Chapter 2
"Explaining the Situation"
Pepper was still unable to get over the fact she was being given a set of her own armor. For that matter, we were both unable to get over the fact that Tony was giving us these big positions. I had been given the reins of his company while his childhood friend was about to become the female Iron Man or something like that.
Still, there was the matter of addressing the company about the changes.
Later that afternoon, Tony called all of the employees to one of the auditoriums to announce his decision.
"I'm sure you are all wondering why I have summoned you all here on such short notice," he explained to all of his employees while leaning on a wooden podium. "Due to matters beyond my control and matters beyond Iron Man's control, I have decided to promote myself to Chairman of this company."
The entire staff briefly discussed with one another about this announcement.
"To this end," he continued, quickly silencing the employees. "You will have a new leader overseeing the day to day operations of Stark Enterprises. I've decided to promote Julia Carpenter, Chief Operating Officer, to Chief Executive Officer and Virginia Potts from Chief Financial Officer to Chief Operating Officer."
Reluctantly, everybody applauded and were now beginning to slowly accept the fact about the change in leadership. Once the announcement was made, we returned to Tony's office.
"Tony, I can't help but wonder," I said as we walked into his office. "Are you trying to lure Thanos' spies out in the open by promoting me and Pepper?"
"Sort of, yes, Julia," he answered. "They will more than likely report to Thanos that I have resigned my position as CEO and are leading the Avengers against him. What I need you both to do is to find the spies and destroy them."
"Destroy them? You mean, kill them?"
"Yes."
"Tony, we are not murderers, you know. Can't we just capture them and send them back to where they came from?"
"There are going to be times, ladies, that you will have to do something you don't want to do. If Thanos gets his hands on those stones, half the Universe will be wiped out. And if any of those stones are on Earth and they find them…"
A shudder befell on all of this with the thought of these so called "infinity stones" ending up in the hands of the enemy.
"In any case, you have to prevent the spies from helping Thanos obtain his goal," Tony continued, getting up from his chair and once again walking down to the armory with us in tow. "The sooner you stop these spies, the quicker Thanos will be defeated."
At that moment, we walked into the armory where HOMER was waiting for us.
"HOMER, you got anything on the spies?"
"Yes, Mr. Stark," answered the Artifical Intelligence. "Miss Carpenter, Miss Potts, I have found information on the spies Mr. Stark wants you to seek and destroy."
And HOMER downloaded several pictures of the spies in question, but rather than aliens or monsters, they were all normal people.
"They don't look like spies to me," remarked Pepper.
"That's because they are merely in disguise," explained HOMER, who downloaded the true forms of the spies: nothing more than large and powerful monsters made of rock, ice, fire, you name it. "These are the spies in question: Lythos, creature of Earth; Hydros, creature of ice; Pyros, creature of fire; and Stratos, creature of wind. They are all extremely dangerous and must be completely destroyed in order to be defeated."
"HOMER thinks that they might be at some of our company locations," said Tony. "Now, I'm sending you on a tour of our company sites in light of your promotions. When you go to these sites, I want you to keep your eyes on anything that seems out of the ordinary. If you see anyone suspicious and its revealed to be them, that's when you make your move."
"Are there any particular locations, Tony?" asked Pepper.
"Not at the moment, Ms. Potts," said HOMER. "But, I would start preparing for what is ahead now while Mr. Stark prepares to lead the Avengers into battle against Thanos."
Once our briefing was over, Tony went about donning his Iron Man armor to combat Thanos. A few moments later, the doors opened and Jim Rhodes stepped into the armory in his War Machine armor.
"Jim, I thought that you…" I started to say, remembering that Jim retired from being War Machine a while back.
"War Machine's back, Chuckles," he interrupted walking over towards me and Pepper. "We've got a big alien dude to take out and a short amount of time to do it. How do you feel about being given the keys to the car?"
"Still trying to process it. It just seems all so sudden that Pepper and I were given such prestigious roles."
"You'll get used to them eventually," chuckled Tony, now in his Iron Man armor. "Besides, didn't I say a long time ago that there are going to be surprises and rewards?"
"You did."
At that moment, I noticed a look of concern on Pepper's face. It was pretty apparent that she was beginning to worry for Tony's safety as much as I and who could really blame Pepper? She and Tony were childhood friends and were important to each other just as I was to him. True, we were boyfriend and girlfriend, but Tony had platonic relationships with women in his life.
"Look, I promise you I will come back safely," he reassured to both of us. "But, all I ask of you is to have a little faith and trust in me."
"Easier said than done, Anthony," I said in a worried tone and Tony pulled Pepper and me close to him in an embrace. "I love you."
"I love you, Julia and I love you too, Pepper," he whispered as Jim motioned for Tony to leave the armory with him. "Don't worry, I will be back and the rewards we will share will be unlike anything we have ever received before."
With those words, Pepper and I watched as Tony and Jim took to the skies to fight the impending war against an intergalactic conqueror while Pepper and I were left to hunt down his spies.
"What do we do now?" Pepper wondered as we watched Jim and Tony head off into the setting sun.
"We start preparing," I answered, firmly clutching my gold pearl necklace that Tony gave me as a gift following my promotion to COO. "We start preparing."