Obadiah piloted his massive silver-gray war armor as it slammed into Tony Stark's red-and-gold suit.
The Iron Monger's enormous frame was like a mobile fortress; every blow carried the devastating power to shatter reinforced concrete. With each step it left deep craters in the ground while relentlessly pressing its attack against Tony Stark's Mark III.
Mini-rockets, missiles, and machine-gun fire poured out in a frenzy. Just as Batman had predicted, Obadiah—together with Professor Yuri Petrovich—had taken the original Mark I as a base and simply piled on everything they could.
With the sole exception of large-scale weapons that required separate launch platforms, the Iron Monger even had a sniper rifle mounted on its back.
Not to mention the Gatling guns—three of them in total, positioned on both arms and the left shoulder. Ammunition belts extended from inside the armor, splitting into three streams to feed the guns.
Instead of another Gatling, the right shoulder carried rows of micro-missiles that were now firing in relentless salvos at Tony Stark.
Of course Tony wasn't going to just stand there and let himself be shot. He moved with fluid grace through the air and across the ground, dodging Obadiah's bullets while frequently returning fire.
Perhaps Tony had sensed that Batman was watching from the shadows; nearly every maneuver felt like he was showing off the suit's capabilities and firepower.
Rat-tat-tat-tat…
Tony, in his Mark III, streaked past the spot where Batman was concealed. Obadiah's Iron Monger machine-gun rounds followed right behind him.
Under that hail of bullets, Batman remained perfectly still in the darkness. Every round passed harmlessly by him.
Thanks to Peter Parker's dynamic vision and reaction speed, combined with Batman's own experience, the instant a bullet left the barrel Batman already knew whether it would hit him or not.
During that sweeping barrage just now, the moment he confirmed none of the rounds were on target, he didn't move a muscle—even when the closest bullet grazed past his ear.
"Is Batman not hiding there?"
Tony frowned as he looked at the area that had just been stitched with gunfire, then banked toward another spot. At the same time he launched several micro-missiles back at Obadiah in mid-flight.
"Tony is using a display of his armor's firepower to warn me—hiding in the dark—not to make any rash moves."
"At the same time, he knows I'm here on site, but he doesn't know exactly where."
From the darkness, Batman silently tracked Tony Stark's flight path.
"Tony's armor is similar to Blue Beetle… no, more like Lex Luthor. The only difference is that Luthor's warsuit runs on electricity, while Tony's relies on the reactor in his chest."
"From his combat patterns, his weapons clearly have power-adjustment settings, and he has charge-up attacks—the longer the charge time, the greater the power."
"The beams he fires possess strong kinetic impact and high temperature, but so far they don't seem to have armor-piercing capability; they can't penetrate Obadiah's plating."
"There's also a repulsor beam emitter in the chest…"
Tony's original intention was to intimidate Batman by demonstrating his strength, but he had no idea that every specification of his suit was currently being silently recorded by the Dark Knight.
"Flight speed: unknown. Maximum altitude: unknown…"
The thought had barely crossed Batman's mind when Tony's Mark III suddenly rocketed upward.
Moments later, Obadiah's Iron Monger began rising as well. One chasing the other, the two soared into the night sky.
Their battlefield shifted from the factory floor to the open heavens.
"Barbara, record the data," Batman said to the Oracle AI while tilting his head to watch their figures shrink against the sky.
Woo-ooh! Woo-ooh!
Barely ten seconds after the pair disappeared upward, a rapid chorus of police sirens split the night.
Even the seasoned NYPD officers could only stare helplessly at the two figures climbing higher and higher into the darkness.
All the police could do was cordon off the area around the factory, keep curious civilians from wandering in, and wait for the two combatants to come back down.
"They've already exceeded one kilometer."
Batman watched Obadiah's form shrink to a mere speck.
"With Peter Parker's body, plus the web shooters and the Venom-Robin symbiote's assistance, my effective combat range reaches a maximum ceiling of around five hundred meters."
"Anything above five hundred meters is outside my operational range."
"The Batwing must be completed as soon as possible."
Calculating Tony Stark and Obadiah's rate of ascent, Batman felt a rare twinge of anxiety at something beyond his control.
He needed to finish building his Batwing—and fast.
Fortunately, the survey of North Brother Island was complete and reconstruction had begun. He had already purchased the island outright. Officially, in New York City records, it was still called North Brother Island.
But to Batman, that island now had a new name: Bat Island.
While the aircraft elevator platform was being built on the island, the prototype airframe that would become the Batwing was already en route.
"The first fighter will only be used for the rescue mission of Norman Osborn in New Mexico."
"After that, I need to continue investigating vibranium. If I can discover its true source and origin, perhaps I can build a vibranium Batwing."
"As for Tony…"
Batman stared into the night sky. By now Tony and Obadiah had nearly melted into the darkness, becoming just two more points of light among the stars.
They had already climbed close to five thousand meters—well beyond the limit of Peter Parker's unaided eyesight.
But Peter Parker's limits were not Batman's limits. Through the lenses of the Arkham suit and the symbiote's sinister white eyes now angled upward, Batman could still clearly see Tony five kilometers above.
At that moment Tony had closed into melee range with Iron Monger, trading blows with fists and feet while continuing to fly.
"Tony's armor isn't equipped with a dedicated close-combat weapon system…" Batman continued his instinctive analysis.
He believed Tony Stark was fundamentally a good man—someone who could even become real friends with Peter Parker.
But Batman couldn't guarantee what Tony Stark would become once he put on that suit, especially after Tony had recently warned him, as Batman, "Don't get any ideas about Peter Parker."
Batman feared Tony might follow the same path he himself once walked: the intoxicating rush of vengeance that comes the first time you operate outside the law in powered armor.
It had taken Batman years to rein himself in. He had to prevent Tony from going down that road.
At the same time, he had to ensure Tony didn't become addicted to the god-like power the suit granted him and lose his way entirely.
Batman had seen it happen countless times—not just with supervillains, but with superheroes too. Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.