2015-11-27 - Why is it Always Missiles?

Given all the strange things that Mia's been through, you'd think that she'd be used to it by now. And she is, mostly! But taking that beating from Kara seems to have changed her a bit, and against all odds her -parents- have found her phone and left a message for Superman to find. It said, please, talk to her. Something's wrong and she won't talk to us.

Hiding in the upper reaches of the atmosphere, Mia figures she's got a good place to think. Of course, there's only a couple people who COULD find her up there. NASA isn't on the list. She's not sulking, just...hovering. Quiet.

Having gotten the message that something was going on with Mia. Clark looks everywhere for her. Everywhere on Earth anyway. It wasn't until he was looking towards the moon...it was where he went to think...that he spotted her floating high above in the upper atmosphere. He adjusts his course so that it takes him up next to her. He makes sure that he approaches slowly enough to give her time to see him before he arrives. He would then lift a hand and offer a smile. "Hey, kiddo. Fancy finding you up here."

Mia smiles, though she's breathing slowly and deeply. The air is thin, and she needs to breathe. Taking a moment, she looks up at the moon which looks HUGE from up here, and sighs. "Hey. How'd you find me?" She knows how, she's stalling. Wearing jeans and a sweater, she's not even trying to be Cir-El right now. Just a random flying girl in Nikes.

Kal grins. "Super vision." He states before floating over closer to her. "Mia, you run the risk of being seen up where without your suit on." He wraps an arm around her shoulders. "Your parents found a way to contact me. They say something is wrong. How can I help?"

Mia turns and hugs Kal with both arms. Not crying, but she might as well be for how she's acting. "I'm sorry," she says into his shirt, face buried in that giant 'S'. She takes a moment, partly because of the lack of air. But not all. "I'm sorry, Kal. I just needed to think, and once I got up here, I felt like I could turn my brain off and NOT think, and that was even better."

She pauses, then takes a deep breath. Then she says, "Kara." like it's all the explanation she's got.

Kal doesn't rush her and when she turns to hug him, he wraps his big arms around her while holding her close. He strokes her hair the entire time she's silent and he presses a soft kiss to her forehead. "Aw, honey. Are you still upset over the situation with Kara? Listen, everything is alright now. I know it was scary for you, but sometimes we have to fight those we love to save them..even from themselves. Understand?" His voice is soft and soothing, and it doesn't seem like he needs to breathe much at all in the thin air.

Mia sighs, then pulls away from Kal. She nods, then starts to drift a bit away. Apparently not talking to him now too. Whatever he did, it wasn't what she needed. If she wasn't talking to the parents who raised her, and now not talking to Kal, it must be serious. To her, at least.

Which is a shame, since the missiles tracking the two of them don't care about her emotional state, and are coming really fast.

Kal looks confused when Mia pulls away from him. He floats closer as he opens his mouth to speak to her, then his ears pick up something awful. He whirls around. "Cir, two nuclear missiles coming right for us. We can't let them detonate in Earth's atmosphere. We have to re-direct them into space. Preferably towards the sun." And with that, he blazes away, moving directly for one of the missiles in order to do just that.

Mia hears. She shakes herself off, fully willing to do the job when it matters. Thankfully, because she's not as fast or as strong. But she flies at the other missile and finds...it's really hard to get around. Because it keeps turning to fly right at her. "Um...Kal?" Shortly she's not flying to get around it, she's flying to keep it from hitting her. Because it's clearly tracking her, as the other was after Superman. He's just really fast.

Kal yells at Mia. "Okay, looks like it's keyed in on us. In that case, fly straight up. Take it into orbit if you can." He nods at her, his facial expression serious. "You /can/ do this. I have complete faith in you." He extends his fists in front of him and angles upwards, making the missile follow him. "Push yourself, Cira. Push harder than you've ever had before. Use the power of the sun, let it energize you."

Mia blinks. She looks back at the missile, then looks up. She's been having troubles breathing HERE. "I don't know if I can do that, Kal!" she says, whipping ahead of her missile as she slowly gets distance on it. Very, very slowly. She takes as deep a breath as possible and angles her trajectory upward. Toward the sun, which she looks at with as much heart as she can manage.

Not breathing, the air gets thin really fast. Then she passes through the stratosphere with a nuclear missile on her tail, and she looks to one side where Superman is flying, and shivers a little from the sudden intense cold. Then she looks back at the sun and pours on the speed.

Kal would notice, at that point, that she pulls ahead of the missile. A LOT. Being out of the atmosphere, her speed easily doubles.

Kal nods his head to Mia. "Yes you can. We may never know for sure, but as far as I'm concerned you are from the House of El. Can't is NOT in your vocabulary. So you dig deep, and you /find/ the strength you need!" And then there is no more talking, because there's no more oxygen to carry the words. Being able to hold his breath for so long it seems like he can breathe in outer space, Kal heads directly for the sun, his speed also doubling since there was no friction. However, he keeps pace with Mia. She could do it. He knew it in his heart that she could. They were cut from the same mold. He taps her on the arm, and then makes a wavering motion with his hand, indicating that before the gravity got too great from the sun, they'd veer off just as soon as the missiles got caught in the sun's gravity well. He points at his eyes and then points at himself. 'Watch me'

An excellent plan! Well considered, well executed, but unfortunately for no apparent reason at that point the two nuclear missiles pick that moment to explode, and the sky behind both Kal-El and Mia is lit with an energy blast that could potentially have killed Mia.

If she hadn't been flying at almost three times the missile's speed when it blew.

So Mia is watching Kal, wishing desperately for breath, when the wave of lightspeed particles slams into her with no warning. It does, in fact, knock her unconscious and knock the breath out of her. She's still close enough for that. But otherwise...not really hurt. And it mostly tickles Kal.

When the explosion happens, Kal moves quickly. So fast, in fact, that he's able to grab Mia and clutch her to his chest after the initial shockwave of energy. He wraps her up in his cape as he hunkers down, letting it wash over him. She's still unconcious and probably in dire need of oxygen. He reaches underneath his cape and withdraws a small canister of air, complete with a mask. He cradles the girl in his arms and presses the mask to her face, pushing the button so that there is a soft hiss of air as it is forced into her lungs.

Mia is actually only out for a minute. Long before that, there's the feeling of her breathing, and her eyes open as she looks into Kal's blue eyes. Breathing slowly, she's not panicking, and there's more amazement in her eyes than any fear. After a moment, her right cheek perks a little and she makes a little, hesitant smile. And she pulls the mask from her face, mouthing the question. Gotta be that question.

"Did I do it?"

Kal beams down at her, like a proud papa would. He nods faintly as he mouths an answer. "You did it." He releases her and then motions towards Earth before he begins to fly back towards it. As he flies, his eyes scan the direction that the missiles came from. Someone launched them deliberately at them, and they weren't going to get away with it.

Mia is thinking a little differently. Her mind's really active for some reason. Like, REALLY active: Got to get me one of these, I think it would fit in my belt, purse maybe, whatever, need to keep one handy. If it's one of my weaknesses, easy to fix, no problem. Missile was tracking me from north america, those are long-range or they wouldn't have been able to keep up that long, intercontinental, expensive. Homework for next week should probably be covering Achilles, also can get on that early, I'll have a few hours tonight if I get home in time. Mom should park on an angle, it'll keep her from backing out into the curb like she does. Kal's got a nice bum.

When she catches up to Superman, she's not blushing. Not at all. But being back in the atmosphere, she says, "I think it was from central Canada. They were. Ignore my grammar." She's definitely no longer in her funk.

Kal looks over at her and nods. "Then let's go pay them a visit. First I would suggest that you dress for the occasion." He says with a smile as he notes that she's still in her civilian clothing. "Meet you there?" He asks.

Mia frowns. She blushes at THAT, and nods. Then she's gone, heading someplace she can change. Shortly thereafter, there's a blue-clad form whipping through the sky toward Superman's location.

Where he's approaching the place that the rockets flew from. There's still evidence of the rocket pads, the water evaporated underneath into the air. You really can't miss a standard rocket launch zone, it's pretty recognizeable. It's also deserted, and looks like it's been abandoned for years. But the electricity is functioning. And there's a couple more missiles underground.

Mia flits up, hovering, and says, "What we got, boss?" All business.

Kal points down below. "Abandoned missile silo. Unforunately a lot of it is lead lined...you know, radiation. But I do detect a couple of missiles still down there. But there is no sign of anyone being here. I can detect no heartbeats or anything. I'm guessing they're long gone. But in the meantime, I say we dispose of the last two missiles and then call it a day. I don't think there's much more we can do here."

Mia grins, actually seeming enthusiastic. Which belies the potential sarcasm in her answer. "Oh good! I've been hoping to learn to defuse nuclear bombs. No seriously, I really have." She seems kind of amused that for once, she's not being silly about it. Been hoping to learn how to do things smart for some time, and she throws herself into it.

Far, far away, in a remote area of Quebec, a person watching a sattelite feed gets a phone call. "Report." "Success. Data in stream, should be arriving now, sir." "Good. Doom is pleased."