Van Man

About

Van Man

May 30 1977

Van Man was born on the west coast of California at an unknown location inside of an alien space craft.

His nickname is taken from Steven Spielberg's “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” movie end credits.

He is a brown mouse with blue eyes and black hair. His clothing matches Chip's so he can attract a blonde girl mouse some day.

The Spirit of the RMS Titanic

A blonde girl mouse was born on May 31, 1981, in Belfast, Ireland. She is to be known as "Titanic" by her family.

Timeline

1912: RMS Titanic sinks on April 15, with great loss of life.

1977: Van Man was born in California at an unknown location inside of a UFO. His mother was an alien/mouse hybrid. He was put into an incubator because his fur was turning yellow. He stayed in California for 4 days and was sent to Area 51 where he had lived until the age of 18.

1981: Titanic's birth at Belfast, Ireland.

1985: At 8 years old, Van Man started his interest on the RMS Titanic when the wreckage was found in September.

1989: Van Man was 12 years old when the Rescue Rangers was established.

1993: Van Man met Gadget at Go-Coaster at Toontown, Disneyland.

2004: Van Man joined the Acorn Cafe in New York City in January.

2011: Writing started on his Titanic and Close Encounters of the Third Kind project.

2012: Writing will be completed with pictures.

Chapter 1

In 1990, Van Man, is a 13 year old boy living in Ohio. The story starts just after the funeral for Joe's mother, who was crushed to death in an industrial accident. She was not supposed to have been working that day but Louis Dainard, an alcoholic who had been drinking that morning called in sick. Louis' daughter, Alice attends the same school as Van Man. Four months later, unlicenced Alice uses her father's car to take Van Man and his friends Charles, Preston, Martin and Tom to an old train depot to shoot a zombie movie on Super 8 mm film. During the production, they witness a pick-up truck drive onto the tracks towards an oncoming train, causing a massive derailment. The kids approach the truck and discover Dr. Woodward, their biology teacher, behind the wheel of the truck. He instructs them to forget what they saw - otherwise, they and their families will be killed. The Air Force arrives to secure the crash site while the kids flee. However, the commanding officer, Colonel Nelec finds one of the used film camera boxes that the kids left behind.

After days of strange phenomena (pets running away, microwaves disappearing, car engines vanishing, people being abducted), the Air Force deliberately starts a wildfire outside the town to give them a pretense to evacuate the entire population to the local Air Force base. While there, Van Man runs into Louis, who tells him that a creature abducted Alice.

The kids convince someone to drive them back to their school, where they break into Woodward's stash of confiscated items, thinking he may have hidden documents there. In papers, film, and audio recordings that they find, they discover that the government imprisoned an extraterrestrial that crashed its ship on Earth in 1958. The alien was tortured and treated poorly even though it apparently only wished to return home. One film shows that Woodward was a researcher at the time and was attacked by the alien, which causes him to emotionally bond with it. Thus, his crashing into the train was an attempt to free the creature.

Colonel Nelec and his men storm the school and capture Joe, Carey, Charles, and Martin. While on the bus ride back to the Air Force base, they are attacked by the creature and the bus flips on its side. Nelec's men are killed while Van Man and his friends escape by breaking through the glass windows of the vehicle. The creature kills Nelec after a brief stand-off by smashing his head.

The kids head through the neighborhood, which is now under heavy fire. They enter one of the abandoned houses and are hit by an explosion which leaves Martin injured. Charles stays behind to look after Martin while Van Man and Carey go to save Alice.

Van Man finds the creature's subterranean lair near the cemetery where his mother is buried. He manages to rescue Alice by having Carey use his fireworks as a distraction. They also rescue the town's sheriff and another woman. As they make their escape, the sheriff and the woman are killed.

The creature grabs Van Man and he tells it that "bad things happen, and it's no one's fault… I'm sorry." The creature somehow understands and lets him go. Shortly after, all the missing metal reappears, as a ship begins to take form around the town water tower. Van Man's necklace is also sucked upwards and, after a moment, he decides to let it go. The stroy ends with the star-like ship blasting off towards the creature's home planet while Van Man and Alice hold hands.

Over the end credits, the movie that Charles and his friends were working on (The Case) is shown.

Chapter 10

Inside one of the larger cubicles, which had been designed to resemble a small chapel, a strange service was taking place. Twelve men, in red jumpsuits, holding helmets, with life-support packs on their backs, were kneeling in front of another man dressed in a white jumpsuit.

"May the Lord be praised at all times," the priest intoned.

"My God grant us a happy journey," the astronauts responded.

"Lord, show us your ways." "And lead us along your path."

"By the guidance of a star, grant these pilgrims, we pray, a happy journey and peaceful days so that with Your divine angel as their guide they may reach their destination..."

In another cubicle, Van Man was now dressing in a red jumpsuit similar to the astronauts'. He caught sight of the twelve astronauts filing out of the chapel , and then he and the master of the ceremonies left their cubicle and joined the procession. The procession was now surrounded by dozens of little visitors, chittering and blinking. Obviously, they wanted the line to halt.

Two of the humanoids entwined themselves around Van Man and separated him from the others. Then they left him standing there alone, as if free to make up his mind.

Van Man turned and took the first step forward. Then he started walking slowly, then faster toward the ship's negative gravity zone, and the fiery lighted opening.