Adventure Of A Lifetime

Chapter 21 - If I Lose Myself Tonight

***KARA***

If not for the presence of Luthor and his kryptonite charm, I'd much rather be down at ground level right now. I'm more at home in the air, but the thought of chowing down on clam dip, chips, and other tailgating foods...the smells wafting up from the parking lot are so enticing. Why the hell do we have to be perched downwind from all the tailgaters? Luckily, even with an EMP in effect (which, thankfully, doesn't affect our telecom equipment - STAR Labs supplied us with specially protected comms), most people aren't noticing, because they're cooking with gas and/or charcoal.

I think I'll be channeling a little anger into my interrogation of these commandos. Starting with the one who's actually got the gall to undress me with his eyes as he looks up at me. "Really, buddy?" Barry tells him at the same time I say, clichéd though it may be, "My eyes are up here."

"I know, but the rest of you is too beautiful to ignore."

Should I be offended or complimented by his attention? I'll go with the latter.

"I'm sorry," Diana says, shaking her head. "Truth, remember?"

"Yeah, it hurts," says Caitlin.

"Like how this would hurt?" I zap the commando with my heat vision for a split second, singeing him very precisely on his earlobe.

"YAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!"

"It doesn't hurt that much, does it? Barry, what do you think?" I give him the same treatment - a quick burst of heat vision to his earlobe. His is smaller, so I have to really focus to hit the target.

"Ugh..." he groans, rubbing his smoking ear. "Lucky I can heal hella fast."

I wince. Really, it must be an allergy, my reaction to that word.

"The lasso must amplify his reaction," Diana says, "because he really does see it as such a violation, getting burned like that."

"Well." I turn to the next commando in the line. "Are you gonna talk, or just scream like your comrade?"

"I'll only scream if you blast me in my balls," he says. "Or any other pressure point, really."

At least this one isn't so openly checking me out, so I'm a little more comfortable talking to him. Though I'm more than a bit weirded out by the vacant look in his eyes - how much of that is from Diana's lasso dulling his inhibitions? I'm pretty sure if J'onn were here to see this, he'd give side-eyes all around, especially for Diana making these men tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth via artificial means. And to Caitlin for giving these guys frostbitten hands bound together with ice. And to me for using my heat vision for evil instead of good, relatively speaking. And to Barry for standing by and observing, not taking any kind of action.

But before I lose myself in this moral quagmire, I press on. "What's Lex Luthor's game?"

"Football," says the commando. "Why else is he here?"

I didn't expect such a literal answer. Let's try that again. "Why is Lex Luthor here? Why this game, specifically?"

"It's a tradition for him." This is the third commando in line, not the second one I'm currently talking to. "He may be Smallville-born, but he's been an avid attendee of every West Coast Christmas Conference since 2001."

"Nothing wrong with attending a game you weren't born to support," the fourth commando chimes in.

"Diana?" Caitlin asks cautiously. "Does your lasso normally make people ramble randomly like that?"

"They can dance around the truth," Diana says, "but they can't avoid it forever. We just have to ask our questions more directly."

"Let me try." Barry steps in at last. "Is Lex Luthor planning some kind of terrorist attack?"