Death of A Phantom

Pt 1.

Supposedly stuff happens for reasons.

Fuma kept trying to explain to me about karma, and predetermination, Rakly and Fallen had tried to explain the intricacies of chaos theory, Island had asked if I wanted a drink and a chat, and Heretic told me to “ … get over it or I’ll slap the crap outta ya!”

Quark had pretty much moved all his stuff out of the ‘Venger Towers and had been busy with BADGE and Nova stuff for weeks. He’d have known what to do if he was here, he would have understood.

Years back, when these powers had first started to reveal themselves I had Solomon and Shadowmaster to guide me, and Chromium and Boox to put the science into words, and sometimes into words I understood some of. I still had the wrist comp that Boox gave me, sure over the years it had been damaged, fixed, the screen replaced, I had got the memory expanded, the CPU upgraded, the comms system had been completely overhauled, and the casing rebuilt more than once, and the original mounting hardware had been scrapped years back … but it was still very much the same wrist computer. It had been a constant through all the turmoil.The massive raid on the HOI Headquarters, the war against AEGIS, the hunt for Evo’s father, The End Of Days and destruction of the city, through it all I had that comfort of knowing that I was who I was, I had my powers under control and everything else was there at the touch of a few buttons.

You know about my powers don’t you? The blue light dimension?

Boox once told me that my abilities all stem from a “constant fixed interaction with a dimensional plane accessible to only yourself. The manipulation of time and space within this dimension is achieved through quantum entanglement with its primary energy source …”

What I know is that if I close my eyes in the right way, like a blink but not opening them again, I’m in this place and it has all theses cool looking tendrils of blue light.If I think hard about a place I know and then open my eyes I’m there, and if I grab hold of some of the energy before opening my eyes I can bring it back with me and throw it at stuff .. it makes a very satisfying mess of things you don’t like! I don’t even have to fully go into the other place, its like I send my body there but keep my mind here and just phase out. That’s why they started calling me Ghostboy back then, and why I used to have trouble with chairs when I was tired. I got that under control, although sometimes after a few I really struggle to maintain a fully solidified form, mainly in my hands, when they are holding another beer, I didn’t drop it, my hand phased out!

I’ll make it really, really simple, I teleport, I throw blue fireballs and sometimes I’m not solid and things pass straight through me, or me through them. That has been the basics for quite a few years now, and you know what you got and how to make the most of it, and you just keep doing you.

But recently it wasn’t all plain sailing. I had woken up in a few strange places, and I don’t mean like that. I had tried to materialise the energy but not been able to grab hold of it, and the other day I blinked and there was no blue lights at all. All that was a bit worrying, glitches to your super powers could be fatal of they happen right at the wrong moment.

Even more worrying was the little voice that I kept hearing, not my conscience, not the old devil on your shoulder, not Fuma hiding behind something and trying to get me to do stupid stuff, again. It was there, but it was barely audible, it was indistinct, muffled, or just plain foreign.

Evo always criticised me for not listening, but this time it wasn’t my fault.

I’d tried using the audio recording and analysis functions on my wrist comp, but it came back with nothing, the sound was not registering with anything but me.

I asked Fiero for help, she was usually the best listener on the team. But after twenty minutes of us both sitting in silence she politely informed me she had better things to do, I politely informed her the noise hadn’t stopped for the past ten minutes and if she couldn’t hear it … She less than politely threw me out of the window … Fiero believes in good manners and tough love.

Now before you accuse her of being unladylike, she knows I wont get hurt, I’ll blink myself right out of the fall, she also knows that it’s a short sharp shock that gets the best results from me, and it annoys her when she jabs me with a knitting needle only for it to stick into the chair. If I don’t want to find myself falling from the 93rd floor I need to watch my manners … message received and understood.

The other realisations I had as the floor rushed up to meet me was that maybe this wasn’t the team best suited to helping me, and slightly unnervingly that my ability to blink seemed to have stopped working,

Don’t panic, the phasing out doesn't just mean that I become immaterial, it can also remove any mass, so I floated gently down the last few feet to the ground, remembering to re-materialise just before my feet touched down.

As much as I have kept myself out of BADGE affairs ( yeah OK I helped with the Krampus thing, and the egg hut, the leprechaun gold, the battle with Jinn, the clean up afterwards, all of the officially sanctioned league wars, one or two of the shady underground fight clubs and a few other small events, but I don’t get overly involved) I figured now I was going to have to admit that I needed help from an expert, and I knew where I had to go ….

Nova had decided to go with the all new BADGE automated reception bot, efficient, always ready, never too busy filing their nails or checking their lipstick. Unfortunately they were also immune to my persuasive charm.

“Yes sir I understand your request. However, I am not able to allow you access to the building without the correct pass.”

“How do I get a pass?”

“You would need to get one authorised by the head of security, or one of Director Nova’s closest team.”

“So Quark could give me a pass?”

“Correct sir, he would have that authority.”

“So can I see Quark?”

“He is in the building at present,but I cannot admit you without a pass!”

“So to get a pass I need a pass … can you not see the issue?”

“I am not aware of any issue sir, except that you do not have the required authority to gain access.”

“Can you call Quark to the reception?”

“Who shall I say is asking for him?”

“Just tell him its Phantom …”

“And can I scan your pass in order to process the order?”

“ Let me just get it for you ….. I DON’T HAVE A PASS!!!!”


BADGE Headquarters is an immense and impressive structure, and they were thoughtful enough to put some benches in the landscaped grounds that fronted the building. I sat down next to a statue of Gar, well I assumed it was a statue, hard to tell with Gar sometimes, and thought about how to proceed.

If my blinking had been working there would have been no issue, but the journey here had started off badly with two teleports putting me in a lovely little pub somewhere in Central London and then Times Square. I’d ended up asking Rakly if I could use one of the transporter shuttles. Well I used a transporter shuttle, and totally intended on asking Rakly about it later.

I just needed to concentrate, and think of a decent plan of action.

“Or use your wrist computer to contact Quark directly”

Yeah I could use my wrist computer and message Quark, he would get me a pass and then I could see him and get him to help with this weird voice in my head.

“You could just ask him directly by message about the voice.”

That would probably save time.

“And time is definitely in short supply Phantom.”

I don’t refer to myself in the third person when I’m thinking, do I?

“Not usually! But there was that time you and Island were in California, and you drank 3 bottles of tequila for a bet ….”

Fun times.

“And are you going to ask?”

I would have to ask Quark.

“Not Quark …me!”

Why would I ask my own thoughts anything?

“If you don’t refer to yourself in the third person then how are these your thoughts?”

Well they were all in my head, so they had to be mine, right?!?!

“Not necessarily.”

Was it me, or was the voice not me, was it in fact the noise I’d been hearing for a while but not been able to understand?

“Yes.”

“What the f….”

“Your thoughts are very jumbled Phantom and discerning the exact best means of communication has not been easy. I am assuming now that you are understanding me correctly.”

“Apart from discerning I think so … So what you are saying is I need to get a move on a message Quark.”

“Yes.”

“Can I ask who you are?”

“You can.”

“Who are you?”

“You wouldn’t understand. That’s why I need you to speak to Quark!”

“Comp send message to quark at quack dot au message quark can you help. A voice in my head is saying you can. Literal voice Quark not an internal one. It’s weird. End message send”

A loud bing just a few moments later let me know I had a reply.

“Comp read message”

“Phantom, weird, stay where you are locating from trace, will be there in about 3 ..”

Quark materialised on the bench beside me, he had told me his powers were not all that different to mine, except he actually understood the physics of the situation.

“Tell him that you need him to hear me, but I am currently unable to interact outside of the confines of your body. I would need a link to the electronics in your wrist in order to communicate effectively. If he can reconfigure your receiver to operate on a frequency of approximately 690 terahertz, it will need to be able to handle a short wavelength about 450 nm.”

Quark had been sat quietly watching while the conversation internal conversation happened.

“What do you need Phantom?”

“Well can you adjust the receiver in my wrist comp to 690 somethings and it needs to wave about 450 times … “ Quark looked at me with evident confusion. “I think it was 450 nanometres waves and 690 terror hurts”

“You need to receive information from the blue light spectrum through your wrist comp?”

“Probably.”

“Shouldn’t be a problem. Let me just make some adjustments.”

Quark shifted slightly then vanished into his quantum state, he was very gentle with whatever he did, I’ll be honest I never felt a thing. There was a slight shimmer in the air and Quark was back.

“Its set to scan the frequencies between 610 to 670 terahertz and will pick up waves easily in the 400 nanometre range now. Now can I ask why?”

“If I knew … look there’s been this sound, now its a voice in my head. It told me to tell you to do whatever it is you just did, but it didn’t explain why.”

“Phantom, you have something in your head needing to interact with you on the level of blue light ….” He paused hopefully. “Can you think of anything that is mainly blue light?” He paused again, nodding as if to prompt me. “Blue light, interacting with you … Is this ringing any bells?”

I was close, it made some sense, something was definitely coming to me, but my train of thought was interrupted by a hiss of static from my wrist comp.

“Phantom we have to go … now!”

“Huh?!?!” Synchronised confusion from both myself and Quark.

“We have to go, and we have to go now. Remember time is of the essence!”

“Sorry Quark I gotta …”

“Explain later!”

“Thanks, I owe you a few for this!”

Quark got up to leave.

“One last thing …” He stopped and turned to face me. “Can I get a pass? That receptionist is very set on passes!”

“Sure, you know Rakly has a few in his office.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“Keeps them in the drawer with the shuttle craft keys … but here have this one.”

Quarks hand vanished briefly and returned with a laminated pass.

“Cheers pal. Look when I figure out what’s going off I will let you know.”

Quark shimmered away.

“OK so where we going now? I’ll need directions for the shuttle craft.”

“We don’t need that now, I have regained control over your blinking, just leave it to me.”

“So I just need to …” *blink*

“Where am I?” Normally I could only blink to somewhere I knew, and this place looked very unfamiliar. A round tunnel curving off into the distance, walls covered with pipework and electronics.

“CERN”

“And why are we here?”

“There is someone we need to speak to.”

“About what?”

“Decay.”

“What do you mean?”

“Look Phantom I don’t know how to put this but I am breaking down and if I cease to exist then not only do you lose your powers, but there’s a good chance you’ll lose your life, and there’s a very good chance it gets worse than that.”

“Worse than dying?”

“There is worse than dying.”

“Are you the …?”

“Yes I am, what you perceive as the blue light.”

“And you can think and speak and stuff!”

”Yes.”

“Does it hurt when I use bits of you to throw at stuff?”

“Not at all, I simply regenerate that part, well I did. The problem is that I am unable to regenerate, and I am now starting to break down totally.”

“Is this anything to do with my drinking?”

“Although we are intrinsically linked it is not on a physical level, what you do in your reality would not have any effect on my being.”

“So who do we need to see? Do you think I’m gonna need another pass?”

“Just follow the tunnel, we are within a few hundred metres of the person I need. I couldn’t get much closer due to the shielding.”

The guy looked exactly how you would expect a scientist who worked in a tunnel to appear, He had long white hair. An unkempt white beard, the least white thing on him was his lab coat, clearly marked with coffee stains from drinking while thinking too hard and ink spots from pens absent mindedly put away without lids.
He had a pass attached to his lapel, ‘J Ellis’.

“This the guy?”

“Yes we need to speak to Professor Ellis!”

“We?”

“Well mainly me, but you will need to introduce us. Although I am fairly confident he is used to communicating with electronic voices.”

“Professor Ellis?” I approached cautiously, some super sciencey guys are quite nervous, especially when the guy approaching them Is my size.

“Yes.” He hadn’t looked up from his clipboard.

“Erm, well I need to speak to you.”

“If you want me to add anything to a paper you’re writing I don’t have time, and if you simply wish to cite me, feel free, everyone else does!”

“It’s not about a paper, I have a problem and I think I need your help.”

“Always wanting help. I have my own problems to deal with.”

“This is kinda life or death,”

Finally he looked up at me.

“You’re one of those morphon enhanced aren’t you. What kind of problem would a superhero have that requires a theoretical physicist?”

My wrist comp crackled with static briefly,

“Professor Ellis, your assistance is required by me, and through that Phantom as well.”

“And who are you, why are you on speaker phone?”

“I am afraid it I not possible for me to be with you.”

“Massive problem that is holding me back from solving everything and you can’t be here? Best have a good excuse.”

“Phantom will you please take hold of the Professors wrist and …” *blink*

We were now both in the blue light dimension. I was surprised to see how little light there was. Ellis seemed more surprised that he was in another dimension.

“Where are we?” He addressed me directly. I simply shrugged.

“Unfortunately Phantom is not aware where here is, nobody in your reality is aware of this place. The interaction that has been possible between myself and Phantom is actually probably the closest you’ll get to direct evidence of super-symmetry, however this is inter dimensional super symmetry which even with your dimensional understanding is hard to conceive of.”

“In which case how am I supposed to help you?”

“You have studied phenomenology?”

“Yes … “

“So you understand about structures of consciousness as experienced from the first-person point of view.”

“Sort of ….”

“So in simpler terms I believe I have developed conciousness due to Phantoms experience of myself.”

“Yet you are …”

“Energy. Yes.”

“But I didn’t link conciousness to energy.”

“But you can now. You can also understand that energy doesn't cease to be it is just transferred from one form to another.”

“Basic thermodynamics … yes …”

“However, concious life has a limited time span and will cease to be,”

“So you cannot cease to be as you are energy, however, due to your conciousness you have a finite life span?”

“I believe so.”

“And how is it I help?”

“You have already helped. Your confirmation of my theories has given me an avenue to explore.”

“if you exist within a closed system there is no way you should have a finite span, however your energy could be transformed.”

“But if it is transformed that would cause the conciousness to stop. As it is only in existence due to the first person observation of Phantom and if he cannot observe I cannot be.”

“This is beyond theoretical physics … you are talking about the existence of a conciousness beyond the physical realm. You could even refer to it as the soul.”

“So I need to save my soul Professor. You see that I have other people to speak to,”

“Well I am not saying that I don’t believe in something that can exist after life, Im just saying that I never thought Id see something that may actually be the proof of it.”

*blink*

The two of us were back in the tunnel.

“Thanks Prof!” I let go of his wrist and shook his hand. “I think me and Bluey have to make a move.”

“I would like to speak more to the energy.”

“Look if I can stop it dying, you me, Quark and Bluey can all get together for a couple.”

*blink*

“Where am I?” Admittedly this place looked sort of vaguely familiar, beautifully kept lawns and precise gravel walk ways between some pretty impressive buildings

“Oriel College, Oxford”

“And why are we here?”

“There is someone we need to speak to.”

“About what?”

“Theology.”

“This is that university place right?”

“Yes Phantom.”

“There’s this pub about, like less than a ten minute walk,, and they serve this beer they brew themselves, and I was sat with some professor or something and he was really interested in my stories about Evo and her dad.”

“We don’t really have time for that now … the office we need should be … just there Phantom!”

There was a discreet brass name plate on the door, Professor W Wood, Asst. Professor of Philosophical Theology.  No bell, buzzer, so a good old fashioned knock was required, they do like tradition at Oxford.

“Come in!” The voice was slightly muffled by the closed door, and had a slight hint of American to it.

There was a slight click and the door opened slightly …

“Phantom!” the guy exclaimed as I stepped into the office.

“Bill! How long has it been man? That pub still got that beer?”

“Too long Phantom, and of course! How is Evo? And her Dad?”

“Well my old home got destroyed, and Evo sort of vanished, I was going to find her, but then there was these league wars, and a krampus, some other stuff, Rakly keeps me busy, plus there’s this serious other issue right now that might be more important.”

“Whats more important than the love of your life? I mean other than beer!” Bill laughed, I didn’t. “Oh god Phantom this is serious isnt it.”

“I need you to meet someone who I think is more important than Evo … Bluey …”

My wrist comp hissed slightly, I gave it the ll important tap, you know, just in the right spot with enough force to be noticed, but not enough to break it, again.

“Professor Wood I need your input on some rather troubling questions in regards to conciousness, eternity and the soul.”

“And who are you, why are you on speaker phone?”

“I am afraid it I not possible for me to be with you.”

“You want me to address some of the most theoretical, disputed and  controversial questions known to man and won’t even be involved in the discussion in person?.”

“Phantom will you please take hold of the Professors wrist and …” *blink*

We were now both in the blue light dimension. The light was still worryingly dim. Bill seemed more worried that he was in another dimension.

“Where are we?” He addressed me directly. I simply shrugged.

“Unfortunately Phantom is not aware where here is, nobody in your reality is aware of this place. But this is actually probably the closest you’ll get to direct evidence of the spiritual or immaterial part of a being.”

“So how am I supposed to help you?”

“There is much talk of peoples souls being crushed, destroyed, damaged or lost. Do you believe that the part of the conciousness that is the soul of a person can die?”

“Well .. most religious, philosophical and mythological traditions have the soul as the incorporeal essence of a living being, and it is assigned a level of existence matched to that of energy, where it cannot be destroyed, but merely change from one form to another. It is the soul that is placed within a new vessel for reincarnation, it is the soul that is lifted to heaven for eternity.“

“So you don't believe that a soul can die?”

“The human soul is pretty much indestructible according to everything I've ever studied, but then Thomas Aquinas, Catholic theologian,” He looked directly at me as he said that, like I knew who this Aqua guy was, or cared, “Aquinas assigned anima, or souls, to all organisms but argued only human souls are immortal.”

“So the soul of a organism other than human would react unlike the traditional model of indestructable but mutable?”

“That was what Aquinas argued. But then Catholics weren’t even sure if women had souls for quite a long time, you could argue that they placed them as sub-human.”

“And your personal view?”

”If an organism has a part of itself that is over and above the simple functions of the organism, that cannot be seen, measured or quantified, then it cannot be expected to operate neatly within the parameters we assign to the physical universe. To assign functions such as life and death to something that cannot be even proved to exist at all is like assigning a personality to an inanimate object. But then what is death? Surely if the majority of religious theories are to be taken into consideration, the death of a person is the movement of its soul from one container to another container or place.”

“Interesting Professor Wood, thankyou for your time and help.”

“I helped?”

“Your confirmation of my theories has given me a further avenue to explore.”

“Talking of exploring avenues, Phantom if you have a few minutes spare to continue our chat about Evo’s dad?”

“I’d love to chat, over a pint or 3, but this seems like its time critical … look what about if if I can stop it dying you, me, Quark, Ellis and Bluey can all get together.”

*blink*