Kara could barely keep her excitement under control by reminding herself that she didn’t have access to all the hardware. But even just the scan of Black Adam’s abilities that allowed the robot to copy them was invaluable.

 

Leaving the best for later, Kara started on the information about his geokinesis, seeing if there was anything interesting about it. In the show, his powers were actually stronger than his siblings, which made sense since he was the latest model. 

 

With a smile and a relaxed posture, Kara lost herself in the data, making extrapolations about how the core worked based on the Mr. Twister wind core she had already started replicating.

 

Yes, this data would allow her to transfer the necessary control software outside her elemental cores, perhaps in a shell of sunstone around the hardware…

 

The process would create a minimal but noticeable delay, at least if she was moving at full speed, but her Karabots were never capable of fighting at her level and the freed processing power in the core would increase the elemental manipulation strength by at least 18%.

 

It was quite a worthwhile exchange.

 

Ordering one of her Karabots to come closer, the Kryptonian briefly nodded at the new painting and cosmetic changes. Like most of her robots, it still lacked the same level of synthetic skin as Danette or the fake construction crew, but it could pass for a human at a distance.

 

Using her fingers, she pried the hatch on its belly open, then she ordered the nanomachines on her sleeve to pull back and put her entire forearm inside its body, ignoring the cold and viscous feeling of the cooling fluid as she reached for the core.

 

At first, her replica wind cores were installed right behind the hatch for easy access, but stress testing proved the opening, and the core behind it, were too easily damaged, resulting in the device either drawing in air until the bot was crushed or violently exploding.

 

Which was interesting to know, but hardly useful since the effect wasn’t strong enough to make up for the material loss.

 

So Kara had changed the core’s location to a reinforced cage deep inside its chest, behind the thicker armor plates on her Karabots. Unfortunately, it did make retrieving the device a lengthy process.

 

“AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!”

 

Kara jumped back, jerking her hand out of the Karabot and denting the latch while causing it to fall forward. On the table, Dexter rose from inside the cardboard box beside his bed and hissed, his back arched and tail puffed up.

 

“Ahhh, Ahhh!” Kid Flash continued to scream, eyes wide and a finger pointed at the fallen Karabot.

 

“Calm down, it’s just one of my bots, you’ve seen them everywhere, for Rao’s sake.”

 

“Why is she bleeding!” The boy barely managed to keep from screaming, horror on his face. “Why can I see her intestines! Why have you ripped out her HEART!”

 

Kara looked at the red core in her hand, only now realizing how it must look. Right, the core did ressemble a heart now that she thought about it, and the cooling fluid looked like blood too, even if it was only cosmetic.

 

“For physiological effect,” Kara explained, releasing the core atop its prepared support and using a blast of heat vision to burn away the spilled cooling fluid. “Even villains find it much easier to smash robots if they can see the electronics inside.”

 

Some of the villains would probably enjoy the changes, there were some sick bastards in the world, but most would find it hard to just destroy such human seeming robots. It was far harder to fight a bleeding opponent over a sparking one. 

 

With a nod, the Karabot got up, the ‘intestine’ cables retreating back into its body while it attempted to fix the bent hatch with a perfectly calm face before stepping back towards the wall.

 

“What are you doing here anyway?”

 

Kid Flash continued to stare at the robot for a full five seconds before gulping, shaking his head and taking a breath. “Ah, r-right, Starfire left with Wonder Woman and she didn’t think you’d want to join us for lunch, but I thought I could bring you a plate?”

 

Kara stared at the plate miraculously still in the sidekick’s hand despite his freak out, then at the clock to the side. It was already 1 pm. It seemed like she really had lost track of time.

 

Now that she was aware of it, Kara’s stomach took the chance to complain with a groan, the steak looking more and more appetizing by the second.

 

The sleeve of her costume reformed around her arm as Kara walked away from her worktable, stretching her muscles and giving Kid Flash a reassuring smile. “Thanks, I appreciate it.”

 

“Are… are you sure you don’t want to join us?” The boy asked, face flushing for a second before he stole a few glances at the Karabot and swallowed hard. “Both Connor and Megan are in the mountain, you know.”

 

She thought about it, but eventually shook her head. She didn’t want to stop working, not before taking a look at the rest of the data she had. “No, I’m kinda busy right now, but thanks for asking.” 

 

“Right, right, I guess I won’t bother you then… if you need anything just say the word.”

 

With a blur, the nervous boy ran away, leaving the plate in her hand.

 

Hmmmm, as much as the teenager annoyed her with his disastrous attempts at romance, he could be surprisingly thoughtful. Guess the Flash really was teaching him more than just running.

 

Grabbing a piece of carrot, Kara threw it in her mouth, then she laid the plate on the table and cut a slice of beef before turning back to the exposed wind core… yeah, she could test the idea later, she’d have to grow the sunstone shell another day anyway.

 

Cracking her fingers, she bit into the meat and finally started looking at what little of Red Volcano’s scans she had access to, the data was fascinating.

 

Kara had taken her own scans of Billy’s powers, both activated and while working passively, but it was nice to have independent confirmation and a new approach to the problem of magic.

 

Slowly, meticulously, she went through every single spec of information she could find in the damaged head, already starting to form new ideas about how to use it. 

 

Before now, Kara had learned how to drain Captain Marvel’s magic through electricity by studying Amber’s powers, and she could destabilize magical artifacts, causing them to explode, but that had always been easy.

 

Now… Well, it would still take weeks of effort, study and experimentation before she could create any device that used magic as fuel, and even longer before she could replicate spells, but perhaps she could channel magic in a controllable manner?

 

Looking towards the still filled draining device, Kara saw it had lost a noticeable amount of charge, the storage space failing to fully contain the divine magic. 

 

Hmmm, it was a convenient source of magic if she wanted to experiment and, since it was already leaking…

 

Cutting a small piece of meat, she threw it to the sneaking cat trying to steal it under the table and bit into another carrot, then started tapping on her computer.

 

Three hours later, she had adapted one of her security features to channel the energy contained in the device, run it through a circuit and store it back inside. Unsurprisingly, the power behaved mostly like electricity, enough that, with her modifications, she could already start making use of it.

 

Dialing down the intensity, Kara connected it to the safety features on the door of the laboratory and ordered one of the Karabots to test it, smiling when the electrical discharge bypassed most of the insulation to directly damage the sunstone inside.

 

She loved magic! A pity she couldn’t exactly keep draining the amulet every day.

 

Well, she could, but she wouldn’t feel good doing it after the way Teth had helped with Neron.

 

Staring at the magical artifact, Kara could see it had already regained its power. So much so that, if she took the thing and yelled ‘Shazam’, she was pretty sure she could transform again.

 

It made sense, Amber could absorb Billy’s power and trick its source into believing it was still active since the gods weren’t paying personal attention, but the draining device was different, it had no soul.

 

Now, what was she going to do with the thing? Teth had helped her but, thinking back to the encounter, she was pretty sure that if she had been foolish enough to take Neron’s deal, Teth would have accepted his own deal and stolen her body.

 

That really felt like just the sort of trick a demon would use, give her all the information she wanted, only to immediately help another soul take over her body, making it impossible for her to use said information.

 

Bonus point for guaranteeing Teth would become an enemy of the Justice League and, more specifically, her cousin.

 

Would one of her Karabots be able to use it, allowing Teth access to a body without the need to subdue its owner's soul? More importantly, did she dare test it now?

 

No, no she didn’t, the ancient champion was too powerful for her to risk it alone.

 

Ugh, she’d need to consult with Fate, she had not liked the helmet when she met it, but he was the only reliable source she more or less trusted, the other options would be Constantine and Shazam himself, neither of which she wanted to deal with.

 

A problem for later, now back to experimenting. Could she shoot the magically charged electricity from a cannon?