Fragility of the Mind

Leana beamed and practically jumped into her arms.

"How are ya, Sam?" she asked, squeezing tight before letting go.

The men looked at each other in genuine surprise, eyebrows raised, at the mention of being afflicted with a virus. They were quiet. If they were panicking, it was all conveniently bottled up.

After a moment, they nodded.

"Shall we stay here or climb into the head now?" Gabrielle's helper, who seemed to be most fluent, asked in his albeit very heavily accented English. He might have easily spoken in French, but for some reason he had not.

"Questions, comments, concerns?"

Alevon says, going back into the room where everyone else is

"I'll try to answer any questions I can to the best of my knowledge about the masterminds, if any of you wish to know more. After all, this is important. I don't want anyone in the dark on anything."

Alevon knew things had been tense between he and his allies before, but it was time for that to end, and he knew it. He didn't want any of them to die, even Videor.

As they rode on WADE, Alevon's thoughts quickly turn to the time he spent working for the Masterminds. He recalled that he had enjoyed his time with them. They had been kind and respectful to him, treating him like a valued member of the team, and Alevon liked that. Problem was though, they did it to earn his trust. They did it to open Alevon up, weaken him to their ulterior motives...soften him up.

Even though they were like that, there was one person who was not.

Alyssa.

While the adults had always treated Alevon kindly and as a teammate, Alyssa hated Alevon from the very start. She was always rude to him, stuck up, and an overall self-righteous girl. This only piqued Alevon's attention. He always treated her nicely, despite her lack of respect of him.



It also just so happened that Alevon happened to join the Masterminds at the time of Alyssa's birthday. He recalled that he had, despite all things telling him not to, spent the time and effort making a tiara for her on her birthday...

Alevon snapped back to reality.

The men nodded once more, and one by one they went to the ladder and climbed it up.

"Yes, I have a question," Gabrielle, meanwhile, piped up at the other side of the robot, towards Alevon.

"How much do you know about the Masterminds' Virus? Seems to be the big reason why we're so intent on killing them." Gabrielle smiled briefly. If the UnHonorables had known more in-depth about her uncle's operations and methods they would lump him together with the big bads. That wasn't true. She reached for the place where she had been injected three times. Once with an antagonist, once with a painkiller, and once with another antagonist. At least his had a cure.

And that was putting it mildly.

"Well, they kept me in the dark on that one, but from what I've deduced on my own, the virus is pretty much undetectable, and is used to amplify the lead Mastermind's powers so that he may control people easier."

Alevon replies

"Do you know how it's spread?" she asked, batting her eyes. Mentally, she began to compare it to her own. The PDC (Control Pathogen, as her uncle had put it) was spread through the air and didn't appear to have been contagious; otherwise she'd have caught it off her helpers. She didn't know much about it, and neither did she know about the Master Virus. She just wanted to be safe.

"Yeah, of course!" Leana sat down in the chair and looked up at Sam happily. Even though the situation was grave, and she was filled in on what was going to happen from Ariel, she wanted to at least enjoy the minutes she had before they would arrive at the Mastermind Base.

"What's going to happen when we get there?" she asked.

"Well, originally it was spread via the air, but I know that it doesn't work like that anymore, so I'm not sure."
He nods to himself
"As for your mother, TK, I wouldn't know."

And just like that, his mind turns back to Alyssa.

It was a silly thing, the tiara. It was made of stone, crafted via molecular absorption. It wasn't the best thing in the world, but it was more personal than a store bought gift, and also given the fact that Alevon didn't really know Alyssa well in the first place.

He gave it, nestled in a little stone box, to the servant of the masterminds, an invisible man that roamed the halls at the time. The man took it into the other room to give to Alyssa, for Alevon was not invited to her party, as per Alyssa's instruction.

Later, he was given the box back, the tiara broken into many pieces. The invisible man informed Alevon that she had thrown it against the wall, and he offered his condolences.



It wasn't until later that Alevon was standing in the main room, when he was approached by Alyssa. She appologized for destroying it, and confessed that she really liked it in reality. She had treated Alevon as she had because she didn't want to show weakness to the others, in fear. In truth, the tiara had been the only gift that she had received on her birthday. She had asked Alevon if he could make another, to which he gladly said yes.


Over the course of several months, they had begun talking in private, learning more about each other, and growing a better and better friendship.

While Alevon didn't want children, he couldn't help but feel a fatherly attatchment to Alyssa.

...then came the day that Alevon had to leave. The next time he saw her, she was holding a blade to his throat as he broke into their base. Stricken with grief, she couldn't bring herself to kill him, and thus they talked. Alevon learned of her position within the Masterminds.

She was nothing but a puppet to them.

...and then it happened. She was possessed, and he was ordered to leave, else her life would be taken before his eyes.

____________________________________________________________________

Alevon sighs as he is brought back to reality once more.

"Huh..." Leana mused to herself. "So it's going to be dangerous, there's a good chance we'll die, and we're in space. Sounds pretty good." She paused, then looked towards Sam.

"Don't worry, we'll be back," she chirped, smiling.

Leana nodded and sat in the chair humming quietly to herself. Then she snickered to herself.

"What would happen if we didn't come back?" she asked innocently.

Alevon turns to face TK, eyeing her for a moment, gauging her reaction to his response, watching her face as it tells a story of her thoughts.

"You wear the face of a troubled woman, TK. Something on your mind?"

"Well, like I said,"

*pause time, everyone but the French mafia is uneffected*

"Alyssa is one of the innocents mentioned"

*unpause*

"The only person we can really be sure of being an enemy is the mastermind leader. Frankly, not even I know at this point."

He smirks, turning away and closing his eyes
"I know you better than that, but if you don't want to talk about it, I won't make you. If it makes you feel any better about your mother though, I'm sure she can handle herself"