“There’s a boat over there, hon,” Manikin said, as they boarded the vehicle. ‘Maybe we can escape under cover of night.”

Persuasion didn’t know how long her powers could override her main enemy’s influence. Zebediah Killgrave was not far behind. As long as he was near, he could override her powers. It was her powers that kept her husband in his right frame of mind. She had to concentrate to her fullest to keep him that way.

“We’re safe for now,” Manikin said.

“Don’t count on it, honey. The Purple Man is not that far away. We should keep moving.”

Manikin doubled over in pain and he started to change. His skin color turned to a grayish hue and his intelligence levels transformed into that of a caveman. Or an Apeman.

“Ungrawa!” Apeman shouted as his battlecry and punched his wife into the waiting waters below. Apeman was difficult to control even without the Purple Man’s influence over him.

“I know you probably don’t understand me, Apeman, but I am your wife. You have to stop this. I command you to stop!” With her incredible mind powers, Persuasion stretched her influence into Apeman’s mind.

The waters started to churn below and all around her.

“Oh no, now what?” Persuasion said. “Don’t tell me he brought them too.”

Two strong arms hoisted Persuasion up close to the figure’s body and lifted the Betan into the air, as they flew over the boat, where Apeman was. She looked into the face of the man who had captured her; it was Guardian, leader of Alpha Flight. His skin that was seen through his mask was not caucasian, it was purple.

She looked below, and saw her father walked towards the boat, where Apeman had turned to Highbrow. Both of their skins were purplish.

Guardian hurled the Betan at Highbrow and the Purple Man. Highbrow used his powers of teleportation to transport her somewhere else.

Mr. Gentry sat at his desk within his office. He was riffling through some files and some papers about the recent events of Alpha Flight. He knew that Persuasion was worried about the recent escape of the Purple Man from the American prison the Vault. But he personally hadn’t heard from him.

There was a knock at the closed door.

“Who is it?” Gentry asked.

The door smashed open and two figures stood before him. Kamikaze and Windshear. The former a member of Alpha Flight and the leader of Beta Flight. The latter a new member of Beta Flight. He could see through their masks that their skin color was purplish. They were being controlled by the Purple Man.

Gentry pushed the silent alarm underneath his desk and suddenly, the Epsilon guards rushed into the room to attack the two super heroes. They brandished stun guns to knock them both out.

But Kamikaze was quicker than that. He used roundhouse kicks to thrust some of the guards out of the room into the hallway, while others fired their guns, having missed him completely.

Windshear used his powers of the wind to stun some of the guards themselves.

As this battle was taking place, Gentry used his key to unlock his top desk drawer and take out a loaded pistol. He aimed it Kamikaze’s head and fired.

Windshear blocked the bullet with his own body armour. The bullet bounced off his chest and ripped to shreds Gentry’s left shoulder. Gentry dropped the gun in pain.

Kamikaze approached the injured Gentry and picked him up from the ground, where he was wincing in pain.

“What do you want with me, Harada?” Gentry asked.

Kamikaze and Windshear were silent.

“They want nothing,” a purple-skinned and purple garbed gentleman said, as he entered the debacle. “It is I who want you. I will make my daughter suffer as I have suffered those long, lonely years in prison.” The Purple Man knelt so that he and Gentry were eye to eye. “Look into my eyes, Gentry, and know my will. I am your master. You are my slave. You know no orders but my orders. Now, let’s tend to that wound.”

INTERLUDE

Brad Whitford is running for his life. He is being chased by a demon. The demon called Carcaas is the living embodiment of the land of the dead.

It started when Brad found an ancient artifact in his archeological dig with his partner, Elizabeth Twyoungmen, who he knows is the Alphan called Talisman. She is retired from that superhero life but desires to be an archeologist. Liz told him to put the artifact back because she believes that it was dangerous. The local shamans in the nearby reservations were suspicious of the artifact.

But Brad didn’t listen to her and the shaman’s warning. He kept it for himself. He let loose the demon Carcaas. She told him that Alpha Flight supposedly destroyed Carcaas. But he could be reborn.

Brad held the artifact and spoke the incantation on its surface. That was how the demon Carcaas was born again.

Liz wasn’t here. Her magic could contain the beast but he had to do it himself.

Behind him, the demon was sneaking up on him.

“Give that to me, Mr. Whitford!”

“No, I can’t, you’ll destroy Canada. You’ll turn it into a land of dead.”

“You are not as adept as I am in the arts of black magicks. You can’t prevent it.”

Carcaas drew closer.

Brad screamed for his very life.

And then, the mind of Brad Whitford was dead, only to be replaced by the thoughts of Carcaas.

In the body of Whitford, he took a cab back to the apartment where Elizabeth Twoyoungmen resided. He knocked on the door.

“Oh, hi, Brad, what’s up?” Liz asked.

Brad-Carcaas noticed that she was holding her tiara. He instantly grabbed it and placed it on his brow.

“Brad, what are you doing?” Liz shouted.

“I am not Brad. I am Carcaas! I am your death.”

Carcaas shot a ray of death over Liz and she collapsed as her mother Katherine stood over her. Liz saw her mother, the one person that her father Shaman could not save on the operating table. This was the single most example of her father’s failure.

As Carcaas walked out of the apartment, Elizabeth Twoyoungmen saw the vision of her mother standing over her, and she cried as she never cried before. Suddenly, all of her past pain rushed out of her in one heart-felt release.

Persuasion woke up in the Alpha Complex. She saw Alpha Flight surrounding her and her father’s grinning face. It was then that the battle began. Guardian started the attack by using his electromagnetic pulses to shoot where Kara was standing. But the Betan avoided the attack with ease.

Guardian from the front, Vindicator from the back. Heather used her geothermal pulses to burn her backside. Heather’s suit derived from heat so a simple fire extinguisher should put her out for the count.

For Guardian, Kara took a loose hose and sprayed water all over his suit. It shortcircuited it. Two down, many more to go.

Shaman was next. Kara just simply swiped his medicine pouch, without looking inside, and hid it. With out it, he was powerless. She used judo, karate, kung fu, and acrobatics to kick and punch him into unconsciousness.

But Puck was faster. He cartwheeled onto her back, pushing her onto the wall. Eugene Milton Judd grabbed Kara by the legs and spun her around. Kara thought she was going to throw up from the dizziness. She slammed into the door.

Purple Man approached Kara. He held a hypodermic needle in one hand. He said,” You have done good, daughter. You have nearly singlehandedly defeated your own team. Now, I will control you like never before.”

“You can’t control me,” Kara said. “Our powers cancel each other out.”

“Not with this. This needle is filled with a drug that will turn you into one of the normals. I got it from the Vault. This was one of the drugs they used on me to control my powers so that I wouldn’t break loose. Too bad for them I did anyway.”

“In that case—“ Kara said, as she kicked Purple Man in the hand, making him drop the needle and her catching it, “I’ll take that off your hands.”

Kara jammed the needle in Purple Man’s leg and he collapsed instantly, as the drug took effect.

Alpha and Beta Flight’s skin color turned from purple to Caucasian again. Even Mr. Gentry was back to normal.

“It’s over,” Kara said, slowly falling asleep, “Don’t wake up, guys. Yeh, I know I saved the day for once. I’m beginning to feel sleepy myself. Think I’ll take a nap. Wake me up when the next villain arrives.”

Everything was back to normal. Purple Man was drugged and dragged to the Canadian Prison at the Alpha Complex. With his powers dulled, the control he had over the Alphans, Betans, and Gentry were broken. They were returned to their normal selves. Persuasion was exhausted from the fight with her father and took the rest of the day to sleep it off.

Gentry’s arm was in a cast, where his bullet had ricocheted off of Windshear’s armor. But all the Alphans and Betans had known that they had betrayed Persuasion by attacking her, even though they were controlled by her father.

They were all assembled in the meeting room when Kara Kilgrave entered. “I have something to say. And you’re not going to like it. I’ve decided to take a leave of absence from Beta Flight and Alpha Flight as a whole. This whole business with my father has seriously disturbed me.”

“But what about us?” Manikin said. “We’re a couple. Wherever you go, I think I should go.”

“No, Whitman. Not this time. This whole affair with the Purple Man has shown me that even though he controlled you all, there was something inside you all that didn’t prevent you from doing those terrible things to me. I don’t think that I can trust any of you again.”

With that, Persuasion said her proper good-byes and left the room.

No sooner had Kara left the room than Elizabeth Twoyoungmen had passed Kara in the hallway and entered the grand meeting hall. She was in her civvies and without her tiara.

‘What happened to you, Liz?’ Heather Hudson asked.

“I was attacked by my dig partner, Brad, and he turned into the living embodiment of Carcaas. He stole my tiara and plans to destroy Canada and Alpha Flight.”

“Don’t worry, Liz,” Nemesis said, unsheathing her mystical sword. “I’ll destroy him for you.”