Chapter 54 Possibilities of Intangibility

We got home past midnight, the city still humming beneath us like a restless beast. Onyx threw herself onto the couch, her boots carelessly kicked off and landing somewhere in the living room.

“What’s the plan?” she asked, her voice a strange mix of expectation and exhaustion.

“Go to sleep,” I said, my tone clipped.

She tilted her head at me, those sharp eyes narrowing. “You don’t have a plan.”

“I said,” I repeated, letting the weight of my voice leave no room for argument, “go to sleep. You’ll need the strength.”

She stared for a moment, then sighed in surrender. “Fine.” She dragged herself toward the bedroom and collapsed onto the bed, her hair a messy spill across the sheets.

I didn’t follow her. Instead, I headed for the elevator and rode it up to the seventy-second floor. The building was mine from top to bottom, but the top two floors were personal… one for living, one for work. The prep room sat at the very top, quiet, isolated, a vault of secrets and steel.

The elevator doors parted with a soft chime, and I keyed in the four-digit code by muscle memory. The keypad blinked green, accepting the password. Then came the key, cold and familiar in my fingers, one I never left behind no matter where I went. The heavy door slid open, releasing a faint metallic scent that reminded me of gun oil and paper.

I stepped inside, weaving between crates of firearms, boxes of ammunition, and racks holding blades, gadgets, and tools I hadn’t touched in days. The room was organized chaos, a map of my paranoia and preparation. My destination was the smaller study tucked into the corner. I shut the door behind me, sat down at the desk, and booted up the computer.

While the system hummed to life, I dragged the heavy calculator from the edge of the table, flipping it over in my hands. The screen was cracked in one corner, but the buttons still clicked. I started running numbers.

Phasing wasn’t just about instinct anymore. Every time I slipped through the ground, I realized how little control I truly had. It was raw, dangerous power, demanding precision I didn’t yet possess. The idea was simple enough in theory: estimate trajectory, density, velocity, then make it through without splattering myself. But theory and survival were never the same thing.

The deeper I phased, the more guesswork I had to rely on. Recently, though, my accuracy had been improving. I could almost feel the spaces I slipped through, like I was mapping the world in three dimensions in my head, each shift refining the sense until it became muscle memory. Still, there were too many variables. Density changed everything. Concrete wasn’t the same as soil, and soil wasn’t the same as steel or asphalt.

For what I had in mind, guesswork wouldn’t cut it.

I opened a browser and pulled up SRC’s old archives, courtesy of Mom’s forgotten access credentials. The organization wasn’t perfect; loopholes existed everywhere, and she had been clever enough to exploit them with the help of her old university friends. Even now, long after she’d disappeared, those keys still opened doors.

The documents were clinical, written by scientists who thought they understood what they were studying. According to SRC, phasing was binary: on or off. Like flipping a switch. But reality was messier. Case files told stories of intangibles who miscalculated and fused with objects, their bodies sheared clean through by walls or machinery. Others described rare instances where a user deactivated mid-phase and was simply… expelled. Pushed out, uninjured, as though reality itself rejected them.

Those rare cases intrigued me, since that was the kind of intangible I was. They were the ones who figured out how to bypass gravity, how to vanish into the ground and reappear elsewhere. To everyone else, it looked like teleportation. To them, it was controlled falling, diving into one point and clawing out of another, guided by nothing but instinct and math.

The trouble was that intangibility wasn’t uniform. No two users experienced it the same way. A technique that saved one person could kill another in an instant. The researchers called it the Schrödinger’s Cat of powers: observable only when it wanted to be, unpredictable to everyone, including the user.

I leaned back in the chair, rubbing my temple as I absorbed the data. My fingers hovered over the keyboard, and with a few clicks, I switched over to the physics simulation software I’d bought from Blackout before… well, before. She’d been a know-it-all, but her tools were good.

The program loaded, a sleek interface opening up with countless models and equations waiting for input. I fed it the basics… estimated density readings, my current speed range, and a rough approximation of my control levels. The screen lit up with projections, lines darting across a 3D model of Markend’s terrain.

I adjusted the parameters and watched the simulation play out, lines of trajectory arcing downward, threading through imagined earth, then bursting upward miles away. If I calculated right, if I moved fast enough, intangibility could be more than an escape… It could be a weapon, a way to disappear and reappear anywhere I wanted.

The idea of it pulsed in my head like a second heartbeat.

If I mastered this, no one: not Crow, not Pride, not anyone, could pin me down again.

When I got tired of running the numbers on my calculator, I turned back to the SRC archives. I scrolled through the archives, pulling up the compiled case files on intangibility. SRC had them cataloged by type, but the deeper I dug, the more chaotic the classification became.

Documented Evolutions of Intangibility Powers:

Basic Phase-Walkers: Could only phase their bodies through solid objects. No recorded offensive applications aside from bypassing physical barriers.

Density Manipulators: Progressed to altering their mass in real time, some achieving superhuman durability by becoming “diamond-hard” while tangible.

Spatial Portals: A rare mutation where phasing extended into space-folding, creating small temporary rifts that acted as doorways.

Warping and Displacement: Those capable of skipping short distances by collapsing space around themselves. High mortality rate due to miscalculations.

Phase Blades: Learned to weaponize intangibility as cutting edges, slicing through matter cleanly by erasing the resistance of space itself.

Spatial Awareness Enhancements: Gained hyperawareness of their surroundings when phasing, developing a form of clairvoyance or “x-ray” perception.

Temporal Shifts: Fringe cases suggesting time manipulation, usually minor, seconds or minutes at best.

Full Temporal Phase: Highly disputed cases involving rumored time travel. Only one consistently recurring name appeared in those files: Dr. Time.

I leaned back in my chair, staring at the last entry.

I didn’t think I’d be able to evolve my power anytime soon. Evolution wasn’t like developing a new technique; it was a leap, unpredictable and rare. Most people went their whole lives stuck at baseline. Even the ones who achieved some form of “breakthrough” usually paid for it in blood or insanity.

Still, my eyes kept drifting back to the highlighted section on time travel.

CASE FILE #7794 - DR. TIME (UNCONFIRMED)

Evidence suggests that the cape known as “Dr. Time” may not have been a temporal manipulator, but rather an advanced intangibility-type user. Numerous eyewitness reports place them in critical historical events spanning over a century, with consistent visual confirmation of their power and insignia. Attempts to verify identity have failed. No conclusive data. Theoretical extrapolations propose a phase-state that allows bypassing conventional spacetime dimensions. Status: Highly Speculative. Not verified.

I let out a dry laugh under my breath.

“This sounds more like a conspiracy theory than anything,” I muttered, though the thought lingered longer than it should have.

Was it impossible? No. Was it probable? Not with what I knew. If there was a trick to unraveling spacetime with intangibility, it was buried under layers of math and suicidal trial and error.

I rubbed the back of my neck, fatigue creeping in, and closed the SRC files. Curiosity pushed me to open a new browser tab. If there was anything recent, anything at all, about intangibility, I needed to know.

The search bar blinked, waiting. I typed in intangible cape incidents, recent news, and hit enter.

The search engine loaded page after page of headlines, each article a neatly packaged report of chaos. I clicked through them, my eyes scanning the clipped summaries one after another.

NEWS CLIPPINGS

“Diamond District Heist: Masked Suspect Walks Through Vault Walls” — Authorities baffled after an estimated M300 million worth of uncut diamonds vanished from Cama Rine’s largest private bank. Witnesses reported a figure “flickering through” security doors moments before alarms tripped. No casualties.

“Drug Smuggling Ring Exposed at Port Flaskmoor” — Containers holding high-grade neuro-enhancers went missing. The perpetrators allegedly bypassed infrared sensors and heavy steel doors, with investigators theorizing intangibility powers involved.

“Kidnapping of SRC Researcher Raises Alarm” — Dr. Yvonne Larch, a senior analyst, disappeared from her locked high-rise apartment. Security footage shows her pacing her living room at 2:34 a.m., then vanishing without a trace.

“High-Speed Train Robbery Stuns Transit Police” — Passengers describe “ghosts phasing in and out of the cars” before valuables were stripped in a precise, thirty-second operation. Nobody was harmed, but the thieves left a calling card marked “Phase Syndicate.”

“Triple Homicide in Black Alley: SRC Denies Involvement” — Bodies found with no signs of forced entry, wounds clean and precise. No evidence, no witnesses, just three corpses and a single bullet casing… initial suspicions point to a war between rival mercenary crews.

I leaned back, staring at the screen, lips curling into a humorless grin.

“Oh, I’m trending already,” I muttered, remembering the brutal latest kill. The papers called it “an attack from nowhere,” one even branding it as an execution. Maybe they weren’t wrong.

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MARKEND DAILY LEDGER — MARCH 12

“ECLIPSE STRIKES AGAIN: SEVEN DEAD, QUESTIONS RISE”

By Althea Serrano, Senior Crime Correspondent

Markend City awoke yesterday to the chilling news of another confirmed kill by the elusive figure known only as Eclipse, a vigilante — or serial killer, depending on who you ask — whose string of high-profile murders has left the city shaken and authorities scrambling for leads.

The latest victim, Dr. Joaquin Bustamante, 56, director of the privately funded Saint Helena Orphanage, was found dead in his office late Sunday night. The body was discovered slumped over his mahogany desk, with a single gunshot wound to the head and a five of hearts card pinned to his throat, the killer’s now-infamous signature.

Bustamante, long suspected by independent watchdog groups of running a human trafficking ring under the guise of his orphanage, had repeatedly evaded investigation due to lack of evidence and alleged ties to city officials. The SRC has yet to release an official statement but confirmed that Bustamante’s digital records are now under federal review.

This marks Eclipse’s first known kill in March, following a bloody February that saw three confirmed deaths, including a high-ranking enforcer of the criminal syndicate known as Black Veil. In January, the city was stunned when two prominent figures — one of them the celebrated hero Sunstrider, widely regarded as the “Sun of Markend” — were found dead, theorized to have been the debut appearance of Eclipse.

Public opinion remains starkly divided. On one side, calls for a crackdown on violent vigilantes are growing louder, with several city council members describing Eclipse as “a terrorist exploiting chaos.” On the other, grassroots support for his actions is rising, with forums and message boards praising him as a “necessary evil” in a city plagued by unchecked corruption and organized crime.

“People are tired,” said an anonymous source from the Markend Hero Agency. “The system isn’t working. Eclipse is proof of that. Whether he’s a hero or a killer, he’s doing what we can’t or won’t.”

Experts point to the killer’s clear escalation and careful targeting, though his motivations remain shrouded in mystery. Forensic analysis of crime scenes suggests the involvement of an intangibility-based superhuman ability, a rare power set in the cape community, but investigators admit they have no viable suspects.

With seven confirmed kills and rising public tension, the city braces itself. Eclipse has been silent in his methods but loud in his message, whatever that message may be.

“Eclipse isn’t just a ghost that everyone was starting to get scared of,” said criminologist Dr. Hayley Cruz of the SRC Institute. “He’s rewriting the rules. And until someone stops him, every name on his list will eventually turn into another headline.”

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I sighed… Only if they knew the truth.

Most of the crimes pinned to powers like mine had one thing in common: not murder. Larceny, smuggling, surveillance, corporate espionage… intangibles played ghost, never butcher. And here I was, being a murder hobo.

A stray thought crept in as I scrolled further. Mourner. That was the name of the last killer with my power set, a relic from the early days, before registration and before the SRC tightened its grip on the community. The old clippings described a figure with a bonnet mask and ragged coat, stalking their city like a phantom until a hero collective cornered and burned them out. No successors, no copycats. Just silence, until me.

Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen a single hero cape with intangibility in their toolkit, at least not documented ones. It made sense. People like us didn’t run toward the spotlight or chase applause. Maybe it was something in the psychology of it, something that came with living with this kind of power.

I exhaled slowly, dragging my chair closer to the desk. I dove back into the research with renewed focus, combing through models, equations, and obscure SRC papers that had been archived and almost forgotten. I wasn’t looking for a way to stay safe anymore. No, I was looking for a way out, a contingency for the inevitable day when running wasn’t enough.

If I could control the trajectory… if I could figure out how I was propelled when I toggled intangibility, I could dictate where I surfaced. Not just straight down. Not just random points. Control. Precision.

I stared at the open simulation software, hands tightening around the mouse.

I should be able to control the direction. If I could just figure out the math, then the next time I phased through the earth, I would be able to set up for more perfect kills.

“Man, I am gonna end up a true murder hobo at this point if I keep this up. Ugh… where’s that darn map?”

I pulled up the map on my desk, spreading it out as I traced the line between Markend and Deadend with my finger. The distance was daunting. It was a stretch of land that would’ve taken hours by a big boat, even with good waves. But me? If I could figure out how to control my phasing speed and trajectory, maybe I could cover that ground faster than anything.

“Stupid,” I muttered, staring at the space between the two cities. “Completely stupid.”

The thought of bringing Onyx crossed my mind. She could handle herself in a fight, sure, but this wasn’t about firepower. Phasing an entire person was still straining as hell for me, even in short bursts. The last thing I needed was to accidentally materialize halfway through solid bedrock with her in tow. The image alone was enough to make me swallow hard and set the thought aside.

Instead, I pulled up a list of the other City-States under the Council of City-States in the PC. Flaskmoor, Winmere, Hollowrest, and the rest lit up across my screen, each name a reminder of the tight surveillance grid SRC had around inter-city movement. They monitored everything from the roads, air traffic, even underground tunnels. If I so much as phased out of a sidewalk in broad daylight, heavily exposed to CCTVs, I’d have agents on my ass before I could blink.

The risk wasn’t just exposure in the moment. If they connected the dots and tied Eclipse to my civilian identity, it wouldn’t take much for them to notice the sudden spike in my financial records, a nobody with a seventy-two-story tower under his name would look suspicious as hell.

“Deadend, then,” I said under my breath. It wasn’t ideal. The place was a pit, the city of outlaws where lawlessness thrived. But at least Deadend had its own sense of order. Rules there were written in blood and fear, and if you learned to play the game, you might just survive.

I leaned back in the chair, staring at the flickering monitor as the hum of the server rack filled the room. Part of me wanted to just go, leave Onyx asleep upstairs, phase down through the foundation, and keep going until I surfaced on Deadend’s cracked asphalt.

But I didn’t move.

She wasn’t mine to protect. She wasn’t obligated to me, the same way I wasn’t obligated to her. Still, when I thought about leaving her behind without so much as a word, my gut twisted in a way that annoyed the hell out of me.

I sighed, closing my eyes for a moment, then forced my focus back to the screen. If I was going to make this work, I needed more than just rough calculations and a physics simulation. I dove deeper into the SRC archives, skimming through decades-old reports until something strange caught my eye, a file buried in an old research directory.

Case File: Contact Between Foreign Intangibles

It detailed a rare incident, two objects suspended in their intangible states making physical contact with each other, defying every known principle of phasing. The data was sparse, inconclusive, but the implications…

If I could understand that interaction, maybe I could refine my control. Maybe I could make the impossible from distance, velocity, and safety a little less impossible.

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SRC ARCHIVE – RESTRICTED FILE

CASE ID: 77-Φ-INT/CONTACT

CLEARANCE: Level 4 or higher required.

DATE: 12/17/2023

STATUS: Inconclusive / Ongoing

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TITLE:

Observed Contact Between Two Foreign Intangible States

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SUMMARY:

During a controlled but undocumented encounter between two registered phase-type superhumans, Subject Alpha (codename Glass Ghost) and Subject Beta (codename Nullstep), researchers observed a brief and unprecedented event: physical interaction occurring while both subjects were in active intangible states. The incident challenges the prevailing theoretical framework of phase mechanics, which maintains that intangible matter cannot interact with other intangible matter unless forcibly returned to baseline density.

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INCIDENT REPORT:

Location:

Abandoned SRC testing grounds, Hollowrest Industrial Zone.

Date/Time: 11/22/2023 – 23:14 Local Time

Summary of Event:

Both subjects entered phase-state within a controlled chamber.

Subjects were instructed to pass through one another to observe phasing overlap.

At the moment of intersection, external sensors recorded a 0.28 second period of resistance between both intangible bodies, during which a "static-like feedback" was perceived by both subjects.

Witness accounts and biometric readings indicated:

Subject Alpha experienced a "pulling gravity-like force" localized around the chest cavity.

Subject Beta described it as "being anchored to something solid in a sea of nothing."

No visible injuries were observed, though Alpha reported sustained dizziness and elevated cortisol levels for approximately three hours.

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DATA ANALYSIS:

Phase-field mapping indicated an anomalous resonance frequency alignment between the subjects at the moment of overlap.

Energy readings spiked to 143% of baseline during the event.

Attempts to replicate the occurrence with alternative pairings of intangibles yielded no results, suggesting the event requires specific compatibility conditions between abilities.

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THEORETICAL NOTES:

Hypothesis suggests that phase fields are not universally uniform; instead, each user generates a unique quantum signature during phasing.

Alignment of signatures may allow for mutual interaction in what is typically a non-interactive dimensional state.

Potential applications include:

Coordinated phasing combat strategies.

Stabilization of high-velocity phasing travel.

Creation of temporary "anchors" in phase-space to control drift or trajectory.

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CLASSIFICATION:

Threat Potential: Moderate to Severe. Mutual interaction between phase types increases the risk of combat lethality and unforeseen structural damages.

Research Priority: High. Further controlled studies recommended under higher security environments.

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NOTES:

Lead researcher flagged results as "borderline anomalous."

Some senior analysts have raised concerns about misreporting due to lack of standard SRC monitoring during the test.

Dr. Yi-Min Havel (SRC Theoretical Division) expressed skepticism, labeling the report as “statistical noise” until more reproducible data can be gathered.

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CONCLUSION:

Event remains inconclusive pending further experiments. File retained in restricted circulation due to possible applications for phase mobility, high-speed travel, or weaponization.

END OF FILE