"So this is for real..." Tony said as the three of them stared at the news covered on Gibbs' small television in the basement. "What I'm seeing in my head. I'm not crazy. Well, I guess...maybe that'd depend on how you look at it... But I'm not just...delusional. Right?" he looked to his colleagues who were now looking at him.
"This is..." McGee began. "Well, I was gonna say crazy, but I guess that's maybe not the right choice of wording."
"Guess maybe you weren't too far off with what you were talkin' about in the car," Gibbs said. "About the super powers."
"Well this isn't very awesome," Tony commented. "Do you know how painful the visions are? If it hadn't just saved Tim's life, it wouldn't have been worth it at all..."
"But it did. You did," Gibbs told him.
"I don't mind suffering, if it helps my friends," Tony said. "But McGee wouldn't have been in danger if it wasn't for me, in the first place."
"First off," Tim said, "You shouldn't have to suffer for your friends. Secondly, I put myself in danger by freaking out. That's not your fault."
"But you were freaking out about me."
"I should've called you," Gibbs chimed in. "And when I didn't, I should've had my phone off silent. So in reality, we're all to blame. Point is, Tony, this is something you can use to your advantage. It beats the alternative of having that stuff that spilled on you simply be the acid."
"You do have a point," Tony replied.
"Thought I gotta say, I don't like what happens to you when you have those visions."
"I can definitely agree with you there, Boss," Tony said. "But what if someone finds out about this? Finds out about what I can do?"
"The nurses at Bethesda aren't gonna talk," Tim told them. "I'm lucky one of them recognized me enough to tell me at least that you'd been discharged."
"Don't have to tell anyone what you can do," Gibbs said. "Not like it's obvious what's goin' on, anyway."
"What if there's other things?" Tony asked. "Like ya know...like Plastic Man?"
"Guess we'll have to lay low for a while. Far as everyone outside the hospital knows, you're still suffering from life-threatening burns. You name was never mentioned on the news. No one knows where to look for you. If something else happens, we'll find it out here."
"Guys?" McGee shyly butted into the conversation. "I have something I need to tell you..." Both agents turned to look at McGee. "I um..." he took a breath then let it out. "When I was still going to MIT, I was attacked. Actually, more like I witnessed an attack and intervened. Tried to, anyway. But the guy...the suspect, it was like... Well, it was like he had some kind of superhuman ability."
"What?" Tony raised a brow. "Are...are you messing with me right now?"
"No, Tony. Would you just listen? It's important."
"Does it have anything to do with what happened to Tony?" Gibbs asked.
"Possibly. It's too much of a coincidence not to." Gibbs nodded for him to continue. "Anyway, this guy's ability to maneuver around was like watching an animated movie. It was really strange. And his strength... Well, I know I'm not the strongest guy around, but this guy pressed his victim into the wall so hard, there was an indentation. It was a brick wall...
"So anyway, I built this program, after trying unsuccessfully to track him down, that would sniff him out. Any suspicious activity that fell into the parameters of something this guy could do. But it was like he just fell off the Earth. I knew he hadn't, though. So I built the program to be more intense and more nationwide. I set it up on property my family owns but doesn't use. It's in an old camper that my parents used to take us on camping trips when we were kids in. The entire camper houses servers and equipment necessary to run the program continuously.
"This morning I got a message from it."
"You got a message from your program?" Tony asked.
"It's rigged to work as a communications system when it requires my input, or if it should ever locate the assailant the program was created to find. It had found a possible suspect weeks ago, but never informed me because it hadn't met a specific number of requirements. But then...then this incident with the tanker caused it to contact me for another reason."
"I don't understand," Tony shook his head.
"Camper discovered the suspect was conducting experiments with an unknown chemical compound called Contingency. It's negative affects on lab rats caused him and his team to believe that it was a bad brew, apparently. They mixed it with sulfuric acid for the transport of the compound to be disposed of. The rest, of course, you already know. It never reached its destination. But you were exposed to enough of it that its caused some kind of reaction."
"How long did you know about this?" Gibbs asked, slightly angrily.
"I swear I had no idea about the program having found a suspect. It just reported to me this morning. All I can tell you now is...we have to make sure he never finds out who you are, Tony..."
TBC...
AN: Y'all have a super awesome amazing Christmas! Don't let family drama get to you and your holiday. It's normal and expected. Be happy and enjoy each other, because life is short and you never know when one of them won't be there next time. ~hugs~