Avengers Stories //Oneshots//

We Rise Above Our Challenges - Part 2

Pepper Potts - Overwhelm

Virginia Potts didn't think she had ever been so overwhelmed in her life.

There were many instances where she thought the events happening to her were going to overwhelm her - topple her ship of barely hanging on calm that cane with the whirlwind of her daily life. Her first day as Stark Industries had been the first time she truly thought she knew the meaning of being overwhelmed - Tony Stark could make anyone feel exhausted purely from his hyperactive nature and need to get on everyone's nerves back then, but she had pushed through it all. It was the first of many increasingly overwhelming days in her life: a particularly high workload in her schedule, finding out Tony was missing in Afghanistan, taking over the company, learning Tony had been poisoned and nearly getting blown up, watching him take the nuke up into the portal, getting experimented on... it was an endless list of days where she felt a wave might pull her under permanently, but she always managed to get through it to see the sunrise the next day.

Now, standing among the floating ashes of what were once people and watching smoke rise from crashed cars without drivers, she knew that whatever she thought before was wrong. She thought things couldn't get more overwhelming than when a man jumped out of a golden portal in front of her and Tony followed a flying spaceship out of the atmosphere a minute later, but she had been wrong. This was the greatest feeling of being overwhelmed that she had ever experienced. Many people had disappeared into ashes, cars crashed where they had been driving normally a second before, electricity went out throughout buildings as power polls were knocked over, horrified screams ripped her ear drums from all around her - it was almost too much for her to handle all at once. No one should have to handle this.

Those who hadn't disappeared were standing or sitting on the ground. Some appeared lost, looking around like a newborn deer at the destruction around them, and other cried their hearts out. People who hadn't seemed to know each other a second before were hugging, bracing each other for support as the world crashed around all of them. Pepper had a sinking feeling that this wasn't just happening in New York. It had happened everywhere. Her phone started ringing off the hook in her pocket, but she couldn't bring herself to get it out yet. Her heart was running a marathon in her chest and it was hard to keep her breathing even despite her best efforts at calming herself. She was panicking.

'Stop it,' she told herself, folding her hands together and looking down at the sidewalk, gathering her thoughts. 'Stop it right now. You are Pepper Potts. You are the CEO of Stark Industries. Tony is missing, the world is crumbling, but you're still standing. Are you going to cry or do something to help?' She closed her eyes for a moment, focusing on the acrid air filling and leaving her lungs before raising her eyes back to the destruction and people before her. She ran the largest tech company in the world, one that specified in clean, renewable energy, technology, and relief efforts. It spanned across the globe so if this was truly happening everywhere, she could help.

Her heart slowed down, now trimming with determination rather than panic. The feeling of being overwhelmed ebbed away. It was still there, definitely, but it was overshadowed by her need, her want, to help those around her. These were people who didn't normally deal with life threatening situations. They were living their lives and then it was all upended in less than a minute. They needed her help. Her husband was gone, somewhere in space and maybe dead (don't think about that, Pepper), but she was still here. She could help everyone she could. She might not be an Avenger or someone people thought should handle world ending disaster. That didn't mean she couldn't.

She turned her swirling feelings into ambition, calming the storm inside her. Everyone here was overwhelmed and so was she. They were in this together, so they had to help each other, work together to keep themsleves standing. That's what these overwhelmed, hugging strangers were doing. Helping. That's what she was going to do. No matter what it took.

"It's going to be alright," she announced. Heads turned to look at her, eyes empty and searching. Some walked forward only to stop, hesitant in the nightmare of a scene around them. Pepper didn't know exactly what she was going to do at this moment, but she had to help calm who she could. The feelings of being overwhelmed, lost, confused, small - they were horrible. "You might not know me, but I am Pepper Potts. I'm going to help sort this all out. Follow me to the tower. Stark Industries will provide relief to all who come and don't. I know everything is confusing and scary right now, but we can push through it."

She started walking to the tallest building in the city with a small crowd following her. These people were depending on her. That overwhelmed feeling started to come back, and she squashed it down with a vengeance. She could deal with that later. Right now, she was on a mission to help these people. All people. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and answered the call of a board member.

"I need all hands on deck right now."

She might not be on control of the situation, but she could control what she could. She could help, and that made this overwhelmed feeling of hers shrink away a bit more.

She was Pepper Potts.

She could do this.