Darien Fawkes is a thief and conman with a scientist brother, Kevin. Kevin develops a gland that allows the implantee to excrete "Quicksilver" and turn invisible. Unfortunately, the gland has the side effect of rendering the implantee berserk if a counteragent isn't occasionally injected. Darien agrees to the operation to avoid a jail sentence. Terrorists kill Kevin, leaving Darien with the gland stuck in his head. A mysterious "Agency" was behind Kevin's research, and offer Darien a deal: work for them in return for injections of the Counteragent. Using his powers of invisibility, Darien takes on spies and other criminals for the government.
Going to Mexico to investigate Arnaud, Bobby meets his new partner Bobby Hobbes: a veteran spy and near basket-case. They escape an ambush by French-Canadian spies. Meanwhile, Arnaud has had Darien's girlfriend Casey brought down to Mexico, planning on using her as a hostage. Darien goes to rescue her, prepared to kill Arnaud since Darien thinks he'll be going insane shortly. Arnaud plays his trump card: there's a counter-agent that will stave off Quicksilver madness, and he'll give it to Darien if he works for him. Darien refuses, escaping with Casey and blowing up the compound (although Arnaud escapes). Both the counteragent and the formula are destroyed, and Darien goes to visit his brother's grave one more time before going permanently insane. However, the Official meets him there and reveals that his Agency was working with Kevin, and they have the counter-agent as well. As long as Darien works for them, he'll get regular doses of the Counter-Agent. Reluctantly, Darien agrees.
A patient in a coma hidden away at a secret hospital recovers and escapes, killing the guards in the process with a poisonous touch. The Agency is called in to investigate, and Darien soon learns that the patient, a ""Catevari"" (named after a Latin story of a woman fed poison until her very touch was poisonous) was another experimental subject of the Agency, like himself. The Catevari goes after the The Official, and Darien manages to save his life by quick use of the freezing properties of Quicksilver. Darian ultimately confronts Catevari, who confronts him with the fact that they both have been messed up by the Agency and should join forces. Fawkes reluctantly decides to stick with those who have helped him, and the Catevari is killed.
A young girl is a witness to an assassination by a sniper. Traumatized, she only speaks to her imaginary friend ""Ralph."" Darien, using his powers of invisibility, convinces the girl he is "Ralph" and tries to get her to talk about the murder. Eventually the hit man tries to kill the girl, and Darien manages to stop him. With his help, the girl starts to recover from her trauma, and leaves her "imaginary friend" behind.
Darien and Hobbes are assigned to help investigate an auditor's relative's suicide, and run into a man who can see the future and use it to his advantage.
Darien encounters a bizarrely-aged woman and soon becomes infected with the same disease, causing him to rapidly age.
The Official is forced to resign because of Darien's screw-up, and he and Hobbes have a new boss to deal with.
Darien is contacted by his former mentor and partner, Liz, who wants his help. She wants him to return to his thieving ways and help her steal some FBI files on a mobster who has hired her. Initially reluctant, Darien eventually grows aggravated with the Agency's treatment of him and links up with her. Covertly using his powers of invisibility, Darien manages to get hold of the files, only to realize that the mobster plans to use them to kill a government witness against him. Darien tries to thwart the mobster and keep Liz safe, and manages to do so. The two of them part on relatively friendly terms.
Darien comes to the aid of a female scientist who may be able to remove the Quicksilver gland.
Hobbes starts trailing his ex-wife, and gets arrested as a stalker. Hobbes believes his ex-wife Vivian's new fiance is a crook. Darien thinks he's jealous, but it turns out Hobbes is right, and they're assigned to the case. It turns out that the fiance is an undercover agent for Naval Investigations. They all team up to find the culprit in an illegal arms sale. They get captured but Darien manages to escape with his invisibility, and capture the bad guys. Hobbes is impressed with the fiance, Brock, and reconciles with Vivian.
While suffering from memory loss and undergoing hospitalization, Bobby witnesses a strange experiment and later he and Darien investigate related disappearances.
The Official is assault by an invisible man and Fawkes is suspected - Darien and Hobbes work to clear Darin and find the true assailant.
Darien gets called to his hometown to investigate the appearance of his dead brother Kevin.
Unable to craft their own invisiblity gland, the Chinese government sets out to steal the American one. Unfortunately, they have the idea that Bobby Hobbes is the invisible member of the team. Fawkes and Hobbes go into hiding, but Bobby gets nervous. After several chases, Hobbes apparently dies in a car crash. It's a set-up, but he turns up at his own funeral to look on from a distance, and is captured there by the Chinese. The Agency tracks him to the Chinese embassy, and Fawkes goes in to rescue him. It turns out the whole operation is a ploy to lure out the real American Invisible Man. Fawkes manages to escape with Bobby before they can drain the Quicksilver out of the gland, setting the place on fire.
A ghoulish hitman uses a laser to blind any witnesses to his killings. Fawkes and Hobbes trace him to a blind model who the killer is romantically involved in, but the assassin escapes, blinding Fawkes in the process. Since he was turning invisible when the laser hit him, the effects are temporary, and he can still see if he covers his eyes with the quicksilver formula. Unfortunately, that aggravates his growing insanity. The blind model helps him to deal with his blindness, and the two become romantically involved. Fawkes figures out that the assassin's most recent victim was merely a lure to get his real victim to the man's funeral. Fawkes, overwhelmed by Quicksilver Madness, throws the assassin to his death.
Darien, the Keeper and Hobbes head south of the border to Santa Ruego to convince the Prime Minister to vote against installing the Biox chemical weapon system. How? By having Fawkes pretend to be a ghost and persuade the superstitious Minister to vote against the system's installation. Unfortunately, another "spirit" is haunting the Minister: "La Llarona," a ghost who can drown men with a kiss. She confronts Darien and it is revealed she is a member of a shadowy organization that bio-engineered her with the ability to breathe water and exhale it under pressure. In the battle over the Prime Minister's vote, Darien eventually manages to drive her off and get the vote, despite the mutual attraction the two "freaks" share.
Hobbes and Darien are on the trail of a sperm thief. A college professor is using the sperm to isolate intelligence-causing genes, and put them into a retrovirus. Hobbes is accidentally infected and soon begins to become more and more intelligent. But the partners discover that the gene therapy is lethal. Bobby becomes smart enough to create a cure...but refuses to do so, preferring to die smart then live dumb. Darien infects himself, leaving Hobbes no choice but to come up with a cure to save his friend.
A series of bizarre killings involve murderers who have no connection to the victims. The Keeper becomes the next unwitting "murder," as she is part of a insomnia-research project. The project's scientists are using the device to program their subjects to become assassins. The Keeper's sanity is threatened if she can't complete her "assignment." Fawkes and Hobbes eventually mange to bring in the scientists, and come up with a means to break the Keeper of the programming (by faking the death of her "victim") before she goes mad.
Kate Easton (The Value of Secrets) is on the run from Allianora. Easton is grabbed before Darien can get her to safety and put into cyrogenic suspension by Allianora's (as yet unidentified) employers. The people Allianora work for are collecting scientists for future use under their control. The Agency manages to capture Allianora, but she proves impossible to crack. So Darien secretly cuts her a deal: he'll betray the Agency and help her escape if she'll betray her bosses and help him rescue Kate. Both of them end up double-crossing each other, and Darien ends up in a cyrogenic tube when Allianora scrambles his tracking signal. He manages to escape using his invisibility and rescue Kate. However, when he returns with the Agency, the warehouse and the remaining scientists are gone.
Hobbes and Darien meet with one of Hobbes' contacts to set a trap for their arch-enemy, Arnaud. Arnaud manages to escape Darien with the aid of a smoke canister, which turns out to contain a biological weapon. Darien is soon displaying flu-like illness symptoms, and is excreting black, contaminated Quicksilver. The Official and the Keeper send him to a military hospital...which Arnaud has already infiltrated. He plans to remove the Quicksilver Gland from Darien's skull via surgery, but the illness complicates matters. He must kidnap the Keeper to cure Darien so he can gain an uninfected Gland. Darien manages to escape and, overwhelmed by madness, almost kills Arnaud. The Keeper manages to stop him but Arnaud escapes. (Copyright 2002 Steve Crow)
Allianora (from "Ghost of a Chance"), the Woman in Black, contacts Darien and invites him to join the Organization (i.e., Chrysalis). He is understandably reluctant, but she shows him top secret Agency files that show they are planning to replace him with a more cooperative Gland recipient. He investigates and finds the information to be true, but also discovers that the plan was for him to be the replacement for his predecessor. Remaining loyal to the Agency, Darien attempts to infiltrate Chryalis, and even takes up their offer to "kill" Allianora, suspecting the bullets are blanks. They are, but she is wary of him once he "proves" he is willing to kill her. Darien then tries to infiltrate Chrysalis' computer banks, but is caught. Before they can remove the gland, Allianora frees him, setting the HQ building on fire. She disappears once more.
To bolster Agency funds, the Official comes up with a plan where he, the Keeper, and Hobbes will go to one of Arnaud's casinos and, using Darian's invisibility powers, break the bank. The first part of the plan goes well, but Darian decides to steal the remaining $7 million of the casino's money on his own. When confronted by the Official, Darian denies the theft. In response, the Official cuts off his supply of the counteragent. Arnaud contacts Darien and offers him the counteragent in return for the money. Stalemated with the Official, and with quicksilver madness coming on, Darien is tempted, but Arnaud mysteriously disappears. Darien talks with Arnaud's imprisoned brother Huiclov, who refers him to a doctor that Arnaud was visiting. darien goes to the hospital to the doctor, already red-eyed with madness. The Official has sanctioned an outsider to bring in Darien, taking an unhappy Hobbes off the case. Hobbes tracks Darien to the hospital on his own, and manages to find him with a
Presumably the audience voted yes to Hobbes' decision to join Fawkes. Darien, in end-stage Quicksilver Madness, is now obsessed with finding Arnaud. Hobbes sticks close by trying to keep him from killing random bystanders. They catch up to Arnaud, but Hobbes helps him escape when it appears that the maddened Darien will kill him. Darien abandons Hobbes, who is then approached by Arnaud. Arnaud has a malfunctioning Quicksilver gland of his own, and needs to use Darien's as a baseline to get his own fixed. In return, he'll give Hobbes Stage Five Counteragent to reverse Darien's advanced condition. Hobbes helps capture Darien, and a surgeon, Dr. Reynolds, manages to adjust Arnaud's gland. Darien gets the Counteragent, but before it can take effect he tries to kill Arnaud. Arnaud escapes during the distraction when the counteragent kicks in. Later, Arnaud goes to visit Reynolds when he realizes that the surgery did not go quite right, and he is permanently invisible.
Thanks to a leak in Chrysalis, Hobbes and Darien get the goods on a politician that Allianora is trying to bribe. Realizing they have a leak, Chrysalis takes unspecified measures to stop the leak. Allianora visits Darien and tries to force him to give up the name of their contact, but he refuses and the two end having making (invisible) love. The next morning Bobby and Darien meet with the contact, only to have him killed by a Chrysalis ambush. The Keeper soon realizes that Darien was bugged with nanobots during his...encounter with Allianora. They transmit everything he sees and hears. The Official fake-executes Darien while they put an insulated helmet on him to make Chrysalis think he's dead. They then investigate a pharmaceutical firm and discover Chrysalis plans to attach the nanobot bugging devices to students at an elite school. While Hobbes and the Keeper stop them, Darien tries to lure off the Chrysalis strike team to the school pool. Using a pair of goggles, he prevents them
The Agency is now under the auspices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, losing their support from Fish & Game. Darien, Hobbes, and the Keeper are sent to investigate the brutal deaths of several Indians. They turn up large primate footprints which lead them to think that Bigfoot might be involved. Meanwhile, a mysterious woodsman with IR goggles is taking potshots at them, and they seemed to be stalked by an invisible predator. It turns out that Darien's gland was apparently based on the gland of a sasquatch. The creature thinks Darien is one of its kind, and wants him for mating purposes. The woodsman, a discredited cryptozoologist, is trying to kill the creature for revenge against another of its kind killing his family. The woodsman tries to use Darien as bait, and in the end blows himself and the creature up. The Official disavows any connection between Bigfoot and the gland-research project, but Darien knows better. Meanwhile, the creature in the woods is revealed to be still at lar
The Agency is now controlled by the Department of Human Services. Quintuple-A rated agent Alex Munro comes barging in, taking control of the place. She knows everything about everyone, but her own record is murky. Her first case is to have the Agency investigate the disappearance of babies from hospitals. Fertility clinics owned by the same corporation are the key factor. The team prevents an abduction and tracks the abductor to a summer camp where children are being raised from birth and brainwashed by the Chrysalis organization. A standoff between the Agency and the armed children ensue, but Darien breaks the stalemate by entering the compound and calling for Chrysalis leader Stark. Darien convinces Stark to release the children rather then have them get killed. The children turn themselves in, but Stark escapes as part of the deal. It turns out that Alex's baby was one of the abductees...and her child isn't among the residents of the camp.
Hobbes and Darien investigate a hacker trying to break into the Agency computer system. The hacker escapes, and Eberts manages to suggest being allowed to tag along with the team as a computer expert. He and Fawkes sneak into a internet cafe but are ambushed. Knocked out from behind, Eberts is taken back to the Agency and soon starts to act increasingly aggressive, going so far as to ignore the Official when inevitably told to ""Shut up, Eberts!"". Eventually Hobbes and Fawkes discover that Ebert has been replaced by their invisible nemesis Arnaud DeFehrn. DeFehrn gained cell samples of Eberts during his last physical, and used them to make up a lifelike skin mask. He needs Eberts' access to get into the Official's computer. After a bicycle & skateboard chase, DeFehrn manages to elude Darien, leaving the Agency to wonder when DeFehrn will show up again.
Fawkes, Hobbes, and Alex are sent to bring in a kid, Adam Reese, for testing. After thwarting a Chrysalis attack, Alex explains that Adam has an Ebola-like retrovirus as part of a government experiment that will become active when he hits puberty. Darien manages to convince Adam to come in for the tests anyway. Unfortunately, the government simply plans to incinerate Adam. Hobbes and Fawkes help Adam escape, and manage to steal a cyrogenic pod (last seen in Frozen in Time) from Chrysalis. Adam goes into suspended animation rather then unleash the virus.
Hobbes, Fawkes, and Alex go undercover since the Agency is now under the Post Office. They are sent to investigate thefts from the dead-letter office. When Hobbes opens an envelope with a card that plays ""Jingle Bells"", he goes berserk and shoots up the place. All of the team undergo psychiatric evaluation, but the only consistent factor in all their stories is the card. When Eberts opens it, he goes berserk as well. It turns out the card has a touch-transmitted chemical in it that, in conjunction with the song, turns the victim into a berserker. The card was sent to the post office by some 60's anti-establishment type and was leftover until someone found it. Fawkes manages to stop Eberts, and Hobbes is given a clean bill of health.
After an operation goes bad and Fawkes goes into Quicksilver Madness, Darien realizes that there may be a way to find a cure. Despite the Official's orders not to, he has the Keeper inject him with some of his brother Kevin's DNA and channel his personality and memories as he did with Simon Cole (in ""The Other Invisible Man""). The operation succeeds, but the DNA dates back to four months before Kevin and Arnaud DeFehrn mutated the gland. Hobbes and ""Kevin"" track down Dr. Elizabeth Rindell, who put the second gland in DeFehrn. DeFehrn beats them up and manages to escape, but ""Kevin"" is later kidnapped. ""Kevin"" fakes a fit of madness, knowing that the Counteragent will bring Darien back. Arnaud escapes again, but they get hold of a laptop computer with files on the gland. However, when they bring ""Kevin"" back for the last time to decipher the files, he refuses, believing Darien is a better person for it. Darien, needless to say, is less than thrilled.
Darien is approached by Tommy Walker, a man whose senses (except touch) have been rendered inoperative. Using a special chest-mounted sensor device, Walker can get around, and can even spot Fawkes when he's invisible. He claims that he was another of Kevin Fawkes' experiments. Walker shows Darien some of the other experiments with sensory-deprivation performed by Kevin and his partner, Augustin Gaither. The other subjects went insane. However, a mysterious government organization, the Secret Weapons Research Branch, break in and claim everything is under their jurisdiction: even the Official is intimidated. They take Walker prisoner, but Darien believes Tommy can lead him to Gaither, who may know about Kevin's experiments and can find a way to remove the gland. Fawkes rescues Walker from the SWRB, only to discover that he is Augustin Gaither: he was driven insane by the same process when he used it on himself, and now believes he is ""Tommy Walker"". The SWRB blow up Hobbes' house where
Darien goes undercover as a thief to infiltrate the gang of the mysterious terrorist Javier and discover why they are stealing random parts. He and the leader of the gang, Dante, are captured and sent to prison, where Fawkes is left there to try and get the info from Dante. Pressured by two cronies from his previous stay, Darien promises to get them out by using his invisiblity to steal the warden's nameplate. Dante, impressed, also goes along with him. Darien breaks Dante out, while Alex and Hobbes manage to find the remaining members of the gang. It turns out the components can form an EMP bomb, but while the team manages to capture the gang, Javier escapes.
During a mission Darien gets a back injury, and the Official refuses to pay for treatment. Seeking out an accupuncturist, Darien inadverently reveals he can become invisible. On his next visit, the accupuncturist, Charlene, inserts needles that allow her to use electricity to put Fawkes in agony if he doesn't obey her. She needs a rare set of mystical needles to cure her mentor, and Darien to steal them. He succeeds, but the needles have ""bad chi"" because the original owner, a millionnaire, stole them. The millionnaire has to be killed to eliminate the bad chi, but Charlie can't do it without gaining bad chi. So she forces Darien to try. Needing Counteragent, Fawkes manages to leave a clue so that the Agency can follow them, and prevent the murder.
During an attempt to stop Chrysalis from testing a stolen laser that generates lightning, Darien is shocked and gets amnesia. He turns himself in to the police but they try to arrest him based on his criminal record. Stark, Chrysalis' leader, takes Fawkes away and tries to convince him he works for the CIA. However, the amnesiac Darien is stolen away a third time by the invisible Arnaud DeFehrn, who convinces Darien that he is his similarly-invisible brother Kevin, and that they have to rescue their third brother, Johnny. Johnny turns out to be Huiclov, DeFehrn's brother, and the whole thing is a ploy to get Huiclov out of prison. Darien manages to regain his memory and capture Arnaud only to give into Quicksilver madness, and DeFehrn escapes. Stark figures out there is a second invisible man and contacts DeFehrn to make an alliance to restore Arnaud's visibility...and kill Darien.
While getting his weekly Counteragent shot, Darien becomes infected with an experimental batch of Counteragent. The experimental stuff renders Darien randomly invisible...and it's contagious. First the Keeper becomes infected when she cuts herself while taking blood samples. She goes into Quicksilver madness, and attacks the Official. Both he and Hobbes becomes infected as well. Darien is also going into Quicksilver madness, since the arm with his tattoo is invisible. The Official locks down the facility under quarantine, but goes nuts as well, and escapes. Returning agent Alex Munro manages to capture him, and they discover that Hobbes is uninfected. The mayo on his sandwich was bad, and the bacteria counter-acted the experimental Counteragent. All they have to do to cure themselves is eat similar sandwiches with bad mayo...and get food poisoning for a couple of days.
One of Chrysalis' ""babycamps"" is located, and Hobbes and Darien are sent in to get the kids out. Alex (still looking for her own son) gets word of the operation and goes in with them. They find Alex's child, only to discover she was an incubator: the child was actually the offspring of Chrysalis leader Stark and his wife. Darien follows Alex when she goes on maternity leave with her son, and thwarts a Chrysalis attempt to recover the baby. Then the child's biological mother Eleanor Stark shows up, and stops a plan to blow up Alex and child by a now nutso Stark. Eleanor helps out the Agency by getting info on Chrysalis (with a little invisible assistance from Darien). At the end, Alex gives up the child knowing it will be safe with Eleanor when she goes into the witness-protection program. Unfortunately, a few hours later they hear back that the agents guarding Eleanor and the baby are killed, and the mother and child have disappeared. Unknown to them, Eleanor never betrayed Chrysalis,
While investigating out a water company as part of their new assignment as members of the Bureau of Weights and Measures, Darien spots the mysterious figure of a woman hovering over a computer...but only when he's invisible. He and Hobbes take the computer with them, and the ghost appears to Fawkes again, leading him back to the water company, and the ghost's daughter, Megan. Ordered not to investigate by the Official, Fawkes (naturally) investigates anyway, and discovers the mother was apparently killed in a particle accelerator ""accident"". The ghost, Lucille, has managed to hold herself together as a form of energy, but is only visible along the wavelengths that Darien can see when invisible. Darien discovers Lucille had discovered a means of creating cheap cold fusion, and her boss Dr. Henrick had her killed. Pretending to be the ghost, Fawkes tricks a confession out of the boss, but then gets knocked out by a lucky shot. Lucille traps her former employer in the particle accelerato
The NSA asks the Agency to bring in a rogue sniper, Forrester Purdue, and the Agency sends Darien and Bobby. Darien confronts the sniper, who can see him even though he's invisible. Fawkes recognizes the sniper as his father, who disappeared a long time ago. He goes to meet with his grandmother Madeline, and finds out apparently his father Mason did go to work for the government as an assassin. Investigating, the duo find out that Purdue's handler, Malachi Royce, was giving Purdue orders to kill folks for his personal reasons. When Darien's father refused, Royce had him declared rogue. Royce's men take Madeline hostage to lure out Mason/Purdue. After rescuing her, Fawkes confronts Royce and convinces him he'll take on his dad's assignment. Hobbes is Quicksilvered and invisible, and manages to get Royce on tape. After a brief father-and-son chat, Purdue disappears once again, leaving Darien hopeful they'll meet in the future.
Hobbes and Fawkes are imprisoned in ""The Community"" a hideaway for agents that can never go back into the outside world.
Claire is injected with a drug that forces her to babble wildly and lose her inhibitions, and will kill her if Fawkes doesn't find the cure.
Tommy Walker begins to recover his memories, but another government agency wants him and will stop at nothing.
Darien is contacted by a Chinese ""invisible women"" who needs his help.
Fawkes gets a ""cure,"" but is at a loss without his powers when a new case comes up that require his skills.
Not only is Darien gaining an immunity to the counteragent, but his Quicksilver Madness starts becoming contagious.
Arnaud has a new scheme but when the team catches on, they have to negotiate with him to get a cure for Darien.
Time is running out for Darien in the onslaught of Quicksilver Madness, forcing the Keeper to give him a cure that frees him from the Agency.
