A.N. –insert excuse for forced hiatus here-

Right, I'm back. Blood Test is posted as its own story with the prologue and first chapter up so far, but I thought I'd post something here too so y'all know it's up. And yes, this is the one where Vlad is Danny's father. You're not misremembering, and I promise this will make more sense later.

Blood Test

Prologue

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

A rustle of paper. An unusual sound, foreign to these surroundings. Clockwork must be curious; he doesn't usually turn the sound on.

Tick. Tock.

"Jack, these calculations aren't right."

"Freeze."

The clock stops. The three people, college students, fall suddenly still. Clockwork frowns, and enlarges the screen.

"It is here, I'm sure of it. So where is she? If it's not his domain, it must certainly be hers…"

He examines the scene, muttering to himself in perplexity. "I'm quite certain it's here…so…no, it can't be…."

His interest has sharpened, now akin to awe, or perhaps outright fascination. "A new species, yes, but I should have realized…he can't be there, or the result would be a ghost, hardly uncommon. But she isn't there either…a new species, born without life? But then, it is not exactly a birth, is it…and they are already alive…let us see. Unfreeze."

"Bonzaii!" The biggest human in the room, a man with impressive girth and an unusual sort of innocence, shouts with all the exuberance of a small child. The woman watches, wide-eyed, as a light spins into being, growing brighter and brighter until…

A scream. The last human, a male, much slighter than the first, had been directly in front of the portal. The energy out flux hits him directly in the face.

"Freeze!" Clockwork orders sharply. He steps through into the scene, and crouches to stare carefully at the green-tinged ectoplasmic light. "Not…quite," he mutters quietly. "It has some ghostly properties, I can see that, but there's something else…" A thought strikes him, and he straightens, turning to look at the papers still in the woman's grasp. In three long strides, he is next to her, and peering down at the lines of messy handwriting interspersed with complex diagrams. He studies them, occasionally glancing up at the portal to compare.

"Yes, yes, the energy is right, if that is what they wanted…it was…but that can't be all, or he'd just end up a ghost. A very powerful ghost, but still a ghost. Unless, of course, he chose to move on, but….Death isn't here. He's never late. No, no…there must be something more."

He lifts the paper gently so as to study the one beneath it. Halfway down the page he sees it. He raises an eyebrow, surprised. "How very…unusual," he muses. He puts the paper down thoughtfully and moves to inspect the portal again.

"They summoned the right sort of energy, but this crude prototype couldn't—can't—contain it. So of course it is released, but that's not all. Hmm…this isn't my domain, but I wonder…" he reaches in delicately and extracts a single strand of DNA, which he folds carefully and slips into his pocket. "This won't tell me everything, but it may help identify the second energy called up in their little experiment." He steps back into his lair, still talking. "The reason Death wasn't needed…" he calls up a second screen, this one showing the unfortunate human male—Vlad, according to his hospital bracelet—lying alone, severely weakened and wrapped in bandages, but lucid and staring open-mouthed through his hand as it flickered in and out of invisibility, "…to give this one ghost powers."