3912/Burger Big Bang

Burger Big Bang
Date of Scene:	24 October 2020
Location:	Big Belly Burgers
Synopsis:	The Juggernaut picks a fight with Power Girl then leaves.
Cast of Characters:	Cain Marko, Karen Starr

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Cain Marko has posed:
Fridy night, and the Big Belly Burger is busily bouncing! Plenty of people at the tables scarfing down the famous high-calorie treats, lots of fries and a plethora of drinks. There's some music playing over the speakers, and you'd almost think it's a 50s malt shop or something. The parking lot full outside, crowd in the distance, a bus arcing through the air heading right for the main windows of the place. All of it very lively.

Then the bus hits the front windows, shattering then noisily and hitting the ground, skidding forward through the crowded room. Unless something happens to stop it. Out on the street, a towering figure in red brushes his hands off, squinting at said restuarant in an expectant way, as though he expects something to happen other than screaming people and possibly police sirens in the distance. He certainly looks the part of somebody who could chuck around mass transit for fun.

Karen Starr has posed:
    Today had been going so very well. There was one less set of overarmed- yet underarmed- bank robbers in New York. Otherwise, things had been -quiet-, which is always such a good thing.

#-1 ARGUMENT OUT OF RANGE's even quiet enough that she has decided to get herself an oversized cheeseburger from one of the most acceptable chains in the Big Apple.

    She's smiling- and paying, despite that she's told she doesn't actually have to because, well, she has a good enough reputation for that at least- as she grabs up a burger, and is just about to take her first bite of the juicy thing when a bus comes flying towards the facade of the building. It has but a few inches left before it would slam through those windows... But, mysteriously, it comes to an instant and unsatisfying halt before all of that cathartic glass-smashing and people-terrifying can occur.

    Floating up and over the bus in a way that is as effortless as it is unacceptable, Power Girl lands a few strides from Cytorrak's chosen, chewing and swallowing that chunk of beef and bun.

    "Rude." she declares, at once seeming paradoxically ready for a fight, and similarly- perhaps infuriatingly- not taking Cain quite seriously.

Cain Marko has posed:
     When the bus stops in midair, Cain cocks his head sightly to the side. He follows the floating movement of the blonde in the cape as she comes to stop in front of him. "Well, I figured I'd get your attention." He catches one fist with the other, cracking the knuckles with a sound similar to bullets firing off. "So you're.... Power Girl, was it?" He lazily runs his eye down the figure of the Kryptonian them up again. "...you might want to update your codename, darlin. Not sure that one fits anymore." He seems pretty casual about the whole thing, despite seemingly have just tried to murder a restaurant full of people. Maybe he expected her to save them. Or maybe he just really doesn't care. "So what should I call you? Pow? Blondie?" He takes those few strides over to her, fewer for him than her. Peering down at the considerably shorter superwoman.

Karen Starr has posed:
    Another deeply unenthused bite follows, her expression growing from mildly irritated to something a bit beyond, showing that her demeanor isn't as effortlessly unflappable as her other Kryptonian counterparts. For many, this might seem like a good thing- but, it does mean that she's less likely to pull her punches. Further, Cain's reputation is known. He did toussle with another half-caped hero not long ago. She isn't about to take him very lightly.

    Idly, she nods a few times, letting him walk towards her while she wraps the burger back up in its foil- just in case, maybe, their fight won't ruin it. She sets it aside, more or less tossing it onto the top of the overturned bus. If it remains untouched, the burger will still be wholly edible! Fat chance, of course, but...

    The posture shift from casual to combat is fast. Uncomfortably so. So too is the punch she levels right at his midsection. It isn't exactly everything she's capable of- but it's enough to effortlessly split titanium, and do worse to the bus he'd flung her way just a little bit ago.

Cain Marko has posed:
     That is fast. Cain can't deny that. The Juggernaut can actually be startlingly quick despite his massive bulk. But he's not a speedster or anything of the sort. So he's caught somewhat off-guard when she suddenly goes from zero to gutpunch like that. A grunting exhale of air leaving his mouth as her first impacts with his belly, doubling over slightly. But, that's it. He doesn't act like it actually hurt. "Huh. You holdin out on me, Blondie? Or are the stories about you exaggerated? Lets find out." Then he's drawing back his own enormous fist. Unlike her, he doesn't hold back as much. Enough strength to level a building, and a lot of weight to the limb itself behind it. An odd thing is that even though it's probably still not enough actual strength to push her back, if the whistling fist impacts with her belly in return, she'll find herself sliding away even if only for the length of his extended arm. The title 'Unstoppable' might cross her mind. Many people don't realize that particular moniker is literal in his case until they actually fight him.

Karen Starr has posed:
    Punching a Kryptonian evokes memories of unpowered times- like punching stone or metal from back when it wouldn't be as much as cardboard. Power Girl is fast enough that she could avoid the blow- but that's just not entirely how her kind fights, at least at first. When he draws back, she is confident in her own invulnerability- and that confidence is well placed.

    Despite that, of course, the Juggernaut's magical unstoppability is proven against the Kryptonian, who slides backwards. It's arguable whether or not, had his abilities been anything more mundane in origin, whether he'd even moved her at all: Because she is not doubled over, and though she does slide along the ground a good foot or so further than where his fist reaches its furthest extension, that is the most of it. Fighting Kryptonians is less about sheer power and more a battle of attrition. The news vans couldn't cover it, but when Doomsday first arrived, the boy in blue wasn't even bothered by his impossibly titanic strikes.

    Power Girl is much the same. Full grown. Adult. Unfair in a whole lot of ways that aren't expressly or directly tied to the fact that she can eat the junk she came here to buy and maintain that physique. In essence, this isn't really time to hold back, for either of them.

    Power Girl's retort isn't exactly respectful, as if this is some contest of strength. Instead, she is surging forward in effort to close the gap before Cain can measure an effective response. She becomes a blur, and twists in such a way that her chosen response is to offer a devastating uppercut of similar power to the first hit. The tactic isn't entirely obvious, but it is somewhat clever. Get him off his feet, so that he can't leverage being unstoppable in the direction of innocent bystanders. It's not exactly a haymaker, of course- but nothing she does is bound to, expressly, feel -pleasant.-

Cain Marko has posed:
     He's actually felt that more recently. When he fought against a certain Big Red Cheese. That fight... could have ended better. Having your eyes boil-popped by magic lightning isn't pleasent even when you can heal in a few minutes. He gives her a grin as she just slides back a little and doesn't end up doubling over. Apparently, he considers that a good sign. But, then she turns into a red, white and blonde blur and a relatively dainty fist is impacting with the underside of his jaw. He tries to resist the blow in that way superstrong types do. She can feel the counter pressure from his jaw pressing down. But she caught him by surprise enough that he didn't really have time to must much strength. So he ends up flying off of his feet. Raising up into the air and back, quickly peaking at several stories up and ending up hitting a building quite some distance away. Luckily it's late enough nobody is in the office building in question, so him making Juggernaut shaped dent in the side of it doesn't hurt anybody. He works his jaw a little and says, "Quite the arm on you, girlie. Gotta say I'm impressed. Why don't you put a bit more effort into it, though?" Yes, he's taunting her. He drops off of the building back towards the ground, falling like a crimson meteor.

Karen Starr has posed:
    Admittedly, Power Girl is easier to goad than her contemporaries. That... Might not be the best thing, though, as she is more than happy to give Cain exactly what he's asking for. When he drops from the building, her intent now is to use his own unstoppability against him. After all, while she's sure it won't feel great, all that force is going to have to go somewhere. Why let it be the road when it can be the Juggernaut?

    She takes off as soon as he starts falling, and it takes a measure of control to limit her speed enough that she doesn't shatter the windows with a sonic boom. This means that she's just shy of the sound barrier, doing her best to keep the fight on her terms: She doesn't want to let him level another hit her way, as even if it doesn't hurt- which is becoming less and less likely- it's going to send her somewhere, and that somewhere could be occupied. Definitely not ideal.

    By the time she reaches him, she's redoubled her effort, in a literal sense. Aiming to meet both his downward momentum with her upward momentum, and add that to a flying punch that holds more strength in it than both strikes before by an incredible magnitude.

    This is of course the difference between the two- Cain is looking for a good fight, and Power Girl is looking to put an end to this as quickly as possible without endangering civilians. This means that her attack patterns are pretty predictable- but in that same way, they're all quite efficient.

Cain Marko has posed:
     Wow. She really is fast. Usually when he fights a powerhouse, they're not that speedy. It's typically one or the other. Kind of unfair, really. When he sees a blue coming at him faster than he can really process, he starts to raise his hands into the air, intending on slamming them down. By the time they're raised above his head, however, he's already been hit. Harder than he has been in quite a while. He ends up flipping backwards repeatedly as he raises quickly into the sky. It's not enough to send him into orbit, but it is enough that hopefully there are no planes passing by overhead right now. He grunts deeply and eventually manages to stablizie himself into an upright position again. Then he brings his hands together in a hard clap, sending out a shockwave. Then another and another. Using the backpush from this to slow himself down in the air. Even if they usually don't hit that hard, he has fought speedsters before. And this time he keeps an eye out for her possible approach, putting his full body behind another blow with one huge fist, launching it to catch her on... whatever he can the next time she comes zooming in for another hit.

Karen Starr has posed:
    Honestly, someone ought to start suing Kryptonians for stealing other people's shticks. It is, indeed, all sorts of unfair. It doesn't help that Power Girl has plenty of experience fighting big, tough, strong combatants like Cain.

    All the experience in the world, of course, can't really -cure- hubris, though. By the time she's sent Cain flying again, Power Girl has started to feel like this is going to be less of a fight and more a game of highly aggressive arial rugby, something she feels she is altogether too well prepared for.

    However, to her suprise- and intense chagrin- the Juggernaut isn't entirely without reflexes of his own. Predictably, that blur is moving upwards, and increasing in speed, a visible burst of air surrounding her as she breaks the sound barrier some distance above the city. It's seeking Cain out, but he's regained his composure faster than she figured he would, and that means she doesn't expect that super-powerful blow that contacts with the back of her skull just as she reaches him, timed in a way that belies how much scrapping Cain gets into.

    It's an almost comical sight as the blur of her movement reaches the crimson villain, before deflecting quite instantly and sending her flying back down into the building and through not only the roof, but every floor on the way down, until she lands in the basement.

    Injured? Not exactly. Intending to buy this building and spin it benevolently in favor of superheroing under her alias of Karen Starr? Undoubtably. Jarred enough that she doesn't immediately fly right back out of that building at her erstwhile assailant? Definitely. Pissed -right- off? /Uncomfortably./

    Amidst the rubble, Karen is taking a moment to rub at the back of her head, which gives Cain a reprieve.

Cain Marko has posed:
The Juggernaut grunts in satisfaction when he spikes Power Girl back down into the ground, dropping quickly himself. Impacting the ground and rolling his neck. "Hmm. Yeah. Not bad." He glances over at the smashed up building, then turns to make his was away from the site of the battle. While Karen is recovering and preparing to continue, he'll do that villain thing where he seems to disappear. It helps that once he switches back to his civillain clothes, he actually is smaller. For whatever reason. Maybe he'll pick a fight another day! Maybe not. Only time will tell.