"Tony..."

ZZZZZ

"Tony..."

ZZZZZZ

"TONY!"

"GAH! I'm up, I'm up."

Tony had spent most of the bus trip to Metropolis sleeping. When he got up, he could vaguely make out the outline of Pepper.

When his school announced that the school would spend some time in the city of Metropolis, New York, Tony decided that some time away from NYC wouldn't hurt.

At first. Now he mostly regrets it.

"Are you okay, man?" Rhodey noticed Tony's worried expression.

"Yeah, just- Listen, when I signed up for this trip, I thought it was gonna give me a break from... y'know." Tony said.

Tony had a secret life very few knew about. He was no ordinary high school student. And not just because he was the son of the head of Stark Industries, one of the biggest tech companies in the world.

Nope, he was also a superhero.

The Armored Protector of New York City.

Iron Man.

"But now I'm starting to realize that may have been a horrible idea! What if Ghost or Blizzard show up in New York City and I'm not there to stop them?" Tony asked.

Rhodey put a hand on Tony's shoulder. "Tony, calm down. Those are Iron Man problems. Don't worry about Iron Man problems right now. We're here to relax and have fun. Got it?"

"Yeah, yeah, got it." Tony calmed down. "Thanks Rhodey."

The bus came to a halt with a screech.

"Okay, I'm gonna take role call to make sure everyone who signed up is here. Anthony Stark."

"Here."

"James Rhodes."

"Here."

"Patrica Potts."

"Here!"

"Whitney Stane."

"Here."

"Harold Hogan."

"Here!"

"Gene Khan."

"Here."

It was at this point Tony began to tune out role call. He was still thinking about what he was gonna do in Metropolis. The project they were assigned was easy for someone as smart as him. He could probably get it done in a few hours at most. Meaning he would have a lot of free time on his hands. Normally, he would work on an armor in his free time, but he didn't have an armory and he doubted a hotel room would be a good place for armor work.

"All right, everyone is here. Let's go." The teacher said.

The class unloaded off the bus, grabbed their suitcases, and followed the teacher.

"Tony, Tony!" Pepper ran up behind Tony and showed him a newspaper she grabbed. "Check this out!"

Tony read the headline of the paper. "Superhero Girls save the day once again!" He saw the cover picture and saw six girls posing triumphantly over the unconscious body of a supervillain. "Huh, looks like Metropolis has their own protectors."

"Yeah, they do." Rhodey said. "Which hopefully means you won't need to suit up."

"Yeah, hopefully." Tony snarked.

Unfortunately, it turned out that the hotel the class was staying at did not have as many open rooms as they thought. Meaning three students had to bunk together.

Fortunately, those three were Tony, Rhodey, and Pepper.

"Eeee, I'm so exicted! What do you guys want to do first?" Pepper asked.

"Hmm, I did see an ice cream parlor on the way here. Maybe we can grab a bite." Rhodey suggested.

"Ice cream? Oh, I'm down." Tony grabbed his backpack and started to head out the room.

"Wait."

Tony looked back and saw Rhodey giving him a stare.

"Tony. Why are you grabbing your backpack?"

"Listen, I know that this whole point of this trip is to relax and take a break from Iron Man stuff. But it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. Brillance in simplicity." Tony explained.

Rhodey groaned. "Fine."

With that, the three teenagers ran out the room and started heading to the ice cream parlor.

When the three teens arrived at the ice cream parlor, named "Sweet Justice," they noticed an empty counter. Tony rang the bell and a guy came to the counter quick. So quick it scared Tony.

"Hi, welcome to Sweet Justice! I'm Barry Allen, how may I help you?"

After a second, Tony shook off his fear and made his order.

"Can I get a mint chocolate chip for myself and..." Tony turned around. "Rhodey! Pepper! What do you guys want?"

"Coffee." Rhodey said.

"Strawberry double scoop." Pepper said.

Tony pointed to Rhodey and Pepper. "What they said."

"Alright, be back in a flash!" Barry ran to the back, leaving Tony waiting by the counter.

'That guy is weirdly fast.' Tony thought. 'Wait...'

Tony looked outside the window. Some girl with red hair was bullying another student.

Yeah, no. Tony ran out the parlor to stop this.

"Please! I already gave you my lunch money! What else do you want?"

Doris grabbed the kid by the collar. "I want to do this!" Doris raised her fist to punch him in the face.

"Hey, leave him alone!"

Doris saw Tony walking towards her. "Who the hell are you?"

"Tony Stark. The kid that's gonna kick your butt if you don't leave him alone and back off." Tony said.

The kid Doris had a hold on saw this as an opportunity, slipped out of her grasp, and ran for it, leaving Doris angrier than before.

"Oh, that was a big mistake, pipsqueak." Doris said.

Tony raised his hand and did a "come get some" gesture. It didn't matter how strong this bully was. No amount of brawn beats brains.

So when Doris tried to sock him in the face, Tony grabbed his backpack, held it in front of his face at the last second, and...

CLANG!

"OW!"

Doris grabbed her aching, red hand. "The hell is in that backpack? Weights? Ugh, whatever." Doris ran off, still grabbing her hand. Meanwhile, Tony walked back into Sweet Justice with a satisfied smirk on his face.

"-W, X, Y, Z."

A shocked Tony started to clap to give applause. Seriously, burping out the entire alphabet in one go was no easy feat. He had to give Pepper props for it.

Rhodey just looked confused.

After their time at Sweet Justice, the three decided to head somewhere else. Go sightseeing.

"So, what do you guys want to see next?" Rhodey asked.

"Hmm, what about the Lexcorp building?" Pepper suggested.

"I don't know, Lexcorp has been rumored to be involved in some pretty shady stuff." Tony said. "The last thing I want to see is a building celebrating another Hammer or-"

"STARK!" A voice yelled from behind him.

"Actually, I was gonna say Stane. My father is explictly out the business of we-"

Tony saw a whole TAXI flying towards him. He grabbed Rhodey and Pepper and threw them and himself to the floor.

"GET DOWN!"

CRASH!

After dodging the taxi, Tony saw the person who threw it.

A girl with red hair. Nine foot tall. And was built like the Hulk.

So Tony, Rhodey, and Pepper all did what they reasonably could do in the eyeline of civilians.

Ran.

"Go, go, go!" Rhodey said.

"Where do you think you're going?" The giant girl quickly ran after them.

More cars were wrecked, a couple lampposts were ripped out, and a billboard was thrown before Team Iron Man managed to lose her in an alleyway.

"Who was that?" Tony asked.

"I recognize her from the paper! Giganta, one of the town supervillains!" Pepper said.

"Oh great, a supervillain wants me dead. Quick question though: what could I have done to make her ma-" Mid-sentence, Tony put two and two together.

Giganta had red hair.

Like the bully who punched his backpack earlier.

"Listen Rhodey, I know you wanted me to relax on this trip. But there is a rampaging supervillain, and-"

"Suit up." Rhodey said.

"Huh?" Tony was slightly confused.

"I know I wanted this trip to be a getaway from Iron Man shenanigans. But that villain is on a rampage and won't stop till she squashes you. So suit up."

Tony sighed. "Thanks." With that, Tony clicked his backpack. In a few seconds,, where once stood Tony Stark, there now stood Iron Man.

"She's probably still looking for you, so hide somewhere!" Iron Man blasted off to stop Giganta.

Giganta lifted a car off the ground. "C'mon Stark, you wimp. Where are you?"

She suddenly felt two blasts hit her back. When she looked behind her, she saw some armored figure in red and gold flying slightly above her.

"Hey, aren't you that one guy from New York City? Tin Man or something?" Giganta asked.

"Hey, I take offense to that! One, I have a heart. Two, this suit is not tin. And three!"

The figure flew into her stomach, knocking the wind outta her.

"It's Iron Man!"

Giganta feel to the ground while Iron Man flew around her. He flew closer for another strike, but all it took was one swat from Giganta to send him flying into the road.

"Owww..."

"Hah, should've stayed in NYC, wimp!" Giganta raised her foot to crush Iron Man like an ant, but he luckily boosted away at the last second, before taking to the air again.

'Okay, brute force won't work here. Think Tony, think.'

Iron Man evaded swat after swat from Giganta.

"Hey, meathead. Have you tried aiming? It's statistically proven to increase chances of hitting something." Iron Man joked.

"MEATHEAD?!"

Now Giganta's swats were more agressive, but waaaay sloppier.

'Perfect! Get her mad, get her sloppy, knock her out. Brillance in simplicity.' Iron Man thought.

"My dearest apologies. Would you prefer 'knuckledragger' or 'numbskull?'" Iron Man asked sarcastically.

Now Giganta was just swinging her arms wildly. Just what Iron Man needed.

Iron Man hit one of Giganta's arms, which would smack her in the face with enough force to knock her unconscious. Iron Man flew to the ground and asked the surrounding civilians who watched the fight:

"Hey, does anyone have a pen and sticky note? I heard this town has other superheroes and I want to be a good guest."

When the girls heard Giganta was rampaging, they sutied up as fast as they could. Which made it confusing when they arrived on the scene, Giganta was already unconscious.

Wonder Woman noticed a sticky note on Giganta's forehead. She grabbed it and read it out loud.

"Dear Superhero Girls. I hope you don't mind, but I happened to visit and decided to be a good guest and leave you a gift. Sincerely and with kindness, Iron Man."

"Aww, how sweet!" Batgirl said.