As a young man, Madison Jeffries volunteered to enlist as a soldier in Vietnam, alongside his younger brother Lionel. While Madison preferred not to use his mutant abilities to restructure metal, glass, and plastic, Lionel used his abilities to reshape organic materials to heal wounded soldiers. However, when Lionel attempted to use his powers to revive dead soldiers, with grotesque results, he went mad, and Madison was forced to use his own powers to bind his brother. Lionel, now known as Scramble the Mixed-Up Man, was committed to a psychiatric ward in Montreal General Hospital, while Madison left the service. Madison met and befriended a man named Roger Bochs at a clinic for physically disabled superheroes. The two became fast friends and Madison used his mutant powers to help Roger complete his ultimate creation: the Box robot. They were discovered by Dr. James MacDonald Hudson, a.k.a. Weapon Alpha, and recruited into the up-and-coming Alpha Flight program. During the Canadian government's first sanctioning of Alpha Flight and its parent organization, Department H, Madison remained in the third-tier Gamma Flight program, while Bochs and his cybernetically-controlled robot, Box, reached the Beta Flight level. Madison had a fleeting relationship with fellow Gamma Flight member Diamond Lil, but the two would drift apart for some time. When the Canadian government cut Department H's funding, Madison left the organization completely, and found employment digging ditches.