So, I have a thing where I just continually end it on cliff-hangers, and I'm sorry. Well, not really. It keeps you all interested, doesn't it? And I am sincerely sorry I haven't updated in absolute friggin' years, because I just finished my year 11 exams, so there was not enough hours in the day. SORRY!

AND I do realise that Batman is DC while Iron Man is Marvel. Yes. I am a walking encyclopaedia of those comic universes. This is fanfiction. Stuff can happen.

PS- This one is dedicated to Phoenix McWalshie. :)

When they got to physics, they couldn't talk. Sarah had said nothing during the short walk there. The professor had used the 'no talking, study' period on them. So there was Sarah, Tony, Rhodey and Pepper all sitting around a table. Pepper attempting not to talk and not succeeding, Rhodey being calm and collected as per usual on one side. On the other, Sarah was worried, and Tony had disappeared into his phone long ago. Instead of studying for physics, she also took out her phone and read the text again.

Don't go home. I'll attempt to contact you tonight, but if I don't, get to Fury. The dragon is off the chain.

Sarah sighed. There wasn't much she could do but wait. Her mum said that she would contact her later in the day, but if not, to get to Fury. This was not unexpected. Her mum was now a SHIELD 'agent', and the fact that the thing that she was following up was of national importance. Things had gotten dangerous before. Her phone vibrated, and she opened the text.

Why did your mum say to go to Fury?

She looked up at Tony, and saw that his face was serious. She rolled her eyes at the fact that they were texting each other while sitting about half a metre apart. She quickly replied.

Really? We're right next to each other.
… My mum is technically a SHIELD agent at the moment.

The conversation by text continued.

At the moment?

She's a detective.

So, the message about the dragon?

Is a code we created when she was in trouble. Something is off the chain means she's in deep and can't get out. I have a feeling this time that it means the people she's 'hunting' know too much.

The siren sounded, and the four stayed at the table while the other students cleared out. As soon as the last one left, Tony started talking.

"They know too much? As in your mum is hunting them and that they could get to you?"

"Maybe. I just…" She trailed off the sentence. She shut Tony up with a raise of her hand, and quickly attacked her phone. Hacking into the network her mum was using, she realised that the phone number that she had used was her small portable bug phone. Conclusion: Her smart phone was being recorded or tracked. Sarah stood, and started to pace back and forth away from the table.

"Okay. I'm going to think out loud. So, facts. My mum is a freelance detective that is amazing. She's doing something for SHIELD. She isn't using her smartphone because it's either being traced or hacked, so she's using the bug phone." Looking over, the questioning looks on their faces were enough. She continued to pace.

"Her bug phone is a tiny, tiny phone that she uses when she's deep under, it's practically impossible to trace." Pepper spoke up.

"Are you sure? Because tech here in the USA is a little bit more upmarket then in Australia."

"Pep. I am super sure. It is literally impossible. I build the software it runs on." There was silence for a long, drawn out minute. Sarah paced.

"Dragon, dragon, dragon. There must be something to do with the dragon. She's never used the dragon in that context before. Associated to dragons… fire, magic, Asian culture…" Pepper gasped, and Sarah spun on her heels, turning to face the three still sitting down. Pepper looked frightened. Rhodey and Tony were exchanging deep looks.

Tony cringed as Pepper gasped. The logical explanation was that SHIELD were sick of sitting on the sidelines watching Iron Man and The Mandarin hack it out against each other and decided to step in. There was so much that Sarah's mum could find out; Mr Fix, MODOC, Technovore, Whiplash… Last time someone went in, it was Pep's dad, and that had come close to a catastrophically bad ending.

In the short time that Rhodey had gotten to know Sarah, he realised how alike both she and Tony were. Both lacked the father figure, both ready to put themselves in danger for things that they thought were worth fighting for. And if her mum was in danger, she was going to go in and attempt to get her out. The only comfort was that she had them as friends. Friends with benefits.

Both Tony and Rhodey looked at each other. Should they tell her? The obvious answer to Tony was no. He didn't want her to get hurt. She put herself in too much danger already.

"Okay." Tony, Pepper and Rhodey turned to Sarah. She continued. "Obviously something is going on that's private between you guys and I don't want to intrude. I just need to know; is my mum in serious danger that you guys think that she may not have a very good chance of survival?"

Rhodey spoke up after an elongated period of silence.

"Yes."

Sarah felt like falling into a really deep hole and not getting out again. It had been this hard before, but this time felt different. Then her phone rang. Her hand flew to it, and looking up, the other three could tell it was from her mum. Sarah answered.

"Hello?"

"Hey Sez. How are you?"

"Mum? What's happening?" The others were looking on as she talked.

"Everything's fine. It was just an error in the gear. Nothing's happened. I was just making sure that if anything did go wrong, which it didn't, you would know what to do."

"So nothing happened? Nothing at all?"

"Nope. Sorry to make you worry."

A quiet reply. "Okay. I'm glad you're okay. "

"See you tonight." Then her mum hung up. Sarah turned back to the others.

"It was just an error in the gear." Sighing, she turned on her heels and walked out the door.

Pepper entered the armoury after school, entering her code into the lock and the wind blew her hair back as the door went up. She walked in, the door closing behind her. She found Tony leaning over the computer, deep in thought, and Rhodey sitting in the external control chair, bouncing a tennis ball against the wall.

"Hey guys." Neither acknowledged her. She rolled her eyes and dropped her school bag on the ground. She took a seat on the computer bench next to Tony. He was going through SHIELD records.

"Do I want to know where you got them, Tony?"

"Probably not." Pepper looked over to Rhodey. "So I was thinking. The helicopter crash and Sarah's mum being a so-called temporary SHIELD agent and the text from her mother about the Mandarin and the fact that your dad knew her dad and the fact that no-one seems to know anything could be related." Tony turned to her.

"Pepper. What do you think I am doing with top secret SHIELD files, digging around whom they have hired and what they are doing about the Mandarin?"

"Oh." Pepper sat quietly for about 10 seconds. "I can't believe that she is friends with Bruce Wayne."

"I can't believe that Sarah thinks he dresses better than me!" Rhodey laughed.

"Dude, because you dress so well."

"Thanks man, I can feel the support flowing in rivers out of that sarcasm. I've collected what I know about Sarah's mother." Rhodey and Pepper moved to Tony's side.

"Tony, are you sure you want to do this? Sarah might not be so happy if she finds out…"

"…this is why she won't. Anyway, her mum's name is Leilani, and yes, she is a freelance detective. She's known for her ability to get the job done and do it quietly, there are only a few cases that she's worked on that the public know about, but SHIELD shows that she's worked on things like Afghanistan and something big up in Alaska."

"The UN problem that every government in the world tried to keep quiet?"

"Probably. Then there's a high priority file that I couldn't get because they've locked it behind so many firewalls it would take me 265 days to get, but I'm betting that it's something to do with the Mandarin." Rhodey clapped his hand on Tony's shoulder.

"When Sarah finds out, you're on your own man. Did you see how she jumped the table at Pepper?"

Sarah killed the engine on the motorbike that she borrowed from her mother. When her mum hugged her as she got home, she said Sarah could do anything she wanted for tonight, and when she asked to go and visit Bruce, her mum encouraged her to take the bike and head down to his place in Gotham. Pulling the helmet off her head, she kicked the stand down and hopped off. Crossing the road, she pocketed the keys and carried the helmet under her arm. The automatic doors to the Wayne Industries slid open without so much as a sound and office people surrounded her. She slipped through the crowd and headed towards the reception desk.

The woman at the desk continued to read her screen and type until Sarah cleared her throat. Looking up, the woman gave her look up and down, and then rested her hands on the desk.

"Welcome to Wayne Industries, my name is Melissa. How can I help?"

"I'm here to see Mr Bruce Wayne."

"Do you have an appointment?"

"No, but…"

"You cannot see Mr Wayne without an appointment."

"You see…"

"Look, Miss…?

"Marley. Sarah Marley. And I'm prepared to bet my ride that if you patch my name up to level 75 that he would be more than willing to accept me without an appointment, Melissa." The receptionist glared at Sarah before reaching to the phone. The phone rang until she reached a male voice.

"What now?"

"I'm sorry to bother you sir, but I have a young woman at the front desk that wants to see you."

"Does she have an appointment?"

"No, but she said that she was…" Melissa sighed, "…prepared to bet her ride that you would accept her without one."

"Is her name Sarah?"

"Yes." The male voice swore.

"You kept her waiting? She is one of two people on the list of people that can see me at any time, any day of any year. Send her up. Now."

"Of course sir." The woman released the phone, flustered. Sarah just grabbed her helmet that she had rested on the reception desk, smiled nicely at Melissa and headed over to the elevator, and while the doors closed, watched as the poor woman sat there and glared back at her.

And so that is that. Next chapter should feature the discussion between Bruce and Sarah, a bit more secret research by Tony and maybe a fight. Who knows?

Also, Tony, Sarah, Pepper and Rhodey are all sixteen in this until I change that with birthdays or skip years which I will probably not do for a long, long time, if ever. Bruce is 18, and runs WI.