This is a small piece of new Fan-Fiction written by myself.
Three chapters, followed by a short breakdown of who is on the team.
Enjoy!
Chapter One
A scene inside a government penitentiary, maximum security. Outside, heavily armed and armoured guards, high stone walls, guards towers, machine gun posts, barb-wire, everybody on high alert at all times. Inside, cold and starkly barren white walls, fluorescent lights, long corridors broken up only by the many sets of floor-to-ceiling iron bars and the heavy and thick metal doors.
One large room, where a group of three distinguished individuals are seated on a platform behind a long table; all three are frowning heavily.
The man in the middle clears his throat and looks up from the papers before him.
“Mister Cody, this is an extremely unusual request you have brought before us today.”
The slight man with the strong spectacles stood up, from behind a small table in front of and to the side of the three member panel. His reddish-brown hair was receding, although he was still only in his very early-forties. His moustache was small and pencil thin. But his voice was the opposite of what one would expect from this man, as it boomed out with good-natured confidence.
“Yes, and I am thankful that you have taken the time today to review my work with your…guest here. The fact that you have allowed me the time to interview him extensively these last few weeks, gives me great hope that you are going to allow me to continue on the work of my brother, Gary. After all, if you didn’t believe in what I have been doing with Mr. Cassidy, I don’t think you would have invited me here to his parole hearing. I stand by my research, my stated goals, and my strong belief that I can make this work. And my government stands behind me, as well. Gentlemen and lady…I respectfully await your approval.”
The man in the middle takes off his glasses and rubs the bridge of his nose. The woman to his left leans forward, elbows on the table, and speaks.
“And what of you, Mr. Cassidy? What do you think of all this? Are you in agreement that this…job opportunity…that is waiting for you on the other side of these walls…that this is something that is to your liking, something you can throw yourself behind?”
Gordon Cody sits back down. Only his one hand rubbing his chin betrays any sign of his nervousness, as he looks over to the table that is facing the three on the podium.
The man in the orange prison jumpsuit looks up. He begins to rise from his chair, causing the two guards on either side of him to react, one hitting him in the stomach with a nightstick and the pressing a Tazer to his side and jolting him with electricity. He sinks back into his chair with a loud groan, his head slumping forward and whacking on the table in front of him.
The distinguished woman waves irritably at the two guards. “For the love of pete, let him stand up and speak for himself, would you! The man could be a free man tomorrow; at least do him the courtesy of not hitting him until he actually tries to make a break for it, would you please?”
Gordon Cody chews on his bottom lip.
After a few moments, the man in orange raises his head again. He looks at the table with the three people behind it, then glances over at Gordon Cody. Looking forward again, he slowly rises to his feet. Gordon Cody wonders to himself if he is the only one who notices the way the man glances at his two guards out of the corners of his eyes as he does so…
He reaches his feet. His hands are shackled in front of him; his feet are bare on the cold floor. His hair is short, dark, so dark as to be pitch black, and parted in the middle. His nose is thin and pointed. His eyebrows are dark and thick. His moustache and pointed goatee are neatly trimmed. He has a strong face, one many women would find handsome. Then he scowls briefly, and for just one small moment his rugged handsomeness is lost in one small look of regal rage, and then the look disappears. He breathes in deeply, and address the three he is facing, in his Irish accent.
“Aye…I’m ready to be out of here, that is for sure. But there is more to my story than that…my story of redemption, as it were. It is a long story, to be sure, and it had its roots a long time ago. But of late, there be nothing more I have wanted to do, aye, nothing a’tall more precious to me, than hearing the wondrous offer Mr Cody has so generously extended to me on behalf of his Canadian government. Once, I was called Black Tom Cassidy. And I reckon that I always will, what with my dark hair and all. But the blackness that was in my heart for so long…that is a part of me that I have said good riddance to. So, when y’ask me if’n I’m ready to go out and conquer me demons, the answer is a firm and resounding aye. Aye, I’m ready. The government of Canada is putting itself in a predicament, trusting an ex-con to be a part of their new Alpha Flight team. But Black Tom appreciates what they are doin’ for him, and Black Tom’ll make sure he plays by the rules, all the rules, that’s for sure.”
And with that, he sat back down.
Gordon Cody bit his bottom lip again. He glanced at the table. The three at the big table put their heads together, and some whispering ensued. The man in the middle was frowning and gesturing as he shook his head. The man to his right, dressed in the white coat that proclaimed him of the medical profession, stabbed his pencil repeatedly at the clipboard full of papers that he pushed towards the man in the middle. The woman to his left put her hand over his and spoke softly, but firmly.
The deliberating took barely four minutes, but felt like it lasted a lifetime.
At last, the man in the center stood up. “Prisoner Tom Cassidy, you may rise now,” he said. The woman to his left glared at him; he glanced at her, then cleared his throat as Tom Cassidy got slowly to his feet.
“Black Tom Cassidy, this institution finds you to be a free man, your debt to society paid at this time. As of noon tomorrow, you are to be remanded into the custody of the Canadian government, and her representative Mr. Gordon Cody, and are to be flown directly to Canada once released by this penal institution. There, as per the agreement laid out, you are to remain for the full three years of your probation, and not to exit that country except as your work demands. Should you ever be found on American soil, for a non-work-related incident, you will be locked up and incarcerated for the rest of your natural life, if there is any justice at all.” The man leaned over and stamped a piece of paper in front of him. “Black Tom, let us never see your troubled face again. Dismissed!”
Black Tom Cassidy let out a sigh of relief, and Gordon Cody’s face beamed out a smile bright enough to grow plants under.
“May I have a word with Tom?” asked Special Agent Cody, of Canada’s Hudson Department, of the three figures behind the desk. The woman smiled, and answered him; “You can walk with him as far as the security area. He is back to his cell tonight, but he’s all your tomorrow at noon. Take good care of him, Mr. Cody…we really hope we never see him behind these walls again.”
Gordon nodded and ran to catch up to Black Tom as his guards escorted him from the room and into the hallway. The two guards fell back ten feet behind as Gordon and Tom walked together.
“I hope you are ready for this, Tom. This is your big chance, your last and best chance to make a go of it…”
Black Tom Cassidy smiled at the suited Canadian. “Aye, I know all that. And I am truly thankful for this opportunity, I am. Please tell your government just how happy I am to be serving under them, would you?”
Gordon nodded. “I will do that.”
“As much as I appreciate you and your government working out this plan for me, taking these risks to set up this chance for me…”
He paused. When he did not continue, Gordon glanced at expectantly him as they walked.
“Your government did do for me that other favour that I asked of them, didn’t they Mr. Cody?” asked Black Tom.
“Of course they did, Tom. He is waiting for you in Canada. Knowing how he feels about you, he’ll probably be the first person to greet you when you disembark the plane.”
“Ah, that’s good to hear!” smiled Tom.
“But that is not what you were going to say, is it, Tom? You were mentioning something about us setting up this chance for you, then you stopped. Are you going to finish that thought, or do I have to get it out of you in more therapy sessions?”
“Nah, I’ll yell ye. As long as me old pal Juggs is on-board for this Canadian superhero thing, I’m not goin’ to hide nothin’ from ya, Gordon. See, I was just thinking that you and the government put all this work in to give me a second chance, and how nice that is of you to do. But…did you notice how close that vote was to release me?”
Gordon Cody nodded. “Looks like your doctor was on your side, but the two other chair-people were divided. The director didn’t seem to trust your rehabilitation too much.”
“Aye, I’m thinkin’ it was the vote of Ms. Dancey that swung it in my favour. She’s mainly in charge of the paperwork here at this prison; did you know that, Mr. Cody? But she is also a qualified psychiatrist herself. A very smart woman, that one. She should be running this place, not that dumbbell Director Stacey Cookson!”
“Cookson…that was the guy in the middle, then; didn’t remember his name. But…what does this have to do, exactly, with my government taking a chance on you? I’m not understanding.”
As they were getting close to a large metal door set into the hallway, Black Tom slowed his walking pace. He faced partially towards Special Agent Cody. “Black Tom never leaves anything to chance. If hers was the swing vote, then it is a good thing that Black Tom slept with her last week, isn’t it?” He smiled, and winked, then stepped closer to the metal door. The two guards had caught up by now, and pushed past Cody, who was standing stil and nodding to himself. ‘Smart,’ he thought. ‘Very smart indeed. Just as smart as I thought he was, and more so!’
Chapter Two
The interior of a building in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Looks like an unused office building of some sort. Many cubicles, but nobody working.
A hallway, with a water cooler and some dead potted plants in it. Just around the corner form it, comes the sound of a loud machine humming, followed by the sound of a falling can. Seconds later, a shout.
Snowbird, in full uniform, comes around the corner towards the water cooler, dripping wet with a dark coloured liquid running off her face. She is NOT smiling.
She half turns behind her as she marches past the water cooler, throwing words over her shoulder angrily. “I can open my own stupid can of cola, you know! There’s no NEED for you to follow me around, and then slice open my can of pop with those stupid bone-blades of yours! Stop following me, and leave me alone!!!”
She storms by the water cooler, and around another corner and off. Following her at a quick jog comes none other than Yukon Jack, dressed in his fur loincloth. The tattooed black symbols on his arms and chests are glowing. He stops in front of the water cooler, staring at it with a puzzled expression. He pokes it hard, with one finger, and the bottle jiggles and the water within swishes around. Yukon Jack stares for a few more seconds, then shrugs and hurries off after Snowbird, calling after her; “You should be happy, wife, that a god such as myself would love you enough to stoop to opening cans of soda pop for you…”
As he steps around the corner she previously went around, her voice, very angry, comes floating back towards the water cooler. “I am…NOT…your wife, and you are…NOT…a god. Now…stop….following…me!” As the last word came out, there was a pause, followed by the angry roar of a polar bear, and Yukon Jack hurried back around the corner and went back in the direction he had come from.
In another part of the same building, in a much quieter section. James MacDonald Hudson, Mac to his friends, stepped off an elevator. He was dressed in a brown suit, the tie loosened and hanging askew. A greasy wrench and some hastily folded papers were half falling out of his pocket.
Beside him walked the man known as Puck. He wore his Alpha Flight costume, but with the headpiece pushed back and hanging limply behind him.
“You sure this is going to work out alright, Mac?” asked Puck.
“Eugene, the one thing I am sure of in life, is that you can never be sure of anything.”
Eugene Milton Judd nodded, but said nothing.
Mac continued. “We’ve all been through a hell of a lot lately…no pun intended.” Judd noticeably shuddered. “But, my diminutive friend, we’re here, we’re alive, and our country wants us. And this time, their plan at least sounds like it might work.”
The two walked slowly down the hallway together. Finally, Judd spoke.
“Yeah, but we just get everybody back together, back and in the land of the living, and already so many have gone their separate ways…”
Mac nodded sagely. “The times, they are a-changin’, Puck. We’re all getting older, and we have been through a lot. Some of us…need more time than others to sort out what has happened, figure out who they are and what they want to accomplish. We wouldn’t be friends if we didn’t allow them that space, now would we?”
A distant sound of machinery running, power tools being used, was gradually growing louder as they walked.
Mac continued. “Heather and I, while still legally married…we are not really much of a couple anymore. She’s gone off to her folks place, and rightly so – she has a child to take care of. She needs time. She may be back. I think she’ll be back. But only time will tell us that answer. Walter…well, Walter saw us all die, and he had to live through that pain. I can see it in his eyes…its haunted him. I can’t blame him for saying he wants out of the hero game for now. Walter’s a scientist, and a teacher, and that is what he wants to be. Being a hero was never part of Walter’s plan, you know that as well as I do, Eugene. I wish him well. We’ll miss him; we’ll miss him a lot.”
“And the others, too,” said Judd. The sound of the machinery was now louder.
“Again, Marrina is feeling traumatized. She is the last of her race on this planet. She has been used and abused by her own genetic makeup. She loved, and was subsequently killed by the man she loved. I wish she had stuck around with us, but she needs to go and figure out who she is. Shaman wants to spend time with his daughter, Elizabeth, for the time being, but has promised us that if we should have need of him, he will answer our call. He also mentioned that he wished to track down Earthmover and find out what happened to his one-time protégé, Michael mentioned something about him having too much power and how it was dangerous for him to be left alone with it. Northstar, I never figured he’d stay with us. Apparently he feels he has a good thing going in San Francisco, so he buggered off again…”
“Leaving his sister here!” interjected Puck.
Mac continued. “Yes, that was a surprise. To be honest, I think she only decided to stay after she heard that Walter wasn’t staying. I guess there is a lot of painful history there, still…Lil is dead, I’ve been told. Unlike us, she didn’t get a second chance. That’s a real shame. Nice of Madison to tell us, though. Even nicer of him to come by and help us with our work for a few days; his help really speeded things up in our work. Rachelle and I have it almost all done now, whereas it would have taken us months to accomplish it without his powers assisting us…”
“Which brings us to the new team members, as well as some who have been with us before” said Judd, grinding to a halt in front of a closed metal door. The cacophony of metal screeches and grinding noises came from within.
Mac faced him. “Murmur was a good suggestion on your part, Judd. I’m glad you tracked her down and brought her into the fold. She’s not much older than Rachelle is, which should really help her to fit in with us. I can’t wait for you to meet her.”
“And what about the criminals?” asked Puck bluntly.
Mac frowned. “I thought you would have more compassion on them, Eugene, seeing as how you were once one of them as well. Black Tom Cassidy needed a place to call home. He seemed to be working very hard at rehabilitation while in prison, and had expressed remorse many times over what has happened in his past. Both he and his pal the Juggernaut are a risk, but I think they are good risks for Alpha Flight at this time. Agent Cody and Black Tom should be in the air as we speak, and Aurora and Juggernaut are waiting to meet them at the Ottawa International Airport. They are the last of the team to arrive.”
The metal door suddenly opened, and the red-headed woman who came out almost collided with the two in the hallway. “There you are, Mac!” she cried out, hands on hips. “Hurry up, we need to finish the Box robot so I can take it for a trial run!”
Her red hair was all one length, and fell to the top of the shoulders. Her eyes were blue. She was dressed in a stained white t-shirt, blue denim overalls with grease all over the front of them, and combat boots, and she held a cordless drill in her left hand. And she couldn’t be more than 17 years old, thought Puck to himself.
“Eugene Milton Judd, I’d like you to meet Rachelle Allison Bochs. Rachelle, this is the living legend known as Puck. Eugene, this is the pilot for our new Box robot, and the daughter of the late Roger Bochs himself.”
Rachelle flashed a bright smile, and leaned over slightly and held out her hand to shake with Judd. “I am very pleased to meet you, Mr. Puck. I am going to carry on my father’s legacy. Oh, and I’m 19 years old, by the way, just turned last month.”
Puck stared at her slack-jawed as he released her hand. She shrugged. “I always get asked that; it’s just commonplace for me to tell people my age now.” She glanced back at Mac. “Mac; are you ready to finish up my robot and get her into the air?”
Mac smiled kindly at her. “Let’s get to it!” he said, and the two stepped through the door and it closed hard behind them.
Puck turned and began the walk back to the elevator. He began to mutter aloud to himself. “Two convicts, in Juggernaut and Black Tom Cassidy. A woman who may or may not have split personalities, in Aurora, but at least we are familiar with her. An Inuit goddess in Snowbird, and a strange man who behaves like he is a god, in Yukon Jack. Then there’s me, and then there’s Mac. Then we’ve got the young and inexperienced daughter of a dead Alphan in this Rachelle Bochs, and Murmur, who unfortunately has shown a strange need for physical contact with people. Hmm…yeah, Mac, that’s one big happy family, all right…” Puck sighed. “Oh well. It’s Alpha Flight, and that means it is home.”
Chapter Three
“So, you’re ready then?” asked Mac.
“Ready,” answered Rachelle.
“Okay, just two tests left, then you are certified good-to-go!”
Rachelle stood beside the van in the middle of the empty field. She was dressed in a white front-zippered jumpsuit with a red maple leaf over the left breast, and the same combat boots as before. She glanced inside, where Mac sat at a computer terminal, he now wearing his Guardian battlesuit.
“Um…Mac? Are we going to do this…anytime soon?”
“Oh, sorry.” Mac shook his head. “Just lost in thought. Alright…um, weapons check, then?”
“That’s what I am here for!” the redheaded teenager announced with a big smile.
“Okay…target is that haystack at the other end of the field. Whenever you are ready, let’s give this tin can a go!” said Mac.
She nodded, and stepped away from the van several feet. “Weapons test in three…two…one…test away!”
With that, she reached up and grabbed the zipper of her jumpsuit and quickly unzipped it to her belly. She grabbed both halves of the jumpsuit and pulled it slightly apart at the chest. Two round holes appeared, one over the other, in the middle of her chest, where previously there had been just skin. From these two holes fired two rockets, streaking over the ground, and exploding downfield in a fiery shower of burnt hay.
“Awesome!” cried Mac, crawling out of the van. He stepped over to her and high-fived the teenager. “Rachelle, that worked great! Did you see that!?!”
She hurriedly zipped back up her jumpsuit.
Mac noticed. “Oh, hey, don’t worry about it. Nothing I haven’t seen before, anyways. Heck, I built some of it!”
He bit his bottom lip, hard, as he noticed her blush.
“Really, Rachelle, that worked great. Those chest rockets are a thing of wonder. Your Dad designed those…just perfect. Um…we are going to have to re-design your uniform, however. Hmm…”
“Side zippers,” said Rachelle, looking at him. “Side zippers, so I can get in and out of the costume. Do away with the front zipper, put a hole between the…well, between the boobs, a hole in the costume, just skin showing through there, so I can fire these off without torching my costume in the mix!”
“Yup, that’ll work,” said Mac. “You’ve got a really good brain in there, Rachelle.”
She shrugged. “Only thing that is an original part, actually.” She smiled. “Okay, so the weapons are a go. And we have already checked the legs,” she said, raising one leg in the air, and then smiling as it quickly shot out and extended ten feet. She reeled her leg back in and put it down. “And, the arms, too” she said, raising an arm and also extending it out to ten feet and then back.
“And we’ve already seen you lift the van over your head,” said James MacDonald Hudson. “This robot body isn’t as strong as your Dad’s was, but it isn’t exactly weak, either.”
“And it is a heck of a lot better looking,” said Rachelle with a laugh.
Mac put an arm around her. “Your Dad did a good job keeping you safe. He loved you very much. He designed robots for a living, and he did it all for you.”
“Stupid disease,” said Rachelle Bochs. “But my Dad and I, we beat it in the end. It may have taken my body, but with my brain transplanted into this robot body…ha! Now I get to fight crime and be a hero! How cool is that?!”
“Alright,” said Mac as he took off into the air. He called back down at her. “Get those booster rockets firing, and let’s see how you manoeuvre up in my element!”
There came a rumbling, the ground under Rachelle’s combat boots began to grow hot, and then she slowly rose into the air…
The new Alpha Flight
1. Guardian - James "Mac" MacDonald Hudson
2. Puck - Eugene Milton Judd
3. Snowbird - Narya/Anne MacKenzie
4. Aurora - Jeanne-Marie Beaubier
5. Box - Rachelle Allison Bochs
- 19 year old daughter of the late Roger Bochs. She, with the help of Mac, and Madison Jeffries, created her own version of the Box robot that houses her brain, the rest of her teenage body having been destroyed by disease. It has flight abilities, strength, chest rockets for weapons, and hyper-extension of both arms and legs.
6. Yukon Jack - Yukotujakzurjimozoata
- Yukon Jack can manipulate and enlarge the bone pieces which normally rest over his body, which can apparently slice through anything at will. He also has the power to emit light from his hand, possibly related to the telekinetic bone manipulation. He is a very skilled hand to hand fighter, usually fighting with a very strong and durable bone knife. He is apparently immune to temperature changes despite wearing little more than a loincloth. (from WIKIPEDIA)
7. Murmur - Arlette Truffaut
- Psionic ability that allows her to manipulate others upon physical contact; by touching them they are completely under her control and obey verbal commands. May have other, unknown or unexplained, powers as well?
8. Black Tom Cassidy - Thomas Samuel Eamon Cassidy
- Black Tom is a mutant whose principal power is the ability to generate and discharge concussive blasts of force and heat through any wooden medium. He typically carrisd a shillelagh, a traditional Irish wooden fighting stick, which he uses as a focus for his power. He was immune to Banshee's sonic powers, as each other's powers cancel each other out on contact. Black Tom is a good hand-to-hand combatant, and skilled with bladed weapons: he has carried a sword and battle-axe on occasion. He is also a master of terrorist strategies and tactics.
9. Juggernaut - Cain Marko (stepbrother of Charles Xavier)
- When Cain Marko finds the Gem of the mystical entity Cyttorak, he is empowered with magical energies and transformed into an immortal avatar.As the Juggernaut, Marko possesses superhuman strength, being capable of shattering mountains,lifting and using buildings as weapons,and extreme durability,which is also amplified by a mystical force field that grants invulnerability (at its maximum).When the force field has been temporarily absorbed by Thor's Hammer, the Juggernaut's natural durability proved to be great enough to withstand blows from Thor.The Juggernaut is described as physically unstoppable once in motion,does not tire from physical activity and is able to survive without food, water, or oxygen.The character, however, is vulnerable to mental attacks, a weakness that has been exploited via the removal of his helmet.The Juggernaut has circumvented this weakness by on occasion wearing a metal skullcap inside his main helmet.If Juggernaut loses his helmet he can recreate it by touching certain materials (as long as he possesses the full power of the gem). (from WIKIPEDIA)
10. Shaman - Michael Twoyoungmen
- reserve member of the new Alpha Flight.
