Pepper Potts stood near the entrance of the grand ballroom, her thumb hovering over Tony's contact name on her phone screen. She had called him six times. Six times, the call had gone straight to Jarvis's automated voicemail.
Around her, the Apogee Award ceremony was in full swing. Men in expensive tuxedos and women in glittering gowns mingled under the warm, amber lights of the banquet hall. But to Pepper, the elegant room felt like a ticking time bomb. The presentation was less than an hour away, and the man of the hour was undoubtedly still in the basement of his Malibu mansion, tinkering with machines.
She let out a quiet, stressed breath, pinching the bridge of her nose. 'I should have never sent a seventeen-year-old to do my job,' she thought, her stomach tying itself into knots. She began mentally preparing the damage-control speech she would have to give to the press to explain the CEO's absence.
"Miss Potts, the event coordinator needs a five-minute warning for the video package—" an assistant started to say, rushing up to her with a clipboard.
"Tell them to hold," Pepper interrupted, her eyes suddenly catching a familiar figure walking down the red-carpeted hallway.
Adam Sokolov was approaching her. His tailored suit was immaculate, his posture perfectly straight, and his expression as unreadable as ever. There was no grease on him, no signs of a struggle, and more importantly, no Tony Stark walking behind him.
Pepper braced herself for the bad news. "Let me guess," she said dryly as Adam stepped in front of her. "Tony ignored you entirely?"
"No, Miss Potts. Mr. Stark is currently at the high-stakes craps table in the VIP section of the casino," Adam replied smoothly.
Pepper froze. Her phone nearly slipped from her fingers. "Excuse me? He's… he's in the building?" She asked, shell-shocked.
"Yes, Miss Potts. He has been playing for the last ten minutes."
Pepper stared at him, her mind completely short-circuiting. She had expected Adam to fail. She had expected Tony to refuse stubbornly. But to actually drag Tony Stark from his workshop all the way to Nevada? "How did you… Never mind. He's actually here."
Through Adam's Spectator vision, the shift in Pepper's demeanor was fascinating to watch. For a fraction of a second, genuine relief washed over her features, her tense shoulders dropping a fraction of an inch. But immediately after, a new, sharper kind of panic set in. Her pupils dilated slightly, and her breathing grew shallow.
"He's in the casino playing craps," Pepper muttered, her hands fluttering slightly as the realization hit her. "He's in the casino playing craps, which means he's not going to walk into this ballroom. The ceremony is starting! He's going to miss his own cue while he's rolling dice!"
Adam watched her spiral for a moment, his face a mask of perfect calm. He analyzed the variables of the room, instantly recalling the seating charts and guest list his memory had processed earlier that week.
"Miss Potts," Adam said, his voice a steady, grounding anchor amidst her panic. "My task was to ensure Mr. Stark was in the vicinity of the awards, which he is. Forcing him onto the stage was never a realistic parameter."
Pepper looked at him, her stress visibly peaking. "Then who is going to accept the award, Adam?" Pepper let out.
"Obadiah Stane is currently mingling near the front row, three tables down," Adam pointed out flawlessly, without even needing to turn his head to check. "He enjoys the press, he loves the spotlight, and he represents the company's leadership just as much as Mr. Stark does. Let Mr. Stark play his games. When they call his name, and he does not appear, Mr. Stane will naturally step up to the podium to accept it on Mr. Stark's behalf."
Pepper blinked, her racing thoughts coming to a sudden halt. She looked from Adam to the ballroom, where Obadiah's bald head was visible over the crowd, and back to the seventeen-year-old PA. The logic was utterly bulletproof.
"We will just have to fake an emergency for Mr. Stark for tonight. And let's be honest, Miss Potts, Mr. Stark does not care about these awards. Before the night concludes, that trophy will end up in a trash can anyway." Adam stated in a smooth, calm tone.
Pepper took a deep breath and nodded her head in understanding. "Yes, you are right, the award does not matter for Tony. He just doesn't want to get bored. I guess it's a side effect of being a genius."
"Let's go, Adam, the ceremony is starting, and we'd better get inside." With that, Pepper led Adam inside the grand ballroom.
Inside, Adam observed everyone and everything that caught his eye; how some executives forced wide smiles that never quite reached their eyes, their jaw muscles tight with envy. He noticed the slight, nervous tremble in the event coordinator's hands. He also noted how some of the Board members of Stark Industries subconsciously angled their bodies closer to Obadiah Stane, seeking leadership in Tony's absence.
Beneath the warm, dramatic amber lights of the chandeliers, Adam could read the room like an open book: the forced laughter masking their nerves, and the calculating glances that revealed their true shrewdness.
'So, this is the true corporate world.' With a heavy sigh, Adam moved forward, unbuttoned his wool jacket, and took a seat beside Pepper while reflecting on how his life had changed, from an amnesiac transmigrator to a PA to one of the best secretaries in the whole business world in just two months. 'What will I do when the Spectator potion is digested?' Adam took a look at Pepper. 'Should I continue playing the role of a PA, or should I just resign once the digestion is complete?'
Adam's internal debate came to a sudden halt as the ballroom lights dimmed and a spotlight hit the main stage. Colonel James Rhodes, aka Rhodey, stood at the podium with the heavy glass Apogee Award.
"...so it is my honor to present this year's Apogee Award to my friend, Tony Stark," Rhodey announced, clapping his hands.
Just as the spectacle began, Adam started to spectate the unfolding drama.
The ballroom erupted into polite applause. And then, nothing happened. The applause slowly died down into an awkward, heavy silence. Rhodey shielded his eyes from the stage lights, looking for his missing friend. Pepper visibly tensed beside him.
But just as Adam predicted, or in this case, just as it was in the movie, the silence didn't last. With a booming laugh, Obadiah Stane stood up from the front row, buttoning his tuxedo jacket. He strode onto the stage, smoothly taking the trophy from a bewildered Rhodey and leaning into the microphone to soak up the applause.
Beside him, Adam heard Pepper let out a massive sigh of relief. Adam simply leaned back in his chair. 'Perhaps I shouldn't resign just yet,' he thought, watching the corporate theater unfold. 'Tony Stark is a magnet for chaos. There is no better place in the world for a Spectator to observe the human condition.' With that, Adam enjoyed a slight increase in his potion's digestion.