Mia Dearden

* Mia Dearden
* Speedy

Mia Dearden is a bow-wielding vigilante who becomes the second Speedy, acting as side-kick to Green Arrow. He rescued her from a child prostitution ring and took her in as his ward, training her in archery.

## Character Origins

Mia Dearden was the child of Liam Dearden, the youngest brother of Moira Queen (née Dearden), and his young wife Isabel. The athletic Mia was raised by her parents in St. Roch until she was twelve years old.

During her summer break between sixth and seventh grade, Mia overheard her dad confront her mom about an unusual test result he had received at a routine doctor's appointment. The result had proven that he could not have been Mia's father and demanded to know the truth. Before Mia's mother told her tale, Mia's eavesdropping was noticed.

Panicked, Mia thought her parents would be getting divorced soon. For weeks, she didn't know what to say or do. She was confused, but that turned to fear when her parents hired an Ex-Special Forces guy to work as Mia's bodyguard, a man named Cole Cash.

It is safe to say that Mia didn't know what was going to happen with her parents, so she focused on getting to know her bodyguard. He was a very different sort of person that any other Mia had encountered in her life. Mia was truly fascinated with Cole, even if the feeling was not mutual.

One day after school, while returning home, Mia's bodyguard realized something was amiss, but it was too late. Mia being the entitled brat she was, ignored Cole and walked in with a dismissive scoff. Inside, Mia saw two strange men.

The men's presence was alarming enough to cause Mia to scream, but the sight of her parents brutally murdered at the men's feet made her downright catatonic. Mia would have been abducted or killed in that vulnerable moment if it had to been for the intervention of Cole.

Mia was uncertain what happened, but when she came out of it, she was in the corner of an Opal City roadside bathroom watching Cole Cash digging a bullet out of his shoulder. Once he realized Mia was alert, Cole insisted she level with him.

Mia didn't have much to share, but she did what she could. Satisfied, Cole had Mia help stitch him up and then they hit the road for Star City, intending to seek the help of Mia's rich cousin, Oliver Queen. During her journey, Cole tossed away his kiddie gloves, and gave Mia a brutal wake-up call. Her training had begun.

### Speedy: 2013 - Present

While on the run from her parent’s killer, Mia’s bodyguard, Cole Cash got wind of a black market bounty put on them and decided to go into hiding near Blue Valley, Colorado. The two held up in a mountain cabin, surviving on roots and poached animals. During this time, Cole taught Mia many survival skills and to conserve ammunition, he taught her to use a bow instead of a gun.

After a month of mountain living, Mia began to actually excel in her training. Before the winter was over, it was clear that Mia was a better archer than Cole ever was. When winter was out, the two fell victim to a group of mercenaries led by an expert human trafficker known as “Harvest”. Harvest’s men ravaged the cabin, lighting it on fire to smoke out the occupants. When that didn’t work, they unloaded gunfire into the cabin, hitting Cole. Scared at losing Cole, Mia surrendered, hoping to get medical attention for Cole, but instead they left him in the burning cabin to die and made off with Mia. Surprisingly, Harvest did not bring her to her parents’ killers as he had received a better offer from Debra Sinclair. Taken to “The House”, Mia was infected with MacGregor’s Syndrome and introduced to many other orphans or runaways ranging in age from 13-17; and all infected with MacGregor’s to keep them from acting out or escaping. Due to the difficulty to acquiring the medicine (created by Victor Fries to treat the incurable disease), most of the children were angels out of the arena and hellions inside, fighting to be champion just for extra table rations.

For two years, Mia fought her peers for sport. When big events would call for lethal force, Mia refused to take a life and was withheld her treatment between matches. By the time Cole and Oliver were able to track Mia down and rescue her, she had progressed to State III and was in rough shape.

Oliver gave Mia the best treatment money can buy and she made a rather “Speedy” recovery, returning to Stage I. Then, Mia decided that she wanted to put her arena skills to good use…