Book 2: Chapter 78: Concept (1/2)

Dan meditated for the first time in months. He sat in t-space, floating in that great nothing, and considered the nature of his own abilities. It was something long overdue. Yes, his power had gotten stronger, and yes, he'd grown more skilled at using it, but he had devoted little thought towards understanding the underlying mechanics of it all. He lacked a strong concept upon which to focus his abilities. It was something between a decision and a discovery. It was up to Dan to decide his concept, but if it did not properly fit his existing powerset then he might forever limit himself.

How annoying.

Dan had been putting this off for some time, reveling in his peaceful, idyllic life. He had never stopped training with his veil, but he'd grown satisfied with growing the, admittedly vast, array of abilities he currently possessed. Everything he could do was an extension of his veil, and its relatively simple power to transfer matter from one dimension to another. It wasn't anything new, so much as a new application of what he already had. Dan suspected he might need more in the coming days.

Riots had broken out in Miami. It wasn't the only major city after Austin to riot, nor was it the first, but it was definitely the closest to Dan. It had been only a handful of days since Champion's face had accused the federal government of illegal kidnapping, internment, and experimentation. The country wasn't falling apart by any means, but Dan couldn't have imagined this level of civil unrest in his old home, to say nothing of the authority-obsessed Dimension A.

There were protests all across the western United States. New Mexico was the origin of cosmic radiation, and itself and its neighbors held a paradoxical relationship with Naturals. These states were the first to suffer during the early years of heroes and villains, when powers ran rampant. The citizens there had long memories; some still lived who had seen the disastrous battles between powerful Naturals that occurred in the years leading up to the Vigilante Acts.

Yet, Naturals were also family. They were friends. They were lovers and children. Most individuals alive today had grandparents, or parents, who had lived during Champion's era. Some were even Naturals who had survived by laying low and never using their abilities. The kind of people who encouraged laws against themselves, as they'd seen the damage an unrestrained Natural could do, and feared their own power. These same people had once looked to Champion, and the People of Chicago, with hope that there could be a better way.

Now here he was, declaring that they had been right. There had been a better way, and it had been stolen from them by those in power. It was an enticing message to some. Enough to take to the streets. Conflict was all but inevitable.

Dan needed to get stronger. He needed to better understand the forces he was playing with. He needed a reliable path upon which his abilities might grow. And so, he meditated.

Dan really only had a single power: his veil. The brilliant blue pool of energy that suffused his body and wrapped around him like a skintight suit. He could move, manipulate it, feel it like an extra limb. It senses were almost tactile, and it was only through experience and constant practice that Dan could use it like radar.

His veil, in turn, only had a single ability: to transfer objects between dimensions. It was Dan's understanding—and Dan's was the only one that mattered— that his veil existed simultaneously in the Gap, and in Dimension A. It pulled him, and whatever else it could grab hold of, between the two realities with effortless ease. It was like a hallway between dimensions, letting Dan step seamlessly between the two.

Yet, it also shielded him. The Gap was not meant to be seen by mortal minds. It had driven Marcus Mercury mad on more than one occasion, with only the man's power over his own biology bringing him back to himself. Even then, his abrupt disappearance had Dan thinking that sanity had never quite returned to the man. The Gap was dangerous, but to Dan, it was harmless. His veil protected him like an aegis, and he could extend that protection to whatever it touched.

But that was it. That was his power: his veil. Everything else, his ability to manipulate his own movement, to almost pause time, to drain away his own emotions, they were all products of his mastery of the Gap, and his Navigator. The latter presented a puzzle to which Dan had no answers. He instinctively felt that it was both a part of him and not, the eldritch thing was connected to his veil, yet Dan was uncertain if that had always been the case. It was the interpreter between Dan's will and his power's expression, but Dan did not think of it as part of his power.