Nocturne and Morph are on monitor duty and quite bored. For two weeks now the Hulk has not been spotted, and Morph wants some fun, but Talia reminds him that Alpha Flight will die if they won’t help them stop the Hulk. Morph goes on that he could think of better places to hang around than Canada, as suddenly Wolverine is standing behind him. Morph tries to make up by shifting into a mountie, but Logan is not intrested, his keen ears picked up Nocturne’s statement, and he demands an explanation.
Elsewhere in the complex, Mimic refuses to accept that he can’t help in the battle, since his own powers work against him when it comes to the Hulk. He can’t help but to absorb the gamma radiation and be poisoned by it, but he thinks that a protective suit might help. Still Blink does not allow him aboard, to proove her point she asks Box to demonstrate how a foe with increased strength can rip the suit apart.
Thunderbird and Shaman, both John Proudstar, are in the mountains, enjoying the view. Thunderbird thinks Shaman has taken him there to give him some spiritual enlightment, but he‘s wrong; Alpha Flight’s Proudstar only wants to tal and offers him a sandwich. They eat, but Thunderbird has to admit that he has no longer a sense of taste since his transformation by Apocalypse. On the other hand his sense of smell has been increased. Shaman is intrested in what else Apocalypse has altered, and learns that the red and black markings on Thunderbirds body aren’t tatoos or cstume parts, but retractable plates that harden when he goes into battle mood. Shaman asks to see himwithout the plates, and Thunderbird retracts all of them, to revealed lots of burned flesh, scars and implanted technology.
Suddenly the Hulk shows up behind them, asking who did this to Proudstar. Thunderbird replies that it was a monsterm, who turned him into a monster too. The Hulk wonders why he is often called a monster, as he doesn’t feel like one, and Shaman assures him to be right, and offers to help him, all that the Hulk would need to do is follow them. Nearby Sabretooth and Deadpool spy on them and are unsatisfied with this turn of events. They need them to battle each other, so Deadpool shoots Hulk in the head. The Hulk, believing to have been set up, then starts a fight. Shaman tries to calm him, but it’s too late and Thunderbird and the Hulk starts to hit each other.
At Alpha Flight’s headquarter James and Heather Hudson are quite angry with Wolverine, as he has sent Beta and Gamma Flight to australia. To his defense Logan says that if a mission is that dangerous as the Exiles explained, then only the professionals should be around. He in turn is angry with Blink’s team, as they should have told them earlier, but Heather Hudson understands their motives for keeping Alpha Flight’s possible fate secret. They have to maintain a certain balance and can’t risk to tamper too much with a timeline. Also she wonders on the possibility that Logan sending away the younger teams would cause Alpha Flight’s death as they are now not powerful enough to handle the Hulk. Right into their discussion, one of the Alpha Flight members comes in and tells that Shaman alerted them of the Hulk’s whereabouts.
Hulk and Thunderbird are still going at each other, both getting madder as the fight goes on. Shaman is shocked to see Thunderbird’s plates hardening and altering his body into a fightining machine, full of spikes and thorns. He wonders if there is anything human left in the former Horseman War, and remembers the day when he discovered his mutant power when he defeated a bear single handed. How his father was both prous and ashamed of him, and he wonders if the Exiles‘ Proudstar had discovered his mutant power the same day. Finally Thunderbird manages to do the impossible and the Hulk is defeated and unconscious, but still enragedhe tirns towards Shaman, ready to strike. Shaman doesn’t back down and tries his best to revert his other version that deep inside he still is a man. Rememberining their mother, Thunderbird reveerts back to his usual version and thanks Shaman.
Sabretooth, Deadpool and kane are about to attack and claim the Hulk, as Blink and her team teleport in. Seeing her, Sabretooth is shocked, it’s his Clarice ! And she has a Tallus too.
Later the Hulk has been secured in a holding tank in Alpha Flight’s research facility, Thunderbird thanks Proudstar, he is really happy that they met and Shaman thinks the same. The Tallus says that the team has twelve more hours before they are called to the next timeline, and so they enjoy themselves in a nightclub. Mimic spends quite some time with Northstar, who at first thinks that Calvin is romantically intrested in him, but actually Mimic wants to copy his flight power to make up for the loss of Angel’s wings (#4).
Meanwhile Victor Creed is brooding in his thoughts. He can’t understand that both he and Blink were save from the Age of Apocalypse, why they can’t be together, and why there are two teams equipped with a Tallus. Weapon X are teleported away.
