Quidlivun, home of the Inua, the Northern Gods. Peace has been disturbed by the arrival of chaos - the diabolical Chaos King storms into paradise with his army of slave gods, and attack the Northern Gods. ‘You foul creatures dare defile our home?’ Narya a.k.a. Snowbird shouts as she dodges one of the slave gods who lunges at her. Nearby, Snowbird’s mother, Nelvanna, and another of the elder gods discuss the situation. ‘You know we cannot win. Save Narya, for she would sacrifice anything, including herself!’ the other god exclaims, adding that not all of them need die on this day. Nelvanna calls out to her beloved daughter and tells her that she must flee. ‘No, mother! Not without you!’ Snowbird exclaims.
But Nelvanna points out that, unlike Snowbird, she cannot travel between dimensions, and pushes Narya into a portal that opens. ‘The Chaos King may strike us down. But you will find a wa -’ Nelvanna begins - only for the Chaos King to come up behind her and shove his twisted form through her chest. ‘Gods and their egos. Your order is come undone. Falling to chaos!’ the Chaos King exclaims. Snowbird lands on the other side of the portal - ‘M - mother…no!’ she gasps as she reaches for the portal, which begins to close.
Elsewhere, ‘there is darkness on the march. As though the fabric that makes up the multitude of realms has torn asunder the and that gash has taken form. An abomination that stands outside life and death walks among us for the first time, for none of us where there when it was last seen. Beginning with the creators of worlds. The gods themselves’ a voice announces in a strange land where everything is white - the Shattered Lands. The voice continues, announcing that the darkness, the Chaos King, cannot be stopped, and that through his trickery, he has laid a trap - one that ensnares even the most powerful. ‘He has gained dominion over the Council of Godheads, and through the doorways of the Chamber of Gods, he has gained access to ever realm. He is destroying entire pantheons’ - so speaks Somon, the Great Artificer!
Flanked by Tundra, the Land Beast, Kolomaq, the Beast of the Snows, Kariooq, the Corruptor and Tolomaq, the Fire Beast, Somon declares that they, the Great Beasts and Gods of the Elder Night are the next to fall. Standing in the shadows, a figure exclaims. ‘Unless I help. Which I am assuming is the reason you summoned me here. But why would I help you?’ Somon replies that they do not stand a chance here in this realm, that only on Earth can they gain true dominion and the power to stop this. ‘Your connection to our brother Tanaraq allows you access to the portal that keeps us trapped here. If you lead us to Earth, our might will be great enough to kill this Chaos King’ Somon explains, before asking ‘Did you bring what we asked?’
‘It’s here’ the furred form of Dr Walter “Sasquatch” Langkowski exclaims as he holds out a small satchel. Somon declares that with the mystical power that it possesses, combined with Sasquatch’s own will, and their might, they can leave this plane for good. ‘And what makes you think I’d ever help you freaks?’ Sasquatch asks, clamping his hand shut. Somon explains that, given a short time on Earth, they will be restored to their fullest power, and declares that only they have the power to turn the tide on the Chaos King and end his reign. ‘But for that short time, we will be weakened. You and your allies have defeated us in the past. Your cunning and resources may be enough to hold the hordes at bay until we can rise up and defeat them. I believe you mortals have a saying…’ Somon explains.
“My enemy’s enemy is my friend” Sasquatch quotes, adding that he may be big and scary, but that he is only one guy. Monitors appear around the Great Beasts, depicting the fallen Northern Gods, as well as four familiar figures in a blur. Somon announces that Death has fled, and whatever hold she had on those that Sasquatch loves is not free. ‘My loved ones…you mean?’ Walter asks. Somon explains that, to aid Sasquatch those who have defeated the Great Beasts before will be summoned to his side, and that once they Great Beasts have achieved full power, those friends once lost to Sasquatch in death will be fully restored to the mortal plane.
‘When you’re done beating up this god-killer, what’s to stop you from taking over where the Chaos King left off?’ Sasquatch asks. Somon declares that the Great Beasts will make a sacred vow that they will not attempt to lay claim to Earth for one hundred years. Sasquatch looks thoughtful as he recalls that Alpha Flight defeated the Great Beasts before. ‘We will again, you know that, right?’ he asks Somon, who replies that it is an acceptable risk. ‘Do it’ Walter declares, and extends the mystic pouch once more, while Somon raises his staff overhead, and exclaims ‘Let the barriers be breached, and may eternal enemies set their sights on a common foe!’
At that moment, in Bon Accord, Alberta, Canada. Snowbird strides along the middle of a street, where cars have crashed into each other, and civilians lie motionless along the sidewalk. ‘Humans slumbering in their dreamless sleep while the gods they long ago forgot are falling, dying to protect them from the chaos of an endless nightmare. Useless to me!’ Narya exclaims, when suddenly, a familiar portal begins to open. ‘Mother?!’ Narya gasps, when suddenly, ‘Last I checked, no’ Jean-Paul “Northstar” Beaubier exclaims as he darts around his former teammate. ‘Although he has been called worse, Snowbird’ Northstar’s twin sister, Jeanne-Marie Beaubier a.k.a. Aurora jokes. ‘Northstar? Aurora! But…how is it you are awake? And here, in this place?’ Snowbird asks, perplexed.
Northstar replies that he was in San Francisco and awoke next to Kyle, who did not stir. ‘Next thing I knew, I was here, like a summoning’ Jean-Paul adds as he hovers next to Snowbird, adding that it is not difficult to cross a country in the blink of an eye, but as a rule, he does prefer to choose his destination’. Suddenly, the portal forms, and Sasquatch emerges from it, telling Jean-Paul that he is sorry, but that was his doing. ‘Walter?’ Jeanne-Marie exclaims. ‘In the fur’ Walt tells her.
‘Walter! This portal - you must tell me how you control it! My family is dying and this Earth is falling to a terrible darkness!’ Snowbird declares, adding that as a child of both worlds it is as though her very soul is being torn apart. ‘We must help!’ Snowbird exclaims. Sasquatch tells Narya not to worry, assuring her that he has got it covered as he motions to the portal. ‘If there’s one thing we’ve learned over the years, death isn’t always the end…especially when it comes to Alpha Flight!’
And from the portal step James “Mac” MacDonald Hudson a.ka. Guardian, his wife Heather “Vindicator” McNeil Hudson, Dr Michael “Shaman” Twoyoungmen and Marrina. Sasquatch puts his arms around Mac and Marrina, while Vindicator takes to the sky to hug Northstar, and Shaman and Snowbird embrace. ‘Feels good to be alive again. I remember facing a naked man?’ Mac remarks. Sasquatch announces that after Alpha Flight returned from space, reforming the team and setting everything right, they were attacked. ‘I survived, probably because of my connection to the Great Beast, Tanaraq’ he adds. ‘I swore I’d find a way to bring you back’.
‘And you did, cher Walter! This is…a miracle!’ Aurora exclaims as she flits into the arms of her ex-boyfriend, while Northstar asks ‘How have the rest of you survived?’ Shaman explains that they haven’t survived, at least not in the medical sense of the word. ‘Like my grandfather before me, the ways of the Sarcee Medicine Chiefs allowed me to keep our spirits from passing into the great home’. Shaman looks at his hands as he explains he had been able to rescue others upon their physical deaths, such as Marrina, some have been lost to them. ‘Puck!’ Sasquatch gasps. Shaman explains that he tried, but Puck slipped away to a place not even he dares to follow.
Northstar takes to the air as he asks ‘And what of the rest who have died? Why are all of our friends not standing with us? Were they not with you as well?’ Shaman hangs his head again and looks away as he replies ‘They were, until…the doors to the great home were ripped apart. It was as if every afterlife was fleeing from dark, slashing blades’. ‘The Chaos King!’ Snowbird exclaims. ‘Chaos King? I don’t remember any files on that name’ Heather, once more wearing her classic red and white costume and red visor, declares. Snowbird explains that the Chaos King is an ancient force of evil who predates Heather’s “files”. ‘Long has he laid in wait. From the time before the Gods. He has vanquished death and is now destroying all those who would bring life. He is killing the gods themselves!’
‘The Great Spirit? Narya, what’s happened to Nelvanna and Hodiak?’ Shaman asks. ‘Fallen at the hands of the Chaos King and his hordes of alien slave gods’ Narya replies. ‘Allowing me to survive was his last mistake!’ Snowbird declares, while the clouds overhead take the form of a large skull - which opens its mouth, and the slave gods descend upon Canada! ‘Alpha Flight, with me, for vengeance!’ Snowbird orders, taking flight, she transforms into a giant snow owl, while Mac and the twins take to the sky with her, despite Sasquatch shouting ‘Snowbird, no!’ and telling the others that Snowbird is not their target.
While Snowbird, Guardian, Aurora and Northstar engage the slave gods in battle, Heather asks Walter what it is that he has not told them while she, Sasquatch and Twoyoungmen watch the battle above. Shaman remarks that, for so long he struggled to get through to this world, but the barriers could not be breached. ‘I sense there is more than just the Chaos King’s hand in this’ he adds, while Heather tells Walter that he needs to let them in on everything, or else their reunion will be real short. ‘They said they could help us. If we helped them’ Walter replies.
Up above, Aurora deals with some creepy-crawly demons that land on her, while Guardian unleashes a blast of electromagnetic energy at the creature who has taken hold of Northstar. ‘Why do you watch? We need your strength, Walter! And Michael, you must -’ Narya calls down to the ground, before she is punched by a red-colored slave god. Narya lands in the snow, while Shaman informs her that their return is because of the Chaos King, but that it is not she whom the slave gods seek. ‘I swore I’d get you guys back. I made a deal’ Sasquatch announces. “Deal…?” Narya asks, wide-eyed. Shaman helps Snowbird to her feet as the heroes turn to another battle. ‘We have to protect the Great Beasts!’ Sasquatch announces as the Great Beasts begin battling the slave gods.
Snowbird tenses up and asks ‘How could this be? The Great Beasts walk the Earth? And I didn’t sense them?!’ Shaman tells Snowbird that he believes it is because the Great Beasts have not fully crossed over into this realm. ‘The same spell that brought us back seems to have masked them from even you’ he adds. ‘Now they sand revealed. Which means they shall die’ Snowbird exclaims as she prepares to take flight - only for Sasquatch to grab her, telling her that she cannot. ‘Are you possessed once more by Tanaraq? The purpose of my existence is to destroy them’ Snowbird declares. ‘If you do…’ Heather begins.
‘…our friends go back to whatever is left of their deaths’ Northstar concludes as he, Jeanne-Marie and Mac returns to their friends. ‘And the world is taken over by chaos’ Aurora adds. ‘Some deal, Walter. I should have known you would find a way to botch the occasion’ Northstar exclaims. ‘Look, Froggie -’ Sasquatch begins, but Shaman announces that either they help the Great Beasts grow to their full power, or they let the Chaos King’s forces destroy their world’s last remaining hope. Guardian remarks that it is easy, the Chaos King’s forces seem to be making ameal out of the Great Beasts. ‘We may not have to act’ he remarks.
Suddenly, ‘Sasquatch! We call on your vow! You must aid us!’ Somon booms while one of the slave gods wraps a tentacle around him. Snowbird grits her teeth as she tells her former teammates that if any one of them moves to help those creatures she shall not be accountable for the damage she will inflict on them. ‘It’s not that simple!’ Sasquatch exclaims. Snowbird turns to him and declares that it is the very definition of simplicity. ‘The Great Beasts should die. We let the Chaos King defeat them and Alpha Flight finds another way to stop his march of terror’ Narya declares. ‘If we do that, then the Flight dies as well’ Walter reminds her.
Shaman points out that they all seems to have upgraded powers thanks to the Beasts, they are not yet fully restored to this plane. ‘The deal Walter struck to break down the barrier -’ Shaman adds, to which Sasquatch announces that he is trying to save the planet and their friends. ‘All we need to do is hold off the Chaos King’s armies for twenty minutes, as once the Great Beasts are restored to their full power, then everyone will be back for good. ‘You fool! Once they are restored, they will stop at nothing to enslave us all. They are Gods of the Elder Night. Death is their true realm!’ Snowbird exclaims.
Sasquatch replies that the Great Beasts gave him their word that they are not going to try for one hundred years. ‘That gives us plenty of time -’ he begins, while Snowbird exclaims ‘Their word?! You take the foulest beings every created at their word?’ Aurora suggests that perhaps Walter is right, as Alpha Flight has beaten the Beasts before, so surely they can again. Aurora motions to a nearby street where civilians are rising from their slumber and exclaims that the Great Beasts are already defeating the Chaos King.
Northstar flies toward the civilians and tells his sister that he is sorry to disappoint her, but that whatever is happening to those people better not happen to the two of them - as the civilians begin transforming into Wendigo! They begin shouting ‘Wendigo!’ as they race towards the battle. ‘How has our world come to this, Michael?’ Snowbird asks as they watch the battle rage. ‘Your people created the Wendigo curse. With their loss, the magics they wove across this land are roaming free. The Beasts are manipulating that spell’ Shaman explains.
Guardian steps forward and remarks that Walter might be a lot of things, buyt he is no malicious, nor is he stupid. ‘His plan could work’ Mac adds. ‘We help these Wendigo kill off the Chaos King and then we turn on the Great Beasts’ Mac suggests. Heather asks if that would reverse the Wendigo curse on the civilians, to which Shaman replies that it is possible. Snowbird tells her friends that they cannot allow the Beasts the time. ‘We have beaten them before, but only because they were weakened. They grow stronger with every moment we spend debating this’ she adds.
Guardian takes to the an electromagnetic burst, telling the others that they cannot decide what the greater good is here, only the greater evil. ‘I’m sorry, Snowbird, but that answer’s clear, as your own family found out the hard way’ Mac tells Narya, adding that the Chaos King is destroying the Gods, so this may be their only chance, and they have to seize it. ‘Take him down!’ Guardian orders as he flies forward to the battle. Sasquatch and Shaman run along behind him, while Snowbird soars alongside him, Marrina moves forward in a water funnel, Vindicator flies up above them, her geothermal power causing lava blasts to raise the land, and the twins fly above them all, clasping their hands together causing a brilliant light.
‘You see, Jean-Paul? This is where we belong! Living and fighting alongside our friends, not among the X-Men!’ Aurora exclaims as she and Northstar take down several slave gods with a series of speedy punches. ‘I’d say chances of dying on either team are about equal’ Jean-Paul replies, before telling Aurora to focus. Heather unleashes a lava burst upon a large dragon-like slave god, and remarks ‘Mac, Walter means well, but this…’ her voice trails off, while Mac exclaims ‘Heather, we’re alive! We have to focus on that. For ourselves, and for our daughter!’ He punches a slave god, adding that they will figure out the rest as soon as they win here.
Nearby, Sasquatch throws slave gods over his head, while Marrina, her physical form slightly transformed, splashes about in a wave of water as she washes her opponents away. Snowbird swoops to the ground, shifting her form into a mighty polar bear, she lands on one of the slave gods, while Shaman wields a scythe as he battles a slave god near Somon, who declares ‘The last child of the gods fights for our survival. Surely these are events even the Chaos King could never predict!’ Shaman warns Somon that he would be wise to keep his own counsel and pray that Snowbird does not hear him. ‘You are strong, but we can still defeat you’ Twoyoungmen declares. ‘And I can send you back to the abyss, Medicine Man’ Somon boasts.
Snowbird, in her polar bear form, grabs one of the slave gods and throws him over herself, while several slave gods leap towards Kariooq. ‘My touch isn’t working! There is nothing in them to corrupt!’ he shouts, before calling ‘Help me!’ Snowbird sees the Great Beast tumble backwards - and a sword-wielding slave god begin to stab the Great Beast over and over. Narya watches from a distance, before returning to her default form and taking to the air.
Somon stands over a group of the civilians turned into Wendigo and shouts ‘Yes, children of Beasts! Feed on the flesh of Gods!’ Narya lands near Shaman. ‘Michael…’ she begins. ‘I know. We’ve become monsters. Pawns of the Beasts, like these poor creatures’ Shaman replies as he watches several Wendigo eat a defeated slave god. ‘We can’t allow this to continue’ Narya exclaims, to which Northstar agrees: ‘She’s right. When you align yourself with monsters, you become one yourself’ Jean-Paul declares, adding that it is a lesson he doesn’t care to learn again.
‘Snowbird, do you honestly believe there is another way?’ Vindicator asks. Narya replies that there are other gods here on Earth. ‘We can find them, join with them to defeat the Chaos King’ she announces. ‘We need nothing from the Beasts!’ Snowbird declares. ‘Except our own link to this world’ Shaman points out. Heather hangs her head, before looking at her friends and asking ‘What’s life without a little sacrifice?’ She soars past several Wendigo eating a slave god, and shouts ‘Alpha Flight! Retreat!’ This gets the attention of the others - ‘Retreat?’ Mac asks, surprised. ‘But we are winning?’ Aurora exclaims. ‘Yesssss….’ Marrina utters, her form even more transformed into an alien fish-like state. ‘Heather?’ Sasquatch asks.
The heroes regroup, while Shaman casts magic force fields around the Wendigo. ‘Enough. These are not decisions to be made by mortals’ Shaman exclaims, adding that they have to let gods fend for themselves. ‘NOOOO!’ Sasquatch shouts, as he, Marrina, Guardian and Aurora move to battle Snowbird, Vindicator, Shaman and Northstar. Heather tells Marrina that she is sorry, she really is, but that they have to go back. ‘Look at you, you’re becoming the monster that led to your death the longer we stay’ Heather points out, while keeping Marrina at bay with a blast of geothermal heat, which heats up the snow around Marrina.
Northstar begins punching Guardian, speeding around him at a rapid rate as he declares that Heather was always the better leader. ‘Michael, this is our only chance to be united again!’ Aurora exclaims while blocking herself from a barrage of icicles that Shaman sends her way, telling her that he is sorry, but that deep ion her heart, she must know that this is wrong ‘You can’t rob me of this, Snowbird!’ Sasquatch shouts, to which Snowbird replies ‘You think I haven’t grieved, Walter? To know that I’ll have no friends and be orphaned after this causes me more pain than you will know’.
With the Wendigo still captured in Shaman’s force field, Shaman rushes towards the Great Beasts. Snowbird flies alongside him, while Northstar blinds Sasquatch with a burst of light, and Vindicator causes lava to explode around him, keeping him at bay. ‘The Chaos King might have banished the afterlife, but I’ll not allow the Great Beasts to make Hell on Earth!’ Shaman declares.
Standing on his podium, Somon exclaims ‘Thank you, godling. The moment of our domination is near, sealing your place on this Earth, and we its saviors!’ But Snowbird tells Somon that the Great Beasts are only bringers of destruction and lies. Shaman exclaims that it was through the magics of the Inua, the fallen Northern Gods that barred the Great Beasts from this world before. ‘As long as one still stands, your hold on this realm will not go unchallenged!’ Shaman declares.
A small orb of energy begins to shine in Snowbird’s hands, before Narya shouts ‘And I still stand!’ as she unleashes the energy, causing the slave gods to be knocked backwards with a blast of icy wind, and the Great Beasts are encased in frozen ice. ‘Noooooo!’ Somon exclaims, when suddenly, the Chaos King appears! ‘Yes, scream, Great Beast, scream. Run from realm to realm and hide. Death always follows!’ the Chaos King declares as he skewers the Great Beasts.
Alpha Flight watch from the snow-covered ground nearby. ‘It is finished’ Shaman exclaims, while the Wenigo begin to revert to their human form. ‘No! See what you’ve done? This means…’ Aurora begins. ‘It’s time to say goodbye’ Northstar adds. Sasquatch marches towards the others, while Heather follows, and Mac carries Marrina. ‘You’re just going to let yourselves die again?’ Sasquatch asks. Shaman replies that he can hold their spirits in a state just beyond this life. ‘The Great Beasts were not the only ones who could hold the power to restore us. You must find the right way, the best way’ Shaman adds.
Vindicator and Sasquatch clasp hands as Heather asks ‘Walter, my baby?’ Frowning, Sasquatch replies that she is safe with family. ‘Keep her that way. Until we get back’ Heather asks. Moments later, a green glow surrounds Shaman, Marrina, Heather and Mac. Marrina hugs herself, while Guardian wraps his arms around Heather. Shaman tells the others that they must defeat the Chaos King and restore the Spirit Realms. ‘Snowbird, Sasquatch, twins, be strong’ Michael adds, before a blinding light seemingly engulfs them.
But an instant later, ‘How -?’ Marrina asks, as the four of them find themselves standing in the same place. ‘This doesn’t look like death to me’ Mac adds. ‘Michael?’ Snowbird asks. Shaman replies that the link - the great home - has vanished. ‘Death itself is…inaccessible!’ he declares. ‘But the Great Beasts told Walter -’ Heather begins, to which Snowbird quickly exclaims that the Beasts lied. ‘When will you learn that? They had no access to our friends, without Death, Shaman and the rest were left with nowhere to go’ Narya explains.
‘So they were already alive? But how did they come to this place?’ Aurora asks. ‘The same way we did - the Great Beasts summoned them’ Northstar suggests. ‘Does this mean we cannot die?’ Marrina asks, looking at her hands. Shaman explains that, with Death lost to them, they walk the Earth once more, thanks to the actions of the Chaos King. ‘Once he is defeated and Death is restored, however…’ Shaman’s voice trails off.
‘ We have to risk it’ Sasquatch exclaims. ‘It may mean losing you all again, but like Heather said, sacrifices have to be made. The Great Beasts used me, but they brought us all here for a reason’. Walter adds that they are best when they are together. ‘We can take down the Great Beasts, which means we have a chance against the Chaos King. They feared us, that’s why they needed us to protect them. If we can join with the God Squad to help the fight…it’s the Chaos King’s turn to fear us!’ Sasquatch exclaims, while the rest of his former teammates stand together, defiantly.
An instant later, the heroes of Canada make their way across the snow-covered land. Guardian! Vindicator! Snowbird! Sasquatch! Northstar! Aurora! Shaman! Marrina! ‘Live or die, we do it together. As ALPHA FLIGHT!’
