7823/An accelerated Timetable

An accelerated Timetable
Date of Scene:	10 June 2019
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	After the helicopter incident, an unknown powered armor attacks Supergirl, severely weakening and hurting her.
Cast of Characters:	Supergirl, Lex Luthor

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Supergirl has posed:
In the darkness of space...

Kara drifted. Eyes closed. Not breathing the air, because there wasn't anything to breathe. But there was that subtle stretch she felt against her lungs as the infinite vacuum threatened to collapse them. Turning around, her blonde hair glittering in the moonglow, she rests her hand against a satellite. Now she understood why her cousin hung out up here.

Kara Zor-El looks down at the twisting globe that was the Earth.

A long breath out as she dips her head forward, listening to the sounds of the world, trying to filter out the meaning from the noise. A little smile spreads across her lips.

Until she hears it. A 'help'! It was from somewhere in America.

And so there she goes, Supergirl tilting downwards as she speeds down towards the globe like a bullet, aimed at Metropolis.

Lex Luthor has posed:
They pretend to care about the planet... but anyone with that much power? If they tried to impose their will on the Earth, very few would be able to stand up against them. It's the reason Lex does what he does. Everyone else was taken in by their 'hero' persona... but not Lex.

Lex was sure they'd turn on the planet one day, and it was one of his missions in life to not only show the world what they really were... but also that the Kryptonians were a threat to every human on the planet, even if they didn't realize it yet.

Then... there was Supergirl the other day, using an attempt at 'being a hero' to try to subtly kill Lex. It was only due to the Kryptonite ring that Lex was alive, he was sure of it. Still, it was a bold move, and one that proved to Lex that she was just as much as threat to Luthor as The Other Alien was.

It was time to go on the offensive again.

The 'help!' had been from someone off the street of course... paid to make himself as much as spectacle as possible for Supergirls attention. With 'Superman' out of commission and most of the Justice League up in the watchtower as of now, she would have very little backup.

In Metropolis, Lex was watching the city via one of his surveillance satellites through the warsuit. This suit was specifically designed to be anti-kryptonian; the beams, the armor, and the knuckles were all laced with Kryptonite, making fighting Lex a nightmare for any Kryptonian...

And Lex was about to ambush Supergirl; the girl of steel.

Supergirl has posed:
With a subtle distortion of air around her as she slows to a safe speed upon reaching the man, Supergirl draws in a deep breath, feeling her lungs swell with air again. Hair perfect, it fell along her shoulders like a waterfall, her smile open and free as she settles it upon the man who was making a spectacle of himself.

Certainly, there was some little doubt at the back of her mind, and she hovers there above him, her head quirked just a little bit to the side.

"What seems to be the matter?" she asks. "You weren't... just trying to get my attention, were you?"

Far from being suspicious of a trap, by the light tone of Kara's voice, she seemed to be suspicious of something else. An admirer, perhaps.

Lex Luthor has posed:
It was easy to follow her as she went to the bait in the PIP satellite image. "Good." It was in a perfect position to hit her from behind, too.

Using his thrusters to adjust his angle and reposition on one of the taller buildings in Metropolis, Lex brought up both palm projectors to each side, and aimed the chest projector at Supergirl. A slow thrumm of power started to build as Lex charged the energy within; a beam of pure kryptonite radiation began to form in each. Within seconds, the capacitors were at maximum.

With a loud THRUMMMMMMM... the two smaller and the chest projectors fire at once. Two smaller bubbles of radiation streak alongside a massive bubble as a trio of kryptonite beams arches straight for Supergirls back.

Supergirl has posed:
There was that sense of impending doom, made worse by the way that the person she was there to save seemed more... frightened by... her? than by whatever it was he was calling for help for. Brow furrows deeply, and she purses her painted lips together. "If you're sure that you're..."

That was a familiar sensation by now. That sickly twisting at the back of her mind. There was kryptonite nearby.

Eyes widening with a brief flutter of momentary fear, the Girl of Steel flits to one side, spinning in her hover to look in all directions.

Fortunately or not, that meant that the kryptonite beam barely misses her, but in the wake of the thing... it briefly saps a lot of her strength, her flight failing her briefly to land upon the top of the building.

"Who?! Why? Who are you two?" she asks, demanding of the man who she had been rescuing - to look towards the imposing suit.

The kryptonite suit.

It didn't take a genius to figure out just who that sort of thing is made for. "What do you want?"

Lex Luthor has posed:
The person in the suit doesn't reply. Instead, his thrusters engage and he starts to rapidly accelerate towards Supergirl, both palm projectors aimed directly for Supergirl as the suit begins to rapid fire pulses of krpytonite based energy at her.

Lex isn't faster than a speeding bullet inside the suit... but he doesn't need to be when he can bring Supergirl down to a humans level just by engaging her.

"Your Doom." A modulated voice replies, finally.

Supergirl has posed:
Just by being around her, Kara was feeling weaker by the moment.

The confusion in her features, open and honest, settle on Lex, her brightly blue eyes lingering on that faceless man in the suit. Those rapid-fire pulses of that deadly energy spark out towards her, and Supergirl backpedals with little superpowered skips, the energy beams digging into the air where she was, for the most part...

Until, crying out, one lances into her shoulder, her hand coming up to clasp the shoulder where she was caught, her flight backwards dipping back with her booted heels tugging into the roof of the place. A step to one side, a lock of her blonde hair in her eyes, ruining the perfect look she had going on before. "Why?" she asks, gritting her teeth. A deep breath in...

And she breathes out - a cloud of freezing cold air hopefully arcing towards the suit. It had the potential to freeze it solid, of course.

Lex Luthor has posed:
Lex has the full catelogue of Kryptonian powers memorized, and when Supergirl breathed deep, it was pretty obvious what she was doing. Still, he kept up that fire, hoping to get more attacks in. Plus, he wasn't worried about being frozen to death; the suit had it's own life support reserve... and his strength amplifier would be able to break out of it with a bit of time.

His concern is poisoning Supergirl as fast as he can to make this a more even fight.

He heads straight into the freezing cold air. The structural force shield doing it's job to keep serious damage to a minimum... but it does a fine job of freezing the warsuit in place.

For now.

Supergirl has posed:
A pause as Kara's gambit seems to work, her strength returning as she kicks up off of the ground.

It was obvious, dangerously so, that this person was sent to kill her, specifically, with all of the kryptonite powers that it wielded.

Her heart beat like a hammer inside of her chest, and her hands wavered, before she chases away those feelings with a clench of her fists. The silent machine that was attacking her stared down, and briefly, she was concerned for the life of the man inside.

Man?

Pursing her lips, Kara starts to put some space between herself and the warsuit, hovering higher and farther away in the air, before she sweeps the thing with her x-ray vision. Lex probably lined it with lead, but...

The question of why thrummed in her mind. But it didn't answer before. It wouldn't now.

"You're not going to harm the people of this Earth, whoever you are. Myself and Superman will protect it!"

Lex Luthor has posed:
The suit is indeed lined with just enough lead to keep Supergirl from seeing who was inside. It was clear that whoever this was... knew what they were doing in regards to kryptonians.

Cyberpathically, the strength amplifier is activated to it's maximum potential... and slowly but surely, the ice begins to break as Lex flexes inside.

Supergirl has seconds before the ice cocoon fails.

Supergirl has posed:
Seconds for the Kryptonian to decide what she wished to do with the being in the suit. Seconds to fight - or to flee.

With a cry out, Supergirl decides to level herself off, and fly forward, extending both of her arms to impact the suit, hoping against hope that with everything else about it, the designer had decided to make it able to withstand Kryptonian strength, as well... and essentially launch it, ice shattering with the impact, should she find it.

And try to send the suit launching towards the waters of Metropolis bay, nearby.

Lex Luthor has posed:
It's around the time Supergirl is about to punch the suit into Metropolis bay that the ice breaks... and Lex brings up his right hand in a fist as he meets Supergirls battering ram with his own swing.

There's a minor sonic boom as they both hit each other at the same time... and the suit gets launched backwards into a building. /HARD/.

Supergirl has posed:
And Supergirl's chin knocks back with the punch, the kryptonite already doing its work to weaken her.

So she was essentially, halfway between Kryptonian and human when that punch floored her, snapping her chest back and spending her spiraling backwards, tangling up a bit in that cape of hers, real pain - real honest to goodness pain lacing through her, the girl crying out as she brings up her hand to clutch her shoulder, and come away with... blood?

Ferocity starts to give way to fear. She was brave, but there was no one here to rescue, to protect. Only the danger of being beaten down without backup. Jaw works, and unworks, the blood tracing down and marring the blue of her suit. A shiver runs through her.

And Kara decides to start putting more and more distance between herself and the building that the suit had crashed into, taking off into the air but keeping her eyes turned down towards that building, the shivering subsiding some, but still...

She had been /wounded/. That isn't a common feeling for her.

Lex Luthor has posed:
"Oh no you don't." Lex growls in his suit as Supergirl starts to go in obvious retreat.

The thrusters once again engage, and this time, rapid fire pulses begin to rain down on Supergirl, very much like flak fire. She's no doubt going to try to dodge... but the Kryptonite should have made her slow enough to land some more hits to bring her down to ground level again.

He'll never catch her if she's allowed to get back to full strength and fly away as fast she she should be able to, and he knows it. This is his only chance to get the fight a bit more even.

Supergirl has posed:
And the suit was beginning to pull itself out of the building. Yes, he was correct. She was still weakened from the blow to her shoulder.

But as she clutches her shoulder, she keeps her eyes on that figure down there. The flak fire lances towards her, preventing her escape entirely, and drawing her nearer and nearer to that green energy, slowly sapping her - not by virtue of hitting her, really, but by being near her.

And so Kara tries something else. Eyes light up, energy lancing out towards the beams towards her, heat vision attempting to contact the poisonious rays and knock them away from her.

Lex Luthor has posed:
The heat vision manages to not only break apart the radiation bubbles, but also make contact with the warsuit... and a slight shimmering can be seen as the structural shield soaks up the beams.

instead of slowing down though, Lex just keeps on coming... and soon, Supergirl can hear a hateful "RRAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" come from a synthetic voice from the suit as Lex attempts to simply ram right into her, knuckles first.

He's going for maximum effect here, and it shows.

Supergirl has posed:
The sheer hate of the unknown assailant seems to catch the Kryptonian offguard, her features twisting as the besuited CEO charges her. Gritting her teeth, Kara brings up her hands, waving them in a circular motion and using all of her strength.

Arms slap against the inner arms of the man, and knock them to either side, but when the suited mass impacts her - she was still weakened enough to be knocked away from him, Supergirl crying out as she plummets earthward, impacting the top of a nearby roof as well. This was... the potential for bystanders being hurt was too much. But she couldn't get away!

Again, her eyebeams lance out towards the suited man, aiming for a knuckle this time around.

Lex Luthor has posed:
The impact sends debris flying around them. More than enough to obscure their fight on the rooftop. Not that it matters to Lex. His sensor suite is one of the most advanced on Earth... he can just use that to keep track of her as she... tries to eyebeam him again?

Not this time.

A secondary shield pops up in front of himself as his left gauntlet is raised, and the heat vision just soaks into it harmlessly as he starts to walk along the rooftop right over to Supergirl.

Whoever this is, they've created a suit that can actually take on a Kryptonian on their own terms.

Supergirl has posed:
More than their own terms. It almost gives an advantage over Kryptonians.

Or, at the least, the more untrained, headstrong ones. Kara was more used to blugeoning her way through things, but she draws herself towards her feet, keeping her eyes on Lex entirely. Sucking on her teeth, Kara glances left, and right. She didn't want to start tearing up buildings in a city, so she launches herself backwards, not to fly off - but to fall. To fall away from the man in the suit. And once she got nearish the street - to take off at a fuller speed, away from the fight.

To live and fight another day, so to speak.

Lex Luthor has posed:
If nothing else, Supergirl confirmed she wasn't just her powers. Using physics to get out of range of him quickly, even without his thrusters? It was a good move.

He's already accomplished both his goals here, though. Get some of Supergirls blood for analysis, and prove to Supergirl she /isn't/ invincible.

Running away makes it clear she realizes she's outmatched.

"One day, alien... you will have the same reckoning as the other one." Lex grits his teeth as he starts to walk over to where Supergirl bled.

"Mark my words. It will happen."