Chapter 13 - Hero to Zero

Chapter 13
Jake lazily leaned back in his chair in the control room, staring at the ceiling. He rubbed the patch over his eye socket. It still felt weird to have only one eye, of course that wasn’t the only thing that still felt weird. Being in space was a good place to start. Never had Jake even dreamed that he’d be in space. He also had never thought he would actually be surrounded by women. Some how he had thought he’d enjoy it more.
He quickly remembered that it wasn’t all women. There was also Phantom, but he usually was brooding in the cargo bay like it was a deep, dark dungeon. That was another thing he was still getting used to, Phantom. The American Dragon had met a few ghosts in his day but they weren’t nearly as creepy, or powerful as Phantom. Sometimes Jake had dreams were he was back in New York and some mad wizard was opening a portal to release some great, evil demon and when the portal opened it was Phantom that stepped out, only he looked more powerful and purely evil. Sometimes Jake wondered if Phantom was really on their side. He had talked with Jenny about that dream but she had told him that Phantom was ‘just a big softy’. After seeing what Phantom was able to do to June, Jake was really doubting that statement.
He began to wonder, What would they do if Phantom turned on them? Not even the Te Xuan Ze could take him. What if Phantom had been the one to destroy Earth? What if he was just gathering up all the survivors to finish them off?
Jake thought about Betty and Phantom going out for the supplies. He didn’t like the idea of Betty, who had no powers and a weapon that Phantom gave her and probably knew inside out, going out alone with Phantom. He had talked with Betty about it and practically begged her to let him come along instead of Phantom. She didn’t yield and simply told him she needed stealth and Phantom was the only one who could go invisible and walk through walls.
Apparently nobody else thought Phantom was dangerous. But Jake still had doubts. He may have had only one eye left but he was determined to keep it squarely on Phantom. Just as Jake decided this he heard the control room doors swish open. Turning his chair to face the door, he saw something that startled him; Phantom, with a gun!
“Don’t shoot!” Jake shouted, falling out of his chair.
Phantom had a confused look on his face, “Okay,” he said, “I won’t shoot.” Phantom calmly walked in, eyeing Jake with concern. “Where’s Betty?”
Realizing that Phantom wasn’t going on a crazy shooting rampage Jake began playing it cool. “Oh, yeah, she’s still getting ready, you know girls.” He chuckled a little and got up off the ground, “You know, that kinda surprised me, you usin’ the door and all. Usually you‘re going around all sneaky, like you got something‘ to hide.”
“Hmm? Oh, yeah well, You know, sneaking gets old after a while.” Phantom said. Jenny had made him promise to the Betty about his degeneration, but Jake didn’t need to know. At least, not yet.
“Yeah, and you’re, uh, packin’ heat.” Jake pointed at the gun-like device Phantom held under his arm.
“This? It’s just the Fenton Crammer.”
“So, what‘s it do?” Jake said feeling he already had a good idea what it did.
“Well, without getting too complicated it fires a high-frequency beam that restructures things on the atomic level altering the item‘s atomic density removing much of the empty space, therefore ‘cramming‘ the particles together resulting in a decrease in perceivable mass.”
“Uhhhh…” Jake felt very confused.
“It makes things small.”
“Like a shrink ray?” That wasn’t what Jake though it did.
“Well, more of a beam than a ray and not so much shrinking as cramming but basically, yeah. I figure we can use it to get all the supplies here in one trip. The less time we spend off the ship the better.”
“Oh, right.” Jake answered , trying to see if there was a diabolical angle to this. “So, Phantom . . . ” Jake said, thinking how he could find out more about Phantom with out tipping him off.
“Yeah . . . ?” Phantom replied.
“Well, I mean, I know Betty’s always been a Galactic Guardian, and Jenny’s built to save the world, but what about you?”
“What about me?”
“I mean, what were you like before the invasion? What did you do?”
“What did I do?” It had been so long since Phantom had actually thought about life before the invasion it was a little difficult to remember. “You know, normal kid stuff, hang out, go to the mall, go the arcade and, how did we say it again? Rage against the machine?”
Jake wasn’t expecting that. It seemed hard to visualize Phantom just hanging out at the mall. Destroying the mall, Jake could see, but not just hanging out. “”Well, sounds like just a normal kid’s life.”
“Yeah.” Phantom replied wistfully, “Well, as normal as you can get when you’re half ghost and have to save the day all the time.”
“Save the day?” Also not what Jake was expecting.
“Yeah, it’s like, every day some new creep would crawl out of the Ghost Zone and I’d have to force them back, and of course everyone thought I was the bad guy. Even after I saved them all from the Ghost King.”
‘Ghost King?’ Jake thought to himself, ‘where have I heard that before?’ he stained his mind to figure it out. Suddenly it all came back.
“Wait, wait, wait!” Jake said out loud, “The Ghost King? Pariah Dark? My Gramps talked about that guy, he said last time he got out it was bad! Like, a thousand years of darkness bad! You‘re telling’ me you beat him?”
“Well, I had some help.” Phantom said.
“Dude, that’s dope! Wait, where’d you say you lived?”
“Um…” Phantom was a little freaked out by Jake’s excitement. “Amity Park.”
“No way.” Jake couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “No. Way. You’re serious?”
“Uh… yeah.”
“You’re the protector of Amity Park?”
“Well, no one’s ever called the ‘the protector’. Usually it was ‘that darn ghost-kid!’ or ‘that good-for-nothing spook!’. But I guess if you wanted to call me a protector you could.”
“Dude! I’ve heard so much about you! You’re, like, a rock star in the magical world! Everyone talks about you! I can’t believe you’re the guy! Man, I never knew you were such a hero!”
Phantom cringed at the word ‘hero’. Something deep inside of him told him he wasn’t a hero anymore, after all he had done and how he had failed. “I’m no hero.” he said, setting down the Fenton Crammer.
“Are you kidding me?” Jake said. “I heard you fought back a full fledged ghost invasion! From what I heard you were definitely a hero back on Earth.”
Phantom let out a heavy sigh, “Okay, I may have been a hero in the past, but it doesn’t matter now. It doesn’t matter how many times I saved my friend, my family, my town, the world. In the end I failed. I failed and all humanity, all the world suffered for it.” Phantom’s mood suddenly grew darker and with an almost unholy tone he added; “All that matters now is finding the person who did this to the earth and making them pay.”
Jake didn’t know what to say. If this was the same guy Foo-dog’s friends were always geeking out about, he definitely wasn’t a bad guy, but what did he mean when he said he failed? “Look, dude, Don’t take this invasion personally. I mean, it’s not like they were coming just for you.”
Phantom simply stared at Jake as if he had missed the picture entirely. Before either could say anything the door swished open.
“Ah, Phantom, there you are.” Betty said. “Ready?”
Phantom looked at Jake for a moment, “Yeah, I‘m ready.” He grabbed the Fenton Crammer and walked out with Betty.
When Phantom was gone Jake sat back in his chair. Maybe Phantom wasn’t pure evil, but Jake decided he should still keep his eye on Phantom.

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