- "Where's Daisy?"
"Abducted. By Nathaniel Malick. He wants to take her power." - ―Phil Coulson and Sibyl[src]
The Kidnapping of Daisy Johnson and Daniel Sousa was an abduction perpetrated by Nathaniel Malick in order to acquire superhuman abilities after he had witnessed Johnson's powers.
Background[]
- "See, the family business... I dabble, but, nothing really spoke to me. Until I met you. Saw what you could do."
- ―Nathaniel Malick to Daisy Johnson[src]
Due to the interference of the Chronicoms in the timeline, both Nathaniel Malick and his father Wilfred Malick survived the chain of events that had led to their deaths in the original timeline. However, despite his father keeping a significant influence within HYDRA as a result, Malick was not interested in the organization's projects such as the hijacking of Project Insight. Yet, in 1973, Malick attended a party held at The Krazy Kanoe to celebrate the project.
During this party, Malick was briefly held hostage by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Daisy Johnson and Daniel Sousa so that they could escape from the Chronicom Hunters who were allies to his father. Upon being taken to the exit, Malick witnessed Johnson using her powers against the Hunters, and was deeply impressed by her abilities. Moreover, since he had recognized Sousa who looked the same than on the day he was supposed to have died, Malick incorrectly concluded that Sousa had a power of longevity. From this point, Malick became obsessed with the idea of getting superhuman abilities for himself.[1]
Kidnapping[]
- "What did you do?"
"Took as much blood and spinal fluid as I thought she could handle, a couple glands. Now I got to synthesize it all and transfuse it to me. Now, I know it's risky, but I want to try new things. If it doesn't work we'll switch from needles to knives." - ―Daniel Sousa and Nathaniel Malick[src]
Three years later, in 1976, the Chronicom Hunters had alerted Nathaniel Malick's father that S.H.I.E.L.D. would attempt to stop the launch of Project Insight, thus making a great opportunity to capture them. Armed with a Chronicom Rifle, Malick was instructed to search for the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who were trying to infiltrate into the Lighthouse where the launch was supposed to take place. Malick found Daisy Johnson and Daniel Sousa as they were hacking into the Lighthouse's surveillance systems, and incapacitated them both with his rifle. He then loaded them in a van and sought to contact Daniel Whitehall, as he knew about Whitehall's theory about surgically transfer superhuman abilities from one body to another.[1]
Nathaniel Malick confronts his prisoners
Malick took Johnson and Sousa, who he had drugged to prevent them from using any kind of power, to a remote barn he had set up for his experiments. As his prisoners slowly regained consciousness, he explained that he had not interest in HYDRA and that he desired to steal their superhuman abilities for himself: Johnson's power of vibration manipulation, and the longevity he thought that Sousa had. He taunted Johnson into using her powers on him, and as she turned out to be unable to do so, he ordered Ron and another of his men to take her to an operation room he had put in place.
Nathaniel Malick operates on Daisy Johnson
Therefore, in a recreation of what had happened to Johnson's mother at the hands of Daniel Whitehall in the original timeline, Johnson was heavily operated on by Malick, who extracted large quantities of blood and spinal fluid, as well as some glands, in order to acquire enough biological material from Johnson containing her DNA so that he could obtain her powers by recreating it inside his own body. Malick then ordered Johnson to be brought back to the room where Sousa was locked up.
Daniel Sousa keeps Daisy Johnson conscious
Sousa went to great lengths to make sure that she would not die of exhaustion, telling her about the day he lost his leg, and kept Johnson conscious long enough to reveal that she had managed to steal a glass shard she gave to Sousa so that he could break free. As a result, when Malick's subordinate returned into the room and prepared to take Sousa away, Sousa was able to attack him with the glass shard and killed him. He then retrieved the key of their handcuffs and cut free both Johnson and himself.
As he prepared to leave by carrying the unconscious Johnson in his arms, Sousa realized that the place was shaking. Indeed, Malick had successfully transferred Johnson's Inhuman powers into his own body, but struggled to control it. As a result, part of the barn's roof collapsed on Malick, thus enabling Sousa and Johnson to escape and regain the safety of the Zephyr One.[2]
Aftermath[]
- "Nice quake. I'd give it a B. B-plus. Definitely room for improvement. If you haven't done the math, I've had these powers a lot longer than you have."
- ―Nathaniel Malick to Daisy Johnson[src]
As a direct consequence of the abduction of Daisy Johnson, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Melinda May and Phil Coulson found themselves unable to progress through the Lighthouse as they relied on Johnson to open the various checkpoints on their way. As a result, they decided to reach out to General Rick Stoner, a high-ranking S.H.I.E.L.D. officer who led Project Insight without being aware of its infiltration by HYDRA. However, Stoner did not believe their story and would have ordered their arrest had May not knocked him unconscious.[1]
Daisy Johnson is placed in a Healing Pod
Having managed to escape from Nathaniel Malick, Daniel Sousa was able to bring Johnson back to the Zephyr One, where she was placed in a Healing Pod under supervision from Jemma Simmons. Although he had previously expressed the wish to remain in the past, Sousa decided to look after Johnson to help her recover after the ordeal they had been through together and continued following the S.H.I.E.L.D. team as they traveled through time.[2] Johnson's stay in the Healing Pod later proved to be instrumental in helping S.H.I.E.L.D. escape from a time storm.[3]
During the time when Jiaying was sheltered in the Lighthouse, Johnson explained to Sousa that her mother in the original timeline had undergone a similar brutal surgery at the hands of Daniel Whitehall, which had changed her forever in the worst way possible. Sousa thus encouraged Johnson to interact with this alternate version of her mother in order to have a chance to know her as she originally was.[4]
Although he initially struggled to control his newly acquired powers, Malick spent the following years training to get better control of them, and eventually became highly proficient in using them as powerful weapons, for example using them to shatter Kora's weapon before she could kill herself,[5] and later to snap Jiaying's neck in front of Johnson. Malick even claimed to be better than Johnson, the original wielder of this power, since he had practiced them longer than her, and was shown being able to swirl his concussive blasts, whereas Johnson only fired them in straight lines.[4]