2012-07-31 Blue Threat No More

The alarm came in the middle of the evening and the rush was on. Superman had opened the townie door of one of the barracks and let Aspen know that it was time to move. Now.
 
 
He carried her in his arms across the country towards the pacific ocean near a set of sparsely populated pacific islands where they were apparently purchasing supplies. Satellite imaging had shown three images looking like subs in the area. Intelligence reports suggested they were congregating and moving towards an attack deep within the sea.
 
 
The rush of air certainly musses Aspen's hair as they pull to a stop. "Let's go to work," Superman says.
 
 
Luckily Superman's tough, because moving at those speeds for the first time? Is damned intimidating and Aspen doesn't just hold onto Superman, she's got something of a death grip on him during that flight from the east coast out to the west. By the time they get to the target, she's relaxed somewhat. Both having gotten used to it but also being over water instead of all that dry, unforgiving land.
 
 
"I should be able to keep the subs from going anywhere, but if they decide to detonate..." Aspen says with some worry. Dealing with potential weapons of mass destruction. There's no easy way to deal with them.
 
 
Superman nods, "I can use my heat vision to slice the devices away, but I'll need to count on you to save the people." Superman drops here the 15 final feet into the water. "I know you're upset with them," he says as she rises, "But they deserve justice, not vengeance."
 
 
Aspen loosens her hold on Superman, sliding down the front of his body to splash down into the water, disappearing for a moment before her head and shoulders re-emerge, her hair slicked back from her face. "I want answers." It's not the best assurance, but it is something, right? Then she dives back under, disappearing from sight as she swims towards the subs, the water urging her forward faster than a normal human could swim.
 
 
Superman is submerged right behind Aspen and uses his telescopic vision. He speaks out loud, not knowing if she can understand him under water. "If you can disrupt the sonar..." But his words come out weirdly and under water. The pair close in on the submarines without them knowing the better.
 
 
The pair are small enough to probably show up as dolphins or something, which should help. As they move in, Aspen heads towards the hatch of one of them. It gives her something to hold onto. She braces herself and nods to Superman, waiting for him to initiate. She'll need to bring the sub up closer to the surface to give its occupants a decent chance of survival.
 
 
Superman nods to hers and his eyes go a dark crimson for a moment before shooting heat through the water towards the submarine. The energy from his eyes is not as powerful, dissipated a bit by the water, but it's still effective. He makes some slices, having already looked in with his x-ray vision, and starts pulling things out and away. The missiles themselves begin to sink slowly. He begins swimming downward and upward stacking nuclear weaponry on one of the abandoned islands nearby.
 
 
Aspen sees very well underwater, and sees the water boil in the wake of those two red beams. It's enough to make her shiver, just a bit, imagining the heat. But she stays focused on the task. As Superman cuts into the sub, the ocean suddenly surges, pushing the weight of the sub up, up, up towards the surface until it breaks the surface. Aspen gives a toss of her head, wet hair flipping back from her face and then dives back into the water for the next, leaving the crippled sub safe on the surface.
 
 
Superman works quickly on the second, doing much the same thing. He takes the nuclear weapon out easily, just as the third sub is about to start its getaway. To prevent it, his eyes take out the engine bay of the sub quickly before he rises again to get rid of this weapon.
 
 
While Aspen doesn't exhibit the quick, destructive power of Superman, the volume of water that she commands to those that can recognize it is impressive. The control she manages, lifting each sub without flooding the islands nearby should give people pause. But there's no one around to witness it but Superman, and his definition of impressive is likely a bit skewed. One by one, the subs are disarmed and brought to the surface. As the last one rises, Aspen stands. Her eyes are glowing blue-white and her hands up to her elbows glow with the same contained energy.
 
 
But just as Aspen begins to take care of the third, the Captain gets spooked. There's a WHOOOOSH as he fires his nuclear warhead that explodes away from Aspen, Superman, and the sub at an unbelievable speed.
 
 
Aspen's head whips around as the warhead launches, eyes going wide. "NO!" The sub is forgotten for the moment, Aspen's arms coming up and forward as she tries to slow the warhead by creating an opposing current along it. She swims quickly, but nowhere near fast enough to catch that thing.
 
 
Superman makes headway too. He's not as experienced a swimmer as Aspen, but he cheats with his superpowers. The weapon goes extremely fast, however, and it takes some effort to catch up. The flame out the tail end would burn away any normal human's face, but he the Man of Steel is unharmed. Instead, his powerful hands grab each edge of the exhaust shaft and he pushes down hard to send the missile upwards. He then lifts with all his might, faster and faster.
 
 
Aspen pushes away from the sub, swimming off after Superman and the weapon. While she knows she can't overtake the missile, she might be able to catch up as Superman wrestles with it.
 
 
But even as she tries to assist, Superman is swimming along straight upwards. In a moment he breaks the surface and he and the missile are airborne. The device may or may not be on a timer, so he needs to get it out of there. Bright red heat rays cut the missile in half in order to make it more manageable and the other half falls harmlessly to the water. He continues to climb higher and higher, trying to reach space before it explodes.
 
 
The water pushes Aspen up out of the water after Superman, the geyser of water propelling her about fifteen feet up before it stops, holding her there. Her head is tilted back, looking up after Superman as he pulls away faster and faster until he's little more than a speck... and then he's gone.
 
 
There would be a boom, but there's no noise in space. Luckily, Superman had reached the outer reaches of the atmosphere and chucked the weapon out along the milky way and far away from planets. The missile would have broken the speed of sound several times over, but again..no sound in space. When it explodes, people can see it all the way down on Earth. Before he returns, Superman uses his breath to blow the fallout away from the earth.
 
 
Aspen knows that the media says that Superman's invulnerable, but that doesn't keep her heart from stopping when that explosion appears like a flower of light in the sky. It doesn't keep her from standing there, still, waiting with eyes fixed upwards for the Man of Steel to return.
 
 
After a few minutes Superman shows up behind her, looking up at the sky. "Could you see it from down here?" He looks to her. "Well that was sure something, wasn't it? Glad it worked out."
 
 
Aspen starts as Superman's voice sounds behind her and she turns around fast enough to make even her wet hair flare about her face. She's just standing there, staring him with wide, surprised eyes, lips parted as her jaw drops. The whole time he speaks she just... stares at him. And then he's being tackled by the wet Aspen as she throws her arms around his neck to hug him tightly. Then abruptly she she's shoving back from him, "I was worri--oww!" OK, shoving the Man of Steel. Not the best idea.
 
 
"Oh, I had plenty of time," Superman says with a chuckle. "I threw it a pretty good deal away from the earth before it blew." He smiles at her. "Looks like the Blue are safe. At least the time being.
 
 
Aspen still looks like she might want to thwak him about the head and shoulders for making her worry. Even that short period of time. Finally she lets out a slow breath. "I guess I'm not used to exactly how super the 'super' in your name is." She says with a shake of her head.
 
 
Superman makes a face and shrugs his shoulders. "It's sort of a self-righteous name. I didn't come up with it." He smiles at her and reaches out for her shoulder. "We're close to China, if you'd be interested in something to eat."
 
 
"Tempting." Aspen turns back towards the subs. "But there's just a bit of unfinished business to take care of here." Like making sure that every one of the people on those subs is in custody.
 
 
Superman fakes astonishment, "They can't swim?"
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