Miss Wayne.
After several days of electronic warfare, Tony found that Wayne Enterprises was indeed as formidable as its reputation suggested. Of course, he had heard of other well-known companies like LexCorp and Queen Industries. Nevertheless, he had managed to infiltrate the internal networks of these companies, and Wayne Enterprises had the most vigorous response. Tony even found himself admiring their cybersecurity experts.
Therefore, when Tony heard the name, he thought he was about to face a Natasha-like femme fatale, or at best, a serious and sharp business elite like Pepper. No matter, he was adept at dealing with women, second only to his expertise in genetic mutation research. Stark's charm was unparalleled, and he was ready to face this "Miss Wayne".
Three minutes later, he changed his mind.
"Are you even out of high school yet?" Tony asked.
The girl obviously hadn't fully matured; she was underage. His meticulously prepared script, which he had prepared with great reluctance, was now all but useless. She didn't even have the assertive aura of a leader, nor was she dressed in a business suit. Instead, she looked like a backpacker who had just returned from a trip to Europe. Apart from carrying a knife, she seemed overly obedient.
Baia also observed the man in front of her, with a small beard and a pair of lively caramel-colored eyes, and she didn't expect such a conversation starter.
She replied reluctantly, "Not yet. What about it?"
"Then go home and call your parents," Tony said.
"No way. He's busy, I can help you," Baia replied defensively, crossing her arms and looking at him with some discontent.
Oh, "he's" busy. So, what he was facing was a half-grown kid, probably from a single-parent household.
Baia escorted Tony out of the police station, where the officers lined up, expressing their gratitude and reluctance one by one, as if bidding farewell to some kind of local deity.
Tony Stark, the "Metal Man", guardian of computers and all mechanical products in the police station, the modifier, the universal laborer powered by nothing but alcohol and coffee, was leaving them today.
What a pity.
Although he himself felt no regret.
"Let's go," Tony said casually, hands in the pockets of his sports jacket, walking leisurely beside Baia, as if he were taking his niece for a walk rather than borrowing 30 million from her company under false pretenses with the moniker "WayneTechSucks". "Let's get to the point, about—"
"About you coming from another world, maybe we can brainstorm together to find a way to send you back," Baia said.
Tony raised an eyebrow in surprise.
Completely unexpected topic.
"If you want to talk about that," Tony said, "Cheeseburger."
"What?" Baia was puzzled, struggling to keep up with his train of thought.
"I said lunch. Or do you have any other suggestions?"
Human love for junk food was innate, and even Baia, whose cooking skills far exceeded the family average, was no exception.
Before finding the fast food restaurant, Baia went into an Apple Store and bought a laptop, which Tony showed some disdain for her choice.
Sitting down in the fast food restaurant, she tore open the slightly damp and still hot wrapper with her slender and pretty fingers, smelling the savory aroma of cheese.
"Where do we start?" The girl, who was now sipping on her cola with a hand on her hamburger, began to look at Tony with keen and focused eyes. Tony didn't particularly like this feeling, as if she were actually a spy from S.H.I.E.L.D. or the FBI, interrogating him. Nonetheless, he stretched out his legs and sat in the bright yellow plastic seat of the fast food restaurant, like a boss.
"Let's start with what you know?"
"I don't know much," Baia started licking her fingers, a bit more relaxed now that Alfie wasn't around. She squinted at the mission description, unsure, "Um... I only know that you're from another world, Mr. Iron Man."
"Bingo." Tony snapped his fingers. "How did you find out about me?"
Baia noticed that the other party took her pointing out his secret identity well, and he even called himself Iron Man at the police station. Could it be that this guy didn't actually hide his identity?
"Maybe because WayneTech isn't that bad."
Oh, here it comes.
Tony shrugged, making himself look very innocent. "Well, I borrowed some money."
"Why did you borrow so much money?" Three million dollars was not a small amount, even for Wayne Enterprises' cash flow.
Tony didn't like explaining things to others; he preferred to state facts. He enjoyed sharing his genius ideas but didn't care if others understood them. However, the situation was different now, as Baia was the creditor.
"You see," Tony casually opened his computer as the Chairman of Stark Industries, "I wrote a little program to help me trade stocks, to make some big bucks to greet our little investors on Friday, and then report my total assets."
A gentle and tender female voice came from the computer, "Hello, Miss Wayne."
"Um, hi, Siri," Baia leaned over.
"She's not Siri!"
"But this is a MacBook!"
"That's why the idea of buying a computer from an Apple Store sucks. Anyway, Friday, asset report!"
"Your current total assets are two hundred and fifteen million dollars," Friday said.
The atmosphere was a bit awkward.
"It seems the big bucks have taken quite a beating," Baia remarked after a moment of silence.
"Well, it looks like I need to double-check my little program," Tony said cheerfully. "Friday? My good girl, you better not act like a dumb AI, or we'll have to consider selling someone to buy a return ticket."
Friday sensed the warning in her creator's tone and fell silent, feeling wronged.
"I have another suggestion," Baia sighed, "why not transfer the money back to Wayne Enterprises' account? By next quarter, it should double."
"One quarter? Might as well let me grow old here. Don't worry, there's nothing Tony Stark can't do, making money is just a piece of cake."
"But it seems that someone and the little program aren't stock market wizards?"
"In my world, I have better channels to make money, but not in a police station."
"But don't forget, you raked in 30 million in a week at the police station."
"Hey, don't be so mean!" Tony complained.
Baia was experiencing a completely different way of getting along, somewhat like her interactions with the system or Holly. To her, whether it was Selina, Bruce, Dick, or Tim and Damian, they all seemed more like elders, with a level of maturity far beyond their age. Iron Man—this man with caramel eyes—was completely different from the Gotham vibe.
"Listen, any idea I come up with is worth a billion."
"Great, sell them to Wayne Enterprises?" Baia rested her chin on her hand.
"—None of those ideas will be named Wayne. Absolutely not. Forget about it."
Over the course of a meal, they became familiar with each other. Baia was naturally friendly, while Tony still had doubts in his mind, but that didn't stop him from acting friendly.
Tony and Baia exchanged some information; they briefly talked about themselves.
"It's all your fault," Baia leaned on the table and watched Tony adjust Friday's program. "My brother hasn't slept well for days."
"But neither have I, don't double standards," Tony said. "Wait...the hacker who's been tracking me is Wayne's little young master?"
"Yeah."
Tony made a meaningless sound, feeling that this world was even crazier than he had imagined.
He had suspected that this might be a fictional world, or that he was having too many illusions after drinking. But all signs indicated that he had simply crossed over. Well, this was a theme perfectly suited for Tony Stark to exploit, ideally in a classic sci-fi novel.
But no, the absurdity here surpassed that of his own universe. At least in his world, there were no Kryptonians like this OP creature. And he lost his armor, which was the worst part of the whole situation, without a doubt. Worse than suddenly becoming penniless and the Stark surname no longer meaning anything—well, maybe the latter brought him more problems.
This was a complete fresh start. He was all alone, no Avengers, no S.H.I.E.L.D., no Pepper and the vast industrial chain that supported his interests, no garage and basement, no beloved British-accented AI.
It reminded Tony of the day when Mark I was born. At least he had a scientist by his side back then, not a high school girl. But he could handle it; he could always solve all problems, alone.
The fact was: he felt anxious.
"Don't worry, Mr. Stark," Baia comforted him, "I'll figure out a way to help you."
"You? What can you do? Besides solving quadratic equations," Tony retorted.
Baia raised her forearm from the table and waved her hand at him. "Look here."
She waved her fingers, and a faint golden mist shimmered. Tony was momentarily stunned; it felt incredibly strange, but in a good way. In the past few months, he hadn't felt this energized.
"How do you feel now?" Baia asked.
"It's hard to describe. I feel a bit too sober now."
"Sober isn't good?"
"Not all the time—haven't you heard of the Bacchus Theory? Whiskey fuels my inspiration."
"But you just boasted about being a scientist! And what are you doing now?"
"Jotting down some new ideas," Tony said. "Forget what I said earlier. You're amazing, truly. Let's do it again."
Tony needed to debug Friday; he liked having an artificial intelligence by his side, his loyal friends. However, as he left his world, the link with his original AI was severed. It took him a few days to conceive a new code and store it on a network virtual host, possibly borrowing some hardware from other companies.
But that wasn't enough; Friday needed physical hosts to help him find his mysteriously missing armor, not just an Apple laptop.
Tony sighed and took off his sunglasses. "If you really want to help me, I do need something."
"Tell me your plan?" Baia clasped her hands together, looking very focused.
"The backup plan is a full spectrum radiation detector, a particle accelerator, vibranium-titanium alloy, some radioactive elements, and some funding."
"Why not just ask me to build a nuclear reactor?"
"If you can, that would be great."
"I can't get any of these things; after all, I'm just a high schooler," Baia shrugged.
"Aren't you Miss Wayne?"
Baia emphasized, "That's my dad's money, not mine."
"Okay, then the plan changes. Instead of funding, we'll need a company and a CEO."
"A CEO?"
"Or maybe some CEOs. I don't know, maybe having more CEOs can significantly increase their average lifespan?"
Baia had the system find a warehouse because the house they were in Gotham was rented by the system. Baia felt that the house rented by the system had some kind of lucky attribute, after all, it directly helped her get close to Selina.
The system grumbled, "Are you using me as Airbnb?!"
Tony had a warehouse now, which was great; things were starting to fall into place.
"I'm a genius," Tony pushed his $25 sunglasses, "the armor itself isn't important; even if I lost one, it doesn't matter. I became one of the greatest people in American history not because I have a suit of armor."
"So what's the next step?"
"...Of course, it's to get my armor back."
"Is your armor gold and red, with thrusters on the hands and legs?" Baia stared at the TV screen in the fast-food restaurant.
"Yeah. Why?"
"It seems like it's on TV."