“Good morning,” Carson greeted Alisa as she bounced, literally, into the infirmary, “And why are you so cheerful?”
She rolled her eyes at him, “You know full well I’m going on this mission this morning.”
Carson laughed and motioned to the bed at his side, “Well by all means.”
Alisa bounced onto the bed and sat quietly as Carson did her pre-mission medical. When she’d been told she was getting to go with her father and his team, as well as Carson it had come as a shock but she was looking forward to it.
“Alisa,” Carson broke her out of her thoughts, “I want you to meet one of our new staff members,” he said motioning a redheaded woman towards them, “Dr Jennifer Keller this is Alisa McKay.”
“Hi,” Jennifer smiled.
“Welcome to the centre of insanity,” Alisa smiled back, “Hope you checked your rationality at the door.”
Jennifer looked a little surprised before shrugging, “Good to know. I’d better get back to work.”
Alisa waved before turning to Carson, “We’ll see how she does.”
Carson rolled his eyes, “You’re done. Go get ready and I’ll see you in the Gateroom.”
Rodney smiled as his daughter walked into the Gateroom ready for the mission, he was happy to let her come on this as the Athosians assured them this was a peaceful planet. Since they’d returned from Earth Alisa had seemed different, more confident in herself. He had been so proud of how she’d handled herself during the attempted abduction on Earth, though he was a little unsure about the relationship she had developed with O’Neill’s clone.
“Good morning, Sunshine,” John greeted the teenager, “Ready for a walk?”
“Always,” Alisa replied with a grin.
“So,” Rodney grinned, “Let’s go see if there really is a superhero here.”
Elizabeth nodded, she motioned the technician to dial the Gate and watched amused as the sextet left the city.
“My childhood hero was Evel Knievel,” John grinned in remembrance of his boyhood.
Teyla frowned confused, “Was he not evil?”
“No,” John assured her, “That was just his name. He was a daredevil ... which isn’t a kind of a devil; he just jumped motorcycles over things.”
Ronon looked confused, “Why?”
“Just because,” John shrugged, before smiling, “Didn’t always make it either.”
“And you greatly admired this behaviour?” Teyla asked bemused.
“No, I just...” he trailed off and went for his best escape, “Look, at least my hero is human. McKay’s is Batman.”
Rodney nodded, “Misunderstood and un-appreciated by many, his most formidable weapon was the power of his brilliant mind,” he paused slightly dramatically, “Not just a hero - a superhero.”
All five waited for Alisa to say something but there was no smart remark from her and John suddenly realised she hadn’t spoken since they’d exited the Gate. Rodney reached out and pulled the earphones out his daughter’s ears.
“What?” she asked.
“Are we boring you?” Rodney demanded.
Alisa shrugged, “Let me put it this way, I put these in five minutes after we left the Gate.”
They were interrupted by the villagers who as usual Teyla took the lead with, her diplomatic skills were much better than any of the others. The man who met them, Amaris led them to the village beaming widely as they moved closer to a crowd of villagers.
“Here he is,” Amaris told them, “The mightiest of heroes. Our champion protector,” he paused as the people parted so they could see the hero and all six stared, “Lucius Lavin”
Lucius sitting on a table with his feet on a bench grinned as the team approached, “Well. Will you look who it is?”
Ronon’s head dropped in disbelief, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Alisa turned to her father, “Can I go home?”
Lucius continued with his story as John, Rodney, Teyla and Ronon all sat bored to tears, Carson was making sure that Lucius wasn’t using the drug again and Alisa was lying on the grass with her earphones stuck in her ears, music turned up loud.
As his story continued, John kept interrupting hoping to put him off which worked every so often but never completely. As Carson continued taking blood, Rodney started going over in his mind the rota’s for his teams for the next month to give himself something to do other than sleep.
Finally Lucius finished talking and the crowd dispersed, as John questioned Lucius Rodney gently nudged his daughter with his foot.
Alisa opened her eyes and pulled out one earphone, “Has the windbag shut up?”
“For the moment,” Rodney offered her his hand, pulling his daughter to her feet.
It’s nice to see you again, Alisa,” Lucius beamed at her.
“Touch me,” Alisa stated coldly before pointing to Ronon, “And he breaks your arm.”
Lucius backed away slightly, “Such a nice kid.”
“Okay,” John demanded, “What the hell is going on? If you’re not using the drug, why do these people like you?”
“A couple of months ago this bunch of ruffians come into town,” Lucius explained with a grin on his round face, “Start causing trouble. I beat ‘em up, I chase ‘em away, and all of a sudden I’m the town hero. They give me gifts; the women are throwing themselves at me...”
Alisa rolled her eyes and stuck her headphones back on, only to have Rodney remove them.
“It’s like the old days,” Lucius continued, “Except better, because now they’re not drugged.”
“Hang on, hang on,” Rodney stopped him, disbelief in his voice, “So you beat them up?”
“Yes! Me!” Lucius crowed, “I did.”
The team shared a look and Ronon asked the question they were all thinking, “How’d you manage that?”
“It’s not so hard,” Lucius paused dramatically for a second, “When you’re invincible,” he grinned at them, “I’m invincible.”
“Right,” John laughed
Lucius shook his head, “Alright. Looks like this is gonna take some convincing,” he looked around, “Let me see,” he noticed three men straining nearby as they hauled a large pallet of heavy sacks into the air on a pulley and grinned, “Hey! Time for a demonstration.”
They all watched confused as he walked under the groaning rope, Alisa pulled her earphones again.
“What is he...”Teyla trailed off as Lucius ordered them to let it go.
As the men released the heavy weight of the sacks onto the grinning man before, Alisa winced slightly before staring in astonishment with the others as flour sprayed everywhere with a soft green glow for a moment before Lucius stood there triumphantly, nodding at the villagers cheers.
“Oh, my God,” Rodney breathed frowning as Lucius goaded Ronon to hit him, “I wouldn’t,” Rodney warned the big man, “I’m telling you, don’t.”
Ronon ignored the warning and slammed his fist into the grinning man’s face, as it impacted the shield Ronon winced in pain pulling his hand back and cradling it close trying not to show the agony.
“See?” Lucius cried smugly, “Invincible. I can’t be vinced.”
“So drowning him is out of the question?” Alisa asked her father.
*********************************************
Rodney moved Alisa behind him as Kolya walked towards the bars of the cell they were in, Ronon moved so that the teenager was well out of sight. The door opened and several Genii soldiers aimed their weapons at the group.
“Miss McKay,” Kolya stated coldly, “I’d like to talk to you.”
“Go shoot yourself,” Alisa told him, her hand gripping her father’s sleeve.
Kolya laughed, he nodded to the guard nearest who moved and grabbed Alisa. As Rodney tried to hold onto his daughter he was struck by the butt of a rifle and Alisa cried out.
“Okay,” she snapped, “I’ll come.”
“Lissa,” Rodney said, his hand resting on his cheek where he’d been struck.
She squeezed his hand and walked forward out of the cell where Kolya pushed her to one of the guards. As Alisa was pulled away, Kolya turned to Rodney.
“Considering her intelligence she will make a fine addition to the Genii,” Kolya told Rodney, “Once she learns obedience.”
“I’ve been trying for eighteen years,” Rodney retorted, glaring at the man standing there as he tried to hide his panic, “You’ve no chance.”
Alisa hoped that John was somewhere planning a rescue right now because she didn’t like being a captive, especially now they’d separated her from her father.
“What’s this?” the soldier guarding her demanded grabbing her MP3 player.
“It’s a music player,” she told him coldly.
The man turned it over in his hands, “Where does the music come out?”
An idea struck her and she pulled out the earphones, “Put these in your ears. Give me a second to fix it,” as he worked out how to place the earphones in Alisa turned up the volume to full and found a song that started loud. Connecting the MP3 player to the earphones, Alisa hit the button.
The guard gave a cry of shock as his ears were assailed by overwhelming noise; Alisa took the opportunity to slam her knee into his groin before she started to run taking her music player with her. It had been a gift from Dianne several years ago and she wasn’t leaving it behind. As she darted out past the shocked guards she heard gun shots and hoped she found John or at least a safe place to wait before the Genii found her. She was well away from the village and into the forest when she stopped to breath, Alisa started in shock as a hand clamped across her mouth and she was pulled behind a tree.
“It’s me,” John whispered in her ear, hugging her once he let her go, “How did you get away?”
Alisa held up the small music player, “God bless Bon Jovi. Shot through the heart became a shock to the ears.”
John grinned, “Come on. I might have something resembling a plan.”
Alisa studied the device Lucius was holding for a few moments before turning to John, “I have an idea.”
“What?” John asked, he needed to think of something for when he entered the village again.
“You can use the shield,” she told him.
“That won’t work,” John replied, “When your dad had it, Peter said it wouldn’t work on anyone else.”
“As much as I loved Peter,” Alisa told him, “He sometimes skimmed. Okay, Dad had the gene meaning that the shield device bonded to him but tubby here doesn’t. Although it was activated by someone with the gene they haven’t been using it meaning it’s not bonded with anyone yet.”
Lucius turned to John, “Did you understand a word of that?”
“I think so,” John mused, looking at the young woman in front of him, “You’re saying I could use it.”
“No, duh,” Alisa rolled her eyes, “If you’re ever going to trust me, John now would be a good time.”
John nodded, “Okay, that’s part of a plan,” he turned to Lucius, “Now we need you to persuade the villagers to fight.”
“I’ll go with the windbag,” Alisa said.
“You know,” John sighed, “Of all the things you could have inherited from your father, why did you have to get his diplomacy skills?”
*********************************************
Alisa listened to the townspeople talk nonsense as Lucius tried to get them to fight without him for as long as she could before she snapped.
“Alright, morons listen up,” she startled them all, “This man is not a hero,” she waved her hand at Lucius, “He is a disgusting leach who used a drug to get people to like him and since he didn’t have that here he used a piece of technology to make you think he was better than he is.”
“You have never seen him in action,” one of the women said.
“Oh trust me I have,” Alisa said in disgust, “The bad guys he supposedly saved you from are out there, about to kill my father and his friends because they tried to protect you. He paid them to run away from him so people, grow a backbone.”
Alisa followed on behind the town as they headed out to stop the soldiers invading their home, she could see Kolya aiming a gun at her father and her stomach clenched in fear. As the soldier surrendered to the pitchfork wielding natives, Alisa saw the standoff between John and the Genii leader looming. Moving through the crowd she managed to get herself positioned so that if Kolya won he wouldn’t get away unscathed.
A shot rang out across the silent square and Alisa felt her heart leap in relief as John stood there grimly holding his gun as the man who’d held them hostage lay on the ground dead.
As the excitement of being free rippled through the town, Alisa could see her father looking for her and ran over to them.
“Lissa,” he cried, unable to hug her as his arms were still bound.
Alisa grabbed a knife and quickly cut all four from their bonds, finding her father holding her tightly.
“Are you okay?” he asked, checking her for any injuries.
Alisa beamed, “Perfectly fine.”
“I heard shots after they took you,” Rodney told her.
“That was me getting away,” she assured him, smiling as John joined them.
“She’s following in your footsteps, Rodney,” John assured his friend.
Rodney nodded and wrapped his arm around his daughter as the crowd started to disperse. Alisa looked up at her father, “You know, you guys need to stop bringing me on these nice easy missions.”
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