At the moment this is going under the title Heart's Under Fire (I was listening to song with same name by Lea Luna), but that might change. A fair warning for any who do fave, or if you have any suggestions for a better title please get in touch.

Summary.

I don't have one at present. All I can say is that it will be an M eventually, Tony/Sherlock pairing with maybe a little Tony/John thrown in.

Chapter 1

High above the city four slim-lined shapes screamed through the clear skies. The red and gold one in front, that was unmistakably Iron-Man (AKA Tony Stark) weaved between glistening glass and steel towers just managing to squeeze through the gap before a huge explosion ripped a big chunk out of the one on his left. Iron-man chanced a look back, not realising how close the other three had gotten, and ended up with a fist in the face.

"UGH! You sneaky bitches are gonna pay for that." Iron-Man tumbled towards the ground, at the last second firing up his jets and managing to avoid becoming a metal pancake. Tony gritted his teeth shooting straight up at the other three, who darted out the way like scattering rats. "What the hell is this shit?" Yelled Tony. He turned hard right to avoid crashing into the side of a very expensive looking building, once clear he turned and fired off a round of mini rockets from his wrists. "Jarvis? Where are those specs I ordered?"

"I'm sorry for the delay, sir. I have to information you requested."

"You're a star. Let me see, then." The HUD lit up with numerous blue-prints and calculations. "Huh. Would you look at that, Jarvis? They look like me, act like me and have more fire-power than me. But I have one advantage."

"And what would that be, sir?" JARVIS drawled.

Tony smirked in the darkness, "They're not me." Coming to sudden halt Iron-Man held out his arms, as two of his pursuers passed he held onto their ankles. Firing up his rockets boots the three of them engaged in a bizarre version of tug-of-war. Thinking fast, and recklessly, Tony diverted as much power as he could spare to the arc reactor in his chest. "Sorry to cut this short. Normally I'd never pass up a chance for a three-some with such pretty ladies but you've gone and pissed me off." He could feel the power growing steadily in his chest, after calculating that the outcome; he set his jaw ready for the pain that was coming. Shooting a single beam from the RT heart his eyes widened spotting the struggling knocks-offs as they both released a shot from their palms at the same time. Oh, this is gonna hurt. All three were caught in the highly unstable energy bubble which exploded with light and noise, throwing them in different directions.

Iron-Man awoke a short time later, the suit slightly dented but in one piece and working. Tony wobbled into a sitting position flipping open the mask and surveying the damage around him. Fury was gonna be pissed at paying the bill but was he worried? No. Getting to his feet Tony spotted a pile of smoking, tangled metal and sparking circuits not too far from his position and hopped over the roof-tops. Standing over the ruined suits he frowned, "I really hate it when people steal my things."

He kicked at the wrecked pieces of metal in a vain attempt to find anything salvageable and was in luck. Finding a semi-complete head he knelt for a closer look and was stunned at what he found. The face-plate was missing the top right side exposing the inner workings and they did, indeed, looked horribly familiar. The HUD scanned the head, blowing apart the schematics and Tony groaned loudly. Picking up what was left of a foot he turned it over and his eyes narrowed catching the remains of an imprint. "Little bitch did it. She made the suits completely un-manned. She-" the HUD flashed with red warning lights, nearly blinding him causing him to drop the foot. "There's always one left." Standing Iron-Man turned on the spot looking up at the sky. "Jarvis! Where is she?"

"Target is directly above you, sir. I'm detecting a surge of unknown energy within the area. Advised caution on approach, sir."

"Thank-you, mother hen. I will." He blinked slowly. He hadn't heard that expression since… but why had he said it now? Face-plate down and boot-jets firing he flew up in a direct line, past the remaining roof-tops, through the fine cloud banks until… "There you are, sweetheart. Where have you been all my life?"

The last Iron-Woman knockoff, looking sinister in black and pink: eyes and RT heart glowing red, was floating in the clear skies, as if waiting for him. Her palms were flickering with RT energy but to Tony it looked wrong somehow. He stopped a few meters away, "I am glad you could join me, Antony. My creator sends her regards." Drawing her hands up above her head a bubble of white and purple electricity grew from her palms; it crackled and flickered as it expanded. Once it was the same size as a truck she lowered her hands and hovered, staring into the pulsing orb of light and bleeped a few seconds later. "Mission target acquired."

What the fudge? Iron-man looked around confused and then waved his hands. "Uh, hello! I'm right here." The Iron-Woman ignored him, still staring at the orb's centre. Then, with-out another word, she fired up her rockets boosters and disappeared into the light. The ball hissed and shimmered and Tony suddenly got a very bad feeling. "Jarvis, you there?"

"I'm here, sir."

"Do me a favour and scan that shiny ball, will ya? I got the shivers…and not the good kind." It was quiet in the HUD for the longest seconds of his life. "Uh…Jarvis?"

"I regret to inform you, sir, that some of my systems have been compromised due to being at close proximity. But I can tell you this strange energy is only known as N.Z.E."

Realization made Tony blink, "That's neg-zero energy, Jarvis. I've seen this sort of thing just once before…" The HUD flickered, little red warning lights flashed up in the corner. He knew it was dumb but if she was involved it wasn't going to be good for him in the long run. Tony shot off, pushing his arc reactors power to its limits, heading straight for the light. "Jarvis execute emergency programme POTTS56A and download all you can from file STARK221B. Do it NOW!" Nothing. "Jarvis!"

"Command accepted and full download complete, sir."

Iron-Man smirked, "Good to have you along, buddy. Don't know what's going on but I got a pretty good idea where we'll end up. Hold on tight!" Entering the light a soft whistle left his lips as he looked around. "Jarvis, are you getting this? Where the heck are we?" Could he fly in this place? Tony booted up the palm repulsors a tiny bit and inched slowly forward sighing deeply as he found that he could. Far away from his position what appeared to be storm clouds grew and thunder boomed echoing in the vast space. The HUD flashed red again and a little marker blinked into existence. Tony squinted in the dazzling lights and was able to make out a black shape in the distance hurtling down the bright tunnel. "Jarvis try and lock on to her heat signature. Do what-ever you can to follow. Understand?" Jarvis quickly calculated the Iron-Woman's probable movements and projected them onto the HUD. Iron-Man adjusted to match, a little wobbly at first but after to find his balance increased his speed to give chase and immediately let out a piercing scream as the unstable negative forces tried to crumple and squeeze him like a lemon. The HUD flickered again, a tiny 10 appeared in front of his eyes and started to countdown, "I'm not giving up!"

"Systems at 75 per cent and falling."

Lighting scratched the armour's surface, the de-pressurization was becoming too much but Tony gritted his teeth and held on. "I'm not giving up!" He shouted again. The bluish hue of the tunnel grew brighter and brighter, fine lines of static electricity danced along the metal casing of the suit. Tony closed his eyes as the brightness grew too much, his ears popped twice and every bone in his body felt like it was going to break…

"Uugghh. Where am I? Is this hell?" The HUD was completely blacked-out. Tony forced his limbs to move and scrambled to a kneeling position, taking a couple of deep breath he slowly straightened and regretted almost at once as the world span around him. "Ooh, my head. Jarvis, you there? How're we holding up?"

"Life support at 62 per cent. Advised that you dis-continue use of the suit, sir."

"That. Is a very good idea, Jarvis." Tony wiggled his fingers. The face-plate of the suit drew back revealing his pale and sweaty face. From the neck downwards the suit continued to fold into itself until a red and gold suitcase sat at his feet. A tiny side panel opened, reaching in Tony picked up the silver ear-piece and hooked it into place. "OK, buddy. I'm not a genius for nothing and, this is just a guess, I'm going to say what we just passed through was a worm-hole. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong." Jarvis stayed quiet and he smirked. "OK…looking around I think we ended up in an un-used warehouse of sorts. Hard to tell with the lights off. I wonder if there's a fire escape 'round here?" Trying not to fall over in the dark Tony found a wall and with one hand on it, the other carrying the briefcase, found some rickety stairs in a corner. Forcing open the rotting door at the top Tony closed his eyes taking a great lungful of cool, crisp air. When he opened them again he nearly dropped the case onto his foot. "Holy crap…"

The scene below him was something from an old fashioned Christmas card (minus the snow of course.). The warehouse looked over a vast river where tiny tug-boats trundled steadily along pulling long lines of barges of scrap metal and other kind of cargo. To his left a stood a magnificent suspension bridge that connected the two banks. Along its top many carriages were being pulled along by horses, people were riding push bikes or simply walking.

"Sir, are you alright?" Tony was quiet still taking in the scene. "I could shock you if you like."

"That won't be necessary. I'm just…It's just…I'm here and somewhere out there so is he. Jarvis…I have to, no scratch that, I need to see him." He looked over the roof's ledge for a suitable way to get down without using the Iron-Man suit.

"Sir, need I remind you that the threat of the Iron-Woman is still out there. I have lost her signal. I believe she's gone into stealth mode."

"She's got stealth? I don't have stealth!" Tony pouted, "That's so unfair! Stupid Chloe." He huffed and looked down at his clothes: black trainers, smart grey trousers and a black button-down long sleeve shirt were fine for the 20th century but not for the late 18th. "Right. This is what we're gonna do; first, we're getting off this roof. Second, I need to find a new get-up, something that will cover my heart. And third, we need to head over to Baker Street."

"Any particular number, sir?"

Tony smirked, "221B."

More next month.