Alpha Flight - The Return?
Just before midnight, dark, few stars, a late summer day. A group of armed and armoured people with jetpacks are coming out of a research building attached to the Slowpoke reactor building in Saskatoon. The police outside are pinned down by the firepower of the small group, who seem to be setting down covering fire, not trying to get away. Suddenly, Sasquatch slams down in amongst them, sending one man flying. USAgent comes in next and takes out a woman. The rest of the group increase their rate of fire and force the two Omegans back.
Sasquatch - Take them out but keep your heads up! They seem to be protecting the building, or someone inside it!
USAgent - Why waste time, I can take them all by myself.
Even with the heavy fire USAgent is able to disarm one with his shield. Still, the group (obviously numbering six) keep firing and don't try to escape. Arachne uses her psychic web to remove one more fighter while Weapon Omega moves in and draws more fire.
Weapon Omega - What are they up to?
USAgent - Beats me, but who cares? They've lost already.
Sasquatch - Stay awake Walker! This is a nuclear research facility! There's a small test reactor in there so we don't want to be blind to what we're doing!
Suddenly another, much larger armoured figure emerges from the building: Titanium Man.
Titanium Man - I have the package! Form on me and keep Omega Flight off-balance!!
USAgent - Oh great, another tin can man (throws his shield, to no effect). I'm guessing this is Titanium Man?
Sasquatch - Looks like him; take him down, don't let him escape!
Arachne and Sasquatch move in fast. Arachne webs two more fighters while Sasquatch pounds on another two. USAgent takes out the last one standing as Titanium Man jets away.
Weapon Omega - Halt! I'll take you down hard if you don't surrender!
Titanium Man - Stay back! I have almost two grams of Neoborium-225, so stay away or I'll release it all over the city!!
USAgent - Neobo-what??
Sasquatch - A partially refined compound, a midstep in forming a medical isotope, more toxic than plutonium. Weapon Omega, take away his flying ability!
Pointer looks surprised but blows apart Titanium Man's jets with one shot. Titanium Man comes crashing down near the building. Arachne webs away his package while Sasquatch rips up his armour puts him out of commission.
Policeman - Thank you very much! We were seriously outgunned. I can't believe you showed up when you did.
Sasquatch - We were south of Edmonton an hour ago taking down a group allied with the Sons of the Serpent, with Talisman's aid. She went home, we were jetting home but all potential risk sites have systemized security linking them to C.S.I.S, and the first alarm brought us over fast.
Policewoman - So you'll take them?
Arachne - Just keep them under wraps, C.S.I.S. will come claim them pronto.
USAgent - Big risk you took, Wookie, he could've carried out his threat easily, or Pointer could've cracked his case. We would've been on the hook for what, 2000 deaths?
Sasquatch - 20 000 more likely, maybe a lot more.
Arachne - So why did you take the shot?
Sasquatch - Neoborium may be extremely toxic but Titanium Man, or whoever hired him, had to know how hard it is to get. To process it you need Thorium, Uranium, and Protactinium, around 15 kilos of each, and processing takes about eight days to get a gram of Neoborium, if everything goes right. It takes about 58 days if everything doesn't go right. In the process Neoborium only lasts five minutes until it is transformed into a medicinal isotope, Hypobarium-119. The process doesn't stop.
Weapon Omega - So you're saying...
Sasquatch - That Titanium Man needed inside information to know exactly when the intermediate Neoborium successfully reached completion, before process decay fractionation. Someone in that building had to tip him off.
Weapon Omega - How are we going to find the snitch?
Policeman - I already got C.S.I.S., they said they're sending someone over to rat out the culprit, just told us to seal the building and lock everything down.
Sasquatch - Alright, we'll hang in until the jail crew shows up. Got anything to eat?
Soon enough they are jetting home. When they arrive at C.S.I.S. they find a SHIELD helicopter already on the ground. An agent approaches.
Agent - Agent Ayna Sareva of SHIELD, Professor Langkowski. I am here to take two of your members home.
USAgent - 'Bout time!
Sasquatch - What??
Agent - SHIELD is recalling USAgent under the 50 State Initiative. Mr. Walker, you have been reassigned to lead the team responsible for the state of Pennsylvania.
USAgent - Pennsylvania?!? What the... no, wait, Philly, Pittsburgh, a stone's throw from New York and the White House. Let me get my things and I'll be right with you.
Agent - Fine. We also require Michael Pointer...
Sasquatch - Pointer?? Why the hell for?!?
Agent - Technically, he is still under the jurisdiction of SHIELD. It has been determined that his skills have progressed sufficiently to allow him to join SHIELD as one of our field agents.
Weapon Omega - Won't it be a little odd, me looking like this, this code name?
Agent - Don't worry, we'll upgrade the look of your suit to fit your new role, SHIELD colors and all. You are now officially code-named Peacemaker, Agent of SHIELD.
Sasquatch - Great. So what is your Initiative giving us back in return, Squirrel Girl? Taskmaster maybe? Who'll get amnesty like Julia here if they agree to join Omega Flight in Canada?
Agent - I have no idea. My orders are to collect Walker and Pointer and take them home for preparations in their new roles.
Arachne - Come on, there must be several heroes in File 42, or in your Initiative program, who'd like the chance to do it right!
Agent - I don't know and I don't care. SHIELD is not in the habit of lending out it's agents and the Initiative program would not be any different. If you want SHIELD or Initiative help I'm sure we could arrange to have a few agents patrol your...
Sasquatch - No thanks! I'm sure we'll manage without your....help. Have a safe trip home.
Langkowski quickly hustles Carpenter back to C.S.I.S. HQ.
Arachne - What the hell? Are we just going to take this?
Sasquatch - She's right, SHIELD can take both Pointer and Walker back and they don't have to send replacements. Face it, right now they'd rather parcel up Canada's security between a few SHIELD agents and give border states chunks of Canada to cover. All they'll leave us is Nunavut, maybe. We can't let them get even a smidgen of a foothold. Where's Brown?
Agent Lapointe - He's meeting with the Prime Minister, over this very issue I imagine.
Sasquatch - Can't waste time. We need to see who we can get to bolster our ranks right now. See if Talisman will come back full time. See who else we can find... It's going to be along night, we can't waste time.
Brown is in the P.M.'s office, 3 in the morning. She looks a little haggard.
PM - Well, Agent Brown, it seems that we are between a rock and a hard place. You'd better have some good news. I'm not conceding one millimetre of territory to Stark or anyone else. We have to take care of our own problems.
Brown - Slippery slope, yes Madam Prime Minister, I know. We at C.S.I.S. didn't expect SHIELD to come calling so soon, but we aren't left empty-handed.
PM - So what now? More people like the Carpenter woman coming up, or do you have a few e-m suits in storage?
Brown - No and no. The U.S. has made it clear that they're not sending us any more heroes under our jurisdiction. And even if we had suits ready to go it'd take at least two months to train agents in there use and adjust the cyberhelmets to each of their brain patterns. We discussed that idea, making five Guardians, three Vindicators, a couple of Tygerstrykes, but it was not our best option.
PM - So what was, and is? We need to be up and running right now!
Brown - Yes, Madam Prime Minister, we can move our schedule up, we won't be sitting ducks...
Back at C.S.I.S. Langkowski and Carpenter are pouring over reports, in folders and computers.
Arachne - Where's Lapointe? I hope Rachel doesn't miss me.
Sasquatch - Don't worry, go home in an hour or two before she's up.
Arachne - Thanks. I'm glad the Pearson's can look after her.
Sasquatch - Well, Becky and Len already are taking care of their orphaned niece (Langkowski grimaces, thinking of Heather and James) so having a big sister for the babies is just making them happier, after all. Rachel, Marie, and their own baby Nathan make a good group to take care of.
Arachne - I know. Man, my neck hurts. All this data and nothing.
Sasquatch - Seems C.S.I.S. dropped the ball on this one. I figured Brown would've been more prepared for this he had to know it was inevitable, at least in steps.
Arachne - I could see them pulling Walker home, but Pointer?
Sasquatch - They left him with us while he was still a liability. We train him, we show him how to be a hero, our dime, and if he screws up, our fault. Another Collective incident and SHIELD would've pointed fingers and washed their hands of him. But no hiccups, we trained him fully in the use of his powers, so now it's, "Thanks, suckers." I'm betting some of their accountants wish Stark had made us pay to take Pointer on.
Arachne - Fat chance.
Sasquatch - Maybe if I find Northstar, Aurora, Jefferies, or Lil they'd listen to me. C.S.I.S. has got a clear no from all but Jefferies...
Arachne - Who they can't find...
Sasquatch - ...but maybe if I talked to the other thr........
Arachne - Walter? Professor?? Hello?
Saquatch - (gazing off) I wonder....
Arachne - What??
Sasquatch - He said, "C.S.I.S., they said they're sending someone over to rat out the culprit." Who could C.S.I.S. send over to find the culprit?
Arachne - Given who works here I'm sure lots of agents will check the clues and...
Sasquatch - No, he said, "rat out." C.S.I.S. agents would find the mole, catch the mole, figure out who it is, but rat them out? That's more like...
Arachne - What? Who?
Sasquatch - It's just that, well, you know, it seems like something you'd use a psi for. What mind reader do they have? None I've seen.
Arachne - Well, who could they have with the talent to walk in and rat out a spy, or whatever?
Sasquatch - Wild Child? But no. Yet... we need to find Agent Brown! I'm sure that he's been hiding something!!
Hiding something? Jeff Brown?? You'd better believe it. I'm not going to write an issue two here (after all, Marvel Editors, we want Alpha Flight to be an ongoing comic, right?) but I'll tell you that Langkowski has surmised that Persuasion, Kara Killgrave, is on the payroll. In issue two they find that Adrian Corbo, more confident and funny, has been training as Guardian since a couple of weeks after the defeat of Tanaraq. Another American hero snuck north to join the team. And although Weapon PRIME was rumoured destroyed, in the destruction of Department K Killspree protected and ultimately saved one of the Double Trouble sisters, who is also with C.S.I.S. now. She'll need a new code name and her symbiotic plasma powers may be gone with the death of her sister, but she still has blasting powers, no doubt, and can fly.
And don't forget, Beta Ray Bill can be reclaimed from the Great Beasts Realm, and that nearly immortal Eugene Milton Judd, and the twins in time, Talisman... well, by issue 100 you don't know who will be a member of Omega.. no wait, that's the Initiative team and the Initiative is over in Canada, though the problems caused by the Civil War aren't; no, Sasquatch, Arachne, Guardian, Persuasion, another American, that Double Trouble gal, they are Alpha Flight!!
