"BROAHH UURAHH BRAINSS..." *author makes growly zombie noises*

I'm back from the dead! A friend was kind enough to be a sounding board for this fic. These new ideas will be worth a few chapters, at least. (Because, heck, I still don't know where I'm /going/ with this thing and it's beyond frustrating!)

x.x

There were hands on Danny before he was fully conscious. His side was pressed against what might a ribcage – okay, definitely not intangible right now, he thought nervously. His eyes slitted open to see blackness. Was it night? No. A band of cloth pressed against his eyes. He wouldn't be able to see until it was removed.

One of his lower arms was encircled by his captor's hand. The other had was wedged into his captor's side, and he wriggled it.

"Don't move."

Danny stilled his arm. If the huge arm that trapped him hadn't been clue enough, the voice was proof that he was being carried by a man. A powerful one.

His heart thudded in his chest and Danny squirmed furiously. He suddenly recalled that he was supposed to be dead. He could be anywhere. He could be in some cannibalistic corner of the ghost zone!

"Where—" he asked.

Something fleshy knocked into him, and he passed out.

He woke up with a headache pounding the inside of his skull and he moaned, opening his eyes reluctantly. The room he was in was white from the roof down the unbroken walls to the floor. He looked around for an exit, but there was no door.

Someone had intended to trap him in here.

Danny got to his feet slowly and leaned into the wall. He searched it for seams that revealed a hidden doorway. His fingernails caught on the rough paint-job as he trailed his hands over them – was that to disguse a seam? If it was, it was effective.

He glanced at his fingernails. And his fingertips. His fleshy fingertips. He was not in the ghost zone because real-world objects passed through things. And if he wasn't in the ghost zone…

Danny smirked tugged at his ghost powers. In a flash, he phased out and dived through the wall.

An alarm bludgeoned his ears as he landed in a clean hallway. "Oh great," he muttered to himself. A red light flashed on one wall, colouring the corridor red and white and red. A black shape rounded the corner and Danny leapt backwards.

He stumbled back into his cell, shaking a little. It was probably a little too much to ask that the person hadn't seen him. He jumped towards the wall.

A window vanished, revealing the hallway. Danny stilled as he reached the glass. His mouth dropped open as he saw a large man all dressed in back before him. Everything from his nose up was masked by a black helmet, and two ear-like antennae sprouted from the top.

The muscles in his abdomen seemed to squeeze his stomach and his tongue was slow to form words. The air seemed heavy with expectation. He felt as if a stone backpack had been put on him, and he drifted downwards under its weight until he settled on the floor.

The man wasn't saying anything.

"Uh – hi?" Danny asked shrilly. No response. He licked his lips. "You… er, don't look like you're here to let me out. I'd really like to be let out, you know."

He smiled awkwardly. It fell away as the masked man gave him nothing. Danny took a step back.

"Look, I'll just be going right now—gah!"

The window grew into a door and the man grabbed Danny and pushed him against the wall. He was trapped.

"I'm Danny," he tried to appease. "You know, we haven't been properly introduced yet!"

He peered up into the lenses of the batlike half-mask. The mouth turned down. Danny looked to the side, he really wanted to get out of here. He phased out, and the man's hands closed against nothing.

Then the man spoke.

"Manhunter."

Something pieced his intangibility and caught him in an iron grip. His head flew back as he was dragged to the centre of the room and Martian Manhunter, the red-eyed alien, stepped quietly into the room. Danny stifled a whimper.

His neck hurt a little, but he couldn't move his hands to rub at it.

"Keep him here," the black-wearing man said. "I need to speak with the team."

"W-wh-at?" Danny asked. "Hey! Don't go! What are you talking about!" the man exited without answering. His breath was hitching oddly.

Maritan Manhunter stepped into his sight. His body couldn't move, but it felt like all his organs were crowding towards his back to get away from the man. He looked at his with pupilless red eyes, his mouth relaxed.

Danny shivered.

Nothing about this guy showed that he cared about Danny at all.

Even care hadn't stopped him from stabbing his niece.