NEON

"Try it on!"

Cassie's persuasive words were laced with sarcasm, a cheeky grin etched across her lips.

"This looks stupid," Ron's reluctance was palpable, staring at his reflection on a glass vitrine with the silvery alter ego combat gear, towards the center of the lobby.

"But you created it, yourself? What's the matter Ronnie? Too scared to put on your own fit?" she teased.

"Not scared, I mean I've had worse costumes for Halloween.

It's just.. there's one teensy-weensy detail missing," Ron scrutinized the fit.

The tactical fanciful combat gear glistened snow white in its peculiar neon sophistications, illuminated by the flickering cerulean embers of the acrylic L.E.D. display case.

The Nuclear physicist spent all night fabricating his gear yet, somehow, he felt as though he had wasted his time.

"C'mon, put it on," Cassie mounted a little too much pressure on him.

"What was I thinking, really? I ain't no hero? Just a loser with big dreams.

And I'm certainly not Procyon," his head tilted downwards, bowed low in dissatisfaction.

The trauma of losing the girl he loved had left him with bizarre emotions, his mood swings, kicking in, frequently.

"Listen, Ron," Cassie called to him, her fingers clasping with his.

"You are anything but a loser.

You're the smartest, bravest, cutest person I ever met.

And hey, you're not just brave but fearless and adventurous, daring enough to explore the boundless possibilities of the universe.

And.. I love and respect that. So, yeah!

You're a hero to me.. sort of. But you're still a werey," her last words tickled them both.

Cassie's words were a melodically inspiring to Ron, imbuing his broken spirit with a powerful resolve.

And with one resolute strip, he donned the futuristic combat gear.

Indeed, he looked remarkable in his neon pointed gauntlet sleeves.

A silvery fireproof kit with symmetrical neon lines, shimmering turquoise, violet and emerald whenever electricity flowed through its fibers, auto-synced to his every motion.

Ron's weaponized nano-fabrics revealed a perfectly shaped physique, powerfully built, ripped and sensually shredded.

Elbow pads, strapped to his turgid triceps, as though he relied upon them for safety.

Accessorized by an enhanced ballistic vest, Ron's knee padded cargo pants were military themed.

The L.E.D. soles of his advanced boots : the Nike Air Yeezy Prototypes

glowered meticulously, charged by his cosmic energy.

Absolutely stunning in his futuristic neon armaments, the young scientist flashed through the stairs in his glittery cerulean haze of cosmic energy.

His white visor glistened in his hands, its dark infrared lenses glowered blue once he donned the helm, moving in perfect sync with his eyes.

Cautious of infrared radiation, Ron had designed the visor, inducing an element of aluminum steel, in order to shroud his secret identity from the gimmicks of the adversary.

The Nuclear physicist embraced the very heroic instincts that had initially threatened his sanity.

He had become Phantom.

"How do I look?" he inquired, reliant on Cassie's opinion.

The tomboy ogled his firm chest, biting her lower lip.

"You make me wanna be a damsel in distress," she retorted with a smirk, her words tickling the quantum physicist.

Hitherto, everything slowed, frozen in time.. again.

"What now?" Phantom smacked his face in disbelief.

Abruptly, the walls of his apartment came crumbling down, decimated by an overwhelming energy blast.

He swiped Cassie, evading the nasty claws of despair at the nick of time.

They flashed downtown, phasing into a supermarket where he deposited her like precious cargo.

"You drop a lady at the mall, the least you could do is credit her with funds for groceries," Cassie mulled as the blurry silhouette of the xeno-human phased through the brick walls.

"Evening ma'am, would you be interested in our Black Friday promo sales?" a staff inquired by the fruit stand, all smiles.

The tomboy, smacking her face in disbelief.

Phantom flashed back home, in a blinding surge of azure light, before the walls of his apartment disintegrated into powdery rubble.

The nightmarish visor of the paragon assassin, frightening as a stormy night.

Viper turned around, slowly, heavily armed with lethal tactical ammunition.

A snarl was obscured underneath his helm as his minions encircled the infamous xeno-human in a swarm of articulated monster trucks.

Ron's home had been bulldozed with malicious fiendishness, but fortunately, it was insured.

"Phantom!" Viper sneered, his husky baritone, reminiscent of robotic symphonies.

"Quite a show you put out there, yesterday. Congratulations, you're the world's most famous U.F.O."

"Thanks a lot, have we met?" Phantom's sarcasm was evident in his undertone.

"I'm afraid we're aren't acquainted. Not yet, at least. But I believe we are quite.. affiliated in one way or another."

"Oh, cool. So.. I guess this is the part where you get in your trucks and zoom off, like.. really far away?" the xeno-human cooed with stuttering.

"My apologies, Alien. But I'm not leaving without my scientist.

You see, a companion of mine is in dire need of his services," Viper retorted, his words, intimidatingly blunt.

"Oh, and.. who might that be..?"

"Ron Ramon! The nuclear physicist. I can tell you're harboring him," the assassin was running out of patience.

"Hand him over and the neighborhood stays intact.

Resist, and.. well, you know."

"He ugh.. traveled abroad," Phantom's white lie was laced with maximum absurdity.

"Since when?

Our satellites tracked him down to this neighborhood only a few minutes ago."

"Yeah.. uhh, he left about five minutes ago. Got this.. scholarship.. Harvard.. uhh.. masters degree stuff?" the xeno-human messed around, humorously.

Viper glared at him infuriatingly and without warning, beamed a devastating plasma blast with his nuclear powered gauntlet.

Phantom phased through the energy beam, yet its scorching heat and toxicity propelled him into the air, burning his chest.

The unbridled force flung him against the pavement with an abysmal thud.

"Ouch! That.. stung, whatever it was," he muttered in exasperation, density shifting into the ground.

"Looks like Halloween Boy's got a weakness, after all.

Hotties," Viper jeered at the quantum physicist, inspiring his men to battle.

Suddenly, everything slowed down.. again, frozen to stillness, the sands of time, halting abruptly, in tune with Ron's stimuli.

Phantom sprung from the pavements with a hundred foot leap, instantly, however, he was greeted by a rain of flaring tendrils.

He would not phase through them, any longer unless he loved to experience chest burns.

Rather, the genius evaded the rays of surging energy with the skill, expertise and gravity defiant acrobatics of a celestial chevalier from a star system billions of light years away.

Phasing through rooftops, the xeno-human weaved through the web of plasma blasts, flaunting stunning agility and harnessing his incredible free-running abilities.

He dived head-on from the rooftops of a duplex into the graveling, phasing through the earth.

Ascending behind a troop of startled assailants with a bewildering blow, he took them by surprise.

Unleashing a thunderous round-house kick, the superhuman bent the laws of physics, swirling in rotary motion, like a propeller blade, with legs split, up-side-down, reminiscent of an "air-flare."

Viper's minions opened fire with reckless abandon, their tactically enhanced weapons vaporized vehicles and structures, erasing infrastructure with a single blast.

But Phantom outsmarted them, phasing through walls and dashing through the cluster of assailants at hypersonic pace.

One by one, the minions fell by his hand, too quick to be restrained, too swift for the comprehension of the mortal eyes.

The xeno-human grappled them from behind and phased halfway through the walls, leaving their screaming bodies stuck in-between densities.

But soon, however, Viper's plasma blast beamed through the night, a blinding spectacle of fury.

Yet, Phantom rivaled the speed of light, eluding the searing tendril with a spine chilling cartwheel.

He darted towards the deadly Enforcer, covering a hundred meter distance in a millisecond, intending to phase through him and stun him from behind

but Viper's gimmicky highly enhanced nano fabrics repelled him far away with the repulsive negating push of a giant magnet.

The xeno-human crashed into a bungalow with an abysmal thud.

"How.. how? That is.. against the laws of physics," he groaned, dizzily.

"I bet your designers ain't Dolce or Gabbana."

"Shifted the density of my suit.

You're not the only expert in nanotech," Viper sneered.

"Gotta improvise, then," Phantom sprung from the rubble with feline agility, ascending to a rooftop.

"Repel this!" he triggered a cataclysmic sonic disrupting shockwave, the auroral blast flinging Viper and his legions away like mere toys.

V.A.P.O.R's enforcer came crashing into his own truck, the impact denting the reinforced metal.

The clanging of steel on steel reverberated through the night, the sonic disruption akin to clashing anvils.

And as if that wasn't enough, the teenage genius struck his fist into a wall beside him.

Mysteriously, the density of his knuckles shifted through a wormhole, emerging miles away from the doors of the dented truck, bashing Viper's occiput.

The blow swept the assassin through the street, crashing into a garage with a resounding thud.

As an act of vengeance, the infuriated minions unleashed a rain of azure energy blasts, illuminating the night.

With his seemingly chronokinetic reflexes swinging the terms of battle in his favor, Phantom was prepared to take action.

When suddenly, a mysterious silhouette intercepted the plasma blasts...