History
Little is known about Transit's background before she joined the Shadow Cabinet, an ancient team of metahumans that covertly protects mankind from being destroyed by its worst instincts. It is known that Transit was recruited by the Cabinet due to her power to teleport whatever she touched. Soon, it was discovered Transit's ability was not useful for regular, long-range transportation for Cabinet operatives due to negative side effects on living beings. However, she was soon trained how to use her power offensively and defensively in battle. [1]
In recent times, the ambitious operative Headmaster felt beings as powerful as the Shadow Cabinet should rule humanity rather than protect it.[2] His views were very persuasive to several operatives including Transit.[2] These dissidents would eventually become the Star Chamber, who promptly split off from the Cabinet.[1] This schism would begin the covert metahuman conflict known as the Shadow War.
Since the Shadow Cabinet would oppose their goal of world domination, the Star Chamber needed to quickly bolster their ranks. The key to doing so was Dakota City, which saw a major increase in metahumans due to the "Big Bang" event. The Shadow Cabinet's leader Dharma had extensive files on Dakota's metahumans, information the Chamber copied before leaving the group. Thus, the Shadow War quickly escalated as Shadow Cabinet and the Star Chamber vied to get Dakota's superheroes and supervillains to join their side.[1]
Headmaster had a two prong strategy for this recruitment effort. Dakota's superheroes could be swayed to join the Chamber by appealing to their sense of morality and justice. (Naturally, the Star Chamber would conceal their true motives until it was too late for the heroes to thwart them.) However, Headmaster also wanted to recruit metahumans of more dubious character, namely the pyrokinetic crimelord Holocaust, armored vigilante Hardware, and Harm, a mob enforcer who was secretly a federal agent . Since the trio would likely reject polite persuasion, Headmaster ordered Transit to kidnap them via her teleportation powers and send them to the Star Chamber's headquarters. There, Headmaster could convince them to join the Chamber. [1]
Transit successfully kidnapped Holocaust, who quickly agreed to join the Star Chamber because their true goals would enable to gain more wealth and power. [1] [2] She then learned that Harm was sighted at the estate of his current employer, mobster Giacomo Cornelius. Transit soon arrived at the estate that was the scene of a fierce battle between Harm and Hardware, who wanted to bring Cornelius to justice.[3]
Interrupting the battle, Transit teleported a surprised Harm to Headmaster who convinced him to join the Chamber.[3] [1] Hardware attempted to evade Transit , but she soon teleported him as well after cornering him. Hardware found himself in another dimension through which Transit teleports her victims. Realizing what happened, Hardware deployed his plasma whip to reach through Transit's still open teleportational warp. As he hoped, the whip latched onto a nearby fence post in his native dimension, thus halting his forced journey to the Star Chamber. [1]
A frustrated Transit tried to teleport Hardware's whip to sever his anchor to his native dimension. However, Transit's power reacted violently with the plasma charge in the whip, creating feedback that knocked her unconscious. Hardware used this chance to reel himself back to his home dimension where he was recruited by Iron Butterfly of the Shadow Cabinet.[1]
As for Transit, she was taken into custody by SHRED, an elite Dakota Police task force that arrived on the scene in response to the Hardware/ Harm fight.[1] She then learned the Star Chamber lost the Shadow War and were now serving lengthy prison sentences.[2] Transit herself was was sent to Davy Jones Locker, an undersea maximum security prison for metahuman criminals. There Transit had to wear special handcuffs that generated " magnetic containment bottles", which negated her powers.[4] The prospect of decades in prison made Transit regret joining the Star Chamber, and she yearned to get a second chance.
Transit got her chance when she received an unexpected visitor: Hardware.
Transit imprisoned
He explained that a god-like menace named Rift threatened to destroy their universe and a parallel one where the fictional city of Metropolis and its heroes were real. Hardware's employer industrialist Edwin Alva had created an interdimensional interface to communicate with his Metropolis counterpart Hazard to design a "Rift Trap" weapon to defeat Rift. Hardware needed Transit's powers to convert the interface into an interdimensional pocket large enough from him and his counterpart Steel to build the trap. In exchange for her help, Alva would use his influence to get Transit an early release.[4]
Transit agreed to help and was taken to the interface at Alva Technologies headquarters in Dakota. Transit was then strapped into devices that would amplify her powers to create the interdimensional pocket. Alva warned Transit the process would be painful, but she went through with it, thus creating the pocket where Hardware and Steel immediately started building the Rift Trap.[4]
Hardware and Steel had just completed the trap when Rift decided to merge the Dakota and Metropolis Earths together, indifferent to the damage he caused. As a result, Transit was knocked out by the interdimensional pocket's collapse while the Rift Trap was submerged under a flood of seawater. Icon and Superman arrived to move the trap to a safe location while the rest of the Dakota and Metropolis heroes attacked Rift as a diversion. Unfortunately, Rift soon saw through this ruse and unleashed an energy blast at the new location of the Rift Trap, sensing it as a threat. Believing the trap destroyed, Rift focused on reshaping the merged Earth according to his whims.[5]
However, the Rift Trap survived by being hurled into Hyperspace via a wormhole created by a combination of the device's hyperspatial energies and Rift's energy blast. Superman, Icon, and Transit were near the trap and were hurled into Hyperspace as well, thus eluding certain death. However, Transit was soon separated from the heroes due to the strong energy eddies in Hyperspace. Transit was lost until she detected a wormhole-like energy signature generated by Hardware's beacon that enabled her to regain her bearings and teleport back to the merged Earth. Reunited, Transit told Hardware and Steel the status of the Rift Trap as well as Icon and Superman also being lost in Hyperspace. Steel modified Hardware's beacon to emit an energy signature that Superman and Icon could detect with their enhanced senses. Transit then teleported the beacon into hyperspace while holding on to it to keep her warp open. Superman and Icon found the beacon and with the help of their fellow heroes enlarged Transit's warp so the Rift Trap could be returned to the merged Earth.[6]
Dakota and Metropolis' heroes then attacked Rift who was distracted long enough for Icon and Superman to activate the Rift Trap. The device drained Rift of his powers, causing him to revert to his mortal form of Fred Benton, who was then cast into eternal peaceful slumber in an interdimensional void. With Rift's defeat, all the death and damage he caused was reversed as the Dakota and Metropolis Earths separated back to their proper universes, taking their native inhabitants with them. Another side effect was that only those who fought Rift in the final battle remembered him and his manipulations.[6]
Now safely home, Dakota's heroes celebrated their victory, a moment Transit used to slip away unnoticed.[6] Since time had been reversed, Transit technically should return to jail, but Hardware let her go in honor of their deal. Months later, Transit would return the favor when she was interviewed by the spy Sanction who desired to bring Alva to justice for his covert criminal activities.[7] To accomplish this goal, Sanction believed that he would have to eliminate Hardware to get to Alva. Transit's positive testimony about Hardware among others convinced Sanction that the armored hero was using his alliance with Alva to legally dismantle his criminal operations. Satisfied, Sanction chose to spare Hardware's life. [7]
Powers and Abilities
Powers
- Tactile Teleportation: Transit possesses the power of tactile teleportation that enables her to teleport a person or object she touches from one location to another.[3][1] When Transit activates her power, an aperture or "warp" is opened that displaces whatever she is touching into another dimension bordering our own. [1]The person or object then travels through this dimension until it is returned via another warp to our dimension at a certain distance from its point of departure. Transit consciously determines the point of return of the person or object. [1]
Transit's warps close instantly once something passes through them.[1] She can keep a warp open for an undetermined length of time before mental fatigue forces her to close it.[4] Her warps will also remain open if a person or object partially enters them.[1][6] It is unknown if the warps can be kept open indefinitely in this manner, or if they will eventually close on their own.
Little is known about the border dimension whose background resembles a bluish/red stormy environment.
Transit teleports Hardware
It is known that distances in this dimension differ significantly from those on Earth. Hence, walking a few steps in the border dimension could be equal to several miles on Earth. It is this attribute that allows Transit to quickly transport people and objects over great distances. Unfortunately, this positive aspect of the border dimension is offset by its average temperature which is extremely cold by human standards. In fact, this cold is so severe that unprotected human beings traveling through the border dimension fall unconscious since their bodies cannot handle the sudden temperature drop. Normally, it takes several hours for a person to regain consciousness and recover from the cold. Those with superhuman endurance like Harm will remain conscious, but even they will feel weakened by the border dimension's intense cold. [1]
The maximum distance Transit can teleport something is unknown, but is suspected to be quite great. Equally unknown is how much mass Transit can teleport. She has been observed teleporting a car without taxing her powers. While Transit can teleport solids with her touch, it has not been determined if this applies to liquids. [1]
Despite some accounts, Transit can use her power to teleport herself. She accomplishes this by touching a body part like her hand and creating a warp to travel through. However, Transit does not like teleporting herself due to the negative aspects of the border dimension as described above. Thus, she reserves self-teleportation for the most dire of emergencies. [6]
Besides transportation, Transit can use her tactile teleportation offensively and defensively in battle. She can teleport obstacles out of her path such as doors to a building or protective cover concealing enemies. Transit can neutralize the threat of an opponent by teleporting him far from the field of battle. Even a short distance teleport has proven a useful tactic since a trip through the border dimension's intense cold leaves Transit's foes too debilitated to fight. Transit is so skilled with her power that she can teleport high velocity threats like Hardware's omnicannon shells before they can strike her.[1]
- Cosmic Awareness: Transit possesses a limited unconscious extrasensory "spatial awareness" ability which prevents her from teleporting herself or anything else into solid objects within her immediate vicinity.[1] However, this ability diminishes the greater the distance she covers with a warp. Because teleporting into other solid matter would cause severe injury or death, Transit will only teleport to an area she is familiar with or can clearly see at the time.[1] A side effect of this spatial awareness is Transit's ability to detect the presence of wormholes, teleportational warps and similar phenomena.[6]
Weaknesses
- Power Limitation: Transit's tactile teleportation has no effect on energy fields which are an effective defense against her power.[1][4]
Paraphernalia
Transportation
Transit uses her powers for self-teleportation sparingly and prefers others means of transportation. When she was with the Shadow Cabinet, she had access to that group's Shadowslide teleportation technology. As a member of the Star Chamber, Transit relied on the teleportation powers of her teammate, Funyl.
Weapons
None
Related
- 4 Appearances of Transit (Dakotaverse)
- 10 Images featuring Transit (Dakotaverse)
- Quotations by or about Transit (Dakotaverse)
- Character Gallery: Transit (Dakotaverse)
External Links
Footnotes
