Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or Iron Man.

Summary: NEST contact Tony Stark, who comes to help them take down the Decepticons. He brings Pepper and Rhodey along with him. Set after Revenge of The Fallen, and after the first Iron Man film.

Warnings: There may be bad language and hints of slash in later chapters, though nothing explicit.

Co-operation

Chapter 3:

"Damn." Epps said, his mouth agape as he watched Tony demonstrate the flight capabilities of his Iron Man suit. "You've gotta admit... he's good." He turned to look at Lennox, who's eyes were following Tony around the testing ground. There was an empty seat between them. They had been saving it for Rhodey, who was on his way up to the stand.

"We'll see how good he is when he takes on Ironhide." Lennox turned to look at Epps and grinned. "Ironhide is so going to kick his arrogant-rich-ass."

"This is starting to sound like a bet to me." Epps said. "I've already got one with Rhodey anyway. You want in?"

"Of course I do." Lennox said, pulling his wallet out of his pocket. He opened his wallet, took out a couple of notes, then placed them on the seat between them. "Fifty dollars says that it's over within two minutes and Tony doesn't lay a hand on him."

"You're on." Epps stood up, took his wallet out of his back pocket – to be precise, his left-cheek pocket – and sat down again, taking fifty dollars out of it and placing it on top of Lennox's fifty.

"So what was Rhodey's wager?" Lennox asked.

"Rhodey said that Tony is going to lose against Ironhide, but they'll both come out of it damaged." Epps replied. "I still think Tony is going to win though."

"That's because you're a techie, and techie's always stick together." Lennox scowled. "Don't you remember Qatar, when we were having a laugh and a couple of your techie buddies turned up, thinking that I was taking the piss? We almost started a fist fight there."

"That's because some of your officer buddies decided to come and back you up!"

"That's only because your techie buddies were giving me grief!" Lennox protested. He leant back in his seat and sighed. "That was before all of this started, when we were at SOCCENT."

Lennox and Epps both fell into a thoughtful silence. SOCCENT in Qatar had been where this part of their lives had begun, the day that Blackout attacked and destroyed the base. Both of them had lost many of their friends, and hadn't even been sure if they were going to survive. Lennox could remember the relief in his wife's voice when he finally managed to phone her and tell her that he was okay, and that he was coming home.

"Hey guys, what did I miss?" Rhodey asked, sitting down between the two soldiers and disturbing them from their thoughts.

"Rhodey, you just sat on our money!" Epps exclaimed. "Get up!" Rhodey stood up and Epps picked up the money, then pulled him back down into his seat. "Lennox decided he wanted in on our sweepstake. He thinks that Ironhide is going to kick Tony's ass within two minutes, and Tony won't lay a hand on him."

"Guys... you haven't seen Tony fight." Rhodey smirked. "Ironhide will come out of this with some scratches at least. I can guarantee that."

xXx

Tony landed on the ground again, and walked over to Pepper who was holding a towel. He retracted his helmet and took a deep breath, taking the towel from Pepper and wiping the sweat from his brow.

"Christ it's hot in here." Tony sighed.

"You can give up if you want." Pepper said.

"No. I've gotta do the combat demo." Tony said. "Then I'm done, and you won't have to worry anymore."

"Tony, I always worry." Pepper smiled.

"I know. I always tell you not to." Tony threw the towel back at her. "Wish me luck."

"Good luck." Pepper called after him as he walked back into the testing ground. She glanced at Ironhide and said quietly, "I think you're going to need it."

xXx

Ironhide looked down at Tony as he walked over to him in the testing ground. As far as he was concerned, this was going to be easy.

"So, best of three?" Tony asked.

"When I'm done, you won't be able to go for another two rounds." Ironhide replied, shifting on his feet and charging his cannons.

"You have no idea how many times people have said that to me, do you?" Tony asked and glanced up at Rhodey, closing his helmet. He activated his boot jets and flew vertically, out of the way of Ironhide's cannon blast. Ironhide growled in frustration and fired at Tony again, who dodged it at the last minute.

Damn, he's fast. Ironhide thought, following the human with his optics.

Tony changed direction, determined to be as unpredictable as possible, so Ironhide couldn't shoot him down. He was impressed by the Autobot, but he still thought he would be able to beat him. Tony dove down vertically, and pulled up at the last minute, firing his lasers at Ironhide's feet to distract him. Ironhide ignored Tony's attempted distraction, and fired a cannon blast at Tony, which sent him flying backwards out of a cloud of dust. Tony hit the ground and rolled, picking himself back up onto his feet.

I think I need a new strategy. Tony thought, preparing to take to the air again. This one is too obvious. Clearly Ironhide had lots of combat experience in many different situations, meaning that he could predict Tony's moves... which meant Tony had to think fast to come up with a new strategy. "Jarvis, are you there?"

"I always am, sir." Jarvis said over the armour comm systems.

"Jarvis, I need you to analyse all of Ironhide's moves. Help me come up with a new strategy." Tony ordered. He shot up into the air like a bullet, past Ironhide's head and hovered just out of Ironhide's reach. He fired his lasers at Ironhide, who blocked them by raising his arms in front of his face. Tony swore in frustration and sped towards Ironhide, smacking his fist into the arm joint on the weapon's specialist. Ironhide grabbed Tony in his other arm and slammed Tony onto the ground, then stamped on him.

xXx

"How can you watch this with so much ease?" Lennox asked, looking at Rhodey. Ironhide had just stomped on Tony.

"I'm used to it." Rhodey shrugged. "And his suit is stronger than it looks. He'll be fine. His pride will be a little wounded, but he'll be fine. He'll probably just go to a bar tonight, get hammered and pick up someone to tell him how wonderful he is."

"You say that as if it happens often." Epps noted.

"Hmm." Rhodey didn't answer Epps properly. He just kept watching the battle, as Tony tried to lift Ironhide's foot off of him. Ironhide forced his foot down harder on Tony, pressing his against the ground. "I know the suit is stronger than it looks but I hope Ironhide doesn't damage it too much. Repairs would take even longer without Jarvis."

"Jarvis?" Lennox asked. "Who's that? Tony's assistant? Shouldn't he have brought this Jarvis with him?"

"He's a computer." Rhodey replied. "He's kind of like Tony's butler I suppose. He can talk to him in the suit, but he can't physically bring Jarvis with him. Just... nevermind."

"Right." Lennox said. "Damn... he's getting the shit kicked out of him."

"Come on Tony." Rhodey muttered under his breath. Even though he had bet against his friend, he didn't want him to lose too badly. If Tony lost, he would be in a foul mood, and he was meant to be demonstrating the combat abilities of his suit. If NEST saw that Tony couldn't defeat Ironhide, then they would be no use against the rest of these damned robots and this whole trip would've been a waste of time.

xXx

"Jarvis... I could really use some help..." Tony growled, trying to push Ironhide's foot off of him with his hands splayed on the bottom.

"I'm analysing the schematics of the Autobot." Jarvis replied. "The armour is slightly weaker around the joints. The armour is at its thickest around the chest."

"Well I have to get this foot off me before I can do anything!" Tony snapped. His arms were trembling and his muscles were burning from the effort of holding Ironhide's foot up for so long.

"Very well sir. May I suggest your repulsors?"

"Repulsors. Right." Tony said. "How is that going to help?" He didn't want an answer from Jarvis – he would find out for himself. "Activating repulsors now." Tony activated his repulsors and began to lift Ironhide's foot up off him.

Ironhide looked down in shock as Tony began to lift his foot, using his repulsors. Tony increased the power to his repulsors, and Ironhide toppled onto his back. Tony stepped up onto Ironhide, and walked over the Autobot, down to where his face was.

"Impressed yet?" Tony asked, retracting his mask and grinning.

"Not really." Ironhide replied. "You haven't even dented me yet."

"Okay. I'll change that." Tony said. He recalled that Jarvis had said that Ironhide's armour was weaker around the joints, and stronger at the chest. Tony slammed his fist down into Ironhide's chest plate, over and over again.

"Sir, I do not know if you have realised, but I told you that the armour is thickest at the chest." Jarvis said.

"Yes I do remember, but I want to make an impression." Tony insisted. He switched to the external speakers, so that he could talk to Ironhide. "Ha! Look at that! There's a dent for you."

"Impressive." Ironhide said. "But not good enough." He grabbed Tony in one of his hands, and slammed him down onto the ground again. Tony quickly closed his mask, wanting to prevent any damage to his face. Ironhide got to his feet and pinned Tony down with his hand, charging the cannon on his other arm. He aimed the cannon at Tony. "Dead."

"I give in." Tony said. "You win."

"Good." Ironhide backed off, and pulled Tony up onto his feet. "You fought well."

"So did you." Tony said, retracting his mask. "I'm impressed. Very impressed. I wasn't sure what to expect, but you've got a great array of weapons and some damn good armour plating. If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to spend more time analysing you or another Autobot. Maybe one of you could come back to my lab so I could run a detailed analysis."

"I will consider your offer." Ironhide said.

"Cool." Tony said. "Now, I'm going to get this suit off... if I can. Thanks for the new dents and scratches."

"You're welcome." Ironhide smirked as Tony walked towards the entry tunnel where Pepper was waiting for him.

xXx

"Ta dah." Ironhide said extremely unenthusiastically as he approached Lennox, Epps and Rhodey in the stand. "I beat him. Like that was unexpected."

"Yes! I win!" Lennox punched the air in triumph. Rhodey placed a hand on Lennox's shoulder and shook his head.

"Oh no you didn't!" Rhodey said. He pointed to Ironhide's chest plate, where Tony had somehow managed to dent it. "Look at that. I believe that is a dent and some scratches on his paintwork. See, I said Ironhide would win but Tony would leave scratches. Hand over the money boys."

"I hate you." Epps said as he handed over the large wad of cash to Rhodey.

"No you don't." Rhodey said.

"You're right. I don't." Epps laughed.

"I do!" Lennox said. "I was meant to spend that money on Epps's birthday present!"

"My birthday isn't for another three months." Epps frowned.

"Yeah well, I had to start saving." Lennox shrugged. "You don't get to see too much of your own money with a wife and baby daughter."

"And you think I see any of my money?" Epps asked. "I have a wife and five kids. That's a definite drain on resources. Here's a word of advice Rhodey – never get married and have kids. Especially not five kids."

"Don't worry guys. I'm in no danger of getting married at the moment." Rhodey said. "Let's go and grab Tony before we head to the mess hall for dinner."

xXx

Tony was in the room NEST had given him, stripping his armour off. Pepper was standing in the corner, twiddling her thumbs, trying not to have an emotional outburst expressing all of her concerns for Tony's safety.

"Pepper, I know you're resisting the urge to have some sort of emotional outburst." Tony said. "You might as well do it. Whilst you do, I'm just going to pretend I'm listening to you and smile and nod to whatever you say."

"Are you crazy?" Pepper exploded. "That thing could've killed you! Did you... did you see what it looked like? Did you see what is was doing to you? You could've died! You–!"

"Uh huh. I can see why you think that." Tony said passively, carefully placing parts of his armour he had removed on his bed.

"For once, I wish you would listen to me!" Pepper fumed. "You don't have any regard for your own safety. You never have! You just jump into things without any idea of how you're going to get out of them! I know that spontaneity is usually a good thing, but with you it's just a risk! You're so unpredictable Tony, I never know what you're going to do!"

"Pepper, where is this going?" Tony asked, removing the last of his armour. He walked over to her and placed his hands on her shoulder. "Take a deep breath. Tell me what this is really about."

"I –" Pepper took a deep breath. "I just get so worried about you. Do you have any idea what it was like for me, watching that robot beat the crap out of you? I was so worried that your armour wasn't going to hold and you were going to get injured or worse..."

"Pepper, do you have any faith in me?" Tony smiled. "It's my armour, of course it was going to hold. If I had thought for a second that I was in serious danger before that demo or even during it I would've never gone ahead with it."

"You're lying."

"Okay, maybe I am." Tony said. "But it's just because I want to make you feel better. Stop worrying, Pepper. You know I'm always fine. You have no reason to worry."

"We already had this conversation." Pepper sighed. "And I reminded you that you weren't fine when you came home from Afghanistan."

"Pepper..." Tony started to say. He was interrupted by a sharp knock at the door. He shook his head to dismiss whatever thought he had wanted to voice to her before. "Can you get that whilst I pack my armour away?"

"Of course." Pepper walked over to the door and opened it. "Can I help you?"

"I assume that you're Miss Potts?"

"Yes. Who are you?"

"I'm Director Theodore Galloway. Is Mr Stark in?"

"He's just packing his armour away." Pepper said, she stepped aside. "Come in."

"Thank you." Galloway said and stepped into the room. He spotted Tony and walked over to him. "Mr Stark?"

"Oh. Hi." Tony reached forwards and shook hands with him. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"Director Theodore Galloway. I work for the government."

"Oh. One of those people." Tony nodded and then rolled his eyes. He grinned. "Well Director Galloway, what can I do for you?"

"Mr Stark, I'm here on behalf of the President." Galloway said. "He wants to express his interest in obtaining some of your 'Iron Man' suits for use of the United States military, including NEST."

"Sorry, but the answer is no." Tony shook his head.

"You haven't even heard my proposal." Galloway said. "You're a business man, Mr Stark. Surely you would like to hear what I have to say?"

"Not really, no."

"But these suits could help us prevent the death rates of our soldiers serving abroad in the Gulf." Galloway protested. "If I recall correctly, Mr Stark, you were in Afghanistan yourself a while ago. I believe that the soldiers you were travelling with were all killed. If you allowed us to use technology from your suit, we could prevent the loss of life in similar situations."

"No. I won't allow you to use my technology for warfare." Tony growled. "Your government wouldn't keep it to themselves. It would get sold to other countries to make a profit and then you would have a new stage in technological warfare. Where would it end? My suit would be used to create new weapons and body armour. You would have nearly invincible soldiers, just like the use of unmanned aircraft in the air force." Tony smiled to himself inside when he remembered going to see Rhodey when he was giving a talk to some new recruits. 'The future of air combat... Is it manned, or unmanned? I'll tell you in my experience, no unmanned aerial vehicle will ever trump a pilot's instinct.' In fact, I don't even know why I said sorry before. The answer is just no."

"But think of all the lives that would be saved!" Galloway spluttered.

"Miss Potts, would you show Mr Galloway out?" Tony grimaced, turning his attention back to his suit as he packed it away.

"Of course Mr Stark." Pepper said coolly, walking over to Galloway. "Mr Galloway, this way please."

"I will get my hands on that suit, Stark. Mark my words." Galloway fumed before Pepper closed the door calmly.

"Well... he didn't seem too happy." Pepper said, walking over to Tony.

"Tch. Like I care." Tony said. He was shaking with anger. "I knew that the government were going to come for my tech sooner or later. I just knew it."

There was a knock at the door.

"Who do you think it is this time?" Pepper asked.

"No idea. I'll get it." Tony replied. He flung the door open. Rhodey, Lennox and Epps were standing at the door, all looking confused. "Hey guys. What's up?"

"Are you joining us for dinner?" Rhodey asked.

"As long as you pay the bill, sweetheart." Tony replied bluntly.

"I'll take that as a yes." Rhodey rolled his eyes. "Do you know anything about the irate government official who just stormed past us, swearing about your Iron Man suit?"

"Nope. I know nothing about that." Tony lied.

"Guys, can we go for dinner now?" Epps asked, rubbing his grumbling stomach.

"I'll get my coat." Tony said and winked at Rhodey.

"STOP THAT." Rhodey scowled.

And that's chapter 3 done.

I'm so happy with all the reviews you guys are giving me! I'm still astounding at how well received this story is.

This chapter felt as though it took forever to write because of the combat demo. I hate writing fight scenes, they're so difficult for me.

Anyway, if you have the time leave me a review! They're excellent motivation, and I may even throw in some cookies.

I Caught Myself.