Disclaimer: I do not own "Iron Man: The Animated Series" or its characters. They are property of Marvel Comics and the Walt Disney Company.
"Fired"
By TwilightSparkle3562
As Chief Executive Officer of Stark Enterprises, it is my duty to be a leader of the company my father worked so hard to build. Sometimes, when you have to set an example to others, it's not to be that easy.
That was the case when I, Tony Stark, otherwise known as Iron Man, had to make a pilgrimage to Hong Kong to do just that.
Something had happened in our Far East Division, someone had violated the culture of Stark Enterprises and I needed to make a trip to fire the party responsible. Let me tell you, firing someone from within your own organization is one of the most difficult things you can do as a boss.
"Yeah?" I called out from my office.
"Tony, it's me," replied a female voice.
"Come in, Jules."
The door opened to reveal my girlfriend and Chief Operating Officer, Julia Carpenter, dressed in her casual clothes of a white shirt, blue vest and blue jeans holding a cup of coffee for me to drink.
"You seem troubled," she remarked as she walked over to my desk and handed me the cup of coffee, immediately taking notice of my distressed look. "Let me guess, we have to fire someone?"
"Right on the noggin," I sighed, looking up at the ceiling of my office as Julia sat down next to me at my desk. "Apparently, the individual violated company policy. Apparently, he had been downloading child pornography from a company computer. Makes you sick, doesn't it?"
"Ugh! You're telling me, Tony. What is up with the people we hire? I mean, do they have better things to do than to just download garbage on our systems?"
"Apparently, that's not the case with these guys, Julia," I groaned, trying to rise out of my desk chair. "You know all too well that I don't tolerate behavior like that and those who defy me are out. I mean, if you were in my shoes, would you do the same thing?"
Of course, it didn't take long for her to respond.
"Yes, I would. I grew up a very strong Catholic, Tony and the nuns in Catholic school would have just beat up someone with a ruler until they die for downloading garbage onto a school's computer system."
"Spoken like a true Catholic," I said in a sarcastic voice.
Smiling, Julia got up and left me once again alone in my office.
…
Early the next morning, we took a limo up to Logan International Airport in Boston and boarded United Airlines Flight 207 to San Francisco, CA, a Boeing 757 departing at 7:55am and arriving at 11:25am. Then, we connected to United Airlines Flight 869 to Hong Kong, a Boeing 777 departing at 1:00pm and arriving at 6:00pm the following day. Once we arrived in Hong Kong, we checked into the JW Marriott Hotel in Downtown Hong Kong and prepared to do what we had to do which was to fire an employee who violated the company policy.
…
When the day arrived, it wasn't to be that easy. The employee was a young Chinese man, fresh out of college and full of life ahead of him all to be wasted because of his stupidity.
"Do you know who we are?" I asked the man in a stern tone as Julia and I, dressed in our respective yellow and blue business suits, sat in front of the young man inside a conference room. "Well, do you?"
"Um, yes," the man stammered. "You are Tony Stark, leader of this company."
"More appropriately, your Chief Executive Officer and this woman, Julia Carpenter, is your Chief Operating Officer. Now, are you perhaps wondering why we are sitting here in front of you?"
"Because I did something stupid?"
"You did something far more than just being stupid," I answered bluntly, looking over at our Far East Division president, Suzi Endo. "Rather than doing what you needed to do, you went behind our backs and downloaded disgusting garbage."
"I couldn't help myself, Mr. Stark," cried the Chinese man. "You must understand. I tried to control it, honest!"
It was clear that the man was trying to save his career by kissing our butts. But, neither Julia nor I was going to accept his apology.
"And how many times have I warned you about downloading pornography?" added Suzi, giving her employee a hard stare. "Well, how many times?"
The man didn't respond and just sat there like a little kid who got his hand in the cookie jar.
"Yes, you know how many times I warned you, Edward."
"And we have tried to be patient with you," remarked Julia, lightly tapping her left high heeled foot down rapidly. "But you have left us with no other choice."
"That's right," said Suzi, rising to her feet, her eyes locked onto her soon-to-be terminated employee. "Edward Wang, you have left us no choice but to release you from your contract. You're fired from Stark Enterprises."
…
Shocked and dismayed, Edward got up and without saying another word, slowly walked out of the room with his head hung low. He didn't look back at us and while we did feel bad for him, he broke the rules and we had to fire him.
"I'm sorry you had to come here to do this, Tony," sighed Suzi, walking up to shut the door to the office. "Trust me and you have to believe me, I did try my best to stop him. I had conversation after conversation after conversation with him about his behavior and with each time we had the conversations, he promised me."
"It's okay, Suzi," I sighed, rising to my feet along with Julia, who lightly began playing around with her gold pearl necklace. "We had no other choice but to fire him. You know that both Julia and I hold a zero-tolerance policy against accessing garbage like that."
…
So, Julia and I spent the remainder of our time in Hong Kong trying to get the vibes of firing one of our own out of our systems. The next morning, we headed to Hong Kong International Airport and boarded United Airlines Flight 896 to Chicago/O'Hare, a Boeing 777 departing at 11:40am and arriving at 12:53pm. After clearing immigration and customs, we boarded United Airlines Flight 913 to Boston, MA, an Airbus A319 departing at 3:30pm and arriving at 7:01pm.
So, it was over. We had to fire a Stark Employees and let me tell you that it certainly wasn't easy in any way, that was for sure. Both of us could only wonder where to go from here with our employees. We had to make it clear that we were not going to stand for behavior like this and that was the truth.
..
THE END