James Paul Clifton is the man behind the mask of the superhero called the Green Phantasm. Clifton meets a young woman whose name is Amanda Taylor. Then, on a camping trip, he discovers the source of his superpowers. After James returns home, he has an accident that gives him his supernatural capabilities and tries them out. Shortly, Clifton puts together a Green Phantasm outfit and takes on his role as the Green Phantasm every evening. He then utilizes his inherited capabilities to protect the innocent citizens of Philadelphia from any criminals and/or troublemakers he comes across. The toughest of these is the evil organization called X-Termination. It is headed by Doctor XT, who is assisted by Zapper, Zinger, D.D.T, and twelve others. X-Termination soon makes two major attempts to X-terminate" the Green Phantasm. The bad guys then venture through Philadelphia looking for Amanda. The Green Phantasm tries to find either Amanda or X-Termination. The next night, the search continues. The Phantasm soon picks up X-Termination's trail, but Amanda ends up getting captured. In the final showdown, James has until midnight to rescue Amanda from X-Termination Headquarters, where he has lots to overcome".
The GREEN Phantasm
By George Robert CoatesAuthorHouse
Copyright © 2012 George Robert Coates
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4772-9334-8Contents
1. Enter James Clifton.........................................12. A Remarkable Camping Trip...................................173. An Unplanned Transformation.................................534. Enter the Green Phantasm....................................995. The Green Phantasm Protects the Streets.....................1326. Enter Doctor XT and X-Termination...........................1737. X-Termination Crashes the Party.............................2378. X-Termination's Aerial Attack...............................2779. The Search for Amanda.......................................37110. Amanda Gets Captured.......................................41711. The Final Showdown.........................................49012. The Conclusion.............................................573
Chapter One
Enter James Clifton
James Paul Clifton was a young bachelor who lived in the Mayfair subdivision in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia was also Clifton's place of birth. He was the chief engineer at a company called Ace Nuclear Supply and had recently been promoted to that position after having worked for the company for two years. But Clifton was currently only twenty-five years old. He had achieved a PhD in nuclear engineering by the age of twenty-three.
James Clifton was a white male. He stood six feet three inches tall and weighed about 290 pounds. He had a fairly good build and slightly darker skin than most white people. He also had black hair, which he always kept cut very short, and hazel eyes.
Clifton's appearance and personality helped him earn a great reputation. He always tried to do his best in personal hygiene. For instance, he always kept his teeth brushed, and kept himself clean-shaven. James also made it a point to have at least one bath or shower each and every day. Plus, whether at work or anywhere else, he made certain to be dressed nicely, neatly, and appropriately. In addition to all that, James was generally friendly, easygoing, and able to get along with anyone with whom he interacted. He undoubtedly felt that these things were important to the way others would perceive him as a chief engineer.
Perhaps James's greatest strength was his desire to do what was right. He usually forced it to override any other desires he may have had. Because of this, he currently had no criminal record and had never been to jail. Clifton had also never been the type to smoke, drink alcohol, or take illegal drugs. Occasionally, he did have to get tough with himself in order to do what was right. For instance, he may have occasionally felt tempted to get involved in gambling or prostitution but stubbornly refused to do so.
Although not perfect, James Clifton had a very good heart and conscience. He even tried to be fair to people he really did not like and sometimes gave a helping hand to those less fortunate. However, he was unwilling to become a complete pushover and sometimes tried to encourage others to do what was right. He also always showed politeness, courtesy, and respect to other people and that respect included their property. James Clifton was loved, respected, and truly appreciated by those who knew him well. Even though a few individuals hated him for doing the right thing, he still made certain that the desire to do so was stronger than any other desire of his.
He was born and raised two streets east of where he now lived. That was the home of his parents, Melburn and Diane Clifton. He was their only child. Melburn was a chemical engineer, and Diane was a high school geography teacher. Fortunately for James, they loved and treasured him so much that they wanted only the absolute best for him. So they always did what they could to make sure that he had a great life. As a result, he ended up having a great life indeed.
Even while they gave him the very best provisions and treatment that they could, his parents made sure to teach him to distinguish right from wrong. In turn, because of the lessons and discipline he received, James usually conducted himself in an excellent manner and seldom had to be punished. He had received much guidance in making good decisions. As a result of all that, young James was always very mature for his age. He even brought in lots of compliments from strangers on his behavior and manners. Before very long, he had come to understand and appreciate everything his mother and father had tried to get across to him.
In addition to teaching him how to make good decisions and behave himself, Melburn and Diane tried to encourage their only son to give his all and do his absolute best in everything he was trying to do. This included what he did for school, work, or any other activity in which he was involved.
One of these activities was getting through school. All the way from kindergarten to twelfth grade, James Clifton was always determined to do nothing short of outstanding schoolwork. In effect, he always made straight A's in all of his courses. Also, on two occasions, between kindergarten and eighth grade, James earned the privilege of skipping a grade. In the end, he graduated from high school when he was only sixteen years old.
Even though Clifton did excellent in all school subjects, the two he actually liked best were math and science. After all, they had the most to do with what he intended to do when he grew up. His father inspired him to find out more about different branches of engineering. So James wanted to become an engineer too. From grades eight to twelve, he was one year ahead of most other students in his math and science courses. The two sciences he enjoyed most were chemistry and physics. But he had already been through both of them by the time he became a high school senior. James had also been through all of his required math courses by his senior year, and during his senior year, he was enrolled in calculus.
High school graduation eventually came along for him. Though he was not the valedictorian, he was still one of the top three in his class with his grade point average. He was also the youngest graduating senior. Next, of course, the time came for James to proceed to college. He decided that he wanted to become a nuclear engineer. So, following his high school graduation, he enrolled at Pennsylvania State University, for he had received an academic scholarship there. He majored in nuclear engineering. He certainly had two proud parents because of his outstanding grade point average and his high school degree by age sixteen. Both parents, but especially his father, were very confident that their son could become whatever he wanted.
Although James got to attend Pennsylvania State by means of a scholarship, he opted to live at home with his parents. He felt that this would help him to focus on his studies a lot more. After all, just like through high school, he wanted to do nothing less than outstanding work. Fortunately, James also wound up making straight A's in college. Much like in high school, he was ahead in his math and science courses. This was due to advanced placement tests he had taken in the areas of calculus, chemistry, and physics, on which he had earned credit before beginning his first semester at Pennsylvania State. Then, while trying to achieve his bachelor's degree, James did so well in those areas that he made them look easy. He even helped other students who asked him for it. This advanced placement, along with the desire to get through college, enabled him to achieve a bachelor's degree by the age of nineteen. Of course, his parents were very proud of his achievement, and so was James himself. Just like with high school, he was one of the top few graduates from Pennsylvania State.
Even after getting a bachelor's degree, he wanted to better himself. He would do so by furthering his education in graduate school. Because he had little trouble obtaining a bachelor of science, James wanted to go for a PhD in nuclear engineering. For the time being, he continued to stay with his parents, for he wanted to take his studies seriously. He also did something else to work toward becoming a nuclear engineer. Soon after graduating from Pennsylvania State University, James got a job at a nuclear power plant north of Philadelphia. He continued to work there while attending graduate school. Although he had yet to earn his PhD, this job at the power plant gave him excellent pay and allowed him to obtain some hands-on experience that was very relevant to a nuclear engineer. But, because he was going to school full-time and working full-time, James almost never had time for fun or enjoyment, except on the weekends.
Fortunately for James, his pay at the nuclear power plant was good enough that he was able to move out of his parents' house before too long. At age twenty-one, Clifton moved into the house in which he now lived. It was slightly larger than his parents'. It consisted of two stories, as his parents' house did. However, it had four bedrooms instead of three and a somewhat larger kitchen, living room, and dining room. Although James actually loved his parents and had stayed with them to get himself through school, he felt the need to move into his own place. After all, he was eager to become independent and move forward with his life.
Finally, at age twenty-three, James earned his PhD. With very little doubt, this was his greatest accomplishment up to that point. Melburn and Diane had to be more proud of their son than ever before. However, James still wanted to do better.
Before too long, he found a possible way to make himself better off in quite a few ways. He felt that this opportunity would help him financially, as well as make him more valuable, functional, and practical. This was the chance to go to work for the employer by which he was now employed, Ace Nuclear Supply.
Ace Nuclear Supply was located in a large building a couple of miles northwest of the Northeast Philadelphia Airport and a few miles west of the state hospital. The building was five stories high and took up the space of six football fields. The south end, which was considered the front of the building, was like a five-story office building. But behind that was a vast warehouse, in which manufacturing and a lot of other work took place. This warehouse took up two-thirds of the building's area.
Just as the name suggested, Ace Nuclear Supply produced and manufactured nuclear devices and equipment and supplied them to companies that needed them. This included vital parts and equipment for nuclear power plants. Ace also constructed nuclear engines and nuclear weapons. They even dealt with nuclear reactors and particle accelerators. They also frequently developed uses for radiation and radioactive materials. Ace Nuclear Supply even produced nuclear fuels and other necessary chemicals.
James soon felt that he was as ready as he would ever be to go to work for Ace Nuclear Supply. After all, he had become very familiar with how a nuclear power plant was built and how it worked. Other than that, he found a lot of other nuclear devices to be very interesting. This triggered a desire to become more versatile in nuclear engineering. This desire for versatility was also a reason that Clifton had taken a minor in mechanical engineering. After all, the work of a nuclear engineer often overlapped with that of certain other kinds of engineers. James had used some of his spare time to read and study about other engineering branches. They included, but were not limited to, chemical, industrial, and electrical engineering. James was anxious to go to a more advanced level in engineering and get involved in designing and creating nuclear devices, supplies, and equipment.
James went on to put together a résumé and send it in to Ace Nuclear Supply. He soon received a call from the chief engineer, who set up an interview with him. The chief engineer had been very impressed with Clifton's background;. This was because James had always been a straight-A student, now had a PhD, and even had a few years of hands-on experience at a power plant under his belt. The interview went extremely well. The chief engineer greatly admired James's desire to learn a lot more, as well as his interest in making Ace a growing company. He was confident that James could become an asset to them and hired him for an entry-level position.
James began his career as an engineering assistant. Understandably, he was a little intimidated during his first few days on the job, as he had been before at the nuclear power plant. However, he had more determination than anyone else at Ace Nuclear Supply and turned out to be a relatively fast learner. James was especially helpful as an assistant once he better understood how nuclear equipment was designed and built. Ace soon developed new versions of a few existing devices. This had a little something to do with some helpful suggestions that James had passed on to the engineer he was assisting. That particular engineer was very happy to have James Clifton as his assistant.
Before too long, advancement within the company came along for him. His productivity as an engineering assistant allowed for a slight increase in the business of Ace Nuclear Supply. Of course, he also had a very positive effect on the engineer to whom he was an assistant. However, by the time he had been employed by Ace Nuclear Supply for six months, he was made a full-fledged engineer. He even came to have his own office.
Acquiring the status of a full engineer brought James much success. For instance, he developed a lot more versatility in the field of engineering, for he picked up on other branches besides nuclear. This allowed him to develop designs and other ideas that led to Ace Nuclear Supply's output of several new inventions. In addition, he was named employee of the month on several occasions. Within a year of being a full-fledged engineer, he became one of the highest paid engineers at Ace Nuclear Supply. But his advancement within the company did not stop there.
Shortly after becoming practically the top engineer, James obtained a major promotion. At the beginning of the next year, the chief engineer who had hired him retired, creating a vacancy. Therefore, the operations manager had to put someone else in that position. Although the decision was not easy, he chose James Clifton for a number of reasons. For instance, during the previous year, James had been the employee of the month more times than any other engineer. In addition, during his employment, Ace had an increase in business like never before. This had something to do with his ideas and positive influence on other engineers. Besides, both the company's owner and operations manager could see that he was the most determined and most put together of all the engineers at Ace Nuclear Supply. So the new chief engineer was none other than the one and only James Paul Clifton.
At age twenty-five, he was the youngest chief engineer that Ace had ever had. What an achievement he had made in such a short time. James even came to have a salary of over a hundred thousand dollars per year. Everyone at Ace Nuclear Supply was happy to have him as the chief engineer. In addition, his parents were prouder of him than ever before. They even threw him a huge party to celebrate his promotion. James was able to buy almost everything he had ever dreamed of owning. This included not only his two-story home, but also one of his dream vehicles. It was a black Chevrolet Suburban. His vehicle was now paid off, and his home was nearly so. James was actually more prosperous than his father.
As chief engineer, James was the absolute head of Ace Nuclear Supply's engineering department. He supervised all of the other engineers, as well as various technicians. It was his job to approve and/or recommend changes to the designs of all the engineers. James himself still continued to come up with ideas for new technology and changes to existing products. He frequently held meetings in a conference room. At each meeting, he would go over a major project with a whole crew of engineers and technicians. He would also tell each individual on which part to focus. As chief engineer, James spent more time in his office and less time in the huge warehouse. But sometimes, he would walk through the warehouse to make sure that his men were doing their jobs correctly. James Clifton made an excellent chief engineer, and Ace Nuclear Supply was now doing better than ever before.
Even though he had some interest, another promotion was going to be rather difficult to come by. Not too many people at Ace Nuclear Supply were ranked above him. They included the operations manager and the owner, Sherman Acey, who had started the company fifty years earlier. However, James did not want to take a position that did not belong to him. So for the present, he decided to try to be the best he possibly could as the chief engineer. He wanted to help Ace Nuclear Supply increase their business, as well as make better money for himself.
In spite of his success and good fortune in his career, James Clifton remained down-to-earth and kept striving to be good and do right. For one thing, he found contentment with his assigned position at Ace Nuclear and only wanted to make an honest living. Therefore, he never felt the need for a scam, and did not want to take money that was not rightfully his. Also, although he was doing better than either of his parents, he still tried to maintain love, honor, and respect toward them.
James even made it evident that Melburn and Diane had done a great job raising him and teaching him how to make good decisions based on what was right or wrong. As much as Clifton wanted to improve himself and his living situation any way he could, he refused to do anything by which he could be corrupted. For instance, he did not want to become part of a crime syndicate or do anything illegal. So he was stubbornly determined not to get involved in such activities as gambling or drug-dealing, for he felt that they were not worth doing. He was also not the type of person to accept a bribe. Instead, he was very happy to have things that could not be taken away from him, such as his PhD degree and his work ethics.
In addition to doing what he could financially, James also strived to take care of himself and improve himself physically. He enjoyed weight lifting and did other kinds of exercises as well. James usually worked out at a health club four or five times per week. In regards to eating, he always put proper nutrition first. Plus, in taking care of himself, James did very few things that were unhealthy. He never smoked or drank alcoholic beverages and seldom consumed sodas or anything with caffeine. In addition, he tried to keep his anger and stress under control.
Throughout his high school and college years, James also did other things to promote physical activity. Of course, he always put his schoolwork first. However, every spring in high school, he competed in several track and field events, as a member of his school's team. He proved to be a valuable team member and always made it to the state finals in a few events, winning one or two of them. For his numerous achievements, James had medals, trophies, and other awards, as well as a letterman's jacket.
While working on his bachelor's degree at Pennsylvania State, James went to a local sports academy two or three nights per week. At that academy, he received training in amateur boxing. The main reason James went through that training was for physical fitness; he thought it to be one of the best ways to get in top athletic condition. But, occasionally, he competed in a tournament or fought in an exhibition bout. Clifton won a few awards from all that as well. But as good as James may have become, he did not elect to try to become a professional. After all, he did not want to become corrupt, violent, or aggressive. Besides, he chose to stay focused on his college education. So, soon after James achieved his bachelor's degree, he stopped going to the sports academy but still continued with some of the kinds of training he had been taught.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The GREEN Phantasmby George Robert Coates Copyright © 2012 by George Robert Coates. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
