For A Little While sideshot: He was the man in black. The stolid face of grinding bureaucracy, telling the proletariats that they needed to live a certain way or a very stern “Or Else” was implied.
Some incarnation of Phil had been walking around since the beginning of the organization, way back in the dark days of S.H.I.E.L.D., of S.W.O.R.D., of A.T.L.A.S., or of I.R.I.S. Every organization as far back as memory reached had had their own version of Phil. His genotype has existed since the beginning. And with the merging, there were hundreds of Phils filling the hives beneath the city.
They were sent out to handle the troubles of the agencies, garnering Phil the reputation of being at every situation everywhere. He was a LEGEND! to the people out there. From what the message boards implied, he was in the same league as the Arthur’s, the Charlie’s, and the Tony’s.
It would have been a heady knowledge, if Phil92 had known that he was not the original Phil. If he’d had any inkling that nearly everything he believed about his childhood had been a lie.
But he didn’t know.
He was currently living and working as Agent P872-549, alias Landon James. He hadn’t been back to base in more than 15 years. He doubted there was anyone working there that even remembered his real name anymore.
He’d been Landon for so long that he was probably going to die under the name. His family would mourn at an empty tomb and never know what had really happened to him.
It should have made him sad. And in a way it kind of did. But mostly he was resigned to it.
His job was important. He was saving lives. What was a bit of personal misery compared to that?
Phil sighed and hauled himself out of bed to face another day as Landon, personal assistant for the Secretary of the Union.
*
A. Phil clones, like the azi.
B. Each of the Phils is a person that has been Conditioned to be that person. They were snatched up off the street, offered tons of money to have their faces changed, then spent the rest of their lives as a Phil, loaded with various skillsets.
C. Phil died for a lot longer than he realizes. When he was brought back, it was deemed inadvisable to tell him what had happened. His memory was modified through surgery–a lasering away of the various memory strings–and he was assigned to a new team and a new life, believing that he’s Phil pretending to be Landon, while he’s really Landon thinking he’s Phil pretending to be Landon.
