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Albert 'Alby' Calvin is Lily West's best friend and a gifted young mathematician, who becomes a part of the Coalition of Minnows and later Jack West Jr's team.

History[]

Early History[]

Born to Lois Calvin and her mining executive husband in 1996, Alby Calvin was diagnosed at an early age with partial deafness, requiring him to receive a hearing aid and be taught sign language in order to help compensate for his minor disability. Growing up, Alby was doted on by his mother, however his father and older brother largely distanced themselves from him due to their indifference towards his interests in astronomy and his bookishness.

By age eleven, Alby was sent to a boarding school for gifted students in Perth for his skills in mathematics. During his time there, Alby made friends with Lily West, and taught her sign-language. The school's sports-master, Todd Naismith, disapproved of Alby's lack of fitness skills, and often forced him to play soccer to meet the school's compulsory sport curriculum, to the worry of his mother. However, during Jack West Jr's chat with Naismith regarding Lily, he warned the sports-master to go easier on Alby when it came to sports.

In late November of 2007, Alby's parents went away on a holiday, and arranged for Alby to stay with the Wests at their remote farm during their absence. What Alby didn't know, however, was that the Saudi spy Vulture had taken note of the fact that Jack had overlooked the possibility of the boy being used to locate his home, allowing the Saudi and his allies to discover the farm's location.

The Six Sacred Stones[]

Alby and Lily were up early and playing outside the farmhouse when Jack called for them to get inside and gather their things. Recognising the tone of his voice, Lily signed the urgency to Alby that they had to follow his instructions. The farm was about to be invaded by Chinese forces, and Alby looked nervously at Jack's guns as they ran to the Light Strike Vehicle, though Jack reassured the boy that they'd come out of these situations before. Alby sat in Jack's LSV as they made their way across the farm to the highway where Sky Monster had the Halicarnassus ready to take off.

Once they'd escaped, Jack decided to keep Alby with them until his parents' holiday was over, and the group began making their way to the Burj al Arab, where Max "Wizard" Epper had requested that they rendezvous. After arriving in their suite, Alby looked around in amazement, and waited the next few days until the rest of Jack's multi-national team began arriving. When Pooh Bear and Stretch arrived, Lily introduced the pair to her friend, and the Arabian soldier teased Alby about his intentions with Lily.

Alby was present at the new meeting of nations as Jack revealed what he had learned from Wizard's notes; a zero-point field referred to as the Dark Star was due to enter the solar system, and unless it was repelled, then its deadly energy would destroy all life on Earth. To this end, they needed to gather six oblong diamonds called Pillars and set them at various locations around the world to rebuild an ancient machine. In order to find the Pillars, Vertices, determine when each Pillar had to be set and cleanse them, they would need to find the Six Sacred Stones.

Towards the meeting's end, Alby spoke up to let Jack know that he knew a detail regarding Wizard's notes, pointing out the Titanic Rising as an astrological event set to happen over the next few months. To keep the dismissive Paul Robertson and some of the other new arrivals in the dark, Alby then signed to Jack that there was something else, however that was forced to wait when a plane began making its way to crash into the Burj. After evacuating, Alby told Jack that an image from Wizard's notes, which Jack thought was a symbol, was in fact a layout of Stonehenge, helping to highlight the importance of the site since the Altar Stone was once of the Sacred Stones

As a result, Jack sent him, Zoe Kissane and Lily with the Firestone to meet with Wizard's former students, twins Julius and Lachlan Adamson, so that they could unlock the secrets of the Altar Stone of Stonehenge during the next Titanic Rising event. Upon their rendezvous with the Adamson twins, Zoe and the kids made their way to Stonehenge, and Alby was surprised that the twins wanted to hear his opinion regarding Stonehenge and its connection to the Titanic Rising. Upon reaching Stonehenge, Alby watched through a telescope waiting for the Titanic Rising event to begin as the other restored the ancient site. Once the alignment started, Alby watched in amazement as the weakened light of the Dark Sun caused the lichen on the trilithons to reveal the relative locations of each of the six vertices.

Reuniting with Jack's group Mortimer Island, Alby joined the rest of the procession as they identified the location of the First Vertex at Abu Simbel, learned the Pillar-laying dates from the Killing Stone of the Maya, and cleansed the two Pillars they had with the Philosopher's Stone.

Alby accompanied the team to Abu Simbel, and remained in the team's zodiac as Jack, Wizard and Zoe went to lay the first Pillar in the vertex. However, once the task was accomplished, he and the others found themselves surrounded by Iolanthe's SAS troopers. Demanding the Pillar, Wizard and Lily be handed over, Lieutenant Ashmont threatened to shoot Alby if Jack didn't comply, and after he'd done so Jack warned Ashmont he'd pay for threatening the boy. Handcuffed to the sinking zodiac, Alby, Pooh Bear and Astro were threatened by the lake's Nile crocodiles, and Pooh Bear did his best to defend Alby until Jack and Zoe returned to rescue them.

Wizard then radioed to report that Iolanthe's group had been blindsided by suicide bombers, and was now fleeing with Lily and the Pillar. However, Sky Monster then reported that a convoy of enemy vehicles were approaching, and so the team rushed to catch up with the Halicarnassus. During the chase, Zoe received a call from Alby's mother, and an exasperated Zoe gave the phone to Alby so that he could lie about what he was doing and reassure her he was fine. After Pooh Bear threw himself from the car to drag off some of their enemies, Zoe took the wheel and managed to get herself and Alby into the Hali. However, with an engine damaged Sky Monster needed to take off, and the team reluctantly heeded Jack's plea to find the Neetha and place the second Pillar, promising to catch up to them, leaving the rest of their friends behind.

Shortly after they took off, however, Sky Monster informed the group that they would need to make a forced landing in Rwanda. After sending word to Solomon Kol to request fuel, they made plans to rendezvous with him on the way to the Congo. As they made their way through the African continent, Lily helped Alby to begin understanding the Thoth-written rewards on the First Pillar, discovering some of the knowledge regarding it contained. During their journey, while attempting to get in touch with Jack, they instead reached his father Jonathon "Wolf" West Sr, who was the leader of their adversaries and had apparently killed Jack.

Once Wizard's team located the Neetha village, they were promptly captured by the tribe, and discovered that, in addition to the Second Pillar, the Neetha also possessed the Seeing Stone of Delphi. As the Neetha held them prisoner, they met the long-missing anthropologist Diane Cassidy and a kindly Neethan called Ono. After Zoe killed a Neethan who wanted to make Lily his wife, she was sentenced to the village's maze, and when she noticed Alby had her camera she requested that he accompany her. Zoe quickly reassured Alby that the path through the maze was in one of the pictures she'd taken of a symbol in the first Vertex, and Zoe defended them from crocodiles and hyenas as he determined their route.

After finding the exit, Zoe told Alby to wait until Wolf's men started assaulting the village before they dashed out to grab the Pillars and Seeing Stone, before attempting to to escape from the village in the chaos. When Zoe was knocked down and dropped the Pillars, a conflicted Alby opted to help Zoe rather than grab the Pillars, however as he prepared to follow after the rest of the group to safety he was shot in the arm by Switchblade. Zoe was forced to leave the boy behind as Wolf's men closed in, and though Wolf was dismissive of him decided to have Alby brought along with them to the second Vertex.

After having his wound seen to and been given Jack's fireman's helmet, Alby was forced to join Wolf's CIEF team as they made their way through the vertex beneath Table Mountain, and Jack spotted the boy as he attempted to catch up to Wolf's men. Alby watched as the treacherous Switchblade attempted to drop the Pillar into the abyss, only for Jack to foil him and plant the Pillar, and then watched in horror as they both fell into the abyss below. Once Wolf's men grabbed the Pillar he decided to abandon Alby, who was left in the darkening vertex clutching Jack's helmet and crying in the belief that he was going to die.

The Five Greatest Warriors[]

As it happened, Jack managed to survive and get back to the top of the chasm, spotting Alby on the ziggurat despite the dying light of the flare. Shocked but relieved to see Jack still alive, Alby and Jack headed back to the entrance where Jack used the helmet Alby returned to him to tap out an SOS for his allies on the Indian Raider to pick up on sonar, and the submarine soon returned. Once aboard, Jack looked over Alby's wound and requested his permission to lie to his mother and say it was a broken arm.

Alby joined Jack's group as they set out to rendezvous with Wizard's group at World's End, and Lily hugged her friend in relief once they were brought together. Soon Jack decided that because of his injury, and with his parents' holiday ending soon, that Alby would be better off going home and that Lily would stay with his family after Christmas.

Alby soon returned home to his parents with his injured arm disguised in a sling, and his mother was beside herself with worry, taking to keeping a closer eye on Alby as his arm healed. After Christmas, Lily began staying with Alby and his family while the Coalition team made preparations to rescue Stretch and established themselves at Sea Ranger's base on Zanzibar. During the next few weeks, Lily saw how sad Alby was with his father greater praise towards his brother.

Later, Alby and Lily would join in the team's discussion via video-chat to plan their next move in researching the locations of the remaining Pillars and Vertices. After Cassidy put them onto the Five Greatest Warriors, Alby set about helping to research the Warriors, and was later tasked with helping Lily and Wizard in finding out the location of the Basin of Rameses II.

During his investigations into Napoléon Bonaparte, Alby questioned why his discovery, the Rosetta Stone, was kept at the British Museum. Upon further investigation of the other finds of Bonaparte's that had ended up there, Alby discovered a picture of an artefact called the Basin of Monutuemhat, and spied a inscription written in Thoth on its flank. After having Lily translate it, Alby learned that it read "the cleansing basin", and shared this revelation with the Coalition team just before they headed to Mongolia, leading Pooh Bear, Stretch and the twins going to retrieve it.

By mid February, Alby was watching the reports of strange weather and tsunamis when he realised that Dark Star was causing it and theorised that the tsunamis would rise against the remaining vertex entrances, likely making entering them more difficult. Moments after he sent a message to Jack and the others with his theory, Alby heard his mother scream and was confronted by Vulture and Scimitar, who proceeded to kidnap him and Lois.

As he and his mother were taken away on Vulture's private plane, the Saudi spy used Alby's computer to contact the Coalition teams as they corresponded, revealing the kidnapping. After Vulture casually let slip that Alby had been helpful to him once again, he revealed that he had used the boy to discover the location of Jack's farm. Alby was horrified to learn that he was partially responsible for the farm's invasion, and Vulture taunted him with the facts he knew about him and his family. After rebuffing Scimitar's dismissal of Pooh Bear and saying he was more of a man than Scimitar, the furious Arabian threatened him with his knife, only for a pair of Russian fighters to surround the plane and force it to change its course.

Being forced to land at a dam in eastern Russia, Alby, his mother and their kidnappers were captured by the Russian royal known as Carnivore, who planned on manipulating the people involved in the Machine's restoration into working for him. Though he apparently hadn't intended to kidnap the boy himself, Carnivore took advantage of the opportunity and had Alby and Lois placed inside tanks of formaldehyde to use them as hostages.

When Jack, Lily, Zoe and Sky Monster were brought to the dam later, Carnivore revealed his entombing of Alby and his mother, and Jack was furious with the Russian for what he had done to the two civilians. Though Carnivore professed that it was the Arabs' fault for having them at the time he had acquired them, he offered Jack the chance to free Alby and Lois if he found the sixth Pillar ahead of Vulture, Scimitar and Mao Gongli.

However, after the fourth and fifth Pillars were confirmed to have been laid, Carnivore abandoned his base and the prisoners, informing them that they would likely perish from lack of oxygen after a few days, to Alby's shock. Though Wolf soon managed to escape his tank, he opted not to release Alby or the other prisoners.

Fortunately, the twins, Pooh Bear, Sky Monster and Stretch were able to get back to Carnivore's dam and free Alby and the others before they could suffocate. As Alby and Lois were recovering after their ordeal over the next few days, Alby told his mother the truth about how they had come to be imprisoned by Carnivore. When Jack and Lily finally arrived, Lily embraced her best friend in relief in seeing that he was alive.

A few weeks later, Alby played with Lily and Horus at Jack's new farm as the newly married Jack and Zoe watched.

Between The Five Greatest Warriors and The Four Legendary Kingdoms[]

A few years after the Dark Star was averted, Alby was fast-tracked through the last two years of high school, leading him to an early acceptance into the California Institute of Technology, where he earned a degree in advanced astrophysics. To the surprise of his fellow Caltech students, Alby also began studying for a degree in ancient history, as Alby had developed a taste for it during his previous adventures.

Though Alby wasn't aware of it, the contents of his course papers drew particular interest from a couple of his college professors, who had been tasked by Anthony "Hades" DeSaxe to scout for impressive individuals who might one day be of interest to him, and passed his details on to Hades.

Alby kept in touch with Lily while he was studying in the States, and occasionally met up with his long-time friend when she later began attending Stanford.

During his summer break in 2016, Alby went on a solo backpacking Eurorail trip through many European countries, visiting many museums in Paris, Florence and Rome, as well as popular tourist destinations such as the Rock of Gibraltar.

Meeting with Jack and Lily during the former's visit in mid-2016, Alby asked why Jack does the things that make him a hero. Before answering, Jack suggested that Alby and Lily were old enough to write Messages from the Other Side, letters which he would read should something ever go wrong and they died. Soon after sending Jack his Message, Alby asked Jack if he thought Lily would go out with him if he asked her, and Jack suggested that Alby ask her himself but that his chances were good.

During his holidays in November, Alby went to stay with the Wests. When Jack was called to a meeting at Pine Gap, Alby was among those who accompanied him to the facility on the Sky Warrior. However, while he and Lily were in the waiting room as Jack was being briefed, Alby was knocked out by a sleeping gas leaked into the facility, and was summarily taken away, along with Jack, Lily, Sky Monster and the dogs Ash and Roxy by a group of people led by Iolanthe.

The Four Legendary Kingdoms[]

Alby and the others would wake up two days later inside a train-mounted cage, and forced to watch as a man calling himself Hades announced the beginning of the Great Games of the Hydra in the Underworld, and as Jack struggled through a pit of rising water in order to obtain a strange gold sphere.

Shortly after Jack was reunited with his friends in the interim before the next Challenge, Alby and the others were met by Iolanthe, who explained to the group about the Four Legendary Kingdoms of Land, Sky, Sea and Underworld which secretly ruled the world from the shadows. Iolanthe also explained that the Games were a ritual to prevent the Hydra Galaxy from destroying the Earth, in a trial set by the Super-Ancient Beings, with Jack chosen as the Kingdom of Land's last-moment replacement Champions.

Alby watched from the hostage train and Jack and Sky Monster tackled the Third Challenge, then ate with his companions and their new ally, the minotaur E-147. The following morning, Alby, Jack, the other Champions and hostages were brought to the wall maze comprising the Fourth Challenge, and Jack opted to choose Alby for his brains as one of his companions, along with and Roxy.

As the Challenge began, Jack instructed Alby to begin memorising a path for them to the Golden Spheres and the exit, but they were forced to move into the maze as the Hydra began stalking towards them. Once the two Spheres were claimed, Jack, Alby and Roxy rushed to get to the exit, but Jack's last-second rescue of the Finisher instead got them trapped in the maze. As they were hunted by Chaos, Fear and the Hydra, Jack realised that grabbing Mephisto, the "Sacred Stag", was their only chance. As he prepared to confront Mephisto, Jack told Alby to wait near the exit, and that if he failed and they died, he wanted Alby to know he loved him like a son. Fortunately though, Jack managed to capture Mephisto and secure their escape from the maze.

As the progression prepared to move on to the Fifth Challenge, Vacheron informed Jack that, prior to a lunch hosted by Hades, he had been invited to meet the minotaur King Minotus, and Jack requested that Alby be allowed to join him. As they and E-147 were being brought along, Jack and Alby tried to figure out how to deal with the explosive in his neck, with Alby suggesting a few options to destroy or jam the relay antenna or steal Vacheron's remote. After they had met with Minotus, Alby was escorted back to the hostage train.

Soon, however, Dion DeSaxe, Lily's boyfriend from Stanford who was in fact Hades's son, had Zaitan and George bring Alby to one of their minotaur torture chambers, where he was chained up and had a hot iron brand set in front of his face. As Dion told Lily his plan to usurp his father and take Lily as his bride, and as she dismissed the idea Dion revealed the captive Alby, threatening him with the brand and the threat of death if Lily did not comply. Dion then released Alby, whispering to him that there was no chance he would be able to tell any of his plans since he and the other hostages were to be killed after the Fifth Challenge before having Alby sent back to the hostage train.

Alby arrived back at the hostage train after Jack had taken Sky Monster and E-147 as his companions, and watched the race until Jack unexpectedly fired an RPG at the train tracks, sending Alby and the other hostages crashing onto the staircase. Once Jack grabbed Alby, the dogs and Scarecrow's hostage Tomahawk, they began their escape from the Underworld. As they attempted to evade the Hydra and the minotaurs' LSVs, Jack, knowing at some point the explosive in his neck would be detonated, told his allies to go on without him, and tasked Alby with ensuring the group's escape and finding help to get Lily back (though Mother was dubious of him, she accepted Jack's vouching of Alby). Jack proceeded to distract his enemies as Alby and the others drove away from the Underworld.

As it got dark, Alby tried to come up with a plan to further their escape, and though one of the Underworld's chase choppers located them, the group was lucky enough to be rescued by the newly arrived Pooh Bear, Stretch and Mae Merriweather. As the group asserted they'd need an army to storm the Underworld and free their friends, Alby realised he could get them one. Leading the escaped hostages back to the Underworld's entrance, Alby was recognised by Minotus as the minotaurs surrounded them, and he told them about Dion and Zaitan's plans to kill Hades after the Games, thus denying them their freedom. Minotus quickly agreed to aid them, and so the minotaur army was quickly assembled, with Alby joining them as they began assaulting the mountain.

Alby joined Mother, Astro and Minotus as they searched for their friends, finding them as Dion was pointing a gun at Jack. Before the Royal could fire, Alby shot him from behind first, and Lily and Jack thanked him for coming back for them. Hades, now on their side, secured them a chopper from his former minions, allowing everyone to escape the Underworld together, before proceeding on to the West farm on the Sky Warrior.

The Three Secret Cities[]

Over the next few days at the farm, Alby took the chance to rest after the Great Games ordeal. During one moment where he and Lily listened to Mae ask Hades some questions about the Four Kingdoms, Hades mentioned how his scouts had mentioned his potential, to Alby's embarrassment. Soon Hades informed Jack and the others that he was being forcibly abdicated from the Four Kingdoms, and with the Trial of the Cities and the Trial of the Mountains approaching, they would need to collect the Helmet of Hades of the Immortal Weapons, items which needed to be empowered at the Three Secret Cities of Thule, Atlas and Ra, from his New York penthouse.

Alby then joined the team in boarding the Sky Warrior and heading to New York, and along the way he and Lily began researching the "rising of the Sagittarius over the sun", a celestial event that the Trial of the Cities would need to be concluded by, determining that it would occur on December 1st. Shortly before announcing their find, Alby and the others heard Hades receive a message from Minotus that a silver coffin had opened and unleashed a monstrous "bronze man" that was attacking the minotaurs.

Upon landing in New York, while Lily, Jack and Mae accompanied Hades to his penthouse at Saxony Tower, Alby went to take up a backup position in a rental car to pick them up if they needed an emergency escape. Indeed, after being attacked by a group called the Knights of the Golden Eight, who announced their intention to intention to capture Lily and Alby and kill Jack, Alby picked them and Zoe up from an emergency hatch in the Holland Tunnel and set off to regroup with Sky Monster.

Having lost Hades, their primary source of information, the team's best move was to view a charcoal rubbing of the full Altar tablet kept by the Fraternal Order of St. Paul at the Gallerie dell'Accademia. In the meantime, Alby helped to research the Immortal Weapons, Secret Cities and the Altar of the Cosmos. As they shared some of their conclusions regarding the Cities' matching Weapons and their relative locations, Alby and the others were caught off-guard as all TV channels around the world were hacked by the Knights of the Golden Eight. Jaeger Eins showed the world a photo of Jack and warned him that he (and by extension Alby and Lily) could not escape from them before cutting the transmission.

While Jack and Lily snuck into the Accademia, Alby and Sky Monster kept an eye out for patrols on Venice's canal. When the Knights of the Golden Eight suddenly arrived in a huge aquatic Hercules, Alby rushed to find Lily and Jack, reuniting with the former as Jack held off the Knights. After reuniting with Sky Monster, the group tried to flee in their float-plane through the canals, during which Alby was forced to take the controls from Sky Monster after the pilot was shot. Despite preparing to jump over to Jack's boat, the Knights were able to throw the float-plane off-balance and start sinking it. Unable to escape in time and knowing that the Knights wanted him alive, Alby pleaded for his friends to escape, which they reluctantly did with the promise of finding him later.

Upon being apprehended by the Knights, they took Alby to their base at Aragon Castle, and had him imprisoned in a cage overhanging the cavern's water, before setting out to continue hunting Jack and Lily.

After Lily was captured and brought to the castle, she called out to Alby upon seeing her friend, and both shocked to discover that it was Dion, who had not actually died after Alby shot him in the Underworld, who had hired the Knights. Dion, furious at Alby for causing him immense injury and pain, stated his intention to torture and kill him in front of Lily as revenge. When Julius was captured following a reckless assault on the Knights, Alby was given a demonstration of what Dion would soon do to him as Eins severed both of the Scotsman's hands off, but shouted out his support for Julius's standing up to the Knights. After Julius's cage was dropped to drown him, Dion used Eins's filament weapon to severe Alby's left hand as a start to his torture, but as Sphinx needed to take Lily away as a necessity for the Trial of the Cities, Dion cauterised the wound to keep Alby from bleeding out. As she was dragged away, Lily called out to Alby to profess her love for him, he called back that had always loved her.

While Dion was busy being inaugurated as the new King of Underworld, Alby was left alone and in pain in his cage, only being given enough water to keep him alive. Though Dion soon returned with the intention of continuing to torture Alby, the Knights were shocked as Jack and the team began assaulting their base. After deciding to retreat, Eins had Alby's cage dropped into the water below with the intention of drowning him, but fortunately for Alby, Stretch and Pooh Bear were able to reach and free him before he could run out of air. After gasping out some of what had happened to Lily and Julius, Alby begged Jack to let him help find Lily, though Jack was more concerned that Alby begin recovering from his injury and ordeal.

As the others set out to reach the Cities, Alby helped pack up some of the Knights' documents before making his way with Zoe and Hades to Rome, where the latter had a safe-house. Alby insisted that he could help, but soon relented to Jack's suggestion (as well as offer to soon build him his own bionic hand), yet continued to help by researching potential references to the location of the Tomb of Poseidon.

Restless, Alby continued to research, looking through Iolanthe's documents from the Hall of Royal Records, coming across the real Genesis 22 and a Kings Eyes Only report on the Altar of the Cosmos. Reading the latter, Alby managed to pick up a detail the others had missed, allowing him to deduce that the Rock of Gibraltar was in fact the Altar, and sent this information on to the team.

While watching a news report on the week's events with Zoe, he suspected that the disappearance of the Order of the Omega meant they were heading to prepare for the final trial. Returning to his research, Alby discovered a briefcase belonging to Dion with details regarding his newly-acquired assets. Finding another Kings Eyes Only document, Alby read it to discover that the Four Kingdoms had long been planning to sacrifice the Oracle of Siwa on the Altar of the Cosmos. Scrambling for the satellite phone, Alby called for everyone on the team to warn them that Lily was in danger.

Unfortunately, Jack was too late to prevent Sphinx and his associates from sacrificing Lily on the Altar. A couple of days after the trial had concluded, Alby, Pooh Bear and Stretch made their way to the Altar with the intention of retrieving Lily's body to give her a proper burial. Alby and Stretch kept watch as Pooh Bear carefully chiseled off the stone around Lily's face, but soon Pooh Bear was surprised by something he found, and happily asked for his friends to call Jack immediately.

The Two Lost Mountains[]

As Pooh Bear discovered, it was Alexander's body in the pool and not Lily's, and so, after they extracted the abandoned Immortal Weapons and rendevoused with the rest of the team at Hades's Estate, they began using facial recognition software to comb the world's security cameras in the hope of finding Lily. Over the next few weeks, Alby helped examine the Weapons in the hope of finding ways to counter Sphinx's new army of bronze and silver automatons, spending hours using a spectrometer to analyse the Helmet, discovering that it was emitting a low-level gamma particle resonance, yet Alby seemed to find no practical way to replicate the Helmet's ability. When Jack and Alby headed back to the former's farm to collect some important files and texts stored there, Jack also grabbed one of his spare prosthetic arms and began retrofitting it to serve as a prosthetic hand for Alby.

As Alby's new prosthetic was being integrated into place over his lost limb, Lily was located in Moscow by the rest of the team, and Alby spent most of the journey there practising using the artificial hand until he had complete confidence in using it. Upon landing at Vnukovo Airport on the city's outskirts and finding several people in a catatonic state, Alby, Jack and Knight used Putin's secret Subway 2 train to get into the city to reach Red Square undetected, and although Alby wanted to continue on to the surface, Jack knew that he still needed to get used to his new hand and suggested that he wait in the station. When Jaeger Zwei used a Siren bell to try to knock Jack out, an unaware Alby was unaffected thanks to his deafness and his cochlear implant being unable to process the bell's tone.

His desire to help led Alby to start leaving the station, and found Jack struggling to carry the comatose Lily, Stretch and Knight, and so shared the load by carrying Stretch as they started trying to flee from the bronzemen by climbing the St. Basil's Cathedral. After climbing down to an abandoned garbage truck, Alby was ordered to drive off with Lily and Stretch while Jack remained trapped by the bronzemen, and began driving away while being pursued by trucks carrying more of the automatons. After crashing onto the Moskva River, Alby and his companions were rescued by a pair of nuns, Sisters Lynda and Agnes, who helped continue their escape until the Black Raven managed to end their enemies' pursuit.

After returning to Hades's estate, Alby joined the team in their discussion of what must needed to happen during the Trial of the Mountains, with Alby speaking up to ask about the Supreme Labyrinth and its role in averting the Omega Event, how there could awaken those afflicted by the siren sleep, and listened with interest as Hades revealed there was a pedestal on the moon needed to ensure that a Fall at an iron mountain could be performed. While the rest of the team was set to head out, Alby and Easton were tasked with remaining at the estate to look after the sleep-struck Lily, Stretch and Knight, with Alby also being asked to use the time to research the Labyrinth, pedestal and anything that might lead them to the two lost mountains.

While the team was gone, Alby began his research trying to locate the Supreme Labyrinth, but could find no solid clues in his research into Imhotep, other than learning that the ancient architect had traversed the Labyrinth and had been buried with clues to traversing it. Instead, Alby was drawn towards his childhood idol Albert Einstein, following a clue Lily had left in a note to Jack. After hacking into the U.S. Navy's records, he was astonished to discover that Einstein, while not fully aware of the nature of the Labyrinth, had theorised a scientific description of what would happen when someone sat on the ultimate throne during the Omega Event and the means that prevented it.

As the team began radioing in to report their progress, Alby spoke up to ask Jack about Imhotep's guide notes after hearing that Mendoza had a copy of them, and asked Lynda if she knew what the Emperor's Route of the Labyrinth was. But as the others began making plans to head to the second and third iron mountains, Sphinx began a worldwide broadcast revealing he knew the estate was the team's base of operations, and so Alby and Easton began rushing to get Knight, Lily, Stretch and the animals to the escape train beneath the estate. Unfortunately, after Easton turned back to help a frightened Ash onto the train and was downed by Yago and the Knights of the Golden Eight, Alby reluctantly continued the escape without the minotaur.

After reaching the end of the escape tunnel, Alby called Jack to tell him what had happened, and when Jack decided to rescue Easton, Alby assisted from afar by using a remote hacking method Knight and Rufus had told him about to override the controls on Yago's plane, allowing Jack to infiltrate it.

Alby drove the sleepers and pets to meet with the rest of the team as they reunited outside Dijon, and began discussing plans to find one of the two lost mountains. As Jack started to suspect that the fourth mountain was beneath the Dome of the Rock at Jerusalem's Temple Mount, Alby came up with a plan to re-expose the moon pedestal so that they could perform the Fall, and while Alby conceded that it was a terrible option, he and Rufus began heading to the Zapadny Cosmodrome in Libya in the hopes of being able to create an uplink to a lunar rover.

During the flight, Alby managed to uncover the location of the fifth iron mountain beneath the Great Sphinx of Giza thanks to his earlier research, while also monitoring the moon's alignment with the fourth mountain for Jack, being surprised when the pedestal was re-covered by General Rastor's forces before the alignment ended. To make matters worse, upon arriving at the Cosmodrome, Alby was disappointed to find the spaceport in ruins thanks to Rastor. Following Rufus's suggestion, Alby began instead creating an alternate uplink using the abandoned orbital rocket's communication unit. Calling Jack while doing so, Alby was delighted to learn that Lily and the others had been awoken from the siren sleep thanks to Dr Tracy Smith's serum, and told them that he had learned the location of the fifth mountain.

As the rest of the team was heading to Egypt, Alby continued creating the uplink, eventually establishing control over the Russian rover on the moon. As the Wests prepared to enter the final mountain, an ADS containing a platoon of bronzemen began approaching the spaceport, and Alby struggled to keep the automatons at bay, and maintain control of the rover so that it could keep the thermal foil off of the pedestal while Jack, Lily and Zoe performed the Fall. Once the Fall had been completed, Alby abandoned the controls before the bronzemen could get him, and he and Rufus began flying away to meet the team at the gates to Supreme Labyrinth.

En-route, however, Alby noticed on the Black Raven's digital map that Siwa was located below sea level, which allowed him to realise the location of the tomb of Imhotep, and redirected Rufus to the Hill of the Dead in the Siwa Oasis. After entering the Tomb of Niperapathoth and spotting the greystone that had been used to seal Imhotep's body, Alby and Rufus chiseled until they uncovered the body of Imhotep, with Alby removing the mummified man's skullcap and discovering the clues to the Supreme Labyrinth were tattooed on his skull. Reluctantly desecrating Imhotep's body, Alby wrenched the ancient architect's head off before the pair resumed their rush to rejoin the rest of the team.

Alby and Rufus arrived in the middle of the Russian Doll Plan, helping buy Jack, Lily and Zoe a few extra moments by firing at the bronzemen, even after the Black Raven was brought down. Before the Wests made their way through the closing gate, Alby managed to throw them a backpack containing Imhotep's head, and once they were inside the Labyrinth, Alby, Knight and Rufus used the Black Raven's second ejection seat to aid their escape from Sphinx's forces.

The One Impossible Labyrinth[]

As the ejection seat landed, Alby was knocked unconscious, which afforded Jaeger Zwei and his men the opportunity to surround him and Knight. Having being given instructions by Jaeger Eins to capture him, Zwei opted to take him and Knight alive. Once Sphinx's forced had cleared up, Alby and Knight were transported away to a temporary airfield set up on the coast of the Red Sea.

Eventually, Alby and Knight were taken to a chopper that began to carry them over to a nearby oil rig called Red Horizon Star-4, where Jaeger Eins was waiting on the helicopter pad. Noticing Alby's new artificial hand, Eins tauntingly remarked that he had preferred Alby's original, as well as his killing of Julius, which angered Alby. After Eins noted that Sphinx would soon succeed in becoming the world's emperor - and refuting Alby's assumption that Eins wanted them to witness it - the Golden Knights' leader took out his filament weapon and expressed his desire to slowly torture and then kill the pair, which in Alby's case was due to him having been a constant hinderance.

Suddenly, an RPG fired by General Rastor broke the seawall of the City-Maze, and the rushing seawater flowing into the exposed section of the Labyrinth caused the oil rig to lurch towards the breach. Taking advantage of the confusion, Alby struck Eins with a punch that broke the leader of the Golden Knight's nose and allowed him to steal his filament weapon, which he used to cut through his and Knight's cuffs. The pair then dove inside the secured-in-place chopper that had transported them as the entire rig toppled over and became suspended over the City-Maze. When Eins returned to strike at Alby, Alby reflexively swiped at him with the filament weapon, severing off the lower half of Eins' face. As Eins roared in pain, Alby pressed his attack and severed the Golden Knight's hands, and then, declaring that this was revenge for Julius, kicked the disfigured Eins out of the chopper and into the rushing water below.

Alby and Knight proceeded to watch from their precarious position the confrontation inside the City-Maze, watching as Jack destroyed the throne. When another chopper appeared before them with its weapons ready, Alby and Knight assumed it was targeting them, though fortunately the chopper was under Rufus and Sky Monster's control, who took out Jaeger Zwei before he could move into ambush Knight and Alby. Once they'd moved across to the pilots' chopper, the group spied Lily and Easton trapped on a tower in the City-Maze, and so they moved to reunite with them. After swapping stories and being joined by Zoe, Alby elected to join Zoe and Lily in venturing inside the second half of the Labyrinth to catch up with and aid Jack.

Once Alby and the others were reunited with Jack, the quartet worked to navigated the rotating Four-Sided Maze, with Alby helping to plot their courses to each safe blockhouse. During their passage, Alby saved Lily from falling out of their blockhouse, and later held on to the ceiling with his prosthetic hand with Lily holding onto his waist due to the maze having rotated in an unexpected direction. At the very end, Alby, Lily and Zoe were swept back by a rush of water, and hurried to catch up to Jack, only to see him apparently killed in a crimson orb explosion. Reluctantly urging Lily on, Alby and the others ran to catch up to their enemies on the Tower of Judgement, and though Ricardo Mendoza held them at gunpoint, Jack returned to lay out the Cardinal.

With the next part of the Labyrinth expected to be passed through one at a time, Alby waited until his turn to ascend in the cage to the Chamber of Judgement, where the Gold Colossus judged Alby to be "pure courage" and allowed him to continue on to the Stadium of the the Throne of Death. Once he, Zoe and Lily had all arrived in the Stadium, they ran to catch up to Jack, eventually nearing him on the pinnacle as Jack - having had the hand of his artificial arm damaged by Rastor - found himself unable to climb the final overhang. Removing his prosthetic hand, Alby, Lily and Zoe tossed it up to Jack, who fitted it over his damaged limb and made the final climb to the Throne of Death before Sphinx, allowing Jack to prevent the Omega Event from happening. Once Alby was helped up to the top, he sat with the others and discussed what the Colossus had said about each of them until the rest of their friends arrived to pick them up.

In the years following the aftermath of the events of the trials and Sphinx's actions, Alby used what he had learned about the Omega Event to become a world-renowned physicist, eventually becoming a life-long professor of astrophysics at Caltech. Once Lily graduated, Alby married her and eventually started a family together, having four children (twin daughters, a son, and another daughter). Having discussed the need to ensure that all knowledge needed for the trials remained intact for the future, Alby and Lily worked to teach all of their children the Word of Thoth and their responsibility to make sure knowledge about the shrines and tools were not lost.

Personality[]

Alby began as a very bright boy with exceptional skills in math's that impressed even the genius Adamson twins, and was able to think outside the box in order to find answers to questions no one has yet asked. Although he was initially often surprised by the fact that the adults actually listened to his ideas and theories, Alby was gladdened to get the approving attention of grown ups and been seen as having value. In spite of some of the danger he faced, Alby did somewhat enjoy the thrill of the adventure that he had been pulled into, and worked hard researching in order to still feel like a member of the team, even from afar.

Despite this, Alby would occasionally think of himself in a negative light, usually feeling guilty about being burden to the team and a source of constant worry for his mother Lois, as well as being ashamed of been overlooked and ignored by his father and older brother for his more 'geeky' interests. When Vulture revealed that Alby had been what allowed him to discover the location of Jack's farm, Alby felt horrified and guilty for being a burden to the team despite it not being his fault. Even in the midst of feeling this despair, Alby was still brave enough to talk back to Scimitar and point out that Pooh Bear was a better man than him.

Upon reaching adulthood, Alby overcame most of his previous insecurities and became more self-confident, embracing his interests in ancient history and astronomy to the fullest, having been inspired to be a man, and even a hero, like Jack. Alby became more level-headed when in tough situations or imminent danger, usually maintaining a cool demeanor similar to Jack's. Even in the face of pressing danger and the possibility of death, Alby was more concerned for his friends' safety than his own, pleading for Jack and Lily to save themselves from the Knights of the Golden Eight, certain that they would return for him when they could.

For a brief time after having his hand cut off by Dion, however, Alby's impression of himself declined, as he was reminded of how he had once been a small and weak child, though Jack helped him overcome this. When he was confronted by Jaeger Eins for the last time, Alby did not allow himself to be cowed by the hardened mercenary, soon demonstrating his newfound courage by fighting back and killing Eins when the chance came. His bravery in facing and overcoming his insecurities would lend itself to the gold colossus's assessment of Alby, in which it called him "pure courage", proving how much he had grown over the years.

Skills[]

  • Genius-Level Intellect: Alby is extraordinarily intelligent despite his young age, often surprising adults when he was a child with his array of knowledge and skills. Alby continued to increase his knowledge in the years between the Machine-rebuilding mission and the final trials of the Super-Ancients, and was even fast-tracked through the last two years of high school before attending Caltech.
    • Master Mathematician: Ever since he was young, Alby has been gifted at mathematics, so much that he was to a boarding school for gifted students in Perth for his skills. His skills in mathematics has continued to grow as he entered adulthood and studied astrophysics.
    • Expert Astrophysicist: In addition to his skills in mathematics, Alby is knowledgeable in astrophysics, learning more about the nature of astronomical objects than any child or most adults while he was still a child. Upon reaching appropriate age, Alby began studying advanced astrophysics at the California Institute of Technology, earning degrees in the field and also drawing the attention of his professors who acted as scouts for Anthony DeSaxe. Thanks to both Einstein's expansion of the Friedmann Equation and his own experience throughout the trials leading up to the Omega Event, Alby would eventually become a physicist on the level of Einstein and Stephen Hawking, and was qualified enough to become a professor of astrophysicist at Caltech.
    • Expert Archaeologist: After his first foray into Jack and Lily's adventures, Alby developed a taste for ancient history, so much so that during his time at Caltech he worked towards earning a second degree in ancient history.
  • Multilingualism: During his time working with Jack's team, Alby has shown some understanding of languages other than English. Lily has also taught him some basics of the Word of Thoth.
    • Sign Language: Alby is fluent in sign language, learning it as a child due to his partial deafness and so that people speaking to him could sign to help supplement the points they were trying to get across to him.
  • Trained Marksman: Presumably as a necessity to protect himself during the team's various dangerous missions, Alby has at least been trained in using pistols. He was able to shoot and hit Dion from behind with no trouble (though it was later discovered to not be a fatal wound), and fire and hit the bronzemen while at the same manning a lunar rover.

Equipment[]

Weapons[]

  • Pistol: During the final assault in the Underworld, Alby used a pistol to shoot Dion when the royal threatened his friends. Alby later used pistols loaded with bullets tipped from the Sword of the Rock while fending off the bronzemen at the Zapadny Cosmodrome and during the Russian Doll Plan to help the Wests get into the Supreme Labyrinth.
  • Filament Weapon: An ancient, harp-shaped weapon, with a super-thin, super-sharp thread running through the gap. Alby first encountered this weapon when Dion it to cut off his left hand, but when Jaeger Eins later was prepared to use on him again, Alby managed to snatch the filament weapon off him and cut through his and Knight's handcuffs. When Eins attacked him, Alby used the filament weapon to defend himself, disfiguring Eins by cutting off his lower jaw and hands.

Other Equipment[]

  • Cochlear Implant: A device surgically implanted into Alby's ear, which translates vibrations into sounds so that Alby can hear properly despite his partial deafness.
  • Prosthetic Left Hand: A mechanical prosthesis retrofitted from one of Jack's old prosthetic arms to replace Alby's severed hand.

Relationships[]

Lily West[]

Alby and Lily have been close friends since they met, to the point where Wizard would later note that Alby was the kind of friend that Lily would need during difficult times.

During the eight years between The Five Greatest Warriors and The Four Legendary Kingdoms, they remained good friends and kept in touch while attending different American universities. Though she was known to be dating Dion, Alby started to wonder about the possibility of them being more than friends, going so far as to ask Jack if he believed Lily would go out with him if he asked (unaware Lily was also wondering about their relationship), but Alby ultimately decided not to complicate their friendship.

In The Three Secret Cities, believing she may be seeing Alby for the last time as Sphinx prepares to take her away, Lily called out to him to proclaim that she loves him, and Alby reciprocated her feelings before she was taken. In the epilogue of The One Impossible Labyrinth, in the years after the Omega Event's prevention, Alby is revealed to have married Lily and started a family.

Trivia[]

  • Alby is partially deaf, and thus knows sign language, which is only for when someone need to get something urgent across to him.
    • Between The Five Greatest Warriors and The Four Legendary Kingdoms, Alby received a cochlear implant to improve his hearing.
    • Alby's deafness, even only being partial, allowed him to be unaffected by the Siren Bells' tone.
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