More fanfiction from Mark Wooden!
Iron Man and Batman work against the Russian terrorist trying to steal Stark’s civil defense robot.
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Iron Man swung back his left shoulder as the helicopter pilot’s energy beam whizzed by.
“Friday! Is that what I think it is?” Stark asked.
“If you are referring to the Mandroid gauntlet on the assailant’s hand, I can see why you would think so,” the A.I. replied. “However, though it is cosmetically similar, I detect internal differences.”
Stark replied to the pilot’s shot with an energy blast of his own, taking down the pilot. Looking at the fallen man, he said, “Can’t people have normal hands nowadays?”
“Um, excuse me, Mr. Stark,” came yet another unknown voice over Stark’s internal communicator. At least this time it was a woman’s voice. Rather pleasing, too.
“And who might this be?” Stark asked.
“Um, Batgirl,” the unseen woman replied. “I work with Batman.”
“Never would have guessed that,” Stark muttered. He approached the hole in the roof.
“I’ve lost communication with Batman,” Batgirl said. “He was inside the convention center at the stage for your presentation.”
“I’m looking down there now,” Stark replied. “Standby.” To Friday he said, “Mute channel.” After she confirmed the task completed, he asked, “Any chance you can run a trace on this Batgirl’s hack?”
“Already processing,” Friday replied. “However, she has some very sophisticated anti-intrusion measures. Also, she is bouncing her signal through several hubs.”
Stark shrugged within the Iron Man suit. “Doesn’t hurt to try.”
He glanced at the hand cannon guy, this KGBeast. The Russian was still down. Stark could hear sirens approaching. The good ol’ GCPD. He wasn’t worried about encountering them.
As a SHIELD-sanctioned public hero who’d saved the world from aliens, he had good relations with most law enforcement.
It worried Stark that the GCPD would stumble into something as bad or worse than the KGBeast and get in trouble.
That in mind, Iron Man dropped into the hole in the convention center roof.
Using his remaining boot rocket and his hand Repulsors, Iron Man floated down to the stage.
His Legionnaire Mark II was still in place, though the unconscious Russian thugs scattered about the robot had tried to hoist it up to the chopper. Batman had put a stop to that —
Batman lay unconscious next to the robot.
“Open the channel to Batgirl,” Stark said. He waited for a second and then said, “Found your bat, Batgirl. Unconscious. Can’t tell from what, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t these thugs.”
“Is he injured?” Batgirl asked.
Stark looked him over with both his normal eyes and an infrared scan from the suit. “Doesn’t appear to be.” Stark paused.
He took a closer look at a section of Batman’s cape. “Looks like someone got the drop on him and tased him. We can fix that.”
“Friday! Adjust Repulsors, lowest setting.”
“Confirmed,” Friday replied.
Iron Man knelt to Batman and placed the palm of his glove against Batman’s back. He fired a low-grade Repulsor blast. Batman lurched. He then sprung up to a standing position, nearly knocking Iron Man backward.
“You recover quickly,” Iron Man said over his external speaker.
“Where is she?” Batman asked. Seeing Iron Man’s confusion, he added, “There was a red-haired woman here. She surprised me.”
“Wouldn’t happen to be the one who tried to blow me out of that alley, would it?” Batgirl asked over Iron Man and Batman’s communicators.
Iron Man saw the close-up image Batgirl had made of the red-haired woman on his heads-up display. “How are you doing this?” he asked.
“That’s her,” Batman growled, obviously not pleased he lost to her.
“Still can’t get SHIELD access to identify her,” Batgirl said, her disappointment evident.
“I can help with that,” Stark said. “Fury isn’t as fun a guy as me. He’d take it the wrong way if you broke into his systems. Like, sending an armored squad kinda way.”
Iron Man looked at Batman, who studied the Mark II.
“Piece of work, isn’t she?” Stark asked.
“Someone, presumably the woman, opened the rear of the robot’s head,” Batman said.
Stark waved him off. “Don’t worry! Only thing in there is the control chip.”
Batman looked to Iron Man. With that stoic expression, Stark couldn’t tell if Batman caught the fact that he was joking.
“Heads up, guys,” Batgirl said. “Someone’s stealing the helicopter.”
“A red-haired woman?” Batman asked though they all knew the answer.
“Friday,” Stark began. “Give me back that sat feed of the roof.” The satellite image appeared in his HUD. “She’s taking the KGBeast with her,” Stark said.
Batman drew his grappling gun and fired it at the hole in the roof. Before riding the line up, he turned to Iron Man.
“Find out what you can on this woman,” Batman said. “We know she’s ex-KGB but traced her to SHIELD. Also, get your suit repaired. You’re no use to us otherwise.”
“And when I find something?” Iron Man asked.
“I know how to contact you.”
Batman pressed a button on his grapple gun and rode the line up. He was quickly out the hole and onto the roof, out of sight.
“Mr. Stark, I just wanted to say it’s an honor working with you,” Batgirl said.
“You work with Batman,” Stark replied.
“I know, and that’s great too, but… you’re a legend in the tech world!”
“Yet you still managed to hack me. Bravo, little lady.” Something occurred to Stark. “Wait. You are of age, right? Not some teenager like that Robin kid Batman used to hang with.”
“Old enough, yes,” Batgirl replied. “Wait… are you…?”
“Gotham police are entering the building, sir,” Friday cut in.
“Another time, Batgirl,” Stark said. “Friday, mute the channel. And while you’re at it, scramble your neural net to block another hack.”
“Do you not trust Batman and his assistant?” Friday asked.
“The Bat family seems nice, but it’s a matter of professional pride.”
To be continued…
While writing this fanfiction, I used Green Ronin’s Mutants and Masterminds, 3rd Edition RPG, to leave some things to chance. Check it out!
Like this fanfiction? Check out Mark’s original “Shadowdance” saga books!
Copyright Info
DC Adventures, Copyright 2011, Green Ronin Publishing; Author Steve Kenson.
Advanced Player’s Manual, Copyright 2005, Green Ronin Publishing: Author Skip Williams.
The characters Iron Man, Tony Stark, Pepper Potts, Vanko, Black Widow and Nick Fury are Copyright Marvel Comics
The characters Batman/ Bruce Wayne, Batgirl/ Barbara Gordon, Black Mask, the Penguin/ Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot, Renee Montoya, Commissioner Gordon, Alfred Pennyworth, Robin/ Dick Grayson, KGBeast and Bane are Copyright DC Comics
The character Juri Han is Copyright Capcom
None of the characters belong to me as this is fanfiction, done for fun, and as a creative exercise.
