“What are you grinning at?” Andre asked as Danny walked into the morgue, still staring at his phone and the message from Cho. He hadn’t expected it to be this easy seducing his nemesis. He’d figured he’d wait a few days, see if Cho made the first move, then call if he grew impatient.
Andre sat at the desk in the center of the room where they’d set up a mini lab for him to get CSI work done while moonlighting as Danny’s technician, along with a computer and several tablets to better monitor dispatch around the city. Lynn stood by her station against the wall near the door into the med room, which had a second computer set up to track Danny’s vitals fed through the sensors in his suit. The morgue drawers that once would have held bodies now stored various pieces of equipment and Danny’s costume. They made a good team as civil servants by day and defenders of the city at night.
It helped that getting to their secret lair was as easy as going downstairs from their day jobs and taking a few labyrinthine turns to a locked door no one cared about. That single door led to a series of corridors with many rooms. The main morgue was the largest, down the first hallway amidst the other rooms that were mostly for storage, including the one they’d outfitted to act as their holding cell whenever Danny caught Elementals during the night. Normal human criminals could be dropped off at the precinct steps, but people with powers required more finesse.
“Oh, nothing,” Danny said, pocketing his phone, “just some plans for tonight. I was hoping to skip patrol, if that’s okay with you guys? I’ll still be on call if anything comes up, but it turns out I’m all out of vacation days, so I’m gonna have to get creative for a while.” He pulled on a defeated but accepting smile, which washonestly how he felt, like things weren’t okay, but they weren’t as bad as they’d seemed last night, not with the prospect of seeing Cho later.
It was oddly thrilling. Danny never got one up on anyone. Who better to con than a career criminal, especially when Cho looked like he’d walked out of a male model photoshoot.
“That’s a good idea, Danny,” Lynn said as she approached him from her desk. She squeezed his arm before Andre budged in between them.
“However!” he said. “Quick shop talk before you go. Camouflage’s transfer to the Elemental wing went swimmingly this morning, by the way. You’re welcome.”
“John oversaw everything,” Lynn said with a fuller smile. “Chalk up another collar for your father.”
Danny’s smile twitched.
“Captain Shan might be scary, like scarily intimidating,” Andre held a hand up palm outward to stress his point, “but the guy is pretty cool about ignoring how Zeus basically delivers bad guys like Meals on Wheels through your dad.”
That at least pulled a laugh from Danny. “Hey, as long as Zeus keeps bagging criminals, Shan is more than happy to look the other way concerning the details. And so are his superiors. Did, uhh…” His face fell as he struggled to form his next question, but he hadn’t seen much of his father that day—or the past six months, even though they were both detectives in the same precinct and still lived under the same roof. It had been too difficult to look at his father after his mother’s death. Now the months had stretched on and everything felt awkward. “Did Dad say anything about Camo’s condition?”
A brief silence filled the air.
Eventually, Andre said, “His eyes did that bug out thing they do. You know, with the blowfish face.” He mimicked John to afrightening degree of accuracy as he puffed out his cheeks, put his hands on his hips, and blew the air out slowly.
Danny choked back another laugh.
“We just said it was a tough fight,” Lynn said. “Though, Danny…”
“I know. I should tell him how I’ve been feeling. I’m just always so busy, when I do have time to talk to him it’s usually family night with Stella and Joey.”
Stella had been Danny’s sister ever since his parents adopted her after her family died in a robbery-gone-wrong. His father had worked the case. Danny had already known her from school at the time, both of them in the same fourth grade class. It was an easy transition to love her like family, nurtured for almost two decades.
Joey was different. Danny’s father had been fostering the teenager for the past six months, because the same explosion that took Danny’s mother had also taken Joey’s. His mother had been an engineer at the power station. John and Danny weren’t allowed to work the case, but Stella had ended up as Joey’s social worker.
It all hit so close to home—literally—so it had been a no-brainer to take Joey in rather than send a near-adult into the chaotic throng of the system.
The amazing thing was, Joey didn’t blame Zeus for his mother’s death. He worshipped Zeus, having no idea that his hero was also the man who moped around the house whenever he was home. Joey only blamed Thanatos for his tragedy.
Danny knew the blame was shared.
“I don’t want to bring everyone else down with my problems,” he said. “Joey already thinks I act like the world revolves around me. Admitting I’m falling apart won’t help.”
Lynn and Andre’s matching looks of concern hit Danny like a smack to the face.
“I’m not falling apart,” he said on reflex. “I’m not falling apartright now. I’m okay. Really. If I need to, I’ll talk to Dad and Stella. I promise. Now what else did you have to tell me?”
“Oh! Right!” Andre brightened, dashing over to Lynn’s desk, which was perpetually more organized than his own. Danny followed and his attention was drawn to the glass window he’d nearly shattered last night. They’d have to get it replaced eventually. For now, the crack looked like a jagged scar, symbolizing everything inside of Danny that was broken.
He felt his smile waver as he stared at it but summoned the expression back when Andre held up the black suit they’d taken from Camo.
“I have some ideas about this suit. Our friend Camouflage is no slouch. This thing mimics his natural chameleon abilities like something out of aMetal Gear Solidgame.”
Lynn stepped around Danny to take over. “Since his powers work the same way as an animal that can blend in with its surroundings, it only works on the surface of his skin.”
“Which explains the shaved head,” Danny nodded.
“And the suit,” Andre broke in, “is how he can use his powers to their fullest without having to walk around naked. Which, obviously, fortunate for us, but also unfortunate because…” He let the suit flop back onto the desk.
