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

[Assistant]
The Child is Father to the Man
Her name is Marrina Smallwood; she was once a member of Canada’s premiere super hero team, Alpha Flight. Now she is prisoner to the Atlantean warlord, Attuma. Inside her translucent cell her torture intensifies and she utters a small prayer, that the pain she suffers will kill her before she has to endure any more of the agony that gnaws at her from within. From outside her cell, Marrina hears a cruel voice bark orders in a low Atlantean dialect. It is Attuma, and because Marrina maintains her silence, he orders the chemicals in her prison to be varied. Marrina watches as the waters around her become unnatural colors and she feels compelled to speak and reveal secrets, and she would obey that compulsion if she were still capable of rational speech.
Marrina looks out of her cell to Attuma who for the first time sees Marrina’s true face. He laughs and tells those around him to look upon the monster that Namor would have made their queen. He jokes that Marrina would have made a pretty picture stamped on Atlantis’ coins above the legend “Queen Creature the First”. Lord Dara steps forward and tells Attuma that there were some that advised the Sub-Mariner against such a marriage. Attuma reminds Dara that Prince Namor did as he pleased - a perfect sovereign to rule over a kingdom of ‘spineless jellyfish such as you’.
Lord Dara tells Attuma that he must forget that it was himself along with Lord Vashti, Warlord Thakos and High Priest Shakkoth who asked Namor to abdicate the throne of Atlantis. Attuma does remember however, and reminds Dara that Shakkoth wanted to rule supreme and he fomented a civil war. He tells Dara that if he and the other two did not ally themselves with his own barbarian hordes then Atlantis would have been destroyed.
Dara tells Attuma that they are grateful for the aid he has given them, but Attuma cuts him off and tells Dara that he does not want their gratitude but he wants their kingdom, and now by invitation and force of arms he has it! Attuma smiles as he tells Dara that with Atlantis’ own armies crushed in civil war no one has the power to best him, yet Attuma think he hears some belittle his reign as a dictatorship and wish for the Sub-Mariner’s return.
Attuma tells Dara and the others that those people who question him can witness with what contempt Namor held for his own people that he would set ‘this obscene creature’ over them as their queen. Attuma declares that since Marrina knows nothing of the Sub-Mariner’s current whereabouts news of her capture must be spread, for if Namor still loves her and comes to her rescue, he will find his successor waiting!
Marrina leans against her prison, knowing she is but bait in a trap for her once beloved, whom she fled from when her monstrous alien past was revealed to her. Marrina wonders if Namor even remembers her and if he still loves her. She prays that he no longer loves her and wishes Attuma’s chemicals will kill her, before the Sub-Mariner risks his life to save her, believing herself to be unworthy of his love. Marrina becomes overwhelmed with pain again, the pain twisting at her causing her to clutch her abdomen, what its genesis might be she is only beginning to suspect.
Meanwhile, a continent away from Atlantis, one of the worlds newest super heroes, Heather McNeil Hudson a.k.a. the new Vindicator soars across British Columbia carrying her teammate Eugene Milton Judd, a.k.a. the diminutive Puck. Heather smiles and exclaims to Judd that she never dreamed flying could be so glorious. Looking at the ground below him, Judd tells Heather that he can appreciate her exuberance but asks her to be careful, for while she is protected by the battle suits forcefields, he is not, and if Heather flies too fast he will be fried, or if she flies too high he will freeze. However Judd admits that it is remarkable at how quickly Heather has mastered the power once wielded by her late husband.
Judd declares that it is ironic that Wolverine and he were both foolish enough to think that she may require their protection against the fanatic Lady Deathstrike, when it was she who saved them. Vindicator tells Judd that she doesn’t blame him for not having any faith in her when she whined about having no super powers all the time, and when Roger Bochs reinvented Mac’s battle suit and gave her power, she whined about needing training. Heather does some loops in the air and proclaims that she is done with whining and has everything she needs now to be a true leader to Alpha Flight. ‘Heather … my lunch!’ exclaims Judd as he is turned upside down over and over again.
Heather returns to normal flight and apologizes to Judd, not knowing he had eaten before racing to her rescue. Judd informs her that he was actually thinking ahead to the meal awaiting them at Mansion Alpha before admitting that he cannot say he is glad she has joined the ranks of super-herodom, what with all the pitfalls such can lead to. However he is glad Heather has found what she wanted. Judd apologizes for his concern for her led him to stand in her way.
Heather tells herself that she has suspected Judds affection for her ever since Mac died, but she is not so sure if she wants to lose her heart to anyone, not when she knows how people can be used by those who say they love them. She recalls how Mac used both she and Wolverine when he was head of Department H. Mac had a lot of prospects in recruiting super beings but no single dramatic success, he needed a hit and so he made one. Mac had somehow acquired notes on a secret process developed by a Japanese militarist for bonding the rare invincible metal, adamantium, to human bone, and he used it to turn Canadian secret agent Logan into Wolverine.
When Mac’s pain-crazed creation escaped, Mac lured Wolverine back with a vision of beauty, herself, Mac’s bride. At least that is what Heather suspects, but nevertheless she thinks it best if she lay off relationships for a while. Judd tells himself that he has done everything but confess his love to Heather and she still makes no response. He asks himself what he really expected, for while some strange ladies may flirt with a freak such as he, why would any normal woman dream of loving a dwarf like him?
Soon, Heather and Judd reach Tamarind Island, the home of Alpha Flight, and judging by the seaplane moored at the dock they believe they must have some visitors. To Heather’s surprise, Judd leaps out of her arms before they even touch the ground, for Judd thinks that it is bad enough being carried like a baby in the arms of the woman he has professed his love for, without his fellow Alphans seeing his shame. As Judd and Vindicator walk up the path to the porch they are scanned by the Islands sensors and once identified they are allowed to enter the mansion.
Upon entering the foyer they see none other than Doug Thompson! ‘Of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police eh?’ says Judd. Sitting on a couch, Thompson asks Puck how he knew before realizing he is wearing his army uniform. Doug stands up and extends his hand to shake Vindicator’s, realizing she knew his name he asks her if they have met. Heather replies that they have, but that she was not wearing a battle suit then, and taking of her goggles and hood she declares that she sees no reason to hide her identity from Snowbird’s lover. Doug corrects Heather and informs her that he is Snowbird’s husband now. Heather is rather taken aback and Judd asks ‘what?’ Doug reveals that he and Narya were married in Yellowknife last week.
Thompson reveals that it was a small ceremony before a territorial justice of the peace, as it was what Narya wanted, because she is still ‘feeling her way towards mortality’. Roger Bochs wheels himself into the corridor and declares that Narya seems to be having a rough time of it. Heather asks the wheelchair bound Alphan what he means, but Roger replies that Heather better come into the infirmary and see for herself. Heather, Judd and Thompson follow Roger Bochs into the infirmary only to witness the usually serene Snowbird, strapped down to a table, displaying her little-seen True Fires and screaming.
Roger asks the flirty Aurora who stands beside Snowbird if there has been any change, she replies that there has been none. In French, the handsome Northstar declares that their “mother superior” has returned, to which Alpha Flight’s ally Madison Jeffries asks Jean-Paul Beaubier if he can be snotty in French, and Northstar snaps back in his native tongue ‘especially in French’. Jeffries leans against a wall and tells Northstar he should be glad to see anyone who might be able to help Snowbird.
Heather places a hand upon the beautiful Snowbird’s face and asks the other what she just saw. Roger informs her that it was Snowbird’s “True Fires”, her true face which she hides from everyone. Heather realizes she has not seen Narya look like this since their encounter with Loki, where Snowbird nearly died. Snowbird’s eyes are blood red and she asks if that is Heather. Heather replies that she is and asks her friend what is wrong. Narya replies slowly that she hurts, and that she is so dead inside, adding that only Shaman can help her.
Heather turns to Alpha Flight and asks if any of them know where Shaman is. Doug Thompson reveals that he and Narya were searching for Shaman in a bad blizzard up North when the first spasms struck Snowbird and they were forced to return to retreat, he adds that he thinks Shaman might be lost. Puck sees that Snowbird’s features are shifting, as if she is about to transform, and he alerts his teammates. Seeing that Vindicator is nearest to Snowbird, who uncontrollably switches from one Arctic animal to another, Judd leaps to Heather safety, before thinking whether his love for her will blind his loyalty to the other Alphans.
Aurora however moves swifter than sight and grabs a hypodermic gun, thinking the sedative should suffice in calming her she fires it at Snowbird who is in the form of a polar bear. Northstar flies towards his sister who is directly in Snowbird’s path, fearing for her safety as the bear collapses, however Snowbird has returned to herself and falls into Northstar’s arms, asking her friend to help her. Northstar holds onto her as the sedative takes effect and Thompson asks if there is nothing any of them can do for her. Vindicator informs Doug that Snowbird herself knows that among all of Alpha Flight, only Shaman can help her, for he delivered her into the mortal world. ‘But where is he?’
The Canadian Barrens … a hard yet harshly beautiful where a man may find his courage – or his death. His name is Doctor Michael Twoyoungmen, Sarcee medicine man and former Alphan known as Shaman. He has come on a spiritual journey seeking the power he lost. Twoyoungmen looks at the manlike stone carvings, knowing they were raised up by the Inuit people many centuries ago. They and Shaman’s ancestors were mortal foes. However, as Shaman recalls, the coming of the white man reduced both their tribes until there seemed little point in continuing the enmity, and isolated on their respective reservations, they were at peace. Shaman hopes that that will not cause the People of the Deer to hold a grudge against him for using their guide posts as he journeys forth on his pilgrimage to power.
A herd of caribou deer appears out of nowhere and thunders across what was before barren tundra. Shaman turns and begins to flee lest he be trampled. The man who lost his wife and lost his daughter twice sprints ahead of the caribou, for with the loss of his power came the loss of his courage. He must regain both, or else he will perish. A chasm appears out of nowhere like the deer, as if the ground was yawning, the gap widens and Shaman leaps, but while he realizes no man alive could successfully make the leap, he knows he must.
Shaman does the impossible, defying all odds, he manages the leap and clings to the other side of the chasm. He wonders what happened to the deer, and looking back he sees them fall into the chasm, only to fade out. Climbing back onto solid ground, Michael realizes that they were spirit deer, for the ghost of his grandfather said that some spirits would appear to test him. He realizes that these spirits are the spirit of the land and wonders what will come to face him next.
Twoyoungmen soon gets the answer, for he has shown himself to be worthy. Wearing nothing but a loincloth, Shaman stands his ground as mosquito spirits swarm on him. Though they may be spirit mosquitoes, they draw real blood, and their incessant stinging threatens to drive him mad. He tries to flee from them, but blinded by the insects he stumbles down a slope of stones as sharp as knives that flay his moccassined feet.
At the bottom of the slope is a lake, and before Twoyoungmen plunges into it to escape the mosquitoes he snatches up a razor sharp splint, yet he doesn’t know why – until he comes across the phantasmic form awaiting him beneath the surface of the freezing waters, a giant spirit fish. The fish’s mouth gapes open and Shaman is sucked into it. Shaman declares that he will not perish as a feast for a fish, be it phantom or flesh and as he holds the mouth of the fish open with his hands he wishes for the strength of Sasquatch so that he may survive the test.
However the sweep of the current has other ideas, and also brings home to Twoyoungmen that survival may depend more on cunning than physical power as the fish swallows him and he somehow knows that both he and the fish are heading along in an unrelenting rush towards the waterfalls. With a deafening roar and a fearsome plunge, there then comes silence as the fish falls to the bottom, but lands on hard ground, not the water. The silence lasts until a ripping sound is heard when the flesh of the fish is torn by Shaman, who was cushioned by the fish, uses the sharp stone he took to cut his way to freedom.
Shaman is alive, however the test is not over, for a pack of bloodthirsty wolves move in on him. He wonders if they are real or spirits, or even if that matters at all. It doesn’t matter, the wolves leap at Michael Twoyoungmen, fangs bared and ready to shred him to bits. But he fights back, using the stake-like-stone he retrieved he defeats the wolves, but as he stands over their carcasses all that matters is that he seeks shelter from the storm.
In Twoyoungmen’s exhausted state he stumbles several hundred snow-swept meters towards a strange hollow stone cairn. The small journey seems to take forever. When he at last attains his goal, he falls to the ground inside the cave, and while the blizzard has made the land outside as dark as night, Shaman soon realizes that the interior of the cairn is filled with light.
Moving into a sitting position he wonders what the source of the light is, and he is shocked to hear ‘Hello father. I see you’ve survived the spirit tests. Too bad’. Looking up he sees his antagonistic daughter, Elizabeth, formerly of Alpha Flight where she was known as the phenomenally powerful Talisman.
Shaman is shocked to see his daughter and wonders how she can possibly be here, but holding some clothing and a staff Elizabeth asks bluntly who is there better to test him than the Binder of Spirits – herself. Elizabeth haughtily asks Shaman if that is not what he turned her into when he tricked her into becoming the unwilling messiah she now is. Cowering before his daughter, Shaman reminds her that there was no time as the world was in danger, reminding her that she knows she already possessed the power to save the world but needed to don the tiara to bring it forth.
Talisman angrily tells her father that he might have cared enough about her to explain the consequences to her, that the tiara when put on would never come off - ‘And that I would never be human again’ she shouts at him. Shaman pleads that he didn’t know, but Elizabeth reminds him that he pretended to be so sure of himself, firstly when he promised to save her mother from cancer then herself from the void. ‘You failed us both old man’ she screams before bitterly telling him that he survived the spirit tests and must therefore be good for something.
Talisman throws the staff and garments at Twoyoungmen, when the spirit of Shaman’s grandfather appears beside him, extending an eagle crest, Shaman’s grandfather tells him that these are the trappings of power, informing him that he has found courage and that he has made him proud. Grandfather Twoyoungmen declares that all that remains is for Michael to assume the power, to which Shaman asks his grandfather if this is not unlike what he made his own daughter do, before wondering what power has brought his family save heartache.
However, Shaman knows that without power he can never hope to save Elizabeth from the fate, which he has condemned her to. For the sake of his daughter’s salvation, Shaman accepts the eagle crest, staff and dons the garments. Shaman’s grandfather tells him that whatever the reason for the reassuming of power, the world will benefit from the decision, as will Shaman’s people. Grandfather Twoyoungmen declares that the eagle crest and caribou robe are sacred relics, worn by generations of shamans and that they were long ago stolen from their Sarcee ancestors.
Shaman asks his grandfather who it was that stole the relics when Talisman raises her arms and declares that Viking invaders stole them when they plundered the Sarcee people before felling to this cairn which they had raised over a Sarcee graveyard. Grandfather Twoyoungmen declares that winter slew them and the cairn was lost, the sacred symbols never recovered. However the power may all be Shaman’s if he can pass one last test – avenging his ancestors!
The bones of the long-dead Vikings rise up from the ground to carry out the crime that was cut short centuries ago, for their restless spirits cry out for completion. Shaman declares that so do the spirits of his ancestors. Instinctively, Twoyoungmen reaches out for his hip where he medicine pouch was once slung. Shaman quickly realizes his error and declares that that was the old magic, drawn from the void and not from within himself. He wonders what that power forty generations of Sarcee shamans called upon to defend their people when from the ceremonial crest he wears flies an eagle spirit.
The eagle introduces itself as Eaglet and that he is Shaman’s familiar and intermediary between this realm and the realm of the spirits. Standing before the skeleton warriors, Shaman declares that the purpose of the test has become clear to him. He knows that he lost touch with the spirits of the land and the true strength of his people, so he cannot command their absolute obedience as Talisman does, but having gained their respect he has earned the right to implore their aid.
Shaman’s spirit staff glows, and the spirit of the north wind responds, sweeping away the Viking cairn that has defied it for centuries. Eaglet informs Shaman that each spirit will only aid him once and since the north wind has given him room to move, Eaglet asks him which spirit he will summon next. After blocking the blow of a Viking with his staff, Shaman declares he will invoke the spirit that has long been banished from these barrens, the spirit of growing things!
Green vines spring forth from the snow covered ground, and two of the skeleton warriors are shattered but the others still make their way towards Shaman. The snow begins to blind Shaman and he cannot see to meet the attack. Eaglet asks Shaman if he has forgotten the markers that Shaman’s ancestors raised upon the barrens to show future generations the way. Shaman asks Eaglet if he means the stone-men, and Shaman remembers that to the Sarcee, everything that exists, even the lifeless stone is animate, invested with a spirit force that can be used upon to give aid.
Shaman strikes the giant stone men with his staff and they begin to move, for the first time in ages. They stand tall and ask Shaman how they may aid him. Twoyoungmen informs the stone men that in ages past their land was defiled and he commands them to right that wrong by repelling the invaders. The giant stone men do as Shaman bids and destroy the skeleton Vikings. Shaman knows now that he has recovered his pride and power.
Back at Mansion Alpha, Snowbird screams and she transforms out of control, becoming many creatures blended together. Thompson wonders how long the madness will go on for, and Aurora declares that they need Shaman. In a blinding light Shaman appears before Alpha Flight, declaring he has come, he asks Alpha Flight to step aside and let him examine his patient.


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

[Assistant]
Labor Pains
Moonlight glows over Tamarind Island where an arctic owl flies silently over a snow hare. The owl swoops down on the hare who hastens to get away, but the owl is faster and strikes the hare, spilling red blood onto the white snow. The owl suddenly transforms into the beautiful goddess Snowbird, one of the most powerful members of Canada’s premiere super heroes, Alpha Flight. ‘Blood of the living! How I crave it!’ cries Narya as she begins to eat the flesh of the hare. No sooner than she swallows the still warm flesh however she is over come once more by excruciating pain which causes the hares sweet blood to turn to bile on her tongue. Narya wonders what kind of goddess she is that craves for food but cannot eat it.
Inside Mansion Alpha, the super heroes stand around the infirmary in their nightclothes, woken from sleep. The handsome Jean-Paul “Northstar” Beaubier and the diminutive Eugene “Puck” Judd hold Snowbird’s husband at bay as he, distressed, asks Dr. Michael “Shaman” Twoyoungmen to tell him what he has done with his wife, or else he will have the law onto him. ‘You are the law, Corporal Thompson’ Northstar dryly remarks. Team leader, Heather “Vindicator” McNeil Hudson reminds Northstar that Thompson’s wife is missing and he is naturally upset before Judd asks Shaman to calm Doug and tell him where Snowbird is.
Arms folded across his chest, the stern doctor informs everyone that Narya awoke shortly after midnight and as she was ravenous with hunger he decided to let her fly forth to feed. Examining the shattered window with Roger “Box” Bochs, Alpha Flight’s ally Madison Jeffries asks Shaman if he couldn’t have opened it first. This revelation only infuriates Thompson more and he angrily asks Michael what kind of doctor he is. Calmly, Shaman informs him that he is both a physician and Sarcee mystic and as such he understands that Snowbird needed sustenance for both physical and spiritual reasons.
Heather walks over to Michael and reminds him that while they are super heroes and used to the unorthodox, Thompson is not. Leaning seductively as always against a table, the flighty Aurora reminds everyone that Thompson is a mere mortal who happens to be married to a goddess. Jean-Paul suggests that since Thompson made his bed they should all let him lie in it. ‘An apt metaphor, eh Aurora?’ asks Judd.
Heather starts to get mad and tells Shaman sternly that Thompson needs some reassurance that Narya is going to be okay, to which Twoyoungmen declares that there is nothing wrong with Snowbird. Thompson doesn’t believe what he is hearing and reminds Shaman of the abdominal cramping and her inability to control her transformations, not to mention the nocturnal cravings. Shaman declares that without medical precedent he can only presume that those aforementioned symptoms are all fairly normal, for a goddess who is going to have a baby!
Alpha Flight look at Shaman, stunned, when Snowbird breaks the silence by entering the infirmary, crying for her mother Nelvanna to help her, she clutches her stomach, and everyone sees she is at least eight months pregnant. Thompson declares that they have only been married two weeks and Northstar reminds everyone that there was no indication she was with child yesterday.
Meanwhile, in New York City’s East River, the Atlantean known as Byrrah swims with a mission. Byrrah thinks to himself that when his people rule the earth once again, the surface dwellers will suffer for polluting their waters in such a foul fashion. Byrrah’s mission is to locate his much-hated cousin, Namor the Sub-Mariner. Byrrah recalls that Atlantis was all aflurry with the news that Namor had joined the Avengers, the cursed half-breed was ever faithful to his father’s race. Byrrah knows that the Atlantean council of elders did once asks him to abdicate the throne, but no one drove Namor away, he actually chose to leave his people for the Avengers.
Namor’s cousin does not look forward to leaving his element to ask entry into the home of the Sub-Mariner, so when he comes across the secret underwater door that leads to the pens below Avengers mansion, he decides to try the entrance. Using his weapon he tries to pry open the Tony Stark designed door that repels intruders and he is knocked back by an electroshock. He boasts that it may be sufficient to stun a surface dweller, it cannot harm a nobleman of Atlantis. Byrrah uses the energy stored in his power pike to cut away at the door. The power pike is useless once the charge contained within it is exhausted so Byrrah leaves it in the river.
As he enters the tunnel, Byrrah discovers that the waters are very black and thus navigation could prove hazardous, however he did come prepared. Byrrah switches on the phosphorescent lamp on his chest plate. Providing him with what little light he needs. As he swims to the surface he wonders why the channel was filled with huge slabs of stones and debris if discarded machines. He reaches the surface and recalls that his people once developed a pill, which enabled the Atlanteans to breathe on land as the surface dwellers did. However it unfortunately turned their skin a pallid pink and also proved to cause cancer. Now they must do with wearing aqua-masks, which are recirculated with a limited salt-water supply.
Byrrah hopes that he will not need to remain on the surface longer than it will be necessary to locate his accursed cousin. As he makes his way to the basement, Byrrah notes that the Avengers submarine pen is also littered with debris and sees no vessels he expected to see, but just crates. Walking across the basement Byrrah wonders if the Avengers may have abandoned this facility when suddenly someone informs Byrrah that that is for the Avengers to know and him to find out.
Byrrah throws his hands up to cover his face, realizing he has been discovered. Dane Whitman, the handsome Black Knight holds his sword in front of him and asks Byrrah if it did not occur to him that he might have set off an alarm when he broke open their door. Byrrah reaches for his own sword and lunging towards Dane he boasts that he has no reason to hide his approach nor does he have any reason to answer to the question. ‘Mercy me! A subsurface swordsman’ jokes Dane, who admits that Byrrah is not that bad, but not good enough, as Dane’s Ebony Sword breaks Byrrah’s sword in half.
Dane trips Byrrah up and as the Atlantean lies on the ground he realizes he just fought the Black Knight, a man whose swordsman ship is acclaimed even in Atlantis. Byrrah boasts that he has a considerable reputation of his own, not noticing the handsome Sub-Mariner come up behind him, and Namor picks Byrrah up and tosses him across the basement into some crates. Namor declares that Byrrah is known across the Seven Seas as a traitor, usurper and assassin. Byrrah tries to plead with his lord/prince/cousin, but Namor is not interested in listening.
The Olympian Avenger, Hercules walks up to Dane as Namor asks then if they hear how the scum of the seas so ingratiatingly addresses one whom he has always envied and undermined, not to mention trying to rob him of the rightful throne of Atlantis. Namor angrily declares that his cousin, stepson to his grandfather, who loved him for so long, even as a child Byrrah sought every opportunity to plot his downfall. Hercules asks Dane if he is listening to Namor, and Dane replies that he is.
Namor tells the Avengers to know the “mighty warrior” Byrrah is and that the acclaim of his prince and people could have been his, had his lust for power let him by deceit and deception to seek by force which he could not win honorably. Namor bets now that Byrrah has come to seek a favor with Namor’s new realms leaders by assassinating Atlantis’ legitimate liege. Byrrah kneels before Namor and declares that he has everything wrong. Byrrah admits that everything Namor called him was true, and declares that if he truly hated him it was because he was not of pure Atlantean stock and therefore Byrrah deemed him unworthy of the throne.
Byrrah informs Namor that another now rules Atlantis, one with none of their ancestral blood at all – the barbarian Attuma! Byrrah declares that Attuma has seized the power and that Namor is the only person capable of saving Atlantis. Namor wonders if this is another of Byrrah’s tricks, but Byrrah professes his sword in Namor’s service. Byrrah tells Namor to slay him with his sword’s broken blade after hearing his story if he still thinks he tells lies. Namor admits that his mind reels and asks what happened to the Triumvirate, the nobles that assumed power after his abdication.
Byrrah replies that High Priest Shakkoth soon turned against Lord Vashti and Thakos and a civil war followed. Byrrah informs Namor that not even a new alliance, comprised of Vashti and Thakos and Namor’s cousin Lord Dara could stop the blood shed, and a desperate plan was hatched. Namor tells Byrrah to him everything of this story, and Byrrah replies that he shall. Informing Namor, Dane and Hercules that the Triumvirate, facing defeat at Shakkoth’s hands, hired Attuma and his barbarian hordes to fight on behalf of Atlantis. Attuma agreed, but only if he was given command of Atlantis’ armies as well as his own. The Triumvirate had to agree.
Byrrah declares that Attuma was very wily as Atlantis’ forces took the brunt of Shakkoth’s attack, and when both sides were decimated, Attuma’s hordes claimed a bloodless victory for their barbarian leader. However when the rebellion was over, the barbarians would not leave, and Attuma convinced the Triumvirate that Atlantis is weak and that they need him and his troops to keep the peace, offering the Triumvirate no choice in the matter. Attuma feared nothing except for the return of his mortal enemy, Namor, and effigies that were set up in the Sub-Mariner’s honor were destroyed. Attuma also declares that all those Atlanteans caught praying for the Sub-Mariner will gain only death.
Byrrah continues his story, informing Namor that Attuma took great lengths to convince the Atlantean people that he had forsaken them, showing them visual images of Namor with the surface-dwelling Avengers, and as time passed it was forgotten that it was the Atlanteans themselves who sought Namor’s abdication. Byrrah declares that in the end it was easy for Attuma to convince the Atlanteans that their prince did not love them, as Attuma had captured a alien female whom he claimed Namor intended to marry, and crown her as the queen of Atlantis.
Namor surges with rage, and fists clenched he asks Byrrah if Attuma had named the female alien. Byrrah declares that Attuma said her name was … Marrina! Byrrah adds that few people actually believe Namor could have loved such a creature, but Namor is enraged and grabbing Byrrah he tells his cousin that if he values his life he should day no more, for he would have had made Marrina his bride and queen. However Marrina fled from him soon after a madman calling himself the Master of the World, who forced her to assume her true hereditary form.
Namor declares that he searched for Marrina but to no avail, and Dane and Hercules try to comfort him, telling him that they will get the other Avengers and that his love will be rescued. With his cousin in tow, Namor heads into the water, reminding the Avengers that Attuma has set a trap for him, baiting it with his beloved and that he must go to her aid. Namor knows that Attuma will turn those who believe Marrina to be a monster against him, or kill him. However if Namor does not take the bait, then Attuma will pronounce him a coward from his own throne. Namor plans to catch the barbarian in his own lair and win back both his kingdom and his beloved, alone.
Byrrah tells Namor to forget his pride as it cost him Atlantis once before. Byrrah suggests that he will not be able to oust Attuma without aid before reminding him that he is an Avenger, who needs his fellow heroes help. Namor boasts that he is the scourge of the Seven Seas and needs no man! Byrrah tells Namor to mark his words, that there will come a day and it will be soon, when he will come to rue those words he just spoke and the accursed arrogance that made him speak them. ‘The day that occurs, Byrrah, shall be Namor’s last’ declares the Sub-Mariner, and by turning his back on his teammates, Namor terminates his membership in the Avengers.
The next day on Tamarind Island, Doug Thompson stands near the dock surrounded by deathly cold waters when Judd walks up beside him and informs him that Narya is resting, adding that she asked after him and smiled when Shaman told her Thompson was resting. Doug asks Puck why Twoyoungmen lied, and Judd informs him that it was because it made Snowbird feel better, thinking he would be beside her if he were awake, to which Judd asks him why he wasn’t beside her.
Doug declares that he is scared to be, and scared of the whole unnatural birth. Judd realizes Narya never told Doug of her own birth, and so he does it for her, informing Thompson that Narya’s father was an archaeologist named Richard Easton, who found a headband when he was scrounging around the North Arctic Circle. Curiosity compelled Easton to put it on, but the say “curiosity killed the cat”, which is when three of the Arctic gods – Hodiak, Nelvanna and the Shaper appeared before Easton. They informed Easton that they needed his seed, and thus the Shaper transformed the withered Nelvanna into a beautiful woman. Not that Easton’s small mind could comprehend what was transpiring Nelvanna informed him that they are trapped and need a Champion to stop the Great Evil which is about to threaten his mortal world. Nelvanna declared that it shall be they who give the world its champion.
Judd adds that Easton disappeared and that some say he was driven mad by his one night of ecstasy. Frowning, Thompson proclaims that it figures he is not the first to be conned by a goddess. Judd is a little taken aback by Thompson’s harsh remark and informs Doug that Nelvanna needed Easton’s humanity. Continuing his story of Narya’s birth, Judd reveals that Nelvanna could not escape the nether-realm, but that her child could, and she came to Dr. Michael Twoyoungmen who knew of Nelvanna’s needs and did what was required of him.
Judd declares that it was Shaman’s greatest test to date, for while as a doctor he had delivered countless babies into the world he had never delivered a demigod. When Narya’s embryo came into sight, Twoyoungmen realized that she was a transmorph and able to assume any shape at will, which is why he had to act quickly and bind her to the land. Narya was born already a child of one year in appearance, and weeks later her astonishing age-acceleration stabilized in what everyone would regard as a human in her mid-twenties. It was then that Narya was introduced to Mac Hudson and his wife Heather, and she became part of the precursor to Alpha Flight.
Concluding his story, Judd declares that it was through Snowbird that Nelvanna tried to bind the Arctic Gods to the Earth from which the Great Beasts had driven them. Doug angrily remarks that by marrying him, Snowbird tried to bind herself to mortality and wonders if she even meant to bind herself to him at all. Judd tells Thompson that Narya does love him. But Doug protests, wondering if any “mere mortal” would have been able to give Snowbird what she wanted – a baby, a second generation immortal, who would bind Snowbird to the Earth so fast that the Gods would never be able to get her back!
Judd asks the distressed Thompson if he thinks the Gods want her, and Thompson reminds Puck that after Snowbird defeated the last of the Great Beasts she said her time on Earth was done. Judd reminds Thompson that she stayed, but Thompson tells Puck that Narya told him she was staying because she sought to know what being normal and human was like, even asking him to teach her to be a woman. Doug declares that he tried, but then she came back to Alpha Flight. ‘To her fellow freaks, where nothing is normal or will ever be’ he declares angrily before mentioning the pregnancy. He calls Judd a midget and tells him that he does not want sympathy, or Alpha Flight’s help, or the baby, but all he wants it his wife back and with that he storms away.
Inside, Narya lies on a sofa with her friends around her as Shaman examines her. Jean-Paul asks his friend if it hurts, to which his sister Aurora reminds him that Snowbird is having a baby not an appendectomy. Heather jokes that Northstar is so nervous anyone would think he was the father. ‘C`est impossible!’ declares Jean-Paul before Jeffries asks Shaman if he needs any help. Twoyoungmen replies that he needs certain equipment that the Canadian government would never have thought to build into Mansion Alpha’s infirmary. Jeffries asks him what the equipment is, and Shaman declares that he needs a sonogram, for scanning fetal development via sound waves.
The quadriplegic Roger Bochs informs Shaman that he knows how to design one and by working in tandem with Madison they should be able to meet his needs. Jeffries touches Bochs on the forehead and Jeffries uses his transmutative powers to build what the sonogram from other bits of machinery. Jeffries declares that he just used Boch’s thoughts as a blueprint for his powers to follow.
Alpha Flight are amazed at the feat of the duo and watch the sonogram as it is placed of Snowbird. Northstar watches the screen and asks if what they see is an image of Snowbird’s child, to which Narya asks if she can see it. Shaman informs everyone that the child is unformed, as was Snowbird when she was delivered. He declares that it will have to be bound to reality and humanity like Snowbird was, but not at this place.
Shaman leaves the room and Heather follows him, asking him why Snowbird cannot give birth in Mansion Alpha, adding that Narya is in no condition to be moved. Twoyoungmen declares that certain children must be born in certain places as he enters his quarters. Heather asks him if what he is saying is that Narya’s child is not going to be human, that it will be more like Snowbird than Thompson. Eavesdropping outside the door, Thompson decides he will have to decide hard what to do now.
Standing in the middle of his room, Shaman tells Heather that she saw the image revealed in the sonogram and reminds her that Snowbird was born in a place of power. Shaman declares that to deliver Narya’s son he must find another such nexus. Thompson makes his presence known when he steps into the room asking Shaman if he really knows it is going to be a son. Shaman replies that he knows mystically not medically. Heather asks Shaman how he cannot be sure if their own Mansion Alpha is not sitting on the place of power.
Though he suspects it is not, Shaman summons Eaglet and informs Heather that there are those who are sure and if it will set her mind at rest he will pose the question to them. The house spirits appear before Shaman who informs Heather that the spirits are animating the materials of which the Mansion was constructed and the island, which it stands. One of the spirits tells Shaman that he has the power to conjure them and implore their aid another reminds him that he cannot command them though, for only his daughter, Talisman – the Binder of Spirits – may do that.
Shaman proclaims that he will burn many offerings on their altars if they tell him whether or not this house is suited to serve as the birthplace for Snowbird’s child. One spirit replies that it must be purified, as there is death in it. Heather is stunned to learn there is death in Mansion Alpha and wonders what the spirits mean, she realizes that they do not know much about their new home other than the fact that someone called Gilded Lily died here, but will someone else die here soon?
Shaman announces that the birth must take place somewhere else as he thought. He tells the house spirits that seeks to know only one more thing: ‘Are you answering me truthfully?’ A grinning spirit remarks that that would be telling, The giggling house spirits leave Shaman’s room and Heather declares that she doesn’t understand why they laughed at him and why he couldn’t make them tell him what he wanted to know. Shaman informs Heather that that would require more power then he could ever wish to possess. Power such as his daughter Elizabeth wields as Talisman. Vindicator asks Shaman if what he is saying is that to command the spirits like Talisman does – Shaman cuts his old friend off and declares that he would have to surrender his humanity as Elizabeth did.
Shaman tells Heather that Elizabeth still blames him for turning her into Talisman as well as for her mother’s death and failing her trusts in both instances. Hesitantly, Heather reminds Michael that she has seen how cold and unfeeling her foster sister has become, before adding that she likes him human. Shaman agrees before levitating himself into the air and declaring that since the spirits of the house are feeling ill disposed to aid him he must seek the aid of another. Turning to Eaglet, much to Heather’s amusement, Michael tells the bird to fly between the worlds. Shaman declares that Eaglet is the helm of the Sarcee familiar between Earth.
Just then, a portal opens up and Nelvanna, Hodiak and the Shaper appear before Twoyoungmen. Nelvanna tells Shaman to tell them what he wants, to which he replies he seeks the location of a place of power, so that he who delivered her daughter, Narya, to safety, may now deliver her daughter’s son. Nelvanna tells Shaman that Snowbird rejected them and turned her back on her immortal heritage, chosen a mortal to mate with. Shaman reminds the goddess that she herself did the same, to which Hodiak declares that Nelvanna mating with a mortal was to avert a great evil. Nelvanna declares that her daughter’s motives were selfish, human motives. The Shaper declares that as Snowbird turned her back on them they turn their backs on her rather than aid her in her folly.
With that, the Gods vanish and Heather stares up at where they were, for that was the first time she had ever seen them. Shaman informs Heather that it was Narya’s mother Nelvanna, Grandfather Hodiak and the nameless Shaper of life, adding that this land used to belong to them until man ceased to believe in them. As the Gods will not help them, Shaman realizes that he must ask another. Vindicator wonders whom he could consult about something like this. ‘Why a fellow physician of course’ smiles Shaman.
With that, Eaglet passes through the roof of Mansion Alpha and flashes like a mystic flare in Canada’s sky. Shaman declares that the summon has been sent, to which Heather asks will know what it means. Shaman informs her that the person who he has felt burning in the world since he first became aware of mystical matters, one who has more experience with the super natural then any other mortal on Earth, a man who Shaman has never met, but knows he will come, if he is able, because he understands the need behind the call. He is the Master of the Mystics Arts, otherwise known as Doctor Strange!
The astral form of Stephen Strange appears before Twoyoungmen and informs him that he has watched him from afar ever since he assumed the mantle of Shaman again, adding that the world will have need of Shaman’s magic. Dr. Strange asks Shaman how he may aid him in this astral form, and Shaman replies that he is seeking a place of power in which to safely deliver an infant. Strange realizes this would be no ordinary child, and declares that he senses a place of power thousands of miles away. Strange informs Shaman that by traveling on the Astral Plane he could reach it in time and Shaman declares he will ask the wind spirits to carry Vindicator and himself. ‘If its in the mood’ mumbles Heather.
The wind spirit appears before Twoyoungmen and tells him that it bears no malice towards him and that it in fact has nothing but good will for him. The wind spirit then proceeds to carry Michael and Heather to their destination, following Stephen Strange. In the air, Strange declares that his Eye of Agomotto shall guide them. Heather “hmmphs” that she could get there in no time under her battle suits own power if she wanted to, but knows that this is Shaman’s show, and wonders if he probably didn’t feel like being carried in the presence of a fellow mystic. Heather just hopes that Shaman and Doctor Strange know what they are doing.
Strange asks Shaman is his senses perceive what his do, and points to the place of power! Shaman replies that he does, adding that it is very near to the place of self-awareness where he delivered Snowbird herself, he declares that he should have thought to look here first. Strange declares that there is power in this place, but also something unsettling, some elusive sense of evil. Shaman declares that it must be because it is an icy wasteland, one of many in all of Canada. He adds that he knows now where Snowbird’s baby must be delivered, and Strange yields to Shaman’s knowledge of it because it is Shaman’s land. They return home via the wind.
Once Shaman and Vindicator are safely deposited back in Mansion Alpha, Strange declares he must take leave to tend to his own pressing matters, and hopes that he has been of some use to the Alphans. Shaman declares that he has, and Heather waves goodbye. Sitting on a chair, Heather comments on how they traveled a thousand miles and back in less than a minute. Shaman declares that they must now prepare for Snowbird to travel by more conventional methods, which is exactly when Jean-Paul flies into the room and informs Shaman that he needs to hurry, for they have a small problem at the wharf!
Vindicator, Shaman, Northstar, Aurora, Puck and Jeffries have assembled at the wharf where Thompson’s seaplane is moored, and the find him holding Narya up with one hand and a shot gun in the other, pointed at them should they make a move to try and take her away from him. Thompson declares that he is taking Narya away from ‘this nuthouse’ to a proper hospital with real doctors. Shaman steps forward and warns Thompson than a normal obstetrician would have no more idea of how to deliver the life force gestating within Snowbird than they would trying to rope a whirlwind.
Doug calls Shaman a liar when Twoyoungmen tells him to think of the welfare of Snowbird and not of his own blind prejudices. He declares that they in Alpha Flight are different from “ordinary” mortals such as himself, but that does not mean they love Narya any less than he does, nor that they are incapable of taking care of their own. Doug just shouts that Narya wants to be normal and he wants her and the baby to be normal. Aurora declares that the safety of Snowbird and the baby can only be assured if he lets Shaman help, and with that she uses her super speed to snatch the shotgun from him.
Thompson declares that no one can move that fast, but Aurora just tells him he should see her brother run one day – or rather try and see him run. The foolish Thompson still fights Alpha Flight, declaring that it is his child and not theirs. Shaman tells Thompson that he has no right to do this as he will condemn both Snowbird and the baby, Aurora backs Shaman up by telling Thompson that the decision has been taken out of his hands. Vindicator steps forward and declares that as leader it shall be she who decides what is to be done. Judd tells Heather that he didn’t think that Alpha Flight worked that way, to which Jean-Paul declares that it is the way most groups work, which is just one of the reasons he has preferred to work solo in the past.
Heather declares that this needs to be a joint decision between Snowbird and Thompson. Doug declares that Snowbird is in no shape to make such a decision. He adds that he can see they all care for her but that Narya married him to have a normal life. Angrily, Doug asks if they want him to trust Shaman, the man whose own daughter blames him for her mother’s death as well as her own current “inhuman” state. He adds that Shaman cannot even command his precious spirits, but beg them, and he asks again if Alpha want to trust him to “form” his child.
Looking down at Snowbird though Doug admits that Shaman did not do such a bad job with her and tells Twoyoungmen that he better know what he is doing. Taking Snowbird in his arms, Shaman informs her that they must fly her now to a place of power, and Snowbird replies that she is ready. Aurora tells Thompson that she believes he will find he made the right decision. Alpha Flight and Thompson are soon onboard the Omnijet, which flies towards the ice-locked shoreline of the far-distant Beechy Island.
On Beechy Island, power does indeed emanate from within the circle of stones, but the power that was sensed by Shaman and Dr. Strange is also capable of disguising its true nature, so that which was perceived as good power, might actually be wholly and irredeemably evil…. Smiling beneath the ice, a creature, a man thinks to himself that for too long he has lain in the icy embrace of the earth, but soon death will release him, and Pestilence will live again!


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

[Assistant]
Death Birth
(Flashback, 1848)
April 25th, from the journal of Captain F.R. Crozier. No breeze stirs and he hears nothing save the rasping of eternal ice against the hulls of the ships, the aptly named Terror and Erebus. It has been three years since Crozier had signed on as doctor and chief science officer with the famed Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin on his quest to find the fabled Northwest Passage to the East Indies. Six months out however winter caught them sailing through an uncharted waste and the ice closed in. Everyone aboard the two ships have prayed in vain for a spring that has never come.
Six months prior, Sir John set forth seeking aid, however Crozier never laid eyes on him or his party again. The supplies on the two ships meanwhile have become nearly exhausted, and it is Crozier’s turn to lead the scarecrow-like remnants of the starving crew out across the solid sea whose waves stand beneath them like a frozen sky. Crozier wonders as he walks out into a world unfavorable to man whether Sir john’s spirit watches over them from a better some better place, or whether his soul, like the ships, lies locked in some icy embrace from which it shall never escape.
April 30th, the glare off the ice blinds them and frigid winds whip through their ragged garments, the cold clutching at the sealskin soles of their bursting boots. Crew members stumble, some who fall never rise again. Some who sleep never wake and the dead go unburied. Crozier and his companions believe that civilization lies some 600 miles to the South. They do not stop in their trek. Ahead of them, Crozier sees their advance scout who appears to be signaling to them. Crozier wonders what he has seen and he and the crew press on to catch up with him. Upon reaching the scout they see he is frozen solid, and know that whatever he saw, or thought he saw, his frozen eyes would go on staring at it for all eternity.
May 8th, Crozier is without hope that daybreak will deliver those of them who are left and that with death the ice will claim their corpses. However Crozier is determined that the ice shall not steal his soul, and he is after all a man of science. While they were still aboard the ship, Crozier prepared an elixir to slow his bodily functions to a deathlike state where he would need neither food nor drink. Appearing dead, it was Crozier’s hope that his men would leave him for dead, his body preserved by the very ice that would doom everyone else until the spring would warm his blood and revive him.
However, Crozier was the Captain and the crew all looked up to him for leadership. He knew he would be betraying them, but there was only enough elixir for one, and while Crozier agonized over the decision, the desire to survive was in the end too overpowering. Crozier drank the elixir and his crew woke around him when they heard him scream. As he fell he heard someone call out his name.
Through wide-open eyes, Crozier saw his men crowd around him, his flesh felt their hands futilely searching for signs of life, but his ears heard them pronounce him dead, meaning his elixir had worked. However a new sound startled Crozier, the sound of spades scraping at ice. Crozier realized that out of respect for his rank or reverence of his memory the crew delayed their trek to dig him a grave. Crozier was mortified, for his crew were about to bury him.
And they did, burying him so deep that no spring thaw would ever warm his blood, that no summer sun would counteract the effects of his elixir. So deep that body and soul would lie for all eternity screaming out against the accursed embrace of the ice.
(Present)
Alpha Flight’s Omnijet streaks northbound on a mission of dire urgency. Inside the sleek aircraft, the quadriplegic Roger Bochs, a.k.a. Box asks Eugene Milton Judd, the diminutive Puck why Northstar feels the need to fly ahead of them all. Judd just tells Roger that Northstar is an Alphan who likes to keep to himself. Roger supposes that thanks to Northstar’s accelerated biosystem he would not have to worry about freezing in the subzero temperatures outside, while the magnetic spirits that Shaman conjured forth continue to lock the ships gyros onto the place of power were Snowbird’s baby will be delivered.
Judd reminds Bochs that Shaman also summoned wind spirits to increase their speed, for without them they would not be able to keep up with Northstar. Bochs remarks that he has not gotten used to the powers of the “new” Shaman before offering Judd a peanut. Judd smiles but rejects the offering, declaring that he heard peanuts stunt your growth. Bochs jokes that they never stopped his waistline from expanding.
Just then the sultry Alphan Aurora enters the cockpit asking the men if this is a private conversation or if they would like the company ‘of zee adorable Aurora?’ Aurora smiles noticing Roger admiring her winter costume. She boasts that she would prefer to wear something more revealing but she is no longer immune to the cold like her brother. Roger stammers that he doesn’t mind, and Judd jokingly agrees. Watching as Aurora leans over to give Bochs a kiss on the cheek, team leader Heather McNeil Hudson, a.k.a. the new Vindicator asks Aurora if she is no longer mourning for Walter Langkowski.
Aurora tells Heather that she will never forget her beloved Walter, but as she flies out of the plane into the open air she declares that memories can not keep one warm at night. Flying beside the plane, Aurora maintains speed beside the cockpit window and tells her 'dear Rogair’ that she is attracted to brains as much as she is to brawn. “Deer Rogair”? mocks Judd turning to Roger before Heather asks the men to keep their eyes on the gyros. Roger turns back to the gyros and alerts Heather to the compass, Heather does and she sees that the magnetic spirit Shaman summoned to guide them to the place of power is spinning totally out of control.
Ahead of the ship and the flying twins a figure floats in the air surrounded by a powerful green glow. Roger wonders if the compass is spinning out of control because it is under the control of this person, and decides that he better get into his Box armor now. Vindicator sees that the spirits are bowing to the figure walking on the air, and as Northstar and Aurora approach the new arrival they see that it is their former teammate Elizabeth Twoyoungmen, a.k.a. the phenomenally powerful Talisman! Aurora asks Talisman what she is doing here, and without flinching, Elizabeth just snaps back that her father knows.
Back inside the Omnijet, Heather rushes into a back room to see Michael “Shaman” Twoyoungmen who knows already what is going on and declares that Elizabeth has joined them, for he senses the terror in the spirits for the one they call the Binder. The pregnant goddess Snowbird lies on a bed and her husband, Doug Thompson asks what new madness is going on.
Talisman suddenly teleports into the ship and greets her former baby-sitter as Vindicator. Heather asks Elizabeth how she knows she had taken that name, to which Elizabeth haughtily asks if she is not the Talisman, the Binder of Spirits, the Breaker of Dark Spells and the Promised One. Glaring at her father, she asks if she is not what he has made her? Shaman closes his eyes and declares that in an hour of great need he had her reach into his medicine pouch, and that the destiny found within it was foreordained. Elizabeth snaps that it is too bad he never prepared her for the fact that fulfilling her destiny would cost her humanity.
Hands on hips, Elizabeth declares that the spirits have informed her that Shaman will attempt to deliver Snowbird’s child. She proclaims that she has come to watch him fail. Vindicator is obviously annoyed by Talisman’s cruel tendencies but before she can say anything, Doug Thompson asks Shaman what Elizabeth means and asks if his wife is in danger. Shaman informs Thompson that his daughter bears him little love and delights in reminding him of what she considers to be his past failures before reminding Thompson that he did safely deliver Narya and bind her to Earth and shall attempt to do the same for his child, once they have reached the place of power.
Just then, a black mass begins to brow like a cancer on the white landscape below …
Once the Omnijet has landed, Thompson carries Snowbird onto the place of power, accompanied by Vindicator, Box, Shaman and Talisman, while Northstar and Aurora circle the area and Puck remains in the Omnijet. Inside the Box armor, Roger declares that it feels good to have legs again before asking if the circle of stones they stand in is the place of power. Vindicator replies that Shaman’s spirits seem to think so, but she doesn’t like it. Shaman asks Heather if she senses something wrong and wonders if that is why she has the twins circle overhead and Judd remain in the ship. Heather replies that she just wants to be ready for trouble and to be able to get out fast when it strikes.
Still holding Narya, Thompson asks if this is the place of power where they expect Snowbird to give birth and angrily tells Alpha that they are all crazy before boasting that he is going to put his wife back in their ship and fly her to a clean, quiet and sanitized hospital. Fed up with the narrow-minded Thompson, Shaman raises his voice and informs him that he was a physician long before he became a Sarcee shaman and can assure him that no mortal man of medicine unversed in the lore of the land possess the skill to deliver the child of a goddess. He tells Thompson to let any other doctor try, and they will doom both Snowbird and the unborn infant.
Thompson stops his rambling and is at a loss for words when Narya speaks for the first time in a long time, asking Doug to trust Shaman, for her sake. Clinging to her husband Narya recalls that she tried to deny her heritage so that she may experience the love and warmth of others, but was unexpected for the emotional and physical pain that she would feel, or inflict on others. She wonders if she chose her path wisely.
Talisman tells Thompson that he should trust her father … to his everlasting regret. Box declares that if his robot framework had a sense of smell, he would say ‘it stunk like rotten eggs around here’.  Vindicator tells her team to spread out and stand guard as Shaman declares it is time to let the birth begin.
Beneath the ice, Captain F.R. Crozier feels something stir, and hears someone speak … after all these years, someone stands upon his grave.
Talisman steps forward and asks her father where his concern for his patients comfort it, and she commands some spirits to form a bed of air, which Snowbird is then laid upon. Shaman watches his daughter with some discomfort at how easily she commands the element spirits of which he can only beg for the aid of. However Twoyoungmen feels that his daughter uses the spirits callously and cruelly and punishing them if they are too slow to serve her. Possessed of such great power, Elizabeth is condescending of all lesser beings – the power is corrupting her!
Shaman puts a hand to his head and believes that if Elizabeth is a monster, it is one of his own making, and wishes he could rip the tiara from her brow, restoring her humanity and reclaiming her love. ‘Its too late for that, father! You lost my love a long time ago!’ cries Talisman, surprising Shaman who thinks she read his thoughts. When he questions her on this, Elizabeth informs him that she read his mood and can imagine how much he would like to “help” her. Power surges from Elizabeth’s hands as she asks her father if it is not enough that he cost her humanity but the life of her mother also. Shaman reminds Elizabeth that cancer killed her mother and that there was no cure, but Elizabeth just tells him to ‘save it’ and bluntly tells him that he failed his wife like he failed her and is going to see him humbled for it.
Captain Crozier’s eyes narrow, he senses hate. In the beginning he used to love life and envied the living. But after 138 years of living death, all he can feel is hate and jealousy. Immortality has been so cold to him and wants to steal the life of those above and have revenge for all the years they had life while he was trapped.
Back on the ice, Thompson holds his wife’s hand and asks the beautiful goddess why she married someone who cannot deal with this insanity. Snowbird replies it is because she loves him when suddenly, the Arctic Gods Nelvanna, Hodiak and the Shaper, appear and inform Thompson that Snowbird also chose him because the daughter of heaven thought to bind herself to immortality.
Thompson turns and faces the Arctic Gods, shocked and he cries ‘Oh my God!’ Snowbird’s grandfather, Hodiak corrects Thompson, declaring the obvious, that there are more than one God before him, and introduces Narya’s mother, Nelvanna and Turoq the Shaper. Nelvanna declares that her daughter was conceived to defend the land against the Great Beasts, and as the Shaper points out, that task has been completed and Narya’ place is with them. ‘With you?’ questions Thompson.
Nelvanna speaks to her daughter, offering Snowbird one last chance to come with them and rid herself of the stench of mortality. She tells Snowbird that the choice must be made now, for after the baby is born, she will no longer be welcome. Looking at her fellow gods, Snowbird thinks to herself that the pain is so severe, that she could almost go with them. Narya is so afraid of what is about to happen, but even more afraid of losing the people whom she loves and who love her back.
Snowbird’s True Fires are set forth and she informs her mother that she cannot leave what she has found on Earth. Motioning to a portal, Nelvanna shows Snowbird one part of the Paradise that could be hers. Nelvanna tells Narya that because she was so foolish as to bear a mortal’s child she has subsequently turned her back on living eternally in the Realm of the Gods.
Thompson shakes his fists and asks they Gods why they come to torment Narya when she is in pain before boasting that it is no wonder that Snowbird wanted to become human. Shaman asks Doug whom he is shouting at, and angrily he replies ‘the Gods’ and asks if Shaman didn’t see them. Twoyoungmen puts a hand on Doug’s shoulder and informs him that the Gods must have chosen to hide themselves from all eyes save his and Narya’s. However, Shaman declares that the appearance of the Gods confirms his belief that they have brought Narya to the proper place, for there is power here.
Just then, a green and yellow bean streams upwards from Snowbird and she screams from the pain. Talisman agrees to herself with her father, there is power here, but not the kind of power he thinks. Thompson is amazed at the light, and when he queries Shaman about it the reply is that it is the child’s life force shinning from Narya’ womb, for her baby is about to be born.
Below the ice, Crozier senses life coming into existence above him, a spirit seeking solidity needing to be bound to the land to take form. He wonders why they brought the mother here, to a place, which so long ago his hate corrupted. However, he cares not for that, as their mistake is his salvation, ‘Today I shall be reborn!’
Back in the circle of rocks, Snowbird’s close friend, the handsome Jean-Paul Beaubier declares that he has a bad feeling about this, to which Heather tells the former Olympic skier to stand his ground, as no one will get to Narya through them. Shaman calls to the spirits of life and land to aid him, while Talisman just smiles and tells her father that he is a fool, so proud of his pathetic power to summon aid from the spirit world, and asks him if it did not occur to him that no spirit would come to aid him unless it had her permission.
Talisman reveals that she set her father up, that the spirits led him to this spot because she commanded them to, for it is place of power, ‘but it is also a place of death’ she trumpets. At that moment, black leech-like creatures rise from the ice and begin to feed on the life force of the child. Shaman begs his daughter to stop them, while Snowbird screams for her baby. Jean-Paul Vindicator, Aurora and Box all rush towards Narya when they realize that the danger comes from within the circle itself. Box declares that the danger comes from Talisman herself, but Elizabeth professes that she is merely a catalyst.
Vindicator starts to question that revelation when Twoyoungmen himself confirms it, declaring that the threat to the child comes from below the ice. As Northstar rushes to aid his friend he suddenly finds himself stuck, for something turns the ice beneath him into ooze which holds him fast. Aurora speeds past her brother professing that she would set him free but reminds him that with the slightest contact their powers are negated. Box is also running towards the center of the circle and tells Aurora that their priority right now is to stop the leeches threatening Snowbird’s baby.
Aurora is somewhat hesitant and worries about Jean-Paul, but Northstar exclaims that he will get free and asks his sister to see Snowbird’s safety. Aurora complies and is about to strike one of the leaches when her hand passes right through it. Pulling her hand back towards herself, Aurora is mortified to find it covered with maggots. She struggles up in the air as the maggots begin to cover her entire body. Seeing the woman who gave him some attention earlier in danger, Bochs forgets that he told Aurora not to help her brother and decides that he needs to help her.
However Vindicator informs Bochs that it is just the revulsion of the maggots that is paralyzing Aurora and suggests that the maggots might go away if they destroy the leaches. Box is about to fall in line and do as his leader asks and hurl a rock at the leaches when rust suddenly spreads from the rock and immobilizes him.
Vindicator realizes that the forces of decay – rust, maggots and muck - are attacking them and she sees flies swarming towards herself. Even though the flies perish as soon as they touch her electromagnetic shields, more and more keep coming and she can no longer see, trapped in a black cloud of flies.
Judd then rushes out of the Omnijet, for while he did as he was asked and remained at the controls of the ship in case they needed to make a quick getaway, Heather needs him. But as Puck rushes across the ice cracks below him and he falls into the icy waters.
Back in the center of the circle, Shaman asks the spirits to help him, but Talisman steps forward and exclaims that the spirits will not help him, because she forbids it. Twoyoungmen pleads with Elizabeth and asks why, when she states again that she wants to see him fail in the eyes of his fellow Alphans, and because she wants to see him humbled by that failure. Elizabeth smiles and then adds that she wants her father to see how easily she shall step in and pick up the pieces by saving the child from the horror that her father ineptly released.
Shaman wonders what Talisman means by “save the child” and as they watch the baby begin to take form Elizabeth declares that beneath the ice she sensed a spirit that was trapped between life and death so many years had come to hate life and the living. Talisman knows that the creature sought rebirth only to deal death to those more fortunate than itself. As the baby’s features begin to change Talisman reveals that the creature could only reanimate itself by the life force of a child yet unborn before asking what better way to humiliate her father than by offering the creature it the very life which Shaman had sworn to deliver safely?
Where once Snowbird’s baby hovered in the green beam, now rests the full-grown form of Captain F.R. Crozier, who grins wickedly and declares ‘I live! And upon the living I shall bring plague and Pestilence!’ Doug Thompson looks up and asks if that is his child, to which Snowbird replies it is not. Pestilence grins down at Narya and Doug and informs them that their child is inside of him, and while the baby’s soul is strong, his corruption will eventually overcome the purity of the baby.
Addressing everyone now, even the Alphans struggling with their enemies of decay, Pestilence declares that the baby shall know death as its first experience of life as he calls down destruction, decay and decomposition of the parents. Shaman steps up to Pestilence and orders him to release the child and bring death to no one. Pestilence asks who there is among them that possess the power to deny death. Shaman suddenly keels over and finds himself withering as his body grown weak and feeble, as does his heart. Thompson turns to Shaman and Pestilence tells him that he will not suffer long, for his death draws near.
Thompson asks if there is no one who can free his child and stop this slaughter, when Talisman steps forward and declares that she can now that her father has suffered for all the wrong doings he has done to her. Thompson is furious and asks Elizabeth why she caused this if she is just going to end it. Talisman informs him that Shaman has been humbled and now knows that his power is not enough to save himself let alone others.
Talisman powers up and facing Pestilence she tells the villain that she tricked Shaman into letting him loose so that she could step in and save him as he had previously failed to save her mother from death and herself from inhumanity. She attacks Pestilence and declares that by destroying him she will destroy her father’s pride. Pestilence asks why the one who helped resurrect him would want to destroy him and calling Talisman a ‘boastful child’ he exclaims that he will not be send back to the darkness where he lay for 138 years.
As he grabs Elizabeth by her neck, Elizabeth orders Pestilence to unhand her, reminding him that he is a spirit of death and that she is the Binder of Spirits. Talisman chokes when Pestilence tightens his grip and exclaims that Talisman made a mistake, for he is not a spirit as he never truly died! Talisman is horrified at her mistake and watches unable to do anything as Pestilence informs her that chemicals and the cold preserved his body against time and decay, meaning he is as alive now as he was the day of his entombment.
He tells Talisman that she cannot command him, and adds that that is not the full extent of her mistake, for thank to her he now possess all the power that would have gone to a child conceived of immortal and mortal. Pestilence declares that where the baby would have embodied the life of the land, Pestilence’s hate corrupted that power so that he now embodies death! Talisman is dismayed when Pestilence puts a hand to her tiara. She informs him that her tiara cannot be removed from her brow without causing her incredible pain – but Pestilence cares not, and rips the cronet from Elizabeth, indeed causing her to scream in agony.
Pestilence tosses the powerful tiara to one side, and it lands near the weak Twoyoungmen who looks up, unable to aid his daughter. Elizabeth presses a hand up to Pestilence’s face trying to ward him off as he declares he has not held a woman in his arms to more than a century, and that he never dreamed that when he did again it would only be to kill her!
The weak Michael Twoyoungmen watches the scene, realizing that by removing the tiara, Pestilence has done what he never could, restoring humanity to his daughter. However without her power she cannot call forth the spirits of the land and command them to defend her, she will die. Shaman goes wide-eyed and realizes that someone else may be willing to sacrifice their humanity and become a new Talisman….
Meanwhile, in Atlantis, Attuma and one of his barbarian warriors stand before the small orb that serves as the prison to former Alphan, Marrina. Attuma declares that his plan to use Marrina to lure the Sub-Mariner back to Atlantis so he could kill him has failed. Marrina declares that if Namor no longer loves her then she is glad of it, for as she is a monster she can claim no hold on the heart of the Prince of Atlantis. The barbarian corrects Marrina, declaring that Namor is the former Prince, and that Lord Attuma rules here now.
Suddenly, someone calls for the guards to be sent out, as the Sub-Mariner has just arrived! Attuma smiles and informs Marrina that he had hoped that when Namor heard that his mortal enemy had captured the kingdom and the woman he once hoped to make his queen that the passion and pride of the Sub-Mariner would get the better of his brains…and by the look on Namor’s face, it has.