Chapter 3

"Assuming the Role"

Early the next morning, Pepper and I awoke to find ourselves in a strange new position. With Tony gone, I was now CEO of Stark Enterprises and Pepper was in my old position as COO. But, we were in these positions for a reason and we needed to focus on whatever needed to get done in Tony's business and the business of finding the spies working for Thanos.

"Good morning, Julia," said Bambi, our secretary as I walked towards Tony's former office the next morning. "Your workload seems a little higher than normal. Guess they are wasting no time in making demands out of you."

"I'm used to it," I sighed. "Did Tony schedule any visits for me and Virginia to take before he left?"

"About four, Julia. You are to both visit our plants in France and Germany in two days and then at some point, make a visit to our Far East division in Hong Kong."

"That's only three," I remarked.

"The fourth is a weekly visit to our New York offices."

"I see," I said, looking over to see Virginia's new office, which was my former office. "Has Virginia come in yet?"

"She was heading to the employee breakroom about 15 minutes ago. She might still be there."

Acting on this advice, I made my way down to the break room, where Pepper was getting herself a cup of coffee.

"I take you found out about where we are heading to," Pepper said yawning, as I began to make myself a cup of coffee. "Didn't really sleep all that much thinking about this damn new roll that we've been given. You?"

"Me too," I yawned. "Part of me thinks that Tony did this just to rattle my cage. Then, again he has always been a very shady character to understand. Look at this way, Pepper. He and I are more than likely going to be married one day and this is what my future is going to look like. Was he ever like this with you?"

"Sometimes, when we used to date," Pepper answered. "It wasn't until after we graduated high school that I couldn't take it anymore and decided to break up with him. Now, many years later, we're still together, but platonic."

I couldn't help but feel sorry for Pepper upon hearing this. Nevertheless, Tony was the man behind Iron Man and he needed to be away to operate him.

"Well, all I can do now is hope that this will be the last major confrontation," I sighed, taking another sip of coffee. "It's really high time Tony are married and he settles down, but I'm not a patient person sometimes nor the fact that I am not getting any younger. The sooner we find these spies of Thanos', the better."

With those words, we left the break room and proceeded to go through our first round of meetings with employees and customers, kind of what Tony always did. Once the meetings were over, we had Bambi start planning for Pepper and me to travel to our company plants in Europe.

Later that day, the travel arrangements were made for us to fly to our company plants in Paris and Berlin for our respective visits. But, at the same time, all I could think of was Tony and his well-being. Fortunately, we had found some time to get in touch with him, thanks to HOMER.

"How did the first day go?" Tony asked, reporting from a distant planet in the galaxy.

"Anything that you can expect," I answered, sighing heavily. "How's the hunt for Thanos going?"

"It could've been better. But, most importantly, I think that this is going to be the last mission we will undertake. I don't know about you, but I think Thanos is going to be just as dangerous as the Mandarin was. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I start to compare Thanos to the Mandarin."

"In what way?"

"Well, think about it, Julia. The Mandarin spent a good part of his time scouring the globe for his missing rings and wouldn't rest until he got them all. I guess could be the same about Thanos."

"Hmm, you have a point there. What are you going to do now?"

"Well, for starters, Steve Strange is missing."

"What happened?"

"He was taking prisoner by one of Thanos' goons. We're trying to find him."

"Then go and be careful! I love you!"

"I love you, too."

Shutting the monitor down, I just sat in the armory and realized that if Steve had been taken prisoner, I couldn't help but imagine who was next.

"What's going on, Julia?" I heard Pepper ask me as she walked into the armory. "I heard you talking to Tony."

"You could hear from behind those doors?"

"Well, they aren't soundproof," chuckled Pepper. "Anyways, how did he say the hunt was?"

"It could have been better according to Tony," I answered, rising to my feet and walking over to a monitor. "Steve Strange was taking prisoner."

"Dr. Strange, the neurosurgeon from New York?"

"The ex-neurosurgeon, to be exact," I corrected.

"Why would they take him prisoner?" wondered Pepper.

"Beats me," I said, walking towards a closet and opening it to reveal my Spider Woman costume. "But, in any way, we need to start getting ready to find these spies."

At that moment, we heard a sound and turned around to see HOMER standing behind us.

"And soon you shall," he said. "Mr. Stark has said to me that he would like to have you start training in your new armor as soon as possible, Miss Potts."

Pepper glanced nervously at me, almost as if she wanted to back out, but she couldn't. We had a duty to perform and we needed to prepare for it.

"Might as well listen to the boss," I remarked.

Taking a deep breath, Pepper took off her business suit and stripped down to her underwear and then walked over to the armor as she was suited into it.

"Well, the suit fits," Pepper said reluctantly as she got to her feet. "But, how does it work?"

"That's why we have to do some tests with it," HOMER answered. "Step in the virtual trainer, Miss Potts."

And the lights turned on in a large room that Tony used for his training as Iron Man. Pepper gulped nervously as she slowly walked into the room to begin her training and there was no better time to start than now…