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Ghost's Story
Part 1
By
Scott "RaZrEsHaT" Hall

The laboratory and offices of Dr. Gordon Banneker were boring compared to what Albert had imagined them to be. The Professor of Physics at University of California Berkeley had a way of making the work done in his off campus lab sound exciting and dramatic, but now that he was there, Albert couldn't see it. Maybe it was because no one could see him?

Albert slipped around the corner and watched the door to the secure part of the lab. Eventually someone would go through the door and punch in the code. He would see the code and be able to get in when no one was around. Despite the lack of security at the entrance to the San Jose Technology Museum, Dr. Banneker's lab was discreetly a very secure location.

Standing perfectly still, Albert watched the security door with practiced patience. Within minutes one of the lab assistants approached. Excited, Albert moved slightly to ensure a better view of the keypad and noticed himself shimmer ever so slightly. The lab assistant spun quickly and looked toward the corner in which Albert stood. Eyeing that part of the hallway, the assistant slowly scanned and then began to shake her head.

"I really need to get more sleep."

If it wouldn't have given him away, Albert would have sighed with relief. He could become completely invisible when standing still, but when he moved there was a discernable shimmer that would give him away. He was not sure why or how he did what he did, but he had a good idea of what to do with his new ability.

********************

Spending the past year as a graduate student studying under Dr. Banneker, Albert had learned a lot about physics and a lot about the man, but two months ago the professor began to change. Dr. Banneker began to keep weird hours, often not showing up for class at all. His personality began to change too, he became increasingly erratic and it appeared that he rarely slept at all. Then, after a week long absence, Dr. Banneker reappeared happy, rested and ready to teach again.

Albert would have been relieved except that the Professor seemed far too calm, calmer than before, almost sedated. To Albert, it was very creepy and he was determined to find out what was going on.

For nearly a week Albert spied on the Professor after hours and worked him for information during school. Finally one Friday the Professor broke. He seemed particularly tired and distant, as if he was speaking to someone far way and not Albert at all, the Professor let loose.

" 34, 67, 1, 18….It's almost done."

"What are you talking ab…." Albert suddenly realized that this might be his break. "Go on Professor."

"The generator prototype is finished and I have but to complete a series of stress tests on it." The Professor's eyes stared into the distance and Albert was not completely sure if it was because the man could not bring himself to look him in the eyes as he revealed his secret, or if the lack of sleep that showed across the professor's face had finally taken its toll.

"Which generator type?"

"The Solar Particle Catcher." The puzzled look on the Professor's face warned Albert that he had better be more careful with his questions. Perhaps the man was in some sort of open eyed sleeping state in which one wrong question would wake him and end the stream of information.

"That's right, the SPC." The relief of tension on the Professor's face indicated that Albert had said something correct and he decided to follow it up. "Is the SPC prototype safe? Where is it located?"

"At my laboratory in the San Jose Technology Museum….but you already…" The Professor began to slowly swing his head from side to side and blink his eyes. Albert realized that for their entire conversation up to that point the man had not blinked once.

"Are you OK Professor?" Albert reached over the lunch table and touched the tired doctor on the shoulder. Continuing to blink his eyes, the professor looked around as if disoriented.

"Yeah, I think I need to go take a nap. What were we talking about?"

"Just some campus gossip, and then you nodded off."

"Yeah, I'm gonna go to my office and take a short nap. I'm heading back to the lab in San Jose on Monday." Albert silently made plans to be there too.

********************

Waiting several minutes after the lab assistant went through the door, Albert moved to the security pad and pressed the buttons in the exact same order as he had observed. Hearing a hiss of gas, the door popped open and Albert shimmered as he dashed inside.

The interior lab continued Albert's series of let-downs. While the security seemed top rate, the inside seemed like any other lab. Various technical instruments around the room, some of which he recognized from his own use, some just from pictures or other people's references.

As he panned across the room however, Albert found one thing that he knew was out of place. On the far side of the lab room sat a vault door. The door sat above a wall mounted table and was approximately four feet wide by four feet tall.

Without doubt, Albert knew he would find the SPC inside that vault. Slowly and carefully he crossed the room. It had occurred to him that other security measures may still be in place, and that he should not get over-confident.

Moving past the last lab table between him and the vault, Albert eyed the keypad on the door and felt ill. A combination! He had not considered the need for a combination to the vault. He could wait for someone else to open it, but his patience was nearly at an end after waiting for the combo to the lab door. Then it struck him.

"34, 67, 1, 18" The numbers were very possibly the combination!

Stepping up to the vault door, Albert slowly moved his hand over the keypad.

34-Enter

67-Enter

1 -Enter

18-Enter

A mechanical hiss emanated from the vault door, and Albert was sure that he was in.
Slowly Albert looked around the room to ensure he was alone. Reaching for the handle to the vault, a flash of black in his peripheral vision stopped him in his tracks.

"You know what to do. Bonebreaker, I need Dr. Banneker, find him. Thunderball and Hydro, I need you to start to work on the vault." The foursome had appeared out of thin air and were immediately recognized by Albert. The three men and one woman all dressed alike were unmistakable. "I will be taking up a position on the roof for evac."

"Ground Zero!" The name exploded in his mind and nearly came out his mouth. These four mutants were immediate heroes to him when they tore a hole in downtown San Francisco several weeks ago while destroying a branch of the All American Bank and Trust. The team of accused mutant terrorists wore matching uniforms made out of a dark blue spandex like material, but each member's uniform seemed to be tailor-fitted to them.

"No problem Blacklight, we got this." The team's largest member stated.

"Wait." The female member of Ground Zero, the one called Bonebreaker, stopped and scanned the room. Her eyes squinted slightly with outward concentration as she focused on the area in which Albert stood.

His heart racing, Albert stood completely still. He was not sure what Bonebreaker was capable of, but the fear he felt when her gaze passed over him ensured that he didn't want to find out.

"Got him!" Albert nearly jumped out of his skin. "Dr. Banneker is on the floor below us." She immediately turned and sprinted out of the lab and again Albert would have sighed with relief if it wouldn't have given him away.

"Alright silky boy, lets get to it." The largest member of the team announced to the team's smallest. Thunderball was a hulking mass of muscle that inspired Albert to believe that there was nothing beyond the man's strength. The smaller man, Hydro, moved slowly and unsurely behind the larger mutant. His uncomfortable body language clashed dramatically with the rest of his team.

Terror coursed up Albert's spine as he realized that the pair of Ground Zero mutants were coming his direction. He stood squarely between them and the vault. Between the approaching mutants he could see their leader, Blacklight, suddenly flash with blackness and disappear.

"Did you remember the bag little man?" Thunderball obviously disliked his smaller teammate, the tone in his voice was borderline abusive. "Hey, I asked you a question!" The powerful man stopped and looked down at the mutant named Hydro.

Albert took the question as an opportunity to extricate himself from his position between the Ground Zero members and the vault. Sliding quickly and quietly across the floor, he cleared the lane between Thunderball and the vault door.

It pained Albert to think that he had come so close to making off with the SPC and would now loose it to Ground Zero, but he knew that if he tried to interfere with their plans that he would likely get hurt. Another mutant had tried to stop them in San Fran, but he was last seen flying through the second floor of a building. Albert was not going to end up that way.

Thunderball stepped up to the vault and grabbed the handle. Albert prepared to run. He knew that when the powerhouse turned the handle and the vault opened without needing a key code that he would likely be exposed. Taking a small step backward, Thunderball strained ever so slightly and with a metallic snap, the vault door came off in his hand.

"Wow…." Another spontaneous thought had to be stifled in Albert's mind before it came out his mouth. He watched as Thunderball absent-mindedly swung his arm and let go of the vault door over a lab table. The door crashed down and smashed right through the table, leaving a mess of broken wood beneath the metal door.

Hydro stepped forward and stuck both hands into the vault. Pulling back he held in his hands a plate-size disc four inches thick. Several wires protruded out one side of the disc and Albert knew instinctively that it was the Solar Particle Catcher prototype. Stuffing it into his bag, Hydro turned and headed for the lab door.

Both Ground Zero members left the room and Albert felt a strange sense of anger mixed with envy. They had entered the lab and taken with ease the object he had planned for days to steal. Quickly Albert moved back to the vault to see if there was anything left to salvage his terrible day. Looking into the vault, Albert found his prize.

A thick stack of papers were immediately recognizable to Albert. The technical manual slid greedily into his hands and Albert knew that it would have almost as much value as the SPC itself to anyone interested in the technology.

Walking toward the lab door, Albert could hear screams from the hallway outside. It appeared that Thunderball was amusing himself at the expense of the building's occupants.

"Oh my God, it's them!"

"They're gonna kill us all!"

"Please…..!"

The dramatic screams were accompanied by the sounds of violent crashes from the opposite end of the hallway. Albert stood both shocked and excited at the mayhem. He marveled at the power of the fear invoked by the mere presence of Ground Zero.

"I saw her kill Dr. Banneker with her bare hands!" Albert's attention caught on the statement through the noise of the mayhem. For a split second he felt bad, he had known the man and his death was a loss. But something about the fear in the woman's voice as she announced Dr. Banneker's death made Albert's heart race. He craved that kind of respect, that kind of power.

As quickly as he could, Albert made his way through the offices of the building and to the floor's stairwell. The damage wasn't as severe as he thought it would be. A pulverized desk here, a demolished wall there, the damage seemed more in order to terrorize the building's occupants than to actually cause any death or destruction. All across the building people huddled near the workplaces, too frightened to even attempt to escape.

Cracking the stairwell door open, Albert looked out into the hallway. The stairs had been a good bet. They had been relatively empty and those that had come in were so traumatized that they didn't even notice his shimmer as he passed.

The hallway outside the stairwell was dark and quiet, apparently the power had gone out and the emergency lights were the only source of illumination, a perfect environment for an invisible man. Moving faster, Albert made his way toward the front door. Halfway down the hallway to the building's entrance, a powerful explosion rocked the floor and Albert found himself on his back and looking at the ceiling.

Regaining his feet, Albert slowly and cautiously walked toward the front door. Rounding the corner, he could see that where the double doors that previously stood as the entrance to the building now sat a gaping hole. The doors no longer existed and large pieces of the surrounding walls were also damaged or missing.

Outside the hole, Albert could see Thunderball posed menacingly and facing away. Behind him Hydro stood with a small duffle bag over his shoulder and obviously using his large teammate as s shield from something, or someone.

Giving in to his curiosity, Albert slowly snuck through the hole that was previously the building's front door. To the front of Thunderball and Hydro stood a man and a woman in matching green outfits. The spandex was dark green in the torsos and light green at the extremities.

"Stop where you are! We are here to take you into custody!" A green hued bubble appeared around the male as he voiced his command to the Ground Zero pair.

"You're what? Who the hell are you?" Thunderball's humor at the attempted apprehension was unmistakable.

From behind Thunderball, Hydro motioned at a fire hydrant near the green clad pair. Within seconds the hydrant exploded out of the ground and a geyser of water shot into the air. As Hydro balled his fist, the geyser too formed the shape of a human fist. Again the geyser mimicked Hydro as he brought his fist in a downward motion.

The geyser fist shattered as it smashed down upon the green hued barrier of Ground Zero's male opponent. Just seconds before the blow landed, the man had motioned with his right hand toward his female teammate and she was thrown free of the impact. The action was growing intense, and Albert decided that he had spectated enough.

Quietly and carefully Albert stepped through the rubble that had been the building's entrance and began to move away from the battle along the front of the building. Suddenly, out of nowhere a sharp impact jarred Albert. The back of his head felt numb and his vision shifted back and forth as he realized he had fallen to his knees. Falling forward, he landed on his hands.

"Was that supposed to hurt me?" Again whatever had just happened obviously struck Thunderball as humorous, but Albert couldn't find the joke. Quickly the pull of the pavement became overwhelming and Albert closed his eyes.

********************

Officers Felts and Vladimir jumped out of their patrol car and rushed to the Officer in Charge. The mutant terrorists known as Ground Zero had struck again, and this time downtown San Jose was the victim. There were many injuries, more from the eventual panicked fleeing than from the actual attack however, and only one death had occurred. Dr. Banneker had apparently been killed by the mutants during their assault on the San Jose Technology Museum. The destruction could have been worse, but Ground Zero had been opposed by another team of mutants, which a later press release identified as Impact.

"I need you two to do a sweep of the perimeter." Officer Felts knew that since it was a mutant related crime, that the Special Crimes unit had already been through, but it was Department Policy to have a K-9 check the area too.

Starting at the nearest corner of the building, Officer Vladimir sniffed his way around the building and led toward the front. His sensitive nose examined every nook and cranny of the building and its surroundings as he moved quickly but expertly. As they rounded the front edge of the building, both members of the team stopped in their tracks.

The San Jose Technology Museum's entrance had been made up of a set of double doors constructed of a form of shatter proof plexi-glass. But despite the claim, the glass sat shattered across the cement in front of the building. Large chunks of brick and concrete sat strewn as far as the opposite side of the street and a small crater marked where a fire hydrant had once been.

It appeared to Felts' well trained eye that an explosion had occurred just inside the building's entrance, but not once did Vladimir register explosive residue as he sniffed through the debris. The dog had been trained for months to detect drugs and explosives, however he had failed to indicate the presence of either since arriving at the crime scene. Witness reports indicated mutants, and Officer Vladimir appeared to be agreeing with them.

Working their way through the rubble, Officer Vladimir began to pull toward the wall leading away on the far side of the entrance. Stopping several feet from the wall, the dog tilted his head while staring at the wall. Officer Felts knew what the behavior meant and realized that the dog was trying to make sense of something it hadn't had to deal with before. Suddenly, and without warning, Vladimir lunged forward and bit at the empty air. Growling angrily, the dog's mouth appeared to be closed around something, but still nothing appeared.

"AAAAAHHHHH!!!!" A scream of terror emanated from the empty space in front of Vladimir. Shock and amazement nearly paralyzed Officer Felts as the form of a man began to shimmer into view. Vladimir's powerful jaw was closed around the left forearm of the shimmering man as he struggled to escape the beast's grasp.

Officer Felts quickly grabbed the shimmering man's right wrist and began to flip him over.

"Heel Vlad!" Officer Vladimir continued to growl and tear at the man's left wrist. "I said HEEL VLAD!" The K-9 officer immediately took several steps backward and sat on the ground. His upper lip continued to quiver in a stifled growl as he watched his partner and master continue the apprehension.

Just as Officer Felts got the shimmering man face down and with both wrists cuffed, the man vanished before his eyes. The illusion did not trick Officer Felts however, he could still feel the man's body below his knee.

"Show yourself or I will use my stun gun." No response came, so Officer Felts leaned down and pressed the stun gun downward until he felt resistance several inches above the visible ground. Squeezing the activation buttons, a brief shimmering came into view as the invisible man shook uncontrollably. After a second shock, the prone man slowly became visible.

"You're under arrest."