"Should Olde Acquaintances…"

Part One

By

Gary Halpin.

Jean-Paul Beaubier, the former Olympic gold medal winner and Alphan known as Northstar, considered if he was really interested in stopping a crime.

There was a large, obviously super-human man robbing a bank across the road from where Jean-Paul had been shopping. He was around 6’5" or so, very well built, and extremely badly dressed. He was wearing a dark green suit that would have looked out of date in the seventies. If Jean-Paul had seen any thing even vaguely resembling that suit in any of the exclusive shops he had just spent hours browsing in, he would have instantly turned around and walked out in disgust.

Somewhere in the corner of his mind, Northstar recognised him as Mr.Hyde, the American criminal. Alpha Flight had a run in with him once before, but it was a long time ago and it was difficult to remember all of the villains Jean-Paul had encountered before and since. He certainly looked like the fictional Mr.Hyde – extremely ugly and in dire need of a haircut, Jean-Paul decided. "Americans", he thought dismissively. Judging from reports he has read in newspapers, Hyde was not the only American super villain to decide to escape the heroes on virtually every street corner in the United States to come to the comparatively hero-less Canada to try his or her luck. He had seen a TV report about Omega Flight’s beating at the hands of the Absorbing Man a few weeks ago, and a group of female wrestlers had been defeated by a female solo hero that could only have been Vindicator.

If there was one thing that annoyed Jean-Paul, it was foreigners making a mess in his beloved Canada. His time with the Defenders had evolved his attitudes to the point where he no longer recognised himself as the angry youth who had once joined a French Canadian separist group, but Canada for Canadians was still something he believed in. Going to someone’s home and robbing a bank was just… tacky, he concluded.

Still, Hyde did not appear to be hurting any one. He appeared to only be interested in taking the money and running. Jean-Paul had no great love of banks, although the profits from his professional skiing earnings that the Royal Bank of Canada took care of for him ensured he remained independently wealthy. Banks were insured, after all. Why should he get involved? No one was getting hurt, and he was having such a nice day.

He wondered what his former teammates in the Defenders would make of that attitude? He could imagine the voice of their leader, the glamorous Wasp, if she could see him now: "Jean-Paul," she would say, exasperated, while shrinking down to her insect size to take care of Hyde as best she could, "we’re heroes. This is our job." On second thoughts though, out of all of his former teammates in either Alpha Flight or the Defenders, she probably would have best understood his reluctance to leave shopping unsupervised that included two Prada suits…

He hoped that Whit would like them. He had looked in Whit’s wardrobe while he was sleeping this morning so that he could find out what sizes he took. He was actually a waist-size smaller than Jean-Paul. "Bastard," Jean-Paul had thought with a smile. Then, when Whit had gone to start his shift in a local hospital, Jean-Paul had immediately gone to Vancouver’s upmarket shopping district to buy his boyfriend some clothes to smarten up his wardrobe. Jean-Paul was not used to being so selfless, but was quite enjoying it.

He could not believe how much his life had changed in the last two months, since his last meeting with Alpha Flight and his twin-sister, Aurora. She had rejected him, again. He wondered if, in the chaos that was her mind, she ever wondered about the pain she caused him. As some one who had been orphaned twice in his life, by both his natural and adopted parents, family was extremely important to him. His joy at meeting his twin sister and the bond that had quickly developed between them had been one of the most treasured experiences of his life, but during her many descents into mental illness she had rejected him completely from her life. During their most recent meeting, she had blamed him for her Aurora personality, as well as judging him for his "unholy" lifestyle. She had made it perfectly clear that she never wanted to see him again.

Depressed, he had wandered around Vancouver in a despondent state. He had eventually wandered into a bar to drown his sorrows, only to find a former Alphan also drinking there. During their time together in Alpha Flight, Jean-Paul had never had much to do with either with Whit Knappman personally or with Whit’s identity of Manikin. Jean-Paul had never been interested in socialising with any of his teammates other than Jeanne-Marie, especially not any of the members of the rookie Alpha Flight team, Beta Flight. In his mind, they were children. When Whit had approached him in the bar, obviously nervous, they had started talking and Jean-Paul had surprised himself by telling this virtual stranger about his latest meeting with his sister. The age difference that seemed so insurmountable when they were Alphans together seemed not to matter now that Jean-Paul was 27 and Whit was 23. Whit had obviously done some growing-up himself, as his presence in that bar attested to. The relationship that began that night had grown over two months to be one of the strongest in Jean-Paul’s life. Jean-Paul had never been one for strong relationships. Before getting involved with Whit, the most recent meaningful encounter in his life had involved one night with an alien while trapped in space with a group of his fellow Defenders…

They were going to the opening of an art gallery tonight, and Jean-Paul could imagine Whit in the dark grey Prada suit he had bought him. Now if he could just find a shirt to go with it, he would –

"Help me! Some one help me!"

Jean-Paul turned to see Hyde leering menacingly over a woman in her twenties with blonde hair and wearing a blue skirt and white blouse. He could not see Hyde’s face, but his intentions were clear. Sighing, Jean-Paul dropped the bags and raced over to Hyde, grabbing him from behind and flying straight up before Hyde could react. Damn, the monster was heavy. Jean-Paul hoped that a five-story drop would be sufficient to incapacitate him enough for the police to handle him. If not, or if his shopping was gone when he returned, Jean-Paul would simply drop him even further…

***

It was the detail that amazed her. She could see the slight crows feet around her eyes, the different strands of hair lying on the pillow, they way her fingers grasped the bed sheets… It was astounding. If Kara Killgrave had not known any better, she would have been convinced that the gold sculpture in front of her was in fact a real woman.

"It’s… beautiful", she finally said, absorbing the power of the full gold body of a woman in her late thirties sleeping in her bed. "You could fool yourself that it is an actual person if you didn’t know any better."

"Tell me about it," her employer, Alan Johnson replied. "And that’s why we are going to be laughing all the way to the bank. Now, go see if they’ve cleared out the stand by the front display. This thing needs to be front and centre for tonight’s exhibition."

"Will do," Kara replied, still looking at the statue in front of her. It was one of the most powerful pieces of art she had ever seen, even if it was vaguely disturbing.

Almost as if it was actually real…

Smothering those thoughts, she went back to work. Sometimes she thought she had spent too much time with the various Flights, be they Alpha, Beta or Omega. It had left her far too suspicious…

After being persuaded to join the government’s latest super-hero team, Omega Flight, she had quickly resigned when she realised that all of the people who had made Alpha Flight special to her were no longer there. After spending a week in the hospital due to their injuries received at the hands of Thundra, she had resigned to try to resume a vaguely normal life. A friend of the family, Alan Johnson, had employed her in an Art Gallery. Kara’s mother had worked for Alan’s parents for a number of years, and Alan’s brother and Kara had played together as children. Alan had been surprised to learn that his baby brother’s first girl-friend had became a member of Alpha Flight, first as Purple Girl and later as Persuasion, but he had weathered the shock well. She might have grown up to have purple skin, but she was still little Kara Killgrave to him. He had given her a job in his gallery, but while it was intended to be a temporary position while she found her feet, he had been as surprised as she was by how well she had taken to it. Kara always denied using her mind-influencing abilities to convince their rich, middle-aged customers to spend such extravagant amounts on works of art by upcoming artists. As far as she was concerned, she was just a natural saleswoman. Privately, she thought her purple skin was actually good for business. Most of her customers thought it was just as much a fashion statement as her newly dyed shoulder-length blonde hair, which in their eyes gave her more credibility regarding what the next most fashionable sensation in art would be. Few of her customers actually recognised her as an ex-Alphan, as her profile with the team had never been high, but most of those that did were privately thrilled at being served by a woman who had helped to defend Canada several dozen times.

She would certainly be pushing the new Annabel Roche sculpture at tonight’s exhibition. As she started to get the display ready, she thought again what she had thought about each of the five statues in Roche’s "Monument" series.

"Amazing…"

She wondered what Whit and Jean-Paul would think of it…

**

Dr. Whitman Knapp was tired. He was after assisting in a six-hour supposedly routine liver operation where the patient had developed complications. A far cry from his days in Beta Flight.

He had never really felt a strong sense of belonging in Alpha Flight. Becoming a super hero had never been a burning desire while growing up. He had become a member almost accidentally. Fresh out of medical school while still in his late teens, he had taken an internship in the ‘New Life Clinic’ with his idol, Lionel Jefferies. Jefferies had turned out to be completely insane, and he had transformed Whit with his powers so that Whit could bring forth three other beings, all Whit at different points in the evolutionary scale: "Proto", a blob of protoplasm, "Apeman", a caveman with heightened agility and brutal strength, and "Highbrow", a highly evolved human with powers of teleportation and telekinesis. After Jefferies’ death, Whit had joined Alpha Flight’s training program, Beta Flight, both for the excitement and in an attempt to learn how to use his new abilities as Manikin. He had wanted to become a surgeon to help people, and Alpha Flight promised to give him a new way of doing that.

It had not quite worked out that way though. Although he helped Alpha Flight on a number of adventures, and learned a lot about his abilities and himself, he had never really felt like a hero. While the forms he controlled fought admirably and obeyed his instructions, he had never really felt like it was actually he doing the fighting. In his mind, even though Highbrow, Proto and Apeman were a part of him, he felt as though he was only watching them. As such, he felt like he had no real business being in the types of combat situations that Alpha Flight got involved in so often.

And then, of course, there was Kara – beautiful, sweet, young Kara. She was the only other member of the Beta Flight when he had joined, and he had been instantly drawn to her. But in a move he would always regret, he had tried to turn their relationship into a romantic one. Kara, a teenaged girl with dreams of falling in love, had gladly reciprocated, but the relationship had never felt right to Whit. When Alpha Flight cut it’s ties with the Canadian government for the second time in it’s history, Whit had taken the opportunity to make a clean break and leave both Alpha Flight and her before things developed further.

Some months later he rejoined as resident physician and became involved with Beta Flight once more. In a battle with the Jackal, he had been poisoned and almost died, until his powers had generated a protective cocoon around him. He would have died, except that his evolutionary counterparts had sacrificed themselves to save Knapp. He had thought that his powers were gone for good, but while fighting his fellow teammate, Witchfire, he discovered his powers had evolved rather than disappeared. He could still access his other forms, but now he actually became Proto, Apeman or Highbrow. With their abilities also came a limitation though, his mind often devolved or evolved to a level similar to his counterpart. While that had improved over time, there were still moments in the heat of a conflict when he was susceptible to the brutality of Apeman, or the child-like but emotional apathetic moods of Highbrow. It was because of this that he was glad to once again put Alpha behind him when Department H shut them down again.

But at least he had repaired his friendship with Kara. She had been shocked when he had told her about Jean-Paul last week, but seemed to be handling it well. There was always something about him that she had never been able to figure out, and at least now she knew what it was, and was dealing with it. That was why, even though he was exhausted and lying on his couch with a mug of coffee, he was going to get ready and go to the exhibition in the Gallery where she now worked. When she had given him the invitation, she had addressed it to both of them…

Hearing the doorbell, he buzzed the visitor in without asking any questions, knowing that it would be Jean-Paul. He was shocked to see him look very dishevelled.

"Jean-Paul! What happened?"

"A grotesque American!" Jean-Paul said, handing him a bag that was battered but still contained a clear Prada symbol. "Here, put this on."

Whit looked at the clothes that Jean-Paul had bought him, and smiled. Going into his bedroom while Jean-Paul freshened up, Whit returned wearing his new suit.

"Very handsome," Jean-Paul smiled.

Grinning at his boyfriend, Whit transformed into his Highbrow identity, and began to teleport both of them to Kara’s Gallery.

"After you…"

***

Kara laughed as Whit made a stupid joke, delighted to see him. The opening of the gallery had been a huge success, with her boss running around, laughing and chatting to all of the patrons who were going to make him a very rich man. Kara had found Whit standing on his own, looking uncomfortable, and immediately walked to his side. She was about to ask him if he wanted to go for dinner, when a familiar face approached them, carrying two drinks.

"Kara, you remember Jean-Paul?"

Even with her purple skin, Whit could see Kara blush, but she tried to hide it and shook Jean-Paul’s hand. Jean-Paul had been Kara’s idol as a teenager, not because he was a super hero, but because he was an internationally famous skier. Kara had first come to Alpha Flight’s attention when she had used her powers to force Jean-Paul to spend time with her when she was still a young teenager. It was a crush that had never completely disappeared, despite the obvious reasons why nothing would ever come of it.

"Hi, thanks for coming."

"It is my pleasure," Jean-Paul replied gallantly. "I am quite impressed. Have you had much involvement in putting the show together?"

Kara laughed nervously. "Well, it’s my boss’s show, but I did most of the grunt work, and made a few suggestions. You know me," she teased, "I have a way with people."

Before either man could reply, there was a loud explosion above them and parts of the ceiling started to collapse upon them. As the many visitors in the gallery started to scream, Jean-Paul threw himself on top of Kara to protect her from the debris as Whit transformed into his far stronger and less vulnerable Apeman form.

"What’s happening?" Kara yelled, coughing from the dust that now covered the room. She stared upwards to the source of the explosion to see a woman floating in the air, wearing the now world-famous original Guardian uniform. "Heather?" she asked, amazed.

The woman looked identical to Heather Hudson in her original Vindicator days, and was staring down at her directly. "Purple Girl," she spoke, in a voice that was obviously disguised electronically, "you are coming with me."

"Me? She wants me?" Kara asked, startled.

"Over my dead body," Apeman growled. In this form, his intelligence regressed to the point where he still knew what he was doing, but without out the intelligence of his normal self. Seeing him a threat, the Vindicator-look-alike unleashed an energy blast at him, causing him to yelp and jump out of the way. Apeman growled and picked up a slab of concrete from the remains of the ceiling, and threw it at her. She said nothing, simply blasting it into smaller pieces that fell harmlessly to the ground.

"That can’t be Heather," Jean-Paul said, convinced. "There’s no way she would do something like this unless she was being controlled!" Using his flight powers, he flew towards her, pushing both of them back out of the hole in the roof and away from the gallery and the civilians contained within.

"Jean-Paul!" Whit called after him, watching his lover disappear. He transformed into his Highbrow body, so that he could follow him, but turned first to Alan Johnson, who was staring in shock at his devastated gallery. "Get every body out of here fast! She might be back at any minute!"

But Johnson was too much in shock to be able to listen to Whit’s instructions. "My gallery…" he muttered. "My beautiful gallery…"

"Let me take care of this," Kara told Whit, putting her hand on his shoulder and ignoring the attraction she still felt for him even in these circumstances. Concentrating, she used her influencing powers to coerce the nearest civilians to ignore their panic and to start steering the others towards the emergency exit. Releasing the pheromones that were the source of her powers, the non-affected customers were even more startled to see the people they had been standing beside mere moments ago turn purple, but they followed their instructions.

Highbrow concentrated, and began to teleport to 100 feet above the gallery to see if he could see either of them, but before he could vanish Jean-Paul and vindicator crashed back into the gallery with Vindicator throwing Jean-Paul through the air and against a wall, where he collapsed, dazed but conscious.

Consumed with worry, Whit found himself lost in the Apeman personality. He ran towards Vindicator, and despite the energy field around him burning him, grabbed her arm and repeatedly battered her against the ground.

"Stop it, Whit!" Kara screamed. "You’ll kill her!" She was going to use her power to calm him down, when she heard a sickening cracking noise, almost as if an arm was being ripped off. Gasping in shock, she was helpless to watch Apeman literally rip Vindicator’s arm from her body. Kara screamed as Vindicator fell to the ground, as a confused Apeman held her now separated arm. "Heather!"

She moved closer to get a better look, but to her surprise there was no blood. Instead there was… some kind of oil.

Looking at Northstar, they both realised the same thing simultaneously. ‘Vindicator’ was a machine.

With her one remaining arm, ‘Vindicator’ blasted Apeman with all the energy she could muster. Apeman screamed and, transforming back to Whit, collapsed unconscious. ‘Vindicator’ grabbed him and, taking a last look at Kara, smiled and threw Whit over the shoulder of her one remaining arm. "He may not be you, Purple Girl, but under the circumstances, he’ll <whirr> do.’

Both Northstar and Kara yelled at her to stop, but before they could react, she was gone. Helpless, Northstar tried to fly after her, but only managed to rise a few feet into the air before he crashed down again. He was in too week a state to be able to do any more, except shout after the now vanished ‘Vindicator’.

"I… I can contact Omega Flight…" Kara said, going into shock as she helped Northstar to his feet. "They’ll help us find him, they – "

"No," Northstar told her vehemently, leaning down to pick up the fake Vindicator’s arm. "Not Department H. This is a matter for Alpha Flight…"

To be continued…

ALPHA WAVES

Next issue: The call is made for Alpha Flight, but who will answer? Find out in "Alphans Assemble!"