15th January
13:37 GMT -5
I knock on the door of one of the offices KordTech New York is temporarily working out of. Ted is rushing the construction and keeping as many people working as he can, but some of the arcane engineering simply can't be done anywhere else. The company's insurance policy allows him to effectively give anyone who can't go back to work a year off with pay -something I suspect that his insurance provider is seriously regretting- but Kara appears to be happy with a computer and an office.
On her own.
"Kara?"
"Come in!"
I push open the door as she turns back to her monitor.
"I see you've fully embraced isolationism."
"What?" She looks up again and I fan out my hands to gesture to the room. "Oh, no, it's just that-"
"Empath."
"-I…" She sags slightly.
I walk across to her desk, generate a construct chair opposite her and sit down, leaning forwards. "Talk to me, Kara."
"Did.. Kal..?"
"Kon, actually. It came up when we were talking about Match."
Her eyes dart away. "He needs a different name. How do you think he'd feel about Mon-El?"
"I think he'd feel that it was displacement activity. Kara, why are you living in the Fortress? If you want something that reminds you of Krypton I can-."
"Could you..?" Her eyes come back to my face for a moment. "Switch to English?"
Ring.
Compliance.
"Is this okay?"
She nods, then looks away again. "I don't.. want to be reminded of Krypton." I frown. "Kal's Fortress isn't what Kryptonian houses look like."
"I know, it's a prefab or a military bunker."
"I'm not… Krypton's gone. I know that. But…" She pushes her chair back, stands and then slowly flies over to the window and looks down on the street below. "You all look so much like us. Sometimes, when-. Someone.. talks to me, and it takes me a moment to remember why they're not speaking Kryptonese."
"Given how much of the spectrum you can see now, don't we look different?"
"If I'd spent any time under a yellow sun on Krypton you probably would. And… Honestly?" She turns around, pulling a pendant out from under her blouse. She opens the clasp and.. reveals a lead inner surrounding a small piece of gold kryptonite which causes her to drop to the ground. "Batman made it for me while I'm learning to control my powers-."
"I could make a device to filter the sunlight to block the wavelengths which give you powers. It would be safer than carrying a radioactive rock around with you."
"Then how would I get vitamin D?" Ah-. "That was a.. joke." She closes it. "I keep my 'powers' off most of the time-"
Ring, detailed medical scan. Is she causing herself long term damage?
"-because hearing and seeing.. everything-"
"I could make something to-"
"-is too much, it's too distracting."
"-reduce that."
The results of my medical scan appear in my brain. Unlike green kryptonite which will give you cancer if you get enough exposure, gold kryptonite barely interacts with organic bodies at all. Though she's not otherwise unwell, the predictable reduction in organelles has occurred in many tissues. While short term exposure just stops them working, she's actually killing them across large parts of her body. Not every one in every cell, but after a certain point…
"Kara, I strongly advise you to stop using that. If you keep using it, it will no longer be safe for you to ever be exposed to Earth's sunlight."
She nods, her attention returning to the street. "What about if I keep it on permanently?"
"That will kill you more slowly, but those organelles are a functioning part of your body. They work all the time, not just when you charge your powers."
"Okay." She turns back to me, pulls the chain over her head and bunches it up in her right hand. "I wasn't.. actually trying-."
"It's risk-taking behaviour, Kara. Not just being human-level squishy, but carrying around a piece of radioactive rock."
I hold out my right hand and she passes it over. Subspace for you.
"Okay, new plan."
"Hm?"
"I suggested that you could use your higher maths qualifications here. I thought it might help you find a place in human society, but clearly that's.. the problem. You fit in.. too well. And also not well enough."
"If-" She shrugs. "-you say so."
"This weekend, a few friends and I are going to Thanagar. And while thanagarians do look like.. kryptonians with wings, about a quarter of Thanagar's population are lizarkons, which is a species of humanoid reptiles. Now, we both know that your father wanted to send you to Xudar…" I shrug. "Perhaps he was right, and being somewhere with more advanced technology would be better."
"I don't.. think it's that simple."
"And then there's socialisation. Did you study art on Krypton?"
"No. Kryptonian aesthetics was more about function than-."
"Perfect. How do you feel about starting now?"
"I don't…" She shakes her head. "Know?"
"You said that things were too familiar. I'm hoping that things becoming a little more unfamiliar will help. Also: Thanagar?"
"Are you going to let me say 'no'?"
"Maybe. Are you going to?"
"I…" She looks back at her monitor. "When, exactly..?"
"Either Friday evening or Saturday morning, all being well."
She bows her head slightly as she thinks it over. Then she looks up. "Okay. Yes, I'd like to go."
I beam. "Excellent. Now, come along. We've got to visit the Hawks and get a cultural briefing pack."
"Right now?"
"Yes."
"But-. Okay." She nods. "Let's go."
"One thing first." I walk up to her, wrap my arms around her and pull her to my chest. For a moment she tenses. "When you feel like this, don't keep it to yourself. Alright?"
She relaxes. Slightly. "Okay."
