John Glass wasn't special. People looked right through him. And why wouldn't they? He was average - average height and weight, average hair and eye color, blending into the background without meriting a second glance. He was pretty bright, sure, but in a world of Q-tech and Quasars, just being pretty bright wasn't going to get any attention. It was enough to get through MIT, sure. It was enough to get a low-end job with Icarus, but that was as close to important as John was ever likely to get.
At least until the accident.
John worked hard and secured a position at TaraCon, one of the competing corporations for Q-tech. The hours were endless and the work endless, and John performed reliably -- not great, just well enough to keep his position secured. John was assigned to prepare the Q-Array for the experiment while the more important research members were in preparation meetings. Even with degrees in quantum physics and computer science, John had a hard time following the ideas that the experiment was supposed to test. He knew Schrodinger's cat, and the wave-particle duality, sure, but teenagers who read popular science probably also understood those things. This was supposed to be simple, with no power to the system until the real experiment, hours later. But something went wrong. Some kind of power surge, an unexpended Q-Cap generator that should have been inactive wasn't and was instead fully charged and active. When John prepared the experiment's initial connection matrix, the entire Q-matrix went live, and John simply - vanished.
When John woke up, the room was dark and dormant. The Quantum Matrix Array was gone and everything else was covered with tarps. John could see from the chamber's digital time stamp display that he'd been out for days - and no one had noticed. He looked at his hands and saw - nothing. He tried to turn on some lights, but his hand went right through the switch. Caught in between, John was both there and not there. He could see the world around him but not touch it. He could even see confusing images of possible futures - just a little way further down the spacetime road, seeing forks in that road. But he couldn't be touched or seen. However, Quasar abilities were decided, John's near-invisibility and disconnection with the physical world were made permanent. He had disappeared from the world, and no one noticed.
At least, not at first. John walked out of the lab, and sat down on a nearby bench, his mind falling in on itself. He went to his apartment only to find it was occupied by someone else, but some of his things were still there. He felt confused and wandered through Chicago's streets. How would he survive like this? How could he eat or drink if he couldn't touch anything? And on a more personal level, what did it say about him that no one missed him? How long he stayed there, no one could say, but eventually John decided to reach out to Dr. Stephen Anson, of the Daedalus Foundation. Dr. Anson was the sponsor of a newly created Quasar team called Team Daedalus and word was that he had helped Quasars who had accidentally gained powers. Perhaps, unimportant as he was, someone there would be willing and able to help him. Maybe if John had fully developed his foresight, he wouldn't have stumbled into a battle in Downtown Chicago's Arts District.
Still, the battle proved to be a mixed blessing. It showed John that he could still be hurt, as a stray bolt of energy from an energy weapon wielded by terrorists known as the Akili Moja had struck him and it was painful. John yelped, but the only one who noticed was a nearby observer, a man who called himself Dr. Simmons who was using a specially designed Q-visor to observe Quasar powers in use. Dr. Simmons came to help John; fearful he had been injured by the attack. He was astonished when his hands went through John. Dr. Simmons looked at him -- really looked closely at John. He was kind and attentive, actually listening to John and his story. Dr. Simmons explained, "I don't know you and you don't know me, but if you come with me, I'll try to keep you safe. I have a small laboratory in the Midwest and if you have a destiny, I would like to help you reach it."
John learned that Dr. Simmons lived in an old warehouse with his daughter, Jalena. He claimed that his research was on the verge of changing Quasars and Q-tech was the world knew them, but that there were many forces that wanted to stifle and control his new technology. While he explained it in relative terms involving a new method of detecting and controlling Q-fields, John didn't really understand the background to it. But he was grateful to the kind doctor and to his beautiful daughter.
It was the most important offer John had ever gotten. No one in Ferrotech, or really, any time in his life, had ever really seen him. But this eccentric scientist wanted to help John, and more importantly, he showed interest in what John had to say. Over the next few weeks, Dr. Simmons and Jalena cared for John and helped the young Quasar learn how to control his powers enough to interact with the physical world at a limited level. They helped John understand his mental link to his powers and John proved to be an exceptional spy. Dr. Simmons explained that the sinister Whisper Alliance was seeking the key to his research and that he was hiding it to ensure that dangerous governments, corporations, or organizations like the Whisper Alliance could not get their hands on it. "Were they got this technology, they would use it to do unspeakable things. They must not know of my whereabouts or about this technology." Despite not being able to touch physical objects, John learned to use a quantum tunnelling effect, teleporting objects as well as himself. It began simply, stealing a key card here, watching a battle between Quasars to learn their abilities, it was a small price to pay for being cared for, and recognized.
Over the coming weeks, Dr. Simmons and his daughter were attacked by a number of anonymous thugs and assassins, and only thanks to John's intervention did they manage to escape repeatedly -- fleeing from city to city. John's normally well-defined moral code was challenged as he had to sacrifice his belief in honesty, kindness, and peace were supplanted as he was forced to take more sinister and violent actions against Dr. Simmons foes. He spied, stole, and even killed to protect Dr. Simmons and Jalena as their pursuers grew more fervent and active. John was certain he was falling in love with Jalena and he was certain she was falling in love with him but chose to remain detached because of his physical condition. John discovered the actions he took and the persons he hurt and killed were being investigated by AEGIS. Dr. Simmons convinced John that AEGIS was infiltrated with corporate and government spies and that they wanted to use him to get to the invaluable research.
It was in Phoenix that John's world came crashing down around him. Dr. Simmons explained that he had someone from AEGIS who would help him out and that they were VIP's involved in the Q-Games. John grew suspicious, as the Q-Games was the *last* place anyone wanted to be if they were hiding from both AEGIS and major Q-tech organizations. John was determined to confront Dr. Simmons about their actions over the last few months, but Jalena convinced him to wait. Finally, Dr. Simmons had promised to explain everything to him and introduce him to Dr. Stephen Anson, who wanted John for Team Daedalus. But it was a trap. The tunnel underneath the arenas were abandoned and as John found Dr. Simmons lab coat and glasses, a sudden surge of Quantum energy struck him, dissolving him in a way very similar to his first time he disappeared.
When John reformed, he discovered the arena was abandoned. He learned of the Q-Games attack and the devastating cost in Quasar lives. John began looking for Dr. Simmons and, in the weeks, following, his espionage abilities and skills led him to something he was never supposed to see - evidence that Dr. Simmons was really the sinister Dr. Symantro. John worked systematically, working his way through Whisper Alliance operatives and cells, peeling the onion of treachery layer by layer, until he finally reached the truth. He learned that Dr. Symantro had not only engineered Q-Games incident, but also John's original "accident." Dr. Symantro, and his daughter -- a woman John later learned was the ruthless Riplash, even covered for John's disappearance, sending notice to John's old landlord that he was moving to another apartment, forging two-week-notice to Ferrotech, and doing everything necessary to ensure that John was alone, isolated, and vulnerable to manipulation. The things John had done to protect "Dr. Simmons" and his daughter transformed from heroic moments and self-sacrifice into shameful, horrifying examples of his gullibility. 1
It took some time for John to recover from the depth of his betrayal. For years, John just wandered, stuck in a morass of despair and depression over the things he had done and how easily he had been used. He considered crime, but he also felt the weight of making up for what he'd already done to help Dr. Symantro. It was after he learned of Dr. Symantro's attempt to use the Ancients and the deadly Urvox to destroy all knowledge in the world that he decided he had a responsibility to make up for his mistakes. Renaming himself "Ghost Particle," after a quantum physics term, John set out to make amends.
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