2015-06-15 - STAR Labs Cir-El

Kara Zor-El arrives at STAR Labs and waits as Mia gets off the bus. She's in her civilian clothes. "Don't worry - they're really nice here actually. Especially Professor Hamilton. Of all the places that I was quarantined at, this... wasn't the worst." High praise? Kara didn't particularly like when she had to be stuck in the Fortress for over a month, and liked being in Gotham for a whole day even less, given what happened there. At least Mia was already familiar with Earth, and this was just testing the level of her powers to gauge them.

Having had a little talk so far about the possibility of this place figuring out more about her, Mia had told Kara that she'd get there, no, no really she didn't have to come pick her up. She was a hero, she could get there on her own. She had a perfectly good bus pass, what with her car having been a rental and having to return it a month ago. So she arrives, gets off the bus, and tries not to worry. "I hate tests. I always worry about failing them." She gives a smile, her black hair moving in the breeze. "Did you know my hair isn't growing anymore? It's just staying this length."

Cameras pick up the two ladies' arrival, and people inside are alerted. They have standing orders for Kryptonian visits: Somebody get the door.

Kara Zor-El nods a little. "Yeah .... um... that sort of happened to me too. If you want to grow out your hair though um.... I think you'll need to be under some red sunlight for a while. For some reason though, Kal still needs to shave. He tends to just use heat vision to do that." Kara shrugs a little and smiles. "But don't worry - these aren't really tests you can pass or fail." She enters the building with Mia, waving a little at one guy on front guard duty. "Hi Douglas..." she says. Apparently she did know a few people here. She leans over to Mia. "Kal once saved his life and when I was here for a few days he made sure that I didn't feel like I was in some sort of prison."

The sound of running feet come to both sets of enhanced hearing, and a group of people in white coats come pelting around the corner. They slide to a stop, then walk as sedately as possible up to the two ladies. "Kara, we're sorry we weren't at the door to meet you when you arrived." His heart is beating fast, and the lady to his left seems like she's going to faint. Hiding it well though. They -really- wanted to be at the door for us!

Mia was starting to greet Douglas when the sound of feet got her attention. She gives the man a little wave and a smile instead, in her brown cotton skirt and matching ugly sweater. "Oh! Hey. Um. People. Hi."

Mia's eyes flicker around uncomfortably.

Kara Zor-El smiles, recognizing Dr. Murray Takamoto and Dr. Kala Avasti. The first one was responsible for a few important inventions at STAR Labs dealing with Kryptonians - namely designing a lead wearable suit for Kal, and a yellow solar healing stable. Kala Avasti, on the other hand, Kara knew mainly through one of Kal's associates in the Justice League, Steel. Aka John Henry Irons.... who temporarily took over for Kal while he was... dead-ish. Or something.

"Hi Dr. Takamoto.... Kala? Honestly I thought Professor Hamilton would be here. Sorry that I just came unannounced. Um... this here is...." Kara waits for Mia to introduce herself.

Dr. Takamoto extends his hand to Kara, while Dr. Avasti gives her small welcoming smile. Even if she and he are a bit out of breath, along with what appears to be another gentleman who is along for the ride. "Always glad to have you here. We were just in a meeting." They apparently drop meetings like hot grenades when Kara shows up.

Kala indicates the gentleman they're with and says, "This is Assistant Director Curtis. Which means he's not a scientist, and is largely here in an executive role." Got it, he's their boss or in that branch of the company. Director Curtis also offers a handshake to Kara, though the two actual scientists are giving half their attention to the black-haired arrival.

"I'm ...Mia, if anyone cares." Mia gives a little handwave to the group, which gets Dr. Avasti to smile and offer her hand immediately.

Kara Zor-El smiles a little. "I'm not sure if my cousin mentioned this to Professor Hamilton yet, but Mia here seems to be sort of.... part human, part Kryptonian." Dr. Takamoto raises his eyebrows. "Like Superboy? Er... Kon-El?"

Kara shaker her head. "Actually... a lot more Kryptonian DNA than in Kon. So... I'm not sure that it's a cloning thing - I don't think Earth has this sort of technology yet. But she's been on Earth for a long time and only recently started really having her powers er.... acclimate. If that makes any sense. I don't know if it's something from the future or an alien thing but we found this pod and the materials and technology of it make it pretty clear that it's made of were definitely not made on Earth, at least not at the present period of time."

She looks at Mia and smiles a little. "So... we're sort of hoping to find out maybe some answers. Or at least what Mia's capabilities are before she has to find out... you know..." She makes a motion with her thumb over her shoulder. "Out there."

Kala peers at Mia. "That's amazing. And.... you don't know anything about this, Mia?"

Mia shakes Kala's hand when it's offered, then listens to the spiel on her history. "Well, I know that I'm not from Krypton if that's any help. Or...wait, do I?" She frowns, looking at Kara, then fumbles with her fingers a little. "Um, no. I don't really know anything at all except I can bench-press bridges. I would appreciate any help you can, I mean light you can shine on things."

The scientists look at each other, some nonverbal communication happening. Then Kala speaks up, since Mia seems to be uncomfortable with being here and she's the less threatening. "What do you say we start easy. Nothing intrusive for now, just figure out your physical parameters and we'll try to get a grip on your history once you're comfortable. Okay?"

Director Curtis looks like he'd really like to argue the point, and adds "Doctors, may I speak to you during the tests?" Subtle, he is not.

Kara Zor-El looks over at Mia, then at the doctors and the 'executive.' "If it helps, when I look at her DNA, it doesn't seem like there are enough mutations in it to show her being old enough to have been from Krypton. Although stuff like stasis can mess with that sort of determination, like it does with me." She shrugs a bit. Then looks over at Mia. "It'll be fine. Might even be fun, from what I remember about some of it."

Murray adds on "We'll only do the fun ones this time, miss Mia." He inclines his head to Director Curtis, then nods to Kara and says, bluntly, "but we're being subtly reminded that collecting data is part of the job. And it should help if you allow us to take some sort of sample to actually look at it for ourselves. If you'd be willing to let us take a hair from your head at some point, we can get our scientists trying to give you some answers."

Kala adds "We can cross-reference against what we learned from you, Kara. But like I said, just strength and speed tests for today."

Mia is not very good at speaking up for herself, and she waits for everyone to stop talking before she gets a word in. And that word is, "I don't have to get naked, do I? Because I..um...don't want to."

Murray and Kala both pause, then look at Kara. "What have people been telling her about us?"

Kara Zor-El shakes her head. "I didn't say anything about that. Though.... if I remember correctly there was a little being naked when I first got on Earth." She pauses. "No, Mia... no one's getting naked, I promise."

Mia seems to calm a little. "Sorry, I...you might have seen it on the news. I didn't mean to do that, I swear." She follows along as Kala takes the lead, murmuring comforting things to try to calm Mia down while Murray visits with Kara. And Director Curtis generally gets ignored.

Murray slows down enough to talk to Kara, then asks her, "Is there anything we need to know? I don't want to cause any international incidents, but at the same time I do want to get what you both want out of this. And yes, our labs generally do keep the data we collect for study. You know that."

Kara looks back at Dr. Takamoto. "Well... she's a little gunshy about her privacy. She has a regular family and it's not like me or even Kal. I'm really not comfortable with how that Curtis guy seems to be regarding Mia. Main thing I'm just wanting to find out is how much she can do baseline so I don't get her in over her head too fast. Rao knows I've gotten waaaay in that direction several times before I was ready. And stuff happens like... me trying to kill my cousin."

Kara Zor-El adds "Oh - and no Kryptonite. Don't go trying to see if Kryptonite has an effect okay?"

They take Mia into the first room, which has a pedetal that seems to be bolted into the floor, made of some odd material which is resonating a field around it. There's a panel on the wall behind it as well.

Kala walks Mia over to the pedestal. "Ok... I want you to punch it as hard as you can, so we can get an idea of your upper limits on a straight punch. We'll then try a few other tests. Fortunately we already have a couple of different standards for Kryptonians, as well as Martians, and even for a human being in peak physical condition."

Kara Zor-El says nothing about how her test went on this.

Having warned Kara about the tests, Murray takes a moment to talk to Director Curtis in the far end of the room while this is happening. "Yes Director?" "You realize we need to collect data in order to continue our work, and a DNA sample should be collected earliest, yes?" "I am aware of the board's direction on this, thank you." "And you are going to get a sample right now?" "No." "And why not?" "Because this is not a draconian installation anymore. Even if I did have it, I wouldn't use it in that way. And because she can hear you." Director Curtis glances around the corner, looking at Kara...

Mia, with Kala and Kara is standing facing off against the post. It's just a post. Right? "If I break this, do I have to pay for it?" she asks, and is told no, no, it's okay. Please just do your best. So Mia does what Nightwing and Kara taught her. Fingers wrapped, thumb outside and down, and breathe, and punch!

Mia punches the post with all she's got in her little demi-kryptonian body!

Dr Takamoto smiles as Kala positions Mia, then goes into the viewing area and speaks into the microphone. "Oh... don't worry about the post Mia. It's made of a superstrong alloy, and has a kinetic force shield around it which measures the impact. We've only had it get destroyed once or twice, once when Superman was under the effects of a sun-dip, and once when-"

Kara cuts him off, "So yeah just punch as hard as you can, Mia!"

When Mia hits the pedestal, the results are very impressive actually. Obviously she was almost a million times higher than that of a peak human, but she was also almost 8 times more than the only other Kryptonian Hybrid that they had tested - Kon-El. "Hmmmmm.... however she has Kryptonian DNA, it seems to be a far more concentrated strain than anything Cadmus had succeeded with." Kala says to Takamoto, to which he responds, "Except the one that had the Bizarro effect."

Takamoto analyzes the data. "Significantly less than Superman though, and less than Supergirl as well. Still... it seems her punch generates.... approximately half a million tons of impact pressure!"

Kala whistles, impressed. "Wow."

Kara smiles before the scientists says, "Okay, that's great, Mia. Now we're going to take you into another room where we can try to gauge your lifting capability, and see if it has any effect on pressures inflicted upon you, okay? Then we'll do the treadmill."

Kara Zor-El looks at Curtis. And points to her ears. And she doesn't exactly look pleased about his wanting to get a DNA sample from Mia as if she was some experiment. She preferred Hamilton so much more.

Mia looks at the post. The fact that it didn't even shift tells her a lot. Like, if these people wanted to they COULD hold her against her will. But they insist she's safe here. And Kara insists it's safe here. So it's safe. She nods, wondering a lot of things in her little brunette head. "Wait, pressures inflicted on me? What?" She follows along to the next testing area though, not arguing. Just...confused.

In the next room, there's a conical machine connected to the ceiling and also bolted to the entire room, as well as to the floor, with a pressure plate right above where Mia is told to stand. There are also different machines around the room, each with different 'probe-like' extensions, some are blunt, others are sharp, and others are sharp + like drills.

Dr. Takamoto says, "Okay now Mia... if you could place your hand on the pressure plate overhead, we're going to slowly start increasing the pressure which it pushes down at. The machine is actually a series of electromagnets to simulate weights far higher than we'd be able to actually keep in this building. Try starting with one hand, and if the pressure gets too high, you can switch to two hands, okay?" Let us know when it's starting to get too much to handle, and we'll stop the test. It won't hurt."

Mia walked in and immediately started fingering one of the probe-like extensions on a machine. She was developing this decidedly unprofessional grin on her face that usually signifies a dirty mind when she got called on again. Hands suddenly behind her back, she tries not to blush and comes over to the pressure machine.

"Ooooh. Pressure, gotcha," she says, frowning at a sense of deja vu. She shifts into place, then lifts her hand to the plate. Standing at a slight angle, she looks like she's going to get flattened by this thing. "I think we're good to go, doctor." She isn't going to call him Murray yet.

Kala turns some dials. "Okay, we're going to start you on something we know you can do - based on your previous test, 100 tons should not even be a challenge. We'll start exponentially doubling it until you need to use both hands, okay?"

The pressure plate, which seems to be made of some sort of material which Mia might eventually learn is a piece of Kryptonian metal donated by Superman, starts to press downwards against Mia's hand. And it IS something Mia's easily capable of resisting one-handed without strain.

Every thirty seconds, it starts doubling in pressure exerted downward - 200 tons, 400, 800, 1600, 3200.... 25600 tons... all still seeming to be well within comfortable levels for Mia

Mia leans into the thing, and it doesn't move. At all. "I can feel it," she says, which is an issue. It means she's having to put effort in even early on. Not MUCH, but effort definitely. She frowns, then switches hands for a second so she can wipe her hand clean on her skirt. Apparently 25,600 tons isn't even enough to make her hold still. But she's looking up and frowning as if it's starting to get her attention.

And this is enough force already to crush titanium.

Kala's eyes are wide with how impressed she is. "51,200 tons - she's right now doing with one hand without any strain what is Superboy's maximum before physical exertion kicks in." She watches the gauges more. "102,400 tons now. For comparison, it only takes 7000 tons to crush coal into diamond form. She's still using one hand to resist almost 15 times that amount." She then turns the dial up a bit more, and the pressure ramps up a huge amount. Dr Takamoto asks, "204,800 tons. Mia, how are you doing?"

Kara's watching also curiously - she remembered this test as well, though Hamilton was the one doing it with her. She didnt seem concerned about Mia not being able to accomplish this - the bridge weighed around this much.

Mia says, "I wouldn't say without ANY strain, doc," as they pass the 60k mark. "Kind of ...wondered, oog, that was a big shift," she says as they double down again. She visibly shifts, getting under the thing and lifting a second hand over her head at the bump up to 204,800. She's gritting her teeth now. But it still isn't moving. "Keep going, I've got more in me." Not much more, but she's still in there.

Kala looks slightly concerned. "You're sure?" she asks, but Dr. Takamoto says, "Slowing it down a bit to manual increases." he says, as the machine once again does an extreme increase in pressure. "Next jump... "

Kala reads the next increase, "409,600 tons."

Somewhere between 204,800 and 400k, Mia loses it. Like seriously loses it, her hands slip and her legs give out and she has one foot slip out from under her and she actually falls over, the machine losing its female bracing support in a half-second of awkward clumsiness. The thing almost hits her in the face, actually, but she's also falling so she's got that going for her. Not that falling on her butt is going to hurt her. She squeaks like a mouse on steroids though!

About 10 seconds into the next ramp-up, Mia seems like she's seriously straining with the pressures being pushed downward, so when she loses her grip, Kala says quickly to Dr. Takamoto, "Shut it down! Shut it down!" Although the machine was not designed for that. It was designed to shut down at 30 second intervals. Kara quickly runs over to catch the plate before it hits Mia in the face while she's on the ground. It probably wouldn't have done any permanent injury, but Kara did say she was safe, and she wasn't going to get hurt at all. So far, Kara was keeping her promise.

Kala breathes a sigh of relief, even though Mia probably wasn't in actual physical danger even if Supergirl hadnt been there more than a normal person getting a bump on the head. But they hadn't really tested Mia's invulnerability yet, so they couldn't be sure of that sort of thing.

Dr. Takamoto quickly shuts off the machine after 30 seconds, while Kara has her hand under the pressure plate, a few inches from Mia's face. Kara pushes it back up to the original point, at which point Dr. Takamoto says, "Annnnnd it's off. Er..... sorry about that Mia. We probably should go from exponential increases to incremental ones in the future after you say it's starting to be a strain. You just sounded really confident about the next increase. It won't happen again." Still, he winces. The main reason he was brought to Metropolis's branch was because he was a huge fan of Kryptonians in general, and fascinated by their capabilities from a scientific standpoint. He definitely didn't want to be responsible for hurting one with his tests. "Er.... just so you know.... you seemed to still have it until around .... 305,492 tons, when... yeah. Sorry, again."

Kara Zor-El offers her hand to Mia to help her back up, concerned. "You're okay right?"

When ye olde strength tester comes at her face, Mia reacts like a ten year old. She flails, panicking immediately. Then the plate stops, totally safe with Kara's hand keeping it from getting to her, and she lays still as she can so she won't screw anything up more.

She says, "Yeah...I'm just really clumsy," as she looks up at the plate being held from her face. "Thanks..." Regardless of the fact that she probably would have been perfectly fine, she's still not really sure, y'know? So she smiles at Kara, then rolls out of the way to get to her feet. Pulls up her skirt so there's no panty flashes going on, and tries to look reasonable. "Guess I'm not up to your usual standards."

Dr. Takamoto shakes his head quickly. "Oh no Mia. Our usual standards are usually far below what you've shown! You're actually far beyond what we could have possibly imagined for a Kryptonian/Human hybrid. You're at least 6 times more powerful than Superboy's capabilities, and 4 times moreso than the only other semi-stable clone, Match. Which does make me think you are either not a clone, or whoever was responsible for merging your DNA with Kryptonian DNA is far more experienced than anyone on this planet. I mean... okay you're not at the level of Superman or Supergirl here, but we never actually expected that. To be honest, after you passed 50,000 tons without needing both hands, I was surprised. Short of a Kryptonian or possibly one or two others... you're probably one of the strongest beings on this planet. From that test, rest assured.... You can probably lift most skyscrapers. Just.... don't try lifting the Empire State Building."

Kala checks Mia's hands, then looks at Takamoto, "I'd say she probably shouldn't lift the Empire State Building even if she was able to." She then looks back at Mia again "You're okay, right? No torn ligaments or broken bones or tenderness or anything like that?" she asks with concern, albeit still in awe of what this girl was able to do. "Are you feeling okay enough to keep doing more tests, Mia?" Director Curtis takes some notes in the corner, though what exactly he's writing is entirely his own business. It's not even in a language, just numbers and little signs. Whatever. At least he's not interfering yet.

Mia takes Kara's hand that she offered, then lets the girl check her over. "I'm fine...far as I can tell, anyway. No pain, just my usual lack of coordination. You realize I was totally normal human most of my life. I wondered if maybe it was some solar flare or something that activated me or maybe proximity to Metropolis. I might be absorbing it from Kara and Superman." She has an active imagination, but adding MORE possibilities probably isn't helping, and I hope the scientists are good with 'nervous teenage babble'. "So what's next?"

Curtis whispers something to Takamoto about how they'd know more about how Mia got her powers if they had a DNA sample, which seems to irritate Kara as she looks over, and even frustrates Dr. Takamoto. Enough for him to say, "Again - whispering doesn't make much sense since Supergirl can hear you. It also makes it look sinister. Plus it's already been made clear they don't want to give a DNA sample yet, and given all the help Superman has given us in the past, maybe we shouldn't be pressing the issue more? Will you just let us do our job, Mr. Curtis?"

Kala smiles a bit. "Well... this visit is more about what your capabilities are, rather than how you got them. Maybe in the future we'll be able to help with those other questions though as well. The next test would be to try to gauge your invulnerability, if that's okay with you, Mia?"

Mia gives a bit of a blushing smile for some reason, then says, "Well, I honestly don't think it's possible to take a dna sample of me anymore anyway. Unless I'm shedding skin naturally, I can't even cut my hair myself and I had giant lizard fire just tickle the skin." She pauses, then answers Kara's question. "I don't know, I'm not a main character...wait, what are the normal abilities of a Kryptonian? Flight, Invulnerability, Strength, Speed? Eye stuff?"

Kala grins at 'eye stuff', then asks, "Can you fly, Mia? That would be a good place to start. And if we were going to test your invulnerability I'd like to go with something as safe as possible. Like a haircut. No putting limbs in danger."

Mia pauses, then shakes her head, sighing. "Can't fly, sorry. But I can jump really high! And falling is fun now."

Dr. Takamoto. "If you are willing, we could TRY to see if we can get a blood sample or hair sample or something. Despite Mr. Curtis's .... particular insistence, it probably would help us with gauging your abilities without any danger to you."

Kara tilts her head. "Eye stuff.... like super-vision and heat vision and x-ray vision you mean? Oh and... Mia, honestly my cousin didn't realize he could fly for years. And Kon didn't learn right away either. You might be able to anyway and just didn't figure it out yet."

Kala gets a syringe. "How about we just see if we can get a sample. We have metals which are probably a lot better than what you might have used to try to cut your hair or pierce your skin." She takes the needle and shows it. "Like this is a special titanium/tungsten alloy. She tries to use it against Mia's skin, but she doesnt have the strength to either push the needle in, nor to even bend the needle itself, which is 10 times the strength of steel. It's pretty evident from Kala's grunting and trying to push the needle in.

Kala thinks, then attaches it to a robotic arm. "One second, I think I have a solution for this problem." she says as she puts the robotic arm by Mia, and it attempts to take a blood sample. With improvement on Kala's attempt.

In that the robot arm is strong enough to have the needle bend and deform when it attemtps to puncture Mia's invulnerable skin. It doesnt even leave so much as a mark.

Mia runs her fingers of her other hand through her hair when the needle comes out. "Used to be afraid of those. Mostly of the pain actually. It seems kind of ridiculous now." She chats aimlessly while Kala's grunting away at her arm, mostly about how she used to be afraid of just about everything, and her plans to become a librarian so she wouldn't have to get hurt.

The robot pushing the needle at, not into, her arm, mostly gets her watching out of interest more than anything. "See, that would have had me hiding in a closet. Amazing the changes that can happen in a couple months. Want to try the hair?"

Kala nods a little, rubbing her head. "Okay well... we have these scissors which are made of this new metal we recently discovered when the two universe merged. It's called adamantium." She takes the scissors and attempts to cut a small lock of Mia's hair... but can't seem to close the scissors." She rubs the bridge of her nose a bit. "Okay.... maybe trying one strand of hair." And she tries again with just as much fail. "Annnnnd I should have seen that coming. "Back to the robot."

She places the scissors in the hand of the robot, which tries to close around the single strand of hair. And apparently it keeps trying until it starts smoking and burns out its servos.

Kara raises a hand a little. "Er... you know..."

As she is interrupted by Dr. Takamoto saying, "Well I'm pretty sure we have an idea about her levels of invulnerability at least?" he offers not-so-helpefully.

After which Kara just walks over to Mia, says, "Stay still okay?" and quickly plucks out a hair to offer it to Kala. "As I was going to say, you could just ask her to pull out a strand of hair herself. It's about as difficult as if you pulled out one of your own hairs."

Mia blinks once as her hair is plucked, but that's all. It's not like having one hair pulled is painful. She shrugs, then says, "Hope that gives you some answers, Doctor. And I just have to say, I'm REALLY glad you didn't pull out that big drill over in the corner. I've been eyeing it since I got here and wondering if I had to stand really really still for some dental work too."

Murray looks at the drill - designed to mine asteroid cores - and gives a small laugh. "I'm not here to test your bravery, Mia. Though to be fair, you've been an excellent patient so far. Thank you for the hair, Kara. Now let's get you onto the last test for the day and we can all have something to eat, alright?"

He motions to a treadmill, which makes Mia slump. "More running? I hate running." She looks at Kara, then sticks her tongue out. No reason, just being a teenager.

Kala looks at Takamoto, who looks back at her. "Er... thank you Supergirl. We sort of glossed over that little idea." Kal puts the strand of hair into a sealed container, at which time Kara says, "By the way... we've had some... problems with people using Kryptonian DNA before to try to make clones, but I know Mr. Slate has said that will never happen at STAR Labs. It won't, right?" she asks, looking pointedly at Mr. Curtis. "I'm just asking since it would really annoy me if I found someone was going to use it for anything more than helping Mia find out how she is... what she is."

Assistant Director Curtis walks over, looking at the group as Mia is led to a treadmill. He sighs, then says, "If my data is correct, you'll know if I'm lying anyway, Supergirl. I have a great deal of control over the management end, but zero over operations. That's why these two Doctors have been ignoring my direction and getting away with it. I will not have access to this sample in any way and I have no intention of trying to get access. There, does that statement ease your worries?" He isn't lying, just annoyed. His physiology attests to it.

That being said, he's also still a dick.

Mia gets onto a treadmill, while Murray sets it up. "Just focus here, Mia. This is self-controlled. It moves as fast as you move. So if you stop, it stops. Just run as fast as you can, for as long as you can, and if you need to use the bars to catch yourself. Or fly if you can."

He raises a hand when Mia begins to assert her lack of flying ability, then adds, "A scientist can always hope. Go when you're ready."

And Mia starts to jog. Which is about 85 mph.

Kara Zor-El smiles curtly, looking at Mr. Curtis. "Good. Because like you know.... I'd be able to find out." Then smiles more casually at everyone else. "Okay soooooo where next?" she asks. Before they all move to where Mia's on the tradmill, doing a casual job at the speed at which a car would be pulled over for speeding. And according to the sensors on her, she's not only not breaking a sweat, she's about the same as a normal person would be just sitting and relaxing.

Takamoto, now alone since Kala went off to put the hair sample somewhere secure during their tests of the DNA, says "Okay now we're going to just keep increasing the speed, but only equal to however fast you're running. This isnt as fast as the Cosmic Treadmill in Central City, or even the one at the Titans Tower, but it should at least give us some idea of your speed levels."

Mia nods to the doctor, then says, "I'm basically just, y'know, hanging out here at the moment," as her legs blur. Not increasing, just going for a leisurely. "I was about to amp it up. When I did this at the tower, I was out of breath in like a second, so...don't laugh at me, alright?"

Then without a hell of a lot more warning she bears down and puts about eighty percent in. Ninety. She's visibly working, if anything in her body but her head and torso was still really visible to anyone but Kara. Then she starts a little...bit...faster.

Kara Zor-El watches with interest, smiling. "Well.. the one at the tower is designed to even give Impulse a workout, and he's faster than I am." Dr. Takamoto watches with fascination also - although with him there's a bit more of a 'wow, this is cool' factor to it. "Okay, you can stop now, Mia! You're moving just under Mach 1. 759.28 miles per hour actually! Absolutely amazing."

Mia stops. She has to, she's actually gasping for breath, as she stumbles to a halt and actually falls to her knees on the stopping treadmill, holding tight to the bars. She doesn't answer for a moment, what with needing a moment to get her bearings. Puts up the index finger of her left hand in a 'one moment' signal.

In the background, Director Curtis rolls his eyes. Well, at least there's one sign of a weakness in one of these Kryptonians. Finally.

As Mia's trying to get her breath, and Director Curtis was rolling his eyes, Takamoto's jaw is hanging open. Kara says. "Um... Mia?" she says to Mia at eye level as Mia's on her knees. But also... not touching the ground. "Just so you know... er..."

Mia pants a little less, getting control of herself. She looks at Kara, processing distances and relationships a little slow. "What?" she asks, as Kala walks back in and pauses, staring with astonishment. Then slaps her hand over her own mouth so she won't mess things up, whatever is going on.

Kara Zor-El pauses, thinking about how to mention this. "Notice how I'm lookig you right in the eye?" She pauses. Seeing if Mia figures it out. Nothing. No, she hasnt figured it out yet. So Kara continues. "Do you also notice that I'm not kneeling on the ground while looking you in the eye?" she asks.

Mia looks at Kara. Her eyes shift around a bit, then down. Then she squeaks again, for the second time this afternoon! But, oddly, doesn't fall. She just hovers there in mid-air, and slowly extends her left foot and leg to touch the treadmill again. Then lifts it up. "I think I broke gravity. Can't seem to get down. How do I turn it off?"

Kara Zor-El grins. "Just.... well... you just... will yourself down. Put your legs down, and just think about going back onto the ground." She pauses. "Trust me, it'll become second nature to you."

Mia puts her feet on the ground and walks off the treadmill. "That easy, huh?" she asks her body, not feeling any different. "Huh. Okay. That easy. I thought it'd feel strange somehow." She pauses, then grabs Kara with both arms. "I can fly!"

Kala is laughing into her hand, not very subtly anymore, and even Murray has cracked a smile from his initial flabbergasted expression.

Kara Zor-El grins as Mia grabs her. "Yep. You can fly. Just between the two of us and the scientists listening in? It's my favorite power." She puts her hands lightly on Mia's shoulder. "We should probably let the scientists go over all this data and analyze that hair. You and me are going to go out and celebrate."

You mean one of the most valuable pieces of hair in the world? Yes, the scientists are being very polite but they really do want to get onto that. And the planning alone of dealing with Mia's strand of hair will take ages, let alone actually studying it. But they do come over to congratulate the new flier.

"You'll be a natural, I can tell. I've studied the best," says Kala. With a grin toward Kara. And Murray just shakes his head in bemusement, smiling. Oddly, Mr Curtis doesn't intrude. He can be heard walking away down a hallway. Probably to get the gears in motion.

Mia squeezes Kara, pausing to smile at the scientist team. "I should really thank you all. Probably some mental block keeping me from doing that sooner. Or it just did like kittens do. They do stuff when they're damn good and ready. Apparently my body is like that too." Then she's got the grace to stop babbling for once. :D

Kara Zor-El heads out with Mia, waving to the scientists. "Thanks guys. Let me know what happens with the tests please." Then looks at Mia. "Going to show you one of my little hideaways. It's on this little mountain called Everest." At which point, Kara flies up, waits for Mia to join her in the air before flying off.

And for the first time, Cir-El steps into the air on purpose. She lifts off, a foot in the air in front of S.T.A.R. labs, and twirls once in place. Then she looks up, takes sight on Kara in the sky, and she flies.