Nia Nal

"When innocent people are being attacked, it's not about balance. It's about justice."

- Nia Nal

Nia Nal is a human-Naltorian hybrid, a reporter of CatCo Worldwide Media, and former political speechwriter. She is also the daughter of Paul Nal and the late Isabel Nal, and the estranged younger sister of Maeve Nal. After her mother's death, Nia embraced her powers and became the superheroine Dreamer to assist Supergirl in the battle against the Children of Liberty.

Early life
Nia Nal was born on Earth to Paul and Isabel Nal, a human father and Naltorian mother. She has an older sister, Maeve Nal. Nia was raised in Parthas, a community where aliens and humans peacefully coexisted. Although bearing a rigid emotional attachment to Parthas that imprinted her there, Nia desired life outside of the domain she grew up in.

At a young age, Nia identified as a transgender woman. Her family offered their unconditional love and support during this time. While she struggled bigotry and hate-fueled attacks, including being denied service at establishments, Parthas' tolerance towards those who are different nonetheless allowed Nia to flourish under her new identity. As a result, she developed a penchant for justice and strong desire to help and protect others who faced similar prejudice due to their identities.

When she was 15, Nia once broke her nose during a game of kickball.

In adulthood, Nia moved to Washington, D.C., where she received a degree in International Relations from Georgetown University. Afterwards, Nia became a political speechwriter for the White House's press secretary, Cat Grant, working in President Olivia Marsdin's administration.

Working At CatCo
In late 2018, Nia moved to National City and was hired as a reporter for CatCo Worldwide Media, personally recommended to Kara Danvers by Cat. Wanting to impress Kara, Nia bought her a latte and planned to arrive right on time. However, she was late to work due to her roommate, Yvette, accidentally taking her rental car, leaving Nia to take the bus, where she spilled some coffee on her skirt. In the elevator, Nia complained to the fellow occupant about her troubles before realizing it was none other than Kara. Nia gave her the latte, apologizing for being late. Kara, taken aback by how much Nia sounded just like her whilst the former was Cat's assistant, assured her it was fine. The two then headed into a meeting.

The next day, Nia informed Kara her desire to article an article on National City's new fashion district in East City. When Kara wondered if Nia wouldn't prefer writing a topic with more weight, Nia passionately stated that fashion is a form of art and self-expression, which could have a big impact on people's lives, and how designers would bring color and life to a previously abandoned area. Impressed, Kara urged Nia to pitch that story to the CEO, James Olsen.

At the meeting when James asked for story ideas on the fashion district, Nia was about to speak up, but was interrupted by fellow reporter Mackenzie, who immediately pitched an article emphasizing National City's cultural importance in fashion trends and pointed out she had contacts for exclusive interviews. Nia stayed silent about her story idea and the fashion district article went to Mackenzie. Later when Kara asked why she didn't speak up during the meeting, Nia admitted she became afraid to compete. Kara advised Nia to confront and overpower her fears to make waves at CatCo.

As the anti-alien sentiment grew in the United States following President Olivia Marsdin's unmasking, Nia sided with the aliens, sympathizing with their plight as they suffered persecution for their special looks and powers. While getting coffee at a pizza shop to stay sharp at CatCo, Nia witnessed firsthand when "Barney's" image inducer glitched out, giving him his natural appearance as a Coluan Brainiac 5, angering the chefs, who immediately tried to assault Brainy. Despite him being able to evade their attacks with ease, Nia rushed to the alien Coulan's help, demanding the pizzeria staff to back off and give Brainiac 5 his pizza, shaming them for being so cruel to their patron. She angrily slammed some money on the counter, requesting they serve Brainy under the threat of having their shop closed down once Nia exposed their bigotry at CatCo.

As the duo left the pizza shop, Brainy thanked Nia for her support, befuddled as to why the people he considered his friends attacked him when they saw his real looks. Nia explained she understands what that feels like and assured that Brainy's real friends would be there for him no matter what.

Resisting her anxiety in regards to having a one-on-one talk with such a distinguished professional and her boss, Nia brought up the issue with James. Revealing herself to be transgender, she asked him to write a special CatCo Magazine editorial to show support for the oppressed aliens, as James could create a bigger impact through his position. When James voiced his doubts about not wanting CatCo to appear biased, Nia countered that in this situation, innocent people were being attacked, people who needed justice more so than just balanced reporting.

That evening, Nia witnessed a scene at CatCo, where a Dryad employee, Franklin, became a target of a mean prank by Mackenzie. James immediately stepped in and diffused the situation, making sure Franklin received an apology. He sternly lectured the employees about inter-species tolerance, pointing out that ignorance is the enemy for journalists. Touched, Nia mouthed a silent "thank you" to James. She and her coworkers later watched Supergirl's televised speech to the city.

Personality
"I just... I move too fast 'cause that's what I do. I push myself and I take on more than I can handle. My mother always said it." "But that's what heroes do. Leaping before one looks is part of the job description."

- Nia Nal and Brainy

Nia is proven to be similar to Kara Danvers; hardworking, meticulous, and eager to prove herself as a reporter. While somewhat shy, she has shown to be passionate about her new job, determined to tell a compelling story. Nia developed a close mentor-student relationship with Kara, whom she looks up to.

Nia has a strong sense of justice and will never hesitate to speak out for what is right in the face of injustice and stand up for what she believes in. For example, Nia stood up for Brainiac 5 when some pizza chefs tried to attack him for being an alien, threatening to expose the bigotry in the establishment unless they agreed to serve him. She also personally requested her boss, James Olsen, to issue a statement condemning these anti-alien attacks. Having personally faced bigotry due to being transgender, Nia is open-minded, accepting, and empathetic to fellow victims of prejudice and hate.

Nia aspires to be independent and self-sufficient, being very dedicated to her job. As a result, when her latent powers began manifesting and caused a sleep disorder, Nia refused help from anyone for a time, only agreeing to let Kara and Brainy in when realizing her dreams could help fight against the Children of Liberty.

Nia has lightly flirted with Brainy on several occasions, even mistaking a meeting between the two of them as a date until Brainy made his intentions concise and clear. By Nia's own testimony though, she is not quite sure what she could have liked about the Coluan - or if she even actually is.

Powers
"You have anticipatory dreams."

- Brainy


 * Human-Naltorian hybrid physiology: Nia is half-Naltorian and half-human. Her alien powers are accessible to one woman of each generation from her home planet, Naltor, and were apparently common enough that Nia understood what was happening when her powers unexpectedly started to manifest.
 * Superhuman durability: Nia is proven to have a level of superhuman durability, able to block multiple punches from Menagerie while barely fazed. She also was able to withstand an amount of energy that would kill a human relatively unharmed.
 * Oneiromancy: Nia has the ability to see the future through her dreams. These visions are sometimes symbolic, metaphorical, or even feature rather blurry imagery and thus bear hidden or unclear meanings and implications, leaving it up to the dreamer to interpret them. Nia is unable to control and know exactly what's happening in her dreams and where it is happening, nor can she properly interpret such or anticipate when it shall happen until it actually does. Furthermore, the nebulous outcomes that a Naltorian Dreamer foresees are implied to be far from absolute, since Maeve Nal implied that a dreamt eventuality can be prevented with the right method of intervention.
 * Precognition: Nia's power allows her to see attacks yet to come and to prepare for them. Since this is a side-effect of her primary precognitive power to subconsciously perceive eventualities while sleeping, Nia herself does not have to fall asleep first to access this aspect of her precognitive abilities; any impending danger will autonomously alert Nia - expressed in a vision seemingly indicated by a noticeably abrupt jerking motion of her body, with eyes instinctively closing as she briefly experiences a soon-to-happen (and otherwise disastrous) event through her mind's eye - thereby potentially allowing her to intervene in time and prevent the immediate outcome she just glimpsed. However, being the acolyte Dreamer that she presently is, Nia seemingly has no control where or when this precognitive power will act up - much less without her voluntary consent - to warn her of a threat, as it has only done so far in times quite sporadically. Nonetheless, the powers demand her immediate attention while giving her only a fixed measure of time to possibly come up with and enact an intervention in response. With it, Nia was able to anticipate a gunshot fired by a Child of Liberty headed towards her direction - by having a vision of the shot coming - and even managed to move her handcuffs right in front of the bullet’s predicted trajectory, blocking the projectile with the’ chains, simultaneously freeing herself. Later, through this aspect of oneiromancy, Nia rescued Maeve from getting struck down by a raging Child of Liberty swinging down an ax during their mother Isabel Nal's memorial, having foreseen the weapon to be striking down at the podium her sister stood on.
 * Dream-walking: Apart from dreaming the future, it was hinted that one in possession of the oneiromantic trait can also use it to "dream-walk" into the same dream with other people, allowing the Dreamer to mentally drift into the subconsciousness of another who also sleeps. This power is seemingly not limited to another Naltorian Dreamer. Dream-walking appears to be how the previous Dreamer traditionally and esoterically confirms the identity of her successor; in her final moments, Isabel inadvertently pulled Nia into the former’s subconscious dream, which made the Nal matriarch realize that she was to be succeeded as a Dreamer by Nia and not Maeve.
 * Astral projection: After requesting deeper knowledge on her home planet from Kelex, Nia became capable of projecting her consciousness into an incorporeal state and thereby move about beyond the confines of her physical body - allowing Nia to exit her tangible body and travel around in an astral body. This is an advanced technique for an oneiromancer and months ahead of basic training, according to Querl Dox. This ability possibly constitutes the basis for Naltorian "dream-walking", with the Dreamer in question projecting her ethereal consciousness into the running subconscious of another person in order to be in the same dream with them. Nia, while under meditative concentration, was initially only able to project her astral form’s hands from her actual bodily ones. Later, Nia successfully demonstrates being able to fully astral project her intangible consciousness - bearing the likeness of her actual self as Dreamer, suit and all - beyond the confines of her body, which enabled her to not only spy with impunity upon her targets but also to "synchronize" with a telepath like J'onn J'onzz - thereby voluntarily bring others along into the astral plane with her.
 * Oneirokinetic blasts: It was seen that Nia's mental energies which allow dreaming the future could also be projected into and actually be able to affect the physical world. If tapped into and untamed, these vibrant and incandescent blue energies are powerful enough to be fired with such concussive force that can considerably damage even the crystalline structures of the Fortress of Solitude. With Querl conceiving the notion of honing these said energies into weaponized practicality, he designed a special set of gloves for Nia to be incorporated into her Dreamer suit, ensuring the hybrid could harness and "calibrate" the raw dream energy and non-lethally blast enemies from a distance, or "charge" them as glowing energized orbs upon the palms of her gloved hands (seemingly channeled and originating from the undersides of her suit's wrists) to intimidate someone at point-blank range.
 * Oneirokinetic projections: Nia can now make projections out of her dream blasts with any hand-based attacks, such as chains and shockwaves.

Abilities
"Well, James said your passion for making the world a better place is matched only by the elegance of your prose, so..."
 * Expert hand-to-hand combatant: With her precognitive powers, Nia has displayed the beginning signs of an unpolished but skilled fighter; she was able to block a punch from Menagerie and knock her out. With some training from Braniac 5, Nia's combat skills have improved to the point she is able to fight blindfolded. Nia gradually become a seasoned fighter, able to battle evenly with Menagerie and Hat.

- Alex Danvers to Nia Nal


 * Writing: Nia is a very talented writer, having worked as a political speechwriter for the White House, a prestigious position she achieved while still in the early stages of her adult life. Nia's prose and language as a reporter has been consistently praised by her superiors at CatCo Worldwide Media.

Weaknesses

 * Open interpretation: Being a total novice in the ways of dream interpretation, Nia could misinterpret or misconceive what her prophetic dreams allow her to foresee. For example, Nia failed to interpret the omen she received about her mother, Isabel, dying of a spider bite; she mistook the ink that Maeve used for her artwork to be lethal poison, as that was the cause of Isabel's death in Nia's perceived dream. In actuality, the black fluid in Nia's dream was merely a representation of death and Isabel's demise in the real world, while destined to be by poison, was to come from a spider's venom. This was implicated in Nia's dreams by the cobwebs she saw when her mother died.
 * Intermittent precognition: Nia's precognitive powers - be it dreamt or even glimpsed while awake - have a fixed duration that denotes how far she can see into the future. So far, the powers allow Nia to only foresee from mere seconds up to within a minute’s worth of a certain event; any occurrence to happen after that is entirely beyond her ability to anticipate. This may leave Nia extremely vulnerable to subsequent assaults or when repetitively under such executed upon her by the opposition. For example, despite being fully garbed in her Dreamer suit and having apparently foreseen a confrontation with Menagerie, Nia was nearly bitten from behind by one of the hostile alien's serpentine creatures but rescued by Supergirl just in time. Nia even explicitly admitted that she dreamt nearly all the details except for Supergirl grabbing the creature and saving her in the process.
 * Power-dampening tech: Just like with any other alien, Nia’s powers can be dampened by technology specifically designed to weaken her powers.

Former Weaknesses

 * "Narcolepsy": When Nia's powers began manifesting, she struggled with insomnia as she was terrified of sleeping and seeing vague fragments of the future. She would subsequently fall asleep at random times during the day, hindering her day-to-day life, similar to narcolepsy. However, after Nia learned to accept and control her powers, her sleep patterns returned to normal.

Equipment

 * Dreamer suit: Nia wears a protective suit as "Dreamer" to hide her identity from her enemies when she goes out fighting crime. She received her mother, Isabel Nal's, old suit from her father, Paul Nal.

Supergirl
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Season 4
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Trivia

 * Nia is the first human-alien hybrid to appear in the Arrowverse.
 * Rudy Jones does not count as he was a human turned into a hybrid by the Angon alien parasite.
 * Also, Ruby Arias isn't considered since her mother Samantha's alien powers were part of a separate persona.
 * Her phone number is 555-8010.
 * Every morning, Nia gets an extra large coffee with milk and no sugar from Bob's Diner.
 * S'mores are Nia's favorite dessert, but she will always choose salty over sweet.
 * According to online tests, Nia is a Gryffindor and her Patronus is a dapple gray stallion. She's also a Miranda and House Stark.
 * Nia is an INFP personality.
 * She loves Thursdays and the month of April.
 * Nia is an extreme anomaly in her family for inheriting her mother's power of precognition; she was originally born a boy and the power was initially known to only be inherited by a natural-born daughter.

Behind the scenes

 * In the DC comics, Nia's descendant Nura Nal is a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 30th and 31st centuries. Her home planet is Naltor.