"Ugh… How's this one?"
"Not impressive."
Tony grunted and picked a different set of dumbbells, weightier. "How about these? They look good? What about the sweat?"
Happy Hogan kept the smartphone steady, recording Tony. "That's good enough, Boss."
With that, Tony started doing bicep curls with those weights. He did a few before placing them back in the racks and turning towards the camera, looking into it. "Great view, isn't it?"
He strolled up to the colossal glass window, soaking in the panoramic vista of the ocean stretching out before him. The sun danced on the waves, a sight that could make even the most stoic envy a billionaire. "I can practically hear the eye rolls from here. 'Oh, Tony Stark, flaunting his toys again.' 'Ugh, there he goes, Mr. Privilege and his ocean view.' 'Talk about disconnected from the real world.'"
Tony snapped his fingers, and Jarvis obediently projected a hologram into the air, revealing a peculiar, slender, metallic figure. It was not your typical Iron Man suit; this one was constructed from thin metal rods, lacking the usual thickness for arms or legs.
"Sure, I boast. But you should be able to boast too. Why does it cost an arm and a leg to buy a house these days? Back in the good old days, you could snag a house, a car, pay in installments, and still have plenty left over for a big, happy family."
Tony stepped closer to the camera then, "I can bring back those days. With a revolutionized construction industry that promises speed and quality—Soon every American will be able to afford a house. Let me introduce you to Project Backbone."
Happy Hogan stopped recording right then, as the next part of the video was to be added later on since it was mostly an epic animation. The idea was to create exoskeletons for construction workers and builder droids for bigger, more complex projects.
"You're really going to do it?" Happy asked, his palms sweaty, considering his boss would likely be the future President. "There will be a lot of pushbacks."
"I know," Tony muttered and nonchalantly went to the side to grab his water bottle. "Housing, Healthcare, Infrastructure—everything has someone's vested interest."
"Are you gonna go against them?"
"We've got the tech to make life a breeze for just about everyone. But hey, every time you try to shake things up, you get resistance. That's just the way the world works, right?" Tony wiped his face clean with a towel as he saw Pepper walk into the gym area, "But, I'm Tony Stark. They can try, but they won't succeed."
"Notary's here! Can you please come to sign the transfer paperwork?" Pepper walked over to the side and started working on her phone.
"Training time," Tony blurted and moved towards the boxing ring. "We can do that anytime…"
He trailed off mid-speech as he saw another person walk in. Tony couldn't take his eyes off this one—silky flaming red hair, an oval face, and high cheekbones. Her frame wasn't too tall, lithe, with a symphony of curves right where needed, particularly visible in her tight white half-sleeved shirt and formal pants. Her eyes a hypnotic emerald gleam that matched Tony's gaze right away.
Hiring department deserves a fat bonus. Tony thought after seeing her.
"Approved," he blurted.
Pepper looked at him and then noticed the new person. She rolled her eyes in the end, "She's from legal—"
Tony's brows furrowed, and he glanced back at the new girl. "Legal? What's your name, lady?"
"Natalie Rushman."
"You lift?" Tony asked jovially and walked over to the dumbbells again to continue his workout.
"Tony, it's unnecessary. Just sig—"
But Natalie walked up to him on her own, getting closer to Tony's side. The top two buttons of her shirt were dangerously unbuttoned, threatening to show a little too much. Without much effort, she leaned down a bit and picked up a heavy-weight dumbbell with ease.
Tony nodded in admiration. "A beauty with brains and brawns? You're practically a unicorn."
Her eyes were big and green, and her red lips looked particularly succulent. She kept staring at Tony so much that even the billionaire genius playboy felt taken aback—not that he hated it, appreciating her beauty.
"I need your impressions," she softly spoke, her words as if manufactured to seduce, carrying a breathy feeling to it.
Tony looked intensely at her, nodding. "Beautiful, smart, clearly strong—"
"Thumb impression."
"Oh," Tony exclaimed and took the file in her other hand, letting her manage the lone dumbbell she had picked. He didn't waste time and opened the correct page and plastered his thumb on it. "With that, I got myself a new boss."
Chuckling, Pepper walked over and shook Tony's hand that was initially extended towards Natalie. "You're still the majority owner."
"Anything else, Mr. Stark?" Natalie took the file back and asked, staring into Tony's eyes nonstop.
"No, that will be all, Ms. Rushman," Pepper interrupted and dismissed her, sending her away.
But Tony continued to watch her fleeting back with keen interest until she disappeared. Finally, he looked back at Pepper, "I just had an epiphany—"
"No, you didn't. No, she's not going to be your assistant."
"She's strong." Tony said, "She can double as my bodyguard too."
"I'll have other excellent applicants lined up for an interview with you. You can choose from them," she argued.
But Tony shook his head, "Too late, the decision's been made. I need someone right now. I'm too busy. I know it's her."
"No, it's not," she denied it and put her phone down. "Will you be joining the executive board's party? Introduce your new CEO?"
"Boring," Tony mumbled and walked away to enter the boxing ring. "I've got an election to prepare for."
And a damn arc reactor to fix.
"Then I'll leave you to it."
"Good luck, boss." Tony waved and jumped into the ring to practice with Happy. The man was no longer his bodyguard, however. But still, a great friend.
####
It was still over a year until the elections, but his announcement had already kicked off the election season, and the news channels started to run segments about the next election. Of course, with Stark Industries managing matters behind the scenes, the negative coverage related to Tony slowly turned into neutral, or positive.
But Tony knew it was impossible to win over the people without something concrete. He needed to show his promises weren't vague or impossible to fulfill. So, for a whole month, without leaving his mansion, he worked on creating an automated production line for his armor. It was based on the designs he had planned for the new Stark Tower being built in New York.
"Jarvis, let's start with the first phase." Tony finished the first batch of twenty suits and decided to try them right away. They weren't as equipped as his main, new Mark V suit, and were more focused on dealing with everyday crimes.
It had a compressed fire extinguisher. It had electrocuting nets to catch running suspects, and precision lasers that could cut steel or blow tires. Heat detectors, life support systems, and so much more. He was still perfecting it, but he needed to do some test runs before expanding the operation.
"All the state and federal laws have been uploaded, Sir," Jarvis informed. "Ten suits are prepared to be sent out."
"Great." Tony gave his authorization to send out the suits. They were still painted the iconic red, as the goal was to make people automatically see them and think of none but Tony Stark. "Go forth, my children. Make me proud."
With that, ten Iron Man suits flew out of the Stark mansion. The main focus areas were cities for now—Los Angeles and San Francisco. The suits were equipped with police radios as well as a 911 dispatcher tracker.
The moment the ten suits soared into the sky, they headed in different directions, coordinating between themselves perfectly. In case of a mass incident, they were programmed to work as a team.
"How long do you plan to run the first test, Sir?" Jarvis asked. "Should I proceed with producing more suits?"
"More? Don't even think of stopping now, Jarvis. We need five hundred of these," Tony warned, walking over to his desk to change the Palladium core once again. "The trial results will be tuned and uploaded to the rest of the suits later. I'd give it a week before real statistics of effectiveness start coming."
"But your health is dete—"
"I know," Tony cut Jarvis off. "I feel it every morning… I'm looking into it."
______________________
Check out Tony X Natasha(Disguised) NSFW ART, advance chapters, and early access to the new story Marvel: President Stark at P@treon.com/MrPlotThickens Or Subscribestar.adult/mrplotthickens
Free Art and Polls on Discord: https://discord.gg/W5FdB6WXaP