Disclaimer: Unless you don't recognize them, I don't own them. No money or other profits are being made from this attempt at entertainment.

Sorry for the delay. This chapter proved difficult, plus I've gotten sucked into the Star Trek fandom - it's like a black hole...

Three days after Tony had seen Bruce in his hospital room saw Tony still bothered by their conversation. He'd spent a lot of his time in his hotel room, working on random projects as he stewed over everything that was said, how he should have handled the situation, and exactly what he would say to Bruce when he saw him again. He also managed to squeeze in time for a handful of meetings with various business partners that he didn't often get to see in person.

Late on the afternoon of the third day, Tony and Pepper were riding back to their hotel after one such meeting. Pepper was working on her laptop, while Tony gazed out the window at the passing scenery.

"You know what? Fuck it."

"Tony?" Pepper questioned warily as she looked up from her computer.

Ignoring her, Tony pressed the button that lowered the glass separating them from the driver. "Airport, now."

The driver looked startled for only a moment before he shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever you say, boss."

"Tony…"

"I'm sick of this place," Tony continued, replacing the glass barrier. "It's so damn depressing. Time to head back home."

"But our luggage…"

"We can have the hotel send it. Or we can just buy more when we get back to Malibu. Call the airport and tell them I want my jet ready in fifteen minutes."

"It's thirty minutes to the airport from here, Tony."

"Then they'll be ready for us when we get there."

"Tony…"

Pepper's rejoinder was interrupted by an explosion that rocked the car, bringing their argument to a halt.

"What the fucking hell was that?" Tony asked, peering intently out of the car window. Lowering the privacy barrier again, he asked "Do you have any clue what's going on?"

"No, sir," the driver replied, moving to turn on the radio, "I can check, though."

Immediately the car was filled with a news bulletin, reporting someone called Mister Freeze of all things breaking into a research lab.

"Stop the car," Tony ordered, reaching for the briefcase that held the superlight version of his armor.

"Tony, you can't mean to…"

"Why not? I'm a hero, he's a villain – stopping people like him is kind of my thing now."

"But Batman…"

"Why should he have all the fun? Take her to the airport. I'll meet you there. Toodles!"

"Tony!"

Tony shut the car door in Peppers face and stepped onto the sidewalk. Placing the briefcase down, he activated it and Iron Man was soon racing through the air.

He arrived at the scene of the crime just in time to see Superman tying up several henchmen, using what appeared to be the remains of a nearby bus stop.

Task finished, Superman turned and lifted off, slowly floating up until he hovered next to Iron Man. "Hello again, Mister Stark," he greeted with a polite smile on his face.

Tony could only gawk. "Superman? What the hell? Where's Batman?"

A brief look of discomfort flew across the Kryptonian's face and he straightened slightly, his demeanor becoming less friendly and more business-like. "Batman's otherwise occupied. I'm covering for him at the moment."

"Otherwise occupied? Since when has the Bat let anything occupy him besides Gotham? And how the hell did you convince him to let you 'cover for him' when it came to Gotham?"

"I'm sorry, but that's not something I'm at liberty to discuss."

"Why am I not surprised? Well, since you've obviously got things well in hand, I'm going to continue on my way. If you see Batman, let him know I'll be safely out of his city within the hour."

"Mister Stark, please don't be too upset with Batman. I know he can seem cold at times…"

Tony snorted at what he considered to be a phenomenal understatement. "Don't worry, it's not just Batman. This whole city is on the wrong side of crazy as far as I can tell. I've had nothing but trouble since I got here…"

"Then get out." Batman's low growl came from behind him, and Tony felt his anger impossibly skyrocket even higher at once again being caught unaware by the other hero.

He spun around, missing Superman's expression of shocked disbelief. "What?"

"I said," the Dark Knight replied from his perch on a nearby roof, voice dripping with scorn, "get out. I told you before you're not wanted here. If Gotham is so terrible in your eyes then get out."

"Br… Batman, what are you doing here?" Superman asked incredulously, temporarily interrupting the standoff between the other two.

The Bat's derisive glare moved to the Kryptonian. "Gotham needed me. Where else would I be?"

"But you're… but… you shouldn't be here! I told you I would take care of things."

"I never agreed to let you do so."

"Your stubbornness is going to get you killed some day, B. Come on, let's get you back." Superman moved closer to Batman as if to pick him up. Tony just looked on, not able to believe he was seeing Batman being… chided… treated almost as if he was a misbehaving child.

"That won't be necessary." Batman took a sudden step backwards to avoid Superman's grasp, then gave a low grunt as his upper body seemingly involuntarily started to curl in around his chest for a brief instant before he forced himself to straighten.

It took Tony several moments to realize that the other man was apparently injured and in pain. He was willing to cut himself some slack. In the admittedly brief exposure he'd had to the Batman, he'd come across as completely indestructible. Sure, Tony knew intellectually that the other hero was a "normal" human – or at least without superpower - in his opinion, the Batman was anything but normal.

"Are you alright?" he found himself asking, shocked by the depth of his sudden concern.

Batman's less than pleased gaze shifted from Superman to Tony. "I'm fine," he barked, straightening his posture immediately.

Suddenly Batman threw himself to the side, but not in time to avoid a blue-white blast of energy that wound up hitting his legs as he tried to leap to safety. The beam expanded upon contact, leaving in its wake a layer of ice that cocooned him from the chest down.

Momentum working against him, he started to plummet to the ground several stories below. Tony found himself frozen in place as his mind tried to catch up to what had just happened. As he watched, Batman pulled out some sort of grappling gun and aimed at a nearby building.

Superman was already there, however. He grabbed Batman in his arms while, practically simultaneously, using his heat vision to disarm… a blue-skinned man wearing a fish tank on his head?

Shaking his head, Tony became even more determined to get the hell out of Gotham as soon as possible. He lowered himself to the ground, landing near Superman who, after re-securing the freak who had attacked with a handy street sign, was now de-thawing Batman's legs.

"I thought you'd had taken care of things?" Batman snorted derisively, arms crossed over his chest.

"I did!"

"Obviously."

"Look, B, I'm sorry…"

Disgusted by Superman debasing himself apologizing to such a bastard, Tony decided to cut in. "Well, as much fun as all this was, I have had more than enough. Superman, it was a pleasure. Batman, it wasn't, but I'm fairly certain you're already aware of that."

"You're still heading back to Malibu, then," Superman inquired as the last of the ice fell away from Batman.

"Yep. Obviously, I'm not needed here – Batman clearly has things well in hand."

Batman didn't even look over at Tony, in spite of his not so subtle taunt. Instead, moving with purpose, he stalked over to aquarium head and checked his bonds, going so far as to pull out some sort of cabling from his utility belt and secure the guy's hands behind his back on top of the street sign that Superman had wrapped around him.

Tony shook his head, no longer surprised by Batman's rude behavior. "Later," he called out, waving briefly to Superman as he made his exit.

Just before he got out of his natural hearing range, he heard Superman speak, "Could you have possibly been any more rude, B? Iron Man only wanted to help."

Finding the thought of Batman being scolded like a misbehaving toddler amusing, Tony used the suit to continue listening to the conversation he was leaving behind.

"I'm no babysitter," Batman replied. What sounded like a gun retort had Tony turning back towards the crime scene in time to see Batman swing up onto a roof, Superman following in his wake. With that, he continued his trip to the airport to meet up with Pepper – who by now was undoubtedly ready to track him down and drag him off by the ear.

"Stark is still looking at this as one big game. He only trains when he gets bullied into it by SHIELD. He doesn't study. He came to Gotham completely unprepared – he didn't bother to learn anything about the criminals or general situation before arriving. I'd be surprised if he could even pick the Joker out of a lineup. That's a good way to get killed; you know that."

Tony was more than a little shocked by Batman's apparent knowledge of SHIELD. By Superman's lack of surprise, he was obviously aware of the organization as well. That was more than a little interesting. The rest of Batman's analysis almost had him turning around to give him a piece of his mind. He didn't consider being a hero a game. And so what if he wasn't a gym rat? He didn't need to work out; that's what the suit was for, for fuck's sake!

Behind him, the conversation continued. "Are you sure you're all right? That fall couldn't have been good for your injury."

"I'm fine. You prevented me from having to strain anything too badly." Tony frowned as he recalled that Batman had indeed been injured when he'd shown up. In spite of his terrible attitude, Tony hoped he wasn't too badly hurt. As stubborn as he was, he was likely to get himself killed by pushing himself too hard.

"So how did you get the hospital to release you already? There's no way you're actually healed enough to justify them letting you go."

"You'd think by now you'd realize just how accommodating people can become with the right motivation. Boyscout."

Superman let out a laugh, and Tony – even as his mind began processing this new information, rapidly making sense of hundreds of tells and pieces of conversation which were now all coming together to form one incredible, unbelievable whole – marveled at how at ease he was in dealing with Batman.

"So you bribed them."

"I pointed out how financially beneficial it would be for the hospital to have a billionaire on their side."

Tony came to a sudden stop in midair, though he didn't realize it, too much in shock – though not from Batman's reply, which he had actually expected – but from the epiphany that had just struck him.

"No fucking way."