In the sky, the full-moon-shaped Batwing activated its stealth and hover modes.
With the Batwing, Batman's movements were even less restricted, no longer confined to New York like before. At this moment, he was sitting impressively in a villa on the California coast, face-to-face with Tony Stark, who was clad in the Mark III suit.
"I'd rather see Peter Parker visiting me than you," Tony Stark said grumpily.
Batman hadn't come through the front door; instead, he had hacked directly into the villa's security system and broken in through the window.
The seaside villa, which Tony thought had no security blind spots, had been broken into three times in two days by S.H.I.E.L.D. and Batman. Moreover, the person sitting opposite him was someone Tony Stark considered a massive threat.
Even though he had spent the night discovering a new element, Tony Stark was currently leaning his face away, even specifically wearing a pair of sunglasses to avoid making eye contact with Batman as much as possible.
Having stayed up all night, Tony Stark was currently sitting at a table by the window, drinking coffee and eating french fries and a burger.
Watching Batman sitting expressionlessly across from him, Tony couldn't help but drag the tray of food closer to himself.
Batman hadn't traveled all the way from New York to California just to watch Tony Stark guard his food.
Looking at the particle accelerator that occupied almost the entire room, the dust and debris visible everywhere, and the signs of palladium poisoning that were nearly spreading to Tony Stark's face, Batman got straight to the point:
"I have something I need to give you."
Seeing that the other party didn't seem to be looking for trouble, Tony Stark's expression improved a lot, though he was still somewhat hostile toward Batman:
"What?"
"A new element. To replace the palladium."
"What??"
Tony Stark couldn't help but pull his sunglasses down a bit, his gaze peering over the rims at the expressionless Batman.
"I have to remind you, J.A.R.V.I.S. is old, and I haven't upgraded him yet. Are you sure that S.H.I.E.L.D. agent won't sneak over?"
Inside a secret room in the villa, Tony Stark took off the Mark III suit and asked Batman while wearing a casual T-shirt.
"He won't." Batman's voice was deep as he took out the sealed diamond-shaped Vibranium isotope from his utility belt.
"Tell me the truth, what is your relationship with Peter? He could convince you to create a new element just to give me a replacement for the palladium?"
Tony Stark looked at the Vibranium isotope with a complex expression, his tone involuntarily softening toward Batman.
"Partners."
Batman remained concise, placing the Vibranium isotope on the table and sliding it toward Tony Stark.
Batman didn't pin the discovery of the new element on Peter Parker.
In the eyes of everyone aware of Batman's existence, Batman was the extremely mysterious guy with a technological ceiling that couldn't be touched.
As for Peter Parker, he was just a young man with better luck, who happened to discover new materials and had some talent for web technology.
Batman knew very well that once he said the Vibranium isotope was discovered by Peter Parker, Tony Stark would reach out to take off his mask within minutes.
Tony Stark would quickly deduce that Batman and Peter Parker were the same person.
"Peter was willing to tell you about my life-threatening situation and ask you to create a new element..."
Tony Stark stopped halfway, feeling something was off:
"Damn it, that sentence makes it sound like a new element is something you can find just anywhere."
Batman continued to look at Tony Stark expressionlessly. The Arkham suit's white lenses completely covered his eyes, preventing Tony from seeing Batman's pupils up close.
Like fingerprints and anal folds, no two people in the world have exactly the same irises.
Wearing the Mark III, Tony Stark had enough technology to identify whether Batman's irises matched Peter Parker's, thereby discovering they were the same person.
Knowing Batman wasn't an enemy, Tony Stark clearly dropped most of his guard. After complaining to Batman, he continued:
"Since you can create a new element, you must also know what was sitting on the floor just now."
"A particle accelerator." Batman nodded slightly.
"Like you, I also created a new element."
After speaking, Tony Stark watched Batman's expression. Seeing the other party remain cool and impassive, he felt bored:
"That's right... Yesterday S.H.I.E.L.D. gave me a package containing things my father left me. That's where I got the inspiration."
Seeing Batman still not speaking, Tony Stark couldn't hold back:
"Aren't you curious about what was inside?"
"Data on the Tesseract?" Batman finally spoke.
"...You even know about the Tesseract?" Tony Stark rubbed his nose. "Part of the data inside was indeed related to the Tesseract."
"And the other part?" Batman pressed.
This time, Tony Stark wasn't too pleased:
"The other part was a video my father left for me. Why, are you more interested in that?"
Batman silently shook his head.
A smile appeared on Tony Stark's face, as if he had won some sort of victory over Batman:
"Alright, the current situation is that two people—I'm not sure if you are human—spent one night, using a particle accelerator and a proton accelerator respectively, to each create a new element."
"The last ones to do something similar were the Curies."
As he spoke, Tony Stark placed the triangular Tesseract isotope he had discovered on the table, side-by-side with Batman's diamond-shaped Vibranium isotope.
After placing them, Tony Stark extended his right hand: "I believe the two of us changed the world overnight."
Batman didn't reach out. He just looked at Tony Stark for a few seconds before speaking:
"I just promised Peter I'd save you a second time."
The first time, naturally, was when Peter acted as a liaison through Batman to contact the Silver Rescue Company to bring Tony back from the Middle East.
Tony Stark's extended right hand naturally picked up the Tesseract isotope on the table instead:
"After creating the new element, I haven't had time to test it for the reactor core yet. You're just in time."
Metropolis Hospital, inside Miles Warren's ward.
Aside from a figure in a green suit, there was no one else here. "Professor Warren? Wake up?"
The person in the green suit was Harry Osborn. His physique was clearly much more muscular than before, completely lacking his previous weak, unsteady gait.
"Warren isn't waking up, Morbius and the others are missing again, and I can't reach Peter..."
Harry Osborn frowned, pacing back and forth in the ward.
In a split second, a flash of inspiration struck Harry Osborn's mind. He thought of a way to find Peter Parker no matter what...
The "Green Goblin" way.