Iron Man and the Knights of the Round Table

Iron Man is owned by Marvel comics

As the hours turned into days, which turned into weeks, it became apparent that despite appearances, Sir Percy had not just ridden from Kent non-stop. Still, he had not tarried. This was evidenced by the angry people they kept meeting whom he had traded horses with without asking as if he were a pony express rider. Although the name, Knights of the Round Table, gave the impression that they were just a collection of completely independent warriors who chose to work together, in truth, the Knights of the Round Table were more like a collection of Barons. Each had their own lands and a small army to defend it. As they traveled through each of these fiefdoms they gathered up supplies and soldiers. The first lands they traveled through belonged to Gwenevere. Her soldiers wore iron rings sewn to leather armor, which they supplemented with old pieces of roman armor, just as the Knights of the Round Table did. And like them, her soldiers tended to favor swords as their weapon of choice. Next, they came to Sir Brian’s castle. Like Camelot, it was an old Celtic hill fort to which a wooden palisade had been added. Brian’s men were much less heavily armored. Many of them had no armor other than a large shield and they tended to favor spears. Most of them did not own horses and a few of Brian’s soldiers were women.
As they continued, gathering more soldiers at each place they stopped, they had to slow down to the pace that an army could walk. Even with old roman roads, they moved a snail’s pace. King Anthony resolved that he had to find a quicker way to move an army. A Railroad system would take too long to build and upgrading roads to carry trucks would take even longer. There had to be a way of moving more quickly than this.
The leather smith had only made four saddles by the time they had left Camelot. King Anthony gave them to Lancelot, Kay, Gawain and Vortigern. Along the way they practiced charging with their lances held underhand instead of their usual habit of throwing them overhand. There had been no time to make the longer lances that would have better exploited the new saddles. So the Knights made do with the 6-foot spears they were accustomed to using.
With his Iron Man armor working a diminished capacity, the King had to ride a horse like any other knight. He found it very frustrating to know that if he could only get his armor fully charged he could make the journey in hours instead of weeks. But he needed to save power for the battle to come.
As the moved eastward, the armies they requited began to include Saxons. This prompted Anthony to ask what they were doing living here and why the Jutes were in Vortigern's realm in the first place. Vortigern explained that the Knights had begun supplementing their troops with barbarian mercenaries the same manner that the Romans had been employing federate troops for centuries. On hearing this, the King scowled and said nothing. The time for recriminations would be after the battle was won, not now.
By the time they arrived, Londinium was swarming with refuges as people from not just Kent, but also its’ neighboring provinces had fled there in the hope of finding safety. Starting with the city of Durobrivae they began to see signs of the devastation. The city itself was deserted but unscathed. Eastward beyond there, they saw that an increasing number of farmhouses that had been burned to the ground. Kent was sheep raising country, with few trees and an unobstructed view for long distances. The two armies, both British and Jutish, saw each other coming long before they were close enough to engage. This gave them plenty of time to organize and prepare for the battle.
As Anthony surveyed the field be could see that the Jutes had at least twice as many troops as his four thousand. Beyond their army sat Dubris castle, an old roman fortification with high stone walls. Further still, in the sea, was a fleet of ships that were just coming into shore. Just as he feared, this rebellion was turning into a full-scale invasion! Some of the British soldiers began removing their clothes to prepare for battle. They still kept alive the ancient Celtic tradition of fighting while naked. King Anthony couldn’t help noticing that a few of the female soldiers followed that tradition. It seemed an awfully vulnerable way to fight. But, he supposed they would not have to worry about being raped in the midst of the battle. And if they were captured, wearing clothes would prove of little protection for the women. The presence of the female soldiers made surrender impossible. The two armies slowly moved towards each other. Finally they had gotten close enough that one of the Jutes fired a bow at the British army.
Both sides took it as a signal to charge. The battle had begun. The horsemen pulled away from the foot soldiers, as they were more quickly able to close the distance. When the lancers reached the enemy, each of them thrust deeply into the chest of their opponent, knocking him from his horse. They had cut through the ranks of the jutish horsemen like a hot knife through butter and found themselves in the space between the enemy’s cavalry and infantry. Sir Kay turned his horse around and charged again at the jutish cavalry. His lance caught a Jute in the shoulder, knocking him from his horse. The other three lancers had continued their charge toward the jutish infantry and each of them skewered a Jute. Sir Vortigern’s charge took him deep within the ranks of the enemy. He found himself cut off, surrounded on all sides by soldiers who were slashing at him with their swords. One of them caught his horse and both horse and rider fell to the ground. The Jutes gathered around them in a frenzy and hacked both of them to pieces. Seeing this, Lancelot and Gawain turned away from the foot soldiers and charged back towards the mass of cavalry from both sides who were riding around in circles slashing at each other. Lancelot caught a Jute’s shield, splintering his lance but leaving his opponent unscathed. He turned his horse around, drew his sword and swung and the Jute, slicing deeply into his neck and knocking the jut to the ground. Gawain struck and glancing blow and his opponent and found himself in the middle of the horsemen with no room to maneuver his lance. He drew his sword and began hacking at the enemy.
By now the infantry from both sides had reached the mass of mounted men. Even out numbered, the Britons fought ferociously. King Anthony noticed that the naked soldiers fought with less regard for their own lives and this made them as effective as the more heavily armored warriors. And the female soldiers proved them selves in the battle as they fought with a ferocity he had not thought women were capable of. Still, it quickly became apparent that without help, the Britons were going to lose this battle. Anthony fired his boot jets and took to the air. Hovering twenty feet above the battle, he fired a repulser blast into the middle of the Jutes. They scattered and began retreating. Some of them fled for the castle, others went towards the ships. The Britons pressed their attack and pursued the routing Jutes. Anthony flew towards the castle and fired another repulser blast that shattered the castle gates. One of the Jutes in the castle managed to fire a lucky shot with a catapult that hit the Iron Man armor squarely in the chest and bounced off harmlessly. By the time the Britons got to the castle, the Jutes were surrendering. By then the warning light had come on inside Anthony’s helmet, informing him that power reserves had depleted to critical levels. As the landed, he mused that it was fortunate that the battle had ended so quickly. He was almost completely out of power.
After they had gathered the prisoners together, King Anthony attempted to meet with the leaders of the Jutes. But he found that one of their leaders, Hengest, had been killed in the battle. This left Horsa as Chieftain of the Jutes.
“What are we expected to pay in restitution for the damages?” asked Horsa.
“Nothing” replied King Anthony. “I don’t want your money. I don’t want your loyalty. I don’t want you dead. I just want you gone. Get back on those ships, go back to your homeland and never return. If you do, I promise that next time I will not be so merciful. What made you rebel in the first place?”
“One of my men had taken a British wife. She was constantly defying him. One day, she shamed him with her defiance in public so he killed her. The woman’s brother objected, and the two men began fighting. Others joined the fight and pretty soon all of the Britons in the castle were dead. Then, it occurred to me that there was good land here for the taking. So, we took it and sent word to our relatives back home that there was land to be had here.”
“I hope you have now learned that is not so” replied the King.

That evening the Round Table held and impromptu meeting. After Sir Percy was recognized as their newest member, replacing Sir Vortigern, they discussed the root causes that led to the Jute revolt.
“Part of our problem is the presence of so many barbarian mercenaries on British soil.” Said King Anthony. “They are neither Romans nor Britons and have no respect for your culture or traditions.”
“But we need them to reinforce our armies” protested Sir Drusius.
“Once the new weapons I provide become widespread, you won’t need them. You saw how well the lances did with only four of my new saddles. Imagine what it will be like when we have hundreds or thousands of lancers on the field.” Replied the King.
The Knights nodded in agreement.
“And we could be even more effective if you had even longer lances so that your attacks would strike before you were within reach of the enemy. But the Saxons and Jutes will continue to be a problem as long as they are here. Therefore, I am proclaiming that all barbarian mercenaries must leave Britain immediately. Any foreign soldiers caught in the Kingdom after thirty days are to be presumed hostile.”
Anthony mused that it was ironic that he was kicking the English out of England. But it was the only way to prevent the dark ages from coming to Britain.
Sir Percy spoke up: “I think part of the problem is this business of having the entire round table meeting at Camelot instead of attending to their lands.”
“You may be right about that” the King admitted. “Perhaps we could appoint a smaller council to handle the day to day decisions and only have the Round Table meet for a few weeks in the winter to make laws. I need a cabinet whose members either all live close to Camelot or whose realms are secure. Perhaps a neighboring Knight could manage their realm for them in exchange for a percentage of any taxes collected. Are there any nominations?”
“Sir Lancelot” volunteered Lucius.
“Sir Brian” suggested Culain
“Sir Kay” suggested Percy
“Sir Galahad” suggested Lancelot.
“How about me?” asked Gawain.
“That sounds like enough people” said the King. “Do all of you agree to serve on the cabinet?”
They nodded their consent.
“Then I propose that Sir Lancelot serve as Foreign Minister, Sir Kay should be in charge of health and education. Sir Gawain should be in charge of defense. Sir Brian, natural resources, and Sir Galahad will be Treasurer. Do all of you agree with these choices?”
The Knights gave their consent.
“Then this meeting of the Round Table is adjourned until December twenty-sixth.”

After the Jutes had all been rounded up and put on the ships to be sent home to the land that would one day be called Denmark, the two Jutish chieftains, Horsa and Asc, looked back over the stern of their overcrowded ship at Britain receding into the distance.
“There goes the land of opportunity.” Observed Asc bitterly.
“We’ll be back” vowed Horsa bitterly.
“But how?” inquired Asc. “Their King is like unto a god!”
“In order to fight a god, we need a god of our on our side” replied Horsa.

After Anthony and the Cabinet returned to Camelot, they got to working on their various endeavors. At the end of the day, the King instructed his valet, Elleonora, to fill a tub with hot water for him to take a bath. After he got into the tub, she helped to scrub him. He was not accustomed to having servants do these kinds of things for him back home, but he had quickly grown to like it. When he got out of the tub she was waiting to hand him a towel. While he was drying off, she began emptying the tub, one bucket load at a time. Watching her, Anthony liked the way her brown hair fell forward unrestrained as she bend over scoop water out the tub. This perspective also gave him a good view of her cleavage as she bent over and made him want to see more of her breasts.
Anthony grabbed her arm and pulled her close for a kiss. She sighed, pulled her dress over her head and lay down on his bed. In the time that he had been in the fifth century, he had come to expect this sort of behavior from her. It was part of her pattern to be unenthusiastic at first. Anthony crawled into bed beside her and started kissing her. She didn’t kiss very well until he started stroking her breast.
“mmmmm!” she hummed as she raised her arms over her head in a submissive posture.
Anthony started kissing her neck and working his way downward. When he got to her right nipple, he flicked his tongue back and forth on her. She gasped with pleasure. He continued working his way downward until he got to her crotch. She spread her legs so that his tongue could more easily reach he vulva. Anthony parted her dark colored pubic hair, spread her labia with his hands and began flickering his tongue on her clitoris. Her breathing increased its’ pace and she started bucking her hips as her moans grew louder and more intense. She ran her fingers through his hair and pulled on them as she raised and spread her legs more. When Anthony thought she was starting to peak, he climbed onto her and slid his rock hard member into her moistness. As he began thrusting and driving into her, her cries grew louder and more intense.
“Oh yes! Yes!” she screamed.
Finally, Anthony reached his own climax. He moaned and shuddered as he pumped his seed into her. Then he collapsed onto her, their chests heaving. After he had caught his breath, he curled up beside her and went to sleep. When he woke up the next morning, as usual, she was already up and attending to her duties.

At the end of the evening the King asked Elleonora to fill a tub for him to take a bath. She didn’t understand this practice of his. But she had learned what was expected of her. She tried not to encourage him as she scrubbed him. She avoided looking into his eyes. After he was finished with bath, she hurried with a bucket to empty the tub, hoping that he wouldn’t want to force him self on her again. He grabbed Elleonora’s arm and pulled him toward her for a kiss. He pulled her close and kissed her.
"Oh no" thought Elleonora. "Here we go again. If only he wouldn't force himself on me like this. It's not like I could say no. He is the King. Disobedience would mean my death." She signed pulled her dress over her head. Elleonora lay on the bed waiting for him to get it over with. Now she was glad he had taken that bath. At least he would be clean as he pressed his body against her. The King lay down beside her and started kissing her. Ellenora tried not to show her distress. Then his hand started fondling her breast.
"Mmmm" she hummed before she could stop herself as her arms stretched of their own volition over her head in a submissive posture. The King started kissing her neck, then worked his way down until his tongue flickered on her right nipple. She gasped in a mixture of surprise and anger and pleasure. Elleonora hated that he was so skillful at sex that he could make her own body betray her. By the time he got to her crotch, she was furious at both the King and herself. Even more than she hated his attention down there, she hated that he had made her crave it. She spread her legs, both because she knew it was expected and because it helped him reach her better with his tongue. She lost all control as the moans came out of her and her hips pumped. Finally, the king managed to arouse her to the point where she now longer cared that she did not have a choice about being here. She wanted to get fucked now! She had to get fucked now! And she didn’t care who did it to her! She grabbed his hair and pulled on it. She helped guide him in as he penetrated her. He thrust into her harder and harder as she felt her orgasm rippling from deep within her.
“Oh yes! Yes!” Elleonora screamed.
He kept thrusting into her until he reached his own climax. They collapsed together, their chests heaving. As she began to catch her breath, her senses and self-loathing returned to her. How could she do this with him?
“I didn’t really have a choice.” Elleonora thought to her self. “But I got pleasure from it! Maybe I secretly wanted him, but can’t admit it to myself. Maybe I did something to encourage him. It must be my fault.”
As soon as she was sure that the King was asleep, Elleonora quietly slipped out of bed and donned her dress. She sneaked out of the room and quietly left the castle as if nothing had happened. Shortly, she came to the farmhouse she shared with her husband. He was asleep in the bed so she crawled in with him. She needed him now. She needed to be comforted. He was lying on his back allowing her easy access to his organ. She tenderly stroked it, then wrapped her fingers around it. As he began to swell, he also began, slowly, to awaken. Once he had stiffened sufficiently, Elleonora climbed onto her husband and lowered herself onto his shaft, engulfing it. She started pumping slowly at first, then gradually increased her pace, as she grew more excited. It took her longer than it had with the King, but finally she reached her climax.
“Oh yes! Yes!” Elleonora screamed as her husband’s love juice squirted into her.
When they were both spent, she collapsed on him in a heap, her chest heaving. When they had caught their breath, they curled up together and went to sleep.

As the weather started getting cooler and the days getting shorter, farmers started bringing in the harvest. At Camelot’s workshop, several printing presses had been made and the printers were turning out copies of the bible in both Latin and British and of a British language primer that had been written for the new schools. The tanners were busy making the new saddles for the Knights of the Round Table. And construction had begun on both a steel mill and a public bath house. One morning, King Anthony awoke to find the servants hard at work setting canopies and beads in Camelot’s great hall. When he asked what they were doing, a servant said:
“Winter is coming”
As if that were explanation enough, and went back to his work.
That evening, a large fire was built in the fire circle that marked the center of the room. The Servants had taken the thatch off of the roof above the fire to let the smoke escape. The room smoked up anyway. Before he took Elleonora to bed, he noticed that one of the canopies housed his bed and the others were for the other nobles who were staying at Camelot. The servants, along with commoners from the workshops and nearby farms slept near the fire where it was warm. As he was having sex with Elleonora that evening he noticed that she was no more inhibited than usual about making noises in this room full of people and that some of the couples in the room were making love with even more abandon. Apparently, people had not developed the sense of privacy that they had in the twenty-first century.

Christmas came, and the Knights of the Round Table gathered at Camelot for their meeting. A couple of nights before, some of the servants had brought an enormous log for the fire and began and series of all night parties. Once they arrived, some of the Knights like Pellinore and Brian attended this continuous celebration. Others, shunned it. Anthony once thought he recognized one of the songs as “Deck the Halls,” though he didn’t recognize the words. His Britanic was still quite rudimentary. The King noticed at the Christmas mass that the Knights in attendance were the very ones who had shunned the party in the great hall. He saw Sir Lancelot and Gwenevere, Sir Marcus and Sir Galahad, and fully half of the other Knights were there. After Christmas, it was time to get down to business.

446
“This meeting of the Knights of the Round Table is called to order.” Said King Anthony. “First I’d like to have the Cabinet Ministers report. Sir Lancelot?”
“Sire, my Lady and I have been traveling throughout the realm seeing to it that all Jutes, Saxons and Picts are expelled from the kingdom. I think that I speak with confidence that we are a thoroughly British land now, with no barbarian influences or threats. I do think that we need consider repairing Hadrian’s Wall or Antonine’s Wall so that we can better keep the Picts out.”
“Thank you Lancelot.” Said the King. “Sir Gawain?”
“We now have enough of the new saddles and lances for each Knight of the Round Table. Even though it will cut into the profits of the corporation, I suggest that each of us such take our saddle home and have our local tanner make many of them so that we can equip our armies faster.”
“That is a good idea.” Said King Anthony. “Many of the earliest technologies I introduce are easily duplicable. The corporation can’t produce many unique things until we have built enough infrastructure like the steel mill we are currently building. When it is finished, we will be able to make cheap, plentiful steel. Sir Kay, what do you have to report?
“Thus far, we have established schools in Cornwall, Wessex, and Kent. We getting a mixed reception. Many people are glad to get a chance to receive an education. But some of the farmers have complained about their reduced labor force now that the barbarians are gone and their children are in school for part of the day. If we do not find a way to increase grain production soon, we could be facing a serious famine.”
“After we get the steel meal running we’ll be able to increase farm productivity.” Replied the King. “Sir Galahad?”
“We need to increase the amount in the treasury before we can start accumulating the gold reserves necessary for minting our coins. I suggest that we raise taxes.”
King Anthony frowned.
“I think a better way to fund our government would be through voluntary mean like issuing bonds.” Replied the King. “Sir Brian?”
“I have located nearby sources for the resources you requested. But I do not understand what you plan to use coal for.”
“Thank you Sir Brian.” Said King Anthony. “Now if you all look at the preprinted papers I have provided You will see that there is a variety to legislation I would like to go over with you including the adoption of family names by all citizens of the realm. I was very confused by the fact that Sir Vortigern had the same name as Morgana le Fey’s father. I want to help clear that up and prevent future misunderstandings.”

The legislative session lasted a week. After it was over, King Anthony took the Knights of the Round Table and their wives to Aquae Sulis. Once there, he convened a special session of the Round Table at the public bath and invited the wives of the Knights.
“You are probably wondering what we are doing here at this old roman bath” started the King. “Well, we are all going to take a bath. Please remove you clothes and get in the water. All of you, come on, Ladies too.”
Anthony took off us robe and crown and waded into the pool. It was fed by a hot spring and felt warmer than he had felt when he was fully clothed. Some of the more Christian knights and especially their ladies had balked at getting undressed in public. But King Anthony was most insistent. He took care not to stare at the women. Even though some of them were quite beautiful and he was unlikely to see this much of them again. After everyone was in the pool, he began.
“A few years before I arrived, a plague hit Britain. I brought you here in order to prevent such outbreaks. It has occurred to me that some of you do not bathe regularly. Perhaps you do not even know how to take a proper bath. I will show you all how so that you can teach your subjects back home. I picked this place because it has a large public bath that the Romans built that was large enough to accommodate us all. It is not necessary to bath in public like this. Many of you will prefer to bathe in private. But you should take a bath at the end of each day, before your evening meal. In addition, you should wash your hands after emptying your bowels or bladder and before each meal. Washing is the key to preventing disease. Remember, cleanthiness is next to godliness.” Said Anthony, quoting a cliché that was wholly original to these people. “Now if you will each grab one of the bars of soap on the edge of the pool . . .”
Thus began the new fashion for bathing that swept through the kingdom.

Spring came and the flowers started blooming. The farmers planted their crops under the new rotation method that King Anthony mandated for all farmers to use. The Printers expanded their output to include Roman history classics in both languages. Work on the steel mill continued. The bath house at Camelot was completed and everyone noble and commoner alike was ordered to use it at least once per day. All across the land soldiers started training with the new lances and saddles.
One day, King Anthony saw his valet, Elleonora, in the distance, kissing someone. Late that evening, he found her in the pub drinking heavily.
“Hello your highnesh!” Said Elleonora putting her arm around him.
Anthony got down to business: “Elleonora, who was that man I saw you kissing tonight?”
“Dat musht have been my hushband, Shean” Drawled Elleonora.
“Your husband!”
Anthony felt a tightness in his chest as he grew fearful. In his mind, things started
falling together that horrified him.
“Elleonora, you’ve always been kind of distant. Do you like being my lover?”
“No, my lord. I hate when you forsh your shelf on me.”
“Then, why didn’t you just say no?”
“I can’t shay no to da King. My dishobediensh would be punished sheverely. People like me have to let da noblesh do what ever dey want to ush. It’sh our lot in life.”
When Anthony realized what he’d done to her, he was filled with self loathing. He tried to fight back his despair with denial.
“But you always seem to enjoy the attention I lavished you.”
“Dat jusht made it worshe. You’re sho good at shex dat you make me cum whether I want to or not. I can’t even trusht my own body around you. When you make me have shex with you, my body betraysh my heart.
Anthony was revolted that he had invented sexual harassment. When he thought about it, he realized that he had raped her!
“But if you want to have shex with me right now, I wouldn’t mind it. I’m pretty drunk!” Said Elleonora, raising her wooden goblet of wine.
That set off alarm bells in Anthony’s mind. He knew that he left her alone, she’d do something she’d regret.
“Get up. I’m taking you home.” He said.
“Yesh, your majeshty.” She set down her goblet and staggered to her feet.
Anthony put his arm around her and walked her out of the pub.
“So, where do you live?” asked the King.
“Dat way, outshide the cashtle.” She pointed.
As they passed through the gates, the guards came to attention. The moon was nearly full, so it was easily to see their way through the fields of grain. After the castle had receded into the distance, Elleonora pulled him close and kissed him. He could taste the alcohol on her breath.
“I could really use a drink right about now.” Anthony thought.
“No!” he said as he pushed her away.
She staggered and fell to the ground.
“Oh, you want to shrew me here?” she asked while pulling her skirt up to give him access.
Seeing her dark patch of hair contrasting against the paleness of her skin in the moonlight made him want her as he began to tingle. But then, he remembered that she was married and he was her rapist. He grabbed her arm and roughly pulled her to her feet. She threw up all over him.
“It’s okay” thought Anthony. “I deserve it.”
Finally, they came to a farmhouse. It was dark inside. Anthony knocked on the door. A bleary-eyed naked man came to door.
“Your majesty, what are you doing here?” asked the man with a bow.
“I found your wife drunk in the pub. So, I brought her home.”
“I had assumed that she was working late with you.” Answered the man.
Anthony helped her into her husband’s arms and headed back to the castle. He could feel the pub calling out to him. He really wanted to forget what he’d learned tonight. He hated himself. But he was able to resist “falling off the wagon” as her told him self that he would wait to have that drink until tomorrow.

The next morning King Anthony awoke to find his clothes laid out for him as usual. After he relieved him self and dressed, he found Elleonora was waiting out side the door as usual, waiting to come in and empty the chamber pot. He was surprised to find her up so early after having had so much to drink the night before. He stopped her and sat on the bed.
"Come here I want to speak with you." He said as he patted the bed beside him.
Elleonora signed and began pulling her dress off.
"No. No. I just want to talk." Said the King.
Her face betrayed her relief on hearing on hearing this as she sat down.
"How much do you remember about last night?"
"I remember getting very intoxicated and seeing you in the pub." Said Elleonora. "My lord, please excuse my drunkenness. It will not happen again!"
"Do not worry about that. Do you remember what you said?"
"We talked about sex, then you took me to my house and sex with me?"
"No. We did not. That must have been your husband."
A panic stricken look came on to her face.
"Please don't hurt him! We were married before you were king!"
"I am not going to hurt any body." Said Anthony. "Last night, you told me how you really feel about coming to my bed. Just wanted to apologize for taking advantage of you. That was wrong of me. It will never happen again."
"Oh. . . Well, thank you." She said with relief.
"Does your husband know what I have been doing to you?"
"I am sure he suspects something. But he knew I was a slave when he married me."
"Not any more. I am going to set you free."
"You can not free me." Said Elleonora. "You do not own me."
"Who does?" asked Anthony.
"The Lady Gwenevere." Replied Elleonora.