Phantom

"???"

- That's right. I don't know who I am. I am always living as someone else for my assignments. I don't remember what my face looks like... ...or even what my personality was like. My face, memories, personality, beliefs, emotions, and soul... I left them all behind. I have no... "self." I am no one. I am nothing but an endless abyss.

The "phantom" is a placeholder name given to a highly-skilled international spy working for an unknown organization whose true name and identity are unknown due to him being a master of disguise and impersonation. Remorseless and incapable of experiencing emotions like a normal human being, the phantom has committed numerous terrible crimes, including murder, bombings, and sabotage in his line of work.

Sabotage and murder

 * Main article: UR-1 Incident

The phantom's first known job was the sabotage of the HAT-1 rocket launch, which he did by planting a bomb on the rocket that damaged many of its critical systems upon detonation. Finding out that the Center's Dr. Metis Cykes had been making a psychological report on him, the phantom headed to her office and murdered her with a katana she had as ornamentation. Knowing about the space center robots' recognition systems, he covered Cykes' face with a handkerchief, put on her jacket with its built-in ID tag, and masked his own face with Cykes' ornamental Noh mask. However, as he was searching the office, the phantom was attacked by Athena Cykes, at that point a little girl, who stabbed him in the hand with a utility knife. This attack caused some of his blood to land on a moon rock sample in the room.

After knocking the girl unconscious, the phantom was forced to escape the Cosmos Space Center before he could be discovered, but was forced to leave the bloodstained moon rock behind. Prosecutor Simon Blackquill was soon arrested for the murder of Metis (referred to as the "UR-1 Incident" by the police) and sentenced to death. Meanwhile, the moon rock was taken aboard the Hope probe and launched into space, leaving no-one any wiser about Metis' assailant. For seven years the phantom kept all hints of his involvement a secret, while Blackquill swore to hunt him down even from prison.

In injustice we trust

 * Main articles: The Monstrous Turnabout, Turnabout Reclaimed, & Turnabout Academy

Six years after Metis' murder, police detective Bobby Fulbright died under mysterious circumstances. The phantom began masquerading as him in an attempt to destroy all evidence pertaining to his identity.

Return to the Cosmos Space Center

 * Main articles: The Cosmic Turnabout & Turnabout for Tomorrow

A year later, the Hope probe returned to Earth. The phantom was given orders to sabotage the HAT-2 rocket launch as well, although he would also be able to take advantage of the situation in order to destroy the moon rock that linked him to the UR-1 Incident. He called the center's, one director Yuri Cosmos, and told him that there would be a bombing unless the launch was called off. Cosmos, recognizing that the voice on the phone was not Blackquill, took the threat seriously. Cosmos attempted to have the launch cancelled, but the government refused to believe that the phantom posed a threat.

Left with no choice, Cosmos did all he could to fake the rocket launch. The phantom, posing as Bobby Fulbright, was one of the members of the police standing guard as a security detail. Using the HH-3000 bomb, the phantom blew up the real rocket while the astronauts evacuated the fake rocket. Astronaut Clay Terran collapsed in Boarding Lounge 1 an unconscious Starbuck and the Hope probe. Returning to the scene as Bobby Fulbright, the phantom organized the evacuation from the fourth floor robotics lab, leaving a means of escape for himself via an emergency ladder. He then doubled back to the lobby where he caught sight of both astronauts lying on the floor. Using a utility knife, the phantom murdered Terran to silence him, using his transformable lighter/gun for light in the pitch-black room. The phantom took off Terran's helmet and glove, and used the now dead astronaut's blood and fingerprints with his lighter/handgun to later use as evidence. He also planted the bomb's detonator on Starbuck to pin the murder and sabotage on him.

At this point, Cosmos showed up on the scene, leaving the phantom to shoot at him and make his getaway. As Cosmos began moving the space museum and launchpad back into position, the phantom leapt from the moving building sector onto the emergency ladder he had earlier deployed; his strange emotional make-up kept his fear to allow him to make the improbable jump.

The courtroom bombing
Starbuck was soon arrested for Terran's murder. During the subsequent investigation, "Fulbright" was incredibly helpful to Athena, Phoenix Wright, and Apollo Justice, Starbuck's lawyers, supplying them with plenty of information and evidence. In order to destroy the Hope probe and any evidence it might have had, the phantom stole the HH-3000 detonator while Detective Candice Arme confronted corrupt police bomb disposal expert Ted Tonate over attempting to steal and sell the bomb. Tonate ended up murdering Arme, but failed to see the person who had stolen the detonator. The phantom later blew up Courtroom No. 4 with the bomb; thanks to Tonate realizing that the bomb was about to go off and warning everyone, the courtroom was evacuated before loss of life occurred.

Later, during Starbuck's trial, "Fulbright" presented critical evidence to the court: the bloodied lighter that Aura Blackquill and Cosmos had seen at the scene of Terran's murder. The phantom also submitted fingerprint data which identified Terran's bloody fingerprints as Athena's, indicting her in place of Starbuck for Terran's murder.

Unmasked?
During his defense of Athena, Wright proved the presence of a third party in the murders of both Metis and Terran. Wright realized that "Bobby Fulbright" organized the evacuation, fabricated the evidence incriminating Athena, "discovered" the body, and escaped via his daredevil jump. All the evidence pointed to a third party at the scene who had the ability to suppress their emotions. "Fulbright" was called to the stand, and his façade as Fulbright was soon broken.

With his cover blown, the phantom attempted instead to pass himself off as a secret agent hunting for the phantom, demonstrating his various gadgets and ability to pose as anyone's doppelgänger. However, using Justice's bracelet and Athena's Mood Matrix, Wright quickly identified the phantom's fear of being discovered, which explained some of his recent actions; he had been trying to destroy the moon rock that held traces of his blood after being attack by the young Athena Cykes.

With his cover completely broken, the phantom screamed about unknown assailants and began tearing off his masks one by one in a mad panic and questioning who he ultimately was. He was then shot, though not fatally, by an unknown sniper who then vanished. Simon Blackquill, having now been proven innocent of Metis Cykes' murder, placed him under arrest and the protection of the Prosecutor's office in order to interrogate him about all the crimes he had committed over the years.

Personality
The phantom is a skilled actor and a master of disguise. Such is his skill that his true identity is unknown to everyone, even himself. He has no personal life and his long career of mimicking other people had made him forget his true identity. He doesn't even know what his real face looks like, his memories of his old life have faded away, and he claims to have no personal beliefs or "soul". Instead, he spends his life living a facsimile of the person whom he is mimicking.

At first it was believed that the phantom lacked the ability to feel any emotion, and that he in fact needs to concentrate in order to fake emotions. However, according to the psychological profile drawn by by Metis Cykes, his emotions actually instead rarely fluctuate and he was unable to experience emotions like most human beings. However, his one emotional weakness was a great fear of having his cover blown and his true identity discovered, as it would likely mean his assassination at the hands of his employers. While he proudly proclaimed his lack of identity and humanity as a weapon against being identified or broken, this lack of self became deeply distressing to him as he broke down in court.

The phantom had a number of gadgets at his disposal built into his watch, including a grappling hook and a jamming device that he is able to use to confuse Athena Cykes' Mood Matrix). Another of his gadgets is a lighter with an Earth emblem on one side, which changes into a .10 caliber handgun when the emblem is pressed.

Development

 * The phantom is never referred to as such in his text boxes, instead using the name of the person he is disguised as, "Phoenix?" when disguised as Phoenix Wright, or "???" when he's changing masks.


 * This is the second time someone has impersonated Phoenix Wright in court, with the first being Furio Tigre in Recipe for Turnabout. Although the phantom does a much better job at imitating Wright, this instance is rendered much less effective by Wright's presence in the courtroom at the time.


 * The phantom is the only character in the Ace Attorney series to date to have Phoenix Wright's magatama, Apollo Justice's bracelet and Athena Cykes' Mood Matrix all used on him.