ALPHA FLIGHT #3: "The Nemesis Reborn." (FanFic)

From the pages of Alternate Marvel!

First I'd like to direct you to the first 6 issues on this forum:
Alpha Flight #1: To Rise Once More.

Alpha Flight #2: Down to the Wyre/

Alpha Flight #3: 10,0000 Leagues Below.

Alpha Flight #4: Alpha Omega

Alpha Flight #5: Reborn.

Alpha Flight #6: New Flight.

That said, here begins series 2:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Sorry about the formating, blame eGroups!)

ALPHA FLIGHT #3: "The Nemesis Reborn."
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!


"You!" Vindicator's fists glowed as he hovered just outside Madison's
home. The trees swayed and a shadowed figure stepped forward.

Nemesis smiled beneath her mask, though none could see it. She drew
her sword and pointed the tip towards Vindicator. "Hello James," the
cold voice beneath the mask welcomed hauntingly.

Vindicator landed next to her. "What is you want?"

Diamond Lil stepped out into the front yard. "Well, it looks like our
Jane Doe has come back around?"

Nemesis walked passed Vindicator, her shoulder purposely bumping into
Vindicator's.

As she approached Diamond Lil, she pointed her sword, "You know how I
hate when you call me that, Lil." (1)

"Wait," Vindicator turned around. "So you're the same Nemesis? I
thought you died?" (2)

"What? You, of all people, Hudson, are questioning someone's ability
to return from the dead?" Nemesis looked over her shoulder. She shook
her head, "It seems coming back from the dead is Alpha Flight's
specialty. How many times have you come back? Or that orange lug,
Sasquatch?"

"Why does my resurrection always have to be the butt of every joke,"
Vindicator grumbled as he stepped into the house, behind Lil and
Nemesis.


[ Inside the home of Madison… ]

"So you want to give us some back story?" Vindicator asked, leaning
against the fireplace.

"Not that I feel like I owe you any," Nemesis replied. "But, sure."
Nemesis shook her head. "My father was a soldier in World War I,
trapped in mustard gas filled trenches… his unusually strong power of
will had allowed him to somehow deny the very doors of death itself…
but not without a price."

"As you know," she continued, "I was the daughter of Ernest St. Ives.
I was fortunate enough to watch as my own father accidentally killed
my mother, simply by touching her."

"He came to terms with his touch of death," Nemesis explained, a deep
distain emanating from her voice. "He was immortal and lived for
decades, accumulating great power. Oddly enough, I could not die as
well. I had grown old and fragile, while he had remained young and
youthful."

"Then it came to me," she whispered, her voice now barely above a
whisper. "In a dream… a vision. A blade that was an atom in
thickness… as impossible as that may sound. Having lived so long, I
had researched on how to be young, for I continued to age, but I
could not die. My research on cellular structure and atoms, helped me
in the right direction. That's when I turned to magic to complete my
research. With that knowledge, I formed my blade."

"I started seeing through the eyes of all the people my father had
killed using his power," Nemesis continued. "Suddenly it became clear
to me what my mission in life was."

She looked through her mask, and let her gaze go every member that
had gathered around. "I was to kill my father."

"And I did," her gaze had now gone to Northstar and Aurora, who had
been there for the incident. "My sword should have put an end to his
miserable life."

Her voice grew hard. "But he had somehow been reassembled at the
Montreal hospital where Scramble had been. My knowledge of magic was
the only thing that had kept any of you alive, after he had touched
you. I could feel him tugging at each of your souls, desiring their
power."

"It was Puck that took his life this time," Nemesis
concluded. "Again, that should have been the end to my curse. And as
I had assumed, with his death, I thought myself free of the curse,
and crumbled to dust. Then it happened. What had been the dust of my
body, spun around, and reformed; dust to flesh. The pain is an
experience I cannot explain. And it did not stop there. Every night,
every time I closed my eyes, even for a second, I could see the past
horrors my father committed with his powers. So many victims over the
years."

"And now," she took a deep breath, "I see what my curse is. I am to
redeem all the sins of my father, and make things right."

"I approached the government, to research the people my father had
been in contact with all these years, to get names and places, and
took up leadership of Gamma Flight, in hopes of making amends for all
of my father's sins, and hopefully free me of the curse that does not
allow me the peace of death."

"I had managed to find many of the siblings of the victims of my
father, and spoke with them. I called them the Children of the Night.
I wanted to make sure they could make peace with what my father had
done, so that their souls could find peace. So that I could begin
making amends. Not only for my own soul, but for theirs as well – so
that they could find peace in death when their time came."

As if cued from some stage, Shaman entered the room. "James, it would
seem I have found something very interesting."

He held a printout in each hand. "Here, we have Lilli's DNA readings.
And ironically, when I ran it through the database to find a match –
to possibly locate her parents… this printed out."

Vindicator crossed the room and took the second print out into his
hand. His brows came together in silent confusion, then looked up at
Shaman. "Are you sure these are right?"

"I ran several tests," Shaman answered. "They all came back the
same."

"And yet," Vindicator shook his head. "It makes sense."

"It does," Shaman nodded. "Often times, the most obvious answer is
the one most difficult to see."

"What are you two babbling on about?" Diamond Lil asked.

"Lillian Crawley," Shaman gestured towards Ghost Girl, "I want you to
meet Lilli."

"I met her before, earlier," Diamond Lil shrugged. "What's the
scoop?"

"It would seem her DNA read out is nearly exactly like yours," Shaman
explained. "And yet some are drastically, and it appears, purposely,
reversed."

"What are you saying?" Madison asked, taking a step forward.

"I am saying that it appears Department H took blood and DNA samples
from us," Shaman went on to say, "to create their own super army."

"Are you saying she's some kind of clone?" Diamond Lil asked.

"In short, yes," Shaman nodded. "It would seem that they reversed the
DNA that centers around your mutant power of being diamond hard."

"And made her able to pass through solid objects," Diamond Lil
finished Shaman's sentence.

"And that is why she goes by the name Lilli," Shaman continued. "It's
the name she knows as hers, from a variation of your own name."

Diamond Lil embraced Ghost Girl. "You're like a sister!"

Ghost Girl wept tears of sorrow and joy. She had known there was
something wrong. Her childhood hardly seemed to be her own; and now
she knew, it was not her life she had led up to this point. They had
been the memories of Diamond Lil.

But today she also found out who she was.

More importantly she found a "sister" and "family."


1. Diamond Lil had called Nemesis "Jane" once in MARVEL's Alpha
Flight #76, Volume One.
2. The original Nemesis appeared in MARVEL's Alpha Flight #8 and
apparently died in Alpha Flight #32, only to have another, with her
same outfit, and sword, and name appearing in Alpha Flight #76.
Confused? No surprise. This is my attempt to fix that! So keep
reading true believer!

TO BE CONCLUDED NEXT ISSUE!