Once When She Was Young

Chapter 23 - Piper

LAST CHAPTER AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Thank you all for sticking with me this far. I will probably make a sequel just to close some plot holes like the VibraniumPrincess Minecraft thing or the number neighbor thing with Bucky Barnes but until then, I want you all to know how thankful I am! - Bean

"Hey, you got this!" MJ said.

"I honestly thought that she would take her position back. I didn't think she would decide to retire."

"It's like you said, the money is more than anyone could ever need. You've done the company so much good."

"But a press conference? Ahhhh."

"Just don't say you're SpiderWoman and everything will be good."

"I should totally pull a Tony Stark."

"Piper no-"

"I'm kidding. I have too many people to protect," I kissed MJ's forehead.

"Don't be a dumbass, 'kay, Loser?"

"Me? A dumbass? Never..."

Tony opened the door and said, "Hey, kid, you're up."

I walked into the room with MJ following.

She stood in the back with Tony while I walked up to the podium Pepper was at.

Pepper said, "I've heard about the long journey these past five years were. I've heard that through a chain of luck a young woman was made CEO that I never expected to ever take my place. Despite the fact that she was young, she took Stark Industries to new heights. May I introduce to you, the mystery CEO, Piper Romanoff-Jones."

I stepped up and looked out into the crowd.

'Could be worse.'

"Hi." I said a bit awkwardly.

'Come on, SpiderWoman wouldn't do that.'

'Spiderwoman just did that...'

"Hello!" said one of the reporters.

I grinned and said, "I'm so sorry if I'm weird, I have no media training. When I received an email at 17 that I was the first in line to be the CEO at SI I had no idea what to do. I didn't even know I was in the line. Of course, I was also sent the line of people after me and quite a bit of them had turned to dust.

"It was a long 5 years for me. Trying to keep a secret as big as being the CEO of a multimillion dollar tech company is a bit hard. I lost people. Everyone did. Being a kid trying to navigate this on top of school work was hard. I had to deal with kids who were jerks.

"I don't regret taking the position though. I grew up in the lowest of the lower class. My parents both died when I was young. My uncle died when I was 14. My aunt died when I was 16. I lived on the streets for about a month which is luckier than a lot of people. Carried my clothes around in one backpack, my school stuff in another which took me 3 weeks to buy. My amazing adoptive mother found me and took me in. She blipped but she's back now. This isn't supposed to be a sob story. Uhhh... what was I supposed to talk about?"

"You were supposed to talk about the stuff you did as CEO" MJ whispered.

"I decided about a month into the blip, 'you know what we need? We need energy'. I don't really know why. I think I need to have something to focus on so I wouldn't focus on the fact that half the planet had been reduced to ashes. I actually did it too. I made a working prototype and gave the blueprints to all of the interns so they could tinker with it. They're all smarter than me.

"I was also a teen mom. No, it wasn't my child. No, it wasn't my girlfriend's child. She was adopted but she was the greatest thing to ever happen to me. She would always drag me away from work when I was seconds away from pulling my hair out.

"That was off topic. Is there even a topic? It's all really kind of dreary. I'm not some old white man sitting on top of a tower laughing maniacally because no one knows who I am. I'm really just a kid who did her best to cope. Any questions?"

There were a lot. Every single reporter had a question.

"How did you handle school on top of being CEO?"

"I never slept. I'd go as long as a person could go without sleeping. I'd drink a horrendous amount of caffeine. It was pretty bad."

I pointed to another person.

"Stark industries is partnered with the Morgan Stark Foundation, do you know who runs that?"

"Me and my wife run the Morgan Stark foundation. About a week after the blip someone from the department of human services gave us custody of little Morgan Stark. When we both turned 18 we adopted her. We started the Morgan Stark Foundation to help people who might be in the same situation as Morgan. Who had lost both of their parents. Or the working spouse suddenly turned to dust and you didn't have a job. I didn't know what to do with my salary. I didn't need more than my small apartment in Queens so I donated millions of dollars to the Morgan Stark foundation."

"Where did you go to college?"

"I went to MIT. I'd promised a friend we'd go together but he blipped. I didn't really want to go without him but I was pushed to apply. I got a full scholarship. I made a few friends and got a couple of degrees. I learned that a friend of mine I made at college got a scholarship from the Morgan Stark Foundation for college because his mom blipped. Small world."

"Who is your wife? Is she the girlfriend?"

"No comment. That's her business and mine."

"Why does your hair look like you just woke up?"

"That's sexist... ok, does anyone else have any questions?"

"Why did SI start making cars?"

"Because we'd made a self-sustaining energy source that was affordable. It wouldn't bost the cost of cars all that much and it brought down the level of carbon emissions in the US by almost 60%"

"Whose idea was it to make the patent ban on the arc reactor?"

"Mine. The way I grew up, should SI have patented the arc reactor, we wouldn't have been able to afford it. Other companies wouldn't be able to make them and they wouldn't be as wide spread and affordable. We are partnered with Oscorp in keeping the ban and don't plan on changing that any time soon."

"Will you keep your job as CEO now that Pepper Potts is back on the scene?"

"I think that question would be best answered by Mrs. Stark herself. See you later!" I walked off as Pepper took the stage once again.

"Good job, Loser."

"Yeah, no I spilled everything. I'm a dumbass."

"You're my dumbass. And we're going to get through this together."

"I love you." I whispered.

"I love you too."

Tony leaned over and said, "Good job, Kid."

As I walked out of the door one of the men turned and smiled. He was an older man almost displaced among the sea of reporters. He grinned and said, "Marvelous speech, Miss Parker."

"How do you-" I caught sight of his name tag.

Stan Lee. Huh, interesting name.

He shook my hand and said, "I guess one person can make a difference," All of a sudden it didn't feel like he was talking about me being CEO. He laughed and said, "'nuff said."

All of the news headlines the following week were about Piper. But the most recent one was...

Once When She Was Young