As the child was being born and Shaman was in the process of binding its life force to Earth, the child's life force and Alpha Flight were subject to a mystical attack. Talisman had been corrupted by her power over the spirits of the Earth and was deeply angry at her father. She told Shaman that she had ordered the spirits he had beseeched to lead him to a place of power that was also a place of death. She had sensed a spirit trapped between life and death and led Alpha Flight there to precipitate the attack on them. She wanted to show Shaman up through his failure to save Snowbird's child, at which time she would step in and bind the attacking spirit. Snowbird's baby was possessed by Crozier, calling himself Pestilence. However, Talisman had fatally miscalculated, because Pestilence had never truly died, thus he was not a spirit and was not subject to her powers. Pestilence attacked Alpha Flight anew and grappled with Talisman, tearing the mystical circlet that was the source and focus of her powers from her head.