The streetlife in London, Canada had returned to a virtual semblance of normalcy. Since Diamond Lil had been kidnapped by an unknown assailant, the robotic simulacrum of Kane was spotted in this exact Canadian town,* Sasquatch and Aurora were subsequently also kidnapped,** and Eugene Milton Judd, the dwarfish Alphan called Puck, thought all these events were somehow connected. So, upon following Guardian's orders, he was the man who had the unfortunate task of reenacting the scene of one of the crimes.

(* Lil was captured and the Kane-robot was destroyed in Alpha Flight #1 - Russ)

(** Aurora and Sasquatch were defeated and kidnapped last issue - Russ)

The citizenry seemed totally oblivious to the destruction of the Kane robot mere hours ago. The devastation barely made the front page of the daily newspaper. But then, Judd knew that most people were prepared to relegate superhuman activity to figments of their imagination.

As he approached the exact spot where the tide of battle was turned in Alpha Flight's favor, Judd realized that the Kane simulacrum was headed to the forest in the back of the town proper. Naturally, that's where he would find the answers he sought.

Judd took a walk to the place where Kane was headed. It was a large spacious area, separated from the town itself, but there was a collection of trees located farther down the grassy plain. AIM's headquarters had to be around here someplace. But what did they want with a robot of Kane and not the real thing? And why did they lure Alpha Flight to the center of London and what plans did they have for his team? He hoped that he would get the answers to these questions and more soon.

Suddenly, twin legs wrapped around his neck, flipping him around, lifting him off the ground, and hurling him against a tree. An ordinary man would have been knocked unconscious but his powers and superhuman abilities prevented this course of action for Judd. The only injuries that he suffered were a sprained back and neck, which he immediately shook off.

Judd opened his eyes, focusing on the black garbed man sauntering towards him, almost defying gravity as he ran towards him. "Who are you and what do you want?"

"Your life, dwarf!"

"Hey, no need to insult me. You don't hear me shoving potshots in your direction about your strange mode of dress, do you, eh?"

"Talk is for the weak. Where I come from, the strong survive by fighting their way out of battles. So, show me something to make my masters happy."

"You're not only crazy, but stupid, too. Don't let me tell you that I told you so!"

With those words spoken by Eugene Milton Judd, the man called Kamikaze soared into the air, riding on the airwaves, striking the tree that Judd was leaning against, just missing the Alphan.

The next few seconds were a blur for Judd as the two traded blows and kicks. It seemed that no quarter was being given, so Puck utilized his innate talent for cartwheeling into an opponent, hoping that this maneuver would render him weak and drained.

Sadly, it had no effect.

Kamikaze simply laughed it off, appearing to be invulnerable to Puck's attacks. Puck knew that to defeat this ninja he would have to use his ingenuity as well as his physical prowess.

From a hidden compartment in his costume, Kamikaze threw a series of Chinese throwing stars at Puck's unarmed form. Puck's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets when he saw the hurling projectiles, knowing that if he didn't move at exactly that instant, he would be a dead man. He would be in worse shape than the Kane robot.

He moved, cartwheeling out of harm's way.

Kamikaze removed a gun from his side pocket, which released an extreme light source, blinding the defenseless Puck. Then, he disappeared, only appearing behind Puck, nerve-pinching him to dreamland.

Madison Jeffries soared over the Canadian skyline in a complicated jetpack, miles away from the recently-captured Puck, followed closely by his fellow teammate Northstar. Their search and rescue mission was quite similiar to Judd's: to find the missing Diamond Lil and reclaim her to the Alpha Flight fold. So far, their mission was a big bust.

Underneath his costume, Madison Jeffries fumed over Guardian not letting him find Lil in the first place. He could have helped Sasquatch and Aurora at their apartment and perhaps helped them not get captured by that maniac ninja. Who was he? Why did he want Alpha Flight? Now, his modus operandi seemed to have changed for the worse. Madison first suspected that the ninja wanted only Lil for his own evil ends but that was altered with the capture of the other Alphans.

"Any luck, Jean-Paul?" Jeffries asked, as he arced with the comfort of the wind.

"Non, mon frere," Northstar answered in his native tongue. "It appears that our search has been for naught. I don't know how Guardian expects to find her this way."

"What do you think we should do?" Jeffries continued to ask questions of Northstar. Jean-Paul Beaubier was the more sound counterpart of the brother and sister team in Alpha Flight. His sister, who had been recently captured by Kamikaze, suffered from several different personalities over the years and it was difficult to distinguish which one would surface at any given time. Jeffries held great comfort in Northstar's sound abilities of perception.

"I don't know. We should be checking with Alphanex. That would be much quicker than this course of action."

Jeffries laughed, a little chuckle at Northstar's comments. "We tried that number before you arrived. Alphanex was no help. When we accessed the ninja that attacked Lil and I, we came up with zilch. And now-"

Then, a flare signal was fired into the sky. It resembled the flare signal that was used in the early days of the Fantastic Four but this one was slightly different because the signal didn't design into the FF's insignia. This piqued Jeffries's and Northstar's interest so they landed in a lonely street where a black garbed man holding a flare gun stood.

"Is that?" Northstar asked.

"Yes, the ninja..." Jeffries answered. "But first, let me have a few words with this guy." Jeffries landed in the street, grabbing the ninja by a tuft of his ninja costume. With hatred in his eyes, Madison clenched both fists, ready to hurl punches at him and to pummel him to death. That is, before he relinquished the data of Lil's whereabouts.

"Calm yourself, Jeffries, " Kamikaze said, surprising Madison that he knew his real name. "I have your woman. Come with me and you may yet see her."

Madison released him.

Kamikaze led the two of them to where Lillian Crawley was being safely kept.

A door swished open within the Alpha Complex, the headquarters of Alpha Flight, and Shaman, alias Michael Twoyoungmen, ran through it to be greeted by the remaining members of the Flight. A happy expression was clearly painted on his face, joy at finally saving his fellow comrades-in-arms. The entire team was worried about the recent capture of their members by what they now knew to be the ninja that took Lillian Crawley from their fold. His burst of good news would most likely lift their spirits.

Alpha Flight was squared off in their respective sections, trying to ascertain the dire situation that they were concerned with. Guardian talked with Mr. Gentry at the large round bureau, attempting to plan their next stage of attack without causing more failures, Vindicator typed up certain encryption codes to Alphanex, the team's super computer, to garner information about their assailant, and Talisman (Elizabeth Twoyoungmen, Shaman's daughter, and superior in mystical powers and prowess) sat at the round table, just worrying.

"I think I've found them," Shaman announced to the Flight, as he entered the meeting room.

Immediately, all heads turned in his general direction, as all released gasps of surprise and questions about where exactly their missing friends and teammates were after the melee.

"Calm down," Shaman said, gesturing in the air for the commotion to stop. "Yes, I have found them, including Lil. For the last several hours, I have been meditating, utilizing my vast mystical knowledge and powers to put myself in a coma-like state. I have searched the entire world over, including other interplanetary dimensions and have found them in Canada. London, Canada to be precise."

"But that's where the core Flight fought Kane, right?" Talisman asked of her father, but the question could very well have been posed to the other Alphans, as well.

"Right," Shaman answered. "But you have to be prepared for the worst. I have also discovered that AIM has all our fallen teammates, as well. They could be waiting for us. We have to be on our guard. So, beware!"

"What would AIM want with Alpha?" asked Gentry, as genteelly as he could muster under these tense circumstances. "Last time Alpha tussled with them, AIM was sent running.* They would be stupid to try that stunt again."

(* See Marvel's Wolverine #143 - Russ)

"So be it," Guardian said, energy flashing between his charged fingertips. "You heard the man, team. We're all that's left of Alpha Flight, so it's up to us to save them and foil AIM's plans. Whatever they are."

"We've faced worse before," Vindicator reassured her husband.

With but a thought, Shaman released his Spirit Staff and energy crackled in the air, sending the Alphans through an interdimensional portal to AIM's base of operations within Canada. When they finally appeared, they were within the depths of an underground scientific research laboratory, surrounded by yellow-garbed agents at their computer terminals.

"Looks like we found the right place," Guardian whispered to himself, as all of them got used to the reentry.

Before another word could be spoken, the Scientist Supreme walked into the lab, as the rest of the agents adjusted to the new arrivals.

"Welcome, Alpha Flight, to AIM. To what do I owe the pleasure?" asked the Scientist Supreme.

"You know why we're here, whoever you are. You have our friends and we plan to get them back with or without your help."

"What do you want from us?" Vindicator asked, her brow furrowed.

"A simple mind such as yours, Mrs. Hudson, could never understand the plans of Advanced Idea Mechanics. We are a scientific organization, originally a splinter division of Hydra, but we hold no allegiance to them."

"Crackpot scientists is more like it," Vindicator offered.

"If I wanted you dead, I would kill you for voicing such a remark, Hudson."

Then, the Scientist Supreme pressed a stud on a computer console, letting fire an energy beam above the Alphans, sending energy coursing through their systems, rendering them unconscious.