The Law of Averages

Book 2: Chapter 52: First Contact

Dan placed his hand against the ice and focused. His veil darted out, biting into the dense material. Almost immediately, he felt his reserves plummet. The ice was unnaturally thick, and his hand already ached from the cold. His veil swept across it, pulling deeper and deeper on his well of power. Dan allowed it to drain, dipping past his normal limit and reaching into the veil that suffused his own body. He didn't need it for this.

His veil formed a passage roughly as high as his waist and half a foot deep before he ran out of juice. It didn't seem like much, but Dan could do this all day long. He triggered his veil, and a chunk of the wall vanished into t-space. There was no resistance, no trap, no issue at all. Dan smiled victoriously

The officer stared at the hole, befuddled. "Where'd you send it?"

"Somewhere else," Dan replied. He removed his hand, shook out the cold, then pressed his boot against the ice. His veil reached out once more, widening the hole. "Get me some muscle to widen this hole. I'll focus on going deeper."

The officer nodded hurriedly and rushed off.

Dan pushed in his veil, and ripped out another chunk of Coldeyes ice. This time, he made the hole tall enough for him to stand in. He took a single step forward, and ripped out another chunk. Step, veil, trigger, step, he soon fell into a rhythm. By the time his muscle arrived, Dan had made a passage almost fifteen feet deep. It was incredibly narrow, and if Dan couldn't teleport at will he'd be feeling intensely claustrophobic, but it served its purpose. The priority was to drill as far into the ice as possible, as several observation upgrades suggested the ice was less dense near the center. Dan needed only to break through.

"Well done, Daniel!" a familiar voice boomed from far behind him.

Dan ignored it, kept himself moving forward, ripping out another chunk of ice. At this depth, he was running out of natural light. Soon, he'd have to switch to the headlamp strapped to his forehead. That became an immediate concern, as Gregoir Pierre-Louise's massive bulk stepped into Dan's narrow tunnel.

Dan lacked the space to turn around, so he blinked himself into a different position. One hand clicked on his headlamp, while the other snuggled into his jacket pocket, trembling with the cold. Dan squinted towards the entrance of his tunnel, watching curiously as Gregoir shoved himself into tiny orifice. The gigantic blonde was forced to practically crawl, and his massive shoulders were turned sideways.

"What—?" Dan began to ask, when Gregoir unleashed a deafening roar.

"EXCELSIOR!" he bellowed, suddenly straightening and flexing against his tight confines. The walls broke before Gregoir's body did, and the shattered ice rained down around his legs. He continued to flex, keeping every muscle taut as he twisted in a tight circle, and his surroundings gave way to the unconventional excavation.

Dan blinked, as his tunnel's narrow entrance could suddenly fit two people standing shoulder to shoulder.

"That works," Dan stated, before returning to his task. His hands dipped into a pocket and pulled out a tiny plastic baggie. With practiced motions, he opened the bag and slipped in the earplugs, just in time for another victorious shout to split the air. He heard the walls break again behind him, and Dan forged onwards.

It was a testimony to proper planning, Dan thought, that the raid had occurred so late at night. The safehouse location was a gym, sat beside a shopping plaza. Coldeyes had frozen the entire gymnasium, its parking lot, the road separating the building from its neighbors, and a good chunk of the shopping center itself. The timing of the raid, nearly one in the morning, meant that the plaza was completely abandoned. Only a pair of security guards roaming around on their little golf carts had remained, and they had been ushered away by the police just before the raid.

Civilian casualties were practically nonexistent, which was nearly unheard of as far as villain attacks were concerned. Perhaps because this wasn't really an attack, so much as a defense. Coldeyes had certainly seemed interested in presenting it that way, for reasons that Dan still couldn't grasp. The man was intentionally provoking a response, that much was obvious, and a response would be forthcoming. Whether the city hired outside assistance, or called in the national guard, something would happen.

Dan shook off those thoughts. It was well above his paygrade. He had a goal here, to forge forward. He'd managed to outpace Gregoir. He could still hear the loud bellows coming from far behind him, but the tunnel was completely black. Only Dan's headlamp offered a modicum of light. Dan didn't know how deep in he was, but he knew he was moving in the right direction.

His veil told him the way. A single tendril probed far, far ahead. Almost fifty yards across frozen concrete, where the plaza ended and the road began, the ice was starting to thin. It seemed that Coldeyes hadn't bothered to reinforce his glacier all the way through. That matched what he'd been told, but Dan was glad to confirm it for himself. He kept his eyes on the prize, moving ever forward.

Dan made quick progress. He broke through the thickest layer of ice in less than ten minutes, stopping only twice for a brief, thirty second break to warm up. He'd managed to carve through almost a hundred and fifty feet before his veil reported the ice losing its supernatural density. He decided this information should be known to someone higher ranking than him.

Dan blinked back to the plaza, at the edge of the glacier, and nearly staggered as something pressed against his mind. Feelings that weren't his own, an overwhelming sense of pressure and responsibility, hammered down on him. He glanced around, blinking rapidly, and his eyes landed on the source.

Captain Gable spoke to a group of uniformed officers, issuing terse orders in a deep baritone. The precinct head noticed Dan's appearance almost immediately, and turned away from his men to greet him.

"Mr. Newman," he said smoothly, his face revealing not a trace of the worry he must be feeling for his men. "It's good to finally meet you."

Dan numbly took the man's hand. He had a presence about him, more than just his mutated upgrade; the charisma of a leader. He seemed pleased to see Dan, and Dan judged the emotion as genuine. He was almost immediately impressed by the man, who all of his closest friends spoke highly of.

"Hello sir," he greeted, slightly out of his depth. How did you greet a police captain?

"I hear you've been a great help, here on scene," Gable continued, oblivious to Dan's confusion. "It seems my debt to you only grows."

"...Yeah. About that." Dan pointed towards the glacier. "I'm something like fifty yards in, and the ice has gotten thinner. Feels like normal ice, rather than whatever this shit is." Dan winced. "Stuff. Sorry."

Gable eyes widened. "This is good news. Are you able to continue?"

Dan nodded.

"Then do so," Gable ordered immediately. "We will continue to widen the tunnel. Once you reach the edge of the gymnasium, please alert me. Do not breach. Scans of the facility indicate no villain activity, but we can't be sure. Do not risk yourself."

Dan frowned, but nodded. He'd try and make his case anyway, once the time came. His friends were trapped inside, and he was going to get them out.

He blinked back into the tunnel, and went about his work. It was easier now, and he was able to make the tunnel wide enough by himself, without significantly slowing his progress. Another ten minutes of work had him through the parking lot, and beside the entrance to the gymnasium. There, he encountered another problem. The ice was once again reinforced. The walls around and within were as dense as those on the edges. Dan's veil probed deep, touching against several bodies. His veil pinged off live flesh, and Dan stopped moving.

He didn't want to catalogue them. He didn't want to know how many were alive. He didn't want to feel those who had died.

Dan closed his eyes. Gable needed to know. He glanced behind himself, checking the progress of those behind him. Gregoir and his team worked a ways behind, some by hand and others with fire upgrades. The flashes of heat illuminated the tunnel for a hundred feet in each direction, melting the weaker ice and giving room for officers to assemble. They were making good progress. Officers and medical personnel should be able to make it through.

No more stalling.

Dan blinked back to the entrance, to report his findings to Gable.

"You'll need me with you," he said to the Captain's stoic face. "I can free them the fastest."

"You are a civilian," Gable stated the obvious.

"I'll go in after you clear the room," Dan offered. "There'll be a wall of bodies between me and any danger. You guys do your thing, and I'll do mine. Gregoir can free some, but that ice is just as hard as the stuff out here. He'll take too long, and time is of the essence. How long can your people survive?"

Gable frowned, deep lines appearing across his forehead. "Their suits are well insulated, and we prepared heating systems for this venture. The battery life is six hours under normal conditions. It's impossible to say how they are holding up." His eyes turned towards the glacier, the frown deepening into a scowl. "You may follow behind us. If there are enemies, you will not engage them. I don't care what your certification says. You will stay behind, and wait for the all clear, and then you will get my people out of there."

Dan nodded. "Damn right."