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Post by Tony Stark on May 24, 2012 13:08:01 GMT -5
Location: Eastern Europe, Stark Industries CA
Date: 11/24/2012
Time of Day: Mid Afternoon, Early Morning
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He'd just finished making a demonstration out of a weapons carrier van, melting it down. Iron Man was cleaning up any remaining Stark Industries weapons still out on the market. Today's perpetrators were AIM, the Advanced Idea Mechanics, and the Kingdom of Latveria.
Turning to Lucia Von Bardas, Iron Man spoke up, "And tell your boss, my weapons are no longer for sale. He's smart, tell him to make his own." Tony Stark knew exactly who he was messing with in this situation, but he didn't care. The tyrant of Latveria could deal with a few less explosives, in his opinion.
Flying off, Iron Man headed for California. It would be a rather long flight, but Tony could use the workout, he'd been stuffed into an office all week, three weeks ago, maybe.
"Call from Miss Potts. Shall I put it through?" JARVIS asked Tony as he leisurely headed from Europe to California. Tony thought for a moment and then said, "Go ahead and put it through."
He watched as the call came up and then immediately began with his excuse for the day, "Hi Pepper, I uh, just got out of the shower, I'm doing my tie. I'll be in the office in, thirty minutes." That was a bold faced lie, there was no chance that Tony would even make it past Boston in thirty minutes, and that was if he skipped the bagel run in New York.
"What's up?"
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Post by Virginia Potts on May 24, 2012 13:49:35 GMT -5
* * *Pepper had breezed into work over an hour ago, her sensible pumps matching her dove grey suit, and her bright locks corralled into a low chignon. She supposed someone needed to appear businesslike, since Tony so often didn’t, so it was as much PR necessity as it was personal preference.
As for Tony, he hadn’t come in yet, but that was par for the course, really. After all, it was still barely nine in the morning. She couldn’t realistically expect him til half eleven, and even then he’d be there 20 minutes before suggesting lunch. In Vegas.
Rolling her eyes at the thought, she dove into her inbox, priority items first, double checking her agenda for the day as she cradled the phone against her ear. Her schedule book was thankfully light today, which was a rare pleasure. A voice crackled to life on the other end of the phone, and she launched into business mode, her smile evident in her voice.
“Mrs. Belmer, hello -- this is Pepper Potts on behalf of Stark Industries – I was calling to discuss the Bessette…”
Aware that it was nearing lunch time on the opposite coast, she deftly maneouvered the purchase of the painting, a lovely piece to add to the burgeoning recollection she’d begun last year. No sooner had she resettled the phone in its cradle did she think to pause business for a moment, a hunch directing her to dial Tony from her personal line.
“Tony.”
"Hi Pepper, I uh, just got out of the shower, I'm doing my tie. I'll be in the office in, thirty minutes."
She didn’t let him finish, beginning to speak over him after the words “Hi Pepper.”
“You realise that suit has a unique phone number, correct? Inform him, would you, Jarvis?” * * *
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Post by Tony Stark on May 24, 2012 14:45:50 GMT -5
“You realize that suit has a unique phone number, correct? Inform him, would you, Jarvis?”
"Each suit following the Mark four has a private line, disconnected from your personal mobile device. You personally ensured that after the Paris incident."
He and Pepper had this awful habit of saying things at the same time, surprisingly enough, no one missed a word that the other said. Of course, there was no point in listening to anything that Tony had to say because ninety percent of the time, he was just lying to get himself out of trouble for something.
"Alright, so it'll take a little longer than thirty minutes. I'm thinking about stopping for bagels, do you want one? Poppy seeds, right? Or was it pumpernickel?" He had no idea what kind of bagel Pepper liked, or if she even liked bagels. Tony stopped beating around the bush and said, "I heard about a trade of my old tech going on AIM was selling it again, so I went and melted it down."
Tony smirked and said, "You're never going to guess who was buying, rhymes with Boom."
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Post by Virginia Potts on May 24, 2012 15:04:33 GMT -5
* * *Sliding her pen efficiently into her hair, the right corner of Pepper’s mouth quirked as he mentioned bagels. Only someone like Tony would take a vengeance break for breakfast food. She would have been touched he had thought to ask her order, but it was likely just a ploy to change the subject, seeing as he likely knew that most women loved carbs.
"I heard about a trade of my old tech going on AIM was selling it again, so I went and melted it down."
Pepper frowned. This was news to her, and she made it her business to stay abreast of all happenings that involved the Stark name. She gifted Tony with a rare moment of quiet, letting him enjoy the sound of his voice as she tapped slender, practiced fingers against the keyboard, the day’s major headlines, NASDAQ index, and the first fifty news strings mentioning “Stark” anywhere in their entirety. Even illegal trades usually had a cover story with a grain of truth embedded.
Still nothing.
"You're never going to guess who was buying, rhymes with Boom."
She clicked again, the windows whisking out of sight. It frustrated her that she’d missed the trade; she would have to reconfigure her radar. She thought she’d included a broad search scope to fish out mentions on nearly any channel imagineable, but obviously things could still get past her. Maybe Jarvis could offer some suggestions. Clicking open the media monitoring software he’d built for her, she shifted the phone restlessly to her other ear.
“Enlighten me.” * * *
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Post by Tony Stark on May 24, 2012 15:25:57 GMT -5
Jarvis took the liberty of pulling up information on Pepper's screen as Tony spoke to her about what he'd been up to while she was getting ready for work. Information about Latveria began pulling up on the screen as Tony narrated, "Latveria is a country nestled in between Hungary, Romania and Serbia."
As he flew across the the Atlantic Ocean towards New York City, Tony continued, "Ruled by Doctor Victor von Doom. He's one of the top scientists in robotics and weapons technology. He's right up there with Reed Richards, you met him once, the lanky guy, brown hair, kinda white on the sides even though he's only thirty something."
He probably shouldn't have told Pepper that he'd just ruined a weapons trade between a different country and a terrorist group, but he was having a good day already, and who wouldn't brag about such an accomplishment? Regardless of whether it had been a good idea for him to do it or not.
"So, bagels, I'll just get one of each."
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Post by Virginia Potts on May 24, 2012 16:51:43 GMT -5
* * *Pepper sat back in her chair, the ergonomic design creaking just a little as she tried to absorb the information.
“I took geography, thank you, and I know who von Doom is,” she snapped. He was only in every major robotics publication in the last decade. And he’d been in Stark’s shadow for even longer, dwarfed by the weapon innovations the company had come up with in the past.
Sharp eyes scanned the map, not looking at the inevitability of unstable arms relations in the area – that was a given – but mentally calculating how far it was from New York, let alone California. She was continually amazed by both the suit’s capability and Tony’s audacity.
“Pick up two of each.” The relentless click of a mouse echoed from her end of the call. “Otherwise we’ll both want the pumpernickel.”
If she sounded distracted it’s because she’d mentally moved on to the stack of information Jarvis had provided for her. Even though she was clearly more use in a business capacity, she tried to stay informed about potential threats. They were proving to be mildly important in her line of work, to say the least.
Shaking her head, she stored the information to the private drive, where she could peruse it when she didn’t have approximately twelve board proposals for review.
“And don’t forget, you have a twelve-thirty today." * * *
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Post by Tony Stark on May 24, 2012 18:57:57 GMT -5
He had a meeting today? Who even bothered to schedule a meeting with him anymore?
"Who needs me anymore? Everyone's supposed to call you at least that's what it says on my," he paused, realizing he'd just outed himself, "Voice mail." If he wasn't focusing on flying, he would have rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. Waving it off like getting it trouble was common occurrence, Tony continued their chat.
"Well then, who needs to see me and what's it about?" Tony couldn't imagine there was anything on the work schedule that Pepper couldn't answer for. There were things being worked on that Pepper was in charge of that even Tony didn't even know about. Without Pepper, the company would fall, but that's the way that it had always been when Tony took over when he'd graduated from MIT.
Nearing New York City, Tony changed the subject once again, "Oh who even cares about work. What are we doing tonight Pepper?" That was far more interesting to him. With Banner living at Stark Tower at the moment, they'd taken up at his Malibu home. Really between being Iron Man and dating Pepper, working at the company wasn't nearly as exciting as it used to be.
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Post by Virginia Potts on May 24, 2012 21:30:24 GMT -5
* * *The voicemail in question wasn’t news to Pepper. She’d laughed at the irony of being directed to it herself a few times. And then she’d started screening her calls. Heavily.
Smoothly bringing up the board proposals in order of presentation, she multitasked, as she often had to do during conversations with Tony, catching up on the fine print of each one. If she had something to object to, that’s where it would be, so she made it a point to always read the fine print.
In her ear, the man on the phone was all questions, and she took a breath, preparing to fill him in about his lunch date, but was instead bombarded with another question before she could get a word out.
"Oh who even cares about work. What are we doing tonight Pepper?"
She paused, switching the phone for her more comfortable Bluetooth.
“Are you done? Can I talk now?”
She tried to keep the smile out of her voice; it would not do for Tony to think she found him amusing. Without waiting for an answer, she continued.
“As I was trying to say, your twelve-thirty is a Miss Potts.” She looked away from the computer monitor, giving into the urge to smile despite knowing she wasn’t getting any real reading done. Once Tony hung up, she would have two and a half hours to get to know the intimate details of each proposal, so they could wait a few minutes.
“Put on a suit, you’re taking her somewhere expensive.” * * *
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Post by Tony Stark on May 24, 2012 23:12:18 GMT -5
Tony shut up when Pepper gave him the 'Are you done?' line. That always meant that Pepper had something to say and he'd better let her say it or he'd be paying the price for it later. Slowing to a stop as he landed in the middle of New York City, Tony heard the schedule, "Miss Potts? Oh good. I've been meaning to have lunch with her."
Walking across the street toward his favorite bagel place in all of Manhattan, Iron Man waved and nodded to people like he was just in his regular clothing. Having already been a pseudo-celebrity before becoming Iron Man, Tony was not only used to, but he soaked up all the attention.
"Alright Pepper, I'll see you in a bit. I see the bagel place." He had Jarvis kill the call and then walked to pick up bagels, getting a bit of everything since he probably wouldn't be back in New York for a few days.
About an hour and a half later, Tony rode into the office in one of his cars, not nearly as exciting as his suits, but they only had seating for one. He made his way up and into Pepper's office, smiling to her secretary before promptly ignoring her, a bag of bagels in hand.
"Good morning Miss Potts, I have your pumpernickle, they were still fresh last I checked." He took another bite of his own before holding the bag out, falling into the chair opposite Pepper's.
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Post by Virginia Potts on May 25, 2012 0:52:37 GMT -5
* * *As usual, a goodbye was unnecessary with Tony; he’d hung up the phone Just as well. She had a company to tend to, after all.
Two hours later, she was still flipping through the document files, but had also coordinated a space for the new painting to be hung, fielded a slew of inquiries regarding requests for media appearances by Mr. Stark, and signed off on the audit of their public relations sector. She had just closed the seventh proposal, and wondering how long she could wait before informing Tony that he was now a keynote speaker for the BSA End of the Year banquet when her door opened inward.
That soft, demure smile curved her lips as she took in his appearance. It wasn’t so much the suit as the fact that he’d listened to her; she was touched. Taking the bag from him, she peeked inside. The dark, yeasty smell rose up to greet her, and she flickered a gaze at Tony, who was sitting placidly in one of her chairs. She stepped over to close the door, setting the re-folded paper bag on the end of her mammoth desk and fixing him with a Look.
“You’ll ruin your lunch, you know.”
Slipping gracefully back into her seat, she crossed her legs.
"Also, you're early. Should I call for a medical consult... Are you feeling ok?"
Still smiling softly, she reached up and turned her headset to idle, indicating he had her full attention; she knew how he thrived on that. * * *
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Post by Tony Stark on May 25, 2012 1:40:20 GMT -5
"Feeling okay?" Tony asked in a lighthearted tone, taking another bite out of his bagel, "I feel fantastic, and I haven't even had a nap yet." He'd been out and about all day so far, having flown from his house out to Eastern Europe, beaten up a bunch of AIM soldiers and Latverians, then flown back here, only stopping for breakfast.
Looking across the desk with his usual cool faced cockiness, Tony continued bragging, "I mean, how many times a year do you get to say, 'Y'know, I got to tick off the top brass of a foreign dictatorship?" He paused before saying, "Oh, I suppose I forgot to mention that Lucia von Bardas was there. Yeah."
Lucia was Victor von Doom's right hand woman. She was always doing the dirty work that Doom wouldn't waste his own precious time with. Things like making a weapons pick up. He supposed that would come back to bite him in the ass, soon enough. Not that it really made a difference. He smiled a bit before asking, "How long do you think it is before Fury tries to chew me out this time?"
It had to be coming, you don't get to go and cause an international incident without having to deal with Nick Fury eventually, "Oh right, Pepper, Black Friday is coming up. Make sure to get a nice new patch for Fury? I'm sure he has a few already, but what says happy holidays more than a nice new eyepatch? Maybe we can get it with embroidered, something classy."
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Post by Virginia Potts on May 25, 2012 4:16:50 GMT -5
* * *”Of course you’re feeling ok…” There was the slightest trace of sarcasm to Pepper’s voice, but she’d learned from the best. “You’ve only wreaked enough havoc for a small country. Literally. And all before noon.”
Reaching back, she pulled her hair from its careful updo, and it brushed over her shoulders carelessly.
“That was not a congratulations, by the way.”
Leaving her hair haphazardly arrayed, she turned her attention from Tony for just a moment. Swivelling ninety degrees in her chair and closing off the documents she’d managed to read through, she sorted them quickly into a pile of yesses and nos. The five she had yet to read remained untouched on her private desktop, a not so subtle reminder that she should browse them at her earliest convenience. She also made herself a virtual sticky note to research Lucia. She’d heard about the woman several times, but knowledge was power, as they said.
Distracted, she turned back to a very merry Stark.
“Is Good Friday a customary gift day?” She pretended to muse it over. “I would check with the others, he might already have a bedazzled patch. It wouldn’t surprise me.”
She quirked an eyebrow, her mouth hinting at the merest curve of a smile but not breaking. In reality, she would probably have to deal with Fury on Tony’s behalf, though she might just let Nick in on wherever Tony happened to be when that happened, in the interest of teaching him a lesson. And, to be fair, in the interest of not having to deal with Fury herself. She was a businesswoman, not a damned superhero, and she didn’t have to put up with him. Unlike Tony.
Her lips quirked at the thought.
Shrugging out of her blazer, the soft lighting highlighted her bare shoulders in the pale lace shell she wore. She folded the jacket over her arm, knowing she’d need it again in the restaurant.
“The top of the car goes up on the way to lunch. I don’t want to look like I’ve gone two rounds with a tornado when we get there.” * * *
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Post by Tony Stark on May 25, 2012 10:06:02 GMT -5
With a nod, he answered, "You got it. I'd hate for your fair to be a mess." He paused before revising his statement, "Well, I'd hate for your hair to be a mess, so early in the day." He looked back to Pepper with a cheeky smile, proud of himself for still behaving like a sixteen year old. Maturity was overrated.
Tony was brimming with energy at the moment, after a good workout in Europe, it wasn't a surprise. Really it was because there hadn't been any super threats in a long time. After that army in New York City a few months ago, none of the Avengers had been up to much of anything, the occasional bank robbery, big fire, those kinds of things, and that wasn't counting the SHIELD assassins.
"So then, Miss Potts," Tony started again, "Where is this expensive destination we're off to? The Palm? Urasawa? Norma's?" He was trying to cut back on his drinking lately, really failing in doing so, as he starting a new workout schedule. This left him a lot hungrier than he used to be.
It was all the old man's fault. If Captain Rogers hadn't said he needed to workout more, Tony wouldn't have been giving himself grief about his workouts and diet.
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Post by Virginia Potts on May 25, 2012 17:05:18 GMT -5
* * *Pepper couldn’t help a smile at the thought. She tossed him a glance full of promises, and nodded towards the door.
“Talk and walk, Mr. Stark. Concentrate if you need to.” Obviously she was teasing; Tony was even better at multitasking than she was. Hers tended to be less destructive, though; somehow paperwork and phone calls couldn’t compare with transcontinental flight and explosions.
“Norma’s sounds good…” she mused. Over the last year, she’d gotten better at dealing with the reality of Iron Man, and decided the worry that always came with the topic could wait til after lunch.
Her heels clicked along the cool granite of the floor as they walked along. She had a rule: no PDA at work, though it was moments like this that she sorely regretted it. Still, it had been hard enough to agree to come back to the managerial team after that first kiss. Business executives the world over had had a field day with that one, especially since she didn’t have a big degree like Tony had. Luckily most of the scandal had passed by now, in part because Pepper insisted on keeping her work and personal lives as separate as she could.
Which was admittedly hard now that she’d taken up residence in Malibu.
Stopping at the main desk, she took a moment with her secretary, checking to see that her afternoon schedule was still the same and letting her know that she would be unavailable for the next two hours. The secretary’s eyebrows didn’t raise so much as a millimeter, which is why she still had a job. With a glance behind her, Pepper stood at the glass door leading outside, silently letting Tony know she was waiting for him to open it; he definitely had some making up to do for the mess he’d created this morning. * * *
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Post by Tony Stark on May 25, 2012 17:39:16 GMT -5
After catching Pepper's look, Tony was up and out of his chair almost as soon as the words left Pepper's mouth. He was already looking forward to spending the afternoon out with her while they pretended to be out on a business meeting. When you ran a multi-billion dollar industry, and are the only name in clean energy, you can afford to take time off now and then.
At least, that's what Tony believed. Being the head of the company was a full time job, but so was being Iron Man. That meant, when he had free time, he jumped and took it.
"Norma's it is then," Tony announced as he pulled the door open for Pepper. The pair walked out of Pepper's office and headed toward the elevator. He had a mischievous air of happiness surrounding him, obviously Tony was still riding the rush of adrenaline of the fight and then the super sonic speed flight back to California. It didn't hurt that the Arc Reactor kept his heart beating at a normal pace no matter how much energy he was exerting. Tony always had energy to spare.
With November drawing towards a close, the weather outside was perfect. Not too hot, never even close to cold. Pepper still wanted the top on the car up, which was a shame, but Tony didn't mind. He could live without a few minutes of California sunlight beating down on his head.
His incident earlier today aside, things had been rather quiet. With the superhero groups starting to pop up all over, crime was starting to drop by huge rates. He looked toward Pepper and asked, "Did you hear about the new kid in New York? Red and blue? Bug boy or something."
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