Mia Dearden

## Background

### 1996 - 2009: Mia Dearden

Due to having an absent mother & volatile father, Mia never knew much about families. Though young, she had to look our for herself & take care of herself as there was no one else to do it. When she was ten, Mia ran away from home after taking a particularly bad beating from her alcoholic father. After roaming the streets for what felt like weeks, she came across a man introducing himself as Richard. He wasn't homeless like her but a middle class man who happened to take a liking to young Mia.

Young & naive, she quickly fell for Richard's charms but his intent was much more sinister than he let on. He began exploiting her to dozens of men to bring him in some extra revenue. In exchange, he gave Mia a place to lay her head down & food so she didn't starve. Though in her heart she knew that something was wrong with her life, she chose to never question it as she felt that Richard had taken care of her in her time of need.

### 2009 - 2011: Mia Dearden

At the beginning of the year, Mia would finally be rescued along a bunch of other children. Richard had brought her to a location where a bunch of other children were being serviced out to the corrupt.

Black Canary received a tip about the event going down & brought along Tigress, who recently had just come out of a two year retirement. She had been taking care of the city while Oliver & Will were trying to find Roy Harper who had been missing for years. After freeing the children, most of them went back to their respective families as many of them had actually been kidnapped. However, Mia didn't have a family to go back to & there wasn't anyone looking for her either so she was taken in by the foster system of Star City.

But Mia had left an impression on Canary, who decided to do some deep diving into the girl's background once she saw her last name was Dearden. With some help from Felicity, they uncovered that Mia was related to Oliver as their grandfathers were cousins. With a familial connection, Dinah felt she had no choice but to become the family & role model that the girl needed. After speak with Oliver, Dinah began the paperwork to have Mia adopted by the both of them. When the finally welcomed the young teenager home, Mia learned she was not only with the people that saved her but with her blood family.

Dinah had Mia treated for a variety of issues ranging from substance abuse to malnourishment to post traumatic stress disorder. In her down time, Mia learned combat skills from her big "sister" Artemis & from her guarduan Oliver during his frequent breaks from his searches. After hearing stories of them & remembering how they took down all those goons, she decided that she also wanted to become a crimefighter like them.

As they had just recovered Roy, they all were reminded how dangerous this life truly was so they forbid her. Dinah explained that she was too young & that she felt that Mia needed a break from the streets. But Mia said it was the opposite, she needed to be out there. She knew how the men worked & she could help girls like her but they would not budge & told her to just focus on her education.

### 2011 - Present: Speedy

Mia was still allowed to take her defense classes with members of Team Arrow but nothing more was allowed. As time went on, she lost the desire to be a crimefighter as she had become so focused in school so that she could catch up to her appropriate grade.

Upon finally reaching her desired class, she asked her adopted parents if she could join the team again. Now that she was much older, Oliver began to feel better about it though Dinah was still on the fence. They made the compromise that she could start on small patrols with only them but only if her grades stayed up to par. She requested her codename be Speedy, the former codename of her sister & idol.

For almost a year, Mia went on patrols in Star City & began going out with the other members of the team as well. Feeling that she had finally proved herself, Mia asked to join the Titans. When she voiced her dissatisfaction about how the team handled things, Oliver put his foot down, believing that the Titans would help Mia's violent urges.

Mia began splitting her time between Star City & Blüdhaven though she preferred the eastern city much more. Since enrolling at Star City University, she's stopped visiting the bunker as much. After graduating, she hasn't made much plans for leaving & has been living in the Queen Penthouse since college. She did get what she wanted eventually & left the Titans for the Outsiders.

## Personality

Mia grew up living a rough life, which has effectively shaped who she is today. Her past with Richard has made her very untrusting of people. Unless Oliver says someone is okay, she is usually hostile towards them but she has somewhat grown out of this mentality. She is extremely thankful to her adopted parents, Oliver & Dinah, for saving her from her former life.

As noted by Dinah & her half brother Roy, she shares many similarities with Oliver but to a much greater degree. She is tough & is not afraid to use force or violence to get what she wants. When people first meet her, she is usually distant & displays no sign of interest & little respect. She can also be quite stubborn & single-minded, which has led her to make rash decisions, though this is likely due to her not being able to trust others easily. She can be arrogant to the point of being reckless. She jumps into situations without any plan, wasting her abilities on brute force instead of intellectual means which sometimes backfires on her.

## Powers & Abilities

* **Physicality:** Mia is in great physical condition. Despite her small size, she is strong enough to lift her own body weight with gymnastic rings & was able to break a wooden pole with a single kick, as well as dominate opponents bigger than her with relative ease.
	+ ***Acrobatics*:** She has developed free-running skills & could drop from a height of several feet without injuring herself.
	+ ***Hand to Hand Combat/Martial Arts*:** After many years of being taught by her adopted family since her rescue, Mia was proven to be a highly skilled combatant & was skilled enough to beat bigger opponent. Her fighting style appears to include Aikido, Boxing, Hapkido, Judo, Karate, Kali, Taekwondo, Muay Thai, Sambo, Kickboxing, Kung Fu & Krav Maga.
* **Weaponry**: Mia is skilled in the use of many weapons including sticks & swords.
	+ ***Archery*:** After being trained by Oliver, Mia has proven to be a highly proficient archer. Once, while practicing, she managed to cleanly split an apple in two with an arrow. She is also skilled in Kyūdō, potent mix of archery & martial arts which emphasizes focus & coordination.
	+ ***Firearms*:** Mia is highly proficient with firearms.
	+ ***Knife Throwing*:** Mia is highly skilled at using a knife in combat & can improvise an arrow as a stabbing weapon.
	+ ***Stick Fighting*:** She is accomplished at wielding sticks & staffs & similar weapons in combat. She was prepared to improvise a loose pipe as a weapon against an enemy. Like Oliver, she often uses her bow as a blunt weapon in close combat.
	+ ***Swordsmanship***: Her adopted brother Connor has trained her to be a capable swordsman, something she has become exceptional at.

### Ratings

* **Intelligence:** 4 - Trained / Learned
* **Strength:** 4 - Trained / Learned
* **Speed:** 4 - Trained / Learned
* **Occult:** 1 - Nonexistent
* **Weapons:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **Range:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **Strategy:** 3 - Average / Basic
* **Combat:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **TOTAL:** 93 - Threat Level 2 / Low Threat

## Trivia

* She saw in the news that her father had passed away. Alcohol poisoning.
* Mia has yet to speak about her relationship with Dodger to anyone but Artemis. It's mostly a fling of convenience.
* Mia is an avid book reader, usually going through one a week.
* She moved into the Queen Penthouse on her 20th birthday so that she could be closer to her brother.
* She did meet her adopted brother Roy until he was saved in 2010. Mia thinks they bonded over their different hardships. He openly says she is his favorite sibling.
* Her & Cissie's lives are parallel each other. Mia spent her life with Oliver but is his ward & Cissie didn’t know Oliver until she was 16 but is his biological daughter. They respect each other but their personalities don't mesh well.
* After Mia was adopted by Oliver & Dinah, she was given a check up at the doctor's due to her many years on the street. Unfortunately, she learned she had MacGregor's Syndrome & currently takes medicine for it (developed by Mister Freeze).

## Notes

* To view the 2032 version of the character, click HERE.
* Mia having MacGregor's Syndrome is a nod to Earth-27.