Author's Note: This chapter goes to Ect0Gh0st for being an amazing person and helping me out not only with the story, but with my confidence it. You are truly awesome, my friend.

Though they only walked through the event horizon, in reality this was one of the largest steps in all of mankind. One step reaching several thousands of light years in distance, from one planet to another, from one half of the galaxy to the other in an instant.

The dematerialization and subsequent rematerialization were done faster than the human eye could perceive - possibly faster than light considering that that was how fast the matter's particles were weaving their way across the galaxy through the wormhole.

And so the five snow-covered persons retreated into the relative warmth of the SGC's Gateroom. The first and last two to enter the room were rather non-descript the way they were stuffed inside of their snow suits. Smothered head-to-toe in the protective clothing made even gender difficult to distinguish. But, much more interestingly, was the fifth member caught walking between the others, dressed in close to nothing in comparison.

Scantily clad in his ragged jean-shorts, t-shirt, and cloak, Phantom brushed off the white flakes with his spare hand - the hand that wasn't pulling the military prove behind him, that was. The boy's eyes shimmered joyfully, his breath hitching at the sight of Earth- despite the blandness of the Gateroom being all he could see.

Upon arrival on Earth two things managed to keep Phantom grounded to the military base, those being the flashing red lights and the distant call for a General Hammond to report to the control room over the PA. A siren blared a warning, grating and very annoying on the ears.

Teal'c and Sam halted in front of him, Jackson and O'Neill approaching the front of the ensemble. Jack waved his arms up at the reflective glass some twenty feed above their heads.

"He's a friendly," he announced, though neither the flashing lights nor the armed guards stood down.

"Colonel O'Neill, who is this?" A deep voice rand through the speakers in the cavernous room. Behind them the gateway from the frozen planet died out, leaving the room a little dimmer and quieter - the sirens stopping as the gate's light faded out.

"We found him stranded on P-5D... that planet we were on and he was all cold and alone and - can we keep him?" Jack enthused in his best imitation of a 6-year-old.

There was a moment of silence from the com, Jack imagining Hammond with his face in his palm.

"Pretty please?" The military man fake pleaded.

A new voice, higher pitched than the last - Jack identified it as Walter's - can into the mic. "SG-1 to the briefing room." The guards took this as the signal to stand down, the red flashing ending then too.

"Yes!" Jack cheered as the squad made for the doorway on the far left, nudging Teal'c with his elbow. "Works every time," he whispered conspiratorially.

Coming to the doorway, Carter asked a guard to escort Phantom to the infirmary. Phantom was, at the moment, still standing in front of the gate, spinning himself in a circle to take in his surroundings. The MALP had since been dropped onto the grate ramp leading up to the gate with an unceremonious clang.

Hearing himself being spoken about, he hurried over, but not before Jack managed to ask the same guard to keep an eye on the unpredictable boy.

"We'll meet you in the infirmary, alright?" Carter asked him.

Phantom looked at her oddly, "Uhh, sure." And they went their separate ways - Phantom to Doctor Fraiser and SG-1 to General Hammond - with a quick pit stop at the changing rooms.

Now in their usual GI garments, the team made their way into the briefing from where they met up with a stalwart, bald-headed mad. The man stood at his chair waiting to greet them, his many badges and tassels twinkling and swaying as he waved them in and toward the oval table. Polished and clean just as everything in the General's usual proximity was, the oak table gleamed beneath the bright bulbs fastened into the reinforced concrete ceiling. Forget the walls, if this table had ears it would know more secrets about the known galaxy than any one person on Earth. All of the discussions to be made before or after an offworld trip took place here, in addition to whatever meetings the General had with sources from outside the SGC's usual circle.

The SGC is Earth's first and most prominent defense against any other-worldly threat as without them Earth would likely have already been destroyed several times over. Of course without them those threats wouldn't have known of Earth's presence in the first place, but that is most definitely beside the point! The point was, Earth had no idea what they stood against in the cast universe, but after the discovery of the Stargate in Egypt they had to make sure it stayed that way.

That being said, Earth's first defense was about to be reprimanded by a not-so-amused General Hammond. As they all were seated the ruddy-faced man let out a world-weary sigh, preparing himself for whatever it was that Jack had done this time. "Who was that boy, Colonel," he started off simply with no preamble.

"Calls himself 'Danny Phantom,' along with a bunch of other names, but they were all Greek to me. Found him out on Artica when we were about to be hit by a blizzard - which, I might add, has a really crappy warning system," he pointed at Hammond to make sure the man got the idea. "Then I guess Phantom made this kind of -" he motioned a dome with his hands, "- force field around us and the Gate before it could hit."

The General nodded, filling in some of the gaps himself. Obviously SG-1 got themselves into a position they couldn't get back out of and were saved by this "Danny Phantom" character somehow. He made a mental note that he owed the other a favor for that. He now addressed Carter, "Major, I thought you said there was no chance of life existing on that planet." His voice was not critical, but more confused as to the Major's miscalculation - a very rare occurrence in itself.

Prepared for this very question Carter replied immediately, "I didn't think it was possible, sir. For life to have adapted to such extreme temperatures - even if they lived beneath ground - is beyond my imagination, but the way Phantom stood out in the storm like that is something else entirely." She paused in thought, not completely sure she was right in this next assumption and thus reluctant to voice it. She shook her head slightly, the short blonde hair waving into her sight for a moment before disappearing again and she forged forward with the idea, deciding it was best to theorize than to not. "You see, sir, I'm not entirely sure he's alive." She waited to see the reactions.

This gave no one at the table pause - such news was hardly unheard of when discussing the adventures of off-planet exploration.

The General pressed forward, "You said he stood out in the blizzard." The Major nodded in confirmation, "Well if he's not alive then what is he? Some sort of projection?" Hammond hypothesized.

Carter shook her head, "No. At least I don't think so; he's solid, he learns, and the Gate would have closed off whatever signal would have been sustaining a projection like that."

"Then what?"

"Well, I think it's much more likely that he's an android of some sort."

Jack interrupted here, "Wait, wait, wait," he emphasized by pressing imaginary brakes with his hands, "You mean android android? Like, 'Cumtraya!' android?" The Colonel clapped his hands together and waved them in a circle before letting them drop, the reference to their experience on P3X-989 not escaping SG-1's memories. The experience was hardly forgettable, even after all their years in the Stargate program it wasn't easy to forget having your mind cloned and put into an android shell. SG-1 came out no worse for wear after it, but their cybernetic counterparts were forced to stay on the planet or else their batteries would drain out, leaving them practically dead.

Carter nodded, "Essentially, yes. Though if Teal'c's timeline is right he probably wasn't made by Harlan or any Altarians. It's likely another, possibly more advanced culture created Phantom, but being an android would allow for his exceptional strength, his long life span, and, possibly, for the energy readings we picked up - assuming his power core is strong enough, it accounts for pretty much everything."

"If he's an android, how did he heal my hand?" Jackson mumbled while flexing the appendage in question. Now in the safety of the SGC, the occurrence felt like it happened ages ago, though he could still feel a faint tingling in his fingertips like he had held an ice cube too long and had lost sensitivity.

"You see, that's where I'm not sure," Carter replied pensively, "Even as an android I don't know how he could do that or even construct the energy fields. The amount of power it would take to hold that storm out... just the wind was three times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima- this isn't counting the force of the snow it was carrying or the energy it would take to keep the temperature stable inside the dome." Carter frowned in thought. "If he is an android he's either got to have an extremely powerful energy source or he's incredibly well self-sustained." Samantha's eyebrows furled, unsure of all of this. Other than the android theory, she had nothing else to go on. Something just wasn't adding up.

"Now hold on just a minute here," the General asserted, his southern accent becoming more prominent in his frustration. "What are you talking about 'exceptional strength,' 'long life span,' healing your hand, what on Earth is going on?" Hammond searched his team's faces, waiting for their complete tale about what had happened on PD8-010 - evidentially quite a bit more than what Jack had shared.

Now Jackson took his turn in explaining the adventure on "Artica," as Jack had since dubbed it. Daniel described in detail how the DHD had been frozen into uselessness and how his hand had done the same in his desperation to unbind the keys. Phantom, the Egyptologist explained, had saved their lives and helped them get back to Earth in one - completely thawed - piece and in repayment, and hopefully to the benefit of the SGC, they brought the boy back to Earth with them.

The General had many more questions, "And how would he be able to help us?" he asked, though not maliciously. "Why bring him here and not leave him on PD8? You said yourselves he could survive the storm."

"Well, for a couple of reasons," Jackson started slowly. "We invited him mainly because Teal'c mentioned he was an enemy of the Goa'uld - apparently he's even older than the system lords. I've read about him in inscriptions on other planets once under rule of the Goa'uld, all of which heralding him as their savior."

Hammond accepted this information in stride, readily able to accept whatever Jackson threw at him, but he was not about to forget, "And the other reason you brought him?" The General grew concerned at the glances the bespectacled man was passing to his friends.

"As I said, Phantom saved us with his dome. He also made it very clear he could undo that decision..." he answered hesitantly, obviously worried about the General's reaction.

"So you've let a dangerous alien android onto Earth," the General calculated as he steepled his fingers.

"Wouldn't be the first time," Jack quipped.

Without sparing a glance toward the Colonel, Jackson followed up Hammond's statement, "Well in his defense he only did it to get the weapons pointed away from him. Can't say as I'd be too happy if the roles were reversed," he amended. "We were just concerned at how he might react if we told him he couldn't come with, but beside that we asked him to come - don't you see what this could mean for us? Another ally against the Goa'uld!"

"Yes, Doctor Jackson, I'm understanding the implications here, but what about the repercussions? As much as I'd like to have another ally, I'd like to know how many risks and how many enemies I'd be making along the way. We can't charge into this blind, we need to know who and what Phantom is," the man reasoned. "Now it was mentioned you knew something about Phantom?" he indicated Teal'c with a wave of his hand who then nodded in return. "Well let's hear it."

Teal'c's brow quirked as he recalled everything he'd been told about the 'Sterling Wraith.' "I first heard the tale told by Bra'tac," he began, referring to his mentor and the First Prime of Apophis before him, "well before I succeeded him. For generations a story has been passed down among the slaves of the Goa'uld from the time of Apep of child of immense power appearing before the Overlord and challenging his rule. The boy came to the Overlord during a wartime celebration, stopping all revelry and commanding attention with his presence alone.

"The gathered were in awe the boy's energy, but refused to believe anything could overpower their god. To demonstrate, the child gave a command to an unseen force, slaughtering half of Apep's Goa'uld faster than they could scream. Soaked in the blood of their brethren, they listened to their ultimatum: To stop expanding the Empire or to face death.

"Centuries after that there were echoes of stories of the Wraith coming to relieve a people from their System Lord captors. As First Prime I often hoped for the day that such a time would come to Chulak, but at the same time also for the opposite... Wherever the Wraith appeared, Death and Destruction were sure to follow as his faithful partners."

Hammond paused to absorb the information then continued, "First we need to asses Phantom so we know what we're dealing with. Until we can figure out what's at risk here, I'm ordering him to be put in confinement on level twenty-one." Seeing no objections from his squad he nodded briskly. "Dismissed."

As they gathered themselves to leave Hammond called Jack over, "A word, Colonel." The brown haired man obliged, his team headed off down the stairs. "Jack, I hope you know what you've gotten into because I sure as hell doesn't/" The stout man said with a certain lack of conviction. For as much trust as the General had in the once-retired military man, he honestly was very concerned with SG-1's ability to bring the galaxy's most dangerous men into Earth's hands - like Teal'c for example. But this time, unlike the rebel Jaffa, O'Neill didn't seem so sure about bringing it to Earth not about its allegiance and that left Hammond with a pit of worry in his stomach.

"Frankly, General, neither do I." Jack replied grimly, "but there wasn't another option." He refused to meet the General's eyes after that. He couldn't because he knew it was a lie - they both knew it was a lie. By default there was always a second option, always one final resort, the same one SG-1 had faced on several occasions. Neither man made to correct the statement, Jack simply carried on, "But I do trust in my team's judgment and they seem to trust him. If they want to give him a chance, I'm all for it."

The General searched the man's face, seeing his eyes resolute, the superior conceded. The bond between SG-1 had grown so tight in the years they'd worked together that he'd started to see them as one entity; their trust in each other never wavering, sometimes to a fault. Hammond trusted Jack with his life, but he was no fool either. SG-1's judgment might have been impaired after their near-death on the icy planet and this was something he couldn't simply ignore. He would seek out independent advice as to the wisdom of keeping Phantom on Earth. Perhaps it would be better to initiate negotiation with the presumed android on an off-world base.

With a nod, Hammond dismissed the Colonel, "Keep an eye on him," he ordered.

O'Neill complied with a two-fingered salute as he followed in the footsteps of his comrades.

As it turned out, Jack's request to the guard at the gateroom was unnecessary. After they had left Phantom he had been escorted to a secure dorm on level twenty-one where Dr. Frazier had to conduct her research her medical overview. Due to the unknown nature of Phantom she was under orders to keep the boy inside this room unless absolutely necessary. Though she didn't think that the scrawny child really needed a double-guarded and deadlocked door, she spoke nothing of it when confronting Danny. What he really needed, the physician decided, was a couple healthy meals. He was pathetically undernourished, that much she could tell without doing a physical evaluation.

Upon first meeting Phantom she was struck with the thought that he might be Goa'uld - his glowing eyes certainly didn't go unnoticed, but she calmed to a certain extent seeing them burn a brilliant green instead of the eerie gold that came with such a possession. She couldn't be entirely sure that it wasn't something of that nature, but she was confident enough that she didn't feel the need to be completely on guard. Even so, a soldier escorted her into Danny's assigned room and kept a watchful eye on the procedures and though she didn't like having an audience, she made no move to ask him to leave.

"Hello," Fraiser started with a comforting smile, greeting the startling alien before her. "I'm Doctor Fraiser. Would you mind if I gave you a quick exam?"

Danny blinked at her slowly as if he'd just been woken up, though she knew his eyes had been open when she stepped in. His vision came into focus on reality and took in the sight of the slight doctor. Janet knew she didn't make for a very imposing figure what with being only a little over five feet, but she was hoping she really didn't need to be. Phantom hardly looked capable of much danger, but even if he was she want't about to offer him reason to act on it.

He laid on the bed that sat slightly off-center of the room. The quarters themselves were rather comfortable: a plush bed, sturdy oak dresser, nightstand and lamp, several decorative pictures of Chyanne Mountain and surrounding countryside, and a scarcely adorned bookshelf. It was by no means a cell or prison, but it was secure and observable. This was a recovery room for the mentally afflicted, those who needed a little enforced down-time after a mentally traumatic injury or event and thus the room was bare of any electronics save the unobtrusive camera in the corner and the lamp.

Phantom had made himself comfortable - his cloak resting at the foot of the bed, his arms crossed behind his head and sitting propped up against the headboard. At hearing the doctor's voice he sat upright and faced her.

The boy frowned in response to her question. "It doesn't have math, does it?"

"What?" she asked bewildered.

"The exam," he filled in, "it's not a math test is it? Cuz I failed algebra."

The doctor blanked before the gears finally ground into place. She laughed good naturedly, eliciting a grin from Phantom who was apparently pleased with his joke. "No, I just want to check you over and make sure you aren't hurt or sick."

The green eyes flickered. "I'm not," he replied with complete certainty.

"You may not feel it now, but we need to know for sure and we need to know if it's contagious."

Phantom shook his head. "Well I'm not sick and if I was you couldn't catch it anyway."

Janet decided not to fight the boy's logic and instead work around it. She wouldn't attempt to argue the fact that disease can and has effected different species before - assuming that that was what he was implying. "Could I check anyway? It would make us all feel a bit safer."

Emerald orbs scrutinized her face, his expression bordering on worry. He huffed a breath and shrugged. "Sure, 'spose so."

Fraiser nodded and set her clipboard and medical ouch down beside Phantom's cape. She unzipped the black satchel and dug around, pulling out a pair of latex gloves, a few swabs, a needle, a vial, and a face mask. As she sorted out her materials, she stole a glance at the alien to see how he reacted to the show of metal, seeing his concern she decided to strike conversation. "So, you name is Danny Phantom." The boy nodded as she made to put on the gloves. "You can call me Janet if you'd like. What should I call you?" She looked up, meeting his eyes.

"People usually call me Phantom," he replied noncommittally. "No one's called me Danny in ages."

"Do you prefer Phantom?"

"Well," he shrugged, "not really. I don't really care, it's just my name."

The brunette smiled, "Alright then, Danny, what brings you to Earth?" She slipped on the face mask and fitted the tubing into one of the vials and the needle. Danny was quiet, watching her work until she looked at him expectantly.

"It's... it reminds me of home," he finally settled.

Janet hummed, "I hope you don't mean the base. It's not exactly the picture of hospitality."

The teen snorted, "No, I mean the planet."

"So you've been here before, then?"

"Huh?"

"Well you haven't left the base yet," she looked at him curiously, her lips curling into a confused frown though he couldn't see it beneath the mask. "You must have been here before if it reminds you of home, right?"

Even as she asked the question she knew something was off, some information she was missing. The doctor knew that the gate had been buried in Egypt before being brought directly to America and put under military watch. Perhaps Phantom had come though back when they were first discovering what the gate was, before Earth found out how to travel between worlds. But even if that were true that could mean Phantom was over sixty years old.

Before coming to inspect their other-worldly visitor, Janet got a call from the General who'd just finished his briefing with SG-1 saying that it was possible for Phantom to be an android of all things. Not much more information was offered, only an order to give Phantom a medical run-down, which she had already assumed. Though being an android was a possibility, the doctor found herself doubting it. If he were some sort of mechanical being, she wouldn't think he would be so cautious of the needle. Janet had watched as Jack's clone-version android had taken a scalpel to his wrist, pressing the cutting implement so hard against his skin that it would have sliced straight into the artery in his arm had he been human, and then pull the skin away to reveal the machinery within, all without so much as a grunt of pain. There was always the possibility that Phantom was programmed to feel pain, but what good would it do to have a machine that could be hurt?

"You could say that." Danny's voice broke her out of her thoughts, bringing her back into the present.

Doctor Fraiser held out her hand, gesturing towards Phantom's arm. "I need to draw some blood." Uncertainty still shone on the teen's face. "It'll only be a pinch, I promise," she nodded reassuringly.

Phantom's eyes suddenly lit up mirthfully. "It's not the pain I'm worried about." His lips quirked into a position somewhere between a laugh and a grimace, but he scooted to the edge of the bed and offered his right arm.

"Then what are you worried about?" Janet had no idea what, other that a fear of needles or the pain of the insertion, he could be afraid of.

"Well..." he began as if there was some joke she was missing, "I guess you'll see soon enough."

He watched as she searched his arm for a vein, saying nothing further. Looking into the midjoint of his arm, she looked for the main artery there, prodding the area with her fingers when nothing showed up immediately. Oddly she wasn't able to locate the vein, but assumed that it was simply sitting too deep in the arm. Instead she moved farther down toward his wrist. The sample she needed was small, so a butterfly needle was all she needed, so a smaller vein would suffice, but even here should could find no signs of the vessels. Her eyebrows scrunched together in a mixture of confusion and concentration. She flipped his hand over to try again on the top of his palm, but again she couldn't find one, instead she found only tendon and bone, no vessels. Confused, she flipped the arm back to it's original position, double-checking herself.

She tried again on the other arm. Same results.

Looking back at Phantom, she saw his mouth pressed into a flat line, all traces of humor gone. Slowly he grabbed her gloved hand and pressed it against his throat. Janet pushed her fingers firmly against his jugular, waiting, waiting for a pulse. There was nothing.

Without thinking, she yanked her hand back and held it to her chest as if she'd been burned. His skin was so incredibly cold. Even the androids she'd inspected from SG-1 were warm to the touch, though they also had no heart beat. Those mechanical clones were so realistic that they'd had veins and capillaries and imperfections and were entirely convincing that they were human except the lack of heartbeat. Perhaps Phantom was an android as well, just not one made to be so life-like.

Letting go of the breath she wasn't aware she was holding, Janet shook her head and took inventory on her reaction and found it would be considered offensive. "I'm sorry-"

"No, it's alright. I get that a lot." His lips were still pressed together, but were now pulled up into an almost-smile.

Fraiser gathered herself, "are you an android?"

And the mirth was back, "An android? Like a robot?" Phantom seemed thrilled with the idea, his eyes alight with something more than their inherent glow. "That would be cool! Be like the Terminator or something." He pulled his face into an almost expressionless mask, though unable to completely keep the smile off his lips, "I'll be back."

The doctor was almost amused, but more than that she was confused. The Terminator wasn't that old of a movie, so how had Phantom seen it? He would have had to have been on Earth within the last who decades and if that were true then he would have had to get past whatever security system was set up around the gate - granted it wasn't so well guarded until a few years ago when it became active. Even so someone would have noticed the gate turning on - and even if they hadn't, how would Phantom have gone again?

Noticing the lack of laughter from his physician, Phantom sighted and folded his hands in his lap. "No, I'm not a robot."

"What are you?" There were so many question zipping around in her head, begging to be asked, but unable to find words. At least this inquiry would provide some sort of comfort upon it's answer. Hopefully.

Phantom stared down at his twitching fingers, hesitant to speak. Janet looked down at the thin boy, watching as he had some sort of internal struggle. and she couldn't help but feel her heart go out to him. She didn't know what exactly Phantom was, but she did know he was alone and uncertain of his surroundings.

Janet pulled off the mask, letting it dangle around her heck. She sat herself on the bed beside the boy, unperturbed even as the guard at the door shifted uncomfortably.

"Well," he began, "I'm not sure you'd believe me even if I told you." Out of some sort of nervous habit, Danny reached for the back of his neck, scraping his nails along there. As he did so, his elbow passed in front of the lamp.

If she hadn't been paying attention, she wouldn't have seen it, but she did. When his arm passed in front of the light, instead of casting a shadow like one would assume, the light passed straight though. No bone, no muscle or sinew, just a blurred distortion of the lamp, like looking through wax paper.

After all her time learning about and trying to explain the unknown, this phenomenon was mind-boggling. Not only did the boy apparently glow, but he was transparent!

Gently, she picked up Phantom's right hand and held it between her and the light source, transfixed with the translucence of the appendage. The boy sat still, allowing for her to marvel at his natural feat, his left arm sinking away from his neck. Janet watched the watery image of her fingers grasped around Phantom's icy cold wrist with astonishment.

Aware now that her mouth was hanging open, she focused back on what Phantom had said before she noticed his odd condition. Danny said he didn't think she'd believe him, but after so many years on this job, there was little she wasn't willing to believe. "Try me," she challenged, setting the boy's hand back in place.

Danny looked at her seriously, taking some unknown thought into deep consideration. He searched her face for a moment, mistrust sitting there like words in a book, and though she wished she could, she couldn't comfort him. Not unless she knew why he was so distrustful.

"What year is it?" he asked suddenly.

"2000. Why?"

Relief suddenly flooded his face, and Janet somehow felt as if some immeasurable weight had been lifted off her chest as well, but without the faintest idea why.

"Only 2000." The teen repeated breathlessly, running a hand through his messy hair with a sigh. "Only eight more years."

Curious as she was, the doctor remained quiet, letting Phantom work out his thoughts. As she'd hoped, Danny then grinned at her, about to speak, only to be interrupted by a rapping on the wooden door. The guard cracked the door open and stepped halfway out to converse with whoever sought entry.

The man stepped back in, "Major Carter, ma'am, requesting to speak with you," he supplied dutifully.

"Thank you. Tell her I'll be out in a minute." He did so, then resumed his post. "Well, Danny, looks like I have to get going. I'll be back in a couple of hours, alright?"

Danny blinked, "Oh. Did you still want to stab me?"

"Well, I don't know if I can, seeing how you don't have any veins."

He shrugged, "You don't need one. Just-" he motioned jabbing his finger into his elbow, "and it comes out. Promise," he said with a winning smile upon seeing the doctor's skepticism.

"You're sure?" she reinforced.

"Well yeah, it's my body after all. I think I'd know how it works."

Seeing this as a valid point, Janet did as Phantom directed, pausing with the needled above his skin after wiping the area with disinfectant. "You'll feel a pinch," was all she said before forcing the tip in blindly. Phantom squeezed his eyes closed and turned away as she did do, unable to watch himself be pricked. After a couple seconds he spoke up.

"Is it in?"

"Yes..." came her reply, an edge to her voice.

"Oh," Phantom piped, "I didn't even feel it!" His grin reached from ear to ear, pleased with he lack of pain.

But now, as the fluids drained into the thin tubing and dribbled into the vial, she was a bit surprised, though she supposed she shouldn't be. It wasn't the first time she'd seen oddly colored blood. The Goa'uld's was purple after all, but that she had thought was a result of the naquadah in their blood after so many years extending their lifespans with the sarcophagi. But never had she seen green blood.

"Yeah..." Phantom began, watching his blood trickle out of him, "it's not really hemoglobin. More like 'hemogoblin.'"

A few seconds slower than it would normally would have taken a human, Danny's lifeforce filled the glass tube. Janet detached it and plugged on another. Taking the time it would take for it to fill, Frazier retrieved two cotton swabs from her kit. With one she took a sample from Phantom's mouth and the other from his skin. Both were then stuffed into vials of their own for preservation.

When the second vial was filled it was placed beside the first in a styrofoam box labeled with a biohazard sticker and then inside her black bag. She patched Danny up with a bandage when she removed the needle and unequipped herself of the mask and gloves.

"Thank you," she said. "I'll be back again in a bit."

"Sure," the teen smiled, "I'll be here."

As if he could be anywhere else, she thought as she stepped out of the room.

Author's Note: I don't know when the next update will be, as I am moving and will be without internet for a month or so. I will be working on the next chapter in the mean time, and, I might add, it will be an especially good one. In my opinion at least. Look forward to backstory and plot development!