Chapter 68
The next day, Alex decides to change it up. Now that the others know what Alex is up to, she doesn't feel the need to hide it away from them. She carefully wheels the mannequin with the armor on it and her supplies over to her main lab, where she joins most of the others.
Vasquez and Lena are muttering over a microscope, debating about something about Kryptonite. If Alex didn't have her own project to work on, she would be tempted to listen in and offer her own advice. She will if they ask her for it, but otherwise she'll keep working on Kara's new armor.
Kara's back in the training room, training with some poor trainees under increasing amounts of Kryptonite to up her tolerance. From what Alex has heard from some exhausted trainees, Kara's been making good progress.
And one big bonus of being in her main lab is that she can bounce ideas off of people instead of brainstorming on her own. It's so much easier, and sometimes the others will think of something that Alex never would have.
When Winn and Maggie take a break from working on the crossbows with a few other scientists, they spend their time with her. Winn helps her design the boots and helmet, and how to go about making them. Maggie offers her own ideas every once in a while, but she's mainly content cuddling up to Alex's side (it's incredibly adorable and Alex loves how she snuggles up to her left side so she can still work with her dominant hand).
Alex and Winn come up with two helmets, one based off of Wonder Woman's, who's sadly off world and unavailable at the moment. Alex sometimes wonders how the heck she gets "off world" because they don't have spaceships, except for a few well hidden alien ones, and then she remembers Wonder Woman is literally a goddess.
Anyway. The first helmet is designed more like a fancy band that's like a crown in a way, with space to put in the Kryptonite blocker if Vasquez and Lena can figure out how to make one. If not, Alex has a design for another helmet. It's more clunky and probably isn't Kara's style as much, but it'll keep her alive and that's what's important.
It looks more like a type of knight's helmet than anything else. It's a type call a Spangen helmet where the top of the head is covered in an almost dome like way, which comes down to just above the brow ridge. There's a nose guard and flaps along the back and the sides to protect vulnerable parts of the face and head. Typically, it would just be that, but through brainstorming with Winn, then with Vasquez and Lena, they've figured out a way to create a chain mail like veil, something to cover what's in between the flaps so her face and head is entirely protected.
The helmet won't be covered in her Kryptonian inspired polymer like the armor, and will instead be made of a hard metal with a layer of lead inside. It could be made of just lead, but lead itself isn't very good protection. Especially against weapons. It could be dented or sliced easily, and the last thing Alex wants is for Kara to get hurt.
The boots won't be covered in Alex's polymer she used on the armor, mainly because she doesn't have any more. She and Lena work together and combine what they know about their own polymers for their own armor and come up with one that Alex has to admit is brilliant. It's going to be like the other parts of Kara's armor, with the middle being lead, this time movable like with the armor, not stiff like the helmet or band.
Maggie walks over sometimes to help her with things without Alex asking for assistance, which she really appreciates. She also really enjoys the proud glint in her girlfriend's eyes when she sees Alex's progress and the kisses she gets whenever Maggie comes over.
***
It doesn't take Alex as long as she expected to finish a rough draft of the armor and when she does, she immediately sends one of the lab assistants off to get Kara. Kara comes over in a couple of minutes, out of breath. Alex frowns.
"Kara, have you been over exerting yourself? You're out of breath." Alex notes worriedly.
"I've been working with the trainees for the past... Almost a week, since you first told me to." Kara says. "I'm getting better, but I don't have as much tolerance built up as I would like."
"Doing too much isn't the way to go, Kara." Alex says softly, mentally berating herself for not noticing sooner. "Take breaks, okay? Even the Girl of Steel needs to rest." Kara nods, her shoulders slumping and Alex sees how tired she really is.
Alex doesn't say anything this time, just pulls Kara into a tight hug and it's a good couple of seconds before Kara hugs her back.
"You're right." Kara murmurs into her sister's shoulder. "I'll take more breaks. I just... I hate feeling so useless, so powerless."
Alex pulls back as Kara huffs, annoyed at herself.
"No, okay? You're not powerless, Kara. You're never powerless." Alex says firmly, her hands pressing on Kara's shoulders to ground her.
"I am if I solar flare." Kara points out. "Or if there's too much Kryptonite."
Alex firmly shakes her head, ignoring the fact that the others are very unsubtly listening in to their conversation.
"You're never powerless, Kara. Without your powers, who are you? Well, you're Kara Danvers. Princess of the Danvers Kingdom and highly trained by the infamous DEO in hand to hand combat and in using weapons. You're never powerless, Kara. You're just a bit more vulnerable some of the time."
Kara takes in her words and visibly softens. "You always know what to say."
She hugs Alex again, who hugs her back tightly. She knows that in Kara's points like this, when she's down (even after Alex gives her one of her pep talks) she needs some extra tight hugs.
Alex lets Kara be the one to determine when their hug breaks. She smiles up at her sister and gently taps her on the nose.
"Now are you ready to put on your super awesome armor I made you?"
Kara laughs and nods. "Yeah. I'll be back in a second."
She takes the armor (which Winn has folded up nicely), the boots, and the smaller helmet. Kara heads into the nearby bathroom and comes out a few seconds later, having used her super speed. Alex grins proudly and knows Kara can see and hear their friends' and girlfriends' reactions.
Maggie looks impressed and gives Kara thumbs up while Lena looks like she's trying not to drool, which Kara takes as a compliment. Vasquez is smirking and winks at her when she catches their eye. Winn is bouncing up and down excitedly, happy that everything seems to be working. Alex is beaming at her, too happy at seeing her sister in her armor to even look at it critically at the moment.
"How does it feel?" Alex asks finally.
"Really great," Kara admits. "I like the design too. It reminds me of the guilds of Krypton."
"I based it off of what you used to tell me about them, yeah." Alex nods, hugging her sister when she sees the tears in her eyes.
The suit itself is dark blue, not the lighter color that Winn used for her main suit. It's a two piece, like Winn's, but it comes together in such a way that it appears to be a one piece. Instead of having high boots and a skirt, there are slightly smaller red boots and long pants that tuck into the boots. Along the seams are dark red threads that keeps everything in place, which is a good contrast with the blue. Like Winn's, Alex made it so the sleeves loop around her thumb to keep it in place but the fabric doesn't go father than that, so Kara can punch things without worrying too much about damaging her suit.
And instead of a large symbol for the House of El all across the front, there's a smaller symbol on the top left corner of the suit, in the same deep red color as the thread. In Alex's mind, it kind of gives the impression that the red from the symbol spreads all across her body.
Attached to Kara's shoulders are gold knob-like items that hold her red cape in place. Kara was very insistent on having a cape. And the band over her forehead, it just completes the look. The centerpiece is currently empty, and Alex does have an idea on how to make it cooler so she really hopes that they can figure out a Kryptonite blocker.
Alex pulls back from the hug and then begins to work through the many questions she has for Kara so she can improve it.
Cool, right? Next chapter, they work on the blocker and some upgrades for the armor! And I'm not even going to talk about what Jeremy (Winn) said/sang much because I don't want to get mad. Or sad. Again. The second apology was better, but he needs to prove himself, prove his intentions (at least to me). Especially with that whole mess. Anyway! Thank you all for reading and for your amazing comments! Stay awesome!