The Amazing Danno, Part 1
Title: The Amazing Danno, Part 1
Author:
kae_kae
Rating: PG
Characters Involved: Steve, Danny, Chin, Kono, Jenna, Max, OCs
Word Count: 8,923
Summary: This time Danny has superpowers. The rest of Five-0 has to save the day.
Notes: This is a direct sequel to The Fantastic Five-0, which I wrote way back in the summer for the
h50_flashfic AU challenge. It’s probably a good idea to go read that one first before you tackle this one, although I did try to make this one make sense for new readers as well.
This one was written for The Morning After challenge at
h50_flashfic (even though this takes place not exactly the morning after the first story but a couple days later). Very much AU, especially after the premiere of season 2.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
---
The first day Danny called in sick Steve barely gave it a second thought. After all, his partner had been half-dead less than a month ago, then cured using science he didn’t quite understand. It was a lot for a guy to go through. He probably just needed a day.
The second day Danny called in sick Steve couldn’t think about anything else. After all, his partner had been half-dead less than a month ago, then cured using science he didn’t quite understand. That left a lot of room for something to go horribly, horribly wrong. But still, if Danny was in that bad shape, he’d tell them. Steve’s pretty sure of it.
Steve drove out to Danny’s apartment on the third day he called out. In his worry he may have barged in instead of waiting for Danny to answer his first knock. That might have involved kicking in the door.
Danny bounced upright so fast it looked like his mattress was a trampoline. Steve gave him a quick assessment - other than the dark circles under his eyes Danny looked ok. No blood from where his wound had completely healed, good color, eyes wide but tracking Steve’s movements as he took a step into the room. Steve let out the breath he didn’t even realize he was holding.
“What the hell is WRONG with you?” Danny screamed, clearly not appreciating how ok he was in comparison to the picture Steve had created in his mind. “You couldn’t knock? You couldn’t use a phone? You had to destroy my door?” His frustration grew as his feet tangled in the sheets as he fought to get out of his sofa bed.
“You called in sick.” Steve said simply.
“Yeah, I know I called in sick.” Danny shoved Steve to the side and ran his hand along the broken frame, inspecting the damage. “You know, normal people might have brought soup. Chicken noodle, maybe vegetable. But you? No, you kick in my door. What was the next step in that plan? Overturn my bed?”
Steve frowned. Sure, he probably shouldn’t have splintered the door in panic, but couldn’t Danny give it a rest already? “If you were sick enough, I was going to take you to the hospital.”
Danny raised his glare to meet Steve’s eyes. “I don’t need to go to the hospital Steve. I’m just taking a couple days off. I’m entitled to them. Go back to work already.”
“Ok.” And with that, Steve pulled the door closed as best as he could (it was only polite, despite what Danny said he did have manners) and walked back out to his truck. It was only when he pulled open the driver’s side door that he realized he didn’t actually want to go back to HQ. That wasn’t his idea. It was Danny’s.
When Steve made it back to the door, Danny was waiting for him, leaning against the shattered doorframe. He looked just as surprised as Steve felt.
Steve had no idea how, no idea why, but at least one thing was obvious. “So… Super Danno?”
“Call me that again and I’ll make you eat your teeth.” Danny’s immediate sigh told Steve his heart wasn’t in it. More than anything Danny just looked worn out.
---
“You shouldn’t have kicked in his door, brah.” Chin looked up at him, his expression reminding him of one his dad would give him whenever Steve did something impulsive when he was a kid. It’s possible Chin had even picked it up from working with his dad. He swallowed hard around the lump that still popped up out of nowhere when something about his dad broadsided him.
“I’ll pay for the door, ok?” Steve snapped back, probably angrier than he needed to be. Chin, for his part, backed off, and Steve quickly changed the subject.
“How did this happen?” he asked Jenna. Jenna, former agent of the National Agency of Metahuman Affairs that she was, had been the obvious choice to look Danny over. Her face was scrunched in concentration, her eyes squinting behind thick black frames. From where Steve was standing it didn’t look like she’d found all that much.
“Probably from Charon’s Stone,” Jenna said as she took off her glasses. “They did crush the stone in order to inject part of it straight into his blood stream.”
“Which saved my life, right, but we can’t forget that it gave all of you superpowers before that, so yeah. That makes sense,” Danny’s eyes rolled into his head. “Well, as much as any of this makes sense. Which it doesn’t. But why now? Nothing for three weeks, now this?”
“What exactly can you do?” Kono jumped in. “I mean, other than boss the Boss around.”
Danny shrugged. “Pick a day. Sunday I could move furniture. Monday the furniture stayed on the ground, but I figured out that I could heat things up with the touch of my hand. Tuesday instead of heat it was ice. Today I can apparently tell Steve to leave, and he actually listens-“
Steve found himself frowning at that. “I listen,” he argued.
Danny plowed on, ignoring him. “And I can kinda hear things that I’m pretty sure are thoughts and not sentences spoken aloud. Tomorrow maybe I’ll be able to control the TV by blinking my eyes. Who knows?”
“So you’d be a human remote control,” Kono asked, making a face.
“Missing the point, Kono,” Danny snapped at her. “I don’t want superfreak powers!”
“Metahuman,” Jenna corrected immediately as she flipped through an old worn manual with a blue NAMA logo on the front. “I don’t know what to suggest here. I mean, it’s obviously a side effect from Charon’s Stone. There’s no way to tell if it’ll get better or if it’ll get worse.”
“Or if it’ll stay the same,” Steve interjected.
“Have you been listening?” Danny asked. “It hasn’t been the same from day to day, babe. If you’re not going to add something useful, don’t add anything at all.”
“Ok,” Steve agreed simply, his mind immediately trying to come up with something helpful for Danny, but not coming up with much. He clamped his mouth shut.
Danny realized his mistake and sighed. “Sorry. Say whatever you want.” He huffed a small laugh, although the situation was obviously not that funny. “Whoever figured that you’d listen to me when I bossed you around?”
“I do listen,” Steve argued for the second time, only to be ignored once again.
Jenna made a face. She looked like she’d been sucking on a lemon. “I’ll call Dr. Venaski. Maybe he’ll know what’s going on.”
“See if he can make a house call,” Danny insisted. “I’d rather not jet across the Pacific if I don’t have to. Long flight, and I’m not too keen on ending up stuck in LA like a lab rat.”
“Sure thing. I bet if you talk to him, he’ll agree to whatever you want, Danny,” Jenna smiled.
“You know, not a bad idea. Give me that phone.”
---
“They’ve been in there for over an hour,” Steve said as he paced next to the computer table in the office. He’d been trained to wait, to hold still during the worst of times. However, there was no need to stay still here. It felt better to move, gave him something to do with the worry and nervous energy he felt. Jenna was right; there was no telling if this could get worse for Danny.
“You want Dr. Venaski to be thorough, brah,” Chin answered, patient and calm as ever.
The four of them turned, not for the first time, to check on how it was going in Danny’s office. Dr. Venaski was wearing a NAMA Neural Defense Cap in order to get through Danny’s examination without being derailed by Danny’s own flippant orders. Earlier, Venaski was using some sort of scope that Steve hadn’t recognized. Now the two were simply sitting and talking. The frown on Danny’s face didn’t look promising.
“What do you think he’s telling Danny? “ Kono asked, turning away from the office to face the rest of Five-0.
Jenna shrugged. “I can’t see Dr. Venaski’s face. But whatever it is, Danny’s obviously not too happy about it.”
“Obviously,” Chin muttered. “Maybe they want him to go back to LA? Danny already said he doesn’t want to go.”
“Or they want him to register with NAMA,” Steve replied. Everyone turned to face him.
“If he registers with NAMA, then he has to report to wherever they place him,” Jenna stated. “That why you refused to register yourself or Chin or Kono.”
“And Danny’s not going to do it either,” Steve answered. There was no way that he would let it happen. Danny couldn’t leave Grace, couldn’t leave the team. Couldn’t leave him, but that wasn’t something he was outright acknowledging. “He’s not going anywhere.”
Through the glass window, Danny’s eyes met with Steve’s, and he gave Steve a small nod. Oh, right. Danny can read minds today.
At least they were on the same page. Danny wasn’t going anywhere.
---
“What happened to not leaving?” Steve forced his voice to remain calm and steady when he was feeling anything but. Danny wasn’t supposed to agree to go back to LA for testing. They had made a silent deal through the window.
The rest of the team had made themselves suddenly scarce once Danny had announced he was leaving with Dr. Venaski for a couple days. They’d taken one look at Steve’s face, and suddenly Kono remembered she was supposed to pick up lunch for the team, Chin had a phone call to make, and Jenna decided to go check in on a case file from HPD.
Danny, for his part, seemed unfazed by Steve’s silent anger, simply turning to go back into his office. Steve followed, ready to continue. He opened his mouth to give Danny a direct order that he was not leaving, was that clear, when something hit his chest. By reflexes alone he stopped it from hitting the ground. He stared at the cap in his hands, then glared up at Danny.
“Put it on, or we’re not having this conversation. I’m not winning this fight by cheating.” Danny crossed his arms.
Steve immediately put the cap on, only realizing that once it was on that he’d done it under Danny’s orders. He probably had a point about Steve wearing it. “You’re not winning this fight anyway. You’re not going.”
“See, that right there? That is where you’re wrong. I am going.” Danny went behind his desk to shut down his computer. “You do not get a say in that.”
“But you weren’t going to agree, you gave me the nod.”
“You’re holding me to a contract from a nod?” Danny looked back up at Steve, eyes somewhere between completely aggravated and highly amused. “I gave you the nod because I did agree, Steven. I’m not registering with them.” Danny came around from the other side of the desk to stand in front of Steve. “Look, I’m going so they can figure out how to undo it. I don’t want powers, thank you very much. Didn’t exactly work out so well for you three, did it?”
Steve frowned a bit at that. It did actually work out for them, for the most part. The only thing that hadn’t worked out so well was when they went up against Donovan the Destroyer and his telepathic powers. But that was still a touchy subject with Danny, so he let it go. “But what if they don’t figure it out? If they can’t undo it, then they’ll make you register. You’ll be in their territory-“
“What, behind enemy lines?” Danny snapped. “Steve, they are not the bad guys. You get that right? I wouldn’t even be breathing if they didn’t crush up a moon rock and shoot it into me.”
“I know.” Steve’s words hung heavy between them.
Danny rubbed at his eyes, and again Steve noticed how exhausted he looked. “Look, it’ll only be for a few days. Venaski thinks he has something that’ll work, and hey this is the guy who decided to inject me with the crap in the first place. He’s a moon rock medical expert, since there is apparently such a thing. Once I’m cleared of all this metahuman junk, I will be back to yell at you and make sure you’re not breaking more civil liberty laws than are absolutely necessary. Ok?”
‘No, it’s not ok, there has to be a better idea than this’ Steve thought. But he put on his best diplomatic smile, the one that Danny swore he didn’t actually have. “Sure, Danno. But I’m only giving you a week.”
Danny rolled his eyes. “If you come into the NAMA hospital with guns, I’m telling everybody you’re a psycho supervillian, you hear me McGarrett?”
Steve felt his smile shift into something more genuine. He tried to ignore the warning bells going off in his head. Danny was right. They weren’t the bad guys.
---
Danny left after lunch, accepting hugs all around and reassuring everyone that he’d be fine and back to normal soon enough. He swore he’d call when they landed.
Afternoon gave way to evening. Evening turned into night. The team sat in the conference room, waiting to hear from Danny while picking at take-out. With each passing hour, each ticking minute, Steve’s uneasy grew exponentially. His instincts were telling him that there was something off, something wrong with this whole situation. All of it made logical sense, sure. If Danny needed medical attention, NAMA had the facilities to do it. But-
Steve stood up suddenly. “NAMA flights are faster than commercial flights. Any plane would’ve made it there by now.”
Chin sat up, looking straight at Steve. “He might’ve been swept up in everything when they landed, brah. Maybe he hasn’t had a chance to call yet.” Something in Chin’s eyes told Steve he didn’t really believe what he’d just said. Chin was worried too.
“Can’t we just call and see if they’ve landed?” Kono asked, turning to Jenna.
“I can try,” Jenna offered. “I mean, they could be held up-“
“Call.” Steve’s voice left no room for argument. Jenna took out her phone and dialed.
“This is former Agent Jenna Kaye. Yes, sir. I know, sir. Yes, but I need to be connected to Medical Research, please. Dr. Venaski should have arrived with a patient-“ Jenna sucked in a sharp breath, raising her eyes to meet Steve’s.
“Put it on speaker,” Steve ordered, feeling his gut twist. He knew it, he never should have let Danny leave.
Jenna hit a few buttons on her phone and put it on the table. “Would you please repeat that?”
The voice on the phone sounded annoyed. “I said Dr. Venaski never came back with any patient, former Agent Kaye. And there is no reason that you should be-“
Steve gritted his teeth. Of course she called him. “Do you have any way to track Dr. Venaski?” Steve interrupted.
The man on the other end made a noise that sounded to Steve like he was choking. “Am I on speakerphone? Who the hell is that?”
“This is Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett-“
“Oh, even better. How’s civilian life for you, McGarrett?”
“I’m not a civilian,” Steve snapped back.
“Wait, who is this guy?” Kono asked. She and Chin looked between Steve and Jenna, obviously confused.
“Marshall Kregg,” Jenna supplied, looking sheepish under Steve’s murderous glare. “He’s one of the Directors of NAMA, and my former boss.”
“Is that the rest of McGarrett’s Five-0 team?” Kregg asked, sounding more and more angry with each passing minute. “You all lost your metahuman abilities, so I hardly expected to have to have another conversation with you, McGarrett. And when I fired you Kaye-“
“One of my team’s missing,” Steve interrupted again. He didn’t have time for this; they didn’t have time for this. Not when they had no idea where Danny was. “Dr. Venaski was here earlier to check up on Danny.”
“The one we saved with Charon’s Stone?” Finally, Kregg sounded interested in what was going on. “Why?”
“He started showing signs of metahuman abilities, sir,” Jenna answered. “Dr. Venaski flew out to Hawaii this morning to check on him. He suggested Danny fly out to LA with him for treatment.”
The sounds of shuffling of papers and the clicking of keys on a keyboard carried over the phone line. “Dr. Venaski left for personal reasons this afternoon, said he’d be gone for the rest of the week. He didn’t file that he was going to see an incoming patient. Or that he was bringing anyone back to LA.”
“Then where’s Danny?” Kono asked. No one had an answer for her.
“Sounds like you have a problem with your personnel there, Director,” Steve said through gritted teeth. He pushed as much venom into his voice as he could manage.
“As I am noticing, Commander,” Kregg retorted. “We will track Venaski and give you an update on your man-“
“Not good enough,” Steve cut in.
“You don’t get a say, nor do you get a part in this McGarrett. This is a NAMA security issue-“
“Danny’s a part of my team, you are not cutting us out of this-“ Steve started, but the flashing phone signaled that Kregg had ended the call.
The room remained deathly quiet. Kono, Chin, and Jenna all turned to Steve.
Finally, it was Chin who broke the silence. “What do you want to do, Steve?”
“Kono, I want you to run Venaski’s phone records. Chin, see what you can find on this guy. Anything. Jenna, analyze the video of the meeting in Danny’s office. See if you can pick anything out.”
“Why am I not surprised there’s video footage from our offices?” Jenna asked.
“What’re you going to do, Boss?” Kono asked carefully.
“I’m going to go ask for a favor.”
---
“You want me to give you information about the National Agency of Metahuman Affairs?” Max blinked at Steve from behind his glasses, folding his hands neatly in front of him. Steve would have chalked it up to luck that Max was still working at this hour, but Steve had a sneaking suspicion that Max might have lived at the lab. “And why, McGarrett, do you believe that I have such information to provide to you?”
“You have a certificate from them behind your desk.” Steve pointed behind Max’s head. “And I looked in your file. You worked with NAMA for two years before you transferred to Hawaii. What does a Medical Examiner have to do with NAMA?”
“I’m not comfortable sharing with you-“
“Max!” Steve slammed his fast into Max’s desk, causing pens and papers to stutter across it. “I don’t have time to mess around. I know who they are, I know what they do. You know that already. Now, what did you do for them?”
“There is no need to physically intimidate me, McGarrett.” Normally, Steve might have felt a pang of guilt at making Max cower back from his own desk, but right now he had bigger priorities than his conscience. Max cleared his throat. “I was a Medical Examiner for two years in Los Angeles for NAMA.
“I know that, Max, I just said all that. Why does NAMA need an ME?”
Max adjusted his jacket, straightening himself in his chair and regaining his composure. “Yes, well, metahumans die just as regular humans do. My job was to perform autopsies for the deceased metahumans that were brought through my office.”
Steve nodded. That actually made sense. “Ok. Do you know anything about Charles Venaski and Marshall Kregg.”
“The head researcher of Metahuman Development Research and the Director?”
Steve frowned. “Wait. Metahuman Development Research? Venaski works in the medical lab.”
“While I was at NAMA, Dr. Venaski worked with Metahuman Development Research, or MDR as most people referred to it,” Max explained. “MDR is a very controversial branch of NAMA. Many consider it unethical to turn normal human beings into metahumans purposely using scientific methods. They also worry about what would happen if such scientific advances fell into the wrong hands. On the other hand, others consider it extremely useful, especially those who are also interested in using metahumans in war as human weaponry.”
That was a thought that was kind of horrifying, yet made perfect sense all at the same time. Steve shook it off, although he figured it’d come back up in his thoughts later. “So if Venaski was head researcher for MDR, why is he now working in the medical lab? That seems like a demotion.”
“I do not know for sure, since I no longer work there,” Max answered. “However, I had heard that after I took my leave from NAMA, funding to MDR was cut significantly. Many of the researchers were moved to different departments.”
Steve sat back in his chair, letting the pieces fall together. Dr. Venaski had been the one to suggest that they crush Charon’s Stone into a powder in order to inject it directly into Danny’s bloodstream. Venaski had flown out to Hawaii to check once he heard that Danny had developed powers. He’d convinced Danny to go with him when Danny hadn’t had any plans to go anywhere.
“Venaski planned this from the start,” Steve said out loud. “Venaski knew what would happen to Danny when he gave him the stone. He turned Danny on purpose. And he took Danny.”
“Detective Williams is missing?” Max asked. “You failed to mention that when you arrived at my office.”
“Yeah, Max, Danny’s missing,” Steve stood up, feeling just as frustrated and lost as when he walked in, even with the information Max had been able to give.
Max stood as well. “Perhaps I can help.”
Steve narrowed his eyes at Max. “How?”
“I still have contact with some of former colleagues at NAMA. I left on amicable terms,” Max sat back down and picked up his phone. “One of them works in the Technology Division. She could perhaps look into Dr. Venaski’s notes and research. If I remember correctly, she was not on good terms with Dr. Venaski herself.”
“Thanks Max. I owe you one.”
“I will call once I have some answers for you, McGarrett,” Max called after Steve as he rushed out of the office.
---
“Charles Venaski’s file only goes up to his time in NAMA. All of his records after that are under lockdown, and I couldn’t get to them.” Chin hit a few keys on the computer table, sliding a picture of him up to the screen with what looked like a university file. “Most of his background is in genetic research, not medicine.”
Steve nodded. “That matches with what Max said about his research. But it’s a dead end. I don’t have the clearance to look at that file, and Kregg’s not going to help us out.”
Chin gave Steve a side-long glance. “You could’ve played nicer with him, you know. The first time around.”
Chin was right, of course, Steve knew that on some level. The relationship between Steve and the Director of NAMA hadn’t exactly started on a positive note, with Steve refusing to fly his team out to LA to register as metahumans. The conversation had dissolved into a full blown argument within minutes, neither of them willing to give ground, both of them pulling rank that meant nothing to the other. Jenna had disconnected the call midway through to try to stop Steve from making what she had told him was a huge mistake. Steve had snapped back at her that the only mistake he could make was to separate his team, and he wasn’t about to do it because some former Army Ranger ordered him to.
“Doesn’t matter now,” Steve answered, turning away from Chin. Chin had been the only other person besides Jenna that had known about Kregg, and about Steve’s feelings about the man. “Jenna, anything from the video?”
“Nothing there,” Jenna answered. “It was completely wiped. Venaski must have scrambled it somehow. I tried looking into the other video to see how he did it, but we’re missing everything from the time he entered the office to when he left. He might have had something on his person that messed with it.”
“Dead end number two,” Steve grunted. “Kono, tell me you have something.”
“Oh yeah.” Kono brought up Venaski’s phone records. “His work cell is blocked by NAMA, so I couldn’t get a hold of those calls at all. They keep their stuff locked up tight. But apparently Venaski has a private cell that he never registered with NAMA, and I was able to get the records for that. Venaski made several calls to a local number here in Hawaii.”
Finally there was a lead he could physically follow. Steve could already feel himself itching to take off. “Who was he calling?”
“Akoni Kaeo,” Kono answered. “He’s a local researcher at the university.”
“Let’s go see why Venaski was calling him.”
---
Part 2
Author:
kae_kae
Rating: PG
Characters Involved: Steve, Danny, Chin, Kono, Jenna, Max, OCs
Word Count: 8,923
Summary: This time Danny has superpowers. The rest of Five-0 has to save the day.
Notes: This is a direct sequel to The Fantastic Five-0, which I wrote way back in the summer for the
h50_flashfic AU challenge. It’s probably a good idea to go read that one first before you tackle this one, although I did try to make this one make sense for new readers as well.
This one was written for The Morning After challenge at
h50_flashfic (even though this takes place not exactly the morning after the first story but a couple days later). Very much AU, especially after the premiere of season 2.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
---
The first day Danny called in sick Steve barely gave it a second thought. After all, his partner had been half-dead less than a month ago, then cured using science he didn’t quite understand. It was a lot for a guy to go through. He probably just needed a day.
The second day Danny called in sick Steve couldn’t think about anything else. After all, his partner had been half-dead less than a month ago, then cured using science he didn’t quite understand. That left a lot of room for something to go horribly, horribly wrong. But still, if Danny was in that bad shape, he’d tell them. Steve’s pretty sure of it.
Steve drove out to Danny’s apartment on the third day he called out. In his worry he may have barged in instead of waiting for Danny to answer his first knock. That might have involved kicking in the door.
Danny bounced upright so fast it looked like his mattress was a trampoline. Steve gave him a quick assessment - other than the dark circles under his eyes Danny looked ok. No blood from where his wound had completely healed, good color, eyes wide but tracking Steve’s movements as he took a step into the room. Steve let out the breath he didn’t even realize he was holding.
“What the hell is WRONG with you?” Danny screamed, clearly not appreciating how ok he was in comparison to the picture Steve had created in his mind. “You couldn’t knock? You couldn’t use a phone? You had to destroy my door?” His frustration grew as his feet tangled in the sheets as he fought to get out of his sofa bed.
“You called in sick.” Steve said simply.
“Yeah, I know I called in sick.” Danny shoved Steve to the side and ran his hand along the broken frame, inspecting the damage. “You know, normal people might have brought soup. Chicken noodle, maybe vegetable. But you? No, you kick in my door. What was the next step in that plan? Overturn my bed?”
Steve frowned. Sure, he probably shouldn’t have splintered the door in panic, but couldn’t Danny give it a rest already? “If you were sick enough, I was going to take you to the hospital.”
Danny raised his glare to meet Steve’s eyes. “I don’t need to go to the hospital Steve. I’m just taking a couple days off. I’m entitled to them. Go back to work already.”
“Ok.” And with that, Steve pulled the door closed as best as he could (it was only polite, despite what Danny said he did have manners) and walked back out to his truck. It was only when he pulled open the driver’s side door that he realized he didn’t actually want to go back to HQ. That wasn’t his idea. It was Danny’s.
When Steve made it back to the door, Danny was waiting for him, leaning against the shattered doorframe. He looked just as surprised as Steve felt.
Steve had no idea how, no idea why, but at least one thing was obvious. “So… Super Danno?”
“Call me that again and I’ll make you eat your teeth.” Danny’s immediate sigh told Steve his heart wasn’t in it. More than anything Danny just looked worn out.
---
“You shouldn’t have kicked in his door, brah.” Chin looked up at him, his expression reminding him of one his dad would give him whenever Steve did something impulsive when he was a kid. It’s possible Chin had even picked it up from working with his dad. He swallowed hard around the lump that still popped up out of nowhere when something about his dad broadsided him.
“I’ll pay for the door, ok?” Steve snapped back, probably angrier than he needed to be. Chin, for his part, backed off, and Steve quickly changed the subject.
“How did this happen?” he asked Jenna. Jenna, former agent of the National Agency of Metahuman Affairs that she was, had been the obvious choice to look Danny over. Her face was scrunched in concentration, her eyes squinting behind thick black frames. From where Steve was standing it didn’t look like she’d found all that much.
“Probably from Charon’s Stone,” Jenna said as she took off her glasses. “They did crush the stone in order to inject part of it straight into his blood stream.”
“Which saved my life, right, but we can’t forget that it gave all of you superpowers before that, so yeah. That makes sense,” Danny’s eyes rolled into his head. “Well, as much as any of this makes sense. Which it doesn’t. But why now? Nothing for three weeks, now this?”
“What exactly can you do?” Kono jumped in. “I mean, other than boss the Boss around.”
Danny shrugged. “Pick a day. Sunday I could move furniture. Monday the furniture stayed on the ground, but I figured out that I could heat things up with the touch of my hand. Tuesday instead of heat it was ice. Today I can apparently tell Steve to leave, and he actually listens-“
Steve found himself frowning at that. “I listen,” he argued.
Danny plowed on, ignoring him. “And I can kinda hear things that I’m pretty sure are thoughts and not sentences spoken aloud. Tomorrow maybe I’ll be able to control the TV by blinking my eyes. Who knows?”
“So you’d be a human remote control,” Kono asked, making a face.
“Missing the point, Kono,” Danny snapped at her. “I don’t want superfreak powers!”
“Metahuman,” Jenna corrected immediately as she flipped through an old worn manual with a blue NAMA logo on the front. “I don’t know what to suggest here. I mean, it’s obviously a side effect from Charon’s Stone. There’s no way to tell if it’ll get better or if it’ll get worse.”
“Or if it’ll stay the same,” Steve interjected.
“Have you been listening?” Danny asked. “It hasn’t been the same from day to day, babe. If you’re not going to add something useful, don’t add anything at all.”
“Ok,” Steve agreed simply, his mind immediately trying to come up with something helpful for Danny, but not coming up with much. He clamped his mouth shut.
Danny realized his mistake and sighed. “Sorry. Say whatever you want.” He huffed a small laugh, although the situation was obviously not that funny. “Whoever figured that you’d listen to me when I bossed you around?”
“I do listen,” Steve argued for the second time, only to be ignored once again.
Jenna made a face. She looked like she’d been sucking on a lemon. “I’ll call Dr. Venaski. Maybe he’ll know what’s going on.”
“See if he can make a house call,” Danny insisted. “I’d rather not jet across the Pacific if I don’t have to. Long flight, and I’m not too keen on ending up stuck in LA like a lab rat.”
“Sure thing. I bet if you talk to him, he’ll agree to whatever you want, Danny,” Jenna smiled.
“You know, not a bad idea. Give me that phone.”
---
“They’ve been in there for over an hour,” Steve said as he paced next to the computer table in the office. He’d been trained to wait, to hold still during the worst of times. However, there was no need to stay still here. It felt better to move, gave him something to do with the worry and nervous energy he felt. Jenna was right; there was no telling if this could get worse for Danny.
“You want Dr. Venaski to be thorough, brah,” Chin answered, patient and calm as ever.
The four of them turned, not for the first time, to check on how it was going in Danny’s office. Dr. Venaski was wearing a NAMA Neural Defense Cap in order to get through Danny’s examination without being derailed by Danny’s own flippant orders. Earlier, Venaski was using some sort of scope that Steve hadn’t recognized. Now the two were simply sitting and talking. The frown on Danny’s face didn’t look promising.
“What do you think he’s telling Danny? “ Kono asked, turning away from the office to face the rest of Five-0.
Jenna shrugged. “I can’t see Dr. Venaski’s face. But whatever it is, Danny’s obviously not too happy about it.”
“Obviously,” Chin muttered. “Maybe they want him to go back to LA? Danny already said he doesn’t want to go.”
“Or they want him to register with NAMA,” Steve replied. Everyone turned to face him.
“If he registers with NAMA, then he has to report to wherever they place him,” Jenna stated. “That why you refused to register yourself or Chin or Kono.”
“And Danny’s not going to do it either,” Steve answered. There was no way that he would let it happen. Danny couldn’t leave Grace, couldn’t leave the team. Couldn’t leave him, but that wasn’t something he was outright acknowledging. “He’s not going anywhere.”
Through the glass window, Danny’s eyes met with Steve’s, and he gave Steve a small nod. Oh, right. Danny can read minds today.
At least they were on the same page. Danny wasn’t going anywhere.
---
“What happened to not leaving?” Steve forced his voice to remain calm and steady when he was feeling anything but. Danny wasn’t supposed to agree to go back to LA for testing. They had made a silent deal through the window.
The rest of the team had made themselves suddenly scarce once Danny had announced he was leaving with Dr. Venaski for a couple days. They’d taken one look at Steve’s face, and suddenly Kono remembered she was supposed to pick up lunch for the team, Chin had a phone call to make, and Jenna decided to go check in on a case file from HPD.
Danny, for his part, seemed unfazed by Steve’s silent anger, simply turning to go back into his office. Steve followed, ready to continue. He opened his mouth to give Danny a direct order that he was not leaving, was that clear, when something hit his chest. By reflexes alone he stopped it from hitting the ground. He stared at the cap in his hands, then glared up at Danny.
“Put it on, or we’re not having this conversation. I’m not winning this fight by cheating.” Danny crossed his arms.
Steve immediately put the cap on, only realizing that once it was on that he’d done it under Danny’s orders. He probably had a point about Steve wearing it. “You’re not winning this fight anyway. You’re not going.”
“See, that right there? That is where you’re wrong. I am going.” Danny went behind his desk to shut down his computer. “You do not get a say in that.”
“But you weren’t going to agree, you gave me the nod.”
“You’re holding me to a contract from a nod?” Danny looked back up at Steve, eyes somewhere between completely aggravated and highly amused. “I gave you the nod because I did agree, Steven. I’m not registering with them.” Danny came around from the other side of the desk to stand in front of Steve. “Look, I’m going so they can figure out how to undo it. I don’t want powers, thank you very much. Didn’t exactly work out so well for you three, did it?”
Steve frowned a bit at that. It did actually work out for them, for the most part. The only thing that hadn’t worked out so well was when they went up against Donovan the Destroyer and his telepathic powers. But that was still a touchy subject with Danny, so he let it go. “But what if they don’t figure it out? If they can’t undo it, then they’ll make you register. You’ll be in their territory-“
“What, behind enemy lines?” Danny snapped. “Steve, they are not the bad guys. You get that right? I wouldn’t even be breathing if they didn’t crush up a moon rock and shoot it into me.”
“I know.” Steve’s words hung heavy between them.
Danny rubbed at his eyes, and again Steve noticed how exhausted he looked. “Look, it’ll only be for a few days. Venaski thinks he has something that’ll work, and hey this is the guy who decided to inject me with the crap in the first place. He’s a moon rock medical expert, since there is apparently such a thing. Once I’m cleared of all this metahuman junk, I will be back to yell at you and make sure you’re not breaking more civil liberty laws than are absolutely necessary. Ok?”
‘No, it’s not ok, there has to be a better idea than this’ Steve thought. But he put on his best diplomatic smile, the one that Danny swore he didn’t actually have. “Sure, Danno. But I’m only giving you a week.”
Danny rolled his eyes. “If you come into the NAMA hospital with guns, I’m telling everybody you’re a psycho supervillian, you hear me McGarrett?”
Steve felt his smile shift into something more genuine. He tried to ignore the warning bells going off in his head. Danny was right. They weren’t the bad guys.
---
Danny left after lunch, accepting hugs all around and reassuring everyone that he’d be fine and back to normal soon enough. He swore he’d call when they landed.
Afternoon gave way to evening. Evening turned into night. The team sat in the conference room, waiting to hear from Danny while picking at take-out. With each passing hour, each ticking minute, Steve’s uneasy grew exponentially. His instincts were telling him that there was something off, something wrong with this whole situation. All of it made logical sense, sure. If Danny needed medical attention, NAMA had the facilities to do it. But-
Steve stood up suddenly. “NAMA flights are faster than commercial flights. Any plane would’ve made it there by now.”
Chin sat up, looking straight at Steve. “He might’ve been swept up in everything when they landed, brah. Maybe he hasn’t had a chance to call yet.” Something in Chin’s eyes told Steve he didn’t really believe what he’d just said. Chin was worried too.
“Can’t we just call and see if they’ve landed?” Kono asked, turning to Jenna.
“I can try,” Jenna offered. “I mean, they could be held up-“
“Call.” Steve’s voice left no room for argument. Jenna took out her phone and dialed.
“This is former Agent Jenna Kaye. Yes, sir. I know, sir. Yes, but I need to be connected to Medical Research, please. Dr. Venaski should have arrived with a patient-“ Jenna sucked in a sharp breath, raising her eyes to meet Steve’s.
“Put it on speaker,” Steve ordered, feeling his gut twist. He knew it, he never should have let Danny leave.
Jenna hit a few buttons on her phone and put it on the table. “Would you please repeat that?”
The voice on the phone sounded annoyed. “I said Dr. Venaski never came back with any patient, former Agent Kaye. And there is no reason that you should be-“
Steve gritted his teeth. Of course she called him. “Do you have any way to track Dr. Venaski?” Steve interrupted.
The man on the other end made a noise that sounded to Steve like he was choking. “Am I on speakerphone? Who the hell is that?”
“This is Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett-“
“Oh, even better. How’s civilian life for you, McGarrett?”
“I’m not a civilian,” Steve snapped back.
“Wait, who is this guy?” Kono asked. She and Chin looked between Steve and Jenna, obviously confused.
“Marshall Kregg,” Jenna supplied, looking sheepish under Steve’s murderous glare. “He’s one of the Directors of NAMA, and my former boss.”
“Is that the rest of McGarrett’s Five-0 team?” Kregg asked, sounding more and more angry with each passing minute. “You all lost your metahuman abilities, so I hardly expected to have to have another conversation with you, McGarrett. And when I fired you Kaye-“
“One of my team’s missing,” Steve interrupted again. He didn’t have time for this; they didn’t have time for this. Not when they had no idea where Danny was. “Dr. Venaski was here earlier to check up on Danny.”
“The one we saved with Charon’s Stone?” Finally, Kregg sounded interested in what was going on. “Why?”
“He started showing signs of metahuman abilities, sir,” Jenna answered. “Dr. Venaski flew out to Hawaii this morning to check on him. He suggested Danny fly out to LA with him for treatment.”
The sounds of shuffling of papers and the clicking of keys on a keyboard carried over the phone line. “Dr. Venaski left for personal reasons this afternoon, said he’d be gone for the rest of the week. He didn’t file that he was going to see an incoming patient. Or that he was bringing anyone back to LA.”
“Then where’s Danny?” Kono asked. No one had an answer for her.
“Sounds like you have a problem with your personnel there, Director,” Steve said through gritted teeth. He pushed as much venom into his voice as he could manage.
“As I am noticing, Commander,” Kregg retorted. “We will track Venaski and give you an update on your man-“
“Not good enough,” Steve cut in.
“You don’t get a say, nor do you get a part in this McGarrett. This is a NAMA security issue-“
“Danny’s a part of my team, you are not cutting us out of this-“ Steve started, but the flashing phone signaled that Kregg had ended the call.
The room remained deathly quiet. Kono, Chin, and Jenna all turned to Steve.
Finally, it was Chin who broke the silence. “What do you want to do, Steve?”
“Kono, I want you to run Venaski’s phone records. Chin, see what you can find on this guy. Anything. Jenna, analyze the video of the meeting in Danny’s office. See if you can pick anything out.”
“Why am I not surprised there’s video footage from our offices?” Jenna asked.
“What’re you going to do, Boss?” Kono asked carefully.
“I’m going to go ask for a favor.”
---
“You want me to give you information about the National Agency of Metahuman Affairs?” Max blinked at Steve from behind his glasses, folding his hands neatly in front of him. Steve would have chalked it up to luck that Max was still working at this hour, but Steve had a sneaking suspicion that Max might have lived at the lab. “And why, McGarrett, do you believe that I have such information to provide to you?”
“You have a certificate from them behind your desk.” Steve pointed behind Max’s head. “And I looked in your file. You worked with NAMA for two years before you transferred to Hawaii. What does a Medical Examiner have to do with NAMA?”
“I’m not comfortable sharing with you-“
“Max!” Steve slammed his fast into Max’s desk, causing pens and papers to stutter across it. “I don’t have time to mess around. I know who they are, I know what they do. You know that already. Now, what did you do for them?”
“There is no need to physically intimidate me, McGarrett.” Normally, Steve might have felt a pang of guilt at making Max cower back from his own desk, but right now he had bigger priorities than his conscience. Max cleared his throat. “I was a Medical Examiner for two years in Los Angeles for NAMA.
“I know that, Max, I just said all that. Why does NAMA need an ME?”
Max adjusted his jacket, straightening himself in his chair and regaining his composure. “Yes, well, metahumans die just as regular humans do. My job was to perform autopsies for the deceased metahumans that were brought through my office.”
Steve nodded. That actually made sense. “Ok. Do you know anything about Charles Venaski and Marshall Kregg.”
“The head researcher of Metahuman Development Research and the Director?”
Steve frowned. “Wait. Metahuman Development Research? Venaski works in the medical lab.”
“While I was at NAMA, Dr. Venaski worked with Metahuman Development Research, or MDR as most people referred to it,” Max explained. “MDR is a very controversial branch of NAMA. Many consider it unethical to turn normal human beings into metahumans purposely using scientific methods. They also worry about what would happen if such scientific advances fell into the wrong hands. On the other hand, others consider it extremely useful, especially those who are also interested in using metahumans in war as human weaponry.”
That was a thought that was kind of horrifying, yet made perfect sense all at the same time. Steve shook it off, although he figured it’d come back up in his thoughts later. “So if Venaski was head researcher for MDR, why is he now working in the medical lab? That seems like a demotion.”
“I do not know for sure, since I no longer work there,” Max answered. “However, I had heard that after I took my leave from NAMA, funding to MDR was cut significantly. Many of the researchers were moved to different departments.”
Steve sat back in his chair, letting the pieces fall together. Dr. Venaski had been the one to suggest that they crush Charon’s Stone into a powder in order to inject it directly into Danny’s bloodstream. Venaski had flown out to Hawaii to check once he heard that Danny had developed powers. He’d convinced Danny to go with him when Danny hadn’t had any plans to go anywhere.
“Venaski planned this from the start,” Steve said out loud. “Venaski knew what would happen to Danny when he gave him the stone. He turned Danny on purpose. And he took Danny.”
“Detective Williams is missing?” Max asked. “You failed to mention that when you arrived at my office.”
“Yeah, Max, Danny’s missing,” Steve stood up, feeling just as frustrated and lost as when he walked in, even with the information Max had been able to give.
Max stood as well. “Perhaps I can help.”
Steve narrowed his eyes at Max. “How?”
“I still have contact with some of former colleagues at NAMA. I left on amicable terms,” Max sat back down and picked up his phone. “One of them works in the Technology Division. She could perhaps look into Dr. Venaski’s notes and research. If I remember correctly, she was not on good terms with Dr. Venaski herself.”
“Thanks Max. I owe you one.”
“I will call once I have some answers for you, McGarrett,” Max called after Steve as he rushed out of the office.
---
“Charles Venaski’s file only goes up to his time in NAMA. All of his records after that are under lockdown, and I couldn’t get to them.” Chin hit a few keys on the computer table, sliding a picture of him up to the screen with what looked like a university file. “Most of his background is in genetic research, not medicine.”
Steve nodded. “That matches with what Max said about his research. But it’s a dead end. I don’t have the clearance to look at that file, and Kregg’s not going to help us out.”
Chin gave Steve a side-long glance. “You could’ve played nicer with him, you know. The first time around.”
Chin was right, of course, Steve knew that on some level. The relationship between Steve and the Director of NAMA hadn’t exactly started on a positive note, with Steve refusing to fly his team out to LA to register as metahumans. The conversation had dissolved into a full blown argument within minutes, neither of them willing to give ground, both of them pulling rank that meant nothing to the other. Jenna had disconnected the call midway through to try to stop Steve from making what she had told him was a huge mistake. Steve had snapped back at her that the only mistake he could make was to separate his team, and he wasn’t about to do it because some former Army Ranger ordered him to.
“Doesn’t matter now,” Steve answered, turning away from Chin. Chin had been the only other person besides Jenna that had known about Kregg, and about Steve’s feelings about the man. “Jenna, anything from the video?”
“Nothing there,” Jenna answered. “It was completely wiped. Venaski must have scrambled it somehow. I tried looking into the other video to see how he did it, but we’re missing everything from the time he entered the office to when he left. He might have had something on his person that messed with it.”
“Dead end number two,” Steve grunted. “Kono, tell me you have something.”
“Oh yeah.” Kono brought up Venaski’s phone records. “His work cell is blocked by NAMA, so I couldn’t get a hold of those calls at all. They keep their stuff locked up tight. But apparently Venaski has a private cell that he never registered with NAMA, and I was able to get the records for that. Venaski made several calls to a local number here in Hawaii.”
Finally there was a lead he could physically follow. Steve could already feel himself itching to take off. “Who was he calling?”
“Akoni Kaeo,” Kono answered. “He’s a local researcher at the university.”
“Let’s go see why Venaski was calling him.”
---
Part 2