"So tight, can't breathe!" he cried out. In his dream, his forcefield was shrinking out of control, and he was running out of room to even breathe. Then, in a haze of pain, he spotted his brother walking up to him. "Squirt, get me out! Hurry!" he pleaded.

"Just sit tight, I'll get you out." His brother willed his hands to transform to lethal blades of steel, and pulled his arms back to strike the field. He swung, but then pulled up and away. "NOT!!" His brother transformed his hands back to flesh and blood.

"Squirt?" he squeked weakly as he pressed against the field. He heard a bone crack, and cried out as the pain shot from his hand up his arm.

"This is for all those years of torment, Jared. For teasing me, for bringing me so low. For everything!!" He turned to go.

"Adrian!" Jared cried, blood starting to rush to his head. Black spots formed on the edges of his vision. He tried to blink it back, to no avail. "I'm your brother! You gotta help me!!"

"Half-brother, Jared. Half-brother. Everytime we met someone, you had to emphasize the half. You also had to humiliate me. At Hull House, you would never call me Adrian. I reached out to you, and you spit in my face." He turned to leave, but paused and threw back one more remark. "Never again, Jared. Never again." Adrian left.

Jared strained harder, and he thought he felt another bone snap, but with the pressure in his head and the numbness in his extremeties, he barely felt it. Faces swirled around him, moaning and blurring together. He could see his friends from his days at Hull House, General Clarke and other staff at Department H. His teammates swirled around him, forlorn looks on their faces. At the forefront was Puck, with a disapproving look on his face.

Suddenly, the pressure stopped. Jared flexed his hand, and found the bone had healed somehow. He caught his reflection in a window. He was clad in his Alpha Flight uniform. A chill wind whipped up behind him, and caught his jacket.

He heard hushed whispers, and turned towards them. He finally saw where he was. A cemetary. Among the small crowd assembled, Jared caught sight of several of his teammates. Flex, Murmur, Vindicator, and all the rest. They were gathered around a grave, sad looks on their faces.

A preacher began to speak, and the whispers died down. Jared moved closer, wanting to hear what the preacher had to say. "My friends, we are here to mourn the loss of Jared Corbo, age 17. At such a young age, Jared aspired to much. He wanted to be one of Canada's greatest heroes. He wanted to be independant. Yet with all these ambitions," the preacher paused, as if to gather his thoughts, "he was blinder than a bat!"

The preacher went through a startling metamorphosis, his face twisting and contorting to that of a hellish demon. Fangs glistened, his eyes glowed, pale skin turned fiery crimson. The crowd didn't even seem to notice.

"Jared had no idea the amount of the pain he caused others! His poor brother, Adrian, took the worst brunt of this. Bullets didn't carry the sting that Jared's words did." The preacher waved his right hand, claws included, and Adrian appeared suspended in the air, over a fiery pit. He dangled by a frayed rope, which looked like it would snap at any moment. "In fact, Jared even put his brother's life in danger more than once, by tossing him to such villains as the Zodiac willingly!!" The rope frayed even more.

"Flex, no!!" Jared cried as he rushed towards his brother. Alpha Flight moved to intercept him, and Jared found himself being crushed in Sasquatch's furry embrace. He turned to look at Sasquatch, and found himself being held by a huge skeleton with small tufts of hair sticking out all over, and fur still left on its forearms. "NO!!" Jared cried.

The rope frayed further. "Adrian has done nothing wrong, but his brother has already condemed him!" The rope snapped, and Adrian fell silently. When he fell into the pit, his screams could be heard for miles.

Jared watched in horrible silence, and then found Murmur walking towards the preacher. He waved his hand, and she was suspended above the pit. "Arlette sought Jared's affections, her inability to control him attracting her to him. He waved her away as he would a fly, and when she showed some affection towards Mac Hudson, he had the gall to be jealous! By his actions, her ability to love has been lost, as has she!"

Arlette's rope snapped, and she plunged into the pit. She screamed for a long time, the fire burning the flesh off her bones. As the screams finally stopped, a skull appeared in front of Jared. Arlette's skull.

His hair was a mess, and his eyes had bags under them. Shaping his forcefield to confrom to his hair, he brushed it back with his hands. He rubbed his eyes as best he could, and stifled a yawn. He glanced at the clock on the floor.

It was seven o'clock in the morning.

Jared had the option of going to sleep for an additional hour before wake up call, or just getting up now. He chose to remain awake, muttering to himself it wasn't because he was afraid to go back to sleep.

Jared grabbed a work-out suit from a chair, and picked up a device designed to scramble the molecules of his clothes, making them small enough to pierce his field. He filtered it through, and the suit rematerialized inside the field. The suit was made of unstable molecules, which were invented by Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four. Nearly every superhero nowadays had unstable molecule suits, and Canada's premier superteam wasn't going to be without them.

Widening his field so he had room to move, Jared pulled the suit on. Then shrinking his field to conform to his body, he walked out of his room.

At the end of the hall, he expected to see a duo of Epsilon guards, but found none. Jared shook his head, remembering that the new guy that had taken over for Clarke, Gentry, had more of an "open door" metholigy, meaning no guards in the residential wing.

Gentry. He seemed nice enough, and had already made sweeping changes at Department H. He had moved all the Alpha trainees into the Alpha residential wing, for starters. Jared had been afraid he would have to share his room with someone, most likely Flex, but Gentry had had all of the guard rooms (which they used for storing supplies, and for coffee breaks) modified to living quarters.

The trainees had seemed okay, but some of them had even weirder powers than he did. That one kid, Ouija, Jared wasn't even sure what his powers were. Maybe he was a precog?

Jared entered Combat Centrale, Alpha Flight's training center. It was deserted, everyone else most likely still asleep. Jared walked over to a computer console, keyed up a program. From out of the floor came five flying robots.

He smiled, and instantly, Jared was gone, replaced by Alpha Flight's Radius. The robots began firing energy blasts at him, and Radius ducked and rolled out of the way. If the blasts had struck him, he wouldn't have felt them anyway, but that would have defeated the purpose of the exercise.

Radius ran towards the lead robot, and concentrated. He willed his forcefield to extend to surround the robot, and simply crushed it. The next two robots moved to surround him. Radius simply decked the first one, then spun and grabbed the second one. He threw it at the remaining robots, and the result was an explosion that claimed the electronic lives of all three automations.

"You looked good back there, son," came a voice from behind him. "Like you were born to it." Puck stepped fully through the door, clad in his uniform.

"Puck, you're up," said Radius, although he wasn't surprised. Puck had a reputation as an early riser.

"Only day I wake up late's after a hard night on the town," Puck said as he strode towards Radius. "We need to talk." He stopped and looked Radius square in the eye, or as well as he could, consdering his height.

"Not now, alright Puck. I've got some things on my mind. Run along and play with Snow White and the rest of the Dwarves," Radius snapped before turning to leave. Suddenly he felt a weight on his shoulders, and found himself flat on his back on the floor.

"Yeah, well, my agenda's to get you through that corridor. You can walk, or I can drag ya," Puck said grimly as he stood over Radius. "You believe that forcefield o' yours makes you invincible? Try it on me."

Radius stood, and glowered at the man before him. Puck had been after him since day one about teamwork and the like. He was getting sick of it. "The last time," Radius growled. "The last time!!!"

Radius charged at Puck, roaring in rage. Puck leapt out of his way, and came down behind him. Radius turned, and with his forcefield ripped the floor out from under Puck. Puck leapt away, coming down in a series of handsprings, and then catapaulted himself into Radius' chest. Radius went down.

"C'mon, Radius. You're always going on about how you don't need the team. How you can do things yourself. It's just you now, and you ain't doin' that well. Seems someone always has to be there to save your hide. Just like Sasquatch," Puck said as he faced Radius.

"You shut up about Sasquatch!!" Radius cried. "It wasn't my fault!! You hear me, IT WASN'T MY FAULT!!!" Radius grabbed Puck, and began to shake him as hard as he could. "IT WASN'T MY FAULT!!!!" Puck just let Radius shake him, and after a few more seconds Radius began to break down, and he cried.

Radius had knelt down to shake Puck, and now Puck held him, letting him cry it out. "There, it's all right now. It'll be all right," whispered Puck as he held the boy in front of him. When Radius was finished, he stood up.

"You know I didn't mean for it to happen, right?" Radius pleaded. Puck just looked at him. "Right?"

Finally, Puck spoke. "Yeah, I know you didn't."

Radius began to cry again, this time out of sorrowful joy. Puck had just forgiven him, as much as he could. They knew he hadn't meant for it to happen!

"Now, let's get us some breakfast, eh?"

"How you holdin' up, Heather?" asked Puck. He took a bite of his scrambled eggs, and then a drink of orange juice.

"I've been better, no doubt," Heather said as she nibbled at her toast. Jared just sat there silently, a special device clamped to his forcefield over his mouth allowed him to eat. Just one more annoyance of his powers. Bad enough he could never physically make contact with anyone, but he couldn't even get at his food with help. It appaled him to have such a weakness.

"Jared?" Heather repeated.

"Huh?" Jared asked as he shook himself from his depressing thoughts. Heather sighed, and repeated herself.

"I asked you how you're doing," Heather said. Her green eyes stared at him, waiting for an answer.

"Fine. Why wouldn't I be?" Jared brought a piece of toast up to his mouth, only to find his eating device had shorted out. "Crap! I thought Su fixed this thing!" Without excusing himself, Jared left, supposedly heading for Dr. Su's laboratory.

"Is he really fine, Judd?" asked Heather. She glanced up as Mac started heading for their table, but then an engineer caught his attention and Mac joined him.

"He's gettin' there. We had a little aggresion therapy this morning, and he's working through it. Give him a few days, and he'll be back to his obnoxious self," said Puck

"I guess that's good. I just hope he learns to follow orders a little better because of it." Heather glanced down at her mug. "I need more coffee. Be right back." Heather got up and headed for the coffee machine.

Puck watched her go, and then caught sight of Flex. He was about to call him over, when he saw Adrian offering to help one of the new recruits, Lilli, with her tray. Who says romance is dead? Puck thought. The two were roughly the same age, although Puck would wager that Lilli might be a year older.

Puck sighed, and rose from his chair. He had an appointment to keep with Gentry, and he saw no reason to be tardy for the new boss.

"I'm tellin' ya, it wasn't working! Ask Puck! He was there!" claimed Radius. He was sick and tired of being ignored by Su. He was a member of Alpha Flight, after all.

"Fine Radius, I believe you. Did you charge it last night?" said Su, suspecting Radius may have forgotten to plug the recharger in.

"Yes, I did," replied Radius, seeing Su's implied comment about his (in Radius' opinion) occasional carelessness. He remember plugging it in before heading out to play roller hockey with some Epsilon guards.

"And you didn't kick the cord out at all, did you?" Su asked, baiting Radius. Su wasn't going to take a fall because some snot-nosed excuse for an Alphan couldn't operate the simplest technology.

"No, I didn't! You can get that tone out of your voice as well, Su! I'm not some child who spilled coffee on daddy's jacket! It's the feeder, not me! Maybe if you got that stick out of your butt you'd build this stuff right!" Radius was fuming. He was just getting over the death of Sasquatch, and now he was getting flak for something he didn't even do.

"Watch yourself, boy! This is the best built technology in all of Canada!!" Su ranted before Radius cut him off.

"So you're saying I should join the Avengers?" Radius sniped, but Su continued on.

"Maybe if you got off your high horse, you might realize that! And maybe Sasquatch would be alive as well!" Su shot back, his professional pride wounded.

Radius had been mad before, but getting directly blamed for Sasquatch's death, when it wasn't entirely his fault, set him off. With a roar of rage, he grabbed Su and flung him into a computer console. Su hit a switch, and cried into it, "Epsilons, Radius has gone crazy! Get in here now!"

Radius picked Su up by the lapels of his lab coat, and hoisted him above his head. He was about to throw him when he felt energy beams hit his forcefield. He dropped Su, and turned to find two Epsilon guards blasting at him.

"We don't want to hurt you, Radius. Just stand down," said one of the Epsilons, who Radius recognized.

"He provoked me, Steve! He started all of this!" Radius pleaded, not wanting to fight against one of his friends.

"I'm sorry Radius, but pending further investigation, we must take you into custody," said Steve reluctantly.

"What? Take me into custody? He started this all! Take him into custody!!" Radius screamed. He reached out with his forcefield and crushed the Epsilons' weapons. "Try it now, tough guy!"

"Radius, calm down," came a voice from the hallway. Standing there was Gentry. "I know it wasn't your fault. I was overseeing the dismantling of that Monitor station upstairs, and saw what Su did. Rest assured, he will be punished." Ignoring Radius for the moment, Gentry turned to Dr. Su.

"Su, you are on probation! You should know better than to provoke Alpha members, especially with the recent passing of Dr. Langkowski! You are dismissed!" Gentry ordered. Su glared at Gentry, and then silently exited the lab.

"Now then, Radius, you've been complaining of equipment failure?" asked Gentry in a calm voice.

"Yeah," mumbled Radius, just wanting to leave.

"Well, I'll get some technicians to look at it for you. Now then, I have to be going. Is there anything else?" Gentry asked kindly.

"No," said Radius. He sidestepped Gentry and walked out of the room. Gentry sighed, and headed for the elevator.

"Just call me Judd, eh? Or Puck. Whatever you prefer," said Puck.

"All right then, Puck. What I wanted to talk to you about was the mental condition of Alpha Flight. How are they doing?" Gentry took a seat, and waved away his secretary who had a cup of coffee for him.

"Everybody seems to be doin' all right. Radius is gonna take a little longer, but I'm workin' on it," reported Puck. "But about Alpha, we're kinda lacking in brute strength right about now. What're we gonna do about that?"

Gentry sighed. "I honestly don't know, Puck. All the superhumans with extraordinary strength seem to either be on a team already or are in the United States. Unlike General Clarke, I'm not going to send Alpha to try and capture a new teammate. Short of trying to get us an Iron Man type suit from Stark Enterprises, I'm fresh out of ideas."

"Armor, eh? What about the Box suit? If we could amplify the strength it has, all we'd have to do is find someone to wear it," suggested Puck.

"If Mac still possessed all of his scientific knowledge, it could be done. But the rest of our engineers are already tied up in various other projects," Gentry said reluctantly. He leaned back in his chair.

"That aside, there is one other thing I need to talk to you about."

"And that would be?" asked Puck, curious.

"We need someone to train these new recruits. All Clarke did was test them, basically. They show promise, and after all they've gone through, they deserve a shot at Alpha. I want you to train them." Gentry rose form his seat. "Take some time to think about it."

"I'll do that. We about finished?" asked Puck, jumping down from his chair.

"Yes, we're done."

Coming around the corner was his brother, Flex. The perfect target. "Hi Jared," said Adrian as he approached.

"You shut your mouth, twerp!" Radius pushed his brother against the wall. "Always tryin' to be so damn cheerful! Someone outta teach you to keep quiet!" Radius pulled his arm back, and back handed Adrian across the face.

"Ow! Quit it, Jared!" Adrian fell back a step, his brother advancing on him. Radius slammed his fist into his brother's stomach. "Ah!" cried Adrian in pain.

"Quit yer cryin' ya big baby!" Radius hit him again. "I'm sick of you, always getting yer way! Sick of it!!"

The unconscious form of Adrian slumped against the wall, blood pouring from a gash in his head. Radius looked in shock. He had never drawn that amount of blood from his brother before. Maybe a tiny bit from a scratch, but nothing more.

"Ohmanohmanohman!" Radius stammered. Quickly, he whipped his jacket off and applied pressure with it to the wound. "I need a doctor!!" he screamed. An Epsilon came running around the corner, and quickly took in the situation.

"Sit tight, Radius. I'll get a medic!" he called as he headed for the nearest guard station.

"Come on man, you gotta be okay! You gotta!" Radius said, more for his own benefit than for his brother's. Radius dropped his jacket. Unconsciously, Radius had extended his forcefield in a large bubble to encompass his brother as well, although a force wall did still keep them apart.

A medic, as well as Puck and the new recruit Lilli, pounded down the hall towards Radius and Flex. She was surprised when she hit a wall of force which seperated her from her patient. "Radius, shrink your field!" cried Puck as he pounded on it. Radius didn't even turn at Puck's words, and didn't do anything to the field.

"We have to get in there! I'm going to get more Epsilons!" the doctor said before Puck stopped her.

"No, we got the solution right here." Puck turned to Lilli. "Lilli, I need you to get through that field. Talk to Radius. Get him to drop the field around Flex. Can you handle it?"

"I-I think so," said Lilli. She willed herself to become intangible, and walked to Radius' field. She paused, and the with a sigh of determination walked through it. She knelt down next to Radius. "Radius?"

"Huh? How'd you get here?" asked Radius in astonishment. Someone had gotten through his field! He wasn't really alone!

"I'm Lilli. I can go through stuff. Look, the doctor needs you to drop your field around your brother. He needs help. Please?" said Lilli, staring at Jared wth wide eyes.

"Al-all right," stammered Radius. He dropped the field around Flex, and the doctor and Puck rushed forward. As Lilli turned to leave, Radus spoke up.

"Lilli?"

"Yes?" She turned towards Radius.

"Could you do me a favor?" asked Radius. He took off the glove on his right hand.

"What?" asked Lilli, puzzled.

"Would you," Radius gulped, "hold my hand?"

Silently, Lilli took his hand. For the first time in years, Radius had made physical contact with someone. It was frightening and exhilirating at the same time. Reluctantly, Radius let go of Lilli's hand, and smashed his head into the side of his forcefield.