Virginia Potts, usually called Pepper, is the former CEO of Stark Industries and once again personal secretary of Tony Stark. She was often like a nanny telling Tony what to do, but always with some small amount of admiration that later bloomed into a more romantic interest.IRON MAN 1
He asks her to help him take his old arc reactor out and to put in a new one. Tony tells Pepper to get rid of the old model since he's not a sentimental person, but she kept it inside a glass box with a special border around it reading, "Proof That Tony Stark Has A Heart". In the charity event, Tony then leaves to dance with Pepper and they share a moment together in the moonlight and almost a kiss. Tony tries to talk Pepper into helping him, believing that nothing else matters but stopping the people who he put in harm's way. Pepper is moved by Tony's dedication, and agrees. She goes into Obadiah's office with a tiny piece of equipment designed to copy files from the computer. As Pepper sifts through stored files, she finds a video from the terrorists proving that Obadiah was responsible for Tony's capture. She copies the files in her thumbdrive and hands over the evidence to Agent Phil Coulson. In the battle against Iron Monger, Tony instructs Pepper to overload the building's Arc Reactor, which will generate a shockwave strong enough to knock out the Iron Monger's suit. Pepper is hesitant, believing that Tony could also be killed. Tony manages to keep fighting while she builds up power to the Reactor. The Arc explodes, taking out Obadiah and injuring Tony. But the energy wave from the Reactor also manages to re-charge Tony's heart battery, saving him from imminent death.
IRON MAN 2Pepper is promoted to CEO of Stark Industries by Tony after he realizes that the palladium core of his arc reactor is killing him. She decides he needs a new assistant and when "Natalie Rushman" arrives to have Tony give Pepper the company, he decides he wants Rushman as his assistant. Tony soon began to spiral out of control and eventually his increasingly reckless behavior caused him to become estranged from Pepper. Their reconciliation came on a night when Stark's arch-rival, Justin Hammer, unveiled his latest military marvel, a series of humanoid combat drones. When the drones activated and attacked Stark, apparently of their own accord, Pepper and Natasha Romanoff confronted Hammer and demanded they be shut down. When they found that Hammer had lost control of them, Romanoff departed to deal with them while Potts remained at the Expo. Stark swooped in and saved her when she strayed close to one of the damaged drones right before it was about to explode. With Stark back, and free of the toxins in his bloodstream thanks to a new arc reactor design, Potts quit as CEO of Stark Industries. When talking to Nick Fury, Tony also hinted that he and Pepper were in a relationship and his life was back on track.
THE AVENGERS
Pepper is seen having a romantic date with Tony at the top floor of the Stark Tower, but they're interrupted by the sudden arrival of Phil Coulson, who has to crash J.A.R.V.I.S.'s systems in order to get in the tower, since Stark is trying to close him outdoors. Pepper has befriended Coulson during their previous meetings, and asks him about his personal life, as well as convincing Tony to listen to him and to read what documents he's giving him. Pepper is well aware of The Avengers Initiative, due to Tony's inability to keep a secret (especially a government-related one that he cares little for), and she manages to convince her boss and boyfriend to help S.H.I.E.L.D. save the world from Loki Laufeyson. Later, when the Chitauri have started their invasion, Pepper is on a private plane, safe from the battle. Stark, before sacrificing himself to destroy an atomic bomb sent on Manhattan, tries to call her on the phone, but she doesn't hear it as she put it on silent mode and was too occupied on watching the live telecast of the battle. After the battle, when the Avengers are disbanded and everyone comes back to his normal life, Pepper rejoins with Stark, helping him redesign the heavily damaged Stark Tower.
IRON MAN 3After the Battle of New York, Tony found himself troubled by acute insomnia and doubting his ability to protect "the only thing he couldn't live without", Pepper, in a world of gods, aliens and other dimensions. He isolated himself in order to create more armor, forcing Pepper to become the head of Stark Industries once more. This strain resulted in him becoming increasingly distant from Pepper, as his efforts to ensure that he could protect her ironically drove him to spend less time with her. Her role in the comics as Rescue is also briefly implied when Stark mentally commands his Mark XLII suit to her to protect her from falling debris when his mansion is being destroyed by Mandarin's helicopters. Once Pepper and Maya were safe outside the collapsing structure, Tony summoned the suit once more, this time to himself, in order to defeat as many terrorists as he could. During the attack, he was left for dead, partly due to the faulty flight function. Later on, Pepper found the helmet of MK VII, and noticed it contained a message from Stark, telling her he was actually alive, but couldn't return home until he found the Mandarin.
Pepper and Maya moved to a safe place as the latter apparently wanted to tell Stark something else more than to be in alert for Mandarin's attack. Maya revealed to Pepper that she had been working on the Extremis and that her boss, Killian, was selling it to the Mandarin. Killian found them, but it was revealed that Maya was still working for him and not against him, that they needed Tony's intellect to stabilize the virus, and that Pepper could be used as an incentive. Pepper was injected with Extremis, and taken to the Norco, a docked oil tanker where Killian intended to keep her as collateral and as a trophy. As her Extremis infusion progressed through its second bonding stage, he also ushered the Iron Patriot into the room, which then deposited the U.S. president onto the floor before them. Pepper was shocked when Killian explained how the President was to be executed, before he stuffed Ellis back into the suit and sent him back out. The execution was interrupted when Stark and Colonel Rhodes launched their rescue attempt. After several minutes of fighting explosions rocked the room where Pepper was imprisoned, sending her tumbling out onto a gantry, and almost to within reach of Stark. He tried grabbing her, but failed, and Pepper plummeted to the deck of the tanker, 200 feet below.
Her Extremis virus saved her from the lethal fall however, regenerating the damage from the fall. When she came to, she found Killian advancing on Stark. She intervened with a surprise attack of her own, first bashing Killian away with a metal bar, then with a Stark explosive and repulsor ripped from a passing Iron Man armor. Detonated by the repulsor, the explosive munition obliterated Aldrich Killian. After the battle, Stark orders J.A.R.V.I.S. to remotely destroy each Iron Man suit via the "Clean Slate Protocol", as a sign of his intention to devote more time to Potts. Potts undergoes surgery to remove Extremis.
