Of Knights and Aliens

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.