#space suit

Practice makes perfect. Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin go through the steps with the Lunar Lander during preparation for Apollo 11, 1969. Backup crew for the first mission to the moon were Jim Lovell, Fred Haise & William Anders. Armstrong & Aldrin spent 21 & ½ hours at Tranquility Base before joining Command Module Pilot Michael Collins who was in lunar orbit in Columbia.

Astronauts Jim Lovell & Fred Haise prepare for Apollo 13, Feb 1970. Mr. Haise was chosen in the 5th group of astronauts in 1966. Besides A13, he flew 5 Space Shuttle Approach & Landing Tests during the early days of the Shuttle Program in 1977. Mr. Lovell was chosen in 1962 in the 2nd Group of astronauts & flew on Gemini 7, 12 & Apollo 8 & 13. An excellent film on the Apollo 13 mission is Ron Howard’s fantastic, award-winning film.

Sometimes it’s best to start a story near the end. This end, however, is one of many. Death is unbiased, life is unbiased. Every action has a definitive reaction and every moment has an effect on another.

Daniel Lee Fenton had a fairly standard childhood growing up in a home-based prosthetic clinic….. Well, as standard as possible when his parents’ hobbies centered on the paranormal. Galvanized metal, wires, buckets of bolts and strange glowing lights synthesized from artificial ectoplasm littered everything. Ectoplasm was the energy source of the future, more potent than a battery or electricity and able to adapt remarkably with the human nervous system. A bioenergy that could synchronize with lost musculature and human anatomy flawless. Phantom limbs could be given new life with bioelectronics and precise engineering so that veterans could walk, the deaf could hear and those paralyzed could achieve mobility again. The science was still considered new, the resources and grants for research limited. And so? Only the rich could afford the prosthetics. Athletes, lawyers that had lost limbs to cancer, notable figures in the government… All given with a signed release form prior to the attachments or products being fashioned and placed with Madeline Fenton’s renowned expertise for adjustment and nerve assessment. But there was a snag with the research. Artificial ectoplasm tended to lose energy after a few years and parts needed to be replaced regularly to prevent corrosion or loss of movement. This, of course, led to the obvious need to conserve funds and resources which lead to experimentation in the home.

His parents, the people who were wary of the paranormal and claimed ghosts as a danger, began cobbling together ‘the portal’ when Daniel was nine. A portal to an uncharted layer of reality between death and life. The venture was a bid to gather naturally occurring ectoplasm for prosthetics. Naturally occurrent ectoplasm was far more stable and lasted longer than the artificial variety and didn’t need charged prior to use.

The portal didn’t help the rumors circulating in town. Ghostbuster knockoffs, spook cooks, the Fenton Menaces… Their reputations preceded them everywhere they went and starting in high school the taunts and bullying had begun in earnest for their youngest child.

Daniel still had his friends though, a socially awkward geek named Tucker and an eccentric goth named Sam.

The portal was always a passing topic of discussion. Wiring seemingly damaged, odd cuts in the panels, damaged service hatches and parts. Things just tended to be out of sorts around or with the portal in one way or the other.

And regrettably, it had failed to cut on again during a test run. The master cord to the grid had been plugged in two days prior and all they had gotten was a few zaps. Power just couldn’t divert properly through the artificial ectoplasm circulating in the filtration housing chamber. Dr. Fenton was at her wit’s end and both parents had decided that it may just be time to cut their losses and simply rely on improving the artificial ectoplasm. Plans for sending in a drone on New Year’s day to activate the internal components were now on hiatus until further notice. The readouts on the front of the portal read the same no matter what they tried so power input would just fry the circuitry.

What the Fenton patriarchs did not know was that the portal was going to activate under a set of rather extraordinary circumstances while they were away visiting a patient.
The date was December 29th, 2015, four days after Daniel’s fourteenth birthday. His sister Jazmine had gone to the store for cocoa and marshmallows so he and his two friends could celebrate him turning fourteen together before New Years’.

Said teen was currently leading his friends down to the basement, smiling brightly. “Okay, so I’ve been working on something. Don’t laugh okay?”

Sam smiled and Tucker smirked. Adjusting his glasses, Tucker’s greyish green eyes locked with Daniel’s blue smugly, “The only way I would laugh at you is if you were going to try gifting that ‘gag’ toilet paper to us as a party favor.”

Daniel cringed at the mention of the toilet paper his father had ordered with his face pressed into the ply. A gag gift that regrettably had come in bulk to the clinic and most certainly was a regret purchase compared to the normal ‘Fenton Works Prosthetics’ logo Jack Fenton usually ordered for the building.

“Yeah, no. I’m not giving you guys toilet paper with my dad’s face on it.” Then Daniel turned toward a medical locker near the stairs and opened it. Rustling through the sheets and some spare pajama sets used for patients staying overnight in the observation’s center. “Besides I said I’ve been working on something.”

Hands grabbed a bundle of white fabric and pulled it out so it could be unveiled in front of the two with a flourish. Tucker whistled and looked over the modified hazmat suit with a smile, “You cut off the face part?”

Daniel nodded with a beaming smile and pointed to the black collar on the suit, “I don’t need it once I make the helmet.”

Sam’s gloved hand reached out and thumbed a patch on the left shoulder of the suit. There were three. A space pilot patch, a radioactive symbol patch, and a Colorado State patch. The top was triangular, the middle circular and the bottom rectangular. On each shoulder, there was a black tab of fabric meant to look like a uniform’s epaulettes. Padding had obviously been added in at the knees and the elbows, clearly defined by careful little black stitches in the white fabric.

Tucker whistled, “That’s probably one of the coolest space suit costumes I’ve seen.”

Daniel grinned dopely, “ I know right? I got the idea watching Star Trek and found a spare hazmat suit to toy around with in the vault.”

Sam nodded and her hand went to her ‘vintage’ polaroid smugly before she snapped a photo of the intrepid explorer and his suit. The photo shot out with an electric whirring and she shook it out with a grin. “So have you tried it on yet or?”

Daniel rubbed the back of his neck nervously and his freckled face scrunched with embarrassment. “Eh…no actually. Mom and Dad have been working on the portal the last week and I couldn’t get down here to try it out.”

Sam smiled brightly and dragged his arm toward the center space of the lab, past the shelves and near the round portal bordered by hazard stripes and safety protocol signs. “Try it on.”

Daniel grinned and nodded before glancing to the portal, “You know what maybe we should get some photos inside the portal?”

Tucker raised an eyebrow, “The supposedly dangerous portal bordered by stickers and signs warning about electrocution?”

Daniel smiled sadly and rubbed the back of his neck, “Actually my folks are probably going to convert the space into another vault…The energy readings keep flatlining so opening an actual tear through dimensions or even getting the ‘operations’ light on the top is going to be an impossibility. Dad blames ghosts.”

Tucker snorted, “Really?”

Sam looked to the portal and sighed, “So all of that work-”

“-is toast. Botched. Scraped.” Daniel answered dejectedly. “They tried plugging it in and the entire grid flatlined. It didn’t even read on the machinery.”

Then his eyes went to the portal, “But I think it’s something to do with the breaker panel. They thought it fried but I think the breaker flipped.”

Tucker crouched down and looked into the space, lifting a refurbished PDA and his Samsung to take a photo. The PDA lit up the dark corner while the phone’s camera clicked. “But the panel is in the back of the portal right?”

Daniel nodded, “Yep.” There was a glance into the briefly illuminated space. The glowing emergency strips embedded in the sides of the structure and on the floor briefly caught the light and reflected a neon green in his blue eyes.

Sam gave a soft smile as he tugged on the boot portion of his suit, “Over here space cadet.”

A photo was snapped and she took the photo out as she looked down to Tucker to get his attention, “I think he looks pretty cool in his dopey white suit.”

Tucker snorted and looked up, “It would be wayyyyy cooler with the ladies if it was black. Full bad boy ghostbuster vibes.” Then Tucker laughed into his hand, “ Or a plumber.”

Daniel rolled blue eyes as he inspected the inside of the machine. “Ha.Ha.Ha.”

‘Wouldn’t it be cool if I got it working?’

Sam hummed behind him. “You know Friar Tuck may be right… Black is a pretty good color.”

‘I wonder what could be on that other side. The next frontier?’

There was a reach of a gloved hand to zip the suit. “It’s an astronaut suit, not a ghostbusters suit guys.”

Sam chuckled and smiled, “Whatever you say Venkman.”

Daniel snorted at Sam’s words and went to think of a retort when a black boot caught a cord on the floor. Body pivoted forward in free fall and blue eyes were wide as a hand pressed forward. Then the world ripped to pieces and shattered in an instant as his hand brushed the internal ‘on’ switch. The very one his parents had planned on pressing with a drone for New Years prior to the supposed short. Electricity like lightning crackled up limbs and the machinery on the outside of the portal whirred to life, flashing an otherworldly green. Daniel was oblivious to it as his body and very soul were ripped to and fro like a ship in a storm, darting between light and the portal’s harsh metal walls. Energy arched and a warped as a terrified scream resonated. Skin flickered transparent, vine-like lines of energy morphing and flickering under the flesh in lightning patterns.

Everything burned as the air was ripped away and back arched before he slammed back against the far wall. Something was forming at the end of the tunnel. Water dripped down cheeks, glowing and fizzling in the overly bright space. Seconds felt like an eternity and tears dissipated to nothingness as green sprung out and ripped the boy apart, restitching and recreating him in an instant. The burning felt bone-deep as he continued crying out, vomiting and clawing the air in terror. Something snapped in his chest as he fell forward so a gloved hand, briefly white, shifted back to black.

Boots crawled against the floor, sluggish and incoherent as stray sparks from the gateway latched onto his limbs, each one flickering and warping like mist before solidifying. A hand clawed near the outside edge of the portal. Sam and Tucker screamed and then his friends were tugging him out.

“DANNY! Danny oh’ god! Wake up!” Sam was crying, face streaked and mascara running down her cheeks.

Tucker thumbed a hand to Daniel’s neck, “He’s alive. I think he’s just in shock. Sammy help me, we have to call 911.”

Daniel’s eyes flickered green and a hand numbly reached for Tucker only to pass through him. Tucker went wide-eyed and screamed in horror. “Oh god, he just-”

Sam dropped her phone and the screen cracked against the metal flooring. A trembling hand went to her mouth and there was a panicked look to Tucker. They had killed their best friend. Daniel’s hand resolidified against his stomach with a weak flop and eyes, a bright inhuman and glowing green fluttered before closing. Tucker took a calming breath, checked Daniel’s pulse again and quickly unzipped the hazmat suit. Faint glowing green burn lines could be seen snaking under and around arms “Sam? Grab the boots and pull.”

Purple nails scraped into the black rubber and yanked while Tucker lifted Daniel’s legs up and began detangling them from the suit.

Soon the duo were sliding their friend over their shoulders and carrying him up the basement stairs. From there? There was a turn out of the kitchen into the lounge and then to his room on the second floor across from Jazmine’s.

A car could be heard pulling up outside, not the telltale loud thumping of wheels from the Fenton’s preferred method of transportation but rather the sounds of Jazmine’s small 2010 Toyota Corollol rolling into the garage at the back of the house. Both teens froze on the stairs, wide-eyed and terrified before rushing up the last few steps and into Daniel’s room. Band posters and comic books blew with the force of the door.

Tucker lifted Daniel up, blinking at how light he was before rushing the teen to his bed in the center of the room to their left. The window curtains blew slightly and Sam rushed over to them to slam the opening shut as Tucker pulled a blanket over Daniel. There was a direct look to Sam, “We need to distract her. If he’s a ghost.Sam- He has a pulse but…You saw that right?”

“I know. We need to distract Jaz until Danny wakes up then we need to call the Fenton’s…” Sam replied, shoving the singed and burnt space suit on to the floor with her camera before grabbing Tucker’s arm and rushing them out of the room and downstairs.

Jaz was kicking off her shoes just outside of the garage and looked towards them as they turned into the hall next to the living room, “Sorry I was held up. The craziest this really, a power outage clocked off the stoplights up the street so I had to reroute.” There was a pull off a scarf and a toss of a pink jacket onto a hook before Jaz raised an eyebrow, “Where’s Danny?”

Sam looked upstairs and pointed, “Sleeping. He conked out pretty hard and told us to wake him up in a bit.”

Jaz raised an eyebrow but nodded, grabbing the two bags on the bench below the coat rack and going toward the direction of the kitchen, “I’ll start the coco up. Can you two find a movie that isn’t Christmas themed? His birthday was pretty lackluster again thanks to the portal shenanigans.”

Tucker nodded and went to the living room, clearing away various boxes and gizmos from the couch but still stealing glances upstairs. Sam was the same, looking up every few seconds as if silently praying Daniel would wake up on his own.

Regrettably, they got their wish. Daniel woke up, scared and alone in his bedroom with a seemingly over itchy wool blanket rubbing against the light burns on his arms. His Casper High t-shirt was totaled with a hole burned straight through the red circular school logo on his breast. A hand clutched to his heart shakily, feeling it beating through icy skin. Then the real nightmare began. He fell. Fell right through every layer of his home to sprawl semiconscious on the floor of the basement lab

Eyes teared and fingers clawed into the metal grating as stomach did somersaults. Fingertips and legs felt like they had fallen asleep or possible had been microwaved after being frozen. Blue converse squeaked clumsy to run to the lab sink. Eyes…Oh god, his eyes and-

Then he screamed as he backed up. Clothes were shifting and warping, lungs ripping away and feet catching in the floor like quicksand before a beeping emanated from the workbench. Then the gun went off. The gun his parents had made to protect from ‘ghosts’. A dud on any other day. Jazmine ran down the stairs at the scream as did Tucker and Sam but all they found was droplets of what looked like artificial ectoplasm splattered with red. Daniel shivered against himself, holding his chest wide-eyed and terrified at a simple realization. He was invisible to them. Then he ran, up the stairs, through the kitchen and the lounge and right up the stairs leading to the second floor before he hit his room and slammed the door shut.

Skidding to a halt near his closet, he ducked in and hugged his chest to his knees, rocking back and forth until static reached out from his center and made him more solid, and heavy. Like water added to a tank. Fingers clenched into hair, breathing stuttering as lungs fully regrew for fresh air between panicked and muffled sobs.

Danny Lee Fenton was now the one thing his parents had adamantly claimed as a monster from the time he could walk. Fingers clutched the bleeding wound on his chest numbly, tearing in slightly to the point it was almost blackout inducing. He needed to get rid of the clothes…To hide this before his sister and friends saw.

Ripping off his t-shirt and tossing it under the bed, one thing was for certain. He could never tell his mom and dad. Not what he had done…Not the fact he had gone into the portal out of a foolish sense of adventure or pride….And certainly not because a part of him had taken pride in the fact that he, just maybe, could get their attention for the first time in months.

And so Daniel hid it and two years passed. Two years of stumbling through adolescence and puberty and making himself into a sort of vigilante with their equipment. The portal worked and ghosts seemed to come out of it more often than not to stake claim or muck up the day to day lives of Amity Park, Colorado.

Armed with a soup canister he faced many villainous ghosts and over time had lamented the exploits into an almost comical rendition to make up for how depressed and anxious he had become. Life just seemed to go on.

One such villainous entity was Vladimir Masters, a halfa, who seemed more Disney villain than reality…

He loathed that man whose very existence pivoted on harebrained schemes. Attempted murders via ghostly henchmen, plots against his father at a highschool reunion via a possession, join the dark sides speeches, giving a teenager ecto weapons to kill her classmates, stranding Daniel and his mother in the Rockies just outside of Wyoming, then the skeleton key search resulting in a ghost hunt with Daniel’s head on the line, thievery against a ghost that pulled Amity Park, Colorado into the ‘zone….Then Vlad became the mayor of said town through a ‘rigged election’ in May of 2018.

Then things got dark. Very dark. There had been clones of Daniel made by the other halfa. Daniel considered it one of Vladimir’s acts of desperation for a family, warped and twisted as each ‘clone’ faded save for a girl. The young ‘clone’ and Daniel defeated Vladimir and left him in the wreckage of his hunting lodge. Then there was the capture of said clone for genetic material only a few months later. And then there was the giant asteroid that got swatted on a collision course with Earth because of Vlad…

Little did Daniel know, he was part of a much larger story…

And that nothing is ever as it seems.

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From the EIDOLON COMPLEX