The Ehangwen sliced through the clouds like a phantom; it moved without any visual propulsion, nor did it make a sound as it glided among the clouds, a shining golden star.
Even among gods, geniuses, and knights, the sheer smoothness of the flight drew murmurs of awe.
Tony was already running his hands along the interior panels, eyes narrowed in impressed suspicion.
"Okay, I know I say this a lot," he muttered, "but seriously — what is this thing made of? This isn't metal. It's not carbon composite. It's like—" he tapped the hull and frowned, "Stone?"
"Well, what else would it be made of?" Mordred asked, as if he had just questioned whether water was wet.
"Wait, stone? But it looks like gold," Johnny asked as he bent down and gave the floor under his feet a few taps. "Sounds like metal to me."
"No, Stark is right," Reed spoke up, holding some small gadget of his own. "Readings come back inconclusive." He moved his device around as if trying to scan the thing. "How did you even figure it might be stone, Stark? Nothing about the feel or sound indicates it. I was suspecting some kind of wood."
Tony shook his head. "Nahh, this isn't wood. Well, it could be, but it doesn't feel like wood."
At that, not just Reed, but many others also shot him a questioning look, because to them it felt and looked like metal.
"What do you mean? How does this feel like stone to you?"
Tony just shrugged. "Only a proper engineer would understand. We just have a feel for the material."
"Stark isn't wrong," I said. "The Ehangwen is indeed made of stone. It was, after all, once my court."
"Thanks, that really explains everything," Tony fired back, but quickly backed down as my Knights all shot him a look. Despite my Knights all being kind and noble souls, people who would never hurt the innocent, that didn't mean they couldn't act scary if they felt I wasn't shown proper respect.
"So, this is part of your castle?" Ben asked.
"Correct, or rather, this is the concept of my hall, turned into a ship for the summer." Even I found some of my things difficult to explain.
I was just happy I didn't have to explain why I had a bunny outfit… that would be a real headache to clarify, for sure.
Reed stared at me as though I had announced the ship was made from condensed moonlight.
"…Concept of your castle," he repeated slowly, as if turning the words in his mouth would help them make sense. "Turned… into a ship."
"It's not that complicated," Kay added helpfully — which, of course, meant it was impossibly complicated. "The Ehangwen is simply the manifestation of the Kingdom's idealized brilliance, rendered into physical form through our King's divine authority."
Reed closed his eyes.
Tony slapped a hand over his face.
Johnny whispered, "Nerd translation: magic."
"Not magic," Galahad corrected with heroic firmness. "Conceptual crystallization through the will of the King."
"So magic," Clint said.
"You sure are all just enjoying this trip, aren't you?" Susan Storm complained.
"Come on, sis, you gotta admit it isn't every day you get to fly like this." Johnny clearly failed to read his sister's mood, as only moments after he said that, he was thrown off the Ehangwen by a great wind.
"He really never learns, does he?" Natasha shook her head at how foolish he was acting.
"He never will," Ben agreed, remaining seated, not liking the fact that there were no walls around to really catch him should something happen — something like what happened to Johnny.
"Hey, sis! That wasn't cool at all!" Johnny shouted as he flew back onto the Ehangwen and once more entered the protective barrier that Susan created for them all.
"Maybe you should simply learn to read the room?" Loki snorted at him, despite him also enjoying the same shield to stop the wind from whipping across his face.
Only someone like Thor chose to stay outside that barrier and face the winds head-on. Well, him and a few of my knights who didn't wish to be seen as weaker than he was.
Though given that they couldn't fly as he could, they did wisely stay a bit further away from the edge.
Thor laughed joyfully as another gust slammed against him. "Glorious! Midgard's skies have grown tame since last I flew them!"
"Speak for yourself," Barton muttered, tightening the strap on his quiver as the wind pushed at him despite the shield. "Some of us don't bounce when we fall."
"Do not worry," Kay said, utterly sincere. "Should you fall, Sir Clint, I shall leap after you."
"…That doesn't make me feel better," Clint replied.
Bruce adjusted his glasses nervously. "So this barrier—does it ever fail? Or falter? Or crack? Or—"
"Sometimes, if I lose focus, or if it's hit hard enough, but these winds can't break it," Susan tried to help Bruce relax a little.
"Which just leaves a loss of focus," another version of Susan said as she suddenly appeared next to the original one.
"Please, Lord Loki, don't tempt fate like that," Steve pleaded as the Loki standing there with Gungnir in his hand faded away in a flash of green, and the second Susan turned into Loki.
"I was just teasing, nothing to worry about. At these speeds I'm sure you could resist the wind," he said, completely ignoring the fact that Johnny had just been blasted off as Susan opened the shield around him.
"Not everyone is as strong as you guys. Some of us would get pretty hurt falling down," Steve sighed.
"Hurt? Sorry, Cap, half of us here would go splat if we fell down here," Tony shot back from where he was whispering science stuff with Reed.
"Sounds like a skill issue," Mordred teased.
"Mordred," I warned gently.
"What? It is," she said, grinning. "Falling from this height is only dangerous if you're squishy."
Ben raised a rocky eyebrow. "And what does that make us?"
"Squish-adjacent," Mordred decided.
"Hey!" Johnny protested. "I'm not squishy. I'm fire!"
"You were just yeeted off the ship by a breeze," Clint reminded him.
Johnny instantly re-ignited in embarrassment. "I just wanted to see if I could keep up with this flying thing."
"This speed is nothing. You should have tried it when we came from Camelot — now that was an intense wind. Father, can we go that fast again?"
"Hey now, let's not do that. You crossed the Atlantic Ocean in less than an hour. That speed would be a little too much even for Miss Invincible to handle," Tony quickly stepped in.
Susan blinked. "Tony, I can handle high-speed winds. I've reinforced shuttles before. I can—"
"You think you can," Tony cut in, waving a finger. "But trust me—"
Reed, who had been running silent calculations in his head for the last twenty seconds, finally spoke up in the tone of a man helplessly compelled to share cursed knowledge.
"Actually," he said, adjusting his glasses, "crossing the Atlantic in under an hour would require an average velocity of—"
"Reed," Susan warned immediately.
"—approximately six thousand kilometers per hour."
The ship went quiet.
Very quiet.
Even Loki paused mid-sip of conjured tea.
"That's… that's Mach five," Bruce whispered. "No, wait… Mach— Mach five-ish? Mach?… That's… hyperso— That's—"
"MACH FIVE?!" Johnny yelled, flames sputtering.
Reed raised a finger. "Closer to Mach 4.8 if we assume suboptimal trajectory, but given the smoothness of the ride, the lack of heat buildup on surfaces, and the absence of sonic booms—"
Susan stared at him, eyes wide. "Reed. Reed, stop talking."
"I'm just clarifying the physics."
"There are no physics here!" Susan snapped, gesturing wildly at the golden, silent, perfectly stable conceptual flying castle-ship. "There is magic rock and conceptual crystallization and divine velocity! Your math is only making it worse!"
Reed opened his mouth… paused… and then quietly closed it.
Tony clapped him on the shoulder. "Don't worry, Stretch. I do the same thing. Then I remember that she—" he pointed at Arthuria, "—is basically flying around in a physics-proof cheat code."
Galahad nodded proudly. "The King transcends mortal limitations."
Clint muttered, "Yeah, no kidding."
Susan exhaled, trying to find her composure again. "If we went Mach five in this thing… the wind shear alone would—"
"—rip apart anything that isn't literally a concept," Reed finished helpfully.
"REED."
"Sorry."
Mordred rolled her eyes. "Honestly, why are you all acting like this is such a big deal? When we all had to just deal with it on the way over, and it wasn't that bad."
"That's not comforting," Bruce said.
"Not at all," Ben agreed.
Thor, still planted outside the barrier with wind blasting against him, gave a booming laugh. "I'm not sure how fast this Mach five is, but it would be fun to race against this vessel!"
"Yeah, didn't you cross it even faster? Just how long did it take you to get from Camelot to New York?" Kay couldn't help but ask.
Thor paused to think. "Not long. Though I admit, never before had I flown with such speed — it was as if I had become lightning itself!"
Reed visibly paled.
"Lightning," he repeated weakly, already doing math he would later regret. "Average lightning channels travel at… oh no."
Susan closed her eyes. "Reed. Don't."
"Fifty to a hundred thousand kilometers per second," Reed whispered.
Silence.
Clint stared at Thor as though viewing an active natural disaster in humanoid form. "So you didn't just break the sound barrier, you broke re-entry speeds… I mean… I knew you Asgardians were crazy, but that is…"
"Damn, look at you, Legolas. I didn't think you would know about things such as re-entry speeds," Tony couldn't help but let out a whistle.
"Hey, I'm a highly trained SHIELD agent. That includes being a trained fighter pilot, and SHIELD's got the fastest planes in the world," Clint defended himself.
"Still slower than this literal stone building from the Arthurian age," Tony teased with a laugh.
I couldn't help but roll my eyes as they all kept going. "Have no worry, Miss Storm. I have no intention of going any faster. After all, we arranged for three hours. It wouldn't do well to arrive before our hosts have had a chance to prepare for our arrival."
A palpable wave of relief washed over the group.
"Thank God," Bruce muttered.
"Thank you," Tony corrected immediately. "If we went any faster, half of us would liquefy and the other half would pretend they didn't notice."
"I would notice," Ben said.
"I would definitely notice!" Johnny added.
Susan exhaled slowly, shoulders lowering as she let her forcefield settle into a more uniform dome. "Thank you, Arthuria. I appreciate the restraint."
Loki raised a brow. "Mortals require so much reassurance."
Steve shot him a look. "We require not dying."
"Semantics," Loki replied.
Below us, the Potomac River shimmered like polished steel beneath the afternoon sun.
Washington D.C. came into view — small at first, but rapidly expanding into the heart of a nation that had much to answer for.
(End of chapter)
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