Author's note: Based on the novel mostly. See my deviantart page for sketches of my Erik (link in my profile) if you want to know what he looks like for this story.If you don't want to bother with the sketches, just know that I'm using Gaston Leroux's description, not any of the film/stage versions. Also, this story is a subtle parody of a Mary Sue story, thus the title. Apologies for the gratuitous borrowing from various sources, including but not limited to Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, Metroid and others. Usual disclaimers apply: they're not my toys, I'm just playing with them.

The Phantom of the Opera

and his

Mary-Sue Space Adventure

Three months now, she had been tracking him, from one system to the next. It was a pretty typical job from first glance – just another slave trafficker with a skill for dodging the authorities and, typically, the authorities dropped the case and put a price on the creature's head, leaving it up to any industrious Hunter to pick up the suspect.

The young auburn-haired woman fidgeted in the pilot's seat of her heavily-modified 389R-66 single-pilot dog fighter. It was an older ship; she'd picked it up for nearly nothing from a scrapper a couple years ago shortly after turning in her second bounty. It had turned out to be something of a lemon. For months, it took constant vigilance to prevent the damn thing from falling to pieces. She had no home to keep up, no family to provide for and little desire for the 'comforts' the other Hunters indulged in – expensive drink, mind-altering drugs and pleasurable company – and was able to pour most of her money into improving her ship and weaponry.

She didn't like where this bounty was taking her. She had not been in the Tellurian system since the freak time storm that swept her from her and half of her room mate from her university dorm room had dropped her on the other side of the galaxy and over a century in the past. The Chizorians researchers who'd been conducting the failed time experiment had apologized profusely in a language she had not understood until being given a translator implant. They offered to send her anywhere in the galaxy she wanted to go, but could not send her back to her rightful time. 19th century Earth held no more meaning for her than any of the alien worlds they spoke of. She briefly considered taking her room mate's remains back to the planet, but it seemed a meaningless gesture. She only had half of them, and girl's future great grandparents wouldn't even know her.

In truth, had they been able to drop her right back into her bed, she would not have returned. The Earth held nothing for her. She had no friends, a family that rarely noticed her and desire for the meaningless future that had been planned out for her. She had left the alien university to wander the streets in search of a new life. It wasn't long before she stumbled into one.

She now found herself wandering the galaxy chasing one bounty after another in a meaningless existence she had not imagined before. It was pure serendipity that she'd entered this line of work. She was neither particularly strong nor fast, but her first bounty had been posted by someone desperate for a sucker. None of the Hunters would have risked such a dangerous mission, even with the expensive exoskeleton being offered up-front. Nobody wanted to take on the valuable genetically engineered monsters that had broken from their isolation force fields overrun the large research space station. Tess, as she had taken to calling herself, was just naïve and starving enough to accept the job.

Miraculously, she had not only survived the job, but managed to complete it. She was allowed to keep the Ayana battle armor as payment. At first she had been disappointed at the lack of a cash payment, but the armor had turned out to be her greatest advantage. Few Hunters could afford them, and for a novice to obtain one was unheard of. The armor more than compensated for her lack of physical prowess and coupled with her shrewd judgment, she'd soon gained something of a reputation among Hunters.

She dropped out of hyper drive as she approached the inner solar system, the Earth rising up before her. She checked the signal from the tracker she'd planted on the Marina's clothing at their last encounter. She would not leave this planet without him. It rarely took her more than a few days to bag a bounty once she had located it, but this one was making a nuisance of himself. She would relish turning this one in, glad to be shut of him once and for all.

She dropped her ship on top of a large building in Paris, careful to set the cloaking shield before climbing down into the large ornate structure. She glanced around – an opera house – this could be interesting.

---

The man lay on his long-deceased mother's bed, clutching his aching chest. Sharp pains speared him from time to time, causing him to suck in gasping breaths. He had long since run out of tears, and now only lay silently staring upward, waiting for the inevitable. He was dying. Christine had left him. She had kissed him and he sent her away. Damn her! She had done the one thing that was sure to destroy him. How could he have killed that little chap she loved after she did that? How had she known what would so completely destroy him?

He was hovering near sleep, exhausted as he was, though unable to slip fully into sleep, when he something intruded on the edge of his hearing. A slight scrabbling sound, like claws or hooves on stone. Rats, most likely. He wanted to ignore the sound, but it grew closer, louder. He finally opened his eyes and dragged himself into a sitting position, peering out into the gloom, his yellow eyes occasionally flashing in the dim light like an animal's. He panicked momentarily when another pair of eyes, higher than his own flashed back, but quickly regained himself, sliding off the bed to his feet and grabbing his lasso with a renewed strength he knew not the source of.

Something stepped into the dim circle of candlelight, some kind of… animal? It was tall and thin, with red eyes, too many limbs and covered in a thick brown-scaled reptilian skin. He could find no way to describe it other than a demon. He had no time to appreciate the irony of a phantom's fear of a demon as the creature slowly advanced toward him. He lifted the lasso, not even pretending that it would be much use to him, but preparing to put it around the thing's neck regardless.

The creature suddenly leaped to the side – no, it was flung to the side. Something had hit it – a net. Another demon stepped into the light, less in height, but broader and covered in blue plates and with a round mirror-like face. It was staring at the netted demon, now emitting an ungodly screeching and chatter. It shot something else at it, a dart of sorts, and the demon soon ceased its struggle. It walked over and flung the larger creature over its shoulder as if it weight no more than a small child.

It turned to look at him (at least, he thought it was, he could discern no eyes). Suddenly, it pushed back the mirrored faceplate, revealing a face that was… human. A girl from he could tell in the dim light. The girl walked toward him, squinting at him as though she, too were unsure of what stood before her.

His mask! He didn't have his mask on! He glanced around frantically, not knowing where he'd dropped it after Christine had fled. He didn't see it anywhere, and gave up. The girl had already seen him anyway, and it would do no good to cover up now. Surprisingly, she didn't seem horrified by him anyway, merely confused.

"Who… who are you?"

English. She spoke.. English. English with an odd accent, American perhaps. He spoke and understood the language, but cared little for it. Nevertheless, the notion of an American girl walking around in some ridiculous sort of armor – it seemed obvious to him now and he felt foolish for believing otherwise earlier – with an demon thrown over her shoulder like she did such things every day left him simply bewildered. He would normally not have bothered giving his name, or the time of day, to another person, not some random girl especially, but the events of the past day coupled with the entrance of these strangers into his home left him feeling like a kite being tossed about in the wind after breaking its string.

"Erik…"

She walked closer, less than a foot away from him, sticking her nose right at his chin, studying his face. He tried to step backwards, but the wall behind him stopped his retreat. She backed off after a minute but continued to stare, lifting an eyebrow in some unspoken question.

"Where are you from?"

Erik glanced around for a quick exit, but saw none. There was no way he could get his lasso around the girl's neck with the high 'collar' of the armor protecting her, and he did not know what sort of weapons she might possess. Perhaps if he answered her questions, she'd take her demon and leave him to die in peace.

"Rouen."

"You were born on this planet then?"

She seemed surprised at his answer. Born on this planet? What did she mean? Of course he was, where else would he be born? On the moon? She must be simple.

"Obviously."

"Huh... Are you sure? You don't have the plates, but still - you've got to be at least half…"

The girl glanced around to the doorway, and he hoped she'd leave.

"Well, you'd better keep your head down. If the Primitive World Guardian Agency catches wind of your presence here, they'll make you leave… and you know you wouldn't like where they'd send you."

Erik scratched his head. What was she talking about?

"Primitive Guardian… What the devil?"

She smirked at him – laughed at him!

"You really don't have any idea what you are, do you? What about your parents, didn't they ever say anything…"

Confusion was quickly giving way to frustration and anger.

"What I am? I'm a man, you stupid girl!"

"Well, obviously, but you've got to be at least half Eranae. So which was it, your ma or your pa?"

Confusion won out again.

"What? Half Er- Er-"

"Eranae. Natives of the Erana system. Little backwater of the Epsilon quadrant. You really don't know, do you?"

Nothing she said made a damn bit of sense to him.

"I… suppose not."

The girl rolled her eyes and huffed a dramatic sigh.

"Would you believe me if I told you there are other planets with people on them, scattered throughout the universe?"

Erik blinked at her.

"No."

What she was suggesting was completely insane. Other planets? Other peoples? Did the creature over her shoulder come from another world? That was impossible! And she said he was half of one of these other… things. Was it really so unbelievable? He didn't look like anyone else on Earth. He was stronger than they were, he had gifts beyond the understanding of most of them…. And he had never met his father. His mother would slap him if he asked about his father when he was a child, as though he'd said something profane. He always thought his father must have been something evil – another demon like himself.

"Well… you should. Listen – I don't know why you're on this planet, but you'd better come leave it before you're found out. You don't look like you'd last a day in one of the prison mines. I'll drop you off somewhere if you want, after I turn this bastard in. Hell, I could probably track down your family. Shouldn't be too hard if they're in the genetic database. I can hack it in no time."

She gestured to the creature over her shoulder before turning her body toward the door, staring at him expectedly. He looked around the room, at the papers scattered on the floor and the rumpled sheets of the bed. His chest ached and he wanted little more than to simply lay down and die. Half the words out of this strange girl's mouth had no meaning for him, but he understood that wherever she would take him would be far from here, beyond the reach of all those who had ever hurt him. He was dying anyway. She started toward the door. He followed.