ALPHA FLIGHT 137

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 - a bio-organic Sentinel, and not the de-aged James MacDonald Hudson as had been suspected, created by General Clarke in order to foster mistrust inside of Alpha Flight

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

A tall, elegant young woman stood on the roof of SkyDome, looking down onto the field's surface below. The wind whips through her long, straight dark hair, but she does not worry about falling.

A bus blasted through the air towards Charley and Ethel Beaurman and the elderly couple thought, for a second, that they had come all the way to Toronto from their small town in Alabama just to die. They had no idea who the large, beastly creature was that fired energy from his fingertips and wreaked havoc with every footstep he took and no idea how they were going to not get squashed by the big grey bus that was tumbling end over end through the air directly at them.

For their first question - not that knowing who it was would have changed anything to them - the creature rampaging through the streets of Toronto was Blastaar, the monarch of the planet Baluur inside the Negative Zone. The Beaurmans had never heard of Blastaar or the Negative Zone, so you'd have to excuse them for not knowing that Baluur no longer existed, having been blown up by Thanos.* (They hadn't heard of Thanos, either, for the record.) Blastaar was understandably upset and, if the Beaurmans had known of his situation would have undoubtedly felt bad for him. They were kindly people and had felt just awful when Gerry Cann lost his garage to a fire - and the Beaurmans didn't like Gerry one bit since he got drunk at the church Christmas party fifteen years ago and used the collection plate as a spittoon. So they could certainly excuse Blastaar for throwing an empty bus around Toronto.

As for their second question, well they needed a little help with that tumbling bus. They were about to get it.

The bus was rocked again by a powerful energy blast and this time, instead of being hurled through the air, it was blown into a million little pieces (give or take a few). The Beaurmans were, understandably, relieved and turned to look at who could have saved them and offer them their thanks.

Charley, being a veteran of the second World War, was kind of hoping for their savior to be Captain America or, at the very least, Major Maple Leaf. Ethel, who had a wild side to which Charley could attest to the existence of, was hoping for their hero to be Daredevil because, well, she thought he looked really good in tights.

They got neither. In fact, they didn't even get a hero. In double fact, they didn't even get someone from this planet.

"That's a hero?" Charley asked, scratching his head. "It looks like a big pink and green bug."

"Must be what passes for one up here in Canada," Ethel shook her head. "Crazy country, Canada is."

"You will die, bug!" Blastaar screamed, blasting away at Annihilus. "You are responsible for the destruction of my planet and you will pay for that crime with your life!"

"You're crazier than Stygorr the Nightlord, you hairy fool!" Annihilus screeched back. "Why would I reduce myself to blowing up your planet?"

"But I was on the planet when it was smashed to bits!" Annihilus fired back at Blastaar with the Cosmic Control Rod that he wore around his neck.

Blastaar connected with a powerful blast, sending Annihilus tumbling backwards. He crashed into an office building, buried by the rubble. "Blastaar has his vengeance!"

"Never!" Annihilus screamed as the rubble blew outwards, sending bricks and concrete flying in all directions. The two powerful beings collided with each other, punching and kicking and blasting away through the streets of Toronto. They left nothing but damage in their wake, coming eventually to landing in the middle of SkyDome.

They were apparently oblivious to the 20,000 spectators and the two baseball teams that were currently on the field. Panic set into the crowd almost immediately and they ran and ducked and jumped and did everything but stand still to avoid the powerful energy blasts that fired across the stadium. In the middle of everything, Blastaar and Annihilus continued to seek the others destruction. Unseen by them or the crowd, a group of six heroes had landed on the roof of the SkyDome and looked down inside at the scene below.

"Silence, Elizabeth! There's innocents at risk. We must act now! Descend and engage them. Protect all innocent lives. Let's make our first mission a success! Let's show the world that Canada is now under the protection of … OMEGA FLIGHT!!!"

Descend they did, ready for a new chapter in their lives, ready to serve Canada. Radius, Flex and Persuasion followed their leader, the new Major Maple Leaf (dressed in a variation of the Guardian costume designed by James MacDonald Hudson) into SkyDome, ready to defend Canada. Standing on the lisp, watching it all and shaking her head stood a beautiful young woman who wondered again just what it was she was doing with these clowns.

"Maybe, Elizabeth Twoyoungmen, it's because you're so mad that your father didn't call you to be in Alpha Flight that you figured this was a fine way to stick it in his face," the young woman spoke to the large, clunky robot that had somehow managed to keep up with them. It was called Manbot, she'd been told. Truth was, it gave her the creeps.

Talisman sighed and leapt over the edge to ride the winds, joining her teammates on Omega Flight's first mission.

Guardian stood alone with his thoughts, which were more than enough to keep him company.

He was part man and part machine, but the revelation didn't bother him as much as he thought it would. He was just glad to know who he was, no matter who, or what, that person turned out to be.

"I feel complete," Guardian answered the question of Shelly Holmes. "I feel, for the first time, with an unclouded mind.

"We shouldn't do this," Shelly sighed. "I don’t even know what to call you …"

In the fading light of the Alberta day, Guardian and Shelly lost track of time as they melted together in a smoldering kiss.

Hagani Tsu tried to erase the memory of Aurora from his mind, but he found it quite impossible to do. He had to have her, to posses her like a pet that you keep in a cage and here, at the Club D'enfer, Montreal's most exclusive gentleman's club, there were friends who could help him accomplish that.

He exited his private chambers and headed for the private elevator at the back of the top floor of the Club D'enfer. Once inside, Hagani pressed one of the two buttons, neither of which held a number upon their face, and descended down into the sub-basement.

In the most exclusive gentlemen's society in Montreal, this was the most exclusive section of the club.

He exited into a circular room who's opulence far exceeded even the floors above and nodded to the two fellow members of this inner circle that had already made their way to the private lounge. The females name was Margaret Fernier and she was one of the five women that the club had as a member. The male was Sig Janeau and, at forty, was nearly twenty years Hagani's elder.

"Ah, Hagani, how nice of you to join us," Margaret smiled, making sure to show off her curves to the younger man. Hagani nodded, making no attempt to hide his wandering eyes as they took in her leather and lace, primarily blue, white highlighted outfit. "The Hellfire Club just wasn't the same without it's Fou de Blanc."

Hagani smiled. Once again, he was the White Bishop of the Montreal Hellfire Club.

Every member of Alpha Flight dealt with Maverick's revelation about Guardian in their own way. He had acquired files on the black market that Department H had either let leak out, had sold, or had stolen from them. He wouldn't tell them who it was he had taken the files from, only that it was in Singapore.*

In short, he had shown them documents that revealed Guardian to be a bio-organic Sentinel.* They no longer considered him James MacDonald Hudson and that, at the least, was a relief. They know knew who - or in this case, what - he was. And while it did make them a bit uneasy knowing that Guardian was based, in part, on the deadly Sentinels that the United States government used to track down mutants, he had been among them now for several months and they felt they could trust them.

And that, they supposed, was General Clarke's point in creating this new Mac - to undermine the trust Alpha Flight put in each other.

"It's rotten," Puck said to Heather Hudson as they stood with Walter Langkowski and Shaman inside Shaman's cabin. "Rotten thing to do to that kid. Create him like some Frankenstein monster out of bits and pieces of James and send him out into the world, not knowing who or what he was."

"I can't wait to call Jacques Clouvere* and read him the riot act," Heather fumed, staring out the window and into the woods beyond.

"I don't think that's a good idea, Heather," Walt said cautiously. He, Puck and Shaman had already discussed this while Heather was off by herself sorting her feelings out. "Why let them know we know. Chances are they might not even know the real truth about the kid. Guardian's secret could have died with Clarke."

"We need to say something to him!" Heather spat. "Damnit, we get this dumped into our lap and we're just supposed to continue on like nothing has happened?"

"No," Shaman spoke quietly and elegantly. "We're supposed to help Guardian come to grips with who he is."

But Heather knew that nothing would happen until she made it happen. They would look to her, since she was closest to the real James MacDonald Hudson, to accept Guardian. God help her, she didn't know if she could.

Heather reached over and clicked on the large screen communications center that Madison Jeffries had created for them before he and his wife, Diamond Lil, had departed. "Oh …my … Michael," she turned to look at Shaman who stared hard at the television screen.

They saw footage of Omega Flight battling, and defeating, Blastaar and Annihilus. The announcer droned on, " … the first public sighting of the new Omega Flight, Canada's last line of defense! Here in this exciting footage, shot by a honeymooning couple from the hotel inside SkyDome, we see Omega Flight defeating two crazy and powerful criminals! Most notable among the members is this individual, wearing a costume that looks strikingly similar to the Guardian costume. SCN has been told that this is the new Major Maple Leaf, but no more information has been forthcoming. One wonders what …"

The man the world knew as Magneto sat in a wooden chair and rocked his son in his arms.

It was not his son, he knew, but a Magneto's son from another world, a world that had ended in fire. This baby had come to this world, saved by the woman named Blink. The baby, Charles, had become the mutant named Joseph and had, at long last, regressed to an infant.*

The door to the room slid open and Blink stood in the doorway. "Jacques Clouvere is on the line, Erik. Canada has called upon you for the first time."

Magneto said nothing as he rose and delivered Charles into Blink's arms. Grabbing his helmet that lay at his feet, he exited the room.