Phantom 2040

Opening Narrator:
[opening narration: season 1] The year is 2040. The place is Metropia. Here, a new hero prepares for action. The Man Who Cannot Die. The Ghost Who Walks. The Phantom. The Phantom's pledge: to fight evil and injustice wherever it may be found. In this future world, in this dying city, with the fate of the Earth and all humanity in the balance, The Phantom is there.

Kit Walker, Jr.:
[opening narration: season 2] A father's desperate sacrifice. A young boy survives to swear an oath: I swear to devote my life to the destruction of piracy, and injustice. My sons and their sons shall follow me. This is the legacy of my family. A vow handed down from father to son for over five-hundred years. Now, in the year 2040, I am The Ghost Who Walks. I am The Phantom.

Sean One:
You're in my world now! You can't win!

Graft:
I don't care - as long as *you lose!*

[first lines]

Kit Walker, Jr.:
In the summer of 2040 I had a different life planned. I was going to leave Metropia to work in the jungle preserves of New Brazil. I wanted to be an ecological engineer. I thought that was why in the midst of the city I dreamt of the jungle. I didn't belong in Metropia. No one did. What I didn't know was that I didn't have to go to the jungle. The jungle was coming to me. And it was bringing my true destiny with it. Of course, the day it all began I had more important things on my mind than saving the world.

Jenna:
Kit, you're an expert at these games. The real excitement of the game is in the tenth level, not the jungle. That's for neos.

Kit Walker, Jr.:
You know what my aunt thinks about guns and violence.

Jenna:
But Battleworld's just a virtual-reality game.

Kit Walker, Jr.:
Its jungle simulation is real enough.

Jenna:
There's still some real jungles around, aren't there?

Kit Walker, Jr.:
Only in the preserves like New Brazil. And even they don't have all the plant species the simulation shows.

Computer:
Your food product is ready. Please consume again.

Jenna:
Kit, you study so much the rest of the class thinks you're half-biot.

Tranh:
Yeah, loosen up. I keep tellin' you: do what you like. Not what you have to.

Kit Walker, Jr.:
But I *like* ecology.

Jenna:
You mean you *like* any course Professor Archer teaches.

Kit Walker, Jr.:
Yeah, but the professor remembers the old days, back at the turn of the century before the Resource Wars when there were real...

Jenna, Tranh:
We know: real jungles. [laugh]

Tranh:
Besides, who cares about seeing the real thing when we can get virtual?

Kit Walker, Jr.:
Tranh, the Earth's ecosystem is collapsing all around us. Everyone has to be willing to...

Tranh:
Power down, Kit. It was a joke.

Kit Walker, Jr.:
I'll see you bits in class.

Jenna:
Kit's got a lot to be serious about, Tranh.

Tranh:
Ahh, his parents died a long time ago. He should get on with his own life. I mean, it's not like the world is coming to an end or anything.

Maxwell Madison, Jr.:
[the biot is destroyed after he orders it to eat the cake's air-lights] Make sure my next butler is, fireproof.

Rebecca Madison:
If Guran is here, then The Phantom is coming back from the dead. He *can* do that, Graft.

Graft:
That Ghost-Who-Walks garbage is African superstition; it doesn't call for action...

Rebecca Madison:
[opening and holding up a gadget on her ring causing a light to flicker on his body-suit] I decide when to act in this corporation, Graft. Do you need reminding?

Graft:
I never forget that, Miss Madison.

Guran:
Kit will be eighteen next week. It is time he learned the truth.

Aunt Heloise:
Kit's the first one in my family in almost five-hundred years, to have a *chance* at a *normal* life.

Guran:
That is not his destiny.

Aunt Heloise:
Africa doesn't need us anymore. The Phantom's peace has been embraced by all.

Guran:
The battle is no longer for Africa. This time, The Phantom must fight to protect the world.

Guran:
[battling biots with her] Just like the old days.

Aunt Heloise:
Don't say the word "old" to me.

Prof. Jack Archer:
She'll only be on artificial heart for a few days while they clone her a new one.

Prof. Jack Archer:
Hmm, hm-hm, brave new world.

Prof. Jack Archer:
You know, there was a crime-fighter who was supposed to have had a ring like this. In Africa, I believe; yes, yes in - Bengala, where the African Unification Accords were signed in 2014.

Prof. Jack Archer:
The multitudes of machines makes us ignorant, Kit.

Rebecca Madison:
Did you miss me, darling?

Maxwell Madison, Jr.:
Baudelaire *didn't* miss you, Mother.

Maxwell Madison, Jr.:
Aw, does that ruin your plan to take over the world, Mother?

Rebecca Madison:
Of all the lessons your father taught me, Max, the most important was: always have a backup plan.

Rebecca Madison:
Within three days the council will beg me to build Cyberville. Or I'll see this city-state go up in flames.

Maxwell Madison, Jr.:
Baudelaire likes, flames.

Guran:
I am Guran.

Kit Walker, Jr.:
I am Kit Walker. Junior.

Guran:
I know. How else could you have found me?

Kit Walker, Jr.:
I don't understand.

Guran:
In your heart you do. You are your father's son. You wear his ring.

Kit Walker, Jr.:
My father?

Guran:
In your dreams you have seen this jungle. In your heart you have always understood. The Phantom walks again, Kit Walker. Generation unto generation. Father unto father's son.

Kit Walker, Jr.:
My father was... The Phantom.

Guran:
And as it has been for almost five-hundred years, you are The Phantom now.

Guran:
Look into the flames, Kit. Look into the secrets of your heart.

Guran:
In the year 1566, a sailing ship was attacked by pirates in the Bay of Bengala. All crew and passengers perished, save one. A boy. Rescued by the Bandar tribe, taught their secret ways. To swear an oath on the skull of his father's killer, to fight injustice wherever it may be found. So The Phantom lives in the whispers of twenty-three generations. The role passed on from father to son, so the world believes there is only one. The Man Who Cannot Die. The Guardian of the Eastern Dark.

Kit Walker, Jr.:
The Ghost Who Walks.

Kit Walker, Jr.:
I've always felt there was something missing from my life, but...

Guran:
You are your father's son, Kit Walker. And now it is your turn.

Guran:
The suit also has a digital camouflage system, that can project a holographic picture of your surroundings, making you appear almost invisible.

Kit Walker, Jr.:
I don't care what the suit can do; it has nothing to do with me and my life. [Guran smiles] What's so funny?

Guran:
You remind me of your father, when he was young.

Kit Walker, Jr.:
[Presses a button to cause his suit to fade off Kit's body but one piece remains] The mask you must remove yourself.

Kit Walker, Jr.:
Do you know what happened to my parents?

Guran:
Some questions, only The Phantom can answer.

Enforcer:
[blocking him] No looters!

Kit Walker, Jr.:
My friends are trapped in there.

Enforcer:
Who cares?

Kit Walker, Jr.:
*Someone* has to care!

Enforcer:
Not these days.

Kit Walker, Jr.:
[looking at the ring] No. I won't. But I'm not The Phantom. I don't want to *be* The Phantom.

Kit Walker, Jr.:
Just this once. I'll do it *just* this once.

Jenna:
What're you gonna do now?

24th Phantom:
I'm open to suggestions.

Jenna:
Who are you?

24th Phantom:
Jenna, I'm K- [glances at the observers] I'm... The Phantom.

[last lines]

Rebecca Madison:
He's back. HE'S BACK!

[first lines]

Dr. Jak:
It's time to - WAAAAAKE UP, METROPIA! The doctor is in. Behind me: Westside Arcade. Riot aftermath. Smoking ruins. Did The Phantom do it? Has the purple pest returned from the dead to threaten Metropia again? *I'll* be the judge of that; you, stay tuned.

Commercial VO:
Dr. Jak is brought to you by Total Shock Toothwash. When your teeth need more than simple neuron bombardment.

Mr. Cairo:
I don't know why I tell you this as it cannot possibly profit me in any way, but what you ask is imposible.

Graft:
Find out who he is, Cairo, and I'll make it worth your while.

Mr. Cairo:
That goes without saying.

Rebecca Madison:
Our work on Cyberville is finally back on schedule.

Maxwell Madison, Sr.:
Work... work... I've been working on the railroad. I think I can, I think I can.

Maxwell Madison, Jr.:
Oh, look, Boudelaire. My father's having a train of thought.

24th Phantom:
What's the big hurry, Guran? I still had at least a hundred meters to fall. You told me this kind of work was supposed to be exciting.

Guran:
Maybe there is a way I can make it up to you.

Maxwell Madison, Sr.:
The Ghost Who Walks walks again!

Maxwell Madison, Sr.:
I spy with my little charged coupling devices, my old friend Steele.

Rebecca Madison:
Did you hear that, Max? Your father's involved. He cares!

Maxwell Madison, Jr.:
Huh. But he's still dead.

Sagan Cruz:
[to Cairo] Why can't you phone like a normal person?

Steele:
Tell them to come back later. In, a week or two.

Graft:
You. Leave the woman and...

Steele:
Woman? There is no woman here.

Graft:
What did you do with her?

Steele:
I assure you, gentlemen, we are quite alone. Except for - this.

[creates a monster]

Steele:
[in the Phantom's Lair] Disgraceful. When was the last time somebody cleaned these emitter-nodes? And these power cuffs just lying around.

Steele:
After that, my partner went home to work on the African miracles, I was still a crime-fighter, though not as fast as I used to be. Which would not have been so bad, except, Maximum invented Biots. And Biots cannot be tricked by my illusions. So I thought it was time to move on to something else. I turned my talents to making defensive weapons and other devices for your father the 23rd Phantom. But when he died in the Sector Zero train crash, I... retired completely.

24th Phantom:
[snaps his fingers] You built my phase-suit! And my power cuffs. All this equipment!

Steele:
Yes, but your father never had the chance to use the latest versions I sent him.

Steele:
Well. It is good to see you again, Guran.

Guran:
Is it? When I did not hear from you, I thought you blamed me for what happened to Kit's father.

Steele:
You were not the only one hurt by the death of our friend. We all needed our time to deal with that loss.

Heloise Walker:
I see we have a visitor, from the past.

24th Phantom:
Aunt Heloise, you'll never believe who this guy is!

Steele:
[they smile at each other for a moment] Heloise.

Heloise Walker:
[as he kisses her hand] It has been a long time since Paris.

Steele:
Ah, but your beauty is such that none would guess a single day has passed since last we met.

Graft:
Nothing was real?

Maxwell Madison, Sr.:
Strawberry Field's forever. I was there. I was the Eggman.

Graft:
You were *where*...?

24th Phantom:
Uh, I don't want to stop this walk down Memory Lane, but Steele said the Phantom is it danger?

Steele:
I'm afraid the Phantom is in danger precisely because I not only walk down Memory Lane, I own it.

Heloise Walker:
Where are we going?

Steele:
Into the past.

Steele:
Your father called it Hero after his grandfather's horse. It's a 1999 Mustang convertible, the last model produced with a gasoline-only engine.

Steele:
Perhaps this should have happened to me long ago. [leaves the garage shutting the doors behind him]

Heloise Walker:
But, Steele, what if - [opens the doors to find he's vanished]

Guran:
[shaking his head] Same old Steele.

Graft:
[reading most of an inscription though not the nickname Spectacular under a photo of Steele and The Phantom] "To Steele, a good man to have at my back." [destroys the photo which is the entrance to the safe] Sentimental old fool.

Steele:
My partner was right after all. I was never meant to hang up the wand.

Steele:
[comes in behind him as he's trying to pound through the safe] You needn't knock so hard, Graft. I heard you.

24th Phantom:
Nice suit.

Steele:
A good tux never goes out of style, my boy. But didn't I tell you to wait in the garage?

24th Phantom:
Would my father have waited?

Steele:
No. He didn't have any sense either. That is why we were friends.

Heloise Walker:
I - *we*, were worried.

Steele:
No need. Your nephew and I make quite a team. It made me remember...

Guran:
It will not take them long to find us. And with those two standing guard at the garage's other entrance, we are trapped.

Steele:
Goran, after all we've been through together, how can you still not believe in magic?

24th Phantom:
Hey, no offense, but we'll need more than magic to get this old junker past that particle-canon.

Steele:
As I've told you, I've added a few modifications. Hero, activate Phantom mode

[the car converts into a more technologically-advanced version]

24th Phantom:
O-ho-ho, a *few* modifications?

24th Phantom:
[flying Hero in Phantom mode] Not bad for an antique.

Steele:
My home is filled with memories I could not bear to part with. Photos, letters - and any of them could lead Graft to you. I do not need *things* to remind me of the past. We cannot return to the lair until I've let them go.

24th Phantom:
Scanners indicate no lifeforms remain in the mansion.

Steele:
[sadly] Only ghosts.

Steele:
I suppose we could always make *new* memories.

Heloise Walker:
That's the best offer I've had in years. [they kiss]

[last lines]

Sagan Cruz:
Now just tell me one thing. Has there always been one Phantom, or are you...

Guran:
The Phantom is The *Ghost* Who Walks. The Man Who Cannot Die. He was, he is, he will be. As long as injustice walks in this world.

24th Phantom:
Maybe if you knew for sure, the Phantom would be just like anyone else. A little mystery makes him stronger. A little mystery... and a little magic.

Steele:
[listening from the cruiser with Heloise] I couldn't have said it better myself.

[creates a flower and offers it to her, they lean in closer]