Alternate Marvel: Alpha Flight #3 (Series 1)

Alpha Flight #3: “10,0000 Leagues Below."
By: Tawmis

In a time of darkness, heroes stood up and fought for their country
that they loved so much. Hated by their own government, questioned by
the people of Canada – Alpha Flight never stops to ask why they do
what they do. They are heroes. It is their duty. Welcome – Vindicator!
Guardian! Sasquatch! Northstar! Aurora! Shaman! Puck! Snowbird! Welcome to –
Alpha Flight!


“Defeated?” he laughed as he sat in his seat. “How,” he stood and turned to
those gathered around him in shadows, “do you defeat a man without a body?”
He lifted his clenched fists to the heavens. “I have said it once, and I shall
say it until the end of time. I am the Forever Man. I am the Master of Time.
The Master of Life. And soon, the Master of the world!” (1)
He looked at those who still stood in awkward silence around him. “You all
failed me last time,” he looked over each one of them, “Bile, Brain Drain, Ms.
Mass, Sinew, Strongarm, Tech-noir.” He shook his head. “But now you will play
another part. You will be decoys to keep Alpha Flight busy.”
He paced back and forth for a moment, before sitting down once again. With a
flick of a switch, his monitor hummed to life, and data began streaming in. “Ah
yes,” he looked at the monitor as he thoughtfully itched his chin. “It seems
Alpha Flight has successfully recovered Wyre as well as Snowbird’s DNA.” He
shook his head, and turned towards yet another monitor. “Department H,” he
seemed to say the words with disgust. “In a failing economy they sought to make
quick money by selling Snowbird’s DNA, and create the notion of a super army.”
He leaned back, “But I couldn’t let that happen, so I had to drop a line to
Alpha Flight and let them know.” He chuckled more to himself, than to those
gathered around, “Though I am thoroughly surprised that they did not create an
international incident. But I knew I couldn’t trust anyone else to go after it.
Now, with those files in the possession of Alpha Flight, I know they will be
destroyed so that no other can ever use them.”
He turned to yet another monitor where information was being downloaded. “
Nathaniel Essex,” he smiled broadly. “You prided yourself in genetics, didn’t
you? Thought you were the best when it came to it? And why? To save your son,
because he was born with the mutant ability to kill mutants through germs, and
ended up slowly killing himself.” The man touched the monitor. “And you wanted
to save your son.”
With a clenched fist he smashed the screen, and glass shattered upon the
ground. “I could have helped you, Nathaniel. I could have easily saved your son
with my knowledge.” (2)
He stood, “I possess knowledge that would feeble your mind. One equation that
would stump even the legendary Reed Richards.”
He turned back towards the shattered monitor and watched, as the glass seemed
to heal itself. “But now,” the man stepped forward, “I am in the same boat as
you were, Nathaniel. I am searching for my ‘daughter’ and I believe I have
finally found her.”
He turned to the monitor to the left which was tapped into every database
online, all across the world – and downloading information at blinding speeds,
to be stored on a device without limits; and that information, transferred
directly into the mind of the man known as…
The Master.

“So you’re still Department H’s errand boy?” Sasquatch asked, sitting down on
the newly customized couch, made for his mass and size.
Wyre shook his head. “It’s not like I had anywhere else to go… anywhere to
turn.” He looked at the other members of Alpha Flight. “Each of you had lives
to return to when Alpha Flight ceased. But Wildchild and I – what did we have?
We had nothing. Before Alpha Flight, Department H contained Kyle while Mac
tried to ‘redeem’ him after he had been injected with my DNA; and I was a test
subject of the Secret Empire, who had used my DNA to create super soldiers like
him! (4) That’s why I had to stop what they were going to do with Narya’s
DNA.”
Wyre took a deep breath. “When Wildchild and I parted ways with Alpha Flight,
we had worked together a number of times, taking jobs from Department H. We
even ran into Deadpool a time or two.” (3)
Wyre sat down. “It’s been so complicated. But even Kyle,” Wyre looked at the
others, “even Kyle knew he had to face the music. He left Department H when Val
Cooper approached him and asked him to help with X-Factor.” (5)
“Shortly after Onslaught,” Wyre continued, “Kyle left X-Factor. He said he had
to sort things out about Aurora.” (6)
Wyre took a deep breath. “I didn’t know all the details, except what he told
me … about how he and Aurora had grown very close, very quickly. Too quickly,
it seemed.” He set his jaw firmly. “So I did some digging around. Hit a few
sources. Found out that Mesmero had tampered with their minds. So Wildchild and
I went after him, and it took everything I had to stop Wildchild from killing
Mesmero when we found him.”
“After that,” Wyre paused. “Wildchild and I parted ways. He said something
about finding his true mind and his true heart. He needed to find out who and
what he loved. Because Mesmero messed with his head and his heart.” (7)

Somewhere, deep beneath the surface of the ocean, a ship moves completely
undetected.
“In genetic engineering, a set of foreign genes is spliced - inserted - into
the middle of the DNA 'code words',” Master began to explain to the person
lying on the table. “This splicing can mess up the normal coded instructions in
the DNA. And that can go on to mess up how the cell works. No one can know in
advance what might happen and whether it might be hazardous. It is
unpredictable. The insertion or splice could make the chromosome behave in a
quite unexpected way.
“But not for me,” Master went on to say. “I have mastered each and every cell;
each and every gene; each and every chromosome, down to the smallest portion.
When I manipulate and splice DNA, I know the cause and effect that it will
bring. I know the changes and when and how they will happen!
“Through the union of the Plodex vessel,” ( Master continued, “I gained
knowledge beyond that of anyone on this planet! There are so many things I
know,” he looked down at the man on the table, “and you have made the right
choice by coming to me. I can cure you of your mutation, just as I will cure
my ‘daughter.’”
“Just get on with it,” the blond hair man replied, as Master tightened the
straps. “So I can get on with my life.”
“Your life?” Master replied. “Your life will belong to me!”
“If you say so,” the blond man replied as he closed his eyes and felt the laser
burn into his skin.
Master allowed the machine to work its preprogrammed design as he walked away
and turned on yet another monitor. A man rocked back and forth, “I’m a dead
man, I’m a dead man, I’m a dead man…”
Master shook his head. “Gardner Monroe,” he shook his head and smiled. “A man
who knows death is just right around the corner, and his mortal mind is unable
to bare it. He shall join you,” Master turned to the man on the table, “as some
of my new additions to Omega Flight. But that shouldn’t be a problem for you,
should it? You two have worked together before…”
Master turned to the monitor to the right as it beeped gently. “Ah yes, there
it is. Just as I suspected. Alpha Flight’s villain Llan the Sorcerer had
confirmed what I believed. That she is still alive.” (9)

“So,” Sasquatch placed his hand behind his head, scratching it lightly. “Where’
s Mesmero now?”
“Had it not been for a young girl named Arlette Truffaunt,” Wyre explained, “he
would probably be dead right now. She seemed to spring out of the air itself,
screaming and shouting that we had to help him. Something tells me she had
witnessed everything – and that there was more to the two of them than first
met the eye.
“I couldn’t bare for this young girl to watch him die,” Wyre heaved once more
as he ran his fingers through his short, brown hair. “So I went to his side to
help. It was there,” he looked at the rest of Alpha Flight, “that a lot of my
memory fails me. I remember her touching me softly and saying, ‘Help me.’ And I
did. Kyle was furious with me. He and I had it out, and that’s when he left.
(7) I ended up helping the girl get Mesmero to a hospital where he was taken to
the emergency ward. When I talked to the girl I found out that she was a
mutant, like Mesmero. She shared a power similar to his – but her own was
limited to touch,” he looked again at the members of Alpha Flight, “which
explains my impulse to help her when she touched me. Apparently, Mesmero had
been trying to train her how to use her powers from a distance – the way he was
able to do. So what he did was seek out the two most fragile super hero minds
he could think of.”
“Aurora and Kyle,” Shaman nodded.
“Exactly,” Wyre made a gesture towards Shaman. “He took control of each of
their minds and ‘made them fall in love.’ This way they would spend plenty of
time away from Alpha Flight, and more time together. This decreased the chances
of being caught or noticed. During this time, he would have them go to the
mall – where the girl, Arlette, would try to control them first by bumping into
them, and using touch. They did this for quite sometime until her hold on them
both was firmly secure. Then they tried doing the distance, which she was never
able to master.”
Vindicator itched the back of his head, his brows together in confusion. “So
Mesmero took this girl, another mutant, under his wing – actively sought out
two people who were mentally unstable and purposely manipulated them, so the
girl could learn her powers?”
“Exactly,” Wyre nodded.
“And, the two of them are where?”
“Right now,” Wyre admitted, “probably long gone.”
“You let them walk away?”
“No,” Wyre admitted. “She touched me and said, ‘Walk for six days, without
coming back.’ And I did.” He shrugged. “Which of course, gave them plenty of
time to get out of the hospital once Mesmero was patched up the best he could
be. Of course when I went back, he had used his power to have someone delete
all the medical information on him. There was no trace of him that he was ever
there. And without Wildchild there to help me track him, he was as good as
gone.”
“When did this get so complicated?” Vindicator asked, shaking his head.
“Right around your seventh or eighth resurrection,” Sasquatch smiled.
“Oh aren’t you funny Walter,” Vindicator turned towards Sasquatch and laughed.

He touched her skin and smiled. “Thick, rich and almond brown,” he passed her,
and touched her hair, “Long, thick, like the midnight skies.” He paused. “You’d
almost be worthy of being my mate,” he turned and looked at her directly, “but
I care little for such tainted trash.”
She did not move or say a word, just as he knew she wouldn’t. Her only concern
was for the one man who cared after her – the man known as Mesmero.
He was lying there, bandaged now but still wounded.
“He’s all you care about,” Master touched Mesmero on the forehead, “isn’t he?”
“Jes he is,” she finally spoke with a thick French accent.
“Good,” Master replied. “I can bring him back to full health.” He chuckled
inwardly. “I could probably even make him in better health than he ever was.
But,” he turned to her, “you will have to serve me.”
“In doin’?” she asked.
“Distracting Alpha Flight,” Master replied as he gestured to the small woman
behind him.
The laser finished the last of its surgery – what would have taken perhaps
three years, and over fifteen operations had been done in less than six
minutes, and done with uncanny accuracy. He gestured to the red headed girl, “
If you would stitch him up?”
A needle lifted gently into the air, and slowly began sewing the wounds that
Mesmero had acquired just over a week ago. Master pet the red headed girl as if
she were an obedient puppy. (10)

“We should find Wildchild,” Shaman said, standing up. “He’s gone too long
without anyone knowing his whereabouts. I contacted both Charles Xavier, and
his former teammates, X-Factor, and neither is sure where he could be.”
“He could be suffering some kind of mental backlash to all of this,” Sasquatch
added. “I mean he left Alpha Flight because he and Aurora were an item. The two
of them need space away from one another – I am guessing, around this time,
Mesmero and this girl gave up on her being able to control people from a
distance – so Kyle and Jean-Marie’s true selves were emerging once again. So he
goes to X-Factor. Onslaught happens, and he begins questioning himself.”
Sasquatch turned to Wyre. “Then he runs into you again. The two of you
investigate further into it; find out its Mesmero’s doing, along with this
girl. Wildchild nearly kills Mesmero – probably something he’d never want to
do, because that’d show he was slipping into his animal side. Then you,”
Sasquatch pointed at Wyre again with his orange, furry finger, “turn around and
desert him, under this girl’s power, and help Mesmero. Then he goes vanishing
for over six weeks.”
“This could be bad indeed,” Vindicator nodded.
“Yeah,” Sasquatch shook his head. “When indeed did this get so complicated?”
Vindicator slid on his glove. “Around your fourth resurrection.”

Master approached the monitor as it made a soft “ping” sound. Each second, the “
ping” seemed to grow just a fraction louder. He smiled as he touched the
screen.
“I have found you,” he whispered.
He watched as the data unloaded from the screen.
Location: Wake Island. Oceania, atoll in the North Pacific Ocean, about two-
thirds of the way from Hawaii to the Northern Mariana Islands
Geographic coordinates: 19 17 N, 166 36 E
Area:
total: 6.5 sq km
land: 6.5 sq km
water: 0 sq km
Coastline: 19.3 km
Climate: tropical
Terrain: atoll of three coral islands built up on an underwater volcano;
central lagoon is former crater, islands are part of the rim
Natural hazards: occasional typhoons
Population: no indigenous inhabitants.
“Ironic,” he chuckled inwardly, “that you would be sleeping here, in the bay of
Wake Island.” He laughed once more, this time much more loudly. “Wake, as in to
watch over the body of a deceased… and yet, meaning also to awaken from a
slumber… Sleeping death. Llan, Llan, Llan… I would have never guessed you for
one with such witty humor.”
Slowly the ship plunged deeper and deeper, until finally it came into view.
A soft cocoon, about the size of a small woman, floating at the bottom of the
sea.
He touched the monitor, “Time to awaken, my dear.”

TO BE CONTINUED IN ALPHA FLIGHT #4!


1. Pretty much his exact words in Marvel’s Alpha Flight Vol. 1 #96.
2. See Alternate Marvel’s Uncanny X-Men #341-350 for the tragic tale.
3. Check out Lycan’s tales of the Merc with the Mouth in Alternate Marvel’s
Deadpool.
4. For more on that, check out Marvel’s Alpha Flight #114, which details Wyre’s
first appearance, and what little information is known about his past.
5. See Marvel’s X-Factor #114
6. Aurora attacked Kyle claiming that he deserted her in Marvel’s X-Factor #116
7. See Alternate Marvel’s Uncanny X-Men #342 for Wildchild’s capture by a
Sentinel X model. See also Uncanny X-Men #347, 352-353 for more about
Wildchild.
8. See Marvel’s Alpha Flight #4 and Marvel’s Alpha Flight #16.
9. Who is Master talking about? Perhaps for another clue if you want to know,
you should check out Marvel’s Alpha Flight #78.
10. Don’t recognize who that could be? Check out Marvel’s Alpha Flight Special,
which features Wolverine as the leader of Alpha Flight of old, when the team
was merely known as “The Flight.”