Ack! I'm so sorry that it took me so long to update! I've just been absolutely swamped with school stuff, and I have a pretty busy schedule that doesn't have much room to write stories in it…anyways, I hope this chapter was worth the wait. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Despite the fact that I love this show and am writing stories for it, I do not own it. While that is a very sad fact for me, I am sure that most of the fan population is grateful.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Isolation

Ch. 2

The boy stood in front of the window, heart pounding wildly within his chest. The curtains had closed once more and the darkness had returned to blanket his room with the comforting familiarity he had always lived with. It was amazing that just one look at something new or different can upset your view of reality in tremendous leaps and bounds and cause so many emotions to bubble up within you, especially when your view of life has been so limited so drastically for so long. The feeling that there is more to life than what you've been living can come as a major shock to one who has never seriously contemplated it. This is why the boy stood there, hardly daring to breathe. The darkness that had become his domain almost seemed to suffocate him then, and the walls almost seemed to close in on him like the room wasn't large enough to hold him.

And perhaps it wasn't.

The boy realized in that shifting of perspective that he had outgrown that room, the darkness, and its enclosure from the reality that others seemed to live in. In fact, looking back, he had outgrown it long ago. He just never realized it. This realization brought a whole slew of ideas and concepts that he had never occurred to him or he'd never bothered to consider. It was exhilarating, the rush of possibilities.

However, in spite of the thrill, the sheer entrancing newness of it all; he was afraid. It was as if the floor he had been standing on for so long just vanished from under his feet. It left him falling into the unknown, breathless, filled with anticipation, and fearful. All he could do was close his eyes and hope he kept his sanity.

But there was something else occurring within his mind, almost hidden underneath the chaos of his thoughts and growing world-views.

It had never really occurred to him that other people existed. Other people with emotions and thoughts just like his. Oh, he had known that there were others out there, but the fact that they had their own lives and they did their own things had never really hit home until now. Until he actually had a glimpse of the lives other people led.

So he stood, he hand resting on the glass through the fabric, feeling the cooled night air through the barrier. His heart started to slow it rapid beating, and his breathing resumed its normal activity, the strung up tenseness of his being flooded from him. As if all of his energy had been depleted in those few, quickened heartbeats of time, he walked shakily over to his bed and nearly collapsed upon it. Once again, he resumed his position of a few minuets before, head resting on the pillow and his eyes staring in a vacant daze up at the ceiling.

This time though, he had a complete set of new things to consume his thoughts.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The fact that she had actually seen someone in that room didn't trulyhit her until she stepped outside after the movie. When it did, it practically ran her over. While her friend chattered merrily on about the film, she stared blankly out into space, her mind coming to an abrupt halt at the unexpected information. Ever since she could remember, she had lived in this forgotten dump. For almost as long, she had passed that building to get to the main street. For years, she had idly wondered about that room when her mind had the rare opportunity to wander. It was almost unreal that she actually had found a clue to her ponderings.

Now that she did, she was determined to have the mystery completely uncovered. Her long dormant curiosity had awoken. After all, it wasn't like there was anything better to do.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The light in the room was stark, unnatural. It glared off of the white tiles, making the white floor gleam. The walls were a light shade of beige. The ceiling couldn't be seen through the lights hung up at five foot intervals. Scattered throughout the large room, were various pieces of electronic equipment, along with shelves holding vials with different liquids of many colors, labeled with white stickers printed on with neat, black type.

Seated around a small round table in the very center were four very different characters. One was a nondescript man, one who would have no trouble blending in with a crowd, with brown hair and eyes. The one next to him was the opposite, a large frame and figure covered in high-tech armor. Next to him was a thin man in a lab coat with beady black eyes. The last was teenager, surprisingly. He was African-American, with glasses and a red beret.

"How much longer?" The thin man demanded.

"I'm almost all the way through the system, there's just one barrier that I need to get across." The young boy answered.

"I've gathered as much as I think it's possible to get." The brown-haired man reported.

"I've been ready." The hulking man replied.

"Good, once all the pieces have fallen into place, we can make our move. We've been waiting for a long time." He smiled thinly, "Ever since the creation of Phantom."

The teenager fidgeted uncomfortably under the piercing gaze of their leader, he knew that if he caused so much as one mishap, much worse would happen than what had transpired before. Everything was up to him now. He hoped he worked well under pressure.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alright! Here's the next one! I hope you all enjoyed, and I hope all of you are coming up with your own theories…Which I'd love to hear by the way…speculations are always interesting.

Please, please review! I love criticism and praise! They help a lot!