2015-11-13 - The Circus of Crime's in Town Part 2 - Shan-Rina the Mighty vs Cir-El!

Eight days later, no one's heard from Kara. Not anyone in the Titans. Not Mia. Not Dedrick. Not even her roommate and best friend, Leah. Mia was supposed to actually meet up with Kara, in fact, 2 days ago. Superman was busy and Kara was supposed to show her some aerial acrobatic moves. But no luck finding her.

Cir-El, in her alter ego of Mia, rides the bus heading toward the next city on the line. More of a town, really, but it's got a bunch of tourist traps and a few attractions. She takes some time to review, giving the guy in the seat next to hers a bit of a nod trying not to encourage him to anything.

Port city, has some docks. Nice little chinese district. But the big thing that's made her come is the circus; she got on the bus originally because she'd heard that the circus came here, after leaving the last town, and she's really looking forward to visiting it.

"You're here for the circus?" he asks Mia as he sees her looking at a pamphlet with interest. "I hear there's a new act, really big. Some strongwoman that can lift an entire train!"

Glancing at the guy, Mia gives a bit of a nod, then says, "I hear the same thing. Word gets around."

Seeing the signs that show where the circus is this week, Mia pulls the cord over her chair and signals to the driver that she'd like to get off, and pulls on her Superman ball cap and shades. "My stop." She slips past the guy and to the exit, coming out of the bus and into the world of the circus.

The lights and sounds are everywhere, and there's a lot to see, but she's on a mission. Supergirl is missing, and Mia's following a lead.

When Mia gets to the circus, all incognito (superman ball cap, ironically subtle) she pays for the ticket and watches the circus. The acts are pretty impressive, actually. Death-defying highwire and trapeze acts. Spectacularly risky animal acts. Even the clowns are funny in a decidedly non-sociopathic Joker sort of way.

Then the new act, and the ringmaster takes center stage. "And now it's my pleasure to introduce.... SHAN-RINA THE MIGHTY! THE STRONGEST GIRL IN THE WORLD!"

Such showmanship. Especially since Mia knows that the strongest girl in the world is....

Kara Zor-El comes out into the center of the ring, riding on an elephant and wearing what seems to be a cavegirl bikini and necklace made of what looks like sharp animal teeth, waving to the crowd!

http://media.popcultcha.com.au/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/s/h/shanna_the_she-devil_01.png

Kara... or rather 'Shan-Rina the Mighty' jumps off the elephant after it walks onto a metal plate on the ground, as another elephant is led out as well to another plate. She moves to the center of them then places her hand on a bar in between the two of them, and lifts the bar upwards, lifting the elephants who are on the metal plates up as well while the music plays in the background, along with the Oooohs and Ahhhs of the crowd.

Sipping on an overpriced soda, Mia watches the Shan-Rina's act with narrowed eyes. The rumours didn't stop with just how amazing the circus was; listening in on police scanners and watching the news, Mia's also heard of a few other things that led her here. Like the robbery of the gold deposit two nights ago in which the villain, a female figure, tore the armoured car in half. Even Mia's frugal detective skills were enough to convince Kal to let her follow this lead.

"Wonder what Batman is doing with his time," Mia wonders sarcastically as she watches Kara performing acts of super-strength in center ring. Not exactly subtle, but at least she's disguised. She gives a small headshake and rubs her forehead, taking a moment to look around and listen instead of just rushing in.

She can hear people talking, something about...meh. They're just talking about the next act. While Zippy the Wonder Camel might very well be interesting, it's not helpful information.

And she didn't really need to know about the two sexing it up in the popcorn stall. "Okay, I'm done." She pushes her way to the front of the crowd, getting ready to get down to the ringside.

While Mia moves down eh bleachers and past the crowd, Shan-Rina has been doing other feats of strength. Holding the bar with one hand... then one finger... Then putting the bar down and tossing the elephants up in the air, as she starts juggling them. Again, OOOOHs and AAAHs. Some people thinking this must be some sort of illusion or trick or having other theories about it.

"Look if David Copperfield can make a building disappear, they can do an illusion like this as well."

"Maybe they're animatronic elephants?"

"Still impressive."

"Yeah I guess."

"She's probably a mutant actually. I heard some of them are really strong too"

"Think she has a boyfriend? I'd like her to juggle me!"

"You're weird, man."

Shan-Rina the Mighty puts down each of the elephants as the ringmaster says, "And now, Shan-Rina the Mighty, 8th Wonder of the World, needs help from the audience for her next feat of prodigious strength! Can I get 20 virile men down here to volunteer to help Shan-Rina? No... perhaps 30?"

Mia pauses her forward movement as Kara actually juggles elephants. "Okay, that's impressive," mostly because of how she's not dealing with terrified elephants. The fact that they're taking it fairly well is kind of amazing. She's seen Kara lift things before.

With a silent nod to the god of keeping from looking like an idiot, Mia puts a hand on the railing and hurdles the rail, landing at ringside. Sipping the last of her soda, it gives out that awful noise that straws make when they're trying to suck up the last of an empty soda cup and are only coming up with useless ice cubes. And she walks into the ring in her jeans and 'If zombies attack, I'm tripping you' t-shirt.

"Hey." A little wave of her hand, and she's facing off against Shan-Rina and the ringmaster, having just...wandered into the ring like it's the most normal thing in the world.

The ringmaster looks at Mia, then says, "Well we have one volunteer! But how about some men come down as well to make this next feat of stupendous strength and prodigious power even more impressive!" Apparently he assumed that Mia had come down after the call for volunteers from the audience. Several others come down - mostly men, who walk to where Mia is standing. Kara, aka Shan-Rina, is still standing there with a smile on her face and totally not showing any recognition of Mia, as several strong men bring out a cable made out of metal.

"This cable is made of a titanium alloy! Perhaps you brave volunteers would like to compete against the Mighty Shan-Rina in a battle of Tug-of-War!?"

The audience starts cheering.

Mia flicks her cup into a trash bin, missing it by miles. Shrugging, she raises an eyebrow as she's joined by a bunch of guys, and looks a little bit confused. "Um, okay," she says. Not the way she'd pictured this going. But then, it never really does.

The guys line up, put into place and joined by six or seven more once they realize what the game is going to be. All of their strength versus Shan-Rina! They line up on the cable, picking it up in their powerful hands, and grin at each other as they laugh at how much of a win this is going to be. NOBODY is that strong, not even a mutant, to hold up against thirty strong men!

Mia's at the end of the line, not even touching the cable. Not yet anyway.

Kara Zor-El takes the cable in her hands and wait for the volunteers to start pulling. The ringmaster plays to the crowd, announcing, "Thirty volunteers - lets see if they can give Shan-Rina the Mighty some sport!"

And the boys, most of them dockworkers who are used to hauling lines for multi-tonne ships, get together and heave! The ones who know what they're doing have corded muscles that, working together, have actually moved freight transports and held tankers in place while they were tied. Grunting and hauling, their calloused hands try to make that titanium line move.

It very quickly becomes apparent that they're not only not moving Shan-Rina, but she's waiting for a signal to start pulling. The thing is, so is Mia who at this point reaches down and gets her hand on a slack part of the line. So if Kara were to pull, it would move. But not very far. "Come on, Kara. Show me that it's really you."

While the men are all pulling with as much strength as they possibly can, Shan-Rina stands there holding the cable, not budging an inch.

The ringmaster says, "Perhaps Shan-Rina the Mighty should give these strong young volunteers a little more advantage?" And with that queue, Shan-Rina the Mighty smiles and removes one of her hands from the cable, holding the cable casually at her side with ONE hand.

And the men were really going all out at this, pulling over their shoulder, both feet pressed against the ground, leaning away from the rope for extra leverage. Shan-Rina makes a mock yawn, then waves to the crowd again.

But when Mia picks up the cable and starts to pull as well... okay Kara still doesnt budge, but her arm does move from relaxed and at her side to being pulled forward a bit. It surprises Shan-Rina, as well as the ringmaster - he had been sure that a Kryptonian was far stronger than 30 men and a woman from what he had studied about them. Even when he had captured She-Hulk, she was able to handle more than that!

Shan-Rina's eyes narrow and she then starts to pull. It causes all the men.... and even Mia... to start slowly getting dragged forward. Something ONLY a full Kryptonian would be able to do with Mia on the other side.

The titanium line creaks i protest under Mia's grasp as she waits for things to go to hell. The first time she met Kara, she was doing basically this same thing but on a bridge, so Mia's playing along. It might jog some of Kara's memories, and she still has no idea what's going on.

She's given herself away though at this point, and puts both hands on the line and plants her feet. Planting her feet into the gravitonic particles that allow her to fly is a LOT more firm than using the dirt under her feet, and her side of the line stops moving. Which is not supposed to be possible against someone of Shan-Rina's power, and certainly isn't likely to happen again.

Unfortunately given that the duel is currently between a full-blood Kryptonian and a half-blood also Kryptonian, the weak point is not the girls. It's the titanium line that runs between them, which gives way with a scream of snapping wire and sends the men falling like bowling pins to both sides, leaving only the little girl in the zombie shirt standing on Mia's side of the contest.

The little lady who looks really, really annoyed.

Mia's voice rings out, saying, "I would recommend that the audience leave. Now. I'm here to take you home, Supergirl." A quick glance at the audience, and Mia frowns as they don't immediately react. And she says, "Get OUT." Since they seem to think that this is part of the show.

"Goddamnit, I'm going to have to do this with civilians..."

As the cable snaps like dental floss from forces pulling on both sides far greater than the 25 tons it was cable of holding, the men all fall down. Everyone except the two girls on either side. When Mia 'breaks cover' as it were with calling to the audience, and the audience assumes this is part of the show, you can hear people murmuring.

"Why did that girl call Shan-Rina supergirl?"

"Yeah Supergirl wouldnt be working in a circus."

"Maybe it's part of the act?"

The ringmaster, however, realizes what's happening and he gets in the way of Mia and Kara. "I think you would rather join the circus, wouldnt you?" he says as the little swirly thing on his hat starts spinning. But oddly... it doesnt seem to affect Mia while she's wearing the sunglasses, as the color mixtures are part of the hypno-technology! The Ringmaster then backs up, and looks at the crowd. "That's right! All part of the act, folks!" he says as the spinny-thing is still spinning. "Two strongwomen! Like gladiators of old, they shall compete for your amusement!" For some reason, the audience accepts this and cheers more, as the Ringmaster says, mouth AWAY from the microphone, "Shan-Rina.... destroy her. But remember... SHOWMANSHIP!"

Kara nods, looking at Mia. "Yes, Ringmaster...." she says as she drops the snapped cable, hands tightening into fists as her lips then curl into a predatory smile.

Mia says, "Oh come ON, seriously?" as she hears the ringmaster order Kara to destroy her. "You're next, buddy." she says to herself as she drops her end of the line to the dusty ground. She adjusts her cap, trying to make sure that she doesn't give away her entire identity, and drops into a fighting stance with her right fist cocked and left hand open and ready to block.

She says, "You want showy? Here." as she plants a foot and launches herself at Kara, trying to get a grip on her shoulders and flip Kara to the ground at her top speed, mach one! The move sends a shockwave through the room as Mia starts off by breaking the sound barrier!

Mia launches her attack at a brainwashed Kara (of course she's brainwashed, it happens every few months it seems!). Mia tries to grab Kara's shoulder to flip her, but as soon as Mia even manages to touch her shoulder, she feels powerful slam to her back as Kara moves to the side and slams her hand into Mia's back, between her shoulders, sending Mia crashing down into the hard ground with incredible force, cratering the area. Kara then grabs Mia by her hair, pulling her to her feet, right before slamming her fist into Mia's midsection with enough power to make that shockwave effect for real. Then hits her with the back of her hand, sending Mia crashing into the lion cage and through the bars.

Ringmaster makes sure that the crowd accepts this as part of the act, saying, "A challenger to the Mighty Shan-Rina? It doesnt seem like she's having much luck!" Although he was still trying to figure out who this new girl was, in the first place.

Mia gasps for air as she lays in the lion cage, the lions having backed off as far as possible out of a sense of self-preservation. They're not stupid. The cage, and the impact with the ground, none of that really did much to her; Mia's far tougher than the ground is or the steel bars.

Supergirl punching her in the stomach is a whole other story. She feels like she might have lost her uterus out of her eyeballs with that one. "Okay," she wheezes, "that's...definitely her." Wondering if she's even going to survive, let alone win, Mia pulls at her shirt and tears it, showing the 'S' on her chest. Then she pushes herself to her feet, if unsteadily, and launches a punch at Kara's face. Her best shot.

Since she started using her powers, Mia hasnt really felt a lot of pain or people who were capable of hurting her, aside from that fight with Mongul. The one where he almost killed her. Where Supergirl then came in to save her and wiped the floor with him. And now she's having to fight Kara herself. Mia gets back to her feet, showing her uniform of who she is, and launches at Kara, slamming a fist across Kara's face.

Or that was the plan.

Instead, Mia's fist is stopped with jarring suddenness as Kara's hand whips up. Mia's fist slams into Kara's palm and stops it, fingers closing quickly around it as Kara squeezes it, forcing Mia down to her knees.

Ringmaster says, "No, no, Shan-Rina... PLAY with her. Show off to the crowd!"

Kara nods obediently. "Of course, Ringmaster." she says as she releases Mia's fist, putting her hands behind her back, daring Mia to attack again.

Forced to her knees, Mia cries out for a moment as if in pain. Which is actually the case, and her cheeks glow red with embarrasment as much as anything. Then she's released, almost as fast, and she realizes that she's on her knees in front of a much stronger person, and quickly suppresses that memory.

"This is going well," Mia says as she reclaims her hand as if surprised that it's still attached to her wrist. Having lost the hat in the lion's pit, she looks like Cir-El now at least, so the crowd can attach a name to the image they're seeing. But with pants on this time. Thank god for small wins.

"Come on, Kara, you're not this person," she says as she backs off a step. "You fight for the good team, don't make me do this." And she launches a roundhouse kick at Kara's head with her left foot, hoping that her legs are strong enough. And a little surprised at how flexible she's gotten.

Her foot smacks into the side of Kara's head. Her head turns to the right from the force, but otherwise the cavegirl bikini-clad Girl of Steel's position remains immobile. Also, hitting her felt like hitting a god damned wall. Or... at least what a NORMAL person would experience if they hit a wall, since Mia would be able to hit a wall so that the wall would no longer be there after her fist connected.

Kara takes a step forward as Mia takes a step back, smiling confidently, or perhaps for the crowd, as she sends a punch right into Mia's jaw. She must have pulled the punch - mainly because Ringmaster wanted her to 'play' with Mia first... because a punch like that had previously dislocated Kon-El's jaw easily. And even though Mia was a fair deal stronger than Kon, that punch REALLY hurt and Mia could taste blood in her mouth from it. Kara then again grabs Mia's hair and punches her in the stomach. If not for having her hair grabbed, she would have gone up into the air a lot more than she did.

She then drops Mia to let her clutch herself from the beating, and Shan-Rina turns to the crowd to hold her arms out for the applause, a brief respite before she's going to... for lack of a better description... go back to kicking Mia's half-kryptonian ass.

Mia hits the ground like a dead body. 'not the best choice of phrases,' she thinks to herself as she tries not to pay attention to the pain. At least fighting Mongul she had the sunlight to heal her. This time she's on her own, and the sun was going down when she arrived. So when she's curled up around herself wishing for death, she's not faking the pain. Kara's fists suck to get hit with, and she has a little more sympathy for Abomination right now.

Sucking in a gasp of air, Mia notices a loose tooth and whimpers slightly as she realizes that she has to get up again. Finding her hand on a steel bar from the cage, Mia wishes for all she's got and spins, screaming aloud at the excruciating pain in her ribs as she does so, and not only puts her whole body into the turn as she tries to nail Kara...well, anywhere!

For almost anyone else on the planet - Hell, almost anyone else in the galaxy - that hit would have send the person flying into New Jersey. Kara, unfortunately, was not like almost anyone else in the galaxy. The steel bar collides with Kara's side as she waves to the crowd like a wrestler taking a break from a fight to get more cheers. The effect is threefold.

One - Kara doesnt budge. At all.

Two - the force with which Mia hits her is enough to cause the solid steel bar to practically wrap around Kara's slender midsection.

Three - It DOES get Kara's attention as she turns around, grabbing Mia by the back of her neck and sending her knee deep into Mia's already heavily punished stomach. She then grips her by Mia's throat and lifts up so that Mia's dangling off the ground. But at least she's not choking because of gravity pulling her down. She's choking because of the invulnerable, superpowerful fingers squeezing her trachea! 'Shan-Rina' proceeds to taunt Mia, "No one can defeat Shan-Rina the Mighty!" she says aloud, to the cheers of the crowd. THen brings back her other fist to repeatedly pound Mia as she dangles from her grip. If she doesnt do SOMETHING, Kara was likely going to kill her in front of a cheering crowd!

Mia is strong. Really, really strong. As in her grip could pulverize diamond without serious effort. Being a half-kryptonian, she didn't get all the powers though. No heat vision, which could be really useful right now as she's dangling from Kara's hand. No x-ray vision, no ability to breathe ice storms or run as fast as light. Right now she's mostly worried about the still needing to breathe, as it's a power she's moved to the top of her wish list as Kara's hand makes it so she can't...get...air!

Not even able to whimper anymore, Mia realizes the problem. It's not the strength, it's the ratio. She's about the equivalent of a five year old taking on a bodybuilder, but as her vision goes kind of hazy from lack of oxygen, she remembers something she saw a five year old do once. And as she kicks kind of limply at Kara's legs, she gets both of her hands on Kara's little finger, and tries to pry it back with all she's got.

She also bites down on it, since she's no longer working from the adult playbook.

For most people, trying to pry Kara's finger would be a futile effort, and biting would result in a bunch of broken teeth. Fortunately, Mia's half Kryptonian, and a five year old bending back an adult's finger is still going to hurt! So does biting!

Kara quickly lets go of Mia's throat and yells, "OW!!!!" as she pulls her hand back, giving Mia enough time to gulp in some much-needed air. Not to mention not having a hand trying to crush her trachea, which is always a plus.

So... Mia actually managed to hurt Kara, if only for a second or two. Because now Kara, aka Shan-Rina, looked angry. Or maybe confused. Or both? And as Mia managed to stumble to her feet, she saw a fist hitting into her face with... well.... more force than Mia's EVER had to experience before. Including from Mongul.

Which results in Mia going flying, tearing a hole in the big top tent roof, and hurtling Mia in a backwards arch as everything below her was spinning and a blur of motion - assuming Mia was able to retain being conscious.

Mia crashes into the side of the mountain. Fortunately the snow blunted the crash a bit, through Mia still gets hit with enough force to cause an avalanche, causing snow to pile down on her.

When Mia digs her way out of the snow, the first obvious question was... why is there snow?! There wasnt snow by the circus. THough the skiers the next mountain over would give an idea where she was.

Aspen.

Fortunately there were no skiers on this mountain, but still...

Kara punched her from New York to friggin Colorado.

After digging herself out in a desperate subconscious need to survive, Mia collapses under the sun's rays and lets unconsciousness take her. The last thing she knows before going under is an image of Kara's face just as her fist hit Mia into another state.

It looked almost like Kara had a different look in her eyes. Something that regretted what she was doing. And given that the punch probably saved Mia's life, by getting her OUT of there before Kara was forced to kill her? Well. Maybe.

"Hey. Dude. You okay?"

The voice wakes Mia up. Prodding her with his ski pole, Mia groans and pulls her face out of the snowbank to find herself mostly not dead. She rises out of the snow like a red and blue phoenix, letting the sun work its magic on her body, and pauses to adjust her underpants which have been riding up in her butt since Kara had her by the neck. Not the best image to go on, but she nods at the skier and says, "Thanks. If you'll excuse me..."

And then she's gone, into the sky like a mach one explosion. I'm gonna need backup on this one. Fuck me, what do I do now?