaur “says” as it leans down towards Heather. Heather starts to crawl away, asking it if it eats vegetables, ‘I’m meat!’ she says to it – but as she turns around she is confronted by sharp-toothed meta-eating dinosaur. It growls but turns its attention to the larger dinosaur and Heather runs away, telling them to play with someone their own size.
Heather McNeil Hudson feels like an hors d’ouvre in a hungry realm and seeks her salvation in running away – but retreat only delays the inevitable, as a large sabretooth tiger lunges towards her. But the key to survival in this Savage Land is strategy – which Heather has plenty of. She grabs onto a strong vine and lifts herself up, out of the large cats reach, causing the prehistoric tiger to land in a tar pit.
Heather climbs up the vine as she looks below, seeing the tiger sucked down, she is relieved that she is finally safe – when she is suddenly grabbed at the waist by a prehistoric man. He presses his face up to hers and says “Gnurrk?” as Heather asks him to stop, declaring that he is hurting her, however from the man’s perspective, the embrace is meant to be passionate. As he pulls Heather closer to him, she swings her body around shouting that she said ‘Stop!’ and traps him in the vine, putting him into a noose before asking him if he is into petting and letting him fall into the tar below. ‘Let me introduce you to something you can pet for hours!’ Heather exclaims.
Alone at last, she swings over to a sturdy branch and rests upon it, wondering if the whole world is like this and if it is how did she survive as long as she has? But she thinks that this may not be her world after all – but if that is the case, how did she get here? How will she live long enough to get home? Fear and exhaustion begin to give way to despair – but not for long. ‘No tears!’ Heather exclaims, as she thinks that whoever she is, somehow she senses that she is not a weeper. ‘This may not be my world, but I'm stuck here, and I’ll survive!’
Days later, on the surface: As Box drills into the snow beneath him, Sasquatch points out that only the ice station they constructed from the old station’s metal has enabled the two of them to survive this long. Jeffries replies that where Vindicator is it is warmer, they know that from the dinosaurs. He adds that the only problem is drilling through all of the snow left behind by the frozen steam geyser to reach her.
As she plows through the snow with her mighty fists, Wanda thinks that Jeffries will never give up, because he loves Vindicator, ‘but Alphans have died before…’ She asks Box if he is getting an readings from Heather’s battle-suit, or any signs of electromagnetic activity at all. Box declares ‘No’ before bringing up that her suit may have been damaged. But he cannot bring himself to say the rest. If her suit was damaged, how could Vindicator possibly survive in a world that spawns monsters from the dawn of time?
A large prehistoric bird screeches as an arrow strikes it, and Heather, carrying a bow and arrow, her battle-suit ripped to better accommodate the heat of the Savage Land, rushes over to it, declaring ‘Dinner!’ Heather remembers that it too her a long time, many hungry days to get good enough with her makeshift bow and arrow, but suddenly, she hears company and runs into a thick part of the jungle, just on the border of a village. Heather has already met one “representative” of humanity down here and would just as soon pass a second opportunity. Yet she knows that on the other hand, she doesn’t want to be caught napping, so she ought to see what her primitive forebears are up to.
She hauls herself onto the high wooden fence, and as she peers over it she thinks that if the primitives are well organized then they could pose a real danger to her – or anyone else unlucky enough to fall into their hands. What Heather sees is a ape-like man being led up the stairs of a temple to the tribe’s leader, possibly as a sacrifice. A winged female is held captive in a small cage, while an odd looking man is trapped on a small rock, surrounded by a moat of flowing lava.
Heather sees this as a sacrifice, with the “normal” Neanderthals getting ready to offer up their village’s misfits. ‘Misfits?’ Amnesiac though she may be, something tugs at the edges of Vindicator’s memory. Some sense of knowing well how it feels to be one of society’s outcasts. Images of people she has some connection to flash through her mind – her longtime teammate Sasquatch, her lover Madison Jeffries, and one of her best friends whom she was recently forced to slay: the beautiful Goddess Snowbird. Heather now has some feeling that she has to take sides.
The tribe’s chief chants something in his native tongue as a geyser of steam billows out onto the primitive man tied to a slab of rock. Standing on top of the winged woman’s cage, Heather exclaims ‘That’s not the golden rule I remember, friend’ and tells him to drop his carving knife before she does unto him what he is about to do to his captive. The chief just curses at Heather, which she responds to by shooting him with her bow and arrow, hitting him in the arm.
Vindicator turns to the caged woman below her and asks her if her wings are just for decoration, and as she breaks the cage open, the woman flies out, enabling Heather to climb onto her back as she goes. The winged woman says something in her native tongue, which Heather figures means the winged woman is scared and wants to fly away. Heather tells her that she is scared too and wants to leave as well, but that those she presumes to be the woman’s friends are still in trouble. Heather tells the woman that they will help them, and repeats what the winged woman only moments ago said to her: “Da’Malara Shi’Taar”.
The winged woman swoops down to the small island surrounded by lava and picks up the rock-like creature in her talons as Heather supposes he must be heavy and declares that he reminds her of a primitive precursor of the Fantastic four member Thing. As he is dropped onto the mainland she wonders if he is as strong as the Thing too, and when she sees him pull a part of a rock from a larger rock she sees that he is. Now free of the molten prison that threatened to melt his mineral from, the creature proves capable of mastering his fear of the lava as he turns it against his tormentors by scooping it up and throwing it onto the tribes’ houses, setting them on fire.
The final captive is inspired by Vindicator’s example and makes good use of his captors’ distraction by biting through the rope that binds him and leaps off the temple steps, leaping past some armed warriors. Heather is carried away by the winged woman as the strong man punches their escape exit through the fence. She tells them to head for the forest where no one will ever find them – not foe, or friend…
Shortly, Box and Sasquatch have finally burrowed their way into the Savage Land, and see that their assumptions about there being a world down here were right. Sasquatch informs Box that the X-Men once told her about a Savage Land – a pocket of prehistoric existence hidden beneath the South Pole, but that she also heard it had been destroyed. She thinks that either some of it survived, or that this place is another hitherto unknown land at the Earth’s core.
Suddenly, Sasquatch sees some fire in the distance and alerts Box. Box declares that he sees it, and it seems to be coming form some small city in the jungle. As they fly over to the village, they realize that the villagers all seem really angry and must have had some unfriendly visitors recently. Jeffries soon spies a woman tied to a stake in them middle of the village. When they land, they see that it is Doctor Shaw, the missing scientist.
Hearing Jeffries and Sasquatch speak English, Shaw realizes that they must be from the surface world. Box breaks her restraints as he informs her who they are, as Shaw declares she had given up all hope, before revealing that the other sacrifices were freed by a woman, and she was left behind. Sasquatch asks Shaw what she means by “other sacrifices” and “strange woman” as Jeffries thinks it must be Vindicator!
‘Welcome to the Hideaway Hotel!’ exclaims Heather to her newfound allies, informing them that the same perimeter defenses she constructed and guided them through should prevent their kinfolk from catching them by surprise. The four begin eating some meat that Heather has cooked on a small fire. In their native language, the three Savage Landers extend their thanks to Heather, who tells them they should instead teach her the language so they can communicate, and so that she can train them to work as a team so that their enemies cannot try to capture and kill them again.
The three Savage Landers agree, and Vindicator falls almost instinctively into a pattern she established as the leader of a team she no longer remembers. Determined not to die and aware that her own abilities, beyond dauntless courage and a keen sense of strategy are minimal, she forges the misfits of the Savage Land  - Crag, Avian and Primate – into a formidable fighting team.
Heather’s plan ensures their survival, and hers. In the days that follow, her evident care and concern for her charges create an unbreakable bond between them. Primate tells Heather that she has learned their language quickly, and Avian compares it to the quickness that the three of them have learned survival skills. Crag declares that alone they cannot combat their persecutors, but as a team they can endure. Heather tells them that she still does not understand why they were persecuted, and asks that this land must be big enough for all that dwell here. Crag begins to tell Heather their tale.
(in flashbacks)
The Savage Land was once much vaster, but a giant came and destroyed much of the realm, causing men and beasts alike to flee. Many died and cold claimed the Savage Land, killing many more. The survivors wandered around, at last finding pockets of survival, heated by warm currents from below. However that same warmth that saved them, somehow changed some of them – and made them outcasts among their own kind.
(Present)
Crag tells Heather that by saving them, she has incurred the wrath of the gods, but Avian tells Crag that the gods are dead, for the giant slew them when he razed their homeland. She asserts that only men remain, their kinfolk, who will rue the day they sought to slay them. Primate informs Heather as the four walk through the jungle that despite the other’s condemnation, they are still blood of their blood, and he does not want to cause them harm.
Heather suddenly recalls another team faced with a similar dilemma, but the memory fades, and soon this team’s foraging brings them back to the village where they were recently imprisoned. Airborne, Avian discovers than an enemy tribe is spying on her former peoples as they rebuild the burned part of their village and knows she must tell the others.
Flying back to Heather and the others, Avian informs them that the enemy masses for an assault while the walls are still breached. Crag exclaims that if their people are attacked now then they will be faced with a massacre. Avian exclaims that they three will be avenged, but Primate disagrees, trying to reason with Avian by pointing out that while they cast the three of them out, they are still their people, and that he will hasten to their aid, with or without her.
Vindicator asks Primate to wait, and tells him that if there is one thing she has taught him is that there is strength in unity. She tells Avian that she understands her bitterness, but asks her to understand her people’s fear, before asking her who she would rather share her world with – them or her enemies?
Soon, Avian flies to her former people and tells them to look to the skies as the outcast returns. Someone declares that the outcast is mocking them, as another suggests she may be attacking and orders them to fetch their weapons. Avian flies out of the village towards where Heather and the others are waiting, and they see soon that their plan has worked, for the villagers are running after her, armed to the teeth. But Crag points out that they think the four of them are attacking.
That misconception results in one casualty before the truth is known as spears are thrown at Avian, one of them hitting her in the shoulder. She falls to the ground and Heather runs over to her as the enemy tribe begins to attack at the same time, with the outcasts caught in the middle. Crag and Primate try to fend off the enemy village, stunning their own people who see the ones they cast out defending them. The tribe decides that any being, no matter how different, willing to die for their sake must be worthy of living among them and begin to engage the enemy, working alongside Heather’s newly formed group.
Crouching beside Avian, Heather tells her that her people now accept her and her teammates, but Avian quickly alerts Heather to the danger approaching from behind her. Heather is knocked to one side by the chief of the enemy tribe, who Heather realizes blames Avian for the failure of his surprise assault. With Avian hurt and helpless, the enemy leader is about to kill her. Heather wonders how she can save her, and raising her hand to the air she screams ‘Plasma burst!’ and from the glove on her hand, a powerful blast is released, knocking out the enemy leader. The power was always there, lying dormant in the battle-suit’s circuits, only the memory of how to use it was missing.
Heather’s EM signal is picked up by Box’s sensors as he flies over the Savage Land with Sasquatch and Shaw searching for Heather. They follow the co-ordinates, relieved that Vindicator is alive.
The enemy tribe’s leader still stands, but Heather continues to pour the power on, realizing she must have built up a reserve of it in the last few weeks. The power stops suddenly, for Heather’s suit is shredded. Suddenly, she experiences a revelation.
(Hallucination)
Heather sees Crag and Primate coming to her defense – and now Box and Sasquatch! ‘That’s the secret to being a leader, Heather!’ exclaims her dead husband – Alpha Flight’s former leader, James “Mac” MacDonald Hudson a.k.a. Guardian. Mac tells Heather that she understands it better than he ever did, and that her true power lies in her team. Sasquatch; Primate; Crag; Box; Avian and the late Snowbird.
(Reality)
‘M-Mac?’ asks Heather as she comes to, but is greeted instead by Sasquatch and Box. Jeffries exclaims Heather is delirious, and Sasquatch points out the large bump on her head. Jeffries asks her if she is okay, exclaiming how worried about her they were. Heather asks Jeffries how it is that they found her and Madison points out that they homed into her battle-suit before asking her why she never used her power sooner.
‘I…forgot…,’ Heather replies. Motioning towards Crag and Primate who are tending to Avian, Sasquatch tells Heather that she obviously didn’t forget how to lead and asks who they are. ‘I guess you could call them Alpha Prime,’’ Heather declares before revealing that they are the outcast of this society, whom she has tried to train to survive as strangers in their own land.
Heather kneels beside Avian, and the winged woman tells her that she has succeeded, before revealing that if she survives she will use her powers and abilities to defend her people – whether they will have her or not. Heather turns to the villagers and asks them if they hear what Avian just said. She tells them that they can either accept these beings that they tried to cast out or take advantage of their strengths and skills and become stronger for it. Or, alternatively, they can reject the gifts they freely offer and suffer for it. ‘It’s your world, and your decision, choose wisely, choose well’.
After Shaw has quickly translated, Sasquatch tells Heather she made a nice speech and suggests she try it on Ottawa. Box compares the two, seeing that Ottawa is about as trusting of it’s super heroes as the Savage Landers are of theirs. Heather declares that societies will always fear their misfits. Primate asks her if she has to leave them now, and Heather informs him that she must return to her own tribe, who is not so different from his own. She tells Alpha Prime that the three of them have gifts that make them more than human, but points out what they already know – that those same gifts can also be a curse.
Heather tells Alpha Prime that because of their gifts some men will envy them, and some will hate and fear them. Box turns himself into another plane, and after Sasquatch and Shaw have boarded him, Heather proceeds to do so, telling Avian, Crag and Primate that because they feel the loneliness of being different. They will seek to live in the company of men, but although they defend the tribe, they should never fully trust them – for their powers may make those they aid their enemies.
Avian asks Vindicator who it is that they can trust then, and as Alpha Flight take to the sky, Heather calls back ‘Each other! That’s what will make you a team!’