The Alpha Complex

Northstar was angry, fuming as usual. He was dragged into being a member of Alpha Flight against his will. "Why did you do this, Michael?" Jean-Paul asked Shaman as the entire Alpha Flight team was assembled in the meeting room. "You told me in my apartment that I was essential to your plan of defeating the Master and the Marrina clones and the invasion of the Plodex race. But all I saw when I got there via flight was that you and your daughter Talisman handled everything just fine. You didn't even need me to touch my sister's hand, causing the spectacular light show that would soon ensue. None of that happened. You lied to me, Shaman. And why? Why??"

"Because you are needed in Alpha Flight. You are a valuable member of the team." Shaman and the rest of the team was angry with Jean-Paul. He was stubborn as an ox. "No, that's not all the way true. Your sister needs you. She misses you but you're too blind to see that."

Northstar laughed, a brief chuckle. "My sister? Aurora, is that true? Do you in some strange way miss me?"

Aurora stood up and approached Northstar. She tried to hug but he spurned her advances. No matter how sisterly they were. "Yes, Jean-Paul. I miss you. We all do. The whole team needs you. All you have to do is say the word go and you're in."

"I love you, sister. But as long as you're married to that oaf, I will not join this team."

Walter Langkowski eyed Northstar. "Jean-Paul, don't you think that this has gone far enough? What have you against me? Why are you so stubborn?"

For a few seconds, Jean-Paul was silent then he finally spoke. "I-I have my reasons. I must go now. I'll write, sister." He paused. "Look, Aurora. I have been in Alpha Flight for many years and I have never had a great love of the team. I am not what you call a team player. I want to have my own life, my own love interests outside the team. When you see my path to glory I will speak and see you again. Good-bye, Jeanne-Marie. Walter, I will see you in hell."

Then, Northstar took to the air, flew out an open window, and headed back to his hovel of a home. He left most of Alpha Flight feeling very much alone.

Later

"If we can have some semblance of order here now," Shaman said, conducting the meeting of the update of their latest menace. "I can tell you what I have found out when I recruited Northstar. It was a cheap ploy, indeed, but that is over with now. While I was talking with Jean-Paul he was attacked by Bedlam. It seemed that Bedlam has been traveling through time in Alpha Flight's past and present to recruited some Alphans and former Omegans for the new Gamma Flight. He has recruited so far Smart Alec, Roger Bochs, and Lionel Jeffries. Also, as you know, he was responsible for kidnapping Walter and changing him back into Sasquatch. We must be on our guard."

"Okay, this is how it goes," Guardian said. "I'll take Vindicator, Puck, Aurora, Sasquatch, Snowbird, and Shaman to search the city for their headquarters or what they could be doing right now. The rest of Alpha and Beta Flights will stay at the Alpha Complex to train and search Alphanex for possible clues."

In minutes, the core team of Alpha Flight was gone from sight in the Omnijet.

The whole time that Shaman transported them over Canada, Guardian had been thinking of Bedlam's plan to recruit old members of Alpha and Omega Flights to a new Gamma Flight. The last time that Gamma and Beta Flight were recruited to the new Omega Flight, Jerry Jaxon was involved. He wanted nothing more than the complete and utter destruction of Alpha Flight. Could he somehow be alive?

His death was tragic. Jaxon had taken over Roger Bochs' Box armor, using it to kill Mac. He was almost successful, but at the price of his own life. He was electrocuted to death. Or so Mac thought.

Anything is possible these days in the realm of science. He could be a robot or a clone or his mind could have been transferred at the last possible second into another body. Could Jaxon really be alive and why go through all this effort to revive Bedlam and all those recruits? It simply boggled the mind.

Guardian turned to the rest of the core team. "Somehow I think that Jaxon is behind this. He is the only one who knows about Bedlam and could have revived him. His creation Delphine Courtney was a robot, so he could be one too. I say we search for some big office buildings. Jaxon once worked with Roxxon, Inc. in New York and Canada. He could be using an office building again as his base of operations."

"Gotcha, hubbie o' mine," Heather said, as they all landed in the middle of the sidewalk pavement and searched for some clues. "I wouldn't mind getting my revenge on Courtney if she still is among the operational."

Puck picks up a newspaper thrown in a garbage can. He starts to read it. "It says here that Jaxon/Courtney, Inc. is located down that street and they are in operation again. They manufacture weapons for the Canadian Government. Something on a par of what Stark used to do."

There is a popping sound and one man appears in their direct line of vision. It is Gardner Fox, the man known to all as Flashback.

"Flashback!"

There is a series of popping sounds and a whole army appears.

"And his Futuremen!"

"What do you want, Fox?' Puck asks.

"You'd better follow me, if ya want answers to all yer questions."

Alpha Flight agrees.

Flashback opened the door to the office for Alpha Flight and Guardian was the first one to see Jerry Jaxon sitting at his desk at the end of the room. He screamed bloody murder.

"Jaxon! You bastard! I won't let you destroy me a second time!" He raised his hands as if to blast him.

"And what are you going to do? The only thing that I see that you will do is blast yourself."

"What?! No!"

Guardian saw his arms bend and aim themselves at his own chest and his heart. Jaxon couldn't do this. He didn't have mental powers. But he knew someone that did. Bedlam, the Brain Blast. He turned to the side and saw Bedlam with the rest of the Gamma recruits entering the room, just as Jaxon left it.

A voice was heard over the intercom. "This is Jaxon. I give you, my Gamma Flight, permission to kill Guardian and the rest of Alpha Flight. Now! Do not fail me now."

Guardian felt Bedlam's concentration slip a bit so his arms dropped to their sides. He then blasted the Brain Blast in the chest, hoping to down him. But if only his wishes were made into fact. Bedlam erected a mental shield to block the attack. Bedlam tried with all his might to probe into Guardian's mind but somehow Guardian had erected defenses against Bedlam's mental prowess.

Scramble, the Mixed Up Man gestured at Puck and made the dwarf grow to his full height. Since Puck was used to being so close to the ground, he was not used to being a tall man.

Then, Scramble winked.

Puck became deformed. Spikes stuck out of his appendages and he sewed his mouth shut.

"Puck!!" Vindicator screamed, while throwing geothermal blasts at the object of her hate."What have you done to him?"

"It is only fitting justice to what I have done to you when I was insane," Scramble said to Heather. "You are a bitch, Miz Hudson. One I will finally kill."

Bedlam reentered the fray and used his telekinetic powers to make the metal of the room come alive and entrap the rest of Alpha Flight.

A door opened. A large suit of armor entered it.

"So it didn't take much to defeat the high and mighty Alpha Flight. And I will be the one who will destroy you, Dr. Hudson.

"I am Jaxon. I am Box."

"We beat you before, and we will do it again."

"No, I don't think so, Hudson." Jaxon was in Box and was about to charge at Guardian then Roger Bochs flew out of his wheelchair and phased into Box. He phased Jaxon out.

"Now, Bochs is in control of Box. And this ends here and now."

Jaxon lay on the floor. He ripped open his clothes and underneath was Guardian's spare battlesuit. He donned it and the cyberhelmet and started blasting at the trapped Alphans.

"That's not going to work, Jaxon," Mac said. "I can still control the helmet through mental telepathy." Guardian used his finger blasters to free the trapped Alphans and then he used Jaxon's blasters to blast at the foundation of the J-C Building to make it collapse.

There was a huge explosion and the Alphans got out free.

"Jaxon! Where are you??" Guardian screamed.

Sasquatch halted his action. "He must have got out with Bedlam and the rest of Gamma Flight. Who knows where they are now?"

"C'mon, let's go home," Puck said.