Phantom

Phantom

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"Phantom" V · T · F
Occupation	International spy
Biological information
Last known status	Alive (incarcerated)
Eye color	Unknown
Hair color	Unknown
Height (the metric (cm) values are sourced from official guidebooks and may not reflect the relative sizes of characters as depicted in-game or in other official media)	Unknown
Associates
Family	None mentioned
Friends	None mentioned
Affiliates	An unnamed organization (employer) Metis Cykes (victim; deceased) Athena Cykes (attempted scapegoat) Solomon Starbuck (attempted victim) Bobby Fulbright (subject of impersonation; deceased) Clay Terran (victim; deceased) Simon Blackquill (scapegoat, object of manipulation & enemy)
Aliases/nicknames
Bobby Fulbright* (impersonation) Solomon Starbuck* (impersonation) Aristotle Means* (impersonation) Phoenix Wright* (impersonation)
One-off nicknames
Bloody butcher* (by Simon Blackquill)
Names in other languages
Japanese (romanization written with the given name first)	亡霊 (Phantom)
Miscellaneous
Debut episode	The Monstrous Turnabout* (as Bobby Fulbright) Turnabout for Tomorrow* (as himself)
Musical theme	"Bobby Fulbright ~ In Justice We Trust!"* (while impersonating Bobby Fulbright) "Phantom ~ UNKNOWN"

???

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.

— Turnabout for Tomorrow

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 Cosmos Space Center's Dr. Metis Cykes had been making a psychological report on him, the phantom headed to the robotics lab where she worked and murdered her with a katana she had as ornamentation. In order to avoid the Space Center robots' recognition systems, he covered Metis' face with a handkerchief, put on her jacket with its built-in ID tag, and masked his own face with Metis' ornamental Noh mask. However, as he was searching the lab, the phantom was attacked by Metis' daughter, Athena, at that point a little girl, who stabbed him in the hand with a utility knife, causing some of his blood to land on a moon rock sample in the room. The phantom proceeded to knock the girl unconscious, but he knew he could not leave the moon rock at the scene, as the blood could reveal his identity. Since he could not smuggle the rock out of the Space Center, he hid it inside the Hope capsule in the lab, which would be sent into space with the HAT-1 rocket the following day, so that it would be destroyed along with the rocket.

Escaping the Space Center.

The phantom was then forced to escape the laboratory before he could be discovered, still wearing the jacket which Athena had also slashed. He later revisited the crime scene as one of the first three people to discover the body, bringing the torn jacket in a containment bag to be used for the Hope capsule, and planted the jacket back at the scene while the other two witnesses were distracted by the body. 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. However, the phantom's scheme to have the HAT-1 and the moon rock destroyed was foiled, as the astronaut Solomon Starbuck managed to safely send the Hope probe with the capsule into outer space, where it would remain for seven years. The phantom kept all hints of his involvement a secret, while Blackquill swore to hunt him down even from prison.

Identity theft

Main articles: The Monstrous Turnabout, Turnabout Reclaimed, and Turnabout Academy

Disguised as Fulbright.

Six years after Metis' murder, police detective Bobby Fulbright died under mysterious circumstances; however, due to the extent of damage done to his body, his corpse was never identified. Taking his place, the phantom began masquerading as Fulbright, using his authority as a detective to attempt to destroy all evidence pertaining to his true identity.

Return to the Cosmos Space Center

Main article: The Cosmic Turnabout

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 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, switching Launch Pad 1 with the identical Space Museum on the other side of the Space Center, so that the astronauts would board the rocket replica in the museum instead of the real one. The phantom, posing as Bobby Fulbright, was one of the members of the police standing guard as a security detail. He took the opportunity to plant three bombs at the Space Center: one on the second floor of the main building, one on the rocket in Launch Pad 1, and one concealed inside a Phony Phanty doll in Boarding Lounge 1. 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.

Murdering Terran in Boarding Lounge 1 while witnessed by Aura Blackquill.

The first two bombs were detonated before they could be disarmed; meanwhile, the astronauts, Clay Terran and Solomon Starbuck, evacuated from the Space Museum into Boarding Lounge 1, where Terran collapsed while carrying an unconscious Starbuck and the Hope capsule. The phantom then doubled back to the boarding lounge, 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 planted the now dead astronaut's blood and fingerprints on 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, forcing the phantom to shoot at him and escape into the Space Museum without the Hope capsule. As Cosmos began moving the Space Museum and Launch Pad 1 back into position, the phantom leapt from the moving Space Museum corridor onto the emergency ladder he had earlier deployed; due to his strange emotional make-up, he kept his fear in check to make the improbable twenty-foot jump. The Hope capsule and the disarmed HH-3000 bomb inside the doll were both confiscated by the police as evidence.

The courtroom bombing

Main articles: Turnabout Countdown and The Cosmic Turnabout

Starbuck was soon arrested for Terran's murder and the Space Center bombing. In order to destroy the Hope capsule and any evidence it might have had, the phantom stole the HH-3000 detonator before Starbuck's trial was to begin in Courtroom No. 4, 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. During the trial, the phantom 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.

During the subsequent investigation of the case, "Fulbright" was incredibly helpful to Starbuck's lawyers, Athena Cykes and Phoenix Wright, supplying them with plenty of information and evidence. When the trial resumed three days after the courtroom bombing, "Fulbright" presented critical evidence to the court: the bloodied lighter that Aura Blackquill and Cosmos had seen the killer holding 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?

Main article: Turnabout for Tomorrow

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 attacked by the young Athena Cykes.

After being shot by a sniper.

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 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, a propeller, and a jamming device that he was 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 changing masks.
• The phantom is the second person to impersonate 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.
• During his breakdown, the phantom is shown to have masks of Ted Tonate, Florent L'Belle, Aristotle Means, Jinxie Tenma, Damian Tenma, Hugh O’Conner, Solomon Starbuck, Simon Blackquill, Aura Blackquill, Phoenix Wright, and Bobby Fulbright.