The Rainier Federal Correctional Facility at Yakima, Washington, Dr. Muramoto approaches the green-skinned mutant, Mesmero and asks him how he is today. Mesmero screams while clutching a metal device covering his head. ‘As bad as that? I’m sorry’ replies the doctor. In another part of the room, two security personnel are keeping watch and one of them remarks that he finds it strange how Mesmero – one of the meanest mutants to ever end up in federal custody, finally gets what is coming to him, yet some bleeding-heart psychologist says he is “sorry”.
The other security guard seems to disagree, and reminds the other that Mesmero has been screaming since the helmet was put on him. The first guard calls it “the negator” and reminds the second that it is the only thing keeping Mesmero from using his hypnotic powers, they need it to keep his eyes covered.
Doctor Muramoto announces that the neural monitors linked to Mesmero’s helmet are registering increased psychic agitation, meaning what he feared is about to happen, that by preventing Mesmero from using his power, they are killing him!
Mesmero collapses and the guards rush towards him, calling to the doctor and warning him not to go into the sealed part of the room where Mesmero is held. ‘Why not?’ asks the doctor, ‘He can’t hurt me now’. All three men enter the room and Muramoto kneels beside Mesmero, declaring that his theory was correct, that to prevent any mutant from using their powers, the resulting atrophy can cause a systemic shock. The shock will possibly lead to death, unless they get him out of the helmet and into the infirmary.
One of the guards tells Muramoto that there is no way they are doing that unless he is sure Mesmero is out of it. Muramoto informs the soldiers that they will be up on manslaughter charges unless they help him, and he snatches the keys off a guard while telling them to go and get a stretcher. But Muramoto removes the helmet from Mesmero – ands the green-skinned mutant’s eyes flare up as he thanks the doctor for being so gullible. Muramoto drops to the ground, as the guards realize Mesmero was playing possum, they pull their guns up to him, but Mesmero uses his power on them, ordering them to put their guns down and escort him out of the facility.
The guards are forced to comply, and as they and Muramoto walk with Mesmero outside towards a jeep, more guards approach, calling to the hypnotized ones, they declare that they were not informed of any inmate transfers scheduled for today. Mesmero subdues them, but from up in the watch tower, the commotion is seen, and the officer inside it calls down to Mesmero and his hostages, exclaiming that if they do not halt then he will fire.
No one stops, and so the guard begins to fire as Mesmero shoves Muramoto into a jeep, he follows him and orders the guards to cover him, while he and the doctor escape. Inside the car, Mesmero orders the doctor to drive north.
The next day, in an isolated valley nestled somewhere in the Okanagan range of Northern Washington State, several Sentinels are launched into the air. Inside the compound, someone announces that all Interdefense monitoring systems show “go”, meaning they have a launch! A woman at a computer monitor exclaims that the Sentinels are airborne, and the man beside her says ‘so?’ before reminding her that he came here behind his bureau chiefs back, because word at the FBI headquarters is that the people here are experienced mutant hunters. The man tells the woman that it would be a real coup for the agent who captures Mesmero after his escape from Rainier and murder of Dr. Muramoto.
However, he tells the woman that he is not sure the Sentinels of hers are right for the job, adding that the latest intelligence has it that Mesmero has crossed into Canada, and if the Sentinels follow him, they risk starting an international incident. The woman agrees, but declares it would only be true if the Sentinels are spotted in Canadian airspace, which as she informs her companion, they will not be. She tells him to watch the computer screen, where the four Sentinels on the radar suddenly disappear. The woman reveals that the Sentinels cannot be picked up on radar, and liquid quartz displayed on the “skin” of the Sentinels will mirror their surroundings.
In a forest somewhere, two men are cutting down trees as the Sentinels fly past. One of them calls to the other, asking him if he just saw something weird. The other replies that he thought he did, but now is not so sure.
Back at the compound, the woman informs her companion, Agent Billings, that he has just observed the visual masking capabilities of Interdefense’s new Mark VI Stealth Sentinels. A man runs towards the woman and calling her Ms. Kelly, he asks her if she has gone out of her mind. Billings asks who this other man is, and Kelly introduces him as Carmody Whyte, the engineer who designed the Stealth Sentinels. Whyte tells Kelly that he cannot believe she launched the Sentinels without his approval, as they were not ready. Kelly furiously declares that the Sentinels would never be ready if Whyte had his way with the endless tests he was conducting. Kelly tells Carmody that she wonders if his sympathies may lie elsewhere before boasting that as project manager of Interdefense she decided to field-test them now. Billings calls Carmody a ‘mutie lover’ and tells him that the die has been cast.
Meanwhile, flying over Vancouver, British Columbia, which is currently host to the “Expo ‘86”, is the Omnijet belonging to Canada’s premiere super hero team, Alpha Flight. Inside the jet, team leader, Heather McNeil Hudson, a.k.a. “Vindicator”, calls to her teammate, Madison Jeffries, and asks him to hold the Omnijet steady while the rest of them try to restrain Box. Eugene “Puck” Judd is also trying to restrain Roger Bochs, the man inside the Box armor, and Judd reminds everyone that the thought he may be trapped forever inside the armor has driven him to despair.
Flying around inside the jet is the handsome speedster, mutant Jean-Paul “Northstar” Beaubier, who thinks to himself that Bochs has not been helped by his skittish sisters repeated reminders that she will stop loving Bochs if he fails to become a man again. Box calls to Jean-Paul’s sister, while Jean-Paul wonders still if Aurora really loves him, or if she is toying with his affections. Jean-Paul barely dodges a swipe from Box, which Jeffries sees sitting at the controls of the jet.
Sitting beside Jeffries is Kara Kilgrave, a.k.a. the Purple Girl, the first member of Alpha Flight’s new in-training team, Beta Flight. The aptly-named girl tells Jeffries that she should do something to help, while reminding herself that her power is to control people’s minds and that she promised Alpha flight never again to use her powers on them. Kara gets so confused about using her powers, especially as they have gotten her into trouble so many times.
Northstar thinks that Aurora could stop Box by telling him that she loves him, but Jean-Paul realizes the words are stuck in his sister’s mouth. Aurora’s flirtations have endangered them all, and Northstar calls to Box, telling Roger that this is madness and that his sister wouldn't love him as man or machine!
Box lunges for Jean-Paul, calling him a ‘callous creep’ he asks him what he would know of real love. Judd reminds Jean-Paul that the idea was to calm Box down, but as Jean-Paul declares that he can handle Box, he is overcome with a coughing fit and falls to the floor.
Box is moving in on Northstar now, so the Purple Girl steps forward and thinks to herself that she doesn’t know what Box meant about Jean-Paul not understanding what real love is, or what is wrong with him, but she has always had a crush on Northstar, and has to use her powers to help him, even against a fellow Alphan and even if she gets killed! ‘Bochs, stop! I command you!’ exclaims Kara, hoping it will work.
But it doesn’t, and as Aurora points out, Box is about to strike “zee child”, but Heather will not have it, and uses her electromagnetic powers, granted to her from the super suit that she wears to send a blast at Box, knocking him back hard into the Omnijet’s hull. Kara dodges out of the way, feeling totally useless, she wonders how she will ever be able to prove to Heather that she belongs in combat situations when she pulls stunts like this.
Heather surveys the damage to the ship, including metal shards of the hull that are falling to the highway below, while noticing that she has shocked Roger back to his senses. Box keels over and wonders what came over him and what he did. Heather jumps from the Omnijet and flies towards the metal shards, as Box approaches Aurora and starts to say he must have been insane – but Aurora tells him that she thinks he is insane and that perhaps she was mad ever to think that she loved him.
Aurora stands between her brother, who is still on the floor, and her lover, and she tells Roger that she will not let him hurt her brother again and uses her mutant light powers to blind him, effectively overloading his video-receptors, adding to this the rejection by his lover, Bochs goes berserk once more and starts to tear the Omnijet apart.
Purple Girl tells Jeffries that Box will smash the Omnijet, but Jeffries declares that the damage is done, for Box just trashed their main propulsion unit. Kara asks Jeffries if he cannot do anything about Roger, and Jeffries informs her that he built the robot using his transmutive powers, and they man inside is his friend. Auto-pilot seems to be working, and Jeffries turns to Box and uses his powers to restrain him by turning the armor into a straight-jacket and melding the armor to the floor.
Northstar sees Bochs is restrained, and Roger calls Jeffries a “Judas”, while Puck takes the controls after the auto-pilot cuts out. Judd jokes to Jeffries that it was a good thing all he had to do was pull back the throttle as he could never have reached the foot brake!
Back outside, Heather manages to vaporize the falling debris before it rained upon the highway, but notices the Omnijet in a nose-dive plummeting towards a car. Heather knows she has to choose between saving Alpha Flight or rescuing the innocent motorists, and because she is leader of Canada’s premiere super heroes, she chooses the innocents – while Alpha, as it seems, are completely capable of saving themselves, as Jeffries transforms the Omnijet into another craft that lands on the highway.
Heather flies into the transformed craft as Kara looks at her and thinks Heather to be a real hero, as she cleaned up the mess of someone else’s mistake and saved the lives of civilians that Alpha Flight are entrusted to protect. She wishes that she had the same courage and confidence. Jeffries calls the transformed aircraft a “Monopede” as Heather asks what they are to do with Box now.
Madison tells Vindicator that they should do what they planned to do since all of their efforts to cure Roger of the bends failed and left him stuck in the armor – ‘take him to the one man capable of doing to flesh what I can do with metal’. Somewhat nervously, Heather asks Jeffries if he means his brother, Doctor Lionel Jeffries, also known as Scramble. Jeffries can sense Heather’s apprehension and reminds her that his brother uses his power for good now. Heather tells Jeffries that she knows that now, but cannot help remembering when he didn’t, and she was on the receiving end of his abilities.
The transformed Omnijet enters a long underground tunnel, a last coming to a halt in a vast underground facility. Doctor Jeffries approaches everyone and welcomes them to New Life as his brother informs him they have another patient for him. To the side of the room, by a console, a man declares ‘Doctor Jeffries! That’s Alpha Flight!’ Lionel declares that he should have prepared his intern for Alpha’s arrival, and Madison informs his brother that he has tried to prepare Alpha for the situation here, for they know Lionel is not licensed to practice medicine after what happened, but explained to them that he cured a rich tycoon who thought enough of the unorthodox methods to pay for the clinic and the secret research lab.
As Box is pushed down the Omnijet ramp by the twins, Roger exclaims that he will not be experimented upon as there is nothing wrong with him. Jean-Paul says ‘au contraire, you are ill – in both body and mind’. Jean-Paul wonders to himself whether or not he should tell Scramble about the cough and weakness that has affected him since he was kissed by Pestilence, but decides against it, believing it to be his affair alone.
Box declares that he will not consent to this, and Lionel begins to say that they cannot force him, but Madison asks Box if he would like to become a man again. ‘Free from pain?’ asks Lionel. Although reluctantly, Roger consents to the treatment he will receive. Lionel exclaims ‘good’ and suggests that Roger settles in, for this may take some time.
Meanwhile, asleep in the back of the jeep is Mesmero, while Muramoto drives, the radio announcer informs listeners that authorities in Washington State have revealed that a dangerous mutant criminal may have crossed the border into Canada. Because he is asleep, Mesmero’s power lies dormant and he is undetectable to the Sentinel flying overhead, a Sentinel that is also undetectable as it continues to sweep the extrapolating probable flight patterns taken by the fugitive.
At Interdefense, Ms. Kelly declares that the Sentinels should have detected Mesmero by now, Billings adding that the longer it takes the Sentinels to find Mesmero, the greater the risk is that Canada will detect the Sentinels! Kelly decides that they will give the Sentinels another two hours before initiating recall.
Locked out of the room Kelly and Billings are in. Carmody calls Kelly and Billings fools for locking him out, for he could have told them that he suspected the Sentinels untested stealth capabilities interfere with their mutant sensors, while other Sentinels can detect mutants at all times, stealth version can only detect mutants are actively employing their powers nearby. This means the Sentinels will go on searching until Mesmero uses his powers. Carmody thinks that by then there might be a war with Canada and decides he has to alert Interdefense’s owner – Sebastian Shaw!
Meanwhile, Mesmero wakes with a throbbing head, an after-effect of having to wear the negator helmet, which he thought would kill him unless he got it off. He swears he will kill before he lets anyone put it back on him, just like he killed Muramoto for torturing him. Looking around, Mesmero wonders where he is and thinks he must have blanked form the pain and exhaustion, but his memory is so hazy he doesn’t even remember arriving here.
All of Vancouver throbs with the pulse of Expo ’86, a grand international exhibit, but hardly the place for a green-skinned mutant to escape unnoticed. Mesmero sees that the vehicle is out of gas, and knows that to get through the crowd unnoticed he will need a disguise. He approaches a motorcycle, which has sitting on its seat a jacket and helmet, so he puts them on, even though it feels too much like wearing the negator again, he cannot stand it and so pulls the helmet off.
A man approaches Mesmero and asks him if he is okay. Mesmero touches the man on the head and smiling he exclaims that he is just fine and now, and will remain that was so long as he forgets he ever saw him.
In the air above, the Sentinels turn in their flight as they have located the target, they commence interception mode and land in amongst the crowds of people at the Expo. They phase out of stealth mode and walk around hunting their target as people gape up at them. ‘Are those things part of Expo?’ ‘Somehow, I don’t think so!’
Monitoring the Sentinels from Interdefense, Kelly is shocked to see that the Sentinels have become visible in the heart of Vancouver. Billings asks her to recall them, and she tries to, but the Sentinels do not respond. She calls for Whyte to be brought in, and Carmody enters the room, informing Kelly that he cannot help her, revealing that the unperfected stealth circuits also inhibit long-distance command signals between Interdefense and the Sentinels, whether they are active or not!
Stepping out of the shadows of the room is Sebastian Shaw a.k.a. the Black King of the Hellfire Club’s Inner Circle who informs Kelly and Billings that if the Sentinels unauthorized invasion of Canada cause an international incident that might interfere with his carefully nurtured relationship with the defense department, the two of them will pay most severely. Kelly and Billings take Shaw’s words to mean that a disaster could cost them their lives.
Back at the New Life Clinic, Purple Girl calls to her seniors and informs them that a report has just come over the Alphanex alert channel, announcing that something weird is going down at the Expo, and while reports are not clear, there is a lot of panic.
Shortly, Jean-Paul, Aurora and Vindicator carrying Puck are flying towards the Expo. Aurora tells her teammates that Purple Girl and Jeffries both wanted to accompany them, but Vindicator reminds Aurora that Kara is too young and Jeffries is needed in helping cure Bochs. Being carried by Heather, Judd thinks to himself that once again his powerlessness is cause for him to be a burden on Heather, and he wonders how he could ever hope that she would return his love.
At the Expo, on a high platform, Mesmero has several humans as hostages and tells the Sentinels that he has been caught by them before and knows what they want – to take his powers away. He exclaims that they tried that with the negator, and boasts that he will die before he is subjected to that kind of pain again, however he declares furiously that if he has to go, then these human sheep around him will go before him.
A Sentinel announces that the humans are mesmerized, another says ‘We are faced with a quandary’ as Mesmero reminds them that they are programmed to preserve human life at all costs, before telling them that just in case he thinks they are bluffing sending a person to walk out on a beam and he orders them to jump – which they do, plummeting to the ground.
One of the four Sentinels announces that the human lies ‘broken-unmoving-dead’, and Mesmero tells them that he can only be executed once, no matter how many people he murders, so they had better back off and let him go. ‘We must capture Mesmero. We must also preserve human life’ states a Sentinel as another points out that attempting to capture Mesmero may result in more loss of human life, yet they must do something.
‘That’s where you’re wrong Sentinels!’ exclaims Heather as she, Judd and the twins fly onto the scene, announcing that she recognizes the Sentinels ‘You American-made-mutant-hunters who’ve plagued the X-Men over the years’. ‘But this is Canada – Alpha Flight’s jurisdiction!’ Vindicator boasts.
‘The Sentinels seem unimpressed, Vindicator’ remarks Aurora as Jean-Paul reminds her that the Sentinels have nearly defeated the X-Men in the past, as their metal alloy is all but indestructible, and Judd points out that Alpha Flight’s roster is halved, what with Snowbird and Twoyoungmen seeking Pestilence, Bochs incapacitated and Jeffries with him.
A Sentinel informs the Alphans that they are programmed to neutralize Mesmero for unless they do, other humans may die. Aurora points out that humans may also die if they try to apprehend Mesmero, and another Sentinel declares that they must carry out their programming. ‘You must do nothing’ says Northstar, and Heather finishes off his sentence by telling the Sentinels that they can leave Mesmero to Alpha Flight. Judd drops from Heather’s arms to attack Mesmero, as his agility is useless against the metal Sentinels.
‘Alert! We are being attacked by super humans!’ announces a Sentinel as Heather and the twins attack them. Jean-Paul repeatedly punches a Sentinel while Jean-Paul finds the “Super-humans” comment somewhat odd, for while Heather is, and he can understand his sister being overlooked due to her genetic alteration by Walter Langkowski to mask her mutant nature, yet, he wonders, why they do not react to him as a mutant. Just when he didn’t need it to happen, he is overcome by another coughing fit, and while his sister blinds one Sentinel with her light powers, he falls to the ground, neutralized by knockout gas.
Aurora stops in mid-air when she sees her brother fall to the ground, but her moment of hesitation enables a Sentinel to whack her, sending her to the ground also. Heather sees the twins are down and notes that Judd is not doing much better against Mesmero.
Judd has covered his eyes, as Mesmero cannot control him if he cannot see his eyes, but doesn’t worry because he has other, more sufficient means of stopping the diminutive Alphan and commands the humans to attack him, until they hold him down and Mesmero manages to get Judds eyes open. As Heather struggles in one of the Sentinels’ tendrils she realizes that she is the only one left, and wonders what kind of leader she is by sacrificing her people to fight the Sentinels, simply because they have violated the sovereignty of a government guilty of spying on Alpha.
Approaching in the reconstructed Omnijet are Jeffries and Kara. Jeffries exclaims that he hated leaving Bochs, but knows he will be okay in his brothers’ healing hands, while it is Alpha who needs him now. Kara asks Jeffries what it is they are to do now, and swinging around in his chair, Jeffries it seems did not know Kara had stowed aboard, as he asks her if he told her to stay at New Life. The Purple Girl replies that she wanted to help, before telling Jeffries that he cannot treat her like a kid, as she is in Beta Flight now.
Jeffries tells Kara that being in Beta Flight means she is a hero in training, not a combatant, before reminding her that he promised her mother he would look after her, so he orders her to stay in the Omnijet. Kara asks Jeffries what it is he is going to do, and leaning out the hatch of the jet, Jeffries exclaims that he has to figure out how to help, as the Sentinel as Heather and her super suit doesn’t seem to be able to help her.
Looking down at the giant robot, Madison knows he is too far away to use his powers on it, as he has to be at least within spitting distance from it. He sees the Sentinel extend its hand to crush the ensnared Heather and Jeffries knows he cannot let Heather die. He doesn’t have time to put on a parachute and cannot believe what he is contemplating…but with no more time to think, Madison Jeffries leaps from the Omnijet, hoping to land near enough to the Sentinel so that his power can save Heather, but if he misses…then it is curtains for the both of them.
As he drops past the Sentinel he realizes that Heather is a special lady and worth any risk. Jeffries has come in close enough contact and uses his transmutative powers to pull apart the Sentinel, while in the process he designs his own flight suit out of the Sentinels’ spare parts. Heather saw everything that happened and tells Jeffries as she flies over to him that he is amazing. Jeffries blushes inside his super suit, but then notices the Purple Girl’s own peril, for the Sentinels have detected her as a non-target mutant and plan to intercept her!
Kara manages to swerve the plane out of the way, but in the process she starts nose-diving towards the Sentinel blinded by Aurora, who is kneeling on the ground. Heather and Jeffries are too far away to help, and as Kara is blasted from the Omnijet by an ejector-chair, she hopes that she can use one Sentinel against another – and as the two Sentinels clash, it works both of them being destroyed in the process.
Jeffries is most relieved that Kara is all right, but Judd is still suffering punches from the hypnotized mob attacking him, and one piece of debris from the Sentinel clash wounds him. From her high seat in the ejected chair, Kara sees Judd get hurt and wonders if it is her fault, for if he wasn’t hypnotized he may have been able to avoid the debris, but she sees also that Mesmero could not have cared less, for he is already sending more humans to their deaths to keep the Sentinel at bay.
The Purple Girl thinks that Mesmero is as merciless a manipulator as her father, the Purple Man was, and wonders if she could ever become that evil. Kara realizes that it may be up to her to take Mesmero out, but she doesn’t know whether her powers will override Mesmero’s or if he will be able to make her ‘take a high dive’, then she thinks that she may screw up again and more people might die.
Jeffries flies past the last Sentinel and informs Heather that it is the last one. Vindicator asks him if he will be able to transmute it like he did to the other one. As the Sentinel fires at Jeffries, he realizes that it saw what he did to the other one and so is trying to keep him away. Jeffries tells Heather that they have a chance at stopping the Sentinel if they work together and explains his plan to Heather, who tells Jeffries that she likes the way he thinks, and the put the plan into effect!
Jeffries loses the armor he is wearing and as he falls into Heathers arms he transmutes it into something else, while the Sentinel believes Jeffries to be ‘temporarily neutralized’ it returns to its primary target. Jeffries exclaims that it takes the stuff of Sentinels to beat Sentinels before declaring that he could get used to this – and Heather replies that she could too, before propelling the giant-sized harpoon with the power of her battle suit.
The harpoon strikes the remaining Sentinel in its chest and as it does, Heather contemplates her feelings for the man she holds in her arms. Mesmero sees the last Sentinel begin to fall, just as the Purple Girls’ parachute takes her down on the platform where he stands. Mesmero thinks he is saved and can now control the rest of the ‘heroic twits’ if they are stupid enough to come after him. Kara thinks that the situation is going to come down to her now and which one of them can dominate the crowd of people. Kara realizes that Mesmero has had more experience than she has and thinks that she should just run.
Purple Girl decides against it however, as she knows she has to prove she belongs in combat situations, and prove she should become a full Alphan. Kara thinks that if she lets Mesmero escape he will only kill more people,and she is the only Alphan with a chance of withstanding his power – he might kill the others if she leaves it up to them. Kara gets Mesmero’s attention by telling him that he is not getting away, to which Mesmero asks her who is going to stop him? Her? Kara tells him that she will, and in case he hadn’t noticed, she has her eyes closed. ‘Just try to find me that way!’ boasts Mesmero before sending her some “playmates”.
Kara thinks to herself ‘Here goes nothing’ and calls ‘STOP’ to the Mesmero’s mind-controlled hostages – who suddenly turn purple and halt in their tracks. Covering her eyes, Kara tells the civilians to ‘sic him’ and as the humans attack Mesmero he is shocked that Kara was able to override his abilities, as it has never been done before, no one has such power! ‘I do! Lucky me!’ mumbles Kara sarcastically before telling Mesmero as he is lead away with a bag over his head by some police that if she practices real hard, then one day she may be better than even he is at messing with peoples minds.
Someone examines Judd and declares that they don’t know how he can still be alive as Jeffries tells Kara that the test is how she uses her power, and so far she is doing fine. Heather announces that Puck is hurt and that they have to get him to New Life. Clutching himself, Judd realizes that Alpha Flight is victorious, and yet despite the concern for him that he detects in Heathers voice, he knows that his powerlessness has again proved a liability to the woman he loves…then everything goes dark.
