Yes! I have finally dredged up the time to type up the next chapter! Anyways, for those with questions from the last chapter, hopefully some of them will be answered in this one.

Thank you reviewers! You people give me so much more inspiration!

Shameless Advertising: Here I am again, begging you to read my other DP fanfiction stories.

Disclaimer: I am neither in a coma or insane. Thus, it logically follows that I do not own Danny Phantom.

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Isolated

Ch. 4

The African-American boy fidgeted uncomfortably in his seat. He had to stay to monitor the subject for any signs of a setback or hitch. The plan could not get ruined at this stage; it would take an innumerable amount of time to set it up for another try. Which in plain English meant that this was the only chance, and if something went wrong on his watch, then the world would most likely be absent of yet another human's presence. So far though, he saw no reason for this to occur. The plan was flawless, and all of the accumulated research confirmed the fact that it was irreversible once initiated.

But hey, his boss was a little on the paranoid side. It probably came from experience. There could always be one unaccounted for variable that could spin this thing out of control.

So, all that the red-hatted teenager was doing was sitting in the chair and staring at the computer. It was a bit unnerving to see that figure writhing on the floor. It took awhile for the boy to remind himself that it wasn't really human, and things that aren't human don't feel enough to waste your sympathetic emotions on.

Right?

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A short, stocky man grumbled to himself, although it was more of an attempt to throw off the sense of impending doom than an expression of anger or irritability.

You see, the problem was that there was nothing he could do. He could perceive the interference, and even track it down to its base to a certain extent. The hard part was actually affecting it. It was elusive, in an odd way, and it wouldn't budge for anything. Sometimes the barriers he tried to place to block the interference only seemed to strengthen it.

This was not good. He had been doing his job for fifteen years, and all of that work was about to fall apart in the span of a few hours. His superior will not be pleased. There was only one thing to do.

He had to get away.

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Sam lay broken upon the gravel outside of the house. She looked blankly into the sky, wondering vaguely why it seemed to be tinted red, even though the sun had finished rising. The red seemed to be swirling…

She blinked, and the red disappeared from her sight. She was puzzled, still in that detached kind of way. Sam lifted a throbbing hand up to one of the tears that escaped her eyes and with trembling effort; she raised it up to see. There was blood in her tear. Apparently, some drops of blood splashed in her eyes from her wounds when she was thrown to the ground.

She was grateful that her mind decided to be distant this time. The pain wasn't as noticeable this way. It meant that her injuries were worse than normal though. She knew that at least one of her bones had cracked. It would take a long time to heal.

The gravel was uncomfortable, but she didn't seem to have the energy required to move. A few minutes later and with a heaving effort, she forced herself into a sitting position. Sam gasped and clutched at her rib cage, almost sending her back to the ground because of the weakness of the other arm supporting her.

Dread shot through her mind at the distant sound of footsteps, and with a colossal amount of sheer will, she heaved her self up to her feet and haltingly stumbled into a dark alley, just barely avoiding plunging back to the call of gravity.

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The dark haired boy tried to scream, but no sound escaped from the confines of his throat. He clawed at the carpet, tearing chunks out and nearly tearing his fingernails out of the flesh of his fingers when he encountered the rough wood underneath.

The door to his room opened, although the boy couldn't notice, as he was locked in his pain. His eyes shot open unseeingly, and with the chink of light that came through the crack in the door, the short and stocky man that had just opened it could see the glaring neon green they had become.

"Kid, you're on your own now. I'm on the chopping block as it is already."

The man turned around, and without closing the door, he ran as fast as he could away from the eerie spectacle.

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A man walked through a crowd in the mall, sifting through his troubled thoughts. He was fairly normal in appearance, brown hair and brown eyes. His "talk" with the boss had not quelled any of his hesitancy, nor had it banished the moral quandary he seemed to be stuck in. Although the creature was not technically human, it seemed like it had the capability to act normal if given a chance. Not to mention that the writhing on the floor clearly displayed the pain that the creature was going through. If only he wasn't micro-chipped…if he so much as stepped into the same room it was in, hit men would be on him within the minute.

There was simply no way he could help.

According to this logic, his conscience should have stopped bothering him.

Too bad a conscience just doesn't work that way.

He cursed foully under his breath, causing a mother to glare at him while tugging her young children away.

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Well, I hope all of you like it! Some things are starting to be set up so that the real action can take place. I hope the next chapter will be the last of the preliminary ones…although I might have to use another one for that purpose as well.

Please tell me what you thought! Any and all suggestions are welcomed as well as critics. I would really like to know how to improve my story!

Thanks so much!