2013.05.21 - Working in a Coal Mine

As a child of a future Metropolis, Kent was feeling greatly out of place this day -- in a city that held some hint of the place he once knew but at the same time an alien place with the veil of time lifted away from it. He decided to get away, to try to find the place his parents took him picnicking when he was a child. It was only about a twenty minute flight to the west for him at full speed of the Legion Flight Ring, into the wilds of Pennsylvania. Here, however, the hill overlooked a mineshaft that either never existed in his time or had long ago been abandoned and filled in as a part of environmental reconstruction.

Despite the work site dominating the area Kent had a good lunch and was enjoying the fresh air away from the polutants of the modern city. And then it happened a soft thump was heard by the man from the future and then cries for heip coming from those near the entrance of the mine.

Kent doesn't hesitate. He runs full speed to the mine. "Call the authorities, call anyone you need to. I'm going in to try and find survivors," he says. Then, after a brief pause, "Cananyone give me a map to the place?"

Offers to come in with him are given which he declines, instead he takes an offered map and nods as information as to where the active work is being done and then dashes into the mine, quicker than a normal person would move but slower... more cautiously. He finds a collapsed section with men tring to dig though it and tells them to get out of the way. At first they hesitate then, as he lifts rocks that would have taken five or six of them, they get out of the way.

"Most of you get out of here," he orders them, "But I'm no miner, if some want to stay I'll accept the help."

Outside, the first responders are arriving: police, ambulances and... of course... the ever present reporters, representatives of the local television station. The word about the accident quickly spreads.

A small village outside of Puerto Padre, Cuba

Middle May marks the beginning of one of Superman's least favorite times of the year. No, he like everyone else, enjoys the change of season to warmer weather, the first third of baseball season, and the smell of barbecues that are alive almost anywhere you go.

What Superman does not care for is the beginning to hurricane season. Luckily he was able to help the evacuation measures and no life was lost, the toll to people's houses and property have been massive. In the middle of cleanup, however, one of the older gentlemen approaches Superman carefully holding a small old-style radio to his ear. It's strong enough to receive radio signals from Florida, and one of the Spanish language channels is reporting a problem in Pennsylvania. Superman can hear it before the man even gets to him, gives him one look, then a nod, then takes off into the air. Cleanup can be done anytime, a situation like the one in Pennsylvania needs help immediately.

Floating in the upper atmosphere, Kara Zor-El reflects on her life thus far. Just a little over a year ago she'd been back home on Krypton, or at least it'd seemed that way to her. She hovers seemingly motionlessly over the earth, though moving at the great speed of rotation with the blue planet, her hair wisping all around her along with her cape as if she were underwater, staring out at the stars with her hands behind her head as if she were at the beach. Staring in the direction of her lost homeworld and wishing her heart would stop hurting.

Kal had had a lifetime to grow up here and probably could barely remember the world he'd left behind. A lifetime to learn how to heal. More than thirty years had passed, but not for someone who'd been held in suspended animation. And now she was here.

And she had to figure out what to do with her new life. She didn't even know where to begin. Just how did one go about building a life without a cape on this alien world?

~Thoooooom~

The sound is so light she almost doesn't register it, but the Girl of Steel closes her eyes and focuses, concentrates on listening. Muted screams. Trouble. Lives in danger.

And just like that, she's gone from the edge of space, streaking earthward on a path which is taking her around the curvature of the planet, towards the source of those disturbances. Western hemisphere, North America, northern United States, Pennsylvania, mining tunnels. She streaks faster and further, narrowing in on the portion with her senses, before finally becoming a red and blue and yellow blur and breaking the sound barrier with a sonic boom as she enters the atmosphere proper.

She reaches the entrance with a blink and then, without another thought, zooms inside with a rush of wind at superspeeds. She knew enough of structural integrity from her scientific studies to know that she had to be careful within the mine. She could survive a cave-in, people trapped within could not. And the layers and layers and layers of dense and packed stone would hinder her use of x-ray vision.

Superhearing is great! ...Some times, anyway. There are times when you hear things you'd really rather not hear. Sometimes it's things you'd ordinarily want to hear, because it means you know there's people in trouble who need your help, thus clueing you in to that fact. But sometimes your hands are full with other people who need your help, and you just... Can't help everyone. You don't get there in time, or despite your super speed you're just a fraction of a second too slow to keep that one person from dying or that one group from being blown up or that one town from being wiped out by a mudslide. And that's when the guilt eats you alive and does not stop no matter how many others you save to try to make up for that one failure.

Karen Starr -- aka Power Girl -- has seen one universe end. She couldn't stop it. Her memories grow foggier by the day until she can't remember exactly how it was different from this one sometimes. So she doesn't really know how responsible she might have been for it all... But she tries to keep it from happening again as much as is within her power, and thus as she is busy putting out a forest fire, she is feeling that gnawing guilt in the pit of her stomach, because she can hear those people in trouble and she can't stop what she's doing quite yet. Once the fire is under control and fire fighters can handle the rest, the short-haired blonde flies towards the mine, using her X-Ray vision to see down through the earth to where the trouble is, scan for areas of particular instability, and witness -- much to her relief -- that it seems some people are already getting out of there with some help. However, there may be metal deposits that are messing with her vision, because she can't see all the way through.

So she just heads for wherever the entrance is -- and if she can't find that, she'll have to drill her own through the power of spinning really fast.

Reaaaallly carefully.

A small trickle of miners are leaving the mine as the super girls arrive. Their X-Ray vision shows that there are a few pockets of survivors. One group is behind the pile of rubble Kent is moving with excruciating care under the guidance of two minors who stayed behind to supervise his efforts. Two other pockets are down side tunnels that Kent was completely unaware of because the entire tunnel entrance had collapsed to the point where to his untrained eye it was just another section of the wall.

"Since I only need one of you to direct me why don't you decide which of you should stay with me and the other go out and have someone bring medical supplies, especially oxygen, to help these guys once I have reached them," Kent calls out firmly and after a brief consultation, one of the men departs quickly to do just that.

Super hearing will make out heart beats from each of the occupied cavities in the collapsed sections of themine.

Superman can see the streaks of both Supergirl and Powergirl from his vantage point in the sky as he too pulls downward and arrives on the scene. As the two other begin getting into action, Superman can hear Kent Shakespeare's words as they echo back upward out of the mine. "Looks like someone else made it to help these, men," he says as he takes a look at the situation using his x-ray vision.

While the others make their way down into the mine, Superman does the same. His strategy is to find some of the areas where the pressure is pushing downward upon the mineshafts and remove some of the downward force by creating tunnels to carry out some of the pressure from above.

Survivors. Not really time to meet and greet other arriving heroes. Kara gives those she passes a glance and rushes through the tunnels, using her other senses to guide her as much as her eyes. People behind collapsed stone and sediment. There had to be a better way to mine than sending men and women into crude excavations like this. Like automated machines or straight boreholes or something.

Kara Zor-El sucks in a deep, deep breath as she pulls up short in front of a section of cave-in, her feet hovering inches above the floor. When she exhales, it's a breath straight from the Arctic Circle, a breath which freezes stone like a Mister Freeze Ray. "STAND BACK!" She shouts through the newly-formed wall of ice at the trapped people. And then she punches, shattering ice and destroying the obstacle. Immediately she looks up, her eyes glowing red, and the twin laser beams of heat begins to sear and melt and fuse into the rock overhead, in the hopes of preventing any more from falling down to replace what has been so freshly removed into tiny, stone-filled pieces of ice.

"Head for the entrance, immediately! Carry those who are injured!" She shouts as she begins to pry the rock off of one man's leg where it had trapped him. Unfortunately, one of their number was little more than a red smear under a huge slab of limestone. She does her best not to focus on that.

Power Girl becomes aware she's not the only one on-site. Not only is there Superman, and whomever is below, but there is... An akward moment when she realizes her 'alternate self' is also here, and they're... Both responding to the same emergency at the same time. She'd really like to avoid doing anything that might be misconstrued as 'showing up' her 'younger self' and causing unfortunate comparisons of ability or skill, but giving herself -- or her other self, or WHATEVER -- a complex is actually of lesser concern than saving lives, so she'll just have to hope she -- or rather the other she -- can keep her -- and by that she means HER, not HERSELF -- focus on the task at hand and not on personal matters (but she knows when she was younger she had issues with trying to live up to her 'cousin's' example, before she found her own way, and she has no particular faith that her alternate self will be immune to similar issues).

The shorter-haired and taller of the two blonde Kryptonians decides to just let Supergirl keep doing her thing, staying outside the mine tunnel proper and instead just sucking in a deeep lungfull of air and then expelling it gradually enough that it just causes a huge wash of (mostly fresh) air to be carried down into the shafts, filling the area with stuff for other people to breathe. Being too far underground to get fresh air is a bad thing. When that is accomplished, she then proceeds down into the mine itself and tracks the sound of rapid, thudding heartbeats to where some people seem to be trapped, and carefully-but-quickly extricates anyone who is still alive by using her fingers -- held together -- like jackhammers to break up the rocks, hopefully without dislodging more of the same.

More precision, less unnecessary force. Superman is dealing with the source of the problem, Supergirl is saving those trapped by boulders that can be moved and securing the ceiling, and that means those who under such unstable stone that they cannot be rescued by moving the rocks need to holes in said rocks punched out so that they can be pulled free.

"The entrance is that way. Follow the others, and ask someone to help you if you can't walk," Power Girl tells anyone she rescues. Because, damn, that was a lot of exposition and actually saying something would be nice.

The men rescued by Supergirl express their joy in a subdued way so as not to disturb the rocks around them and then move towards the mine entrance.

Outside the mine, the observers see the blurs of blue and cries of relief at the assumed recognition rise up. Then, as one of them begins to drill into the hillside back away from the entrance some initial sounds of concern can be heard from the gathering reporters as a cloud of rock dust and soot fly into the air from Superman's efforts. However, one of the more experienced miners points out that if done correctly that could make a huge difference.

Some of the escaping miners are clearly injured and Power Girl being prepared to provide assistance proves a major boon as one man collapses from dust inhalation and pain from his injuries.

Deeper in the mine, Kent keeps working under the guidance of the mine supervisor working with him. They manage to make a hole in the wall of rubble though which even Kent can hear the voices of the trapped miners as they express their relief over the fresh air flowing in though the gap he exposed. Unfortunately, he is now having to act as a load bearing support himself and can no longer move rocks. Instead he says, "I'm holding this in place. Move these rocks beneath me and maybe we can get it so those men can crawl out!" to the supervisor.

By now, Superman has finished clearing some of the forces that would have led to further collapses. He moves now into the mine, hearing Kent's comments from afar and looking to do what he can. He's next to Shakespeare in a mere moment, "Is there a way I can help?" Even before it's answered, Superman begins to move rocks quickly. Much faster than a normal human, but he's careful to refrain from creating unwanted tremors that might cause damage.

It's a feeling like the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end that alerts Kara to the presence of Karen. In a Highlander-esque moment of recognition, her world spins and tilts a little bit as she realizes her doppelganger is close by, almost enough to make her lose focus on what she's doing and drop a three-ton slab right back on the person's legs she'd just lifted it from! But she readjusts her grip in time and heaves it off, and thankfully the man she was saving was too busy crying out in pain as he was drug out of immediate danger by his co-workers to ask her if she was sure she knew what the hell she was doing.

She hadn't actually SEEN Power Girl at the site yet, what with all the being underground and cave walls and cave-ins, but she could hear that voice echoing up and down the caverns as easily as if the other blonde were standing next to her.

Wish Big Cuz Kal moving rocks and Kent holding up other rocks and Power Girl drilling through rocks and her own little section mostly cleared out, Kara lifts up a female minor with a broken ankle in her arms and begins to exit the mine posthaste. Either their simply weren't enough free, uninjured hands to get her out, or someone had just run for it and left their co-worker behind. It didn't really matter. Supergirl flies out of the tunnel entrance with the woman in her arms, probably to the delight of reports for a photo op, and curbs her speed as her boots touch down on the rocky ground outside.

She sets the woman down on a blanket amidst the other injured who were limping and scurrying out, acknowledging the profuse thanks with just a smile and a nod.

It sounds like no one is buried anymore (as near as she can tell), so Power Girl focuses on evacuation of anyone who is moving too slow, too disoriented to navigate properly, or whom is injured. She's a blur of white going back and forth, trying to get everyone out. She doesn't want this to be one of those days where she doesn't get there in time. Where that one person didn't hold on until she got there. If she manages to get everyone out, she'll try to make her way to the section where Superman and the unidentified hero are working to get people from deeper inside out or trying to shore up the supports or whatever they're doing. Heat vision to melt rocks together is one option (WHICH WAS ALREADY USED BY SUPERGIRL, OMG, TOTALLY UNORIGINAL).

Just get any people out and worrying about the structural integrity later. Rocks and wooden supports and so on can be replaced. People can't be.

Unless your universe is destroyed, apparently. Then there are replacements all over.

With the efforts of the super girls only one set of miners were still in need of rescuing. "Superman!" Kent exclaims at the sudden assistance. With him taking over the mining supervisor stops moving rocks and instead brings in a brace to let Kent free from the job of supporting weight. Moments later Kent is begins to help the first men out from behind the wall. Shortly after that the last man is dragged out from behind the wall and Kent lifts him in his arms. "I'll get him out off here, since everyone's out of there you are coming with me," he says to the supervisor. "See you outside, Superman," he adds thankfully.

Superman nods and waits until Kent and the other man head out, covering them in case an unforeseen mishap were to occur. Once he's sure it is safe, he's following behind, up, and out of the mine. He does a quick scan, using his x-ray vision, to check on any injuries that might need immediate attention. He also looks back down into the mine and listens carefully in case they happened to miss someone on their way out.

Everyone was out, at least everyone who was still alive was, as Supergirl could near no more heartbeats coming from in the mine aside from those currently evacuating no matter how much she strained her ears. Finally, the blonde lets herself breathe a bit easier, and idly casts a glance at the overhead clouds and wonders if it would be a gross breach of superhero etiquette to just dart skyward and escape without having to actually talk to anyone.

Or at least to avoid the reporters, she notes, as they, ignoring the injured people all around them, try to corner her like snapping hyenas for a sound bite. "I was just happy I could help and be part of the rescue effort." The blue-eyed blonde says cordially through a forced, if natural-looking, smile as she floats up and out of reach of the crowd of microphones.

Turning around, she hovers across the ground, across the barrier the miners had set up to prevent anyone else from going down into it until emergency responders could get there to take over the cordoning duties, thus escaping the media. "Kal." She greets her cousin familiarly, if briefly, then points a mild frown Kent's way. "Who's your friend?"

And then her crystal-blue eyes land on Power Girl, and she falters a little bit. Sure, they'd met and some of that awkwardness had been blown away by cordiality. But she still wasn't exactly sure what to SAY to the woman. 'Hey, sorry, we already have a Supergirl.' didn't seem like the right answer. Especially since Karen had been here first. Technically. "Uh... Hey. Power Girl."

Whew. Out of the forest fire and into the... Collapsing underground tunnel.

...

...Look, they can't all be instant classics, okay!?

Either way, the crisis seems to be over for now, and Power Girl is feeling the adrenaline actually wear off a bit. Her white costume is a bit dusty (one of the downsides of wearing a white is that crap that gets on it shows up more easily than on blue), but she's still perfectly intact and her hair is still nice and smooth and not messed up much, so she pauses long enough to say, "What she said. Make sure those people get proper medical care, and ask them what it was like, or whatever you people do." She waves, grins, and then takes off into the air to meet up with the others. She also isn't quite sure what to say to Supergirl, so she just... Says nothing.

"Good job. Without all of us down there more than a few of those people wouldn't have gotten out in one piece," she offers brightly. Okay, so she says something. "And yeah, is this a friend of yours, Superman?" She holds out a hand, and says, "Power Girl."

Kent manages to avoid the flood of reporters until he has surrendered the injured man in his arms to the paramedics. Then, in order to dodge the crowd of journalists, he takes to the air with an apologetic murmur and a thought towards the previously maligned public relations officers who used to keep their 30th century counterparts away from him and the Legion. "I'd love to chat, meet me a few hundred feet up and a mile west," he says -- hoping their hearing matches that of a Daximite's like he's heard -- then zooms away in the indicated direction at top speed (300 miles per hour).

Superman is a bit slower to meet up with the others. While they run from the reporters, and for good reason, Superman has a soft spot for the profession and knows that he can do his fair share of help via the press. It's part of the job.

"Yeah," Superman says to Karen as she asks about Kent. "He's one of the Legion. And Legionnaires stick together." Within a few moments, Superman's airborne at the assigned meeting point, looking to catch up with the others.

"Yeah. I just kind of wish I could go a single day without anyone in danger. Tried to relax on a beach in Tahiti and a shark tried to eat a little boy. Now there's a picture of a flying girl in a bikini in their newspaper. ...Don't tell Kal." Supergirl offers Power Girl a long-suffering sigh and follows Kent up into the sky to the requisite spot. Might as well make a few moments of small-talk before she flew back to Titan's Tower to see what else Princess Pyre might have burned down while she was away. She was pretty sure that girl could manage to light magma on fire.

"Nice to meet another Legionnaire." Kara gives the sole person in the sky she's NOT related to in some manner a welcoming smile. "I've met most of your friends, I think. For some reason they think I can help them get acclimated because of my own time-traveling adventures." She lifts a hand helplessly, her other fist propped on her hip. "But, y'know, whatever I can do to help."

And then she's floating away a bit, backwards. "I need to go 'home', I guess." Not that she had much other than a crappy apartment and a room in the Tower. "And check on some things. Don't let my cousin boss you around too much. Sometimes he thinks the family crest stands for 'Super-bossy.'" She teases with a wave and a grin, and then streaks out of sight. At least she left at subsonic speeds and didn't leave the others to deal with the thunderous noise of departures at super-speeds.

Power Girl grins at the flying bikini story. "Not a word." She rolls her eyes though thinking about how emergencies tend to chain together. "Tell me about it. The forest fire I was putting out before I got here? I was in the area because a gorilla escaped from the zoo and kidnapped a girl. One thing after another. But... Sometimes I just wish I could keep going without a break. There's always someone in trouble. If we're not there, because we need sleep or a shower, or whatever, things can get ugly." She then rolls her shoulders as she flies alongside Supergirl to join Superman and the Legionarre. "But can't take everything on my shoulders as much as I'd like to. I'm only human." Pause. "You know what I mean!"

Once they arrive, Power Girl hangs around long enough to hear the newcomer's story, if she's allowed to hear it, and then politely excuses herself, much like Supergirl. "I don't have a princess setting fire to everything at home, but I do have stuff to take care of. It was nice to meet you." Then she turns and flies away with a wave -- though she actually heads in the same direction Supergirl was going. She calls out to her alternate self, "Wait up! If there's not another crisis, would you like to get acquainted over lunch tommorow?"

Because this awkwardness has to be dealt with at some point, and the longer it hangs around, the less more awkward it will be. Like some kind of positive feedback loop of awkward.

Or something.

...Seriously, they really can't all be instant classics.

"Nice to meet you," Kent says to each of the young women as they stop nearby and then depart. He gazes off in the direction of the mine and asks, "We got everyone out, right?"

Superman nods to all and to Kent, "Yeah, it looks like it. I took a once and twice over, as did Supergirl. Looks like everyone's going to be okay." Superman chuckles and shakes his head at Kara's retreating remark and gives a wave as Power Girl heads out after her. "Perhaps she knows I heard the bikini comment." He shrugs his shoulders and then looks back at Kent, "Great job today. Those men owe you their lives.”

Kent smiles at the praise from Superman. "What else could I do?" he says in quite sincerity. "I'm just glad I was there so that action could be taken immediately. And that the three of you got there so quickly to provide me that much needed backup, sir."

"Well," Superman says, "You did a lot. I'm pretty glad you were there. We all are." He looks at Kent's ring, "So, you're one of the Legionnaire's I haven't gotten the opportunity to know well. I mean, I was at the crash landing of course, but didn't get a chance to speak with you."

Kent nods. "That's quite true, sir. I never got to thank you for your assistance that day." He pauses and ponders on how horrific it could have been before saying: "Just glad we could keep that from being a disaster."

"Absolutely. I was pretty worried there for a while. Booster and the others really helped out in a pi-" The Man of Steel's words are cut short, as he notices something with his hearing. "Speaking of emergencies, there's an earthquake in California I need to help with. Good seeing you. We'll be in touch." BOOM! In a split second, the Man of Steel is gone, heading West.