Danny's fingers flew over the super expensive new Stark tablet he had managed to persuade his family to buy for him on his last birthday. It was a fine, fine piece of kit. Danny adored it. He would cheerfully sell all his little sisters (well maybe not Leia, she was a little sweetie) for an upgrade. Apple was no doubt spitting feathers about it. There had been some buzz on the forums about a possible court case. Yeah right good luck with that. Stark was notorious for never backing down from a fight and what PR moron would allow their company to sue Iron Man.
But right now, Stark's beautifully designed tablet was exactly what he needed. His focus was complete. One last audio file to delete and there would be no trace of Stiles, the Sheriff or the other guys, (what had Hale called them again? Not gang, pack, pack is how he had referred to them, the hot scary weirdo) in the AIM system.
The fact that he also deleted any evidence of the Avengers presence was just tough. His mind was already moving at lightning speed to try to work out how to deal with any information that was now held on SHIELD's databases.
SHIELD, for the love of Sanity what the hell was he doing even thinking about hacking SHIELD? If they caught him he would disappear forever. An atavistic shudder ran the length of his spine.
Derek's panic stricken phone call, well panic-stricken was being diplomatic, alright it was totally misleading. It was more a roaring and a raging, dumbfounded silence kind of call.
The dumbfounded silence portion being Danny's part in the unbelievable communication.
The guy had actually growled like some sort of animal. What the actual hell?
Damn Stiles, his cheeky grin, his goddamn big mouth and utterly insane plans.
Damn Jackson for getting himself mixed up in whatever freak carnival show that Hale, McCall and Stilinski had going down.
Damn Hale for stripping off in front of him and seducing Danny from the straight and narrow. Maybe straight wasn't exactly the right word to use, hot damn the abs on that man. Man, Manuel, yeah Stiles "Manuel", Danny's fine Hawaiian ass!
How the hell had "Manuel" morphed into some sort of special effect reject from that show Supernatural. The guy was actually called Derek Hale. Derek (aka not "Manuel" of the limited vocabulary but hypnotic gorgeous lickable skin) could give Dean Winchester a run for his money in the looks department.
Damn himself for actually watching some of the stuff he had deleted. This shit was not anything he was comfortable knowing about, ever. Jacks was so getting his just deserts at their next lacrosse practice. That's if the idiot was still alive with everything that was going on.
The threatening vicious growl during that call he now knew was of an Alpha Werewolf.
A god damn freaking Werewolf and Hale wasn't the only one. At least it solved the mystery of McCall's miraculous ascension to a demi god of Lacrosse. Cheating fucking cheater. Did the little square jawed bastard even understand how hard Danny had worked to get on and stay on the squad? Danny was first line because he had worked his ass off for it, and not just because he had become an overnight furry parkour superstar. If Jacks had gone and gotten himself turned Danny was going to kick his fine ass.
Just how was this his god damn life?
But the bare bones of the story Derek had told him had pulled Danny away from his studies when Derek had practically ordered him to make sure there was no digital evidence of the pack.
The stuff Danny had removed with prejudice made his hair stand on end. Werewolves man, werewolves. Then the way Hale and his furry crew had dismembered that orange glowy guy nearly made him vomit into this cup tray until Danny figured out who the creep was and what he had tried to do to Stiles. What that evil souless bastard had done to Stiles Mom. Danny had been appalled.
He actually wanted the evil bastard to come good on his word, have that Extremis stuff repair his body so Derek and crew could tear him to bits again and again and again.
Stiles could be an annoying little shit sometimes, most times to be honest, and there were days when he wanted to duct tape the kid's mouth shut to stop the utter drivel that escaped (that insane non conversation about the kid being attractive to gays was a classic case in point) but what those utter bastards had done to him, and previously to his mom made Danny's blood boil. He felt like the Goddess Pele looking down from her Volcano.
As his dear old gran would say with a vengeful smirk, they belonged in Milu's cooking pot feeling the utter agony of being devoured by the Hawaiian Goddess of death.
There was no way that he was going to leave that horrible information anywhere that some other freaking psychotic mad scientist with delusions of godhood and a grudge the size of the grand canyon could get their dirty hands on in order to start in on the kid again.
Also protecting Hale and his fun bunch of fur ball freaks also protected Jackson. Jackson might be a douche-bag idiot but he was Danny's douche-bag idiot, his best friend and no-one was touching Jacks except Danny and his second best Crosse. He damn well wasn't going to use his best one to beat some sense into the idiot with.
How the hell was he going to access SHIELD in the short time span he had left? If he went in like a sledgehammer they would find him and then the pack within hours. Damn it he had no time to be subtle. AIM and its feisty network was dealt with, but he didn't know how much information SHIELD had.
His gut churned with fear (it wasn't excited anticipation, it wasn't. He had learned his lesson when the Judge had sealed his juvenile court records and his furious Dad had sent him to camp out with his Uncles in the Kiholo State Park Reserve on the Big Island. No internet for three months and no running water. Yeah he had learnt his lesson. He was not going to get caught again)
Danny came to the unwilling conclusion that right now, he would have to leave it and not touch SHIELD. It would have to wait until he had a chance to work with his more specialist equipment set up in the reinforced secure panic room at home. The one he had been using as a den since he had hit puberty as a parental sanctioned way to avoid his numerous nuisance little sisters.
His brain was racing through scenarios when he was unexpectedly distracted from his anxious thoughts by the most gorgeous voice he had ever heard in his life.
"I must congratulate you Mr Mahealani, you have indeed wiped all evidence of your young lycanthropic friends from the facility's databases. A most impressive achievement based on the firewalls and intricate level of security set up by AIM. Please do not worry about the SHIELD systems. There has been an unfortunate malfunction in their mainframe and all reference to Master Stiles and his young friends has somehow regrettably been erased. However I feel I must inform you that I have already uploaded all the relevant data onto Mr Stark's private servers, and no, despite your commendable level of skill and your very real determination to protect your friends, you will not be able to access them."
The calm British voice was almost apologetic at the end of his little speech but Danny would swear the guy was laughing silently at him.
Danny's brown eyes widened and his mouth dropped open in shock. He swung round on instinct even though he knew he was alone in his own damn car. He drew a deep breath "Who the hell are you?" Danny almost stuttered. He could feel anxiety in his gut. The silence that followed his question seemed to reinforce the impression of amusement but the guy was still calm as he answered.
"I work for Mr Stark Mr Mahealani, you have nothing to fear. I have also erased any trace that would lead back to you, although there was impressively little. You have a gift Mr Mahealani and I would be happy to bring you to Mr Stark's attention. He is always appreciative of true talent."
Danny was convinced the guy was making fun of him. Bring him to Tony Stark's attention? What the hell? Tony Stark? The guy might be involved in Stiles's life right now, and wasn't that a shocker, but still Tony freaking Stark?
Damn him and his sexy British voice. Danny wasn't distracted enough not to notice that said sexy voice hadn't given him a name. He scowled. Danny would not be side-tracked.
"Mr Mahealani is my Dad, my name is Danny" he found himself blurting out, when he really should have been deflecting the guy from his activities and trying to find out how he knew what was going on and how the hell he was actually speaking to Danny at all.
"Seriously Daniel real smooth, you are so off your game with this one", he muttered under his breath. God Danny Mahealani didn't fumble his words like an embarrassed kid, he had always been the epitome of cool. He had moves, man. His moves had moves. He had so many moves he didn't need to … move. Possibly too much use of one idiom there Danny boy but he knew what he meant.
Daniel Mahealani did not need to chase anyone. He only had to smile and he was surrounded. He didn't strut like Jackson. Danny had never needed to. So what was the matter with him? He was never tongue tied in a social situation. What the hell was this mysterious stranger with the exotic masculine voice doing to him?
That damn voice was hitting all his buttons. The admiring tone when he congratulated him on his hacking skills had Danny's toes curving involuntarily.
Damn who knew he had a praise kink when it was uttered in a delicious Brit accent.
He drew a deep breath. "Look Mr…" he tried to utter calmly, convinced that the guy would automatically respond to the open question. Danny was well aware most people couldn't resist giving him something to call them. But the wait for the voice to respond seemed to take forever and the guy still wasn't offering a name just waited patiently for Danny to continue. Danny was going to deny everything but he could almost feel the amused smug satisfaction pouring off the guy. He frowned again. The guy's reaction to him was unsettling to say the least.
"How do I know I can trust you when you won't even give me your name?" he demanded instead and felt a bit of that smug satisfaction when the guy cleared his throat in surprise. Ha! Take that sexy mysterious British stranger with no name.
"Maybe I should just call you Manuel. That seems to be the favoured alias for sexy strangers these days." Danny muttered quietly while he waited for a response.
He blushed bright red when the guy responded. Well shit the guy had heard him. Damn it he was behaving like a typical teenager. He'd be tongue tied next.
"You think I am sexy Mr Mahealani?" Surprise and even more evident amusement filtered through that damn fine voice.
A different but famously familiar voice suddenly resounded through the car. Tony Stark. Even though Danny knew there was no one else in the car with him, he still swung his head round to check anyway. Tony Stark?
"JARVIS, notify Pepper I will be staying longer. And rearrange any meetings." Danny heard the voice respond promptly then silence surged softly back as the connection was cut.
Damn it, the guy had used his Stark pad to speak to him. Danny nearly face palmed at the light bulb moment. He must have really been distracted by that beautiful voice for him not to realise before.
Then Danny realised something else. Something much more important.
He smiled with wicked satisfaction and cracked his knuckles. He had a name now. There couldn't be that many people with the surname Jarvis who worked for Tony Stark. He was going to track the guy down and ask him to dinner.
No one resisted Danny Mahealani for long.