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It had been six months since the Fenton boy died. There was no funeral service, but the neighbors weren't surprised. The Fenton parents were always a bit “off” compared to the rest of Amity Park’s residents; muttering weird superstitious nonsense and always dressing in HAZMAT suits of all things. Their children were better in that regard; their daughter thoughtful and intelligent, their son full of childish ambition. After the boy died though, the Fentons retreated inward. They had closed themselves off from everyone, even their own child.
Their daughter, Jazz, was pulled from school one day and sent to live out of state. Supposedly she had been accepted into a prestigious academy. Her parents couldn't afford the move, so instead Jazz was to live with her godfather for the time being. Nobody argued with the logic. After all, it would be better for her to live with someone more ‘normal’ than the Doctors Fenton.
With their children both gone, the Fentons rarely ventured outside. It was only due to the occasional grocery run that the townsfolk would be able to notice the state the two had fallen into. Weary, tired eyes, and greying hair had become the norm for the normally vibrant and boisterous couple. Once again, few bat an eye. It was natural after all, they had lost a child. Such awful happenings would cause inevitable change in the two.
. . .
So six months had gone by. Six months where the Fentons had let their home and business to start to decay, and themselves to become haggard. That didn't matter though, not when they were so close.
“How much energy can these outputs handle?” Jack’s question reverberated off the domed walls of the metal chamber he was carefully tightening the bolts of. A shuffling of papers greeted his ears as his wife looked through blueprints and schematics.
“Looks like around 30,000 volts, dear. We might be able to get away with a thousand or so more if we tinker with it a little.”
Jack nodded and stepped out of the chamber, giving it a once over. It was a fairly complicated looking machine, the number of dials and flashing indicator lights attributing to that fact, though it lacked any of the Fentonworks hallmarks. Absent were any decorative streaks of ecto-green or any Fentonworks logos or stickers. The sleek unadorned steel would have been a complete oddity in the lab, had it not been for the large silvery-grey box situated in the corner. It almost looked like a casket, however tubes and wires attached to the sides of the container helped negate that vision.
Turning to Maddie, Jack could see that her gaze rested squarely on the box, the blueprints clutched in her hands like a lifeline. Clearing his throat startled her out of her thoughts, and she carefully smoothed out the slightly crumpled papers.
“I think…we should be fine on the voltage, everything should work,” she said, trying her best to keep her voice steady. Jack nodded, one hand reaching up to run through his short, greying hair once, and then again in a bout of anxiety.
Maddie’s gaze returned to the box, worry lines creasing around her eyes.
”Do you think we can?” She asked, her typical confidence shattered. Jack walked to her side and rested his hands on her shoulders.
“Everything's finally ready Mads, I think it's time.” Maddie nodded and was given a comforting squeeze by her husband before she approached the silvery box. Her gloved hand rested atop its smooth surface for a moment before moving to the wires and tubing, hesitating for just a moment before carefully disconnecting them.
As the wires were pulled from their place, a loud beeping emanated from the box. It echoed around the room, the sound encompassing the space around husband and wife. It was only then that the Doctors Fenton realized how quiet their lab, their home, had become. That one solitary action flooding so much weight onto their decisions, so much heaviness to their lives. How long had it been since they had seen their daughter? Vlad? Any of their family or friends? Was this all a mistake?
No. Maddie shook her head and stepped back to let Jack wheel the box into the chamber. It didn't matter now. Things would be better, so long as everything went well. They could bring Jazz home, be a family again. Whole. Complete. She just needed to make sure this worked.
The beeping continued as the box was moved, long and slow. Once it was secured in the chamber, Jack input a code onto the attached keypad and the beeping stopped. Instead, the top split into two pieces, separating and folding into itself to reveal the precious cargo inside.
Maddie joined Jack in the chamber and for a moment the two could only stare into the box. They found their hands seeking each other of their own accord, gripping tightly together. Waves of cold air began to escape the box, though neither flinched back.
Inside, suspended in cryo-stasis, was Danny. His lips were tinged blue in death, and the rest of his body was covered with a white and black HAZMAT suit. What was visible though, was the pronounced lichtenberg figure stretching across Danny's face, and down his neck before disappearing beneath the suit.
To say their son looked peaceful in death would be a lie. Even now, months after the fact, his face showed hints of the pain Danny had been in during his last moments. Jack and Maddie could only imagine the agony he had been in as he laid in the lab alone, dying from their negligence.
Jack tore his eyes away from their son, guilt overwhelming him, and grabbed the gurney positioned in the middle of the chamber.
“We should, we need to…” he trailed off, unable to finish. Maddie only nodded, unable to look away from their son’s corpse as her husband lined the gurney up flush with the box. Carefully the two lifted Danny out and onto the gurney and connected multiple sensors to Danny’s temples. Maddie brushed her hand over Danny’s hair, unsatisfied with how it laid. It just didn’t look quite right, didn’t feel quite right. This was her baby and she just wanted him to look okay. To be okay. To smile at her before going off to school again. Just…anything. Anything but continuing to face the fact that their work led to their precious son’s death.
Jack placed a hand on her shoulder and she flinched back in surprise. When had he moved? Looking back, she saw that he had already wheeled the box out the chamber. Meeting his gaze, she nodded at the unasked question and followed him out. With the flip of a switch the chamber door sealed shut with a hiss, the control panel’s lights flashing once before numbers and readouts began to fill the small screens.
Last minute checks and adjustments were made, Jack and Maddie practically flying around the room as they rushed to make sure everything was in place. Finally, the two met at the control panel once more. They secured their goggles in place, and Jack pulled Maddie into his side as his hand rested on a lever marked with a red handle. With a final glance towards his wife, he pulled.
Instantly, the room exploded with noise and light. The smell of ozone filled the air and the fluorescent bulbs in the lab flickered with the sheer amount of energy needed to power the chamber which was now radiating sickly green rays. Electricity buzzed, near loud enough to deafen if it weren’t for the Fenton’s custom suits protecting their senses.
Maddie tapped one screen, marked ‘Ecto-Radiation Output’, with her gloved finger. The levels were steady around 3700 millisieverts. It was higher than they had used in any other experiment before, and nearly a fatal level. At least it would be, if Danny weren’t already dead.
The machine had only been operational for just over a minute before the light began to dim, and the dials and readouts slowly dropped back to their non-operational levels as the chamber powered down. Maddie fidgeted, grabbing the bag of medical tools placed nearby in anticipation as the two waited.
With another hiss and a pop, the doors opened, and it was all Jack and Maddie could do to not rip the doors apart as they scrambled into the chamber.
Jack was taken aback by what he saw. Their son’s hair, usually a black untamed mess, was now a shocking white. In fact, most of the colors in the chamber seemed to have been altered. Danny’s HAZMAT suit was now black, the accents a silvery white, and the gurney he laid on seemed to take on an almost green tinge to it. Not that that seemed to matter to Maddie though. If she had taken note of their son’s appearance, she paid no mind to it. Instead she raced to their son’s side and dug a stethoscope out of her bag, checking for a pulse. She was silent for a few moments, expression almost begging as she listened. She let out a haggard breath that she didn’t realize she was holding before turning to her husband.
“It's slow, barely there, but there’s a heartbeat. He’s alive Jack!”
Jack let out a strangled sob, and throwing out all hesitation he initially held, ran to his son’s side.
“Danny, oh my son, my boy,” he whispered through thick tears as he grabbed hold of Danny’s hand and gave it a light squeeze.
As the two relieved parents cried and whispered words of joy and affection towards their son, neither noticed the miniscule shift in Danny’s expression. Briefly, his eyes scrunched as if he were trying to wake from a long sleep. Then, they flickered open.
Danny’s eyes were a deep, empty, soulless red.
His hand twitched within Jack’s grasp, and within a second, was wreathed in green energy.
. . .
It had been six months since the Fenton boy died, and first responders once again swamped the house after the neighbors reported a disturbance.
Some thought that the Doctors Fenton had taken their own lives, grief and guilt over their son’s accidental death overwhelming them. Those who had heard the muffled screams knew otherwise.