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Lena huffed angrily as the tablet in her hands showed the virtual model of an invention spark to life one moment and then fritz out the next. “I don’t understand,” the woman muttered in annoyance, “why aren’t you working?”
“That type of microprocessor isn’t capable of handling the data-stream from the crystal matrix.” Kara’s soft voice commented from behind Lena’s right shoulder prompting the woman to snap upright in surprise. “You need to restrict the matrix or install multiple in-line processors to compensate for the stream. Like this.”
“Where…” Lena spoke slowly as she watched the reporter’s agile fingers dart across her tablet’s screen inputting and changing variables until the theorised model ran smoothly. “Where did you learn to do that?”
“Store information in crystals?” Kara asked with a tilt of her head. “Krypton.”
“Krypton.” Lena blinked. “As in… You were…”
“I was born on Krypton, yes.” Kara explained with a soft smile. “You’re working with some of Lex’s discarded ideas, aren’t you?”
“I…” Lena flushed. “Yes.”
“Kal-El was a baby when he arrived on Earth,” Kara said quietly, “he didn’t bring with him the knowledge of how the crystals functioned, but he did bring a handful of the crystals—sunstones—with him. Your brother discovered them around the same time as Kryptonite I assume, but he never devoted the resources needed to understand how they functioned. It was… Um… Secondary to his needs at that point.”
“You mean that he was more focused on how to kill Superman and murder innocent people by that time.” Lena amended Kara’s words sadly. “You don’t have to try to couch your words for me Kara, I know what my brother did, and who he’d become.”
“Perhaps,” Kara allowed, “but you still love him, and I don’t want to hurt you.”
“So,” Lena hummed softly as she reached up to squeeze Kara’s fingers gratefully, “I suppose you’ve got a lot more to teach me.”
“I suppose I do.” Kara chuckled in reply as she perched on the edge of Lena’s desk, “I was about to become the youngest ever initiate into the science guild in Krypton’s history after all.”