For those that want to understand what their read in the french version And I forgot to say, the story was part of 2nd Flight, a fanfic based on the same future than spider-girl. Alas, the website is gone missing and I cannot give you a link to the rest.

Red Nose Operation


There is sometimes in life events so important that it is necessary to write them down so they will never be erased from our memories. I have just lived such an event and although my writing is neither the most beautiful nor the most gifted, I am going to write in this journal the tragedy that I have just lived.

Where do I begin? By the beginning, I guess, but where is the beginning, in my birth, in my arrival to Chicoutimi, to Jean-François's birth or yesterday evening? Arghh!! I hate writing this, but I promised that I should do it. Then, I am going to begin with a brief overview of my life.

My parents, Johanne Cantin and Pascal Tessier met each other’s at UQAM* university and they felt madly in love, and then they had me, Bernadette Tessier. A little while after my birth, my father received a job offer, which he could not refuse. This is how we all moved to New York. It was a disaster. My mother did not like very much Montreal; she hated New York. She had studied in Montreal because she had followed her soon to be "ex-chum", but my mother was never a woman of big cities. She is a woman of big spaces and New York was definitely not done for her. Furthermore, her career went nowhere and my father, who was working very hard, was never at home. What should happen arrived; my parents separated. I was four years old and I followed my mother in her hometown called Chicoutimi.

Chicoutimi, province Quebec, country Canada. It is a regional city situated on the edge of the Saguenay River and the Chicoutimi River. It is a proud and dynamic city of around 65 000 inhabitants. It is there that I grew up with my mother. After the separation, my father returned rather quickly to Montreal and I was going to see him every summer. But I must admit, Chicoutimi was where I felt at home and I did my mischief with my friends Antoine Dubuc-Tremblay and Sophie Gauthier. It is as well with them that I accepted my mutant's condition. Meanwhile, my mother married Eric Ferguson and so appeared in my life my half brother Jean-François. My mother pursued her career and today, she is in charge of Fortec's administration, one of the region most important forest companies.

For my part, after secondary school, I completed one year at the CĂ©gep * de Chicoutimi to obtain the credits necessary for my admittance to the military school at Kingston. With my good grades and my exemplary behavior, I obtained an Epsilon post at Department H in Toronto. I finally revealed to my bosses that I was a mutant and so I became Solstice of Alpha Flight.

Some days ago, I returned to Chicoutimi for the holidays. Yesterday evening, Sophie, Antoine and I were going to continue the tradition by being volunteers for Red Nose Operation. Once upon a time, there was an organization in Chicoutimi, which did the same thing as Red Nose, but only the last one exists today.

Sophie, with her new "char" * picked up Antoine and then stopped at my parent's house. My mother, as the good hostess that she is and especially not to make my friends freeze outside, invited them inside the house. We had an old beautiful Canadian house situated near the university. My mother welcomed them, told them that they had changed and that she wanted to know more about their life. My father-in-law greeted them with his traditional "how wiz wiz you?" * and everybody answered laughing. I do not know why, but this joke always makes me laugh. It’s so stupid, but it’s Eric’s facial expression with his false accent that makes it funny. Eric is not very good in English, but not that bad!

And finally, Jeff came to do his greetings. Jeff, it is Jean-François's diminutive. Luckily, he refrained from telling one of his constants insipid jokes. As his father could be funny, as he was boring and annoying. Since my arrival, he was rather gloomy and even at Grand-ma’s Christmas party he did not make his usual show. Maybe he realized that he was not really funny. Or maybe not. As I was able to understand, since one year, which corresponds to the appearance of his mutant powers, Jeff had changed a lot, physically and mentally. He was now 15 years old and he was now a little bigger than I. He looked a little like his father with his short brown hairs and his hazelnuts eyes. My relation with Jean-François was always difficult. Younger, he would follow me everywhere like a little dog and I had to baby-sit him all the time. When you are a teenager, it is not what you want. You want to be as much as possible independent of your family and you want to enjoy yourself with your friends. Well, I grew up and I appreciate much more my family now, which does not change that Jeff annoys me. On the other hand, I probably unintentionally complicated his life and I think that he resent me a little. With a concern of transparency, the Director H revealed, with our approval, the public identities of all the members of Alpha Flight. I had not thought about Jean-François in all this. He gets bullied because I am a mutant and because I have a bigger power than him. Jeff has the power to see perfectly well in the dark, but when he uses his powers, is eyes shine fluorescent red. It is not the most useful power especially that there is already a thing, which allows everybody to see in the dark. In a way, he should be happy to not have a power like mine; he does not risk killing people like I do.

Suddenly, we heard a car’s horn. It was Jeff’s friends that came to pick him up. Jeff put hurriedly his boots and his winter coat, and then he quickly greeted us before going out of the house to join his friends in the car. My mother and Eric did not like very much the way Jeff’s friends picked him up, but they could do nothing on this subject.

Sophie, who was still waiting in the hallway with Antoine, reminded me that it would be a good time to leave if we wanted to arrive on time for the operation Red Nose meeting. My mother added, on a mocking tone, that Sophie was right and that I should leave because the Geneviève Bujold festival would soon begin on television. This Quebecer actress had passed away recently and TVA choose to honor her by showing her best films among which were king of heart, Anne of the thousand days, Dead ringer, Les Noces de papiers, Earthquake and several other films which I forget the names.

Having put my boots, my coat, my toque and my mitts, I was finally ready to follow my friends outside. For a winter’s night, it was not too cold. The snow fell quietly and at the lights of the lampposts and the Christmas decorations, this landscape had something magical. Sadly, the winter is essentially the cold, the entrance shoveling and getting ride of the snow on the car. Sophie was exactly doing that at that moment. She was removing the snow, which was on her automobile.

I congratulated her on her new purchase. Sophie had just finished her studies at UQAC* university and she quickly found a job as a social worker. The first thing she did after having signed her contract was to buy for herself a new car "full equip" * as we would say. There was even a GPS with roadmaps included in the car.

Once we arrived at Red Nose headquarters, we had to wait to receive the equipments, the explanations and the first costumer’s coordinate. While waiting, we talked about what happened to us since our last meeting and the time seems to fly that way. Antoine had hesitated for a long time before joining the École National de Théâtre in Montreal, but after trying for some years the various programs in our “beautiful” school system, Antoine had to face the evidence that only an actor profession could make him happy. He had changed a lot since he moved to Montreal. He showed now a confidence and a joy of living, which missed him horribly in adolescence. He even had a "blonde"* and I am going to meet her tomorrow because she’s coming to Chicoutimi to be with Antoine for New Year.

It’s Antoine’s father who helped me the most to control and to understand my powers. He is a physics professor at the Cégep de Chicoutimi. Fortunately, my powers appeared gradually. I fast realized that I was a mutant whose powers were connected with light and heat energies. I noticed as well that the more I knew about my powers, the easier it was for me to control them. Mister Tremblay, Antoine’s father, allowed me to learn how my powers work and to know its limits. Sadly, I have never really liked physics. I like to know roughly speaking the theories and the physical theorems, which explain concretely how my power works, but I do not understand completely these scientific explanations and I’m still not sure that I will understand one day.

I think that the physics has too many hypotheses and theories. Me, what I like, it’s the concrete. That is why I swore, when I learned that I was a mutant that I would use those powers for the good and to defend people against evil. This seemed to me more interesting than to play with the magnetic or electric flows. I was as well only 12 years old when I made this promise and now, I know that it’s not so easy to differentiate good from evil, but I remain faithful to the main part of my promise; protect people.

Alpha Flight would have been the best medium to concretize my promise, but at that time, this group did not exist any more. In fact, there was no more super human team to protect Canada. We needed one at all costs, but with the army’s (and Alpha Flight by association) bad history of exploiting mutants, I was suspicious. I’m a potentially dangerous weapon and I must stay in control of my body and my spirit. It is for these reasons that I had decided to strengths my physical and mental education by studying at the Military School of Canada in Kingston. The military and strategic studies seemed to me the best program for my ambitions. It was as well important that I become an officer even if I do not like to command others. Like that, I could obtain an important function to form the next super human team or at least to influence its development.

I had not foreseen that Alpha Flight would be re-form that quickly. The concern of transparency and the attitude of the new Director H had calm down a little my fears. Besides, during my studies I saw of little closer the new Department H administration. Often life helps us. One of my friends at School had a very handsome brother working as Epsilon guard. I fell in love with him and he, of me. I often went see him in Toronto and I took advantage of it to make me known to the new department H leaders. I showed them my interest for a future career as an Epsilon guard (it was Alpha Flight which I wanted, but that, I was not ready to told them). My love relation with William came to an end after one and a half year frequentations. "C'Ă©tait pas le bon" (1) as would say my grandmother.

A little while after my arrival in the Epsilon guards, I revealed my mutant powers to the whole world and I finally became a member of Alpha Flight. I leave with Ramsey and Sabra the team leadership. I trust them enough. I love my team mates from Alpha and Beta of all my heart, but I am afraid for them, afraid for me, afraid that somebody betrays us and that we becomes marionettes in the hands of persons thirsting for powers. I often have that nightmare.

Well, it’s enough daydreaming! We were thus Antoine, Sophie and I in the headquarters of Red Nose. We had finally received our equipments, which were three Red Nose waistcoats, three miniatures radios with headsets and a laptop with GPS integrated. We were ready to leave for our first mission. Like Antoine liked to say, "Nous sommes les agents de Nez-Rouge Ă* la recherche de soĂ»lons Ă* raccompagner avec leur propre voiture!" (2)

Our first customer wanted to return home after a substantial supper at the restaurant Chez Georges. He had called Red Nose and he had left his name, his localization and a description of his car. Our laptop had taken its coordinates and we took the direction of 433, rue Racine Est. Antoine and I met the mister who was waiting inside the restaurant. The guy gave to Antoine is car keys. My friend sat down in the customer’s automobile driver seat. The client took place in front of the car and I sat down behind. I wrote the client home address in the laptop and thanks to the GPS, the computer drew the shortest route. I informed Antoine and Sophie of the road to take. The three of us were in constant communication thanks to the radios and the headsets. We took the road and Sophie followed us in her car.

No one could have said that the customer, a man with a belly of about 40 years, had drunk to much alcohol. He had taken a lot of wine during the evening and he had asked for Red Nose only as a prevention measure. Some minutes later, we arrived at his house. Antoine stopped the car in the house hallway and handed back the car’s keys to the customer. After saying our goodbyes to our customer, Antoine and I joined Sophie in her automobile. We then contacted with the laptop the headquarters to know the coordinates of our next customer.
We spent a good part of the evening and the night to drive back people home. At about 2 o'clock in the morning, we were driving back home a cheerful couple who sang to us all the winter’s or Christmas’s songs that they knew, from "Mon pays" of Gilles Vigneault* to "Minuit Chrétien", when the headquarters warns us, with the radios, that an accident had been reported on the road 170 which connects Chicoutimi to Jonquière. A bizarre phenomenon had followed this disaster but they could not say more. We were exactly on this road in the direction of Chicoutimi.

Even in the dark we could see that there was something strange right in front of us. I decided to go and see closer this strange phenomenon. I warn Sophie and Antoine of my intentions and I asked them to stay here until my return. I left in the car my winter clothes and the radio because my powers could burn them. I went out of the old "minoune" * belonging to our customers and I took my flight. From the sky, I could better examine the abnormality. It had the shape of a black dome with a base of approximately 50 meters in diameter. The police did not arrived yet but it should not be to long. Strangely, there was nobody near the dome and I saw no sign of accident on the road.

If there had really been an accident, I had to go inside this dome to save the survivors. I knew nothing about this dark shape and only an idiot would approach it without being afraid of a hostile reaction. The caution dictated me to do certain tests so I would know a little bit more on the nature of this dome. I thus threw stones in the direction of the dark mass. The stones disappeared behind the black obsidian wall. I also check the dome with a branch. I did not felt resistance when I pushed it into the darkness. I finally decided to put my hand into the abyss. Excepted for my eyes, my other senses perceived no difference between the inside of the dome and the outside. I did the only thing, which was left to do; I penetrated into the dark mass.

I was in absolute darkness. I could only see the darkness, I hardly saw one meter in front of me. I was walking because the contact with the ground gave me at least an orientation and I would have lost this point of reference by flying. Now, I wanted to go to the center of the dome but in this blackness, the task was not easily achieved. I moved slowly and I threw some beams of light, hoping to see a little more in this twilight. I did not really like this situation. I was alone and I felt an easy prey for whoever could see in this darkness.

No, really I hated this dome. Besides the darkness, I began to feel the cold, but it was impossible because I do not feel the cold. My powers always protected me against climatic variations. My adrenalin rose of a notch while I tried to find a logical explanation. For once, my toque and my mitts would have been useful for other things than to keep the gossips at bay.

Always walking, I perceived to my left two brilliantly red points and my heart, which was already beating rather fast, reach its paroxysm at this moment. " Faites que je me trompe. Ça peut pas être Ce que je pense. " (3) Did I keep saying to myself. I went to the red light as quickly as possible by avoiding the ravine and some car’s fragments. I was now in the snow and my hand was touching what seemed to be a vehicle. I was near my goal. Then, for a moment, it seems that my heart had stopped beating. Even with my military training, I was not ready for this. It was what I had been afraid of. My brother Jean-François was in front of me, hurt and in a state of shock. By automatism and because he needed it, I verified his health. I could see blood everywhere on him but the wounds that I could examine in this darkness and this cold seemed superficial. It was especially the cold, which disturbed me. It was such a long time ago that I had to fell the climatic variations that I did not knew any more if Jeff was colder than he should have been or if it was my hands that were too cold. A thing still worried me more: my brother was stuck in the car and he kept repeating: "Mes jambes, mes jambes..." (4)

I wanted to put him out of this torpor, so I slapped him a little in the face, but I stopped after the first slap. He was hard as frozen meat. And it’s at that moment that everything became clear. I should have guessed it before! The cold and the darkness are opposite powers from mine and these powers complete very well the night-vision, which he already possesses. Jean-François had created the dome and the accident must have provoked the emergence of these new powers.

My small slap had produced anyway the effect wanted by taking Jean-François out of its torpor. He recognized me immediately. He hugs me and spoke to me at the same time. I did not listen to his words because my attention was somewhere else. He squeezed me so hard in his arms, that rather to feel the human heat of this embrace, I felt even colder. The cold increased with the length of the embrace and Jeff did not wanted to leave me. I began to struggle but he was strong and he did not wanted to release me. I felt even more hardly the cold that froze my blood and I thought that I was going to die from hypothermia. I panicked and I changed for a microsecond into my heat shape to fight this possible death. Jean-François released me immediately, shouting in pain.

Jeff did not seem to feel the Siberian colds and the fluorescent eyes did not make the difference between the night and the total darkness that reigns here. At the moment, he only understood that I had burned him by refusing him my comfort. He then begun to say stuff like I was always there for the others but never for him and that I had probably never liked him. I did not know he thought that. I told him that we should speak and that it should have been done a long time ago, but it will have to wait a little more because there was an emergency here. He grumbled a little but I managed to make him realize that at the moment, there was an extreme cold doubled with an abnormal darkness and that he was the cause of it all. Needless to say that I could not support any more the cold and that I warmed myself the best I could by alternating from my heat shape to my normal shape. Sadly, I cannot use my heat form for more than some seconds and Jean-François knew how much this shape drains me of my energy. He fast understood, at my great surprise, that I would not do such an exercise simply as a joke and that’s how he believed me.

Now, Jean-François had to concentrate. He had to look inside himself to see how his powers worked, to feel their effects on the environment and to finally control it. In ideal conditions, this type of exercise could take several minutes; see several hours. We could not take all this time if we wanted to save the life of the possible accident survivors. I also did not knew if I could stay with Jean-François for a long time and continue to switch back and forth between the cold and the warmth. The accident had left Jeff stuck in the car with some bruises and cuts. He had a big headache, and that is without mentioning the burns I inflicted him unintentionally. My brother probably had consumed an important quantity of alcohol because his breath gave out the characteristic smell. He was not in the ideal conditions to concentrate.

I explained to him what he should do to control his powers, based on my personal experiences and mister Tremblay teaching, my good physics professor and Antoine’s father. At my big surprise, Jean-François said almost right away to me that he felt bizarre, as if he was drained of is vital energies. He had reached the first stage in record time. My brother progressed very fast. First, we should get rid of the unusual cold. This last one hurt me very badly. I should have left this refrigerated dome a long time ago, but I could not, not as long as there was hope for survivors.

In a short lapse of time, Jeff had restored the temperature to its normal state. I think I’ve never been so proud of him in all my life. I was exhausted. All my body was shaking from exhaustion when I collapsed on the ground, finding myself on my knees just in front of my brother. He was suffering horribly and before taking care of the darkness which he produced, he says to me: "Promet moi qu'on va se parler Ă* coeur ouvert comme on l'a jamais fait quand tout cela sera fini. Promet moi que tu vas Ă©crire ce qui c'est passĂ© ici en mettant l'accent sur ta promesse et que tu montreras la lettre Ă* papa et maman. Comme cela, on ne pourra pas oublier." (5) I promised. Jean-François returned to his concentration and very quickly the stars and the moon appeared in the sky.

Even if it was still dark, I could now see the crashed car and one of its passengers. It was not beautiful to see. The car had struck a phone post quite hard and there was no doubt about it, Jeff’s friend was no more of this world. I wanted to verify the others passenger’s state in front of the car but Jean-François did not wanted to release my hand. Now that the dome was gone, the police could come towards us and I said to myself that they could take care of my brother’s friends.

Jeff explained to me that his friends and him had wanted to go to another party in Jonquière. My brother was not fit to drive because he was too much drunk, but he trusted his friends for the transport. He went inside his friend’s car thinking that the driver was sober. He noticed too late that the driver was as drunk as him and maybe even more. The irresponsible at the steering wheel enjoyed zigzagging on the road when the car slid on the ice. He lost control and the car left the road to collide on a phone post. Jean-François swore to me that he would never taken a car driven by a drunken person. He did not think that people could still be that stupid. I did not know what to answer. Silently, I hugged him softly in my arms, letting him sob.

Suddenly, I heard my name. I turned around and I saw my two best friends coming towards me. I began to get up to meet them when I felt stuns and it’s at that moment that everything became dark.

I regain consciousness some minutes later in the ambulance, which drove me to Chicoutimi's hospital. The hospital did a battery of test on me. The doctor finally said to me what I already knew; that I needed rest and to eat well. I had fainted only because I had used too intensely and for a to long period of time my power. During my tests, mom and Eric had been warned of the accident and they had joined me at the hospital. Of course, they were very worried, but when they learned my diagnostic, their stress decreased a little. Only Jean-François's state remained to be known. My little brother was still on the operation table.

The waiting was unbearable. Everyone killed the time as best they could. My mother tried to know the fate of the other passengers involved in the accident. That is how we learned that 4 persons were in the car and only Jean-François survived. The police thought that Jeff’s friends had died right away when the car hit the tree, but we will have to wait for the forensic surgeon’s report to confirm this hypothesis. Eric was speaking on the phone with Antoine’s father and they were planning a program, a little like they did with me, so Jeff could master his powers. Sophie and Antoine were waiting with us not knowing what to do to help us. I called my father to tell him the recent events, but especially, to tell him that I could not come to Montreal as expected. I would try to be at the Tessier party but at the moment, Jean-François needed me. I was also worried by Jeff's powers or I should say about my vulnerability to his powers. His darkness had wrapped my light and I had intensely felt the cold, which he emitted. Had he reached a temperature so extreme that my natural protection against the cold did not worked or was I simply more sensitive to his powers, because he is my brother?

I had begun to write this night events, as I had promised Jeff, when the doctor comes to inform us of my brother’s health. Jeff had several bruises and minor cuts. He had as well burns of the first and second degree. I was the cause of these burns, but the flash of heat, which had burned him, should not have made so much damages. The flash of heat I created had not the intensity to burns at the second degree. Was Jeff also vulnerable to my powers as I was to his?

And then the doctor told us the worst. For a faction of second, I had the impression that the earth had stopped turning. Jean-François had a fracture of the spinal column at the level of the waist and the spinal chord was affected. He will never walk again. I suspected it, but it is the kind of thing that you realize only if you are forced to admit it. I do not know the words to express what I feel and when the words misses you, you must stop writing, you must join your family and give them all the love that you have because they will need it.

I love you little brother.

Fin


(1)C'Ă©tait pas le bon = It was not the good one.
(2)Nous sommes les agents de Nez-Rouge Ă* la recherche de soĂ»lons Ă* raccompagner avec leur propre voiture! = We are Red Nose agents in search of drunk to take back home with their own car!

(3)Faites que je me trompe. Ça peut pas être ce que je pense. = Please, I hope I’m wrong. That cannot be what I think it is.

(4)Mes jambes, mes jambes... = my legs, my legs...

(5)Promet moi qu'on va se parler Ă* coeur ouvert comme on l'a jamais fait quand tout cela sera fini. Promet moi que tu vas Ă©crire ce qui c'est passĂ© ici en mettant l'accent sur ta promesse et que tu montreras la lettre Ă* papa et maman. Comme cela, on ne pourra pas oublier. = Promises me that we will have a heart to heart conversation like we never had before when this is going to be over. Promises me that you are going to write down what happen here by putting an emphasis on your promise and that you will show the letter to dad and mom. Like this, no one will forget.

· Small Lexicon

Blonde = girlfriend in Québécois. Not good french.

Cégep = Collège d’Enseignement Général Et Professionnel (general and professional educational college). Between the secondary school and the university. Secondary school corresponds more or less to high school.

Char = car in Québécois. Not good french.

Chum = boyfriend in Québécois. Not good french.

Full equip = was in English in the French version.

How wiz wiz you? = How are you? Joke of the television show 100 limites in the 90s when Richard Z Sirois claimed to speak in English to the ex hockey player of the Canadiens Larry Robinson.

Minoune = Old car or a cat in Québécois. Not good french.

Minuit chrétien = (Christian midnight?) It’s a Christmas song, which probably exists in English too, but I don’t know the good translation.

TVA = Television channel in Québec and maybe all over Canada. (Like ABC, CBC, NBC…)

UQAC = UniversitĂ© du QuĂ©bec Ă* Chicoutimi (Quebec university in Chicoutimi)

UQAM = UniversitĂ© du QuĂ©bec Ă* MontrĂ©al (Quebec university in Montreal)

Vigneault (Gilles), Natashquan, Quebec, born in 1928, French Canadian singer. He writes, composes and interprets songs that evoke the different facets of his country and it’s culture (Mon pays, Tam ti delam). Taken from the dictionary Le petit Larousse
illustré.