dannyo cat man

It took less than five seconds for him to be trussed up like an animal and dumped into the back of a small moving truck. Other than a bit of light coming through the cracks around the door, it was dark. Danny tried to scream through the gag in his mouth, struggling against the ropes tying his arms behind his back. 

His mind raced. He hadn’t seen who’d grabbed him. He hadn’t seen if anyone else had been around to see him get taken. He had no idea if anyone would know he was gone until he didn’t report for work on Monday. Who had taken him? Why? He didn’t know anything!

The truck bounced and shivered as it drove down the road. Even after several minutes of work, the ropes were still incredibly tight. Images he’d seen in movies - of being tortured, of being abused, of being slowly murdered - flooded into his thoughts and leant him new energy. He bit the gag and kicked and fought desperately until he was dripping sweat and out of breath. And still the ropes hadn’t budged an inch.

He forced his body to relax. The ropes weren’t moving; this was a pointless waste of energy. Leaning against the wall of the truck, he focused on breathing, on saving his strength. He had to be smart. He had to think.

The truck jiggled to a stop. Danny held still, listening to the pounding of his heart in his ears, waiting to find out if they’d reached their destination or were simply at a stoplight. 

The grumble of the engine ceased. He waited, eyes trained on the door. 

There was a creak as the latch was thrown and the door slid open. And in walked something… inhuman. Danny’s eyes widened and he slithered himself backwards as far into the truck trailer as he could. Sharp fear made his breath catch in his lungs.

It was vaguely female-shaped, with glowing acid-green eyes and hair that bled upwards like flame. Its legs moved like it was walking as it moved closer to him, but there was a clear inch of air between the bottom of its feet and the floor of the truck. It was floating.

“Skulker tied the knots,” it said, crouching down less than a foot away. It gave off a cloud of ozone and made the hairs on his arms stand up on end. The sharp smile that cut across its face was as inhuman as Danny could imagine. “Good luck breaking out of them.”

Danny grunted through the thick gag in his mouth and tried to squirm further backwards away from the thing.

“No, no, Babypop. You’re not going anywhere.” The creature reached down to touch his cheek. Its fingers were electric, sending shocks into his face. “You’ve really changed.”

He jerked his head out of her reach as best he could and he glared at it. 

“Oh, there you are.” The sharp edge to its smile faded into something more human. Its green eyes looked… almost sad. “I am sorry for this,” it said, a gentle tone in its voice. “We don’t know why you chose this, but we need you back. We’ve tried everything else.”

Danny shook his head and tugged at the bonds around his hands. His heart was racing in his chest. He grunted a few times around the cloth gag in his mouth.

It reached forwards, sharp claw-like fingers reaching for his chest.

…into his chest? 

Danny screamed at the sight of the arm disappearing into his chest, the frigid-electric feel of the hand digging around near his heart. Tiny shocks of energy sizzled the nerves in his body, making him convulse and shudder. His body, out of his control, fell to the floor of the truck and twitched helplessly. 

The creature pulled its hand back out, holding a little metal box. It studied the box from several angles.

Danny panted, trying to regain control of his body to push further away from this monster. That box was a pacemaker, keeping his heart arrhythmia at bay. He’d gotten it ten years ago, after his parents were murdered. Without it, he was at risk of a heart attack. 

“Axiom labs,” the creature said, pointing at the label, then crushing the metal box in a fist like it was made of paper. “Makes sense, I guess.” 

Body still shuddering with lingering zaps of energy, Danny managed to drag himself two feet further away from the creature. Now all the way in the corner of the truck, he pushed himself up so that he was partially sitting in the corner, propped up by the walls. 

He felt… odd. Light and dizzy. With the stress, his heart was probably already struggling. Bringing his knees up to his chest, he curled as best he could into a ball, shivering and trying to breathe slowly and deeply.

“Danny,” the creature said.

He looked up. It knew his name.

“Say my name.”

Danny shook his head. How would he know its name? He’d never seen a creature like this before.

“‘No’ you can’t, or ‘no’ you won’t?” It stood up, tossing the remains of the crushed box into a corner.

He shook his head again.

Very suddenly, the creature was in front of him, that stench of ozone filling his nose, and Danny jerked backwards, hitting his head against the wall of the truck. His heart leapt into his throat. What was this thing going to do to him next?

It reached out… and removed the gag. “‘No’ you can’t, or ‘no’ you won’t?” it repeated.

“I’ve never met you before,” Danny choked out.

The creature’s shoulders sagged. “That’s unfortunate,” it whispered, “because we really do need you to remember.” It closed its eyes and sat still for a moment, then let out a sharp breath. “Oh, fine,” it hissed, seemingly responding to a question Danny hadn’t heard. “We’ll try it your way.” When it opened its eyes, there was a sharpness to its gaze, and the ozone stench that hung around the creature took on an acidic tone. “There’s more than one way to make someone sing.”

--

I have this file called 'Working Stories' that consists of 2-4 pages of stories I've partially written. The file is like 100 pages long right now, so I've decided to just start uploading the pieces as they are.

This one was a AU version of The Ultimate Enemy, were Vlad helped Danny though his grief in a slightly different way.