Tony unlocked his door to his apartment and walked in, it took all his strength to persuade Gibbs not to go with him make sure he got there okay. He knew it was just because he cared, even if Gibbs denied every word of it, but sometimes it just got annoying. Flopping down on the couch he thought about what had happened to him that day, almost everything that could go wrong did. His powers were exposed, he could hardly control them now, he almost hurt the people he cared about most and to top it all of, the entire world now knew what he was.
He rubbed his face and closed his eyes for a few seconds trying to get everything in order. After a minute or so he realized he wouldn't be able to do this and reached for the remote on the coffee table in front of him and propped his feet up on it. Aimlessly he surfed several channels finding nothing, he sighed and let his hand fall looking next to the TV he saw his wide collection of movies. Getting up he walked over to them and randomly picked one out, he didn't even look at the title. He changed the channel so he could put the movie in and seconds before he placed it in he saw what was on the TV. It was the news he turned it up slightly and listened to the woman talking.
"- the mutants have gotten together and begun a protest. We're not sure if a riot will break out or not but by the looks of it one just might." Tony scoffed, just by looking at them he could tell they didn't want to riot. "More and more mutants seem to be coming out and exposing themselves for this event. They seem to be demanding respect and wanting to be treated like, as they put it, humans."
Tony scoffed and viciously turned off the TV and threw the remote down on the couch next to him and got up. Suddenly this whole mutant issue seemed to have gotten worse just because he was exposed and it really sucked. Tony ran his hand threw his hair and let out a long sigh. He couldn't just brush this 'problem' off to the side anymore, he was part of the problem now. He was one of them, he always knew he was but he had never really accepted it.
Lost in his thoughts he absently walked over to the thermometer and turned the temperature in the room up. It was already at seventy five degrees. Suddenly realizing what he was doing her looked up and saw he had raised it up to eighty degrees. Frustrated he punched the thermometer and smashed it to pieces and cracked the wall.
"Dammit!" He yelled realizing that it was not smart to punch hard, solid objects. He went to his kitchen and ran his hand under cold water he could see stem rise up but he closed his eyes and ignored it.
Cursing himself Tony felt tears well up in his eyes but he managed to suppress them. He tried to calm himself, he couldn't afford to get all worked up and start burning things now. When he dried off his hand he walked over to the small balcony in his apartment, he put his arms on the railing and rested his head on them, hiding any tears that would sneak though.
Back at the office Gibbs and just come back and when he walked up to the office his team looked up at him expectantly. He walked right by not giving them one glance, he grabbed a cup of coffee and went over to the elevator. When the doors closed to take him down to the morgue the team all exchanged glances.
"How do you think Tony's doing?" McGee asked looking at Kate and Abby, who hadn't gone back down to her lab yet.
"I really can't say the idiot brushes everything off so quickly it's hard to tell what really bothers him and what doesn't." Kate said sighing. "But… this has to, if this doesn't bother him he's crazier then we thought."
"But he'll be fine right? I mean he's Tony. He's pulled though with everything." Abby said trying to be hopeful that everything would still turn out perfectly fine.
"God, Abby, I hope you're right." Kate said and rested her head on her desk.
"She is… I know she is." McGee said tapping his foot and looking nervous. "Soon he'll be back and everything will be back to the way it was. Tony can't break."
Kate ran her hand though her dark and sighed one again. She was so worried about him, he didn't know how worried about him she was. She knew Tony was strong, he was the strongest out of all of them, even giving Gibbs a run for his money. But… was he strong enough for this? This was something none of them had prepared for, something that none of them would ever think could happen.
"Kate."
She looked up to see Abby standing there smiling. "Don't worry about him, he'll be fine and soon he will be back with us… and with you." She added quietly, he smiling growing larger and she winked.
Kate raised her eyebrows at Abby's words and her expression. She clearly gave Abby a look that said 'you're delusional'.
Tony was still on his balcony looking up at the sky, for a second he could have sworn he had seen something, or someone, flying through the sky. He quickly brushed it off as a bird after a few seconds.
Walking back into his home he sat back down on the couch and sighed, suddenly a knock was heard on the door. Tony furrowed his brow and got up to look though the peep hole. If it was Gibbs or another one of his co-workers he was going to be mad. But when he looked though he saw a man maybe a little bit younger then himself, he had well groomed blond hair and blue eyes. He seemed to be fixing his trench coat and moving his shoulders around uncomfortably.
Tony shrugged and opened the door a few inches. "What?" He asked a little rudely but he wasn't really in the mood for strangers popping by his home.
"Oh, um, you Anthony DiNozzo?" He asked a little uncomfortably.
"Who's asking?"
"Warren Worthington, this is gonna sound a little crazy but I was sent to talk to you."
"About what?"
"Well it seems that, oh man how am I gonna explain this…?" he asked himself quietly. "Um, well when the Professor picked you up you seemed really, really, frustrated and mad."
Tony was just confused now, was someone watching him? Warren must have noticed this because he spoke up.
"Look I know this is crazy, I know this is just really insane but he told me to come because we have similar pasts I guess. He told me just to talk to you cause when he picked you up ya seemed in real bad shape. I'll explain it all just give me a chance at this."
Tony sighed, he couldn't believe he was about to do this, he quietly took the gun he kept on his desk next to the door and slipped it under his shirt and in his pocket. He unhooked the chain on his door and opened it all the way letting him in.
"Thank you." Warren said as he stepped in and let out a sigh of relief. "Really thank you, I was worried you wouldn't let me in."
"That would've been the smart thing to do." Tony said.
"Yeah well, I guess I really should start explaining."
"Would be smart."
"Okay, well to be blunt and to shove aside any question I know you're a mutant."
"Pretty much the whole world does now." Tony said in a monotone.
"Yeah, I saw the news and I really am sorry. I kinda know what it's like to be exposed over the news like that." Warren said.
"What would you know about exposure?" Tony asked a little acidly.
"Well I know it sucks," Warren said. "And I would really consider you lucky with what you got."
"Yeah I really am the lucky one." He said sarcastically.
"You just gotta accept it, man, when I first got my powers I hated them, I really, really, did and they manifested in boarding school and that certainly didn't help me any. But then there was a fire in the dorm, I was able to save my dorm mates. But then of course I didn't leave the school but the point is if I didn't accept my powers they probably would have died."
"As touching as that is I'm not in boarding school and the chances are I probably would have started the fire."
"Please just work with me here," Warren said trying to remain calm. "This is hard for both of us."
"How is it hard for you? You're not at risk to lose your job, home, everything in your life because of this!" Tony yelled.
"I did lose everything!" Warren yelled back and it shut Tony up immediately, Warren took a few calming breaths before speaking again. "When I left boarding school I went home, my parents didn't know what I was. they just thought I came home because I wanted to. I was a teen idol, I had everything, money, looks, girls, I was on the cover of every teen magazine there was! But when I was eighteen I was staying at my parents estate while they were away rumor was leaking out that I was a mutant. I denied it dozens of times, but one day I heard something out my window I got up and looked, there was a mob of anti-mutant freaks with a burning X out on my front lawn. They burned my house down and had a gun at my head when the Professor came and got me the hell outta there, so yeah I know about bad times. But it's not gonna stay bad."
Tony was quiet; he wasn't expecting that at all. "Well, um, that was not expected. Heh, I guess you've had it a lot worse then me."
"We've all had it bad, hell go talk to any mutant you can find none of them have a happy story. Well I know a few who do but that's just because they're weird, but none the less even them have had it rough. It just can't be avoided"
Tony smiled. "Wanna know something weird? This, I'm taking about this big problem to someone I just met five minutes ago."
"Yeah I'll agree with you on that one, like I said the only reason I am here is because Professor Xavier said we had a few things in common. Although the only one I can think of is that we both come from wealth."
"And apparently we are both acquainted with fire." Tony said and warren laughed.
"Yes I suppose we are."
"So um, just out of curiosity, w – what's your mutation?" Tony asked.
Warren smiled and nodded. "I was expecting this one," he said and shrugged off his trench coat revealing large white wings on his back. "And I get the full bird deal, hallow bones, body accustomed to high altitudes and speeds… and not to brag but a twenty foot wing span."
"Yeah that's something every guy wants." Tony said admiring the wings.
"Well it should be cause I love these things." Warren placed his coat on the rack by the door before turning back to Tony. "So word around is you're all fire, eh? How's that one work?"
"Hell if I knew, all I know is I can't get mad anymore." Tony said shrugging.
"Ah, you'll get the hang of it. It's really just a matter of concentration… But I do have one more question, why is it that now we're hearing all this stuff? I mean why didn't all happen when you were a kid?"
"Oh it did, but my father wasn't to happy about it… I kinda suppressed it until I guess it just got sick of sitting there in the closet and decided to pop out all over again, kinda sucked."
"I'm sure, do something for me."
Tony shrugged and nodded, it couldn't be that bad.
"Try and make fire, right now. I was told when I came down here to try and help ya get a hold of this thing so try and make fire. Can ya do that, man?"
"Oh… I don't know if I can. Literally I don't know if I can make fire or not."
"Yes you can, Professor said you made fire and set your boss on fire, so I know you can."
Tony glared for a second. "But I still don't know how I did it."
"That's why I'm saying to try."
Tony rolled his eyes and sighed. "Okay fine I'll try." He took a breath and let it out slowly as he concentrated. He held you the hand he used to burn Gibbs and tried to make the fire appear in his hand. After what seemed like hours he opened his eyes. "I can't do – holy shit!" He said and shook his hand which was supporting a ball of flames.
"See told ya, ya could!" Warren said smiling. "Didn't even get a chance to tell ya, ya opened your eyes and you were all 'what the hell'."
"Hey think I could use that on my resume now?" Tony asked and Warren chuckled.
"Okay now we have that over with, wasn't exactly looking forward to playing teacher, um, I guess I really have nothing more to do. I really should be heading back anyway, we're having a lot of problems with Magneto."
"Who's that?" Tony asked.
Warren looked back up at him. "Evil son of a bitch who thinks mutants are superior to humans and that we should rise up and stuff. But he's just giving us some more trouble. With all the new mutants manifesting and running away he's trying to recruit them over to his side before we get to them and have them attend the school. But just in case ya see any mutant run aways give us a good word, will ya?" Warren asked shrugging his shoulders into his coat.
"Um, sure, wait what's the name of the place?" Tony asked realizing Warren had never said.
"Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters." Warren said before he closed the door behind him.
Tony looked at the door for a second before turning away and looking out the window catching a glimpse of what he now knew to be Warren flying away. Thinking about what he said that every mutant has hard times, and that it couldn't be avoided. Smirking Tony got up and walked over to the den. He held his hand out and focused all his energy on the fire. After a minute or so a small amount of flames appeared and the more he concentrated the bigger it got. When it was about the size of his head he grinned even more.
"Oh yeah, I think I'm gonna like this."
AN: Yay! Warren, I chose him because I like him. I really do not think he gets enough time in the movies/cartoons. I mean he's one of the original X-Men for cryin' out loud! But I'm not going to rant. Um, if any of you are wondering I got the story about how Xavier found Warren from 'Children of the Atom' it's a great read. Also his age, I didn't know how old to make him so I figured in his mid - late twenties. And to explain a few things yes I know Morrow was Director at the time Kate was there but to be blunt I can't write him for my life and I like Jen better. Besides I wanted the possibility of a little Gibbs/Jen at some point but that's still if I feel like putting it in. And about the key thing this may just be my family being paranoid but we all have extra car keys (except me cuz I have no car) in there desks at work or where ever ya know? It's like a curse that we get locked out of our cars. So yeah Thanks for the reviews I love them all I never thought this story would get so popular.
And this uber long chapter was to make up for the fact I couldn't update fot almost three weeks.