Madison Jeffries dreaded this day for weeks once he decided that he would travel all the way to deepest Canada and contact his former friends in Gamma Flight. One was his brother, Lionel Jeffries, a flesh transmutator, whom he lost contact with over the past few years. After he supposedly died. But Bedlam revived him. Brought him and the rest of the team back from alternate realities.

The other was his best friend, Roger Bochs. They met in the original Gamma Flight when it was spearheaded by James Mac Hudson. When federal funding went through the toilet, they went their separate ways. But when Hudson was supposedly killed and Bochs wanted revenge, they were inseparable.

Madison dreaded this moment because he didn't know how they and two other criminals would react to him wanting to reform them. For moments he stood in front of the door of their little shack apartment, not knocking, not doing much of anything.

It's now or never, Madison thought. Only one way to find out if they're gonna embrace you or spit in your face.

Before he was given a chance to knock or even ring the doorbell, the door swung open and a figure stood in the doorway. It was not a friendly one, at that, either. It was a mutated version of Box. It didn't even remotely look like the bulky squat Box that Roger was known to inhabit. It looked more like the armor that Madison himself used when he adopted that guise for his own.

One fist was pointed at Madison 's head. On top of the fist was a machine gun attached to its arm.

“I am Box. I am perfect,” the new Box said, in its squawky voice imprints, and fired its bullets at Madison .

The blast propelled Madison against one of the cars parked in the driveway, denting it from the impact. He immediately fell into unconsciousness.

Box grabbed Madison by his head and dragged him into the shack apartment. He shut the door locked behind him. Once inside, Roger Bochs phased out of Box and fell into his wheelchair.

“It looks like he came to us instead of us coming to him,” Bochs said to the rest of Gamma Flight assembled. “Tie him up, Lionel.”

“Yer the boss, Box.” Scramble slapped the unconscious Madison into a wooden chair and used hardware store style rope to tie him there so that he would be secure. “What should we do with him? I could deform him beyond belief or sew up his mouth so that he couldn't talk to anyone ever again.”

“No, I would like to hear what he has to say. For now we wait.”

The Alpha Complex

“We quit!!” Those words were spoken by Kane with Wyre standing right next to him. They were accompanied by Kamikaze, the leader of the current incarnation of Beta Flight, and the Jade Dragon. The Dragon was in his human form of Dei Guan, rogue agent of the Chinese government. They were also with Guardian, leader of the ever expanding Alpha Flight, and Mr. Gentry, Alpha's government liason.

“You can't just quit on us,” Guardian barked out his true feelings. “You came to us of your own free will and told that you wanted to be a member of the Flight. You came with your comrade in arms, Wyre. You are both valued members of Beta Flight. I know you disagree with me appointing Kamikaze as the leader of Beta Flight but that is not a valid reason for you two to just up and leave.”

“What do you know of Harada? “ Kane asked. “Sure he nearly beat you all to a bloody pulp or are you just scared that he could do it all again? What was the reason you made the leader? Pride or something more?! Well, what's the answer, Mac?”

“You're right. You came to us of your own free will and you are free to leave whenever you feel like it. I won't hold you back. But just for your information, I appointed Kamikaze the leader of Beta Flight because he was the best one for the job. You and Wyre, included are not fit to be leaders. You are too unpredictable and born killers. Kamikaze chose to be on the path of good while you two indulge in senseless violence.”

“Oh, just leave, why don't you?' Gentry said. “I've seen enough of your ugly faces.”

For long moments, Kane and Wyre both stared into the eyes of Gentry and Hudson. They stole a glance at Harada but didn't need to wonder what he was thinking behind that black mask of his. They already knew. He was judging them, scorning them for their words and actions.

Kane and Wyre stormed out of the conference room to go their separate ways. Just as they left, Diamond Lil and Talisman entered the private room. Lil was wearing a sweater over her costume because she was chilly. It was blazing hot out in the heatwave summer and someone had the nerve to blast the AC.

“I don't know what that was all about,” Lil said. “And I know that I don't wanna know. But Guardian, we've got problems bigger than those two quitting. My hubbie has decided go recruit Gamma Flight to our team. Maybe be the new Beta Flight, which we seem to need at this very moment.”

“I don't understand what the problem is,” Guardian said.

“I do,” Talisman interjected. “The Dream Queen has decided to brainwash them into thinking that Jeffries is their mortal enemy.”

“What do you think we should do?” Guardian asked politely.

“I'll handle this,” Miss Twoyoungman said, as she gestured her arms in the air. Eldritch energy sparked the air as shapes began to take form in the room. First, Madison Jeffries appeared. He was tied to a wooden chair with hardware store style rope. He was bound and gagged. Then, surrounding him was Gamma Flight. They were all attired in their super hero guises. Talisman gestured again, spoke another inutteral incantation and the Dream Queen screamed as her hold on them was broken.

“Welcome, Gamma Flight, to the Alpha Complex,”

Guardian said, smiling at them. “Welcome home.”

Outside the Alpha Complex

Madison Jeffries, Diamond Lil, Scramble, and Box stood outside the Complex in front of two headstones; those of Lionel Jeffries and Roger Bochs. The ones that had died at Alpha Flight's hands in our world. The ones standing in front of the gravesite were from an alternate earth.

“I wanted to show you two this,” Madison said softly. “Because I wanted you to know how much you both mean to me and the team itself. Even though that Lil couldn't be with me making a fool out of myself trying to recruit Gamma into Beta, I know she would have done the same thing.”

“You know it, Mads.” Lil said. “There were no bodies when Madison killed them; he just atomized them with a lazer blast from his machine gun arm. But this is all we have of the original Scramble and Box.”

“Is this why you decided not to become Box for a long time after my—ahem, his death?” Box asked.

“That,” Madison said, looking into Lil's dark brown eyes. “And Lil didn't want me to be Box again. I'm sure she doesn't feel confortable with you being Box, Roger, but I guess she will learn to bear with it.”

“Phase out,” Box said through his computerized voice, as he came out of the armour and landed in his wheelchair. “I have no wish to be a super hero or an ersatz Iron Man, just a scientist helping out the Flight any way I can. We have had enough of super heroing or super villaining when we were brainwashed by Jaxon and Courtney. I blush when I think that we were controlled by robots.”

“I wish to be a doctor again,” Scramble said, taking out his iron mesh helmet. “I read the files on the original Scramble on Alphanex that he was a doctor up until the day he died.”

“I'm sure James can find something for you both on the staff of the Alpha Complex,” Madison retorted.

Roger wheeled over next to Lil and tugged on her trenchcoat. “And I think congratulations are in order.”

“Thank you, guys. I don't think anyone has actually said that yet.”

“C'mon, let's go back to the Alpha Complex to see what James has for you two.”

“Hullo, Rogair,” Aurora said in her thick French accent. It had been years since she had last seen her former love interest. That was in the days when she was mourning over the apparent death of cher moi, dear, departed Waltair. “Eet's been a while.”

Roger Bochs spun his wheelchair around, so that his back was to her. “Yes, it has. Congratulations on your recent marriage to Sasquatch. I know that he is your babe, your real heartthrob.”

“Yes, he is. But that doesn't mean you and I cannot be friends.” Bochs didn't need to use his peripheral vision to know that she was pouting and her arms were folded across her breasts.

“Y'know, every guy hates those words, y'know that?” he said firmly. “It's like you tease us and then, when you are so shocked that we profess our love for you, you use that friend shit. I hate it. And I hate you. I'm here for Madison 's sake and his brother Lionel, not you. Now, get out of my room, you slut!”

“Well, if that's the way you feel,” Aurora said, turning around, as tars began to roll down her cheek. She softly closed the door behind her.

Roger frowned and adjusted his glasses. “It's not the way I feel. But it's the only way we can be separate.”

He wheeled over to his closet and then he opened it. In it was his suit of armour. His Box armour. “One day we will be one. One day, we will show that poor, pitiful, and pathetic Jeffries what it means to cross Box.”