Timeline: Post Iron Man 2

Disclaimers: Iron Man and its characters are the property of Marvel. Everything else belongs to me, Copyright © 2012 Anna Erishkigal. I write fanfiction for my own writing pleasure and enjoyment and receive no money for doing so. Bon appétit!

Chapter 1

"And as you can see from the financial projections outlined in the five-year plan prepared by our budget department," the Chief Financial Officer droned on and on.

Pepper Stark-Potts, CEO of Stark Industries, pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger. For more than a decade, she had begged, pleaded, and cajoled her former boss, now husband Tony Stark, into attending these Board of Director meetings. She had chastised him for not being more responsible about running his own company. Now that she was walking in his shoes, she sympathized with the urge to do something more interesting. Not enough to blow off today's meeting, but she now felt Tony's pain.

Pepper enjoyed the power and prestige her elevation to CEO had brought. It was a job she had been, in many respects, doing for many years. Especially after Tony had gone missing in Afghanistan and left her in charge of exercising his votes, not Obadiah Stane. But some days, like today, she s found herself wishing some despot on the other side of the world would blow something up so she would have a legitimate excuse to escape. Pepper would never blow off a budget meeting on a whim, but helping the Avengers clean up a mess would be preferable to popping Advil and chugging coffee to stay awake.

Perhaps she could bribe Senator Stern to pass legislation making it illegal to make budget meetings boring? What types of bribes would entice the pompous senator and nemesis of her husband to pass the desired legislation? Money … illegal. Pepper wouldn't break the law unless absolutely necessary. Perhaps she could invite him for lunch and take him for a joyride in one of Tony's latest prototypes? No. That wouldn't work. Pepper had made her peace with the senator, but Tony would never allow the pompous ass anywhere near the mansion. Pepper absent-mindedly twirled her long, red hair as she toyed with the ethical implications of bribing a United States Senator.

How about a flight on one of Tony's suborbital space craft he was tinkering with? That might work. It was largely being funded by NASA, so the senator was aware of the project. Heck! A senatorial investigation into how the government's money was being spent would even be ethical! A joyride at the roof of the world in exchange for legislation allowing her to imprison her CFO for making this darned meeting tedious would be a reasonable exchange. A gentle smile spread across her face as she pictured her CFO behind bars begging to be given another chance to present a Stark Industries five-year business plan that wasn't so darned … boring!

"Mrs. Stark?" Miss Mitchells, her efficient secretary, asked. "Nick Fury is on line six. He says it's urgent."

"Thank God," Pepper muttered under her breath, excusing herself from the meeting. As soon as she was out the door, she gave thanks to the creator for releasing her from budget meeting purgatory. Clicking back to her office with her signature four-inch heels, she sank back into her luxurious leather chair. "MAEVE … please cue up Nick Fury on the video monitor."

"Yes, Mrs. Stark," MAEVE said in her pleasant, slightly mechanical voice. MAEVE was the Stark Industries version of JARVIS, an artificial intelligence which had achieved sentience during an earlier mission. Pepper relied on MAEVE to monitor everything that went on at all Stark Industries locations worldwide the way Tony relied on JARVIS to monitor everything that went on in the Malibu mansion and whatever cutting edge project JARVIS was helping him work the bugs out of.

"Mr. Fury," Pepper asked as soon as Nick Fury's face cued up on the monitor. "What can I do for you today?"

"I take it you've heard about the civil unrest going on in Egypt?" Fury asked. His stern expression was given any ominous air by the black eye patch he wore to cover one eye.

"Who hasn't?" Pepper said. "President Mubarak has engineered a thirty-year stay in power by controlling who can run against him. The disparity in wealth between rich and poor has become obscene. The whole country is a powder keg waiting to explode."

"At this point," Fury said. "Mubarak's ouster is a given. It's just a question of whether it happens via peaceful means during elections, or violence. How smoothly he steps down will determine who takes control once he's out."

"What do you want me to do?" Pepper asked.

"The United States is in a devil's bind," Fury said. "On the one hand, Mubarak has recognized the right of Israel to exist and has provided stability in that region for thirty years. On the other, the way he has kept power and funneled resources to the elite has made a mockery of his claims that Egypt is a democracy. A lot of the funding for terrorism, as well as terrorists, originates in Egypt."

"So what you're saying," Pepper paraphrased, "is that Mubarak both fights terrorism, while fostering the situations which cause it to arise in the first place."

"Exactly," Fury said.

"What does this have to do with Stark Industries?" Pepper asked.

"As one of the most powerful munitions brokers in the world," Fury said, "who the CEO of Stark Industries even speaks to can send a powerful message. I want you to have a conversation with somebody."

"Who?" Pepper asked.

"The Muslim Brotherhood wants to institute Islamic law," Fury said. "They have sworn off violence and are trusted by poor and middle class citizens as a legitimate social agency. But the secularists distrust them. The Brotherhood also supports a well-known enmity against Israel."

"Can you blame them?" Pepper asked. "I'm no fan of Palestine, but any country that can't stop its own radicals from building settlements on other people's land is too incompetent to govern. We've refused to sell any more products to the Israeli government until they get their own house in order. The last thing Stark Industries wants is Israel using our equipment to bomb Palestinian villages … even if some of the people who live in the village are sympathetic to Hamas."

"Much of Mubarak's financial support comes from business interests allied with Israel," Fury said. "He was ready to step down earlier this week, and then all of a sudden he backpedaled. We have intelligence indicating his political backers are pressuring him to say he will step down in several months, and then put another puppet in place to replace him who will change nothing."

"And you'd like me to go have a very public meeting with the Muslim Brotherhood," Pepper said, "where nothing really gets discussed behind closed doors, so Mubarak's supporters realize there are worse things in the world than a few legitimate democratic reforms."

"Exactly," Fury said.

"Will the Avengers be involved in this mission?" Pepper asked.

"Not directly," Fury said. "But I'll be sending Black Widow and Captain America in under cover as your assistants to provide logistical support in case things get ugly. As far as the US Government is concerned, Stark Industries will simply be speaking to a potential client about the future sales of equipment and goods."

"You know Tony's not going to like my going into a hot spot without Iron Man at my side," Pepper said.

"Iron Man is too heavy-handed at this point in the game," Fury said. "We want to talk, not blow them up. You, on the other hand, have the carrot of your position as CEO of Stark Industries and the Stark Charitable Trust. If Mubarak digs in his heels and is ousted via civil unrest, it behooves the US government to have formed relations with his most likely successor. There are worst factions in Egypt than the Muslim Brotherhood."

"Hello, pyramids," Pepper said. "I'll leave it to you to tell Tony."

"Your flight is scheduled to leave at sixteen hundred hours," Fury said. "Natalie and Steve will meet you at the airstrip. I took the liberty of giving the FAA the status information of the Stark Industries private jet."

"Who is going to pay for the use of the Stark Industries jet?" Pepper asked, mindful of keeping the Corporate expense account separate from the adventures of both Iron Man, the Avengers, and little 'favors' such as this on behalf of the US Government. "And also my expenses while there? Let's be frank. The Muslim Brotherhood can't afford to buy anything from Stark Industries."

"I'll arrange payment through some back door account," Fury said. He had learned the hard way not to mess with Pepper and how she ran the company. Or meted out access to the genius of Tony Stark. It was for good reason Pepper had been nicknamed 'red dragon' by anyone who had ever tangled with her over the running of Stark Industries. "Just have Miss Mitchell forward me all invoices."

"I'll make contact from Egypt," Pepper said, giving him an innocent smile and ending the conversation.

"MAEVE," Pepper asked. "Did you get all that?"

"Yes, Mrs. Stark," MAEVE said. "I have already taken the liberty of monitoring all Egyptian television, radio, newspaper and internet communications. There are credible reports that Mubarak has planted plains clothing policemen amongst the pro-government protestors to incite violence against the peaceful anti-government protestors. Would you like for me to hack into all Egyptian government computer systems and monitor for irregularities?"

"Please do, MAEVE," Pepper said. "And call Jack Martin. Tell him to prep the suitcase armor … just in case. I want my own security person along on this trip, not just Avenger security." Jack Martin, a former Special Forces soldier, was her personal body guard and Stark Charitable Trust security expert.

"Right away, Mrs. Stark," MAEVE said. "Will you be returning to your budget meeting? You have time."

Pepper groaned. Her excuse for being absent was thin. She really needed to attend to the five-year budget plan.

"Tell Miss Mitchell to appease Tony when he calls here freaking out about my impending trip to Egypt until I get out of that meeting," Pepper said. "Tell him I'd like him to arrange a little private tour of the Great Pyramid at Giza with him as soon as I'm done meeting with the Muslim Brotherhood. That should keep him occupied long enough for me to finish up."

"Yes, Mrs. Stark," MAEVE said.

Leaving the comfort of her leather CEO chair, Pepper Stark-Potts click-clacked back into the budget meeting.