Chapter 17 - CEO

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"Wake up, Mommy's home." I tap on my holograms in my workshop.

"Welcome home, ma'am. Congratulations on the opening ceremonies. They were such a success, as was your Senate hearing. And may I say how refreshing it is to finally see you in a video with your clothing on, ma'am."  I laugh loudly at Jarvis.

I look over as my robot is trying to make a smoothie without the lid on the blender, "You!" I yell, making it knock the blender over.
"I swear to God I'll dismantle you. I'll soak your motherboard. I'll turn you into a wine rack." I turn back to my computer. "How many ounce a day of this gobbledegook am I supposed to drink?" I take a drink of this nasty liquid.

"We are up to 80 ounces a day to counteract the symptoms, ma'am."

"Check palladium levels." I press my finger into the small device, letting it test my blood.

"Blood toxicity, 24%. It appears that the continued use of the Iron Woman suit is accelerating your condition. Another core has been depleted."

I take my Arc Reactor out of my chest. The core pops out, rusted and slightly smoking. "God, they're running out quick." I Put a new one in.

"I have run simulations on every known element, and none can serve as a viable replacement for the palladium core. You are running out of both time and options. Unfortunately, the device that's keeping you alive is also killing you." I pull up my shirt to see my chest in the computer, my chest looked awful...there was a pattern comping out of the Reactor on my skin. "Miss Potts is approaching. I recommend that you inform her...."

"Mute." I put my shirt down.

"Is this a joke? What are you thinking?"

"What?" I ask.

"What are you thinking?"

"Hey, I'm thinking I'm busy. And you're angry about something. Do you have the sniffles? I don't want to get sick." I stand.

"Did you just donate..."

"Keep your business." I point.

"...our entire modern art collection to the..."

"Boy Scouts of America." I nod.

"...Boy Scouts of America?"

"Yes. It is a worthwhile organisation. I didn't physically check the crates but, basically, yes. And it's not our collection, it's my collection. No offence." I shrug.

"No, you know what? I think I'm actually entitled to say  our collection considering the time that I put in, over 10 years, curating that."

"It was a tax write-off. I needed that." I chuckle, looking at the holograms as I walk.

"You know, there's only about 8,011 things that I really need to talk to you about."

"Dummy. Hey, stop spacing out. The Bridgeport's already machining that part." I say to the robot.

"The Expo is a gigantic waste of time."

"I need you to wear a surgical mask until you're feeling better. Is that okay?" I ask Pepper.

"That's rude."

I sigh, "There's nothing more important to me than the Expo. It's my primary point of concern. I don't know why you're..."

"The Expo is your ego gone crazy."

I pick up a photo of the Iron Woman. "Wow. Look at that. That's modern art. That's going up."

"You've got to be kidding."

"I'm gonna put this up right now. This is vital." I nod.

"Stark is in complete disarray. You understand that?"

"No. Our stocks have never been higher." I nod.

"Yes, from a managerial standpoint."

"You are... Well, if's messy then let's double back." I nod.

"Let me give you an example."

"Let's move onto another subject." I say as she follows me.

"No, no, no, no. You are not taking down the Barnett Newman and hanging that up."

"I'm not taking it down. I'm just replacing it with this." I hop up onto the counter and replace the painting. "Let's see what I can get going on here."

"Okay, fine. My point is, we have already awarded contracts to the wind farm people."

"Yeah. Don't say wind farm. I'm already feeling gassy." I chuckle.

"And to the plastic plantation tree, which was your idea by the way. Those people are on payroll..."

"Everything was my idea." I nod as I hop down.

"...and you won't make a decision."

"I don't care about the liberal agenda any more. It's boring. Boring. I'm giving you a boring alert. You do it." I point.

"I do what?"

"Excellent idea. I just figured this out. You run the company." I smile.

"Yeah, I'm trying to run the company."

"Pepper, I need you to run the company. Well, stop trying to do it and do it." I say.

"You will not give me the information..."

"I'm not asking you to try..." I shake my head.

"...in order to..."

"I'm asking you to physically do it. I need you to do it." I nod.

"I am trying to do it."

"Pepper, you're not listening to me!" I raise my voice.

"No, you are not listening to me."

"I'm trying to make you CEO. Why won't you let me?" I ask.

"Have you been drinking?"

"Chlorophyll. I hereby irrevocably appoint you chairman and CEO of Stark Industries effective immediately. Yeah, done deal. Okay? I've actually given this a fair amount of thought, believe it or not." One of the robots brings me a tray which a bottle and glasses on it. "Doing a bit of headhunting, so to speak, trying to figure out who a worthy successor would be. And then I realised it's you. It's always been you." I Pour champagne. Pepper sits down, shocked and confused. "I thought there'd be a legal issue, but actually I'm capable of appointing my successor. My successor being you. " I Hand her a glass. She doesn't take it. "Congratulations? Take it, just take it." I sit next to her.

"I don't know what to think."

"Don't think, drink. There you go." I smile and tap her glass with mine. She laughs in shock and drinks.




God she was so beautiful.

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