Chapter 18
Smallville…
A week after Thanksgiving Mia had just seen her father depart for the day, leaving her alone at the farm.
It's fine. It's totally fine. Her father has to live his life. After all he won't become Superman hanging around here with her will he?
Honestly, Mia's not sure she has really let herself think about the whole thing. Like any other kid she grew up idolising this almost deified figure. The World's Greatest Hero. Then one day she discovers that he is actually her father.
Then another day she's travelling back in time and actually meeting him and reality has to crash into the fantasy she had constructed in her head.
There's a saying about how one should never meet their heroes…except he's not just her hero. He's her father.
And yeah, deep down, she probably had to realise that he was just a person. Now that fact, she has come to see in abundance as one would when you live with them.
It's amazing, though, how in her time no-one sees it. She's not sure anyone actually thinks it. They don't or just simply can't imagine that Superman is just like them. That he lives a life the same as they do. Having to work a job to pay bills and all the other mundane crap that composes life.
So, has meeting him shattered the fantasy?
Honestly, yes…but Mia would rather have the real-life man who could be a father to her than the distant hero she never knew. These last few months has allowed her to connect to her father and see where many aspects of her own personality come from. It has filled in the void she has had to endure her whole life.
Well, she can't hang around here all day. Despite the passing of the VRA Supergirl has work to do. Especially since someone has made it their business to attack supporters of the act. Yes, Mia might think these people are beyond stupid but heroes don't get to choose who they save.
Not to mention there's the widespread protests against the Act. Abuela had been right when she had tried to warn General Lane what would happen. She has to keep an eye that those don't get out of hand either.
As for her real purpose in being in the here and now…she is certain the day is getting closer for her to act but until then…
"WOOF! WOOF!"
Her thought is interrupted by the sound of Shelby barking quite loudly. Mia frowns and in moments has blurred outside to where the Golden Retriever is at the entrance to the barn. Something has clearly upset the dog. "What is it, boy?" she asks as she looks around for the cause.
Mia sees nothing yet Shelby is clearly barking at something…or maybe someone. "Hello! Is someone here?!" she calls out as she carefully enters the barn, absolutely wishing she had inherited her father's x-ray vision.
The young woman floats herself up the stairs to the loft and then her head jerks to the right as something catches her eye. Like a moving shadow.
She is definitely not alone. She closes her right hand into a fist and gathers energy around it. "I know someone is here," she calls out. "Come on out, twip and I'll make your slagging as quick and painless as possible."
Nothing.
Until…it's behind her!
Mia spins round and unleashes a blast which passes right through the shadow-like entity. It flies right at her and the last thing she sees is the demonic red eyes…
…
…
"Argh!" Mia screams as she shoots awake, literally levitating in the air of a darkened room.
The door is flung open. "What?! Mia? Are you ok?"
Mia blinks as her eyes take a moment to adjust to the light and focus on the blond older woman standing there. "Aunt Penny?"
Penny walks into the room. "Yeah. It's me sweetie. Were you expecting some other blond hottie?" she asks in a teasing tone. "Because if you were I think we may need to go over the rules again about you bringing dates home."
Mia gives the other woman a sour look. "One time. It was one time," she grumbles.
"And if I had walked in one minute later I would have been scarred for life, sweetie," she reminds the brunette jokingly.
"We still had clothes on!" Mia protests.
"Barely," Penny dead-pans as she sits herself down on the bed. "Now why don't you come down here," she pats the spot beside her, "and tell me what happened," she says, her tone now far more kind and parenting in tone.
Mia floats down and sits beside the blond. "Just a bad dream."
"Your mother?" the blond asks, knowing from many first-hand experiences just how many nightmares Mia has had about Andrea. More specifically Andrea's death.
"No. Some sort of shadow demon…thingie."
Penny sighs as she reaches round and rubs Mia's back in soothing motions. "I knew letting you go out and play hero was a mistake," she tries to say in jest but ends up expressing what part of her actually thinks.
"Ah, no. I think this more comes from your love of horror movies, Auntie," the younger woman argues.
"You're the one who loves horror movies," the older woman argues back.
"Oh yeah. That's right. I was getting the type of horror mixed up with your taste in men," she jokes.
"Is this the thanks I get for taking you in, is it?" Penny asks, only faux-annoyed.
"I would have thought every day of my presence would have been a blessing," Mia faux-boasts.
"Well now, someone certainly has a high opinion of themselves don't they."
"I learned it all from you."
The two women share a look and laugh. They then share a hug.
"You ok?" Penny asks.
"Yeah, yeah. It was just a bad dream. Should cut down on the midnight snacks," Mia says.
"I've been telling you that for years," the blond reminds the brunette.
"I have a high metabolism," the younger woman defends her need for snacks.
"Don't I know it. I should start making you retroactively pay me back for all the food you ate."
Mia just gives the other woman a snarky look.
Penny sighs and pats Mia on the knee. "Well, now we're both awake how about I get started on breakfast."
"Thank you, Aunt Penny."
Penny gets to her feet and stops at the door. "Just to be clear, sweetheart, I'm proud of you for using your gifts to help people and I'm sure your mother would have been too," she says and means. Doesn't mean she doesn't also sometimes think it was a mistake and that she worries. She's conflicted on the issue but Mia is as stubborn as her mother so in the end all she could do was be supportive.
Mia beams at the praise from the woman who has raised her from the day she lost her mother as the blond departs. She gets to her feet and stretches out her muscles. Her eyes drift to the chair in the corner where she haphazardly threw her costume when she got home last night. She walks over and picks up the black leather coat. Her mother's coat. The same one she wore as the Angel of Vengeance.
When Mia's powers started to develop at around…she was what? 13? 14? At that point Aunt Penny had had no choice but to tell her the whole truth about her mother. That her mother was a metahuman with superstrength who spent her nights going out in costume. Since she needed a babysitter Andrea had had to tell Aunt Penny everything.
Well, almost everything. Her mother never did tell Aunt Penny who her father was so to this day Mia still does not know. And probably never will. That saddens her. She would love to know. She tried to find out. Even visiting her extended family down in Mexico after Graduation but they had no idea either since, as it turned out, her mother was not very close to them.
So, yeah. There's a hole in her heart where her father should be. It's right next to the larger one from when she lost her mother. Aunt Penny had taken her in afterwards. Adopted her. In many ways, despite calling her Auntie, she was Mia's second mother.
Mia moves over to the mirror on her wall and looks at herself. She was 23 now and yes, still living with her aunt. Have you seen rent prices in this city? Scandalous. Not to mention it's kinda hard to hold down a regular job when you choose to put on this costume.
Mia stares at her reflection. Aunt Penny often says she can see a lot of her mother in her but also traits that must come from her father. Particularly her unusual blue coloured eyes.
Is her father the reason why her powers exceed her mother's? Or is it simply some weird mutation of the metahuman gene within her?
After all, as far as she knows, her mother couldn't fly…or move at superspeed…or had superhearing.
The young woman sighs sadly. She'll truly never know her father, will she. Nor will probably ever get a proper answer. Truly her life sucks.
"Mia! Breakfast!" her aunt calls her.
In a moment she has blurred into the kitchen.
"Sweet Carolina! I wish you wouldn't do that in the house!" Penny exclaims at the sudden appearance of her adopted daughter.
"Sorry," Mia apologises as she sits down at the table.
"I'm starting to think I need to track down the Flash and demand a paternity test."
"You think he could be?" Mia wonders.
"Honestly, I don't know but then again it was your choice to keep yourself to yourself and not seek the Justice League out."
Mia shrugs. "I don't…want to be out there big and bold in the public eye. Mamá worked more from the shadows you said."
"And you want to emulate her. I get it. I do."
"So, what's for breakfast?"
"Your favourite. Waffles. Dripping in butter and syrup."
"Schway! You're the best Aunt Penny!" she praises her parent as she tucks in.
"You are so lucky that doesn't go to your hips," Penny laments what happens to her if she ate like Mia.
"Goes to the biceps," she jokes as she flexes her right arm, showing some impressive muscle structure.
Penny rolls her eyes and decides to flick on the radio.
"Breaking News this morning. The Death of Superman!"
Both women stop in what they are doing. Absolutely stunned at what they are hearing. Superman. Dead. It doesn't seem real.
The news report goes on to say it happened during a battle between Superman and Lex Luthor with the later dying as well.
Then all of a sudden, from Mia's perspective, the room seems to stretch. The table, Aunt Penny, rapidly recede into the distance…
…and next thing Mia knows is that she is suspended mid-air, surrounded by a column of light with a structure made of giant crystals…
…and then scene 'fritzes'…
…and now she finds herself in a dark, dingy…looks like warehouse.
Where is she?
Then she hears it. The sounds of fighting. She moves towards the sounds and when she finds the source her eyes go wide in horror.
No, no, no, no, no! Not this! Not again!
Because there is her mother as the Angel of Vengeance and there is the sliver-haired psychotic bitch who killed her.
"Mamá!"
And there is her 5-year-old self, tied up to a support pillar. The bitch had abducted to her to lure her mother to exactly where she wanted her. Through a whole series of traps, designed to injure and wear her mother down. And that was only after she had been testing, probing, taunting her mother for days. Perhaps weeks from what her mother had told Aunt Penny.
"Why?!" her mother demands to know as she holds a hand against a slicing wound her would-be killer had left in her side with her sword.
The silver-haired assassin chuckles as blood drips off her sword blade. "Now that is a wide-ranging question. Lets just say; you're the starter before I get to the main course. Or the warm-up. You and the rest of the super-powered freaks are a mistake. One I will rectify but I'll give you credit, honey, you've been a lot of fun. If you have any last words for your little brat I would make them quick," she taunts.
"Go to Hell!" Andrea spits out.
"You first!" the assassin retorts as she attacks, looking to finish off her wounded opponent.
Andrea dodges the first strike and the second. Even the third misses. The fourth finds Andrea catching the sword blade between her hands.
"Not bad but you're leaving open a very obvious vulnerability," the silver-haired woman says calmly. The calm of someone who has been training for this her entire life.
Behind her mask Andrea frowns and she almost doesn't see it when the silver-haired woman throws a trio of Shuriken directly at the helpless Mia.
"No!" Andrea screams as she launches herself directly in the way and the 3 stars embed deep into her flesh, causing her to drop to one knee.
"Superstrong alloy," the silver-haired woman explains how they managed to hurt the superstrong metahuman. "As the Boy Scouts say; Be prepared. So long sweetie. When you see the Devil tell him Rose Wilson sent ya!" she sneers in hate as she drives her sword deep and twists it just for good measure before yanking it out.
Andrea falls to the ground, lifeless eyes staring out.
Rose Wilson stands over her victim for several seconds before she even pays heed to the screams and cries of the 5-year-old who just watched her mother die. She wanders over and brings the point of her sword to bear at the little dark-haired girl's heart. "You know I could kill you now. That'll save me the trouble later on. Then again freaks like your mother made me have to live without my father when all he wanted to do was protect the world from their kind. Would letting you live without your mother be poetic justice?" she wonders aloud. Then in an instant she has brought her sword down in a slicing motion…cutting the bonds that held Mia and freeing her. "Tell ya what, sweetie-pie, just to show you that I'm a fair person, I'll give you a chance to get your revenge on me. Look me up when you get out of diapers," she says, laughing manically as she walks away.
Mia swallows hard as she watches her child-self then rush over to her where her mother lies. Tears are rolling down her face. God, no. Not this again. Why? Why does she have to keep reliving this?
No. Just no.
Mia turns around and runs, unable to watch this again, tears streaming down her face...
...
...
"No…Mamá…no…NOOO! MAMÁ!" Mia screams as she shoots awake in bed, the sheets tearing apart as if paper in her hands.
The door flings open. "Mia. Sweetie," Penny says, full of deep concern as she rushes over the sobbing young woman and pulls her into her arms and gently rocks her. "Shh. I'm here. I'm here," she promises in soothing tones.
Mia clings to the woman who raised her as the tears fall.
Penny strokes Mia's long hair and waits for her adopted daughter to calm. She barely even needs to ask what Mia was dreaming about. She can't even tell you the number of times she has had to do this. There have been so many nights, especially in the early days, where Mia would wake up, screaming for her 'Mamá'. "I'm sorry," she whispers regretfully. "I'm so sorry."
"For what?" comes the muffled question.
"I was supposed to be looking after you that night when she came," the blond woman explains what she is sorry for. She was babysitting when the silver-haired lunatic came for Mia. Luckily all she got was a concussion.
"It was never your fault, Aunt Penny. It was hers. It's always been her," Mia says, the hate and loathing slipping into her voice.
The one thing Penny has never been able to help Mia with is the burning anger but then again how can Mia just let it go? She saw her mother murdered in front of her eyes. "Breakfast?" she queries.
Mia pulls back, a watery smile on her face, wiping her tears away. "You know my weakness. I'll give you that."
"Oh, sweetie, that's not your weakness. I'm saving that one for when I really need it," Penny says warningly with a wicked grin.
Mia actually feels worry as her adopted mother heads for the door. She gets up and is about to follow when she pauses.
"What?" the older woman asks.
Mia frowns. "I don't know. I have the weirdest feeling of déjà-vu," she comments because it seems like the two of them were just doing this very thing…almost. Similar but different.
"Yeah. I get that. Every time I try dating. Always ends the same," Penny mutters.
Now Mia is feeling bad. Part of her thinks that Aunt Penny sacrificed her own chances at happiness to take care of her. She tired raising it with her once or twice but her adopted mother always managed to change the subject. With a sigh she follows the older woman out the door.
Later that night Mia stands atop the tallest building in Coast City, her mother's duster flapping in the wind. And it wasn't just the duster. Her whole outfit was based on her mother's look. Red top, black pants, boots, domino mask. In fact, she almost looked the spitting image of the 'Angel of Vengeance'. It had not gone unnoticed by those who keep track of these things or those who even remember the days her mother stalked the streets.
Stalked?
No. That's not the word. That makes her mother sound like a villain.
Mia rolls her eyes. She never does good when she's alone with her own thoughts.
Then again ever since Superman died the world's felt like a crazy place. A darker place. It's like some of the light has gone out from the world.
It has also meant she's been busier than usual as it seems like Superman's death has brought out the worst in some people.
Mia closes her eyes and listens. First time this started to happen she almost went insane with all the noise but through sheer blooded mindedness (which Aunt Penny says totally came from her mother) she mastered it.
Mia filters out the extraneous sounds, focussing in on anything that might need her to intervene. Her face twitches as she sorts through the chatter. There. What's that?
Some sort of firefight. Police calling for back-up.
This sounds like a job for…the Angel of Vengeance!
The young woman then face palms herself. "Way to sound like a total twip, Mia," she chastises her own lameness. With a shake of her head she rises upward and shoots across the city.
The scene Mia finds is the police in a war with a small group of metahumans. Not a one Mia recognises so they must be new in town. From what she can see one look like some kind of lava monster. The cracked skin looks like cooling magma with visible fire underneath. Another looks almost like a ghost and seems to freeze anything she touches and the third is as flat as a pancake and can stretch.
Seeing a policewoman in trouble she swoops in right before the lava monster guy squishes the law enforcer.
"Go. Get to safety," Mia tells the cop before she turns to face the trio of metahumans. "Coming into my town, causing this much of a ruckus, you twips are just asking for a slagging," she says in a stern voice.
"Finally," the lava monster says in a gravelly voice. "Wondered what it would take to smoke you out."
Mia blinks. Smoke her out? "You' re looking for me?" she queries, puzzled.
"Indeed," the ghostly, ethereal female of the trio says as she floats around Mia in a circle as if assessing her. "We have a proposition for you."
"Proposition? What proposition?" the masked brunette asks in return, on guard.
The 2-D man stretches himself around Mia and like the ghostly girl seems to be assessing her. "The world's changing. Our kind are growing in number. Soon it will be time for us to take our rightful place. Superman's death is a sign this is true."
"Really?" Mia asks, her voice heavy in scepticism. "So, you're here to recruit me?" she guesses.
"Yes," the ghostly woman confirms.
"Why me?"
"You're powerful," the lava monster points out.
Mia cocks her head in a quizzical manner.
"You think your actions have gone unnoticed?" the lava monster asks her.
Mia frowns. "Noticed by whom?" she asks the pertinent question.
"Come with us and find out," the ghostly woman says in reply.
So, they're working for someone is what Mia gets. Someone who wants to meet her. Hmm. She has this feeling in her stomach that this is not a good thing. This is also a situation she has no experience in. Someone with greater experience might play along to find out more but that's not her. "No. I think I'd rather kick your asses and hand you over to these nice police officers you were attacking. Then I'll go home, kick my feet up and enjoy a nice smoothie. Doesn't that sound schway?"
"Well, when he asks we can at least say we tried to do this the easy way," the lava monster remarks.
It happens almost instantly. The ghostly woman fires blasts from her hands, freezing Mia's feet to the ground while the 2-D man, who was still circling Mia, suddenly contracts his form and wraps himself tight around her. Next thing Mia knows is that a giant fist connecting with her face and her body smashing into a parked car, crumpling it around her.
Mia groans, dazed.
"She's still awake!" someone, one of the trio Mia assumes, yells.
"Hit her again!" someone else orders.
Out the corner of her eye Mia sees another large fist heading her way and acts instinctively and raises her own hand and…
SLAM!
Standing back what one sees is a one giant lava monster having its monstrous fist held by a tiny, comparatively, feminine hand.
With a cry of rage Mia launches herself forward, her right hand balled up into a fist and smashes the lava monster squarely in the face, sending him flying this time, right down the street.
"Michael!" the ghostly woman cries in concern.
"Freon!" the 2-D man calls out. "He'll be fine. Freeze her!" he orders, pointing at the visibly seething brunette.
Icy blasts come Mia's way but with short bursts of superspeed she dodges them but if she wants to take this woman out she needs to get back into the air so pushes herself off the ground only to fly right into the 2-D man who has stretched himself out like a blanket. A rubbery blanket that she bounces off, backwards into a powerful double-fist blow to her back from the lava monster and she smashed into the grounds, creating a small crater. A huge rocky foot stomps down on her, pinning her there.
"Stay down!" the lava monster orders.
Mia grits her teeth as she can feel the internally generated heat from the metahuman begin to sear into her back. She pushes up with her arms and with a huge surge of strength pushes the lava monster off of her. In the blink of an eye she grabs his leg before he can regain his balance and starts spinning around and around, faster and faster until she is visibly appearing like a mini-twister before she releases her grip and like a super-powered Olympic hammer thrower the lava monster goes flying into the air.
Mia breathes hard until she starts to notice that she can still feel the heat from her back. She quickly yanks her coat off and her eyes open in horror. Her coat. Her mother's coat. That monster has burned a hole right through it. The grief and rage she has had to contain all her life threatens to burst out of her at the loss of one of the very few things of her mother she possesses.
This 'distraction' allows Freon to cocoon her with icy blasts but the cold does nothing to cool Mia's anger which grows and grows. Instead of feeling cold Mia feels hot. Burning, molten heat fills the core of her being. How dare they! How. Dare. They!
The heat within spreads until it reaches her hands which begin to glow and the ice around her hands begins to melt rapidly. Steam starts to billow into the air from the spot where she stands and then, for the very first time, blasts of red energy emerge from her hands, striking at the other 2 metahumans over and over until the two of them are lying there on the ground, unconscious.
Mia moves to stand over them, still seething in rage, her hands still glowing intently and for a moment even she has no idea what she'll do next.
"Cir-El."
Mia spins round. "Who…" she starts and then stops as there is no-one there.
It is then that the world stretches away from her…
…and next thing Mia knows is that she is suspended mid-air, surrounded by a column of light with a structure made of giant crystals…
…and then the scene 'fritzes'…
…and Mia is now flying over a landscape she's never seen before. An arctic tundra that is soon giving way to almost endless fields of ice and snow.
"Cir-El."
That voice. Calling to her. Calling her…somewhere.
She feels drawn northward. Forever northward.
Mia flies under a night sky lit by the eerie greens and pinks of the Northern Lights.
And that is when she spots it.
She stops. Hovering in mid-air and gasps at the sheer beauty her eyes behold.
Standing there amongst the ice is a huge structure made of massive, interlocking crystals, glowing with an unearthly energy.
"Cir-El."
The voice. It's coming from within.
She moves forward again towards the structure and as she draws near some of the massive crystals move to reveal an opening. She flies in, knowing she should be afraid but for some reason not being so. Quite the opposite. To some part of her this place feels like she is coming home. She lands within, her mind in awe at all she sees. What dominates the interior space is a huge sculpture of a man and woman holding up a globe in-between them.
She is so caught gazing at it that she doesn't sense the presence coming up behind her. Not until they have grabbed her shoulder and spun her round…
...
...
"Ahhh!" Mia shoots up in bed, screaming. It takes her a moment to recognise where she is, in her room. "Oh schrap! Not again!" she mutters as she buries her face into her hands and tries to regain control over her emotions.
As she calms a question comes to mind. Why does this whole thing seem so familiar?
Author's Note: So, yes, the long-standing question as to whom is it Mia is here to find. The answer; Rose Wilson, whom in the Smallville Season 11 comics had a throwaway line about 'taking down' Andrea. It's never made clear if she killed Andrea or not but I went with yes, she did. In front of Mia's eyes in my story. And I think it was pretty obvious, to the point even Clark has guessed it, that the reason Mia never met him is that he's dead. And who else is going to kill him but Lex or in this case they kill each other. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews.