The Red and Blue Blur

Aisha carefully turned the doorknob, touching it so carefully it felt like she wasn't touching it at all. The finger shaped dents from previous time said otherwise. Many a times did she and her parents have to have it replaced because of her inability to gauge her own strength, but nowadays the money to pay fir the bills came from her pocket after making the same mistake over a dozen times.

Again, doing her best to restrain her actions, she tapped the door open with her shoulder.

"Bismillah, asalamu'alaykum," she greeted loudly as she entered the house and pushed the door shut.

"Wa'alaikumusalam," her father answered from his office. Aisha listened as he shut his laptop, pushed his chair back, and he made his way to the entrance, footsteps echoing loudly in her ears.

She kissed her fathers hand and cheeks, as was customary in their household, and walked to the kitchen. Setting down the groceries, she let out a small breath and began undoing her hijab. "How was your day, pa?" She asked as she removed the pins from her scarf and slipped them in her pockets, knowing that they wouldn't do anything to her impenetrable skin. Although, sometimes they poked out of her clothing and spooked her parents, until they realized who they were looking at.

"Good, alhamdulillah. Business is great."

"Alhamdulillah," she mimicked and methodically combed through her long, blonde hair with her fingers to remove any snags and get everything back in place. She moved on to putting the groceries in order once she was done fixing herself and her father sat on one of the kitchen islands.

"How was school?"

"Good, good. I turned in my essay. The one I spent all last night trying to finish. And tomorrow I'm going to be tutoring some people, so I won't be home for dinner."

They spent more time talking with each other, until a woman walked into the kitchen as well, pulling up her sleeves and tying her own blonde hair back.

"Salam, mama," Aisha greeted happily and bent down to kiss her mother's cheeks sweetly.

"Salam, baby," she answered back. "I'm going to do dinner now."

With that prompt, Aisha went to the sink and washed her hands. As they worked harmoniously to make dinner for the entire family, Aisha's father moved on to the living room and turned the TV on. After watching a few channels and going back an forth between them, he finally flipped to Al Jazeera, a channel well known in all the Middle Easterners and Arabic speaking households.

"-only at Al Jazeera. Yesterday, sightings of a blue and red blur has appeared over the city. It has been recorded by multiple witnesses. Here are some clips..."

Curious, Aisha wiped her hands with a cloth her and went to the living room. She stood behind the couch where her father was sitting and leaned her body against it. Just like the reporter had said, there were videos of a red and blue indistinct shape flying at insane speeds across the screen and then disappearing into the blue sky.

Her father looked up at her. When she glance down, his slightly suspicious gaze met her own.

"No, it wasn't me, I swear." She immediately denied with her hands up.

He turned back around and squinted at the screen. "Then what is it? A drone? A plane? A UFO?"

"Who knows? Could be anything."

"Hmm, well what are the chances that it might be someone who can fly like you?"

She shrugged, even though that was the first thought that her mind jumped to when she saw the first clip.

For the rest of the day, as she helped with the process of dinner and then left to do some studying, her mind kept going back to what she had seen on TV. Whatever it was would have been as fast as her and probably could go at faster speeds from what she had seen. It made her incredibly curious and wonder about all the scenarios where it could be a person moving that quickly and if she could possibly ever meet them.

Hours into the night, when she had finished all her studying and assignments, Aisha watched more videos and read more articles on the blur. It quickly had become an internet phenomenon, with people speculating and debating with each other over the topic. From the information she had accumulated, she found that it had appeared mostly in Metropolis and occasionally other places around the world.

Then she stumbled across one article, referred to by a pretty obsessive person arguing in a blue/red blur thread, and it was a very small one written by a news site with barely any online presence. A young girl had been saved from being sexually abused by a family friend almost a month ago. The only thing that the small girl could recount was that she was whisked away by a man in blue with a red cape from her home as soon as the pedophile cornered her in her room and she began screaming. The pedophile was found gagged and bound in front of the police station only a minute later while the girl was deposited in a Child Protective Service building with a note depicting what had occurred.

Police officials weren't able to connect the hand writing to anyone and were baffled by the whole ordeal. In the end, they chalked it up as the girl being traumatized and had created the superhero scenario in her mind to cope.

Aisha closed her laptop shut and laid across her bed, staring up at her bedroom ceiling. Her heart raced with excitement and so she spent a while there thinking, unable to go to sleep.

After an hour laying in her bed feeling restless, she got up and went downstairs. The young woman slipped her shoes on and left the house. Once she made it to a secluded part of the neighborhood, she focused her attention to any heartbeats and breathing to determine if any people were awake and also changed her sight to x-ray vision. Glancing around in an instant, she made sure that no one was lingering at their windows in the middle of the night or walking around in the darkness.

Once she found everything clear, she lifted into the air and zipped across the sky, enjoying the beautiful night sky and cool air. In the process, her hoodie whipped back and revealed all her hair, but she made not effort to cover herself again—knowing that there was no one around to witness her without a head covering.

She flew across the city, making sure that she went in a speed that was fast enough to not allow her to be spotted by the human eye.

Now that she realized it, the blur probably got caught by eye witnesses purposefully. If they were anything like her, they could have easily avoided being caught on camera, so why did they want the attention? She didn't know exactly why, but she thought about it some more and came to the conclusions that they were either slowly revealing themselves to the public or and/or warning people with their existence. Assuming that it was sentient of course, and that the girl from the article had been truthful with her description.

Slowing down when she spotted land, she turned herself upright and let her feet fall onto a sandy beach of Morocco that was completely unavailable to the public with all the very high cliffs surrounding it. After removing her shoes and socks, she set them aside on a large boulder that sat against the rocky cliff and dug her toes into the warm sand. It wasn't as fine as the ones she had experienced in the west coast of the US, but she like it all the same.

Slowly, she dipped her toes into the freezing waters of the Atlantic Ocean, taking the account of the cold—but harmless for her—temperatures against her skin and wondering how it would feel on a normal person. Aisha quickly dismissed the thought, having had repeated different versions of it countless of times in her life. Instead, she turned her attention to the ocean once more and descended into the deep waters—ocean rising steadily as she walked deeper and deeper.

When her entire head went under, immediately her eyesight became accustomed to the blurriness caused by the water and sharpened so that she could see through the darkness in detail. She also released the air that had been trapped in her lungs unnecessarily from the breathing that she taught herself to maintain subconsciously. It bubbled and floated to the surface in an instant, and she could hear it popping as it was released into the air.

If Aisha wanted, she could have used her limbs to swim through the water like a normal human, but decided there was no point since she had her flight to her advantage. So she drifted along as if she were in the air, taking in the coral reefs and various kinds of fish that were offered in Morocco's ocean.

Nothing was amiss, and multiple times she stopped and had taken in a sight of exotic fish that was only found in the deepest parts of the ocean, where she soon found herself to be in after nearly an hour of rapid swimming.

As she went further and deeper into the ocean where no human had ever ventured before, she noticed the pressure begin to weigh down on her form but felt little when she continued. To be honest, she never felt such a thing before and quickly became interested on the sensation, so she swam a little faster. It built quickly, until there came a point where it seemed like her own hands where pushing down against her shoulders, back, and legs.

In the end, what made her leave was the pitch darkness. It was like no matter how many times she blinked it still felt like, for the first time in her life, she needed to squint in order to see properly. Although she could see pretty well, all things considered, Aisha felt uncomfortable having to strain her sight. It was like trying to see something with a magnifying glass but still finding the enlarged image blurry—and dark.

With a hand raised above her, she zoomed through the water and broke through the surface in no time, laughing as she effortlessly made it into the air but choked as the water in her lungs tried expel from her mouth. Once more, she removed the contents of her lungs and coughed harshly to get rid of any remaining liquid. It wasn't irritating but it definitely bothered her when some of it made its way to her mouth and she had to taste fishy, salty flavor of ocean water.

Aisha decided that she had fear fill of adventure, and mentally checked off her journey from the places she wished to explore. So far, she had been to most of South Africa but had never really been up in the north. The only time that she remembered ever visiting North Africa was to visit the pyramids.

As she flew higher into the sky, she noticed how her clothing stuck to her body but knew it would become dry in an instant during flight.

The air whipped through her clothes as she made her way beck to the beach, drying everything, including her long hair, as she had predicted. Not even bothering to land back on the beach when she arrived to retrieve her belongings, she plucked her shoes mid-air and left. Along the way, she slipped her socks and shoes on and then returned to flying horizontally, since it allowed her to travel slightly more easily—and felt more natural that way in her opinion.

Nearing the shores of the US, she quickened her pace until she made it into her bedroom within a second. The disruption in her momentum caused all her hair to be thrown forward and found it's place all over her face. She sputtered and whipped it back, wishing there was a solution to keeping her hair bound and out of the way when she flew. She tried everything, from using a hair tie—which loosened the moment she took flight—to braiding her hair to using a piece of metal wire instead of a hair tie, but every single time, her hair found a way to get free.

As a woman who took much pride in her long, silky, blonde hair, she was completely against the idea of cutting all off, especially since it took years of growing and grooming to get it nearly reaching mid-thigh. Blessed with good genes, her hair always stayed glossy and soft, and she had gotten a lot of admiration from it before she had decided to adorn the hijab.

Aisha walked to her drawers and picked out another set of pajamas and went to shower. Unfortunately, her time in the water left her feeling a little dry from all the salt that dried on her skin, but after a quick rinse, she felt clean.

Feeling more relaxed than she had been in the beginning of the night, she went under her covers and sunk back into her bed.

It took no time for her to dose off—not exactly sleeping since her body didn't require it—but loosing a bit of consciousness and allowing time to pass rapidly. The young woman could go on for days without sleep, and yes, she had tried it before (studying for school, why else?), but the end of the second month alway ended up with her feeling mentally slow. Quickly, she realized that her body was an endless battery, always charged and ready to go, but her mind needed rest like everyone other human—although it could function better and for weeks longer than a normal person who tried to go on for days without sleep.

She would only get about three hours of rest until it was time for prayer, so she made sure to 'sleep' as lightly as she could, aware that if she slept too deep, she would definitely sleep through fajr.

Then an audible pop sounded off in the distance, close to her home. Aisha immediately sat up and zoomed to her window. It was the noise of air being displaced too quickly, too unnaturally. It alarmed her because it was a noise eerily similar to the one she made when she was standing somewhere and then flew or ran at an incredible speed in an instant.

There was nothing in the air when she scanned it thoroughly, and nothing in the streets. For a while, she just stood there, hoping something or someone would appear, but too scared to go out herself and investigate. Scared that she would find something other than the blur and red blur, but more specifically, a person dressed in red in blue who was superpowered like her, and face gut-wrenching disappointment.

For most of her youth, she had dreamed of finding someone like herself. At first, it was someone she could play with without having to worry about restraining her strength and bruising them, then it transitioned to someone who she could could simply relate to during her teenage years, but in the end, adulthood forced her to start thinking logically and dismiss those hopes before she spent the rest of her life waiting for someone who would never show up.

But now, with the appearance of the blur, all those hopes quickly reappeared and left her grasping at them. So she stood there at her bedroom window, waiting for a sign, a movement, anything really. She held her breathe anxiously for minutes until there was another pop in the distance. She released it loudly and grasped the ledge tightly.

She wasn't going crazy and it wasn't part of her imagination. Although that moment of relief left instantly the moment she heard whatever it was that made the noise travel in her direction.

Aisha gasped loudly when it flickered past her home, but it didn't end up being an "it". "It" was actually a person. A man. In a blue skintight suit and red cape. Muscular and Caucasian with incredibly dark hair.

Not a millisecond after she gasped, he paused momentarily and looked back—straight at her. His face turned to an expression of bewilderment, completely and utterly confused because to the rest of the world, time nearly had stopped, and it was impossible for someone to see him, let alone meet his gaze straight on.

They watched each other for what let like minutes, when it wasn't even close to a second that passed.

"Are you like me?" She spoke quickly, too fast for the human mind to comprehend her words, but by the look in his eyes, he heard and understood her words clearly.

He paused, and time resumed as it was. Whole seconds ticking away as he stared at her and tried to formulate words. "Who are you?" He eventually let out.

Realizing that they were about to have a conversation, she flickered out and into existence wearing her hijab. He became startled at the action and his eyes kept going back and forth from her face to her headscarf.

"I'm Muslim." She explained with an awkward smile. At least he didn't catch her sleeveless or in shorts, or worse, a tank top without a bra, she thought with relief.

"Oh," he answered with no small amount of perplexment. Again, they stood there for some more time simply taking each other in.

"I'm Aisha Arafa, to answer your question," she prompted almost out of no where. "What's your name?"

"I'm uhhh, my—my name is..." His battle with himself showed visibly on his face, unsure if it was safe to release his identity to her but also wanting to since it was the first time he had ever met another person like him.

"You can't tell me." Aisha decided for him with disappointment once she realized his struggle.

"I—," He began haltingly but then he steeled himself and went for it, "I'm Clark Kent."

"Hi, Clark," she greeted softly with a sweet smile, "It's really nice to meet you. I'd shake your hand but... you know."

"Don't worry about it," he excused easily, although he was a briefly disappointed at the lost opportunity to test her strength with his own.

Aisha wanted to ask more personal questions, like where he was from and how old he was, but decided to stay safe in order to not scare him away. "Are you—"

"How is it—"

They both stopped and laughed awkwardly. Apparently, they were both as fascinated in each other as each other.

"Go ahead." Aisha allowed politely.

"Thanks," Clark told her with a smile, white teeth flashing in the moonlight, "I was going to ask if you were like me and what kind of abilities you had... Since you had no problem seeing me fly and all."

"Oh, yes, I do have powers." She turned her head over her shoulder and glanced at her closet. Throwing a thumb towards her room, she said, "Let me get dressed into something more appropriate. Just a moment."

As soon as he finished his nod, she returned in a long coat and drifted out of her window.

Now that she was entirely revealed and floating across him, he scanned her thoroughly in a completely objective manner but cringed when he realized what he was doing to a woman, and a Muslim woman no less. "Excuse me, that was inappropriate. I apologize." He said with embarrassment and ran his hand through his thick, dark hair—a nervous tick that he had a hard time getting rid of.

She waved it off, not excusing his actions but accepting his apology. "Do you have x-ray vision?" She asked awkwardly after a moment.

Mortified, he shook his head furiously, "I swear I didn't use it on you. Swear to God."

Well that answered her question, but left the atmosphere feeling a thousand times more awkward between them.

"I believe you," she relented and he released a very small breath that rang loudly in her ears. She let out a small breathy laugh and shook her head as she looked down. "It can only get better from this, I think," she stated with amusement, referring to state of their conversation.

He also gave a humorless laugh that held a hint of self-deprecation, "I don't know about that. I'm kind of a clown when it comes to women."

The young woman smiled and shook her head. "I think we should change the subject and put this behind us. I'm more interested in what you can do. Like, can you do this?"

She released a small, but chilled breath that showed like heavy smoke into the air.

Clark gave another small laugh, although this time it was filled with amazement. To answer her question, he did the same thing, their breaths mingling together before their eyes.

To their surprise, Aisha let out a squeal of surprise and slapped a hand over her mouth. They stared at each other, and then began laughing, hers loud and feminine and his booming and deep. After they got a better hold of themselves, they scanned the area to check if anyone had been wakened by the noise–still laughing lowly as the other began once more.

"Okay but can you do this?" Clark looked around and then focused his gaze at the sky. Two bright red beams came from his pupils.

"Yes, yes! I can do that too!" The woman whispered giddily and repeated the same action at the sky.

He grinned at her. "Alright, then one last question. Do you have super strength?"

Aisha looked around and then retrieved a rock the size of her palm, crushing it into fine power before his eyes. "Does this answer your question?"

He gave another breathless laugh. "Oh God, you really are like me. I was low key kinda not expecting that. Is there anything else that you can do?"

She shook her head, "Besides super speed like you, no. You?"

"Nope, all out of party tricks I'm afraid. We'd be really overpowered if we had more abilities than that, don't you think?" He mused.

"Oh yeah, absolutely," Aisha agreed wholeheartedly, "Imagine if we added telepathy or telekinesis to the list. Practically invincible—if we aren't that already."

They laughed again and Clark swiped a hand over his face. "Well, I wasn't expecting my night to go on like this."

"Me neither, but I'm glad I did," she said with a bashful smile.

He returned it in the same way, feeling shy and appreciative of her kind words.

"Oh," Aisha gasped when another thought came to her head, "I'm assuming you know of your true origins then, right?" She waved at his clothing. "I've seen that type of clothing before."

"Kryptonian?" He stated carefully. "How?"

"My birth parents left me with some of their technology after they left me behind on this planet. I now a bit about Krypton and our people."

At this point, Clark didn't know why he was surprised but he was. "I'm Kal-El of the House of El," he decided to reintroduce himself.

"And I'm Arz Yew-Or of the House of Or," she replied back and then to further his shock, she began speaking in rapid Kryptonese. Speaking in twists of vowels and consonants and pronouncing words that almost hurt his bland, English speaking tongue when he thought of trying to say them.

He let her talk until she stopped to wait for him to answer. "I'm really sorry but I don't speak Kryptonian."

A little embarrassed, and a little disappointed she had to admit—she really was looking forward to showing off and practicing her Kryptonese with a real life person—she shrugged and told him, "That's okay. You can learn." Then after a moment, "I can teach you, if you'd like?"

There was a slow smile that grew on his face as he gazed at her. "I'd really like that."