We Stand On Guard (Again) For Thee
The story of the formation of the 2nd Northern Guard, arguably the greatest hero team in Canadian history, following the 3rd Gadroon Invasion in 1994.
"And there they go," Forceknight said as the last Gadroon vessel soared out of sight, leaving behind the wreckage of five ships. Inside his battlesuit, Lyle Doerksen muttered a curse. The young engineer turned superhero had hoped to take prisoners, unfortunately the Gadroon gravity beam had lifted all of the wounded back to the spaceworthy vessels. The only one who hadn't been scooped up was the Interrogator himself. Displeased by their leader's performance, the Gadroon had left him to rot on the backward planet. Unfortunately, none of the heroes had any way of knowing that the one who'd caused them so many problems was still at large -- yet.
"They'll be back," Augury stated, coldly, keeping her eye on the contrail left by the saucer's rapid departure.
"Really?" Snowblind added, somewhat sarcastically. "A time and place would be nice, Miss Future."
"About fifteen years in the future," Augury answered. "There's snow and the air is very cold, so it is probably during the winter months, or late fall or early spring. They'll set up somwhere in Canads, my guess is in the north, where they've already scouted. I can see one huge saucer on a large bluff in a snowy wastescape, south of a secured structure with a Maple Leaf emblazoned on the undercarriage."
Snowblind snorted in derision. "That's not very useful," she said. "Rather imprecise for a prophetess if you ask me."
"My powers don't come with a map or a clock," Augury retorted.
"I'll log it for future reference," Forceknight said, making notes on his suit's computers. "And until then, we'll keep watching the skies."
Augury groaned. Snowblind blinked, not getting the reference. Inside his battlearmor, Forceknight was hooking into Cyberlord's sensor grid to inspect the area for Gadroon. He could only pick up seven life signs, all reasonably human.
David Burrell, the cyborg they'd rescued from the supervillai Cyberlord three days earlier, also looked about the wreckage searching for survivors, but his search was as fruitless as Forceknight's. After assuring himself that they would not be interrupted by another assault, he walked over to Craig Carson, the veteran hero Thundrax, stretching his lanky cyborg frame, and grinning boyishly at the west coaster. "Are all alien invasions this tough?" he asked.
"I guess," Thundrax answered with a shrug. "This was my first." He paused and glanced back at Ravenspeaker, who was seated on a rock smoking a cigarette. "And no wisecracks about being a virgin, Billy."
"I said nothing." Ravenspeaker's reply was delivered in a deadpan tone that was betrayed by a huge smile.
"This was my first mission," David said. "How'd I do?"
Craig smiled. "Your cryosystems grounded two of the ships, so I'd say you did pretty well. We'll work on seeing if we can develop more versatile tactics using your powers.."
"We're going to continue training?" David said, an unaccustomed enthusiasm in his normally stoic voice. Even he noted it: it was probably his cyborg systems, still pumping adrenaline to deal with the fight or flight responses he'd experienced in the fight. "Fantastic," he said and he turned to Lyle Doerksen. "So what's next for the team?"
"Team?" Voyageur, who had not been paying attention to very much except his leg cramps, suddenly felt the need to interrupt the conversation.
"Uh, I didn't sign up for a team," Snowblind added. "I just came by to save Canada from the space-frogs."
"Team?" Ravenspeaker piped up, looking cheerfully at Forceknight. "So what are we calling ourselves?"
"Hold on there, friend." David Burrell told the Haida spirit-elder. "I don't even have a codename, yet."
"Of course you do. You're the Six Million Dollar Canuck." Voyageur quipped, looking over David's cyborg form.
Craig raised a hand and cut off the conversation. He gave Lyle Doerksen a long look. "You've never been a team player before, Forceknight." Thundrax noted. "Are you planning to form a team?"
Lyle Doerksen mulled over the idea. "Thundrax, I'm not the same Forceknight that you met in the past. I'm Forceknight Number Three. Wally retired years ago, and as for Jim Bridges, he's dead, God rest his soul. As for the team... why not? Canada could use one. The Ensign's retired, Celestar's not active anymore..."
"Nor will he return soon," Augury stated ominously.
"...and the old Northern Guard disbanded years ago. We're all the active Canadian supers I could dig up. More and more villains are crossing the border these days. Why not team up?"
"Because five minutes after I met you, I couldn't stand half of you?" Snowblind stated.
"Trust me, the feeling's mutual," Augury replied acidly. "Especially given that you nearly froze half of us to death."
"Ladies, please." Forceknight protested. "Thundrax, you're the only one here who's been on a team before. Tell us what it's like."
Craig shook his head and contemplated the request. "It's like a cross between a band and a marriage," he finally said. "And it can be a shock, especially for a novice. When I joined up with SUNDER, I was a kid. I'd never seen a violent death, I'd never been in a serious fight, and people who got mad at me before that just yelled at me and made me write lines on a blackboard, they didn't try to kill me. I got to experience all that, but more importantly I got to see what that sort of lifestyle does to people, my teammates. In SUNDER, I found borderline psychotics like Avenger, people who didn't think twice about using telepathy without a court order like Shamus, and egomaniacs like Cryo. Nonetheless, despite our serious flaws, we lasted for nine years against some of the toughest enemies on the planet. Because even if you've got problems and disagreements, it's amazing how quickly you can put them aside when VIPER is on a rampage and innocent lives are at stake. This isn't a business full of perfect people being perfect. It's one of highly flawed people getting together and doing the right thing despite out human natures."
"Human? There are robot heroes, aren't there?" David wondered aloud. Craig gave the comment a casual nod and continued his speech.
"You put together a team in the hopes of doing things that the individuals could never do on their own," Thundrax continued. "And hope that the rewards of doing so aren't overshadowed by the conflicts. It's like any relationship, I guess. A cycle of hope, then reality, then compromise, then back to hope again. You cherish every victory you get along the way, because they won't last. Eventually the team either gets old or it falls apart."
"Sounds like an excuse for a lot of pointless arguing," Snowblind folded her arms and looked away from the conversation.
"Pointless arguing, saving lives," Augury snapped back. "Which is more important, honey?"
"Well," David Burrell told Thundrax. "If you're forming a team, I'm in."
"Me? Form a team?" Thundrax's eyes suddenly had a deer in the headlights stare. "I don't have the resources," he stammered quickly. And I'm no leader, he almost added.
"But I do." Lyle Doerksen interjected. "Forming a team has been on my mind for awhile actually. And now that I called all of you here, I may as well toss you the recruitment pitch."
"I'm in," David Burrell repeated, looking over the impressive steel-clad champion. "You're the lord of this outfit, Forceknight. And like any good medieval lord, you need a justiciar."
"He needs a what?" Snowblind said.
Craig Carson sighed, thinking very carefully about his words he was about to say, and the not so old ghosts that lay behind them. "It'd be nice to be on a team again. Unfortunately, I doubt I can keep flying east on short notice."
"You can fly, Thundrax," Ravenspeaker noted.
"Very slowly." Thundrax retorted. "If a crisis is happening in Toronto and it takes me eight hours to get there, I'm probably not going to be much use to you."
"I'll take care of transportation, Thundrax," Forceknight promised. "I'm wearing Avro Arrow tech, you know. Best jetplane ever."
Thundrax nodded. He had not done much "supers work" since the Detroit clean-up; partially that was because of the loss of his brother, and partially because he felt guilty about what had happened there. But now it seemed that his sojourn away from superheroics was coming to a close. "Then I'm in," he said. He was surprised to hear himself say the words.
"Fantastic," Justiciar said again. "That makes three."
"Four," Augury said. "You'll need someone sane to keep you grounded. Someone with common sense and perspective."
"I wanted to be four," Ravenspeaker moaned.
"You don't have common sense or perspective, Billy." Thundrax stated.
"Six," Voyageur said.
"Great!" Forceknight exclaimed, the faceplate of his armor reflecting his smile. "Could you extend an invitation to Le Fort?" he asked Voyageur, referring to another Quebec hero.
"Gabriel will never leave Quebec," Voyageur stated. "But I'll extend the offer."
Snowblind sighed. "Alright," she muttered, looking at Voyageur. "He's kind of cute, so I'm in. For now."
"Okay. We have seven," Forceknight stated. "Nine if we're lucky, and Celestar and Le Fort join up."
"They won't," Augury stated, and she turned to Thundrax. "Don't let the bird do its business on his shoulder." she said.
"Huh?" Forceknight wondered, but it was interrupted by a great black raven landing on Thundrax's shoulder, and leaving behind... business.
"Billy!" Craig shouted at Ravenspeaker.
"I didn't do that." Ravenspeaker stated, though his face didn't even try to hide his amusement.
"Sorry chum," Yelth, the Haida Raven-god said, regurgitating a huge, beautiful, pristine, salmon to lay at Thundrax's feet as a peace offering before he turned to Ravenspeaker. "Uh, Billy. Our old friend Tax'et has decided to rile up the animal spirit world and raise an army of the angry dead to threaten Niikwan. You think you can put down the smoke long enough to tell him that this is a bad idea?"
Ravenspeaker shook his head. "Can't do it, sorry, nic fit." he said. "Thanks to the Gadroon, I couldn't smoke for hours!"
"Poor baby," Yelth croaked.
"What's a Niikwan?" Snowblind asked.
"A Haida village that's been protected from the ravages of time for centuries," Thundrax explained. "It's where Billy comes from."
"Can we help?" Forceknight asked the Raven.
"Niikwan is forbidden to outsiders!" Yelth cawed. "It is a precious jewel from the mists of the past! Many moons has it stood untarnished! It must remain pure and unstained by the white man! Terrible curses will befall you if you dare to set foot there!" Raven began to break out into a laugh. "Who am I kidding? Even if all that crap was true, you knuckleheads would still do it. So go ahead. Go be heroes. I'll jusr sit on the sidelines and eat salmon." the raven-god croaked heavily. "Mmmmmm, dead fish eyes...." it gurgled in a voice frighteningly similar to Homer Simpson, drool issuing from his beak.
Forceknight nodded at the Haida trickster god and raised his shield. "Sacred village of Niikwan!" he shouted. "We stand on guard for thee!"
Voyageur blinked. "What the hell was that?"
"Whatever it was, please don't do it again," Augury moaned, knowing he wouldn't oblige her request.
"C'mon folks," Forceknight said. "If we're going to do the hero team thing, we do the cornball stuff too."
"Is it too late to quit?" Snowblind asked.
"We never did battlecries in SUNDER." Craig said.
"You had that dorky theme song, Thundrax," Ravenspeaker replied, putting down his cigarette.
Thundrax groaned, remembering the Men at Work parody tune. I come from a group called SUNDER... "You can blame Solar Sentinel for that one!" he explained.
"C'mon Guard," Forceknight said. He pushed a few buttons on his wrist control and the Arrowhead, his transport jet, lifted off the ground, swooped over them, and rotated its jets like a harrier to allow them to board. "Let's go save a village."