Virginia Potts felt like just another worker in a building of hundreds, all wasting away hours spent hunched over computers, working with imaginary figures and statistics meant to somehow improve Stark Industries. On a hot summer day, her eyes struggled to remain open as her brain scanned the monotonous, boring information before her. With so many numbers, it'd be easy to just zone out or get lost in her thoughts, but being the hardworking employee she prided herself on, she stayed alert and focused, which is how she was able to spot a catastrophic error in the calculations for an expansion into the Middle East. It appeared Mr. Stark either wasn't thinking or was being careless with his proposal and hadn't considered the momentous cost of expanding into places without the man power or means to sustain such factories for weapon production. Not to mention the instability of the government or the lack of foreign policies that would protect the corporation. While she could ignore this stupid decision like she did with most of the ones made at Stark Industries, she found she couldn't shake the uneasy, foolish choice nagging at the back of her mind. Even when she was off the clock for the day, the idea of Stark's expansion made her stomach uneasy. Someone would have to tell him or advise him against this foolish endeavor, she just hoped someone would do it soon.
Days passed and it became clear Mr. Stark still planned on expanding into the Middle East. More plans were being sent to their small section of the company every day, tasking the accountants with analyzing cost benefits, budgets, and other monetary aspects involved in building new infrastructure in developing nations. Finally, Virginia had had enough of all this ridiculousness. She spoke with some of her coworkers on their thoughts of the new expansion and all of them agreed that it would probably end in disaster, leaving a messy problem in its wake and yet, when she broached the subject of bringing this to Mr. Stark's attention, they laughed at her. Calling herself even crazier than him, claiming they would like to be able to eat and wouldn't dare call out a mistake. Especially one made by the CEO himself no matter how big of a mess the mistake would inevitably create. Coming to the realization that no one would be brave enough to back her up, Virginia was determined to get the information to Mr. Stark regardless. She weighed the pros and cons of telling off her boss and in the end determined that if he fired her, it would be a good thing. Anyone who would be so foolish and callous after learning the facts of the situation was not someone she wanted to work for, no matter how much this job paid. Now all she had to do was figure out where he would be and when the best time would be to meet with him.
She found that his main office was actually in the very same building in New York where she worked, it was just a few tens of floors up and heavily guarded. She called his office, getting a personal assistant and asking to make an appointment to air a grievance she had with the company. The girl on the phone told her to wait a moment and a minute later explained that Mr. Stark would be too busy to speak with her and that she should instead try the HR department or one of the many board members, but Virginia knew as well as anyone what little power those upper officials held and the only person who really had any say in larger matters such as that which worried her was Mr. Stark himself. Virginia pleaded with the assistant over the phone who finally gave in and told her to stop by around noon the next day. Virginia smiled to herself and began preparing her research to present to Stark the following day.
It was a quarter before the time she was meant to meet with Mr. Stark when she took the elevator up to the top floor penthouse of the building. Stepping off, the space was much more open than she had imagined and she tried to look around for some kind of desk indicating a place for her to check in or let someone know of her arrival. There was one towards the center of the room with an unoccupied chair. Two men in black suits and ear pieces, body guards, stood tall outside two tall, glass doors. Through them, she could see the owner and company CEO. Unsure of what to do, she took a seat on one of the couches stationed between the elevator doors and the receptionist desk, waiting for someone to ask her her identity or what she was doing. As the clock struck the hour, Virginia Peeked over to the doors again and Mr. Stark was leaning back in his chair, eyes seemingly staring off into space. She looked around again for some kind of receptionist or assistant and seeing as there was none, she stood and marched towards the door.
"I had an appointment with Mr. Stark, can I see him now?" Virginia asked one of the stone-faced bodyguards. The man looked past her to the other guard.
"Appointment?" He questioned.
The other guard turned his attention to Pepper, and using a voice dripping with sarcasm and amusement, replied, "Mr. Stark is busy, he doesn't have time to be disrupted."
"But, I called yesterday and was told he would meet with me at noon." At this the guards didn't respond. They simply ignored her, going so far as to refuse looking at her.
"I'm just…" Pepper began, inching her way closer to the door. One of the guards, the second who had spoken, put his arm out, blocking her hand from the handle. Pepper, growing angrier, gestured to Mr. Stark who sat inside, balancing a pencil on his pointer finger. "I think he has the time, don't you?" She again tried to move forward.
"Miss, you'd better go or we'll have to forcibly remove you from the premises."
"I came to speak with Mr. Stark about a very important issue and I will speak with him." This again elicited silence from the guards who had returned to their original positions, hands at their sides. Virginia, determined and upset at the thought of all the research she had done going to waste, reached for the handle again, determined. This time one of the guards clamped a large hand on her wrist, pulling it back. Virginia,with her free hand, dropped her folder of papers and reached for her pepper spray. In one quick motion she had the spray uncapped and sent a fine mist into the eyes of her attacker. He let out a surprised cry and released her. At this point, the CEO himself had witnessed this attack and had gotten out of his seat to see what was going on. He opened the glass door, confused.
"What the hell is going on out here?"
"Mr. Stark," Virginia said, pulling at her uniform and straightening it before bending over to retrieve her fallen papers.
"Uh, who are you?"
"I'm Virginia, Virginia Potts." Pepper quickly stood up and held out her hand while trying to wrangle her papers back into a neat pile. Ignoring her hand, his attention was drawn to the angry bodyguard with eyes swollen red and anger seething from his skin.
"I was attempting to stop her. She claimed she had an appointment but I was told not to let anyone in," the man muttered out, trying to wipe his red, tear-filled eyes.
"I did have one," Virginia emphasized.
"No!" The guard spat back.
"I made one yesterday!" Tony looked back and forth between the two, unsure of how to proceed.
"How about we all calm down, you," he said, pointing at Virginia, "in my office." Without checking to make sure she heard right, he turned on his heel and strode back towards his chair.
Virginia filed in after Mr. Stark, regretting her previous decision to mace one of his bodyguards. She could only imagine what kind of trouble she'd be in. He sat down and crossed his legs, putting them up on his desk and leaning his chair back. Virginia stood stiffly before him, still clutching her papers nervously as he seemed to look her over with a strange mixture of amusement and intrigue in his eyes. He seemed to be analyzing her like one might do to a bug under a microscope.
"So Pepper-"
"Sorry, my name's Virginia, Potts. Virginia Potts."
"I like Pepper, can I call you Pepper? Anyways," Mr. Stark continued on without waiting for confirmation. "Why on earth were you trying to get in here so badly?"
Pepper. She thought to herself, repeating the name silently to herself. She had never particularly cared for Virginia, it felt too high society and there were points where she had attempted to shorten it, but none of those names stuck. Roni lasted all of a few weeks, but even she had to admit, she was no Roni. But Pepper? For some odd reason, Pepper felt right somehow. Much less formal than her God-given one. Perhaps it was because it was given by her boss, or maybe because it would always remind her of the partially insane side of her. Whatever the reason, she knew from that moment, Pepper would stick.