So I might have to warn you guys: this is a very dialogue-heavy chapter. It's like… all dialogue. I know some people don't like that, but it's necessary. Thanks for reading!

Chapter 2: Voice

J'onn could feel the emotions coming off of the small blue orb in Flash's hands ever since he entered the room. He could feel the nervousness when the League focused their attentions on it, and the fear when Batman held it.

They said that they could only feel the emotions when physically touching the object; so the Martian wondered that, if he could already feel the thing's emotions from where he was, what might he be able to gather if he actually held it? J'onn walked over to Batman.

"May I test a theory?" He asked as he held out his hand towards Batman. The orb's fear of Batman was briefly overshadowed by curiosity directed towards the Martian. Batman remained silent for a few moments before he set the icy ball in J'onn's hand.

'Ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh! That's an alien, he's an alien, that's so awesome! Okay, stay calm, be cool.' J'onn's eyes widened in shock as he held the sphere closer. A wave of excitement and curiosity rushed over the ball as he heard the boy's voice in his mind.

"Intriguing," the Martian said as he looked around the room to the other Leaguers. "He has a voice."

Silence.

From both the orb and the Justice League.

J'onn could feel shock and disbelief from the little sphere in his hand, and could see the same plainly displayed on the faces of his team-mates. A trickle of hope leaked from the orb, then bloomed into a sort of hope that encompassed the entire sphere and beyond.

'You can hear me?' came the boy's voice.

"You can hear it- him?" Flash's face looked like it would split in half with how wide he was smiling.

"Indeed," J'onn said, answering both. "I believe, if I can establish a mind-link, we all might be able to hear his voice as well." Flash instantly looked excited.

"Yes!" He looked around at everyone else for conformation. Meanwhile, the frosty sphere became nervous once again.

'A mind-link? Do— do we have to? I mean… I don't really like people in my mind,' the boy stated quietly. J'onn looked back at the sphere.

"Do not worry, child, we will only be able to hear what you 'say' so to speak. The mind-link goes no farther than surface thoughts," J'onn explained. He noticed Flash's smile fall, and Batman's and Hawk Woman's scowls soften. Green Lantern frowned slightly and stepped forward.

"What do you mean 'child?' Are you telling me that's a kid?" The military man folded his arms and stared critically at the icy ball. J'onn felt exasperation come from the small sphere.

'I'm not a kid! I'm like, fifteen!' the boy said with a tone that implied that he had to deal with that a lot. J'onn smiled lightly at the childishness displayed by the little orb.

"He says that he's fifteen," the Martian relayed. He then felt a small wave of annoyance and reluctant acceptance from the boy.

'Fine. Let's do that mind… thing. Just so you don't have to repeat everything I say,' the boy sighed. Though the nervousness was still present, J'onn could feel that the boy trusted his words.

"I shall start the mind-link once everyone has approved," he stated, looking at Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. The three shared looks, nodded, and turned back to Martian Manhunter.

"Whenever you're ready," said Superman.

… … …

The mind-link connected to everyone without a problem. Everyone shifted in their spots as the boy's emotions washed over them as if they were holding the sphere itself. They all felt nervousness, hesitation, and hope coming from the direction of the small orb.

'Umm…' the boy's voice rang throughout their minds. 'Hi?'

The reaction was instantaneous.

Flash ran over to the orb that J'onn was holding, Green Lantern dropped his arms, and everyone else looked fairly surprised by the youth of the voice.

"Wowthat'samazing!Youcantalk?Whatareyou?Whatsyourname?Areyouanalien?Areyouhumanfifteenoralienfifteen?Isthereadifference?Whatplanetdidyoucomefrom?Isthatwhyyoulikespacesomuch?Whyareyouaball?Ohmygoshwasthatrude?Areallofyourpeoplelittleballs?HowdidyougettoEarth?Doyoulikeithere?HowdidyouendupinCaptainColdsgun?Isitbecauseyouresocold?Whydoyouhavemist—" Flash rambled on at high speed and didn't notice that the icy sphere felt a little overwhelmed at all the attention. Superman put a hand on Flash's shoulder, causing him to stop mid-sentence.

"Slow down there, Flash. Maybe ask the kid one question at a time?" He suggested.

"Oh, right, sorry," Flash deflated a little, and tried to choose a single question. "What's your name?"

'My name's Danny!' the orb said cheerfully, with a wave of appreciation directed at Superman.

"Danny? That doesn't sound like an alien name," Flash mused. The ball snorted with amusement.

'That's because it's not. It's a human name. I am—' he stopped, amusement gone, replaced with hesitancy and worry. '…was… human…after all.'

The League looked at each other in confusion when they felt the little orb release a burst of nervous regret, as if he thought that he had said too much.

"Danny, what do you mean, 'you were human'? What are you now?" Wonder Woman asked gently, knowing that harsh words would only make the boy clam up tighter. They all felt the worry, hesitation, and evasiveness before he even spoke.

'Does it matter?' he squeaked. The Flash waved dismissively.

"Come on kid, we've got several non-humans on our team, you can tell us!" He hoped that his nonchalant attitude would put the boy more at ease. It didn't work. Frustration flared throughout the link.

'Yeah well their very existences aren't illegal, are they?' he shot back before apparently realizing what he said. The nervous regret had returned, but this time it was flooded with panic and anxiousness. Batman narrowed his eyes at the sphere. This whole situation just became more complicated; complicated meant trouble, and Batman did not appreciate trouble.

"You need to start answering our questions, now," he demanded.

'I'm a ghost. But I'm not evil, I swear!' the boy quickly said with panic in both his voice and emotions, along with a sort of pleading desperation. The heroes' confusion only grew as the boy's unease increased.

"A ghost?" Hawk Woman laughed, "Ghosts don't exist." Her voice broke through the tension in the room as a bit of irritation surfaced through the mind-link.

'Uh, rude. I'm right here,' the icy sphere exclaimed with annoyance.

"Real or not," Batman interrupted, "Why would that make your existence illegal?"

"And why would we assume that being a ghost would make you evil?" Wonder Woman asked.

The boy stayed silent for a few moments as confusion spread throughout his mind.

'Uhh… because everyone thinks we're evil? Probably because the only ghosts that people see are the ones that attack them. They even made laws, the Anti-Ecto Acts, saying that ghosts are just physical manifestations of post-human consciousness, and thus are not capable of displaying emotions, empathy, or any sort of sentience, only malice and violence, and therefore banned from the living realm,' he explained with frustration and anger lacing his words. 'But my home is here and I haven't attacked anyone, I promise!'

"I've never heard of any Anti-Ecto Acts," Superman furrowed his brows in contemplation. Batman turned to the large computer on the wall of the room and started typing. Superman continued. "And you clearly have emotions, we've been feeling them through J'onn's mind-link this entire time; and Flash thought you were sentient even before we found out you had a voice and a name, and wasn't just a magical object."

Flash raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah! But uhh… speaking of that, Danny, how can you attack people? You're like, a little ball thing," he asked. Martian Manhunter cocked his head to the side.

"Indeed, I was not aware that this was what ghosts looked like," stated the Martian. A small exasperated groan from the frost-covered orb broke them from their musings.

'No—this isn't—I don't actually look like this,' the ball sighed in their minds. 'I was attacked by Plasmius, and he pulled out this new device he made and blasted me with it, and it sealed me into my core!' Anger and frustration welled up as he grumbled to himself. 'And then if that wasn't bad enough, he goes and sells me as a weapon! If this gets out, everybody's going to hate me even more…'

"Who's Plasmius? Another ghost?" Asked Hawk Woman, trying to wrap her brain around the idea that ghosts exist. Everyone cringed slightly as a burst of loathing shot through the link.

'Yeah. He's a crazy fruitloop that wants to kill my dad and marry my mom, and make me his son-slash-evil apprentice. The guy just doesn't know how to take no for an answer!' the boy growled. Hawk Woman made a face, and Green Lantern stood next to her.

"Your parents are still alive?" he asked. The loathing dissipated, replaced with a twinge of confusion.

'Uhh, yeah, I only died about a year ago,' the ghost boy told them. The Leaguers turned to each other in dismay; with everything that's come to light in the past few minutes, they failed to connect the facts to the larger picture. Danny said that he was fifteen; that he used to be human; that now he's a ghost: the kid that they've been talking to is dead.

"H-how did you die?" Flash asked tentatively.

Some of the Leaguers stepped back as waves of emotion hit them. Fear; fear of the memories, fear of pain. But at the edges of the waves, they could feel a bit of happiness, gratefulness, and pride.

'It was an accident,' the boy started. 'My parents are inventors, scientists. One day they finally completed a machine that they'd been working on since before I was born, it was supposed to be a portal to the Ghost Zone, where the ghosts… uhh… live. But it didn't work. When my parents left, I went inside and kind of… found the back-up "On" switch when I tripped on some wires. I got zapped, and I woke up as a ghost.'

"Sorry," Flash whispered.

'Hey, no worries, I get cool powers from being a ghost. I can walk through walls, disappear, and fly! And when other ghosts attack my town, I have ecto-blasts and ice powers,' he explained. 'You know… when I'm not trapped in my own core.'

"Ghosts attack your town? Why?" Superman asked. A small wave of guilt emanated from the orb.

'Because they can. When I turned on the portal, the more violent ghosts found out, and came through to the living world. And because it's my fault that the portal's on in the first place, I have to stop them before they hurt anyone,' the boy said sadly. The Flash lit up a bit at that.

"So you're a hero!" he grinned. "Man, this is not what I was expecting when I picked up a weird magic ball today." Hopeful amusement filtered through the mind-link as everyone smiled.

Sadness and irritation trickled through the fringes of the emotions, and they looked back at the orb.

'Now if only everyone in town and the GIW saw it that way…' The other Leaguers looked at each other, confused.

"What's the GIW?" Green Lantern asked. The League felt the anger that the boy felt when thinking of the mysterious organization.

'They're a government agency, the Ghost Investigation Wing, though everybody calls them the Guys in White. They hunt ghosts, especially me, and they were the ones that passed the Anti-Ecto Acts,' the little frost-covered ball explained.

"No, they didn't."

Everyone turned over to Batman, who had been typing on the computer until recently. The confusion coming from the boy matched their own. Batman walked back to where the Leaguers were grouped in front of Martian Manhunter.

'Excuse me?' the boy's confusion rose with the tension in the room.

"The Anti-Ecto Acts don't exist."

I will upload the next chapter on Friday, March 23rd. Chapter 3: Truth