A little earlier, around the time Arkham Batman had just been discharged from the school hospital, his first stop after leaving was neither the classroom nor the library, but the activity room of the magical mechanics club.
The moment he pushed open the door, Stark jumped. Stark set down the wrench he had been using to repair an armored suit, looked Arkham Batman over from head to toe, and said, "Are you okay?"
"For now." Arkham Batman strode to the workbench and took the gem from the experiment table—the one that had succeeded in the previous test.
"What are you doing?!" Stark hurried over to stop him. "This thing hasn't been tested yet. You can't just take it down. What if it explodes?"
"It already exploded," Arkham Batman said.
"What?"
"Why else do you think I was in the school hospital for so many days?"
"Didn't they say there'd been an elemental riot in the magic forest?"
"No."
Arkham Batman's tone was icy. Stark was curious about what had happened, but his instincts told him to stay away from this person.
Even though this guy was also Batman, he clearly wasn't the same kind of person as Main Universe Batman. Arkham Batman might have looked colder on the surface, but Stark could tell that he was actually the more emotionally volatile one. At least right now, he looked furious.
Arkham Batman swept every gem from the experiment table into his hands. Stark wanted to stop him but did not quite dare to, so he tried to change the subject. "Didn't you say you wanted to try an armored suit last time? I've almost finished adjusting the model..."
"I don't need it," Arkham Batman said. "Can you get me a car?"
"I can, but what model do you want? Stark Industries'