Guest Appearance: Alpha Flight: Vindicator, Sasquatch, Shaman, Northstar, Aurora, Snowbird, Colleen Wing, Misty Knight

Cameo: John Byrne, Darice, Annie

Letters Page: Page One

The X-Men break into the Calgary Stampede, a local theme park and fairground, to face off against their attackers. Shaman watches them from the shadows and places a binding spell around the grounds, in order to protect innocent people who might get caught in the crossfire of battle. No one will get in or out. As Cyclops thinks back on how they tracked Vindicator to the Stampede, Storm takes flight and finds Wolverine and Nightcrawler bound in the center of an arena. They go to rescue them, but all of Alpha Flight stands in their way.

Banshee, Colleen Wing and Misty Knight arrive at the Stampede but Shaman’s spell keeps them from getting in. Cyclops and Vindicator star a heated argument around the Canadian's supposed claim on Wolverine. Colossus senses duplicity on the part of Northstar while the discussion ensues, and he preempts whatever action Northstar was taking by slamming his steel foot into the ground. The tension broken, a long-overdue and all-out melee breaks out!

Nightcrawler teleports out of his bonds and Wolverine changes into costume. Shaman creates spirit totems to attack the X-Men, and Cyclops and Wolverine tear through them while Storm and Snowbird launch into a dogfight above them. Snowbird is able to shape-shift into a giant owl to attack Storm. Shaman creates a wind that knocks Wolverine over. The continued use of wind and storm manipulation by Shaman adds to the storm he had already created to bring the X-Men’s plane down (see X-Men #120) and a monstrous blizzard sweeps through Calgary. Reaching a tremendously powerful crescendo, the storm starts to shatter windows and shake buildings. It even spoils a lovely dinner between a fellow named John Byrne and his date at a fancy restaurant!

As the rest of the X-Men and Alpha Flight square off against each other, Storm exhausts herself trying to calm the storm. She manages to still the violent winds once and for all, and her reward is a punch in the back of the head by Northstar. Cyclops is enraged, takes him out with an optic blast and nearly beats him to a pulp, but Wolverine intervenes. He says this was always his fight and he doesn’t want the X-Men involved. If Canada wants him so badly, he says, then he’ll surrender. The Canadian military lock Wolverine in a steel truck and take off.

The X-Men’s plane takes off under military escort. Once the escort breaks off, Cyclops orders the plane back to Canada. Not under his leadership will they leave Wolverine behind. But Wolverine is sitting in the cockpit! He tells his teammates that he's had enough of Canada and broke himself out of the truck. Reunited with his teammates, and with that mess behind him, the X-Men, finally, return home.

- -synopsis by Jonathan Clarke, aka doesitmatter, and Gormuu

- - panel scans provided by Jonathan Clarke, aka doesitmatter