He just wanted to catch the guy and call it a night. Get some peace and quiet for once. He didn’t remember the last time he’d had a night off. Not since his girlfriend Vanessa left Olympus City. That was weeks ago and Danny didn’t even miss her. She’d been right to leave him. She didn’t know he was secretly Zeus, that he’d become an Elemental a year ago, but she still understood that he was nothing but trouble for everyone who loved him.
ß
“Your mother was one of the victims caught in the explosion,” Lieutenant Liu said. “Coincidence or was Thanatos targeting you?”
Danny contemplated the question. Oh it had all been planned, to the minute, to the very last detail. Thanatos had known he was Zeus, he’d witnessed Danny’s rebirth, he’dcausedit. And it had become so much more personal after that, for both of them, even though to this day Danny didn’t know the man’s real name.
Thanatos enjoyed watching Danny suffer, but the final straw had been to take more loved ones away from him.
“Coincidence,” Danny said, “of course. Thanatos was too focused on Zeus to care about me.”
Liu studied him closely, revealing nothing in the thin line of her lips before she spoke. “The names of Thanatos’s victims that night were never released to the public, but the officers here know. Some wonder if you have more of a connection to Thanatos and Zeus than you let on.”
“People wonder a lot of things.”
“Thanatos was your case. Your partner and your mother were killed. A good detective might guess that you know Zeus personally. Or that, maybe…you are Zeus. Or Thanatos himself.”
Danny clenched his fists beneath the table. He knew she was just doing her job, trying to wheedle out a confession if there was one to tell. But she didn’t really believe he was Zeus or Thanatos. No one did.
“I’m Lightningleaning,” he said with a simple gesture at his yellow eyes, “just like you, Lieutenant, not an Elemental. And Thanatos’s element was Dark. I couldn’t be either of them. As for some other connection, what more do you need than that I was on the case, I couldn’t let it go after Rick’s death, and Mom being there that day was just bad luck. Sometimes a coincidence really is just a coincidence.”
Liu nodded thoughtfully as she glanced down at her notes. “They never found Thanatos. Some think he might still be out there, waiting for an opportunity to return.”
Danny trembled at the thought that still haunted his dreams—that Thanatos would reappear someday from out of the darkness to seek his vengeance.
“At the very least you blame Thanatos for your partner’s death, but also your mother’s. Maybe you blame Zeus too. Plenty of people say the victims that day were at riskbecauseof therivalry between them. Maybe you hate Zeus,” she said with an almost dismissive tilt of her head.
Danny hated himself all right. But he wasn’t the only one at fault.
“Zeus did everything he could,” he said. “He would have succeeded in saving those people if he’d had help. He wassupposedto have help. If anyone besides Thanatos is to blame for those people dying, for mymotherdying, it isn’t Zeus.” He centered his gaze on Liu’s yellow eyes, so similar to his own. “It’s Malcolm Cho for not showing up like he promised.”
ß
Danny stifled a curse as he rolled to his feet inside the…factory? He couldn’t be sure. It was nearly pitch black inside. Pitch black for him, against an enemy with night vision.
Feeling outward with his hands, Danny walked slowly into what felt like an expansive room. Charging up his powers to light the way would only pinpoint his location, if Camo didn’t already know.
He tried to strafe the areas he pointed his chest at to give Lynn the opportunity to pick up any readings. Since he couldn’t see anything, he closed his eyes and focused on what he could hear. Scuffling feet…to his left!
Danny swung—but hit nothing. Turning to face that direction, he listened for Lynn to give him any cues, but nothing came over the comms either.
Breathing…right!
Danny swung again—still nothing. Once more, he turned to face where Camo had been, waiting, hoping…
Feet knocked out from under him, Danny went down, flat on his face, smashing his nose into the concrete floor. Broken, bleeding—he’d have to reset it for it to heal right. He hated resetting bones.
Then, finally, Camo made an error in judgment and moved to pin Danny to the floor with his foot, only Danny had already rolled over and caught the man’s ankle in his grasp. Yanking downward, he felt Camo falter, tumble, and hit the ground on his back with an oomph.
Danny scrambled to get a better hold of him, but Camo righted himself and started to crawl away.No, no, no…He felt so foolish grappling with a man in the dark, but damn it—damn it—he was not going home empty-handed tonight. Not again. Not another night with absolutely nothing to show for everything he put into this, everything he gave of himself to be Zeus, everyone who had been sacrificed sohecould live and protect this city.
Feeling when Camo reached a wall and tried to clamber to his feet, Danny got to his feet first, keeping the Elemental pinned and unsteady as he whirled him around and slammed him hard into the wall. Unable to see anything but the faint shimmer from Camo’s suit, Danny reared his arm back for a swift punch to end this.
Another shock coursed through him. It was weaker than the first, but it still hurt, and Danny was done, justdone. Tightening the grip of his left hand on Camo’s suit, he fueled every ounce of anger he had into his punch.
The crack of Camo’s nose breaking as Danny’s had was gratifying, vindicating.
The second punch made the man moan in pain. But he was still conscious.
