Alpha Flight 136

THE ALPHA FLIGHT GATEFOLD

The Story Up Till Now ... As Alpha settled into their new home on the Sarcee Reservation, the shocking announcement came about the MAGNUS ACCORD, a treaty between the Canadian government and Alpha Flight.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

GUARDIAN - James MacDonald Hudson; Mac was the founder of ALPHA and has been de-aged by Dept. H back to 19 years old under mysterious circumstances

VINDICATOR - Heather Hudson; estranged wife of Mac and sometime leader of ALPHA who's seen her husband die and return to life; has doubts about Mac's authenticity

SHAMAN - Michael Twoyoungmen; Shaman of Sarcee Tribe and accomplished surgeon who has at different times abandoned science for magic and magic for science

PUCK - Eugene Milton Judd; a long time adventurer who is considered the soul of ALPHA; has loved Heather from afar for years; Puck is a dwarf

SASQUATCH - Dr. Walter Langkowski; accomplished scientist and athlete, Walt can transform himself into a sasquatch and back with just a thought

AURORA - Jeanne-Marie Beaubier; suffers from a split personality between the reserved Jeanne-Marie and the outgoing Aurora, twin sister of Northstar

DOCTOR H2O - Shelly Holmes was Langkowski's research assistant, has demonstrated "ice" powers but the full extent is not known - trainee

AQUANEA - possibly the daughter of Marrina who was being used to breed more Plodex by Apocalypse - trainee

JACQUES CLOUVERE - the new head of Department H and political outcast of the Canadian Premier; desperate to regain his political power

MAGNUS ACCORD - Treaty between the Canadian government and Magneto. In exchange for protecting Canada, Magneto has been given control of the newly named Magneto Territories, where he can create a haven for non-criminal mutants to live under his rule.

NORTHERN BEAR PRODUCTIONS

The words hit Guardian like a sledgehammer. Maverick stood before him with a folder clenched tightly in his hand. Behind him sat some of the members of Alpha Flight: Vindicator, Shaman, Sasquatch, Puck and Shelly, the newly named Doctor H₂O.

"If you expect us to believe what you're going to pass off as factual information," Heather snapped, "then you'd better damn well tell us the story."

"Fine," Maverick snapped back. He was feeling miserable and didn't particularly feel like being challenged at every turn just because he was a nice enough guy to bring this information to them in the first place. "But answer me this, Heather Hudson," he met her gaze and didn't back down, "do you still keep the lingerie you wore for Mac on your second honeymoon tucked away in the back right hand corner of the bottom drawer in your bureau?"

Heather blushed and fumed at the same time. Her and Guardian both took a step towards Maverick. "Just what kind of dirty-"

"Spare me," Maverick cut her off, placing the folder out before him in his extended arm. "It's in here. All the information anyone could ever want to know about Alpha Flight. I took it from a guy in Singapore.* There's no straight narrative in here about the whole story - there's photos here and memos there, but I think looking at all of it we can piece it together. The bit about your storage habits was provided by your husband."

Heather clenched her fists, absolutely hating being jerked around. She needed an outlet and caught Guardian looking at her with shame written all over his face out of the corner of her eye. "Bastard!" she slapped him hard across the face.

"But you said …" Heather let the words trail away as she caught Maverick's meaning.

A second later, the mercenary's words confirmed what her feelings had told her all along. "This kid isn't James MacDonald Hudson."

"Bear with me," Maverick requested, "this jumps around a lot, but I think this is the best way to fill in all the details."

"Yes, Mr. Hudson, it is," a nurse answered as she drew blood from James MacDonald Hudson's arm.

"Standard operating procedure, Jim," came a voice from the doorway and Hudson turned to see his friend Gary Cody striding in to shake his hand. "Canadian government needs to have blood and tissue samples and all that if they're going to invest all this money into starting up this Department for you. They want to make sure you don't have some strange disease and are gonna drop dead in a month."

"I've been poked and prodded more than a hundred cattle on branding day, Cody. Enough is enough, okay?"

"Sure thing, Jim. Sure thing. Let's go get something to eat. It's on the government." The two men laughed and headed out the door.

"I - I can't believe he's dead," Gary Cody shook his head to the five people who sat in the room with him.

"How did he die?" the Canadian Prime Minister asked. "We invested a lot of money into James Hudson over the years. I want to be sure he's dead so we can claim what's his and not risk him coming back. Lord knows Hudson is territorial about his inventions and Lord knows that these super-types just love coming back from the dead."

"His suit malfunctioned, Prime Minister," a military general added, his first time in these proceedings, "and blew him to bits.* Tragic, really. Had there been more of a military involvement in the design and use of the suit, I doubt we would have lost it."

"General Clarke," he reached across the table to shake Cody's hand. "Pleased to meet you. We can do great things with Department H, you and I. Great things."

"Clarke is what we call a political climber," the Prime Minister laughed. "He hasn't kissed many asses in his day, but he's certainly kissed the right ones."

General Clarke smiled, "Guilty as charged, Prime Minister, guilty as charged. And might I add, you look ten years younger than the last time I saw you." Clarke waited for the laughter to die down before he continued. "Funny you mention Hudson coming back from the dead, Mr. Prime Minister … "

"I'm coming, I'm coming, blast it! It takes a little bit of time when you don't have any legs, you know. Here, just let me open the door and …"

"Hello, Roger. Perhaps if your arms and stomach weren't so covered with fat it wouldn't take you quite so long to invite your company in."

"Who are you supposed to be and what are you doing here?" Bochs fumed, in no mood for games.

"Calm yourself, Mr. Bochs. My name is Major Clarke. I'm one of the people behind the scenes of the Alpha programs."

"Nonsense," Major Clarke smiled, entering the small cabin of Bochs. "Alpha Flight and Department H are two separate entities. Alpha Flight is the face, but Dept. H is where all the decisions are made."

"Yes, probably not," the Major frowned. "You see, I'm trying to learn the political games they favor up on Parliament Hill and I find that when I talk to those not in the know I rarely make sense any more. Or rather, I make perfect sense, it is just that you can not understand me."

"Of course not, Mr. Bochs. You are a brilliant engineer and mechanic, are you not? James Hudson has spoken highly of you."

"Yes, we are all quite impressed with your Box armor," Clarke smiled, knowing full well how to butter up a person like Bochs. "But, you see, there's this other project I'm working and I was wondering if you could help me out with it. Hudson and I are trying to develop Life Model Decoys to use in place of our government officials for safety reasons. We were hoping you could help us out … "

"Blast it, General, is Hudson back from the dead or not? I've got reports coming in left and right saying that he's been seen in Edmonton at a mall of all places!"*

"No, Prime Minister, that's not Hudson, but rather a highly sophisticated LMD posing as Hudson. It's name is Delphine Courtney and it was developed by the Brand Corporation. By all accounts it completely fooled all the members of Alpha Flight and they were Hudson's closest friends. It's quite a brilliant machine. It's remarkable Brand was able to do it. One wonders what Henry Pym might be able to create if he wasn't so unstable."

Clarke paused. No, there were some things even the Prime Minister didn't need to know. "Not yet, no, but we're working on it," Clarke admitted. "I've got designs from Roger Bochs - he's the cripple who invented the Box armor - about such a machine. We tried to get him to build LMDs in the past for us, but for all of his vaunted reputation, he proved quite unable to deliver what we needed. He can't get the Artificial Intelligence part of the design down just right."

"At a level above the Lincoln exhibit at Disney World, yes, but they can not function on their own just yet. We can program them to act, but not to react or think."

"Yes, sir, but he's sufficiently concerned about Heather taking a more active role in Alpha Flight that we may be able to bring him in at some point. Or, at the very least, get what information we need out of him."

"It's a pity that Jeffries idea didn't work out," the Prime Minister shook his head. "I was rather fond of that one, myself."

Lionel Jeffries struggled against the straitjacket he was held in, unable to free his arms. "What do I have to do?"

"Then you can rot in this cell from now until the end of time. It really doesn't matter all that much to me." The Major turned to walk away.

"No, wait! I'll do it. Whatever it is," Lionel shook his head. "Just get me out of this cell."

"Ready for the first test of Operation: LLD, Life Life Decoy. Is the test subject ready?"

Lionel Jeffries walked to a young man strapped to a long metal table in an upright position and laid his hands on his flesh. Tubes and wires poured from the test subjects body, as Department H recorded all data. Standing next to the man strapped to the table was another man, roughly the same height and build. Lionel began to concentrate and the test subject's flesh began to change as Lionel molded it with his mutant power to transmute flesh and bone.

"So far, so good, Major Clarke," James MacDonald Hudson said, concentrating on the test taking place before them inside an enclosed glass laboratory. "Lionel and his brother Madison are both extremely powerful mutants. I am worried about the psych evaluation on Lionel, but Madison looks to be a good candidate to be recruited into Gamma Flight."

"You can't be wary of taking risks on the troubled, Hudson, just because of the Wolverine fiasco."

"I know, Major, but Lionel-" Hudson's expression changed, "Lionel is amazing! Look at that work!"

Major Clarke looked into the lab to see that Lionel had changed the test subject into an exact replica of the first. "Brilliant. Do you have any idea how much good this will do the Canadian people? We'll cut the security risks for our leaders by 80%, at least. We can use the LLDs to make all their public appearances for them."

"We'll have no shortage of applicants, either, because Lionel can simply change them back to their original appearances when the mission is over."

"Or," Clarke's wheels were already turning, "we can promise them any new face they want. This could net the Canadian government - and Department H - millions upon millions of dollars by sell- wait, what's happening in there Hudson?"

The two men looked to see the test subject who had been transformed screaming as blotches appeared all over his skin. Lionel's face was in a panic as he tried to place his hands back onto the test subject to correct whatever was going wrong, but the subject would have none of it, punching at him wildly and screaming, "Stay away!" over and over again.

"The LLD venture looks to be yet another complete failure," Major Clarke sighed. "Send Lionel back to the Funny Farm."

"Do you want to explain that to the press?" Clarke asked pointedly. "No, I didn't think so." He shook his head. "Tell me what you know about cloning, Mr. Hudson."

Major Clarke looked at the figure before him and screamed. Standing before him was an exact duplicate of James MacDonald Hudson. After the failure of the LMD and LLD programs, they thought they had finally found their saving device with cloning.

An American Professor named Miles Warren had done extensive work in the field of cloning and had managed to create clones that were perfect in appearance and were relatively stable, able to hold their forms for long periods of time.

"What's the matter, Clarke?" James MacDonald Hudson asked. "It looks just like me. It's perfect."

"Yes, yes, perfect in appearance, but not mentally. This clone is, for all intents and purposes, you, but it has it's own ideas about what it wants to do. Damn it, Hudson, what we need are people with soldier's mentalities who will do what we ask of them. We can't very well clone the Prime Minister and then have the clone decide he wants to sell cars for a living!"

"Hey, look, pal," the clone of Hudson yelled, "I don't really care who you are or what you made me for, I'll be damned if I'm going to play your little puppet."

"Then you are of no use to me." Clarke reached into his coat, extracted a gun and shot the clone dead through the heart. "Come on, Hudson, let's go get some fresh air."

"There a point to all this, eh?" Puck asked, resting a hand on Guardian's slumped shoulder. The young man hadn't really recovered from the shock of Maverick telling him he wasn't the real James MacDonald Hudson.

"Well, you're such a stickler for having all the details," Maverick groused, "that I figured you deserved the whole story. It all comes back around. Clarke had Bochs designing LMDs. Clarke had Lionel building LLDs. When that failed, they turned to cloning. Right from the start, Clarke was looking for ways to make duplicates of people - and Hudson was right there helping him along."

"No kidding," Heather mumbled. "So where does the part about who this kid is kick in?"

"Right after the clone experiment failed, a series of mysterious electronic memos started going back and forth from Clarke to Hudson. All this is right from your Alphanex computers, where Hudson felt safe that none of this would ever get out because he had all the codes to use Alphanex. Here," Maverick offered, "take a look."

The clone is brain dead, but the body functions. This should suit our plans perfectly. END

It's been a long couple of weeks, but the clone is nearing completion. I've successfully integrated the needed LMD components from Boch's designs into the clone body. Almost all vital organs have been replaced. Should be able to sustain the rigors of space travel better than a human body. I have two immediate concerns - there is still no functioning brain in the clone and there's rumblings that our funding is going to be cut. That would devastate our plans. END

Congratulations on your success! If this works, Canada will be the world's greatest superpower! We look to be right on track. Went to the farm this past weekend to check on our "guest". Everything looks good from this end. We should meet our window. Re your concerns: 1) I've enclosed plans "acquired" from the Phineas Horton estate about the original Human Torch which should provide some help. 2) Funding concerns are REAL, repeat REAL. END

I've been promoted to General. Hopefully this will facilitate the extra funds we need. Can not stress how important it is that you impress upon Cody how critical it is that we receive extra funding for the coming year WITHOUT letting him know about this side project. I've already begun to divert funds from Beta and Gamma. END

Congrats on the promotion, but we still need more funds! Files from Horton helped, but I came across an article by Pym about engrams. Something to look into IF WE HAD MORE FUNDS!!! END

Sorry about the earlier memo, but it is becoming more and more frustrating dealing with this clone. I feel like Von Frankenstein. Other than the clone's lack of personality, we are ready to LAUNCH. END

Visited "guest" this weekend. He wants to proceed IMMEDIATELY. Repeat, IMMEDIATELY. Do what you can with clone to prepare it for launch. END

Immediately? Impossible! Clone is not yet ready! Have only begun to understand Pym's notes. It will take years to fully understand this. Do we have to launch immediately? END

Yes, IMMEDIATELY. "Guest" wants to launch in seven days, MAXIMUM. Something amount a disruption in the space/time fields if we wait too long. If we are not ready, he will seek out OTHERS. Already he is looking to the United States and wondering if he should contact the Avengers or Fantastic Four. HURRY. END

I've done all I can. Unit is cold, but can function. More mechanical than human which may suit our purposes. After all this time I must say that I'm finding it hard to look at "myself" all day. I will bring clone to farm this weekend for launch.

"I don't know," Maverick shrugged. "Not entirely, anyway. But I've done some checking and on the weekend of June 30, from a farmhouse owned by General Clarke, a small probe was launched from the Earth and into space. Hudson never said anything to you about Project Q, Heather?"

"But it's apparent what it stood for, eh?" Puck asked. "Q has to be the Quwrlln, the race that supposedly found Mac after his suit exploded and he got sent millions of years into the past and ended up on one of Jupiter's moons."

Maverick picked up the explanation, "Except that never happened. When James MacDonald Hudson was found by Roxxon chemical,* floating in the ocean in a Quwrlln craft, they didn't find James MacDonald Hudson at all. They found his clone that Hudson and Clarke had sent into space to rendezvous with the Quwrlln and that the Quwrlln had sent back. He was mechanical and stiff because Hudson didn't know what he was doing with Pym's engram equations and the body only got a barely functional level of programming, if you will. Certainly less human than Horton's Torch or Pym's Ultron - but Hudson was not anywhere near the intelligence level of those two. The clone was extremely loyal to Clarke, because Hudson had programmed him to be ultimately loyal to both himself and Clarke because they didn't want their plans with the Quwrlln getting out. For what exact reasons the clone was sent into space, I don't know. There's nothing to indicate that in these files, but we can infer it from another that I'll show you in a second.

"The real James MacDonald Hudson died when his suit exploded. Everything since then has been the clone that Hudson himself created. The confusion only came because the real Hudson died. Clarke picked up on that and used the clone for his own purposes." Maverick looked to Heather, "I'm sorry."

Alpha Flight let the words hang in the Albertan night for a good long while before Guardian finally broke the silence.

Maverick looked at the kid and saw that he was hurting, but it was better that he knew everything. "You're a little bit of everything, kid, but what it comes down to is that Clarke created you to help gain control of Alpha Flight - the same way he wanted to use the clone to control Alpha. Read this. It's only a partial, but it speaks volumes." Maverick handed Guardian an entry from Clarke's personal log.

--- can't believe it. Hudson clone is DEAD, thanks to the Quwrlln and Galactus.* Apparently some vestiges of Hudson's humanity came through the brain-pattern programming that Hudson laid into the clone originally. I still don't trust the Quwrlln's tampering with the clone and it's robotic parts, either. Either way, I doubt I'll hear from the Quwrlln again. They have apparently got what they wanted - help to stop Galactus in case he ever threatened their homeworld. Heather Hudson will pay for this, since I'm sure it was her "love" for Hudson that screwed up the clone's programming. Perhaps I'll build another clone. No, that would be too easy. According to that sniveling twit Cody, he recovered a large amount of previously unknown information in Alphanex's computers. Who would have thought he'd have the guts to steal them right out from Alpha's nose?** Among all that data are a perfect copy of Hudson's brain waves. This must be the original copy that he tried to place in the clone. I will make this revenge sweet. Heather can not imagine what it is she has cost us. I'll take everything we know about clones, LMDs, engrams, LLDs and I will have my revenge. I'll build a new Hudson, a better Hudson, one that will be more pliant to my goals. Perhaps I'll see what kind of files I can acquire from Trask about his new Sent---

"But what about the Mac that the Master resurrected?" Heather found the strength to ask, pointing to Guardian. "Is that who this Guardian is?" *

"No," Maverick answered. "That's the clone resurrected." He turned back to Guardian. "There's one more thing, kid," Maverick said quietly. "The blueprints for your creation."

Maverick handed Guardian a blueprint. Guardian looked at it and his head started to shake back and forth repeatedly. "This - this isn't even possible."

"What is it? The de-aging plans?" Puck asked, his eyes darting to make sure Heather was okay. "This what happened to the Hudson that the Master resurrected?"

"There were no de-aging plans," Maverick informed, "and that Hudson you just mentioned was hunted down and killed by Clarke, there's a photo of the death in here if you really want to see it, but since it's only a photo … I suppose the clone could still be out there." He sighed loudly, feeling very tired all of a sudden. "The kid isn't James MacDonald Hudson, so much as he is pieces of Hudson. When the original mentioned in the memo that he felt like Von Frankenstein Clarke must have been inspired. His brain is based off of Hudson's engrams. His skin is Hudson's skin, reproduced from Hudson's DNA. But his core … well, underneath all that skin and blood and hair … he's a machine."

Heather began to sob and Walt walked to her to put an arm around her shoulders. Shelly kept her eyes peeled to Guardian, she wondered if he was going to crack. Shaman said nothing, but closed his eyes and prayed. Puck kept focused in entirely on Maverick.

"So he's a synthezoid of some kind, eh? Like the original Torch? Or the Vision?"

Maverick paused and then let him have it. "You're the most advanced Sentinel anyone every built."

I am James MacDonald Hudson, but I am not. I have his brain patterns. I have his skin, his hair, his blood. But I am also not him - I am a machine created out of his spare parts.

I am a bio-organic Sentinel based on a clone of James MacDonald Hudson. I was made to be a puppet to Department H, but I have overcome my programming. Or was it Hudson that overcame the programming. Where does the real me start and the old Hudson end?

James MacDonald Hudson and General Clarke met a Quwrlln on Earth. They used a clone they had built for another experiment - it seems Hudson, like all "great" scientists had no qualms about experimenting on himself - and combined it with mechanical parts to better stand the rigors of space travel. The Quwrlln promised Clarke something, but what we do not know and probably will not since Clarke is dead. The clone fell to Earth and was recovered by Roxxon. James MacDonald Hudson died battling Jerry Jaxon and Omega Flight in the United States. Delphine Courtney used the information gleaned from the clone and remade herself as James MacDonald Hudson. She was defeated. The clone awakened in Roxxon's hands and returned to Alpha Flight as the real James MacDonald Hudson. There was no reason for it to think it was anything else. The Quwrlln called it and Alpha Flight "home" to battle Galactus. The clone, which was little more than a puppet of the Quwrlln, as it admitted to Heather, recovered it's lost humanity thanks to James MacDonald Hudson's love for Heather and sacrificed it's life. Clarke, hell-bent on revenge, created me to get back at Heather. He created a younger version of me because, apparently, Alpha would believe the de-aging story better than they would accept a full-grown Hudson, especially after the Master supposedly resurrected James MacDonald Hudson.

To be honest, I don't even care about the old James MacDonald Hudson and the clone and the Quwrlln and Clarke and the Master.

Well, I'm glad that's over with. I had no intention of dragging out the question of "Who is James MacDonald Hudson?" but I didn't want to lead with that story, either. I've always found it to be extremely distasteful for a new writer to come in and immediately start retconning everything away. While I did create a retcon here of the entire Quwrlln sub-plot, I do feel I left the opening - not knowing exactly what Clarke and Hudson were planning with the Quwrlln - in case a future writer wanted to change that all around.

The only thing that I really wanted to get across was that Guardian was not the real Hudson, but rather a bio-organic Sentinel that was made with "pieces of Hudson" - sort of making him Hudson's son. I found that to be creepy enough to work to my satisfaction without it simply being a clone or an alternate reality's Hudson. As a bonus, I didn’t mind stating that the real Hudson died in ALPHA 12 and didn't mind using the clone story to write off the "return" of Hudson in the latter half of ALPHA's Marvel run. That Hudson was sufficiently cold and mechanical enough to not have to be the real deal, any way.

Hope you enjoyed it and I hope this puts - in MV1's eyes - who this Kid Mac is.

NEXT ISSUE:

Annihilus and Blastaar are tearing up Toronto! Who's there to stop them? That's right, the all new, all different ...

OMEGA FLIGHT!