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| Author’s Note: Please read Marvel Fanfare #13, for the first ‘Take Me To Your Leader’ story. Also, some plot ideas were suggested by Kristi Manchester. High above the forests of Canada, within his orbiting spacecraft, the Leader sat on his throne chair, waiting for his two foes to awaken. They were both in their human forms, both of them carried the ability to transform into monsters with human intellect. One was the Hulk, his arch nemesis, the other was Sasquatch, one of the core members of A|lpha Flight. He kept them both mildly sedated within tubes of great force. Dr. Langkowski might hesitate to attack him but the Hulk just wanted to smash things, him particularly. “Wakey, wakey, my pets,” the Leader said, as the two scientists opened their eyes for what might be the final time. “Before I let you two perish, I will tell you what will happen to Alpha Flight and the world at large in your absence.” By this time, the Leader had foolishly left his chair, parading around the expanse of the spaceship, leaving his deadman switch that allowed him to fill the tubules of noxious gas. “I don’t think so, Leader baby!” Banner said, as he instantly transformed into the Hulk. His huge green fists broke the glass tubes of his and Walter’s. Knowing that a fight will ensue, Walter changed into his orange furry self, that of Sasquatch. ”You would do well to tell us what your plan is,” Sasquatch said, throwing the Leader against a wall. “Or the Hulk will have to smash you. Oh, and me, too.” “Relax, gentleman.” The Leader was no more cowering. He was every bit confidant in his abilities to win this day. “If you let me finish, I was about to. It’s simple, really. I stole some Alphan DNA from A.I.M. and have cloned a whole army of Sasquatches. Not even your precious Snowbird, the White Sasqautch, can stop them all. Good luck, heroes.” ”Let him go, Langkowski,” the Hulk said, as he shook his head. “He told us what we need to know. He’s useless to us now. Now, we have to gather Alpha Flight and deal with your doppelgangers.” Sasquatch stared hard and deep into the Leader’s eyes. “You’re right. He’s totally useless to us.” He dropped him. “What now, Hulkie?”
“Now, I’m gonna prove to you that
Hulk is strongest one there is.” Sasquatch and the Hulk had left the Leader in his spacecraft, and had landed in the forest below them where from the grassy plain their arch nemesis had released the army of Sasquatches. Gamma radiation seemed to be able to create near everything nowadays. The Hulk was pissed. He didn’t like to be screwed by the Leader any day of the week but today he seemed to be more irate. The only way they could survive this attack on their persons was to stay in their monster, gamma irradiated personas. As they seemed to fight for hours, they saw that the true heavyweights of Alpha Flight arrived; Snowbird (White Sasquatch), Puck, Diamond Lil, and Apeman. These are the only members of the Flight who could battle these upstarts. The Hulk was nearly bloodthirsty. For the few sasquatches that surrounded, he tore into them, breaking their necks and backs. Walter was pained to see his other selves dying at his feet. Even though they were programmed to do as the Leader commanded, Walter felt a certain kinship to them. The Hulk was in the process of breaking the neck of one sasquatch, when Puck did a cartwheel and knocked another one off balance that was sneaking up behind Hulk. “Thanks, Judd,” the Banner influenced Hulk said. “But I can handle these monsters on my own.” “Watch who you call monster,” Walter said. “They may be controlled by the Leader but they have my face.” Sasquatch punched and threw back a couple of his doppelgangers. This was definitely a case of mistaken identity. “Don’t go getting soft on me, Walter,” Hulk said. “We have to smash these things and not let them get to greater Canada.” And then, with the help of the Hulk, Sasquatch, and the powerhouses of Alpha Flight, it was over. The clones were dead. All that could be seen for acres were bloody sasquatches. The Hulk looked enraged like he could kill any one of Alpha Flight right now, especially Walter. “You okay, Banner?” Walter asked.
The Hulk ripped a tree off its
roots and threw it at the spacecraft that housed the Leader. The craft
crashed but the Leader had teleported himself onto the grounds. “I’ve had enough of you, Hulk, messing with my plans of world domination for far too long!” The Leader said commandingly. “This conflict ends here and now.” “Oohh, the Leader finally got a backbone,” the Hulk snarled. He flexed his muscles and approached his enemy, seeing what he had up his sleeves. Alpha Flight backed up behind the Hulk, giving him some much needed room. This was a fight between the Hulk and the Leader. The man with the enlarged brain pressed a computerized stud on his remote control device and the world underneath the Hulk exploded. When the smoke cleared, the Hulk laid on the grassy plain where the planted bomb exploded. For long moments, he did not stir. He did not move. The onlookers did not know if he was even alive anymore. The only safe person to approach the injured Hulk was Sasqautch. An orange furry paw reached out to touch the Hulk. “Banner, are you alright?” Walter asked gently. Then, an all too familiar voice rang out. “Hulk hates Banner. Banner is weak. Why do little men always care for Banner when Hulk is strongest one there is??” The Hulk stood up. “Fur-man always attack Hulk. Why do you do this? Hulk smash, why won’t you leave Hulk alone?” Sasquatch frowned. “Houston, we have a problem! That explosion must have reverted our green friend to his savage self.” “Why is Fur-man trying to confuse Hulk?’ The Hulk punched Walter in the stomach sending him against a tree. “And the angrier Hulk gets, the stronger Hulk gets.” The Hulk turned around and walked deep in the forest. The couple seconds it took for Walter to wake up, he seemed to have lost interest in his prey. “Should I go after him, sir?’ Highbrow said, reverting to his other form from Apeman. “No, Highbrow,” Walter said, getting up. “He’s a mindless beast now. He deserves whatever peace and quiet he craves.” “What should we do with him?” Highbrow said, pointing to the powerless Leader. Sasquatch smiled. ‘We take him to the Paranormal Prison at the Alpha Complex.”
“No, I don’t think so, beast,” the
Leader said, as he pressed another computerized stud. And the Leader,
Alpha Flight, and Beta Flight were transported elsewhere. The Blue Area of the Moon Within the Leader’s orbital moon base, the three parties who disappeared previously had appeared anew. Instantly, like before on his spacecraft, tubules shot down from the ceiling apertures to encase each member of the two teams. Next to the Leader stood the Frankenmonster. The monster seemed to almost be smiling beneath his grey pallor. Power dulling gas exuded from the floor to make the Alphans and Betans powerless as the Leader explained his master plan. “With the Hulk out of the way and minding his own business,” The Leader explained. “I can finally carry out my plan to destroy Alpha Flight and all its compartments.” “What was in that bomb that you hit the Hulk with?” Walter asked, finally reverting to his human form. “Simple. It gave Banner enough shocks to do away with his intelligence and revert the thinking Hulk to a more savage, childlike Hulk. That brute is only an annoyance to me. I thought that we had something in common because we were both bombarded by gamma radiation years ago. We were enemies for years and now, finally, I grew bored with him. I wanted to draw my sights to more adventurous venues. Like the Fantastic four, which I had my Humanoids fight years ago, and now Canada’s precious Alpha Flight.” “I remember Wolverine telling me about you when I first recruited him for Alpha Flight*,” Guardian said, startled. (* See Marvel’s Wolverine Vol. 1 No. 144 for that story- Gregg.) ‘Yes, Dr. Hudson. I was able to hold Wolverine and the mighty Prince of Power Hercules captive for a time. Even the incredible Hulk was my captive back in those days.” Vindicator was smirking under her mask. “And what was the purpose of the army of sasquatches?” “To do away with the Hulk. They were an experiment really. Just to see that I could do something besides attack the Hulk. The Frankenmonster’s attack on Canada proved that. And now, now you will all die!!” Next Issue: Part 3 of Take Me To Your Leader II. The Final battle! Author’s Notes: Yes, I finally did it. I did an arc with a villain from Marvel’s mainstream. You can expect some other villains to appear like the Purple Man, who was reintroduced in issue 56. Expect him to encounter Persuasion, Manikin, Beta Flight, and the rest of core team in issue 60. A lot of this issue is due to the help of Kristi Manchester. She helped me plot it out, especially the ending with the return of the savage Hulk. To find out what happens to the Hulk, please read her Hulk one-shot coming soon. Gregg Epstein April 10th,
2006 |
