Hurts Like Heaven

Chapter 21 - Get Back, Gnashing Teeth

***BARRY***

I can't give Lisa the satisfaction of knowing that she's finding the most efficient ways to mesh together my business and pleasure. So I stick to the former mode as I ask her, "What do you know about this stolen Kryptonian tech?"

"Really? Nothing."

Cisco claps his hands and stands up. "That's it. Waste of time if you ask me. I could be building something sweet in the lab right about now-"

"What would you be building?" Lisa asks, and for some reason I think it's a genuine question.

"Grape ice cream that won't curdle the milk."

I nod along with him, because I'm pretty sure that he's actually been working on that for a few months. He started in the summer, naturally, but he's been so bound and determined to get this right that he's kept the project going well into winter already with no end in sight. That might explain the occasional whiff of sour milk I get when I open the fridge for a bucket of Gatorade after a day of crime-fighting. I think Cisco's been buying that in double-bulk because it's grape-flavored and he's using my drink of choice to fuel his experiments.

Also, since he's the one who suggested I switch to that flavor, I think he just wants to make wine out of my speedster sweat or something.

"You must know something," I tell Lisa. "You wouldn't want us here if you didn't."

"Smart cookie," Lisa says. "Okay, all I know is that it's supposed to be some kind of virtual reality generator."

I look at Cisco, the greater technical mind between the two of us. "I can do a lot of shit," he says, "but...wait, you said 'virtual reality generator.' That could mean a bunch of different things." He holds up his fingers, one after the other, to count off all the potential meanings. "A device that brings virtual reality to real reality. A server on which all the details of that virtual reality live. A-"

"Device that downloads people's brains?"

Cisco tries not to look too freaked out by that, but the look of terror that crosses his face for just a second says otherwise. "Yeaaaaaaaah," he says, his voice maybe half an octave higher than normal. And yes, he drags the word out to at least four times its normal length too. "Right."

"I feel less surprised about this than I should be," I say. "The stuff K...uh, Supergirl's told me about Kryptonian tech, they did some strange shit-"

"It's okay," Lisa says with a grin. "I know Supergirl's true identity. You can say her name in front of me."

"How do you-"

"I had an interview with Cat Grant a year or two back. Off the record, Cat mentioned Supergirl. She pretends not to know who Kara Danvers really is, but that's just 'cause she fancies herself Kara's second mother but can't tell her without wrecking her 'tough boss' image." I immediately run around the entire apartment, and as Lisa slams down some paperwork my speedster wind kicked up, she asks with no uncertain irritability, "What are you doing?"

"Ensuring there's no bugs in this place."

"Try again," Cisco says, pulling a small scanner out of his pocket. It looks more like a portable reading light than anything else. I take it around the apartment at super speed - this time, Lisa ensures that her papers are all weighted down - and pronounce the place clean, officially.

"Well, there's something else I know," Lisa says. "You, Cisco, you can bring us down to National City like-" She snaps her fingers. "Right?"

"She asks like she has little faith in my powers," he says. "That's the next stop?"

"Should I tell Kara I'm gonna be in town?" I ask him in an undertone.

"Ideally," says Lisa, "we can get this shit out of her town before she even knows we're there."

"Good luck with that."

Cisco beckons us into the center of the room, puts his Vibe goggles back on, and waits for both me and Lisa to lay hands on his shoulders. "Get ready," he says. "Gird your loins, steel your nerves, and put a clamp down on your stomachs lest you lose your lunches-"

He reaches out, makes a breach, and brings us down several hundred miles, almost to the other end of California. We emerge in a men's room in what I'm pretty sure is the Del Fuego Arcade, where Kara and I recently met Clark and Diana.

Perhaps because of that, or the distance of the instantaneous journey, Lisa immediately doubles over and dry heaves. "You're lucky I didn't even eat lunch," she grumbles.

I run to the nearest eatery, a small bakery - yeah, that confirms we're at Del Fuego Arcade; they're still working on repairing the damage to the glass ceiling over the escalator to the movie theater - and snag a butter croissant. Leaving three bucks' cash in the register - which, luckily, is open right now as the baker is serving another customer - I take that pastry and bring it back to Lisa, who eyeballs it suspiciously.

"I could be allergic to gluten for all you know," she mutters.

"Uh..."

She snatches it and tears off one end of the croissant with her teeth, about five inches' worth of fluffy butter bread in one bite. "I'm not. But God, for a superhero, you can be inconsiderate sometimes." As Cisco opens his mouth, she quickly adds, "But thanks."

"Let's get out of here," I say. "Our little breach probably tripped an alarm or ten at the DEO."