The Leader was a crafty devil, indeed. He had brainwashed the Frankenmonster with a hypno-disc attached to his neck to attack both Beta Flight, Guardian, Sasquatch, and the Hulk. The Leader rigged a gamma-irradiated bomb that exploded near the Hulk that caused Banner to revert to his savage, unintelligent Hulk persona. Instead of battling the green goliath, Alpha Flight decided to let him roam the forests of Canada, one less hassle the better.

Then, the Leader pressed a stud on his belt buckle that transported the combined strengths of both the Alpha and Beta Flight teams to his base on the Blue Area of the Moon. No Watchers to interrupt this final confrontation or offer clever advice.

The Leader had grown more insane by the moment. He had developed a nerve gas within the tubules that imprisoned the Alphans and Betans that disabled their powers and their power devices. Now, he arrayed his enemies within a makeshift Combat Room in his base where they would fight the Humanoids, mindless super-strong robots that would even rival the strength of the Hulk. Banner would have had to use all of his strength just to give them pause. If Banner were here, and if Banner hadn’t been reverted to a childish, mindless brute. The world was full of ifs.

The Leader was hidden in the plexi-glass shield in the control room, watching and adoring the whole hideous act. Dozens of Humanoids surrounded the Flights. The only members who would have the slightest chance of defeating them would be those that had physical strength on their side. So, it was up to Diamond Lil, Puck, Walter Langkowski, Colin Hume, and Kamikaze.

The Hudsons’ battlesuits only worked if the cyberhelmets that controlled the suits worked. The Leader saw to that. So Mac saw an outlet by the corner. He gestured for his wife to accompany him to the outlet to see what they could conjure up. Heather knew what he wanted to do.

Ripping a piece of his suit at the waist he connected the wires to the outlet and super charged his suit. Heather followed his example. They were able to blast a group of Humanoid terrors and make some headway into the center of the barrage.

Kamikaze was still able to use his weapons in his tunic; his mutant power of teleportation was rendered inert by the Leader and his nerve gas. Harada found his inner chi, focused past the overwhelming odds, and threw all of his Chinese throwing stars at the Humanoids. He then unsheathed his samurai sword and slashed a group of them to bits. They were robots, but their humanoid appearance was unnerving.

Harada was enraged, he felt a beserker fury building up slowly at first within him, and then rising to the fore. He removed his mask and launched himself in the air to crash through the plexi-glass window in the control room.

“Stay back,” the Leader whimpered like the coward he was, “I can still defeat you.”

Grabbing the sword both at the hilt and the edge, Harada pressed the weapon tightly against the Leader’s neck, cornering him. The Leader had only one weapon left to use. The Frankenmonster.

“Destroy him, you beast!!”

The one who was called monster stared at Kamikaze and then, at his master. Even without the disc attached to his neck, he still felt an obligation to serve those who gave him another chance at life. But he had humanity, feelings, dreams, hopes, and even fears. Yes, he was human even if a madman had constructed him from dead parts.

“You are going to be the last person to call me beast!”

The Frankenmonster threw the Leader into one of his own tubules, sealed the hatch, and pressed a button that released the power-disabling nerve gas, rendering him inert.

“I realize now that I do not belong in Canada. I belong in Romania. Return me there now.”

When Alpha Flight returned to their headquarters, they deposited the Leader in shackles to the Canadian prison within the Alpha Complex. They kept the nerve gas within his cell so that his powers would be disabled for the duration. What they didn’t need right now was another attack by the Leader and his Humanoids.

Locking the cell with a keypad, Guardian and Vindicator walked back to the meeting room where Mr. Gentry waited for them. Guardian was glad this battle was over. They had encountered one casualty, however. The Hulk. Banner was reverted from the intelligent Hulk to the more savage, childlike Hulk. Now Banner would be on the run again, wherever the Hulk roamed the Canadian countryside.

Walter was most upset by this. Back when they were in college together, he and Banner were the best of friends. When Walter had found out that Banner had been transformed into the Hulk, he wanted to duplicate that process on himself to cure his failing eyesight. But the demon Tanaraq had been in the area of Canada where Walter had been conducting his experiment with gamma rays. The Great Beast had bonded with Walter’s body, fusing himself with the gamma rays, and transforming Walter into Sasquatch. He had suffered for years because of it.

Walter was later recruited into Alpha Flight by Dr. Hudson and was now a super hero. He met Aurora soon afterwards and they instantly fell in love. But Walter had to deal with another dilemma because his love interest had two, and now three, conflicting personalities. Before he lost control of Sasquatch, Walter had seemingly fused the two personalities into a new third one.

Snowbird had killed Walter when she realized that Tanaraq was inhabiting Walter’s body as Sasquatch. Walter was reborn as Box, and when Snowbird was killed by Pestilence, Walter was again reborn as Snowbird. Talk about a gender-bender paradox. But Talisman had restored Walter’s (Wanda’s?) male form. Just in time to fight Llan, the Sorcerer.

Mac Hudson knocked on the door to Walter’s quarters and opened it. “How are you feeling, Walter? Are you all right?”

“Come in, Jim. Yeh, I’m fine. I decided that the best thing to do about the Hulk is to let him roam the Canadian wilderness. I’m sure he won’t hurt anyone. Canada is not like America, where the army is after the Hulk every step of the way.” Walter paused a moment, then resumed. “I’ve been friends with Banner for a long time. And other superhero teams have encountered the Hulk when he was like this, and I’ve realized that the best thing to do is do what he wants, and that is to leave the Hulk alone.”

Jim put a reassuring hand on Walter’s shoulder. “You probably know him better than most. But I have to warn you if he comes back, with destruction in his eyes, we may have no choice but to fight him again.”

“I know, Jimmy. Just promise me, you and the team won’t do anything foolish before it’s time.”

“Agreed. Now I think you should get a good night’s sleep.”

“Okay. See you in the morn, in a wee bit.”