Cat on a Hot Bright Moon, Part 3

To the moon, Miranda!

Welcome to Olympus City, where super-powers, physics-defying tech, and unearthly creatures are all possible now. Human nature, however, remains unchanged.

No one is born a perfect superhero, but a few strive to live up to the ideal anyway.

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Previously: Miranda visited her family, sort of, and now it’s time for the trip she’s been dreading.

Part 3

No bullet could penetrate Miranda’s skin, and yet she hated the idea of entrusting her life to a rubber oxygen mask.

Sibyl strapped the belt around her waist as they stood in the Hephaestus Enterprises parking lot. Miranda wasn’t even getting an oxygen tank—just a collection of miniature capsules that would feed air through a tube and into the rubber mask. Outside the mask would be nothing. Truly nothing. A void. The void.

Miranda once had a bad experience in outer space. Not because of any alien assault or zero-gravity battle. As far as she knew, no extraterrestrials existed anywhere within reach of the solar system. She might have preferred aliens to endless emptiness.

Carey watched the preparations, thumbs hooked in pockets. “You don’t have to do this, Ultra Woman. My armor’s nearly ready. Trip to the moon would make a decent test drive.”

Miranda stiffened. Had he noticed her fear? Would it even occur to him that a superhero might dread a trip to outer space?

Sibyl tightened the belt with a final tug. “Only if it’s a successful test drive.”

Holding the rubber mask in her hand, Miranda breathed in the fresh Earth air. “This will help find Fantastic Man and the others, right?”

“It should,” Sibyl said. “It won’t be any guarantee, but lunar matter will give another frame of reference to work off of.”

“Then the sooner I get those rocks, the sooner we might bring our people home.” Miranda tucked a sterile collection bag into her belt, then put the mask on. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“You’ve got a day’s worth of air.” Sibyl seemed rather nonchalant about the idea of a self-propelled voyage to the moon. “Should be plenty for you. No hurry.”

“Right.” Miranda gazed up at the sky, which was only beginning to dim, merely a hint of the darkness beyond. “Off I go.”

Miranda pushed off the pavement and rocketed straight up. A rush of heat washed over her as she broke through the atmosphere, and she worried about how her oxygen would hold up. But there was no reason to worry yet, she reminded herself. She was still close enough that she could easily change course and dive right back into the safety of Earth’s atmosphere.

She kept going. The temperature plummeted, deeply enough for even her to feel it. It wasn’t too bad yet, though, especially with the insulation of her costume.

Instinctively, she held her breath. With effort, she allowed herself to breathe. The oxygen tasted stale, like she was cooped up in a tiny room and needed to open a window. But it nourished her lungs well enough.

She focused on the moon ahead, and the orb gradually swelled as she accelerated. The one plus side of space travel was that she could truly push herself to maximum speed without any concern. She had never clocked herself—wasn’t sure how she’d even manage it. She was slower than Fantastic Man in his photonic form, but sound was no match for her. She tried to estimate how much faster than sound she might be. It helped pass the time.

Miranda kept an eye out for the frozen zombie unicorns she had previously lured out here. She didn’t notice any, and hoped they had drifted away, preferably into the sun.

The oxygen continued to flow. Miranda steadied her breathing after realizing she was going a little hard there. Her breathing was the only sound she could hear, and even that was merely the echo of it within her head. Everything else was silence.

The moon approached, and she tried not to think about how much farther away the Earth was getting. No looking back. Not yet.

But it was time to slow down. For a brief moment, she wondered what would happen if she crashed into the moon at full speed. Was she strong enough to alter its orbit? Would she leave a crater that was visible from Earth?

I’d rather not know, she decided.

Cutting her speed down to a fraction, Miranda oriented herself to soar over the surface. She had never seen the moon up close. Since that first near-death experience in space, she hadn’t ventured out much farther than satellite range.

The lunar dust looked amazing. And, she realized, no one had ever seen such a clear, unfiltered view of the moon. No helmet, no force field, no barriers. Her domino mask may have altered the appearance of her eyes, but it didn’t cover them. Miranda was seeing the moon as it truly was.

She righted herself and descended. Her boots sank into the dust, leaving footprints that would endure long after she left.

The sun-brightened Earth loomed overhead. The planet had become the moon, a superior moon. Distance transformed it into a radiant orb, and Miranda could see all it contained. Vast blue oceans, mighty continents, swirling heavenly clouds, and so much life within all of that. It seemed supernatural. Scientifically acceptable magic.

Miranda was never able to properly take in this sight during her previous trips to space. Always in too much of a rush as her lungs burned. But now she forgot about the oxygen mask as her lips curled into a faint smile. She almost understood Alyssa’s fascination with outer space, until she realized that all the splendor was contained in there, within Earth, not out here. Out here was nothing but desolation. Nothing and no one for thousands and thousands of miles. Miranda stood alone on this remote outpost with nothing but a rubber oxygen mask, air capsules, and sophisticated clothing to sustain her existence. The chill penetrated her tights.

She pulled out the bag and prepared to gather a sample. Sibyl hadn’t been too specific, and Miranda had neglected to ask for more detail. So, she looked around at the gray wasteland, wondering if some rocks were better than others, also wondering how exactly this material would help locate three people stranded in an unknown alternate dimension.

All was quiet except those questions and the echo of her breathing.

Then something brushed against her leg.

Miranda leapt straight up, rising several times her height before she caught herself. She didn’t descend immediately, though. She needed to see what the hell that was.

It was a cat. An American bobtail perched itself on its haunches and gazed up at Miranda, as though contemplating what business a human had on the moon.

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