Seven yelped and leapt back into his cage, practically flying to his corner with his hands over his head. He trembled there, curling into a ball. This was bad, very bad! He was a bad boy, he broken the rules and now the lab coat men going to make him have pain. Why had he left? The cage had always been good, or at least better than everything else. Good things happened when you did what you were supposed to. The cage was where you were supposed to stay. But now the lab coat men were going to take him through the door and stab him with pokey things. He didn't like that, but there was nothing he could do. He knew that for sure.

-Line break-

Batman stared at the trembling figure before him. He looked about fifteen, dressed in a tattered jumpsuit with snowy white hair. But that wasn't what shocked him. What shocked him was what the boy was.

The teens entire bottom half looked like that of a large white wolf, with a fluffed white tail nearly touching his nose. His arms were covered with the same white fur, and a pair of wolffish ears were laid back against his quivering head. He was making small whimpering noises somewhere between a frightened child and an injured puppy, his back legs pulling closer to himself in an attempt to be smaller.

Batman sorted through his mind, looking for some explanation as to what the teen was. He had heard of some attempts to splice animals with humans, but there had never been a success. Could this be a successful wolf human hybrid? More importantly, was this the elusive Phantom he had spent the last six months trying to find?

Danny Phantom, more popularly known as Phantom, had been a lower class hero that protected his home town from ghosts. He and Batman had never officially met, but the Dark night had still felt the ripples going through the hero community when the teen disappeared a year ago. It had only been in the last six months that Batman had made it his mission to find the young hero, but in those months, he had learned more than enough about the GIW to despise them. The government organization had no respect or recognition for anything of a different race than themselves, and they openly stated this fact. Fortunately, a community announcement and a few carefully phrased sentences were all it took for the government to disown the corrupt agency.

He had broken into one of their condemned facility's, trying to find some clue of where the hero had gone. Of course, in a classic turn of events that made Murphy's law all too believable, they had started demolition early, giving Batman the glamorous experience of dodging broken ceiling chunks while attempting to get to the control room. Finally he had, only too be drawn elsewhere by the telltale sound of glass shattering. And loa and behold, there was a the teen, who had leapt back into his glass cage the instant The Dark knight tapped him.

Batman knelt down beside the boy, placing his hand on the teens arm. He was shaking so hard, Batman almost had to keep him still to get his attention.

Hesitantly, one of the arms lifted off, and a pair of frightened eyes peered out at him.

-Line break-

Nothing was happening.

Seven felt his fear begin to fade into confusion. He didn't like confusion. It was almost worse than pain because with pain you could kind of understand why it was happening. Confusion was when you didn't know what was happening. And knowing what was happening was how you avoided going through The Door.

He was shaking again. He didn't like shaking, but he couldn't stop it.

Seven knew that he had to become not confused. In order to do this, he needed to look at what was going on. But what if the white coat men were waiting for him to peek? They had done it before, and that hadn't been good. They had waited until he tried to become not-confused, then jumped on him with scary wires and painful knives. He didn't want it to happen again. But he was so confused- he didn't want pain, but confusion was bad too!

Someone was touching him.

It wasn't like the touches he knew. Lab coat men touches were hard and fast, leaving purplish green blotches that hurt if you touched them. This touch stayed, as though waiting for something. Was this a good new? It felt good now, but would it stay that way? Only one way to tell for sure.

Seven slowly lifted his arm away from his eyes, looking up at where the hand had come from.

This wasn't a lab coat man. Unless the lab coat men were trying to trick him again. This man had pointy ears, just like Seven did, and he was almost all black. Black was the opposite of white- did that mean that this man the opposite of a lab coat man? Seven thought he would like it a lot if this man was the opposite of a lab coat man. Anything that was the opposite of a lab coat man seemed like it would be good.

What should he do? This new was a different new than any new he'd ever experienced. He had no idea what the options were. Were they options at all?

Seven decided to wait. Waiting was a very scary thing. Anything could happen when you were waiting, and Seven liked to know what was happening. It kept bad things from being unexpected. But with this new man, Seven decided that maybe waiting was the best way to be safe.

The man reached for his belt and Seven immediately covered his head again. He remembered what happened when the lab coat men did that. A lot of pain happened when the lab coat men reached for almost anything. He was in pain a lot when the lab coat men were around. It was almost a rule.

The man was touching him again. What did he want? Was this a test? He sometimes got tests- tests where they made him look at something and respond. He almost always failed those tests. He was always supposed to growl at the pictures, but he always whined instead. He tried to growl, but he couldn't growl at the people in the images. They almost always looked nicer than the lab coat men. He wanted to growl at the lab coat men, but he knew that was stupid. If he growled at them, he would go through The Door. That's what happened to Nine.

The man's hand hadn't moved. It was still on his arm, still waiting. Nothing bad had happened the first time, was it still safe?

"I'm not going to hurt you."

Talking. The man was talking to him. The lab coat men almost never talked to him, except to yell and tell him he was doing wrong things. His ears flicked upward, despite his efforts to keep them pinned and out of harms way. It was probably a good idea to see what the man was going to say, even if it resulted in another chipped ear.

The man's voice was soothing as he continued. "I need to talk to you. I'm looking for someone. Can you help me?"

Looking for someone? Finding things? He could do that! The lab coat men had him do that all the time! He was good at it, very good. He could always do it right, and no one hit him when he did things right. And this man would probably be happy when he found the person, and when people were happy, no one got hurt. It was a safe trade.

He slowly lifted his arms and gazed at the man, slowly coming up to a sitting position. His ears involuntarily flicked back against his head again, and he made sure to avoid eye contact. No eye contact. That was always the rule.

"Look at my face."

Seven flinched slightly. The man didn't sound angry, but he did sound scary, and scary was usually caused or followed by anger. Maybe curling up on the floor was a good idea after all. But the next words confused him as little.

"Please. Look at my face."

-Line break-

Batman cursed himself inwardly. He had inadvertently switched into his 'interrogation voice', and now the boy looked like he was about to revert back to his fetal position on the floor. So, in gentlest tone, "Please, look at my face."

There was a moment of stillness, then the head slowly lifted. An expert in the body language of both humans and animals, Batman could tell that this was done with reluctance. He decided he'd better not keep him waiting. He held up the photo that he had pulled from his belt. "Can you find me this person?"

The boy took the picture, holding it gently as his eyes flicked over it. Batman hoped that the boy would respond with a sarcastic, 'That's me.', or some other form of communication that would give Batman hope of Phantom's survivor. But he was sadly disappointed.

The wolf teen got up and walked through the broken glass wall. On two legs, Batman noted with a bit of surprise. He walked over to a control panel, which Batman had noticed but chosen to ignore. He tapped a few keys, and after a moment, it started up with a groan. The GIW symbol appeared on the screen, and Batman was shocked when the teen tapped in a password with next to no hesitation. As soon as it opened, the teen stepped to the side and sat down on the floor, ears back and eyes downcast in a sign of submission. Deciding to ignore that for the moment, Batman stepped forward and slipped a flash drive into the computer, downloading what few files there were on the computer. He found Phantom's file in less than ten seconds, but his heart sank as he read the note on the file. Dead, in red block letters.

His teeth clenched in anger. The agency hadn't even had the guts to call him 'deceased'. He took a deep breath, calming himself. The agency was shut down now. There was no point getting angry at something he could do nothing about.

He glanced down at the wolfish teen, mind working furiously to figure out who he was. He was probably a clone, but why make him part wolf?

"Who are you?" He muttered aloud, not expecting an answer. To his surprise, the teen stood and clambered back to the glass cage. He pointed at a corner, and Batman leaned in to read it. He raised an eyebrow, and experimentally said, "Clone Seven."

The boy's ears perked up, and he subtly turned toward Batman, as though he was waiting for something. Batman stared for a moment, subconsciously noting the deep nick in one of the ears. Phantom may be dead, but this clone was here now, and he needed him.

"What is your name?" Batman tried. Maybe he could get the boy to open up a little more.

The figure, scraped a paw-like foot across the floor. He gestured back to the cage, showing him the sign once again. Batman's frown deepened. "Can you talk?"

The teens head and shoulders dropped even lower, and he shook his head. Batman hummed for a moment, considering the best course of action.

Suddenly, the teen jerked upright. His ears swiveled from side to side, and he sniffed the air with his small black nose. His eyes snapped to a spot behind Batman, and he began to turn. There was a crash, and Batman whipped around all the way just in time hear the screech of tearing metal, then something black and shadowy blasted past him. He felt his cape rip in half, the force of it pulling him over. He let out an involuntary grunt of pain as he hit the floor, but rolled to his feet without hesitation.

Little did he know, but that small grunt of pain would be monumental in what was about to happen.

-Line break-

Seven was confused, but it wasn't as bad as before. He knew the man probably wasn't going to hurt him. The lab coat men would have hurt him a long time ago. But what did the man want? Could it be worse than the sharp stabby things the GIW put him through? He didn't think so. The man had spoken to him softly and nicely. He hadn't made him do anything he didn't like. But was that enough to make him safe?

Suddenly, he jerked upright. Something was wrong. What was it? His ears swiveled from side to side and he sniffed the air, trying to detect what was dangerous about the situation. Then he realized.

The thing had stopped growling.

There is as the sudden screech a tearing metal, and a large black shape tore past the man. He heard something tear, then a grunt of pain. His brain made a lightning fast connection. The Thing had hurt the man. The man had been nice to him. Protect the man.

Without thinking, he leapt at The The thing, unsheathing six inch claws and dragging them against the creatures side. It roared in pain and anger, whipping around and swiping a clawed paw across his face. Seven stumbled back as his hand flew to his face, feeling the four diagonal gashes across his cheek. The blood felt hot and sticky, and he quickly pulled his hand away. He jumped on the creature again, determined to keep it away from the man. The Thing bucked and jumped, trying to shake him off, but Seven dug in with his claws. Taking a deep breath, he lunged down and bit The Thing, sinking his fangs deep into the fur and scales. He tasted blood.

The Thing roared, and with one final buck, finally managed to shake him off. Seven flew across the room and slammed into the wall, hearing a distinct crack where he hit. He slid to the floor with a groan, barely registering that The Thing had left the room.

He didn't understand why, but whenever someone was being hurt, he knew that he had to help. It was a rule that, as far as he knew, only applied to himself. None of the others had felt this way, and the lab coat men would have sent him through The Door the second they found out about it. But it was still there, and Seven knew that it was undoubtedly that everything was there for a reason. Usually it was harmless. He could suppress it before he did something stupid. But this time he had done something stupid anyway. And now he was in a lot of pain.

He whimpered, despite his best efforts to keep it inside. The cuts on his face burned, and he was pretty sure on of his claws had broken off in the fight. He tried to push himself up, but a gentle hand pushed him back down. His eyes snapped open, and he swiveled his head to find the man kneeling over him. Relaxing slightly, he continued to watch the man.

The man pulled out a needle.

Seven was up in a flash, backing up against the wall. The fur along his spine spiked up, and his ears were pressed so hard against his head that they almost hurt.

The man held up a calming hand. "Easy, easy! It's just a sedative." Seven cocked his head in confusion, and the man continued. "It's to help you relax, make it easy to sleep." Seven hesitated, eyes riveted on the needle. The man sighed. "Look, I don't know what those men did to you. But I'm going to get you out of here, somewhere better. And it will be easier if you're sedated."

Seven perked up. Somewhere better? He wanted that! His tail thumped on the floor once. But the needle...

With a deep breath, Seven lay down on the floor, covering his eyes with one hand and trying to think about feathers. He had no idea what feathers were, but Nine had said to think about them when he was scared. So he tried his best to decide what feathers looked like. He felt a small prick in his arm, and he clenched his teeth together, accidentally cutting the inside of his lip.

"Done." The voice reassured him. Seven sighed, taking his hand off his eyes and staring at the man again. Everything looked kind of blurry...

Seven placed his head between his arms and quickly fell asleep.

-Line break-

Sometimes, Batman felt that his responsibilities as a superhero could cross into the twilight zone. Of course, carrying an unconscious wolf/human hybrid wasn't the strangest thing he'd done, but it was still a bit out there.

He was carrying the teen fireman style, almost running to get out of the complex. The demolition had stopped for the moment, but it could start up again anytime. And the boy had several deep cuts in his face that were likely going to bleed a lot, and he was more comfortable doing medical procedures in a building that wasn't about to collapse on him.

He slipped out undetected as before, making sure to keep the teen as comfortable as possible. As he came out of the building, he glanced at the wrecking ball being used. There was a plume of dark smoke billowing above, along with several angry looking workers digging around under the hood. Batman quirked an eyebrow, continuing on his way with only the smallest of pauses.

He continued for another hundred yards, easily locating the camouflaged Batwing. The top slid open at his command, and he set the teen down in the passenger seat. He immediately curled into a ball, tail almost touching his nose. Batman slipped into the drivers seat and started it up, blasting off with hardly a sound.

As he flew, he pondered the situation that he had faced back in the building. It wasn't a pleasant prospect. As much as Batman prided himself in being ready for any situation, he knew that if he had continued to fight that thing, it probably wouldn't have ended well. He had barely seen what the creature was, and even if he could have gotten a good look at it, it would have likely been too fast for him to get a hit. He was lucky the teen had been there.

The thought stopped him. Why had the teen defended him? Up until that point, he had been jumpy and timid, seemingly ready to panic at the slightest aggressive mood. What has changed to make him such a vicious fighter? Batman went through the scenario in his mind. The teen had grown alert, the whatever-it-was had broken out, he'd been knocked over...

Batman's eyes narrowed. He distinctly remembered letting out a grunt of pain as he hit the floor. Could that have kickstarted some sort of protective instinct? It was certainly possible. Wolves were very protective of they're own packs, and humans were naturally social creatures. Since this teen happened to be both, it was far to assume that he had a very strong sense of loyalty. On top of that, Batman thought he was probably the first person in the clones life to show him kindness of any sort. That thought made him sad.

The entrance to the Batcave came into view. Batman expertly guided the Batwing into the cave, allowing it to land gently inside. He lifted the teen from the seat beside him, carrying him across the room to the bat computer. He frowned, looking for a suitable place to set him down. Finding nothing but the cold concrete floor, he shrugged off what was left of his cape and spread it on the floor. He set the young boy down, careful to avoid the place where he had struck the wall. The teen squirmed where he was set, curling up slightly. Batman walked across the cave and retrieved the med kit, making sure there was a needle and thread inside.

He cleaned the wound out with practiced ease, pausing to examine it. The cuts were long and deep, with their edges seeming to pull away from each other. No option but to stitch it. Batman was grateful that the sedative he'd chosen had a bit of a numbing effect. He pulled out a needle and the correct length of cord. His mind automatically detached itself as he worked, allowing him to consider the possibilities. There were few who would know how to care for the teen, and only a fraction of those few would be willing to. But this was different than your ordinary situation. This clone had, as far as Batman knew, lived his whole life inside a cage. They couldn't just put him anywhere.

"I take it we have a house guest, Master Bruce?"

Batman turned, slightly peeved that his butler had managed to get the better of him yet again. "Are you ever going to stop doing that?"

Alfred's face remained straight as he replied, "No sir."

Batman sighed, looking at the teen. "Yes Alfred, I think he'll be living with us for awhile."

"I'll prepare a bed, then." Alfred said, starting to walk away but stopping at Batman's voice.

"Tell Robin to see me when he gets home. We need to discuss the situation."

"Very good sir."

Batman turned back toward the teen, observing him. He would probably remain asleep for several hours. He stood up and went to the computer, slipping the chip from the GIW computer into it. He spent the next half hour sifting through the coded information, eventually piecing together a backstory for the teen. He felt his anger boiling up again, and he stubbornly forced it down. Now wasn't the time.

He heard a door behind him open, and he said without looking, "How was school?"

-Line break-

Robin looked at Batman. "It was fine..." He said hesitantly. "What's the problem?" He knew Batman wouldn't have called him away from his studies without a good reason. Batman gestured, and his eyes fell on what appeared to be a human wolf hybrid. Robin's eyes tracked over the still form, noting the torn clothing and four diagonal stitches on his cheek. He turned back toward Batman. "Who is he?"

Batman pulled up a schematic on screen. It showed two people side by side. One of them Robin vaguely recognized, a lanky teen in a back and white jumpsuit with white hair. The other he didn't know. It was a huge, muscular wolf like figure, dressed in a green hoody and shorts. It had one paw lifted, with seven inch claws extending from each furry digit. Robin's brow furrowed, and he sent Batman a questioning look.

Batman began to explain, images appearing on his computer to match every word. "For the last several months, the GIW have been attempting to make a half ghost clone." Robin nodded, familiar with Batman's theories on Danny Phantom and the GIW. "They were unable to make one with Phantoms DNA, so they began trying other sources of ghostly DNA." He gestured at the wolfish figure. "Using the DNA of both Danny Phantom and this other wolf ghost, he was created." He gestured toward the teen. "He was the seventh of thirteen."

Robin frowned. "Where are the other twelve?"

"They've been terminated." He tapped the computer screen and the images faded. "As have the originals."

Robin looked at the sleeping teen. As the two watched, he stirred slightly, rolling over so that Batman's cape was on top of him. Robin frowned. "Why are his legs so crooked?"

"They've been broken several times, and they never healed properly. We'll have to make braces."

Robin looked at Batman in confusion, not comprehending the implications of the statement. "We?"

Batman gave Robin a little smile. "How do you feel about having a brother?"

Me: And the first hiatus story is updated!

Friend: Great. But why didn't you mention that Seven was part wolf in the first chapter?

Me: I didn't realize he was until I got to know the story better. There's nothing in the first chapter to contradict it, so that's what he's gonna be!

Friend: But you still haven't explained-

Me: *Puts finger on friends lips* Shhhh... Patience. It will all make sense in later chapters.

Friend: *Bites finger*

Me: OW! *Yanks away finger and glares* Why do you do that?!

Friend: Attention, mostly.

Me: *Rolls eyes, then looks at audience* Anyway, thanks for reading! Please review and tell me your thoughts!