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:
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Alpha Flight #2: "Heart to Heart."
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!



Sasquatch looked at his enormous, orange, muscular and furry hands. "I can't stand being stuck in this body."

"I do not know what to tell you," Aurora replied, her accent still quite thick.

Sasquatch looked over at her, her small, shapely frame, beautiful to behold, while his own was large, muscular and out of proportion. "I don't seem to have much luck in the way of bodies. I go from my own, to Tarnaq's, then to Box, then to Snowbird's, then to a woman's form, then shifted to my original form, still with Snowbird's body; then kicked out of that, and back into Tarnaq's."

"In time," Aurora tried to assure him, "you may learn to shift back to a human form. Michael says that in the readings, he sees that it's possible; but the body is unaware of how to do it."

"I know," Sasquatch nodded, placing his head into his gigantic hands. "The thing is, the hero thing isn't what I always wanted to do with my life. I wanted to be a scientist. I sort of fell into this hero thing when Hudson found out about me. But first and foremost, I wanted to be a scientist; I wanted to unlock the secrets of the world." He looked once more at his hands, "And with these… hands of mine… there's no way I can handle fragile chemicals or glass vials."

"Hey, you two," another voice whispered. "I ain't disturbing nothing am I?"

Aurora turned around, "Kyle! No, no, nothing at all. We were just talking."

She stood up and brushed herself off.

Wildchild looked to Sasquatch. "Mind if I borrow her for a moment? There's a few things I needed to tell her, if you don't mind?"

Sasquatch waved his hand. "No, no problem at all, Kyle. What we were talking about can wait. Trust me."


Wildchild and Aurora walked along the shore…

"What is it you wanted to talk to me about, Kyle?" Aurora asked, her arm entwined within his.

"About us," Wildchild replied. "About our past… relationship."

Aurora paled. "I am sorry for my reaction. I did not mean to attack you back then."

Wildchild shook his head. "Don't worry about it, JM. You may not have been within your own, right mind."

Aurora looked at Wildchild, aghast. "Are you suggesting one of my personalities surfaced and is to blame?"

"No," Wildchild replied, matter-of-factly. "As a matter of fact, neither of us are to blame. The feelings we felt back then were not our own. They were… forced on us."

"What do you mean?" Aurora asked, pausing.

"Well, from my time with The Master, I learned from Mesmero and his daughter, Murmur, that they had manipulated our minds," Wildchild explained. "Seems that Mesmero learned of his daughter, Murmur, and found out she was a mutant, with the same powers as himself, though much more limited."

He looked at the distant sky, then back to Aurora, "So he sought out some weaker minds to train her on."

"What?" Aurora shouted. "Are you saying what I think you are?"

Wildchild nodded. "Yes. They were in Canada, because Murmur's mother is from here. They knew of our history… with less than stable minds… and used us… to train Murmur to advance her powers."

Aurora began to glow brightly. "I will kill them!" she shouted. "I will kill them all!"

Wildchild shook his head. "Don't. It's done. They used us, they paid when we fought them and beat them to the ground."

"That is not enough!" Aurora barked back.

"Perhaps it's not," Wildchild shook his head. "But that's not up to us anymore. They are in the hands of the law."

"Then we shall become the new law," Aurora sneered. "We shall judge them and execute what we see fit!"

"And the moment you do," Wildchild remained remarkably calm, a sharp contrast to Aurora. "The moment you do, you're no better than them."

The light faded and she shook her fists. "It's not right."

"You're right," Wildchild agreed. "It's not. But then again, we will probably see them again."


[Beneath Madison's home… ]

Vindicator stood over Shaman's shoulder. "Have you managed to get any information about her?"

Shaman shook his head. "I managed to retrieve some information from the Department H files that we were able to save. A lot of the data is corrupt or damaged beyond repair. But it looks here that there's not much known about our new guest, other than she goes by the name Lilli – and that's only because that's the name Department H gave her. Seems that she was some kind of transfer from Department M, but that data and information is lost."

"It seems during her time with Department H, her superhuman powers caused a number of difficulties for her handlers. It's difficult to keep someone locked up when she can become intangible," Shaman said, looking over at Vindicator. Both of them looked at the girl who called herself "Ghost Girl" as she sat, cradling herself.

"And apparently she ran away several times," Shaman continued. "During her unauthorized excursions, she had actually met Diamond Lil and Madison."

"Right," Vindicator nodded. "And Diamond Lil said there's something familiar about her, but she couldn't place it."

"There's a lot of mystery behind her origin," Shaman pressed a button on the keyboard. "And her ability to turn completely intangible and pass through solid objects, will make it difficult for us to keep her here if she wants to leave. Something interesting here," Shaman pointed at the screen, "it seems she's developed her powers somewhat during her time with Department H. She was able to use her own body, to create, what they describe as a `doorway' to allow others to pass through solid objects."

Vindicator shook his head. "I just hope we can help her."

"The best we can do is try," Shaman looked up. "The best we can do is try."

[ Somewhere not too far… ]

A female stood on a roof top, looking through a mask that covered her entire face. She looked from left to right, then jumped down, gliding almost upon the air.

Landing on a flag pole, she spun around, and landed on the ground. She put her sword to her face, and smiled. "Alpha Flight, ready or not, here I come."


TO BE CONTINUED!
NEXT ISSUE: Alpha Flight's returning Nemesis!


Special thanks to DMK's Alpha Flight website for giving me the resources I needed when I was tired of flipping through my endless pages of notes! Please feel free to visit DMK's website at:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Labyrinth/5525/