Unfortunately, it didn't seem likely. There was a big difference between the feelings of fake tile and rock.
Then he remembered exactly what had happened and sat up with a start, almost falling straight back down again at the fresh wave of pain through his head. But when it passed and he was able to focus on his surroundings he almost laughed out loud at what he saw.
These ghosts had to be dumb. Okay, they'd managed to take him down harder and faster than anybody else had in years, but that must just have been luck and the element of surprise. Nothing but a fluke. Because if they were actually smart enough to be worth worrying about, they wouldn't have just stuck him in a stone cell without anybody in there to guard him like they thought he might just forget he could float through walls. They hadn't even left the Specter Deflector on him.
Not that it would have made much of a difference. The pain of it might have startled him enough to make him drop his ghost form before, but that was just because he hadn't expected it. Back when Vlad had worn the thing he'd been able to hold onto enough of his control over his powers to practically duplicate himself. If he'd been that strong, Danny was sure that after ten years of practice with his powers he'd be able to keep himself intangible at least long enough to get through a wall, Deflector or no.
He waited until the pain in his head had gone down before making his move so he'd be able to concentrate if he ended up in a fight, but the instant he thought he was ready he went ghost and floated through the wall.
Only to slam straight into a second barrier on the other side. He yelped as he bounced back off it, his headache roaring back to its full force at the rattling his brain got from the hit. When he landed on the ground he discovered that the other barrier extended below the cell as well, his body unsettling ending up looking like the regular stone floor had swallowed up a good chunk of his body before it hit that second ground.
"Did you think us fools, Abomination?" the female voice he was quickly growing to hate said, and when Danny whipped around he realized that it was coming from a small barred window set in the door to the room.
"You've gotta admit, it looked pretty likely for a minute there," he said, gingerly poking his hand through the wall again to feel the barrier beyond it. "What, you stole one of my parents ghost shields too?"
"We would do no such thing; we are neither thieves nor ones who would rely so much upon the technology of the living. The one piece which was unfortunately necessary for your capture was willingly cast aside, first by you and then by the other." He saw her hand reach into the window, and after a second realized that she was lightly stroking a bar in a second set directly behind the first. "We built this cell stone by stone as we waited for the day our plans could come to fruition, first with the rock we smuggled away from your realm over the years, then the shell created around us with rock from ours. We learned from your first encounter with Sheriff Walker. Whichever form you take you shall not escape us, and even if you did it is unlikely that you would ever find your way home from this corner of the Zone."
"You know about that thing with Walker? Just how long have you creeps been watching me?" Danny asked, vaguely freaked out at the idea that he might have been stalked for that long without ever even realizing it.
"Since you first met the other abomination. Him we watched since he first began his meddling in the Ghost Zone, luring good pure ghosts into his employ. We were not making a joke when we told you that we have planned long."
"Man, you guys are such laugh riots how could I be sure?" Danny asked, rolling his eyes. "Why don't we cut the small talk? What are you creeps planning to do to me?"
Try to do to me, he mentally amended. They might have built their trap well, but he'd find a way out of it. He always had before.
"Do? Why, nothing. Nothing save keep you, safe and well, until the day are purged of the sin which taints you. You shall be fed, you shall be kept in as much comfort as your cell allows, if you wish for a book or puzzle or some other amusement simply ask and we shall do our best to provide it as long as it can fit through your food slot or between the bars in your window. We are not cruel people, Abomination, we simply cannot stand by and allow you to flaunt the perversion of your existence to the world any longer."
Danny raised his eyes at the mention of 'comfort', glancing around the bare stone cell. There wasn't even a cot for him to sleep on, though now that he looked he could see that there was at least a folded up blanket and a pillow tucked away in one corner. "Enough of this 'Abomination' garbage. My name's Danny. Dan. Ny. It's three whole syllables shorter, I'm sure you can manage it." He floated himself a couple of inches above the ground and turned himself back to human, landing neatly on his feet when he dropped back to the inner floor of the room. "Okay, so let's say, hypothetically, I was willing to do whatever you need to get rid of this 'sin' you're so worried about quickly. What would that take? Like, an Act of Contrition and five Hail Marys?" He wasn't actually completely sure what that would mean, but it was the type of thing he heard on TV when characters went to confession and maybe he could figure out a way to fake his way through it.
"It will take your death, Abomination. Do you not even recognize your sin? Even now you revel in it, every breath you take a mockery to the pure clarity of true death." She was actually managing to emote now, a quiet hint of anger in her voice that would have seemed like nothing more than being faintly annoyed in anyone else coming across like unbridled rage compared to her usual monotone. "Life and death were never meant to meet as they do within your form. 'Sin' is not a strong enough word for the profanity that is your half-death, but until new language is invented it shall have to suffice."
Danny felt a chill run through him as he listened to her speak. It wasn't like he'd never run into enemies who wanted him dead before. Lots of ghosts had wanted him dead. But they'd had reasons for it that he could understand, even if he obviously didn't agree with them, reasons that generally revolved around them wanting to wreck havoc in the human world and him standing in the way. Even the ones who just wanted to prove their own strength by taking him down he could wrap his mind around though he thought that they were nuts. But this was just beyond him, how without any real malice towards him in particular or any apparent plans to run amuck on Earth once he was gone they could so fervently want him to just not be. The closest he'd come to experiencing something like it in the past was when his powers had still been new and his parents had still been hunting him for being a ghost, but at least they had genuinely believed that he was a threat to the living. "Whatever happened to 'we mean you no harm'?" he spat, narrowing his eyes at her. "Killing me is pretty major harm!"
"We are not murderers. We will do nothing to hasten your death, although if you wish to end this quickly we would gladly provide you with whatever tools you'd like to do so. We are simply holding you where your presence can do no more harm until the day of your passing." She reached through the bars of the cell, and he jerked backwards just before she could touch his cheek. "Pitiable Abomination, we would have brought you while you were still young enough to ease the transition into true ghosthood had it been possible, but we could not make a move until we'd located the other once more. It will be much simpler to see to you both at once."
Danny's stomach flopped over then dropped straight out of him, somehow simultaneously he felt a deep sense of dread and like a guilt-heavy weight had been lifted from his shoulders. "Other?" he repeated, needing to know for sure that his suspicion was right.
"Why, the one who first lead our eyes to you, of course."