application | tushanshu
May. 7th, 2015 22:14![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lasergrenadesPlayer Information:
Name: Sealrat
Age: 23
Contact: Plurk
Other Characters Played: N/A
Most Recent AC Link: N/A
Character Information:
Name: Pepper (Patricia) Potts
Canon: Iron Man: Armored Adventures
Canon Point: Season 2, Episode 26: The Makluan Invasion Part 2: Unite! In the middle of Gene Khana, aka The Mandarin, teleporting Pepper and Rhodey out of the Makluan ship.
Age: 17
Reference Links: Wikipedia IMAA, IMAA Wiki Pepper
Setting: Iron Man: Armored Adventures (IMAA) is a high school AU for the Marvel universe, focusing on a teenage Tony Stark and his friends, aka Team Iron Man. The show is based in modern-day New York, although the level of technology available indicates that this universe is significantly ahead of our own – stealth tech, flying suits of power armor, and solid holograms are all commonplace. Physics is regularly broken by each new appearance of technology, The main cast of Tony, Rhodey, Pepper, and Happy, as well as some other minor but well-known Marvel characters are aged down (The Mandarin, Justin Hammer, Jean Grey). Predictably, the show is interwoven with every day teenage drama.
The show starts out with tragedy: Howard Stark is killed in a plane crash that leaves his son, Tony, with a heart implant. Obadiah Stane takes over as CEO of Stark Industries until Tony turns eighteen. Tony goes to live with Roberta Rhodes, his father’s lawyer and mother of his best friend Rhodey. He also starts going to school for the first time in his life, and he finds out that his ascendancy to the Stark throne is dependent on his attendance and grades – not so easy when you’re out fighting crime all night. Tony builds a lab/armory near the Rhodes’ house, where he re-creates his armor (originally damaged in the plan crash) and begins experimenting with all sorts of cutting-edge technology. He shares his status as Iron Man with Rhodey almost immediately, and his best friend provides backup support from the armory’s pilot chair.
Tony begins to attend The Tomorrow Academy, where Rhodey is enrolled, and makes it abundantly clear that his intellect is well beyond even that of his teachers in certain subjects – but he’s still an angsty teenager all the same. The school is ostensibly for exceptional students, although it reflects the average university standard of enrolling sub-standard scholars who are outstanding athletes (such as Happy Hogan). School is where he meets Pepper, who – despite never having met him – seems to know his history inside and out. She figures out Tony’s identity in short order and immediately dubs them Team Iron Man.
Tony is also introduced to Gene Khan, who remains his friend for the duration of season one, although Rhodey and Pepper have some reservations about Gene at first. Tony, however, is drawn to Gene’s expertise on the Makluan rings, since Howard was focused on this strange technology before he died. Gene has his own agenda – from the age of six he was instilled with the idea that the rings are his birthright and that he is the one true Mandarin. Gene uses his position as the stepson Xin Zhang, leader of the Tong crime syndicate, to pursue the rings, of which they believe there are five.
The Tong aren’t the only organized crime operation in IMAA; Team Iron Man is often seen subverting the activities of the rival clan, the Maggia, led by Count Nefaria. The Maggia also boast two villains that Tony regularly encounters: Shrike and Unicorn, who themselves have power armor modeled after their namesakes. While Team Iron Man is always on alert, SHIELD is also a regular presence on the show. The Helicarrier is often nearby the city, contributing in equal parts to law enforcement and general mayhem when one of their experiments goes horribly awry, or a prisoner escapes. Pepper is a big fan of SHIELD, and jumps at any chance she can get to work with their agents in the hopes of becoming one herself. The FBI also operates occasionally in the show; Pepper’s own father is an FBI agent and she regularly uses his position as a way to investigate criminal ongoings in Manhattan.
Large corporations in the city, including Stark Industries and Hammer Multinational, also regularly contribute to the pool of super villains and ongoing crime. This theme is especially prevalent in the second season, and Team Iron Man faces as many moral and ethical challenges as they do criminals. Tony and Rhodey both now have suits of armor, which has an impact on Rhodey’s grades especially. All three of them struggle with grades at one point or another in the show, and sometimes school provides as much drama as crime fighting. Pepper’s talent for research and focus under pressure makes her an effective station operator after Tony makes Rhodey his War Hammer armor. Pepper does eventually get her own armor toward the end of the show, complete with laser grenades and steal tech, and takes on the name “Rescue”.
A few familiar faces from the Marvel Universe show up, namely Bruce Banner, aka The Hulk, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Nick Fury of SHIELD, the Black Panther, Jean Grey, Magneto, and Charles Xavier.
A major theme for the entirety of the show is the search for the Makluan rings. This is how Gene becomes Tony, Rhodey, and Pepper’s friend. He’s forced to work with them in school on some assignments, but he also helps Tony to study and locate three additional rings. At the conclusion of the first season, it is revealed that Gene is the Mandarin that Team Iron Man has been encountering, and he’s also responsible for the plane crash that ‘killed’ Howard and resulted in Tony becoming Iron Man. Each ring has a unique power, and while anyone can use the first ring to activate the powerful Mandarin armor, only Gene can use the remaining rings. This is explained in the second season; as it turns out, a Makluan deserter stole the rings from the Overlord and fled to Earth, where he combined some of his DNA with the First Mandarin (yep, aliens are a thing here too). Gene carries the genetic market of the Mandarin, but he’s sorely lacking in the good moral fiber department, which is an equally important qualification for being the Mandarin.
The First Mandarin did not believe his children were worthy of the phenomenal cosmic power of the rings, and so he scattered them across the world and created a series of perilous tests to prove the seeker worthy of the rings. The characters all believed there were only five rings, but after the fifth is found and combined with the others, they reveal a map to five additional rings. The search for these five other rings drives Gene throughout the second season, and we find out that he’s had Howard Stark held captive all this time, assisting him with his search for the rings. Sometimes even Howard’s intellect fails, and Gene has to return to Tony for help. Pepper continues to believe there’s good in him, but Tony and Rhodey are too stung by his betrayal to forgive him.
And perhaps with good reason. When Gene finds the tenth and final ring, he’s basically got godlike powers. Combined with years of programming and (implied) child abuse, Gene is the epitome of the unstable, teenage supervillain. He announces his presence as the Mandarin to the world (read: in Manhattan), and demands that they bow down to him in return for world peace. Unfortunately for him, his use of the tenth ring attracts the attention of the Makluans, who immediately rain on his parade by descending over New York and teleport him out of the sky. Gene is stripped of the rings and informed that Earth will be destroyed, mostly for the sake of amusement.
Team Iron Man teams up with agents from SHIELD as well as the Black Panther, the Hulk, and Howard Stark in order to battle the Makluans. Howard had designed a dampener to temporarily nullify Makluan technology after being freed of Gene, and the hope is that they can use the secret satellite Tony put up in space to take down the Makluan ship. Tony, Rhodey, and Pepper take on the Makluans while the rest of the gang sneaks to the reactor core to place explosives. Team Iron Man joins Gene in a gladiator-style arena against the Makluan’s greatest warriors with the promise that, if they win, Earth will be spared. They neatly defeat their opponents, but the Overlord could care less. This, too, has just been for entertainment, and now he’s bored.
The placement of the explosives was a success, and after some additional beating on the Overlord, Gene gets the rings back. The ship, of course, is going to explode, so Tony tells Gene to teleport everyone else to safety while he keeps the Overlord distracted. The mothership explodes dramatically, with Tony still inside, but he survives both the explosion and the several-thousand-feet fall onto Manhattan concrete. His helmet has fallen off in the process, and its revealed that he’s Iron Man. Rhodey and Pepper follow suit, and there is much cheering and celebrating (on camera, at least. Off camera there are probably a lot of dead people and buildings being destroyed by falling Makluan ship bits).
Gene, meanwhile, surveying the destruction of his actions from above, decides that maybe he’s not meant to rule Earth, but protect it, and flies off into space.
Throughout the show Pepper displays feelings for Tony, especially in her outright dislike and jealousy of Whitney Stane, who garners some of Tony’s romantic attentions during the first season. She gets him back by ‘dating’ Happy Hogan a few times, which Tony is thoroughly displeased about. After Gene saves Pepper during one of their ring adventures, she also seems somewhat enamored of him, although this ends with his betrayal. The show was obviously trying to stick to the traditional Pepper/Tony story line, but because it’s a high school AU they don’t explore the theme much.
Personality: Pepper is, to say the least, very talkative. She often manages to cram so many words into a sentence you wonder how they don’t reach critical mass and destroy the speech center in her brain. She’s also pretty hyperactive, which lends itself to her endless ability to talk. Her own father tells her that she talks too much, and she gets booted from the Helicarrier for asking too many questions. However, the absolute speed of her locution means that her brain-mouth filter sometimes runs a little bit behind, and she can sometimes be a little tactless. It also turns her into something of comic relief, as she’s nearly always cheerful, but it does occasionally get her and Team Iron Man out of sticky situations as well as into them. When she gets angry, though, look out; she’s fierce to the point of being dangerous.
Pepper also has a tendency to overreact, and jumps to the worst (and sometimes highly ridiculous) conclusions (see the time she tried to arrest Tony when he had a double running around hurting people). She’s also quite adventurous, to the point of being reckless, and she sometimes takes impulsive risks, such as reaching beyond her limits when she first learns to fly a suit of power armor.
Despite these flaws, Pepper has an almost unnerving ability to find information on basically everyone in existence, especially those individuals who she has absolutely no security clearance for even knowing exist. She regularly cracks her father’s passwords into the FBI mainframe, which either means she is a l33t hax0r (possible), or the FBI and her father are terrible at computer security (more probable). Her ability to gather this information makes her a valuable member of the team, but her ability to read people based on that information makes her irreplaceable.
A core reason for why she both is willing to break the law is because she's highly inquisitive; she always wants to know what is going on and how she can contribute to a situation. Information and knowledge excites her almost as much as fighting criminals. She also believes that she has a right to the information, in a way; as the daughter of an FBI agent, she extends her father's activities and security clearance to herself. Her father's work is her's by genetic right, and Pepper really, really just wants to help out (kicking butt is just icing on the cake). It's also clear that Pepper digs into Vergil Potts' work because she wants to take care of him and keep him safe. Her mother is out of the picture, either dead or separated from her father, and so Vergil is the only family Pepper has in the show. She will do anything to protect him, including breaking the law; her hacking helps her keep an eye on him at all times. Later, it also helps her keep Tony and Rhodey safe, as well as on top of all the criminal ongoings of Manhattan.
While she knows that her hacking activities are technically illegal, because she is doing it for the sake of crime fighting she doesn't really think that particular law applies to her, especially when it's so easy to break in. In her eyes, if they didn't want her to get the information, the FBI and her father should have beefed up security. Pepper's avid interest in her father's work is a prelude to her activities on Team Iron Man; she finally gets the chance to actually do something of real meaning, to take action, and to fight criminals that threaten her home. Her time on Team Iron Man is a prelude to her imagined career as a top crime-fighting, jet-pack-flying, SHIELD agent.
Pepper doesn't seem bothered by the fact that her interest in being in law enforcement as a SHIELD agent is (in theory) in conflict with her illegal activities. SHIELD is a law enforcement agency, yes, but they act largely on their own set of laws, rather than any set by a recognized government institution, so her hacking is pretty tame by comparison and is something she feels is an asset to her becoming an agent. Even in this toon AU version of the MCU, SHIELD makes some questionable decisions about holding prisoners and dangerous experiments that that Team Iron Man has to help clean up. While perhaps less corrupt than the SHIELD of "Agents of SHIELD" and the current MCU movie run, the organization still has a mentality that they're the world police, and almost anything is justified to secure peace (and their particular agenda). SHIELD is also known for working with superheroes, so Pepper likely puts herself in that category after she joins Team Iron Man; prior to that, she's just so excited to be an agent (and already considers herself an FBI assistant) that anything questionably legal that she does in the fighting of crime should make her instantly qualified to become a member of SHIELD. She's upset when she finds out that she has to go to college before even being considered as a possible agent; Pepper believes she ought to be hired on her merits and skills alone.
Although she can seem flighty and apt to freak out in dangerous situations, she actually tends to focus down even harder when she’s under pressure, even if she sounds like she’s lost her mind. Pepper is the one who tends to see the best in people, and she even believed in Gene despite his betrayal. The only real exception to this is Whitney Stane when she’s trying to date Tony. Oh, and most of the supervillains (although whenever they end up in the hospital she’s back to being concerned for their general welfare, like Obadiah Stane and even Whitney). She’s compassionate and intelligent (although she’s no fan of chemistry), as well as resilient.
Unlike with other villains Team Iron Man fights, Gene is Pepper's friend before his criminal activities come to light. Although she at first is suspicious because of the FBI investigation of Gene's stepfather as a crime boss, when he saves her life she regrets treating him so poorly. In a rare display of humility, Pepper apologizes to Gene, because she misjudged him. Pepper prides herself on being right most of the time, and it's not easy for her to admit otherwise, but she knows when she really needs to apologize. After they make up, she becomes very attached to him, as well as developing a slight crush on him. She spends time hanging out with him, and she learns a lot about Gene; he even puts up with her incessant texts and phone calls, and this endears him to her even more, since he handles it a lot smoother than Tony and Rhodey do sometimes. His betrayal hurt her a lot, but because Pepper had seen a side of him that Tony and Rhodey didn't, she holds on to the fact that he can be a good person. After all, she fully believes that true villains wouldn't keep saving her life, or refusing to fight her the way that Gene did.
Not a lot of teenagers could handle what Team Iron Man does, and Pepper definitely grows over the course of the show. Once Rhodey becomes War Machine, Pepper takes over as the armory operator, which suits her. She may not be out fighting directly, but she gets both Rhodey and Tony out of some scrapes through her ability to act quickly and put the information she gathers to work. From the armory, Pepper can run autopilot on the suits, so she can (and does) operate a third suit with Tony and Rhodey from time to time, giving her practice and helping her hone her ability to focus. This kind of support makes her want to be a part of the action in person even more, and it also tests her ability to operate effectively in dangerous situations.
Working as the armory operator helps her hone her hyperactivity towards effective action, but it doesn't always work 100%. By the final few episodes, Pepper receives her own suit of power armor, and she takes up the mantle “Rescue,” which defines her role and personality very well. She’s always there for Tony and Rhodey, and while she’s equipped with some weaponry her focus is usually on helping people. Her excitement about having armor outweighs any cautiousness she might have, and at first Pepper believes she can do anything in it. Even after hitting a few birds and nearly causing a helicopter to crash, her confidence is barely diminished. When she's just out and about, her hyperactivity in the suit makes her a little clutzy, but when she's forced into a fight before she's had much experience in a suit, she can harness that hyperactivity into intense focus. It's similar to when she's hunting for information: she has a clear and direct goal, and she will not let the issue drop until she's reached that goal.
Sometimes, however, her hyperactivity and tendency to take risks puts her in danger. In the midst of fighting Pepper often continues to talk at speed, largely as a coping strategy to relieve stress, but running her mouth sometimes distracts her and she doesn't see enemies coming. Part of this is also her inexperience with a suit; she needs to learn to use the systems better, but she has trouble admitting it. She doesn't want to appear weak or only worthy of being in a sideline support position.
When she’s not doing Team Iron Man activities or in school, she’s hanging out with her friends or shopping. She’s a particular fan of shoes.
Appearance: Pepper usually wears black hightop sneakers with white socks and black leggings. She wears a white collared, sleeveless shirt with a pink vest on top of it, and a short black tie. She also often carries a small pink, over-the-shoulder purse with a white skull on it. Her hair is a reddish-pink, hazel eyes, and she’s got a few freckles on her cheeks.
Her power armor resembles Tony’s, but is purple and silver instead of red and gold.
Abilities:
Rescue Armor: Tony built Pepper her own power armor just before the end of season two. The suit combines some of the best features of the Mark II armor with the stealth armor designed for sneaking around. The suit gives her superhuman strength, enhanced durability, flight and stealth capabilities, repulsors, the unibeam, and (her personal favorite) energy bombs (also known as laser grenades).
Fighting ability: Just like Tony and Rhodey, Pepper seems generally good at basic combat, although she’s not as skilled as the other two teens. She holds her own well enough, and even rescues Tony and Rhodey from time to time, thus the origin of her Team Iron Man name. Outside the suit, however, these abilities don’t present themselves as much during the show. It’s reasonable to assume that some of her fighting abilities still exist outside of the armor, but not much past basic defense and combat.
Although she’s no superhuman, she’d adept with advanced computer technology and good at organizing plans and investigations.
Inventory:
x1 set of clothing –sneakers, shirt, pants, socks, underwear.
x1 mobile phone
x1 small purse
x1 Rescue armor
Suitability:
Pepper will probably be a little freaked out at first – she was expecting to de-teleport in New York and she ended up on a giant turtle. There will be outbursts of overreacting, slightly crazed Pepper for a day or two. After she learns the facts, however, she’ll adapt quickly. She comes from a world where mutants are present, where she’s fought both against and side by side with the Hulk, and she’s part of a team of teenagers who fly around New York City fighting crime in high-tech suits of armor. She’s seen portals open to other dimensions and been inside an alien mothership, where she participated in a gladiator-style death match. Not much fazes her for long. She’s reasonably innovative, and she’ll jump at the chance to do anything resembling crime-fighting. Her focus, organizational abilities and interest in helping people will also help her fit in, although people might be a little overwhelmed by her seemingly endless ability to talk.
In-Character Samples:
Third Person (Prose):
A Makluan ship had descended on New York City, and it was all Pepper could do to get a moment of Tony's attention. She had something important to tell him, and she'd really like him to hear it before they got up close and personal with their new alien overlords. Right now it seemed harder to get him to listen for half a second than it was to get him to build her a suit of armor all her own.
"Tony, before the Earth gets annihilated, and we're all reduced to flaming microscopic cinders, I just want to say one thing," she said urgently.
He was. Not. Listening, and then she, Tony, and Rhodey started to get bombarded by incoming alien pod-thingies. Still, she tried again; she's nothing if not annoyingly persistent.
"Tony, just let me say one thing I've been wanting to say for a very, very long time."
This was a really bad time to be trying to tell him how much she cares about him. He's kind of dense on the subject, really, given how jealous she always was around Whitney. Then again, he got all huffy when she was 'dating' Happy Hogan. Aaaand then she was surrounded, and it was hard to even take the time to give each pod a properly witty send-off! Geez! These things had absolutely no sense of decency.
They needed to call in backup. Fury, SHIELD, the Hulk, even the Black Panther came to help, which was sort of surprising but really convenient, like they had been waiting or something. She'd gotten one last shot to talk to him before they split into teams and -
"Pep, uh, Rescue, now isn't the best time, seriously." Tony turned away from her and opened a comm channel. "I- I have to contact my Dad."
That went well. Great. Now they were probably going to die and Pepper wouldn't have the chance to tell him that she's had the biggest crush (like, the size of the moon or something really, really big) on him since the moment he walked into the Tomorrow Academy. She sighed; duty first, as always. He was going to get an earful for this later, assuming he still had an ear and that it was still connected to his body. Probably best not to think about that.
Network:
[When the screen comes on there is a face just a little too close to the camera; it’s got freckles and red hair. The figure scoots back a bit, and a young woman in her late teens appears, grinning nervously.]
Uh, hiiii. I’m Pepper. Pepper Potts. I come from a city called New York which some of you have probably heard of and if you haven’t you should because its awesome. Or, it was awesome before a bunch of aliens came and tried to destroy the planet, which they might still do, I got here before we blew up the ship when I got teleported, so it might not be so awesome when you go visit. [She pauses, catching herself.] Er. If, I guess. Sorry, I talk a lot when I’m nervous, apparently, that’s what everyone always tells me. Actually they say I talk too much all the time, not just when I'm nervous.
[She takes a deep breath and tries to slow down the torrent of words.] Anyway. I hear there’s some big bad running around stealing important stuff and since I’m kind of used to fighting supervillains I’m totally there if you need someone to help with butt-kicking. Probably.
[Pepper sags a little bit.]
I could use some help figuring out what to do here. I’m supposed to get a job and all I ever wanted to be is a SHIELD agent. I could help...organize...things?
Name: Sealrat
Age: 23
Contact: Plurk
Other Characters Played: N/A
Most Recent AC Link: N/A
Character Information:
Name: Pepper (Patricia) Potts
Canon: Iron Man: Armored Adventures
Canon Point: Season 2, Episode 26: The Makluan Invasion Part 2: Unite! In the middle of Gene Khana, aka The Mandarin, teleporting Pepper and Rhodey out of the Makluan ship.
Age: 17
Reference Links: Wikipedia IMAA, IMAA Wiki Pepper
Setting: Iron Man: Armored Adventures (IMAA) is a high school AU for the Marvel universe, focusing on a teenage Tony Stark and his friends, aka Team Iron Man. The show is based in modern-day New York, although the level of technology available indicates that this universe is significantly ahead of our own – stealth tech, flying suits of power armor, and solid holograms are all commonplace. Physics is regularly broken by each new appearance of technology, The main cast of Tony, Rhodey, Pepper, and Happy, as well as some other minor but well-known Marvel characters are aged down (The Mandarin, Justin Hammer, Jean Grey). Predictably, the show is interwoven with every day teenage drama.
The show starts out with tragedy: Howard Stark is killed in a plane crash that leaves his son, Tony, with a heart implant. Obadiah Stane takes over as CEO of Stark Industries until Tony turns eighteen. Tony goes to live with Roberta Rhodes, his father’s lawyer and mother of his best friend Rhodey. He also starts going to school for the first time in his life, and he finds out that his ascendancy to the Stark throne is dependent on his attendance and grades – not so easy when you’re out fighting crime all night. Tony builds a lab/armory near the Rhodes’ house, where he re-creates his armor (originally damaged in the plan crash) and begins experimenting with all sorts of cutting-edge technology. He shares his status as Iron Man with Rhodey almost immediately, and his best friend provides backup support from the armory’s pilot chair.
Tony begins to attend The Tomorrow Academy, where Rhodey is enrolled, and makes it abundantly clear that his intellect is well beyond even that of his teachers in certain subjects – but he’s still an angsty teenager all the same. The school is ostensibly for exceptional students, although it reflects the average university standard of enrolling sub-standard scholars who are outstanding athletes (such as Happy Hogan). School is where he meets Pepper, who – despite never having met him – seems to know his history inside and out. She figures out Tony’s identity in short order and immediately dubs them Team Iron Man.
Tony is also introduced to Gene Khan, who remains his friend for the duration of season one, although Rhodey and Pepper have some reservations about Gene at first. Tony, however, is drawn to Gene’s expertise on the Makluan rings, since Howard was focused on this strange technology before he died. Gene has his own agenda – from the age of six he was instilled with the idea that the rings are his birthright and that he is the one true Mandarin. Gene uses his position as the stepson Xin Zhang, leader of the Tong crime syndicate, to pursue the rings, of which they believe there are five.
The Tong aren’t the only organized crime operation in IMAA; Team Iron Man is often seen subverting the activities of the rival clan, the Maggia, led by Count Nefaria. The Maggia also boast two villains that Tony regularly encounters: Shrike and Unicorn, who themselves have power armor modeled after their namesakes. While Team Iron Man is always on alert, SHIELD is also a regular presence on the show. The Helicarrier is often nearby the city, contributing in equal parts to law enforcement and general mayhem when one of their experiments goes horribly awry, or a prisoner escapes. Pepper is a big fan of SHIELD, and jumps at any chance she can get to work with their agents in the hopes of becoming one herself. The FBI also operates occasionally in the show; Pepper’s own father is an FBI agent and she regularly uses his position as a way to investigate criminal ongoings in Manhattan.
Large corporations in the city, including Stark Industries and Hammer Multinational, also regularly contribute to the pool of super villains and ongoing crime. This theme is especially prevalent in the second season, and Team Iron Man faces as many moral and ethical challenges as they do criminals. Tony and Rhodey both now have suits of armor, which has an impact on Rhodey’s grades especially. All three of them struggle with grades at one point or another in the show, and sometimes school provides as much drama as crime fighting. Pepper’s talent for research and focus under pressure makes her an effective station operator after Tony makes Rhodey his War Hammer armor. Pepper does eventually get her own armor toward the end of the show, complete with laser grenades and steal tech, and takes on the name “Rescue”.
A few familiar faces from the Marvel Universe show up, namely Bruce Banner, aka The Hulk, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Nick Fury of SHIELD, the Black Panther, Jean Grey, Magneto, and Charles Xavier.
A major theme for the entirety of the show is the search for the Makluan rings. This is how Gene becomes Tony, Rhodey, and Pepper’s friend. He’s forced to work with them in school on some assignments, but he also helps Tony to study and locate three additional rings. At the conclusion of the first season, it is revealed that Gene is the Mandarin that Team Iron Man has been encountering, and he’s also responsible for the plane crash that ‘killed’ Howard and resulted in Tony becoming Iron Man. Each ring has a unique power, and while anyone can use the first ring to activate the powerful Mandarin armor, only Gene can use the remaining rings. This is explained in the second season; as it turns out, a Makluan deserter stole the rings from the Overlord and fled to Earth, where he combined some of his DNA with the First Mandarin (yep, aliens are a thing here too). Gene carries the genetic market of the Mandarin, but he’s sorely lacking in the good moral fiber department, which is an equally important qualification for being the Mandarin.
The First Mandarin did not believe his children were worthy of the phenomenal cosmic power of the rings, and so he scattered them across the world and created a series of perilous tests to prove the seeker worthy of the rings. The characters all believed there were only five rings, but after the fifth is found and combined with the others, they reveal a map to five additional rings. The search for these five other rings drives Gene throughout the second season, and we find out that he’s had Howard Stark held captive all this time, assisting him with his search for the rings. Sometimes even Howard’s intellect fails, and Gene has to return to Tony for help. Pepper continues to believe there’s good in him, but Tony and Rhodey are too stung by his betrayal to forgive him.
And perhaps with good reason. When Gene finds the tenth and final ring, he’s basically got godlike powers. Combined with years of programming and (implied) child abuse, Gene is the epitome of the unstable, teenage supervillain. He announces his presence as the Mandarin to the world (read: in Manhattan), and demands that they bow down to him in return for world peace. Unfortunately for him, his use of the tenth ring attracts the attention of the Makluans, who immediately rain on his parade by descending over New York and teleport him out of the sky. Gene is stripped of the rings and informed that Earth will be destroyed, mostly for the sake of amusement.
Team Iron Man teams up with agents from SHIELD as well as the Black Panther, the Hulk, and Howard Stark in order to battle the Makluans. Howard had designed a dampener to temporarily nullify Makluan technology after being freed of Gene, and the hope is that they can use the secret satellite Tony put up in space to take down the Makluan ship. Tony, Rhodey, and Pepper take on the Makluans while the rest of the gang sneaks to the reactor core to place explosives. Team Iron Man joins Gene in a gladiator-style arena against the Makluan’s greatest warriors with the promise that, if they win, Earth will be spared. They neatly defeat their opponents, but the Overlord could care less. This, too, has just been for entertainment, and now he’s bored.
The placement of the explosives was a success, and after some additional beating on the Overlord, Gene gets the rings back. The ship, of course, is going to explode, so Tony tells Gene to teleport everyone else to safety while he keeps the Overlord distracted. The mothership explodes dramatically, with Tony still inside, but he survives both the explosion and the several-thousand-feet fall onto Manhattan concrete. His helmet has fallen off in the process, and its revealed that he’s Iron Man. Rhodey and Pepper follow suit, and there is much cheering and celebrating (on camera, at least. Off camera there are probably a lot of dead people and buildings being destroyed by falling Makluan ship bits).
Gene, meanwhile, surveying the destruction of his actions from above, decides that maybe he’s not meant to rule Earth, but protect it, and flies off into space.
Throughout the show Pepper displays feelings for Tony, especially in her outright dislike and jealousy of Whitney Stane, who garners some of Tony’s romantic attentions during the first season. She gets him back by ‘dating’ Happy Hogan a few times, which Tony is thoroughly displeased about. After Gene saves Pepper during one of their ring adventures, she also seems somewhat enamored of him, although this ends with his betrayal. The show was obviously trying to stick to the traditional Pepper/Tony story line, but because it’s a high school AU they don’t explore the theme much.
Personality: Pepper is, to say the least, very talkative. She often manages to cram so many words into a sentence you wonder how they don’t reach critical mass and destroy the speech center in her brain. She’s also pretty hyperactive, which lends itself to her endless ability to talk. Her own father tells her that she talks too much, and she gets booted from the Helicarrier for asking too many questions. However, the absolute speed of her locution means that her brain-mouth filter sometimes runs a little bit behind, and she can sometimes be a little tactless. It also turns her into something of comic relief, as she’s nearly always cheerful, but it does occasionally get her and Team Iron Man out of sticky situations as well as into them. When she gets angry, though, look out; she’s fierce to the point of being dangerous.
Pepper also has a tendency to overreact, and jumps to the worst (and sometimes highly ridiculous) conclusions (see the time she tried to arrest Tony when he had a double running around hurting people). She’s also quite adventurous, to the point of being reckless, and she sometimes takes impulsive risks, such as reaching beyond her limits when she first learns to fly a suit of power armor.
Despite these flaws, Pepper has an almost unnerving ability to find information on basically everyone in existence, especially those individuals who she has absolutely no security clearance for even knowing exist. She regularly cracks her father’s passwords into the FBI mainframe, which either means she is a l33t hax0r (possible), or the FBI and her father are terrible at computer security (more probable). Her ability to gather this information makes her a valuable member of the team, but her ability to read people based on that information makes her irreplaceable.
A core reason for why she both is willing to break the law is because she's highly inquisitive; she always wants to know what is going on and how she can contribute to a situation. Information and knowledge excites her almost as much as fighting criminals. She also believes that she has a right to the information, in a way; as the daughter of an FBI agent, she extends her father's activities and security clearance to herself. Her father's work is her's by genetic right, and Pepper really, really just wants to help out (kicking butt is just icing on the cake). It's also clear that Pepper digs into Vergil Potts' work because she wants to take care of him and keep him safe. Her mother is out of the picture, either dead or separated from her father, and so Vergil is the only family Pepper has in the show. She will do anything to protect him, including breaking the law; her hacking helps her keep an eye on him at all times. Later, it also helps her keep Tony and Rhodey safe, as well as on top of all the criminal ongoings of Manhattan.
While she knows that her hacking activities are technically illegal, because she is doing it for the sake of crime fighting she doesn't really think that particular law applies to her, especially when it's so easy to break in. In her eyes, if they didn't want her to get the information, the FBI and her father should have beefed up security. Pepper's avid interest in her father's work is a prelude to her activities on Team Iron Man; she finally gets the chance to actually do something of real meaning, to take action, and to fight criminals that threaten her home. Her time on Team Iron Man is a prelude to her imagined career as a top crime-fighting, jet-pack-flying, SHIELD agent.
Pepper doesn't seem bothered by the fact that her interest in being in law enforcement as a SHIELD agent is (in theory) in conflict with her illegal activities. SHIELD is a law enforcement agency, yes, but they act largely on their own set of laws, rather than any set by a recognized government institution, so her hacking is pretty tame by comparison and is something she feels is an asset to her becoming an agent. Even in this toon AU version of the MCU, SHIELD makes some questionable decisions about holding prisoners and dangerous experiments that that Team Iron Man has to help clean up. While perhaps less corrupt than the SHIELD of "Agents of SHIELD" and the current MCU movie run, the organization still has a mentality that they're the world police, and almost anything is justified to secure peace (and their particular agenda). SHIELD is also known for working with superheroes, so Pepper likely puts herself in that category after she joins Team Iron Man; prior to that, she's just so excited to be an agent (and already considers herself an FBI assistant) that anything questionably legal that she does in the fighting of crime should make her instantly qualified to become a member of SHIELD. She's upset when she finds out that she has to go to college before even being considered as a possible agent; Pepper believes she ought to be hired on her merits and skills alone.
Although she can seem flighty and apt to freak out in dangerous situations, she actually tends to focus down even harder when she’s under pressure, even if she sounds like she’s lost her mind. Pepper is the one who tends to see the best in people, and she even believed in Gene despite his betrayal. The only real exception to this is Whitney Stane when she’s trying to date Tony. Oh, and most of the supervillains (although whenever they end up in the hospital she’s back to being concerned for their general welfare, like Obadiah Stane and even Whitney). She’s compassionate and intelligent (although she’s no fan of chemistry), as well as resilient.
Unlike with other villains Team Iron Man fights, Gene is Pepper's friend before his criminal activities come to light. Although she at first is suspicious because of the FBI investigation of Gene's stepfather as a crime boss, when he saves her life she regrets treating him so poorly. In a rare display of humility, Pepper apologizes to Gene, because she misjudged him. Pepper prides herself on being right most of the time, and it's not easy for her to admit otherwise, but she knows when she really needs to apologize. After they make up, she becomes very attached to him, as well as developing a slight crush on him. She spends time hanging out with him, and she learns a lot about Gene; he even puts up with her incessant texts and phone calls, and this endears him to her even more, since he handles it a lot smoother than Tony and Rhodey do sometimes. His betrayal hurt her a lot, but because Pepper had seen a side of him that Tony and Rhodey didn't, she holds on to the fact that he can be a good person. After all, she fully believes that true villains wouldn't keep saving her life, or refusing to fight her the way that Gene did.
Not a lot of teenagers could handle what Team Iron Man does, and Pepper definitely grows over the course of the show. Once Rhodey becomes War Machine, Pepper takes over as the armory operator, which suits her. She may not be out fighting directly, but she gets both Rhodey and Tony out of some scrapes through her ability to act quickly and put the information she gathers to work. From the armory, Pepper can run autopilot on the suits, so she can (and does) operate a third suit with Tony and Rhodey from time to time, giving her practice and helping her hone her ability to focus. This kind of support makes her want to be a part of the action in person even more, and it also tests her ability to operate effectively in dangerous situations.
Working as the armory operator helps her hone her hyperactivity towards effective action, but it doesn't always work 100%. By the final few episodes, Pepper receives her own suit of power armor, and she takes up the mantle “Rescue,” which defines her role and personality very well. She’s always there for Tony and Rhodey, and while she’s equipped with some weaponry her focus is usually on helping people. Her excitement about having armor outweighs any cautiousness she might have, and at first Pepper believes she can do anything in it. Even after hitting a few birds and nearly causing a helicopter to crash, her confidence is barely diminished. When she's just out and about, her hyperactivity in the suit makes her a little clutzy, but when she's forced into a fight before she's had much experience in a suit, she can harness that hyperactivity into intense focus. It's similar to when she's hunting for information: she has a clear and direct goal, and she will not let the issue drop until she's reached that goal.
Sometimes, however, her hyperactivity and tendency to take risks puts her in danger. In the midst of fighting Pepper often continues to talk at speed, largely as a coping strategy to relieve stress, but running her mouth sometimes distracts her and she doesn't see enemies coming. Part of this is also her inexperience with a suit; she needs to learn to use the systems better, but she has trouble admitting it. She doesn't want to appear weak or only worthy of being in a sideline support position.
When she’s not doing Team Iron Man activities or in school, she’s hanging out with her friends or shopping. She’s a particular fan of shoes.
Appearance: Pepper usually wears black hightop sneakers with white socks and black leggings. She wears a white collared, sleeveless shirt with a pink vest on top of it, and a short black tie. She also often carries a small pink, over-the-shoulder purse with a white skull on it. Her hair is a reddish-pink, hazel eyes, and she’s got a few freckles on her cheeks.
Her power armor resembles Tony’s, but is purple and silver instead of red and gold.
Abilities:
Rescue Armor: Tony built Pepper her own power armor just before the end of season two. The suit combines some of the best features of the Mark II armor with the stealth armor designed for sneaking around. The suit gives her superhuman strength, enhanced durability, flight and stealth capabilities, repulsors, the unibeam, and (her personal favorite) energy bombs (also known as laser grenades).
Fighting ability: Just like Tony and Rhodey, Pepper seems generally good at basic combat, although she’s not as skilled as the other two teens. She holds her own well enough, and even rescues Tony and Rhodey from time to time, thus the origin of her Team Iron Man name. Outside the suit, however, these abilities don’t present themselves as much during the show. It’s reasonable to assume that some of her fighting abilities still exist outside of the armor, but not much past basic defense and combat.
Although she’s no superhuman, she’d adept with advanced computer technology and good at organizing plans and investigations.
Inventory:
x1 set of clothing –sneakers, shirt, pants, socks, underwear.
x1 mobile phone
x1 small purse
x1 Rescue armor
Suitability:
Pepper will probably be a little freaked out at first – she was expecting to de-teleport in New York and she ended up on a giant turtle. There will be outbursts of overreacting, slightly crazed Pepper for a day or two. After she learns the facts, however, she’ll adapt quickly. She comes from a world where mutants are present, where she’s fought both against and side by side with the Hulk, and she’s part of a team of teenagers who fly around New York City fighting crime in high-tech suits of armor. She’s seen portals open to other dimensions and been inside an alien mothership, where she participated in a gladiator-style death match. Not much fazes her for long. She’s reasonably innovative, and she’ll jump at the chance to do anything resembling crime-fighting. Her focus, organizational abilities and interest in helping people will also help her fit in, although people might be a little overwhelmed by her seemingly endless ability to talk.
In-Character Samples:
Third Person (Prose):
A Makluan ship had descended on New York City, and it was all Pepper could do to get a moment of Tony's attention. She had something important to tell him, and she'd really like him to hear it before they got up close and personal with their new alien overlords. Right now it seemed harder to get him to listen for half a second than it was to get him to build her a suit of armor all her own.
"Tony, before the Earth gets annihilated, and we're all reduced to flaming microscopic cinders, I just want to say one thing," she said urgently.
He was. Not. Listening, and then she, Tony, and Rhodey started to get bombarded by incoming alien pod-thingies. Still, she tried again; she's nothing if not annoyingly persistent.
"Tony, just let me say one thing I've been wanting to say for a very, very long time."
This was a really bad time to be trying to tell him how much she cares about him. He's kind of dense on the subject, really, given how jealous she always was around Whitney. Then again, he got all huffy when she was 'dating' Happy Hogan. Aaaand then she was surrounded, and it was hard to even take the time to give each pod a properly witty send-off! Geez! These things had absolutely no sense of decency.
They needed to call in backup. Fury, SHIELD, the Hulk, even the Black Panther came to help, which was sort of surprising but really convenient, like they had been waiting or something. She'd gotten one last shot to talk to him before they split into teams and -
"Pep, uh, Rescue, now isn't the best time, seriously." Tony turned away from her and opened a comm channel. "I- I have to contact my Dad."
That went well. Great. Now they were probably going to die and Pepper wouldn't have the chance to tell him that she's had the biggest crush (like, the size of the moon or something really, really big) on him since the moment he walked into the Tomorrow Academy. She sighed; duty first, as always. He was going to get an earful for this later, assuming he still had an ear and that it was still connected to his body. Probably best not to think about that.
Network:
[When the screen comes on there is a face just a little too close to the camera; it’s got freckles and red hair. The figure scoots back a bit, and a young woman in her late teens appears, grinning nervously.]
Uh, hiiii. I’m Pepper. Pepper Potts. I come from a city called New York which some of you have probably heard of and if you haven’t you should because its awesome. Or, it was awesome before a bunch of aliens came and tried to destroy the planet, which they might still do, I got here before we blew up the ship when I got teleported, so it might not be so awesome when you go visit. [She pauses, catching herself.] Er. If, I guess. Sorry, I talk a lot when I’m nervous, apparently, that’s what everyone always tells me. Actually they say I talk too much all the time, not just when I'm nervous.
[She takes a deep breath and tries to slow down the torrent of words.] Anyway. I hear there’s some big bad running around stealing important stuff and since I’m kind of used to fighting supervillains I’m totally there if you need someone to help with butt-kicking. Probably.
[Pepper sags a little bit.]
I could use some help figuring out what to do here. I’m supposed to get a job and all I ever wanted to be is a SHIELD agent. I could help...organize...things?
