Robin's challenging half-smile vanished, and his attention dropped from Danny like a pebble falling through loose fingers. He turned to the door. The kitchen was quiet enough that all the silence of the arching rooms of the Hall of Justice could be lurking there. Aqualad's voice carried eerily:
"It is unlikely to be a trick."
Robin nodded grimy. "So far the aliens have showed nothing but brute force." Every line of his posture was read to spring into action. The breath that left Superboy's nose seemed to echo. His hands clenched, white-knuckled, and unclenched, but did not relax.
Danny's fingers tingled, ready to light up with ectoplasm.
The clop of heavy footwear came towards them. The steps were sure of themselves: the walker knew where he was going – knew they were in the kitchen. The open door seemed to yawn.
"It's him! I can feel it, it's really him! Uncle J'onn!" Miss Martain's joyful shout rocked them.
A green man with red eyes and an unsmiling mouth appeared in the doorway. Fear gripped Danny, and green light fizzled around his fists. Miss Martian fled past him and tackled the man in a hug. She babbled, smiling. Even Kid Flash was not antagonistic. He was, for the first time Danny had seen him, smiling.
Danny's ectoblasts fizzled into a faint, green glow.
The team flocked around Martain Manhunter, surrounding him with wide-eyed looks and questions on their lips. Before they reached him he gripped his head with his hand and groaned.
"Uncle J'onn?" Miss Martian released him.
"I am sorry," Martain Manhunter rumbled, his eyes lowered. "My mind is… clouded. I am certain that I had something important to tell you, but it has vanished."
"Maybe you're supposed to tell us our mentors are safe?" Kid Flash asked eagerly.
"No. That was not it." Danny felt sick as the Martian spoke. Manhunter spotted him, his red eyes as bright as Plasmius'. They were worse, though. Plasmius' eyes did not look like they could see through him, and see not the fleshy structure of the brain but his panicking thoughts. Danny's mind felt it was being laid bare before him.
"Who are you?" asked Manhunter.
Danny drew himself up. "Phantom, and I want to know who you are. You clearly –" his eyes flickered to Aqualad, who had hung back and was watching everything with wary eyes. Aqualad inclined his head—he was giving Danny his approval. Danny searched for words to describe his discomfort. "…Aren't expected."
The Martian turned his head and frowned, as if a distant sound had pulled him away. As if Danny wasn't important. Danny huffed. "Aren't you going to answer me?"
The Martian gripped his head again, and Miss Martain twittered worriedly at his side. They waited for the verdict. Manhunter's hand moved slowly down to his side. His eyes were still unfocused, but now there was dangerous air to him.
"I remember why I am here now," he said.
He turned to Miss Martian with a new look in his eye. Danny saw the red, obsessive eyes of ghosts, and his hand shot forward. His ectoblast rocked towards the Martian as his hand shot out towards Miss Martian. The motion was aborted. The Martian ducked, and fluorescent green smacked against the far wall. Danny bobbed in the air, shocked, would it have been a killing blow? The others rounded on him.
"He was going to hurt her!" He protested. Aqualad stepped forward, he was angry. Had they not seen that Manhunter was going to kill Miss Martian? Danny floundered backwards.
"It is alright, Aqualad," Martain Manhunter said.
"No," answered Aqualad. "I advocated his presence. He is my responsibility."
"Allow me to explain myself," the Martian insisted. He turned to Danny, kindly. Danny was not convinced by his act. He kept his fists alight.
"I am Martian Manhunter, and I am here to return all of you to the real world. This place is not reality. It is a dream-world created as a training exercise."
Dream world? Training exercise? Were they like Technus, who he and Tucker had trapped in a glitched level of a computer game?
"You'll…" Danny murmured. "You'll get me home?" he asked, the light around his hands finally falling away. Martian Manhunter said he would.
Robin looked to Martian Manhunter quickly, shocked, but then his eyes widened in realisation. Danny scowled. The unease, which had been gone for a moment, returned. What did he know that Danny didn't?
"Now I must continue. There is something I must do to end the dreamworld, and awaken us all."
This time Danny couldn't stop it. Martian Manhunter's fist plowed through Miss Martian's chest as if she were thin Styrofoam. Her eyes widened in shock and blood pooled around his fist.
She choked, eyes wide, and fell to the ground.
"DAMMIT!" Superboy launched himself Manhunter, and the alien released Miss Martian as he ducked away. Kid Flash stared at her in horror. Horror Danny knew was mirrored on his own face.
"That was your plan?!" Robin's voice was strangled. "Kill her?"
"She's dead." Aqualad was crouched by corpse, and he rose slowly. Martian Manhunter had disabled Superboy by making him float.
"Answers, now!" their leader declared, and Manhunter turned his blank face towards them.