Hurts Like Heaven

Chapter 14 - Everything Is Uncharted

Conner and I shrug in near-unison. "What about it?" he asks.

"Yeah, is she wanted by the Greek gods or something?" I ask. "Because if so, I'm not telling them where she is-"

"No gods," J'onn says, and here he actually chuckles. Now it's Winn's turn to give him a strange look. Winn never gets anyone to laugh at his jokes, ever. Well, maybe me, once or twice. And James very often, but that's just because that's how James is. "Well, not a god. But a demigod, just like our friend Diana." He smiles again. I wonder how many times he and Diana have worked together. It's almost impossible to meet and her not smile whenever you think of her going forward. Trust me, I know.

"Don't tell me," Conner says. "Is this the one Clark was telling us about? What was her name...Donna?" Winn and J'onn both open their mouths, and Conner actually jumps on the balls of his feet. "Oh my God, I'm right, aren't I?"

"I'm not saying you are," Winn begins, "but-"

"Yes," J'onn says without missing another beat.

Conner looks so cute when he's fanboying out. Although it's also a sign that he's probably the most hormonal teenager I've ever met, Kryptonian, human, or otherwise. But it's a look he wears surprisingly well. Just part of his brand. And it doesn't detract from his capability as a fighter in any way, so bonus.

As for me, I'm more business-minded at the moment. "What's Donna doing here? What does she need?"

"It seems she was in town for some convention," says J'onn. "A tech symposium, I think. And she said...well, she wanted to hold off on giving a statement till she met with you personally. But..." He actually looks nervous. "She said someone had what looked like old Kryptonian technology on display."

It goes without saying that he's piqued my interest. "Bring me to her."

Conner stays back with Winn, no doubt to stop himself gushing all over a girl he doesn't even know. I, meanwhile, follow J'onn into the nearest conference room, where a slender girl with light brown skin sits and eats an ice cream cone. Chocolate. And, on a single subtle sniff, I detect hazelnut. I'd guess it's from Cat's favorite gelateria, though not one of the flavors that Cat favors - she always goes for the rum-laced variety, and our guest, though she's not really underage, looks it enough that the Fiori di Trevi creamsmiths would never be convinced.

I can't resist. "I can see the resemblance."

Donna Prince almost drops the ice cream onto the table when she sees me. It's our first time meeting, though, so I don't blame her. "Um, well, she's not exactly like me." Her accent, unlike Diana's, is American. "She likes strawberry. My sweet tooth is a little stronger, though."

I tilt my head towards the two-way glass, through which I see Conner as I turn my X-ray vision on for a split second. He's grinning, and I'm so tempted to just let him in, but he'd make such an ass out of himself, I can't.

I wait until Donna finishes her ice cream before introducing myself. It's not a long wait, despite how much of the stuff was left. I've seen Diana eat like a Kryptonian carpet shark before (don't try and Google those, they've never existed in any part of the multiverse, I can promise you that), and I'm not surprised that her sister has that in common with her too.

In the time I wait, I get a few more glimpses of the outside, just to witness Conner's face. He's so glued to Donna and her ice cream that he fails to notice the woman coming in behind him and greeting Winn with a kiss. Wait, is that Eve Tessmacher? I knew they were dating at some point, but I never thought it was official. And when did Eve start working for the DEO too? I swear, Cat's gearing up to buy this place out, and she's installing everyone who's worked with her in an effort to facilitate the takeover.

Speaking of takeovery stuff, I need to ask Donna what she's here for. "My boss says you found some old Kryptonian tech," I say. "You can imagine how important it is to me, especially, that we find it."

"Yeah," Donna says fervently. "It'd be nice if I could find it too. But I only saw them taking it away, and now I have no idea where it could be."

"But how'd you know it was Kryptonian?" asks J'onn.

"I've been to the Fortress of Solitude." Donna's face grows deep red. "I, uh, know what the language looks like."

I'm about to ask how she's been there before, but given how visibly embarrassed the memory makes her, I'm not about to make that worse. I could almost fill in the blanks myself, but I hope I'm wrong. As I often do, I thank Rao that telepathy isn't a power of mine.

"So you know what the language looks like," I say. "Can you read it?"

Donna scoffs. "I wish. The symbols are unique enough, but nobody's ever taught me what they mean."

J'onn hands me a tablet, and I pull up a picture of a Kryptonian alphabet chart. "What symbols do you remember?" I ask as I show the chart to Donna.

Donna spends a few minutes poring over the chart until she locates the right symbols to spell out the one word she remembers. She, of course, has no idea how to even say it until I say it out loud myself: "Botxat."

"It's bad, isn't it?" Donna asks. "I can see it on your face."

"I didn't think they were actually able to..." My voice trails off. "Even when Krypton fell, that technology was like..." I search for the best way to describe it. "Like how most people on Earth think of freeze rays and time machines. Cool, but impossible." At my use of the word "cool," I find myself shivering. "It's not cool, I can promise you that."

"What does this 'boat-shot' even do?" Donna pronounces it the way a Daxamite would, probably just because she's never seen the word before.

"It's not just the botxat." I say it the Kryptonian way, pronouncing it more or less how it looks phonetically in English. "Was the device...did it look like some kind of weapon? A gun? A staff? A collapsible baton?"

"Uh, yeah, the baton. Why?"

Someone knocks on the door from outside. I open it and let Conner in. He's not in any gushing-over-the-pretty-new-girl mode, though. Now he's all business. "Was it transparent?" he asks. "Or translucent? Like it was made of glass?"

"I thought it was made of some kind of crystal, but...yeah." Donna, for the first time, smiles a bit and looks more at ease. "Who are you?"

"Conner Kent," he says. "Uh, but I've seen stuff like what you're describing. The Luthors on Earth-2 were making them." He turns to me. "Uh, my Kryptonian's super rusty, Kara. Mind enlightening us on what 'botxat' means?"

"It means, roughly, artificial intelligence," I say. "But it's more than that. If they've developed those kinds of..." I shake my head. "And it's probably the Earth-2 Luthors sending them here, if not our Luthors making it themselves.

"Long story short, the theory behind those weapons is that they can download your brain and leave your body an empty shell."