Chandni Kaur

First seen in the Daylight fic ‘Home Field Advantage’, Chandni Nitya Kaur is a Cadet Second Class at the United States Academy of Extranormal Studies at Evansville, Indiana.

Biography

The fraternal twin sister of Alimah Kaur, Chandni Kaur is the youngest of four children born to The Elite’s Executive Director for South Asia – a pureblood Sikh of extraordinary power, wealth and influence. Born fifteen minutes after her sister, Chandni came into this world in the same manner as David Allen Farrington - with her talents switched on, demonstrating the potential for immense power. (Barely seconds after birth, Chandni created a ward (areas of latent power) that momentarily transformed everyone within forty yards of her into living crystal.) With her birth coming barely a year after David Allen’s and with the potential nature of her abilities (the child seemed to have an immense and innate capacity to manipulate mystical forces), her parents were granted the same provision as Cassandra Farrington – to watch and control the child until she was of age to be sent to USAES. (Even though it meant manipulating contacts in the Indian government, it was felt that the Academy was the best option for training and controlling the child.)

Upon entering USAES at age eleven, Chandni was assigned to Training Cadre 3255. A playful and open girl with a strong intellectual and physical abilities, she developed a sense of humor that rivaled that of Jeffrey Brace. Chandni’s powers were a source of extreme interest to USAES instructors, for even though her powers seemed to be mystical, Chandni was found to be a metahuman whose instinctual capabilities for power manipulation operated on the genetic level, almost like a mutation (as in the case of Elizabeth Twoyoungman, of Department H). Listed as a high-level Class Four, Chandni’s abilities skew towards the ‘cleric’ tradition of mysticism – healing abilities rivaling those of Julia Carlyle, an ability to generate energies capable of repelling or even destroying ‘undead’ beings; in addition, Chandni possesses the ability to create ‘wards’ with a wide and dizzying array of metahuman effects, even those not traditionally considered mystical powers, and those that she does not personally possess.

Growing into an exceptionally beautiful woman (like her sister, Chandni is 'waiflike' in appearance, with exceptionally long eyelashes and a delicate demeanor), Chandni’s social acclimation (along with the occasional casual dating) soon became intolerable to her family, who (despite the opinions of the Indian Government and The Elite) felt that her behavior and attitudes were far too rebellious and disrespectful for a ‘woman’ (even though, to the other cadets at USAES, Chandni is easily one of the most feminine young women in attendance). Deciding that (after several incidents and finding out that she had dated both Jefferson Davers and Rafael Vargas for a short time) she had ‘dishonored the family’, male members of Chandni’s family traveled to the United States to either force her to return to India or to kill her outright in order to regain their honor. Luring her to a hotel in Indianapolis and dampening her powers by having a metaljammer present, Chandni’s relatives offered her the choice of immediate, permanent return to India for an arranged marriage or to be killed immediately. Their efforts were thwarted by Chandni’s fellow cadre members, who rescued her and let Chandni send them home via one of her wards; later, she let her sister Alimah know what had transpired, and they were punished by Furmann Singh himself.

Being less than a year apart in age and both of high birth in The Elite, Chandni and David Allen are aware of one another and are casual acquaintances; however, a movement has begun in the higher ranks of The Elite to match the two young people together for a possible future marriage. This is not an idea that holds any appeal for Chandni (she and David Allen are casual friends and have studied together in Healing courses, but she has no romantic inclinations toward him, and vice versa), as she wishes to remain in the United States and train as a physician’s assistant before returning to India and setting up a concierge medical practice.

Chandni in the ‘Daylight’ continuity

In the ‘Daylight' LLH continuum, Chandni was a pivotal part in saving the Academy (and thus, a great deal of the forces and material that would be later be needed in the restoration of human civilization) when she was suddenly summoned to accompany Martin Peters (now a commissioned officer) and fellow cadet Danielle Todds to 397 Gilmore Hall; there, she and Martin used their combined abilities to banish the time-traveling being known as Chrona. Because of their actions, the Academy was not only saved from a potentially destructive battle, but was in a position to warn others, fortify the Academy against the oncoming disaster, and send out teams of trained cadets to assist other groups in surviving the crisis.

Powers and Abilities

Chandni is an ‘evolved human’ (the term used to describe metahumans who have possessed their powers since birth) whose powers all derive from the potential capacity within ALL human beings to manipulate both psionic and mystical energies. (Obviously, these potentials go unrealized in almost the entirety of humanity.) Chandni’s abilities are so profound, and her innate understanding and use of them is so finely defined (unlike with most beings of mystic ability, who must undergo years of training in order to gain even a noticeable ability to do so) that they seem to be more in line with the manifestation of mutant abilities.

(By comparison, David Allen Farrington and Amorette Molyneux are 'mutants' - members of Homo sapiens superior: the human evolutionary divergence that is beginning to manifest itself as different from the mainline branch of the species.)

Chandni has the ability to both generate and tap into metaphysical and extra-dimensional energies that are, for lack of a better terminology, dubbed as ‘mystical forces’, and use them to manifest a number of effects. Furthermore, Chandni also possesses a number of personal abilities derived from her ability to generate these energies. Her powers, like almost all persons who demonstrate mystical ability, manifest along a specific school or tradition of using these abilities; Chandni’s abilities follow along the ‘cleric’ school of ability. She possesses the following abilities:

Healing: Chandni possesses the ability to heal any living creature of any known aliment, condition, trauma, or disease, regardless of circumstances involved. Her healing ability is so powerful that it compares with Julia Carlyle’s ability to self-heal (and heal others through use of fluids from her body) and the ‘Elixir of Life’ generated by Defender Rings, and that persons can be healed even by a casual touch of her hand. She can also use her power to revive persons up to twenty-four hours after death. Chandni can heal by touch, or project her healing energies in a omnidirectional field that expands forty meters from her position. Unlike most clerics, Chandni sufferes no physical aftereffects by using her power, and can simply keep her power active for as long as she is conscious (even if she is rendered unconscious, catatonic or placed in suspension, her power can still be accessed by touching her body). She can actively use any of her other powers in addition to her healing ability at the same time. Because of the nature of her powers, Chandni’s ability can destroy any undead creature on contact, or as soon as it enters her healing field.

Bio-Disruption: Chandni possesses the ability to disrupt the biological processes within an organic being, causing light to fatal trauma. She can use this power up to twenty meters away.

Extra-dimensional Awareness: Chandni possesses the innate ability to detect the presence of extra-planar beings, creatures and artifacts, as well as the movement of beings through the reality/plane of existence she currently inhabits, and the appearance of openings into or out of her current reality/plane of existence. Her power operates automatically, and can detect applicable beings up to 250 miles away, or up to 8,000 miles away for beings/entities or great power.

Dimensional Travel: Chandni has the ability to transport herself between locations by moving herself between dimensions. She can transport herself up to fifty miles away. The process is instantaneous; she can transport through energy fields, incredibly dense materials, and she can ‘jump blind’ – meaning that she can appear into or out of areas she cannot see beforehand (such as sealed vaults, caves, vehicles in flight/motion, etc.). Chandni can ‘jump’ multiple times, allowing her to travel long distances in very short periods of time.

Banishment: Chandni has the ability to forcibly remove any being, creature or artifact of extra-planar origin from her current reality/plane or existence. The process is automatic; only beings of near-divine power and ability can begin to resist her ability, and still must use great power to overcome her banishment. Chandni can also use her power to ‘eject’ herself or others from other dimensions and return to their own places of origin.

Body Armor: Chandni can generate a covering of organic iron over her entire body, which acts like body armor. The appearance of this covering over her body is similar to that of metallic body paint; Chandni suffers no loss of dexterity or speed, and can resist any damage up to that of multiple 20mm ronunds, the effects of a raging forest fire, or limited resistance to energy weapons and corrosives. When using her Body Armor, Chandni is invulnerable to most direct mystical attacks, and has a strong resistance to secondary effects caused by mystical effects.

Elemental Control: Chandni possesses the ability to control the elements of air and fire. Chandni can create and control winds of up to tornado-strength (up to 300+ MPH), and create and control even firestorms of massive size. (This also allows her to dissipate fires and storms, or lessen their effects greatly.) Note that she cannot generate the elements; she can only manipulate extant elemental situations, but can increase/decrease them to an incredible degree.

Ward Creation: Chandni’s most powerful ability is that of creating ‘wards’ – areas of latent mystic power in any desired location. Chandni can create these ‘wards’, and empower them with them with not only powers that she herself possesses, but with other abilities that she has encountered or witnessed. Unlike Wards created by others, Chandni does not need to designate her Wards by use of a special substance or mark (although she will do so if need be); her Wards can be detected my any mystical or power-detection ability. Also, the Wards’ power levels or the distance between them does not limit her abilities; she can create multiple wards of tremendous power that are actually in contact with one another.

Chandni’s level of power allows her to create ‘single-use’ Wards (wards that dissipate after being triggered; however, through rigorous training, she is able (through intense concentration) to create ‘self-renewing’ Wards. Once created, her Wards can last until they are activated or destroyed; they can also be destroyed by the destruction of the specific point where the Ward is located, or through powers that specifically negate mystical powers and effects. Chandni can create as many Wards as she wishes.

Chandni can generate up to forty different forms of abilities within her Wards; at present, she has demonstrated the following Wards:

• Penetration Vision; when activated, the person doing so can be viewed by others as if they possesses that power.

• Disintegration

• Illusory Invisibility; anyone in the area of effect will be ‘cloaked’ in a field that renders them invisible to all but sonar/radar and psionic powers

• Mystic Transference – temporarily allows persons with mystic abilities to transfer them to others; the effect lasts only one hour

• Disruption; damages/destroys the molecular structure of everything in the area of effect

• Omni-Communication; allows communication with cybernetics and plant-based life when activated

• Collection; can gather moderate amounts of any specific material desired from vast distances away.

• Missile Creation; can generate either projectiles that launch themselves from the Ward, or spikes that extend out from the Ward.

• Darkforce Manipulation; can summon mass quantities of the extra-dimensional energy form when the Ward is triggered to act in the manner of a ‘black-out bomb’.

• Invulnerability Aura; anyone within the area of effect; as well as the Ward itself, are rendered invulnerable to ALL effects regardless of origin for a period of one hour. In addition, no force or being can cross the boundary of the Ward for that same period of time.

• Hyper-Intelligence; when activated, boosts the intelligence of the person activating the Ward by a high level. This boost only lasts one hour.

• Waterbreathing; anyone in the area of the Ward after activation can breathe and exist normally in any fluid environment. The duration of the Ward’s effect lasts until it is destroyed.

• Enlargement; can enlarge any being or item (average-sized humans grow to a average of forty feet in height) for a period of one hour. The affected person(s) can grow or resume normal height at any time during the one-hour period.

• Precognition; the person using this Ward can only perform this for others and must have a personal possession of the other person. Once activated, the person can accurately see one hour into another person’s future.

• Energy Detection; when this Ward is activated; anyone/anything generating any form of energy or possessing an energy source within the area can be detected, and the energy form(s) identified.

• Total Memory; anyone activating this Ward can, for a one-hour period, recall all memories of their existence to before their birth.

• Emotion Control; when activated, all persons in the area of effect (which MUST be determined beforehand) will have their current emotional state (and resultant actions) altered to that conducive to the emotion chosen.

• ‘Pocket Dimension’; creates a ‘pocket dimension’ with near-limitless space and any environment/conditions within that the activator desires; also, once inside, everyone’s basic attitudes and emotions are controlled by the activator’s wishes when doing so. (Because the Ward creates the pocket dimension, and not Chandni herself, she is exempt from the rule governing the creation of ‘internal limbo’ pocket dimensions that specifically state that she cannot enter those dimensions. Also, because the Ward creates the ‘pocket dimension’, the ward itself is the entrance to the dimension, and not Chandni’s own body.)

• Gateway; the Ward becomes a portal in time and space that transports anyone who activates it to a specific place (chosen beforehand).

• Hyper-Speed; the following various Wards/effects have been used: (1.) The person activating the Ward gains the power of Hyper-Speed for a period of one hour. (2.) Anyone entering the area of the effect of the Ward gains hyper-speed, but only while in that area. (3.) Any person/item activating the Ward immediately accelerates to the maximum velocity that can be reached with that level of Hyper-Speed (in Chandni’s case, the person/item immediately accelerates to a speed of 375MPH).

• Crystallization; anyone activating the Ward is immediately transformed to living, unbreakable crystal and placed in a form of suspension for a period of one hour.

Talents and Skills

Chandni is a Pre-Med major, and has completed her paramedic/EMT certifications and Level One Healer certification. She has also been trained to operate X-Ray equipment and related materials. She has taken every advanced driving course offered by the Academy, and can drive any form of wheeled transport; she has also learned how to fly single-engine planes. Chandni is also trained in the use of bows, and while she is not interested in competition, is an excellent archer.

Like David Allen, Chandni possesses enhanced physical abilities. She possesses agility and endurance beyond any Olympic athlete or standardized ‘super-soldier’, even with genetic enhancements, and she can lift up to 800 pounds. She is, however, not inclined towards physical combat, and has not progressed beyond the basic hand-to-hand Academy combat training.