PhantomAmongPhantoms - The Search For Evo

"Dammit I think we broke it!" SnipersWrath put his weapon down.
"It doesn't look good!" I slightly understated. "Can we confirm it wasn't ALL my fault?"
"Of all the things we can, will, should or might blame you for ... no this time you can't be held totally responsible."
I breathed a sigh of relief.
"I'm off to see Evo. Plans need to be made."
"Phantom ... don't know if you noticed ... the city's gone"
"But that rubble there looks like it might have been my apartment block."
"And you think Evo will be somewhere in that?"
He had a point, there didn't really look like there was anyone left anywhere in the city.
"Can't you just picture her and blink to where she is?"
"If it was that easy do you think it would have taken me three months to find her dad?"
"Well she's a merc, she'll be where the action is."
And that is?
"I heard that shit was going down in New Amsterdam."
"Good place to start! Beers later? On me"
"Sure ... where?"
"I'll just picture you and blink"
"Sounds good"

And people said I was the idiot in the team.

New Amsterdam was kinda like I imagined it, but with less canals, tulips, clogs and a lot less New.
But within half an hour I'd witnessed enough to know it had the kind of action that would attract Evo.
Some guy calling himself 'The Raptor' tried mugging me, but that ended badly for him. The paramedics were still discussing how to extricate his foot when I walked away.
Something covered in flames jumped off a rooftop in an alley, and I quickly demonstrated unlike the popular saying that I will piss on you if you're on fire.
I bumped into one of the Valkyries, but after our last encounter she just blanked me.
Some wierdo tried to lift my wallet.
"I'm sorry!" He whined. "I can't help myself, I just have to act on my impulses." I just had to act on mine and blinked him to the steps outside the 5th Precinct with an explanatory note stapled to his forehead.
And let's not talk about that Stygian, well let's briefly ... cos that's how long his attack lasted.

What's this place?

"Blue Oyster ... cold beers, hot stuff" the sign above the door stated.

Hmmmm. Beer!

Ok so not my usual choice of bar, I mean I'm comfortable in myself - but the big guy on the stage with kneepads and not a lot else on was looking at me a little too intently. I decided to keep head down, drink my beer, examine my boots ... I don't know why Evo kept saying had small feet, they looked absolutely in proportion.

"I know you!"
"Huh?!?" I looked up. The guy wore a lot of red, and was definitely familiar. "Rakly?!?!"
"Phantom. You still heroing?"
"I guess, I was just looking for ..."
"Still able to manipulate that dimensional energy?" He interrupted.
"The blue stuff ... yeah!"
"Then you might just be the guy I've been looking for."

Prioritise, I told myself, you're here to find Evo, don't get involved in any distractions.

"Why?" Questions couldn't hurt.
"Well we're struggling to send a quantum wave of quark emissions through a temporal portal and have it exist simultaneously in two time lines."
"Yeah that can be a problem ... with the quantum leap and stuff."
Keep cool, act normal, give nothing away.
"I could use your special skills."

No time for distractions, Evo finding number one priority.

"If you could just come over to the Tower for a bit."

Oh boy, it was never a bit when people asked favours of me.

"We have a bar."

A few hours wouldn't hurt.

Thanks for the fiction!  What's your ID?

Avengers Tower was pretty cool all things considered. Quite an eclectic mix of characters seemed to be hanging out there. Phantom felt that a few of them were more than a little familiar, but somehow a bit different.

"I keep getting the strangest feeling that I know all the guys here, but then I feel like I dont. It's kind of like watching the directors cut of a film when you've been drinking" He tried explained to Rakly.

That got the usual look of "what the fuck are you talking about?" that Phantom was more than a bit used to. He used that look himself a lot, especially when Strange Quark tried explaining why he had been asked to the Tower.

To make things slightly better he had found that the bar on the top floor did stock a nice triple IPA,  it wasnt KBCorp, but Phantom figured he'd acquire the taste if he kept trying.

"Who are you mate?" He asked an unfamiliar figure who approached him at the bar.
"The Fallen"
There was surely a smart add remark to be made here, but as Phantom felt a little out of place he decided that maybe it could wait.
"Rakly asked me to come check on you, we're still waiting for a few things before we need you."
"What kind of things?"
"Just some info that Mack has managed to get for us, Rakly has gone to collect it."
"Mack?"
"You must have seen him at the Blue Oyster. Big guy, tanned with a beard."
"I tried not to look to much at the guys in the Oyster." I admitted. "Give me a bit more to go on."
"Wears a pair of ..."
"The guy on stage with the massive ..." I interrupted.
"Kneepads" Fallen finished.

The conversation stopped abruptly.

"Beer?" I asked, trying to be polite.
"Not for me, I'll stick to my usual." He reached behind the bar and pulled out an unravelled bottle. "If it's down time then it's time to shine." He pulled the cork out of the bottle with his teeth and chucked a large mouthful back.

Time passed slowly when you're waiting for something that you don't know about to happen, but time passing slowly with a beer seems a little more tolerable.

Hahaha! Love it!

Does Rakly know the kind of bars he's been hanging out in?  ;P

A little while later Strange Quark walked into the bar, I'd been introduced to him earlier. He'd asked me some questions about my abilities, well he spouted a load of technical science incomprehensible maths type stuff and then Rakly had translated it into real words. Quark was accompanied by another guy I hadn't yet met.

"Who's that?" I nudged the Fallen, who was definitely slumping, slumped, slumpen ... leaning heavily on the bar.
"That's Quark."
"No, with Quark."
"Oh" Fallen lifted his head a bit. "He's Ichi."
"You can get a cream for that ..." Fallen was not listening.

"Phantom, let me introduce Ichi."
"Evening." I nodded a half arsed welcome. I was just visiting Avengers Tower, definitely wasnt staying here, things to do, Evos to find ... well one Evo ..."
"Is Rakly still at the Blue Oyster?" Quark asked.
"Dunno, probably, not seen him here." I paused to grab another beer, and rescue the bottle that was slipping from Fallens hand. "What's the deal with that place anyway? You have a good bar here."
"We sent Mack in undercover for another job, but before he could break cover we had this problem come up. Plus it's not the kind of place anyone would normally suspect."
"I found it a bit suspect."
"And the partners that own it BrainChef and Space Ape are valuable resources in their own ways."
"Partners like business or partners like ..."
"Never asked." Quark shrugged.

There was a moment of almost awkward silence. But then slowly Fallen fell from stool and crumpled on the floor. I looked at him, seemed comfortable enough, just let him rest there.

"Beer?" Quark and Ichi nodded.

I don't know if I've ever mentioned that time spent waiting with a beer is still time well spent.

So by now I had been hanging around the Avengers Tower for a few weeks and nothing much had happened, and I was definitely not any close to finding Evo.
"Rakly you said you had a job for me, but so far all I've done is wander about the place and drink. Normally I wouldn't complain, the quarters you gave me are bigger than my old apartment and the robo-cleaners bitch 100% less than Evo.The bar is always well stocked, the gym is ... well it has an awesome sauna... but ..."
"Ok Phantom, look the job is happening soon, it's complex, we're waiting on a little bit more info and, well, we kind of need to introduce you to the guy you'll be working with."
"So?"
"He's strange."
"Have you met me?"
"Phantom you're wierd, off, odd, not quite normal, hard to define and definitely borderline functioning alcoholic ... this guy is 100% Strange. And the capital S is for a reason."
"But you want us to work together!"
"I need you to work together."
"So introduce us."
Rakly shook his head and turned his back to me, he paused, then slowly turned back to face me.
"You're right." I was slightly shocked.
"Its never going to get easier ..." He sighed. "Follow me."
"Where are we going?"
"The penthouse bar."
"But ...."
"Phantom do you pay no attention? The tower is split in two, I.put a bar in each penthouse ... you and your, hmmmm, co-worker I guess, have been located on opposite sides of the tower until now."
"There's another bar?!?!"
"Yes"
"And you never told me!"

Rakly sighed loudly and opened the door, he stepped into the corridor, and over to the lift door.
"Come on then." He uttered in a very resigned voice, "let's introduce you to Quark"
"I know Quark!"
"Really?" Rakly seemed relieved.
"Its that foul fake cheese for vegans ... like plastic space puke thats been fermented in a zombies boxers for six months"
"Its not that Quark" Rakly shook his head at me.
"Good job, can't stand that shit!"

I followed him into the lift, he reached for the panel with the buttons and span it around to reveal a new set exactly the same but lit up green rather than blue.
He hit the "P" button.

"He's got three eyes!" I tried to whisper discretely to Rakly.
"Yeah!?!?" He hissed back.
"And none of them are looking the same way!"
"Yeah!?!?"
"How do you know who he's talking to?"
Rakly muttered something under his breath, my hearing never went full on super but it sounded suspiciously like 'what the hell did i do?'

"Quark" Rakly addressed the three eyed guy.
"Rakly."
"This is PhantomAmongPhantoms. You can just call him Phantom."
"I've been called worse" I quipped.
"Yeah I can see why." Quark looked at me with at least two eyes.
"Hey now!" I'm not normally offended but who was he to judge?

Rakly held his hands up to silence us both.
"I need you guys to work together." He turned to face me.
"Quark has the ability to manipulate and interract withsubatomic particles." I nodded, best bet at this point.
He turned to face Quark.
"And Phantom here can travel into an alternate dimension that appears to consist solely of a source of energy that demonstrates a form of intelligence." Quark nodded, knowingly.

"There's this blue light stuff, and I blink and ..."

"Fascinating." Quark interjected. "Beer?"
"Rude not to." I wasn't lost in that idea.

Rally smiled to himself.
"I knew you guys would get on."

"So this blue light energy dimension?" Quark asked.
"Yeah"
"How does it work?"
"I blink and then I'm there."
"Where?"
"The blue light dimension"
"What's it like?" Quark pulled two more pints.
"Mainly dark, black, empty, it's nothing but there is this light that I can touch and it speaks to me, not actual words more like an impression of thoughts transferred directly to my brain."
Quark downed his pint, pulled another, and downed it.
"So let me get this straight ... you can instantaneously transfer your being to an alternate dimension that is solely inhabited by an energy based intelligence that has an approximate frequency of 490nm. This energy has a conciousness that is able to communicate directly to your own but allows a part of itself to be transferred back to our dimension where you are able to manipulate it. You can then use the energy in its pure form to interact with the physical objects of this dimension. Or you can manipulate it within it's own reality to transfer your corporal state to another set of coordinates in this dimension."
"Hmmmm ...." I paused for a chance to translate.
"I can blink other places and use the energy to blow shit up. And if I'm careful I can be in both places at once and then nobody can touch me."
"Cool!" Quark carefully selected a bottle of 30 yr old single malt, which he drained in one long pull.
"And I think it can mess with time, but i dont know cos thats way more dangerous than my pay grade."
"And does this require more than a 'blink'?"
"Don't think so."
"Do it!"
"Why?!?!"
"I am able to manipulate sub-atomic factors, these theoretically can travel interdimensionally. You could prove or disprove the theory."
"Ok ... so normally I just ..." *blink*

The blue light dimension was calm, relaxing and kind of normal compared to the last few weeks.
I let the tendrils of energy wrap around me, relishing the contact and the sense of wholeness they brought.

*blink*

"And?" I picked up my pint, drained it and studied Quarks three eyed visage.

"Weeeeeellllll .... " He deliberately stalled.

"Well what?"

"Well it was interesting." Quark looked frankly shocked.

"Beer?" I asked.

"Don't mind if we do."