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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Shadow" data-source="post: 4939032" data-attributes="member: 16760">The Phantom[OK, here is the new, improved background for:  THE PHANTOM.  My second superhero character ever, played from about 1990 to about 1995.  (The first was the Shadow, who of course has his own thread elsewhere on here.][I think this little vignette shows another side of Erebus than that which has come out thus far.  That guy had a very whimsical sense of humor at times, and a soft spot for kids.]Mike missed his parents, even though he knew he shouldn't.  Ever since P.S.I. had taken him in when he was eleven, Counselor Darke had told him that they didn't want him any more because he was so special.  Normal people were afraid of special people, and Mike was very special.Mike liked Counselor Darke.  The man was funny and understanding and gave him candy.  Whenever he felt bad about his parents or being special, he could always tell Counselor Darke.  The old man would listen, smile, and nod... and stare at him intently with eyes that seemed to fill the whole room.  That always made Mike's head swim and make him feel confused for a while, but it made the bad feelings go away, and that was good.Of course, he wasn't called "Mike" any more, except in his own head.  He was "Phantom".  Special people need special names, Counselor Darke said.He wasn't the only special one.  Besides the grown-up P.S.I. members like the Counselor and Psimon and the rest, there were other kids like Probe (who could tell what you were thinking, the snoop!) and Soulfire, who could set things on fire (and was a real prick, too!).Most of his time was spent studying for school - stuff like math and science and martial arts.  Mike looked forward to the games they would sometimes play to test their special powers;  they were fun!Mike would fall asleep and send out his dream self - his Phantom-form - to go find stuff the Counselor asked him to.  Gliding invisibly through bank vaults, military bases, that kind of thing, to find the things that P.S.I. had planted for him to find.  All in fun - games.  Counselor Darke told him he was a very good boy.When Mike was sixteen, though, things began to not be so good.  The bad feelings didn't go away as easily, and he became restless.  He asked to see his parents.  He asked what the games were for.  He even insisted on being called "Mike".  Counselor Darke told him he was being very bad, but somehow that didn't seem to matter as much as it used to.  And so Inquisitor came to his room one night to punish him.He instinctively jolted out his Phantom-form in fright when the man appeared, looking angry.  The mental blast that came seared like fire and seemed to go on and on;  Mike came to whimpering helplessly.  He was good for a while after that.  But soon he noticed something new - he was more special than ever before.  Maybe the mental blast had jarred something loose in his mind.When roaming in his Phantom-form, he could read thoughts, like Probe.  He could lift things by thinking about it.  Mike experimented cautiously with these new abilities when playing games without telling anyone.  He knew he was being very, very bad, but he didn't really care any more.One night, Mike finally felt ready to make his move.  Sending out his Phantom-form, he blasted a sentry to sleep and took his keys.  After pulling a wire in a surveillance camera, he lifted up his unconscious physical body (it was very heavy!) and flew over the fence of the P.S.I. compound.  Rejoining on the other side, he ran and ran and ran.Soon he ended up on the streets of Seattle, tired and hungry.  He didn't know what to do.  He couldn't remember any more where his parents lived, or even what his last name was.  It was hard even to remember their faces.  He didn't know who to go to, or how to fend for himself.  Counselor Darke had always said the outside world was very bad, but he'd lied about everything else...  Turned out he hadn't entirely lied about that, though....The martial arts helped, and the Phantom-form even more.  Soon rumors of a ghost began to spread through the seedier neighborhoods of Seattle.Mike enrolled in a junior college.  He didn't like lying to the registrar about his name and age, and disliked mentally 'convincing' her he had proper documents even more, but what choice did he have?  (He vaguely recalled that his father's name was Tom, so he called himself Michael Tomson, later Thompson.)  He didn't mind so much paying for his education with money he took from the gangbangers who kept giving him grief, though - it's not like it was theirs anyway.Once he felt somewhat secure in his new life, he began to think about the other kids still under P.S.I.'s sway.  He started cautiously snooping around the P.S.I. compound in Phantom-form, trying to formulate a plan.  During one of these forays, he paused to scare off a mugger, when he bumped into another special person with the same intention:  A tall man shrouded in living shadow.An inky spiked hand raised in a mystic gesture, the man said to him, "You're not a ghost.  What are you?"  "I'm a kid.  I'm... the Phantom."  With a spectral chuckle, the shadowy man said, "Indeed you are.  I am called Erebus."  "The Greek underworld of darkness?"  "You know your mythology.  Are you... dreaming?"  "Not really.  I've learned to control it."Erebus paused.  "Might you know anything of the group that calls themselves P.S.I.?"  In a dead mental voice, "Lots."  "Well, well, and well.  We should speak further, Phantom.  We may have a common interest there."  He paused to sling the mugger over one shoulder.  "Care to come with?  It's always a pleasure to discomfit our blue brethren."  "Come where...?" Mike trailed off when the man gestured a perfect circle of blackness into being and stepped through.  After a moment's hesitation, he flew through as well, only to find himself in front of the police station, where Erebus was handcuffing the unconscious mugger and attaching a placard to him that read, "I Am A Criminal.  Courtesy of: <'Erebus' spelled out in Greek letters>""So you're a superhero, then?"  "If you insist.  I just have a settled distaste for those that misuse power - which is to say, virtually everyone."  "But not you?"  Cheerfully, "Oh, I have a certain distaste for myself on some days too.""P.S.I. certainly misuses power."  "That they do.  I gather you may want to bring them down rather more than I do?"  "Yeah."  "Shall we talk about it some more, perhaps over coffee?"  "I don't know..."  Erebus only said, "At three o'clock tomorrow afternoon, I will at the coffee shop on the corner of..."  After naming the address, he faded back into a shadowy alley and was gone.Mike debated whether or not to show up, but in the end the thought of somebody to talk to was too powerful a draw.  He arrived the next day, nervous and somewhat self-conscious about his unkempt clothing.  It wasn't hard to spot Erebus - a huge brute of a man looking ready to split his suit at the seams.  But he was gravely courteous as he invited Mike to sit and offered him a cup of coffee.  "And what should I call you?"  "My name is Mike."  "An honor, Mike.  My enemies call me Jim.  You may call me James."  "All right... James."Soon Mike was telling the man his entire story.  Erebus heard him out quietly, then said,  "It would seem that P.S.I. is in even greater need of destruction than I had thought.  Shall we join forces?"  Mike swallowed hard, then stuck out his hand.  "Yeah."  They shook on it.Laying plots with Erebus, and being treated as a peer by an adult for the first time, Mike rapidly shed the last of the artificial immaturity that P.S.I. had inculcated in him.  (If Erebus noticed this - and he missed precious little - he carefully did not draw attention to it.)  During this time he found a job on campus as a janitor and was able to afford an apartment that Erebus helped him find.  The older man also quietly "arranged" proper documentation for him.By the time the two felt ready to put their plan into action, Mike was nineteen, and more confident and self-assured than he had ever been.  His telepathic powers had grown to a degree that would have dumbfounded his childhood handlers - and indeed, it did.Suffice to say that Erebus and the Phantom put a decisive end to the P.S.I. operation in Seattle that day.  Mike, though unwilling to seriously hurt anyone, couldn't find it in himself to be sorry when Erebus struck Counselor Darke at full strength and snapped his spine, killing him instantly.  Erebus, for his part, only said nonchalantly, "Oops!  He broke!"The two proceeded to rifle all the information they could about P.S.I.'s other installations, and went on a cross-country spree of retribution - soon joined by a gadgeteer who called himself Technoid.  The three came to national attention, and worked extensively with hero groups around the country as they hounded P.S.I. to extinction.  (Nobody else died, but every last willing member of P.S.I. ended up in prison.)  Along the way, Erebus met a thrill-seeking young woman named Jessica, who aided him at a crucial juncture.  (Erebus watching in frustration as the bad guys pull away in a truck, the Phantom and Technoid - who can fly - busy elsewhere.  A young woman in a sports car slows down to get a look at him, and he hooks a thumb and says cockily, "Going my way?"  "Sure!")  They ended up falling for each other, and her father proved to be a multimillionaire.When they came back to Seattle, Jessica's father offered to bankroll them as a team.  Erebus was reluctant to work with the Establishment, but eventually came around. (Mostly.)  The Phantom, for his part, knew that this was what he was meant to do.  Shadow-Force came into being.By the time a young professor showed up calling himself Photon, Mike was 24 and a seasoned, respected hero - the de facto leader and strategist of Shadow-Force.  (Though Erebus took the lead in combat.)  He was also invariably the "face" of the team, dealing with the authorities and other hero groups.  (An instinctive telepath, Mike became a social chameleon of sorts, adapting himself to the mannerisms and speech patterns of the people he spoke to.)  Unlike the other members of the team, he lived in the base, ostensibly working there as a caretaker.Eventually he mastered the use of his psionic powers even while not projecting his astral form;  and shortly before his disappearance he had developed the otherwise unheard-of ability to remain awake and active, even psionically active, while his Phantom-form was projected.  (However, his body went inert again shortly after he disappeared into the Shadow Realm.)At the time of his disappearance, Michael Thompson was 25 years old, and one of the most powerful mentalists on record.  Along with his friend Erebus, he was one of the more notable heroes in the nation and was being considered for membership in the Guardians.[In game terms, the Phantom and Erebus had gone from 250 Champions points to 350.  It was, yes, a long-running campaign.  Technoid wasn't around quite as much, so didn't get as high.  Bazooka, Brimstone, Alpha, and Beta were NPC's.  Chameleon and Mystra were PC's of players who drifted in and out of the game.]</blockquote>

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