"You all are so desperate that you even brought my friend, John here too. For what? He doesn't even have the technology that you want to so use by yourself." Tony continued.
"Tony it's fine. Senator, you can proceed to your questions." John intervened.
"Mr. Jameson, is Batman your friend?" he asked.
"Of course he is my friend senator." John replied with a smile.
"Then Mr. Jameson I would like you to reveal his face. Him having such high tech weapons is dangerous for the people of United States." senator replied. When Bruce came to earth, Nick Fury made a separate identity for Bruce and Alfred so the normal politicians had no idea of who he was exactly.
"Do you want me to rat my friend Senator? I am sorry. I can't do that because that's not what friends do." John said.
"Then you will be charged with aiding and abetting a vigilante Mr. Jameson." said the senator with authority.
"Vigilante? You can't even hold on to Tony, do you think you can hold on to me or Bruce? There is not even a single incident of vigilantism by Bruce and police can't even prove that it was his work. The weapons which he has is already with many departments of the country and the only difference is a suit provided by Tony. The only thing is that he is far more efficient, better and faster than other people around." John said and everybody on the audience gave a nod accepting it.
"The technology of Bruce's suit is provided by me. That's my property. As I said you can't have it. Bruce is my friend too. Thank you senator for making us take such a long flight and your immense help in wasting our time." Tony added and started leaving. John too followed and left with Tony.
John knew that this was all a facade for showing dominance. The committee knew that they could never force something out of both of them as that might backfire and bring the economy to it's knees. This was a power play by the politicians which turned out to be a failed one and an embarrassment for the people of the world to see. John had made such long preparations just to face this day without any worry.
"There will be a Grand Prix in Monaco. I hope you will join it." Tony said to John as they were leaving.
"Sure I would join you at Monaco. Take Bruce too." John replied.
John left for his home as he had work to do and Tony for his with Pepper. In the next few days Tony and Bruce started learning and working on alkahestry and alchemy. They were amazed of how vast the knowledge was. They both had plans to use alchemy/alkahestry while fighting.
After weeks of research the only solution they could come up with was stopping the palladium poisoning but it can't cure him as the reactor continues to pollute his blood. Bruce drew a transmutation circle all over his chest and two small transmutation on his feet to channel life energy and stop the advancement of blood pollution.
Even though it will stop the poisoning but if he used his armor too much the poisoning would still rise albeit slower this time. Tony was heartbroken when he saw the results. He had hoped a lot out of it but still it seemed that God had left him bare handed.
Tony, in order to distract his mind, started learning fighting tactics from Bruce. He even made an arena at his home just to learn how to fight. As he was practicing with Bruce, Pepper came with a very gorgeous and beautiful woman with fiery red hair color following Pepper. Tony saw her from the corner of his eye and was immediately distracted.
Tony received a punch on the face right after that "Distraction. Could kill you" Bruce said after hitting him.
"Hello boys. Thomas how is the babysitting going on?" Pepper asked Alfred who was watching the fight from the sofa. In the presence of others Bruce and Alfred had different names. Bruce was named as Lucian and Alfred as Thomas.
"It's fine miss Potts. Master Stark can be handful but I can take care of him." Alfred said. Alfred had been looking after both of them while Pepper was busy managing the company.
"That's good. Tony I need your signatures for the last time. It's about the handover for the company" Pepper asked Tony. Bruce looked at the beautiful woman, he instantly felt that the woman wasn't simple. Being an assassin himself he could feel that the woman was like him, a trained personnel.
Bruce wasn't sure if she was an enemy but he made a defensive pose instinctively. The woman saw that and smiled at Bruce instead. Bruce was confused but kept his guard up.
"Hello, what's your name lady?" Tony asked her.
"Rushman, Natalie Rushman" she said. "No she is not." Bruce said under his breath.
"Come here. Help me take my position and fight this guy." Tony told her.
She happily obliged while Tony got down and sat with Pepper.