Iron Man and the Knights of the Round Table

Iron Man is owned by Marvel comics

"Thor, we've got to talk" pleaded Iron Man as he flew towards the Norse god. But Thor could no more understand his modern twenty-first century English than Anthony could understand Thor's old English.
The thunder god let fly his hammer and hit the Iron Man squarely in the chest. Anthony went hurtling back, propelled by Thor's hammer, into Hadrian's Wall. The section of the wall Anthony crashed into shattered, producing a gaping hole in the fortification. Mjolnir returned to its owner’s hand and Thor prepared to throw the hammer again. Anthony took to the air again but he careened wildly out of control and crashed into the wall again. Unprepared for such an erratic flight, Thor's hammer missed its' target and broke another section of the wall.
"Damn!" swore Anthony, "the microgyros are broken!" He knew that he'd never be able to make a replacement for such a delicate and sophisticated component. Without them, flight was impossible for the Iron Man armor.
Anthony hit Thor in the chin with a replusor blast, knocking him out of the sky. He ran to where the Thunder god had fallen and tried reasoning with him in both Latin and Britannic. But he could tell by the look in Thor's eyes that he had not understood a thing that Anthony had said. Thor hit him with his hammer. This time, the King was prepared and had braced him self so that he would not be send flying by the force of the blow. Pebbles flew into the air as his feet dug into the ground. The shrapnel put Thor off balance so that when Iron Man punched him, he was hurled away. He charged at the armored figure and struck a mighty blow with his hammer. The two continued to exchange blows as they fought to a standstill. As they fought, they each tried to communicate with the other, but without a common language, it was to no avail. Finally Anthony grappled with Thor and physically turned his head and pointed at their armies. The battle was over. The few remaining Angles had throw down their weapons. On seeing this, Thor went limp. Anthony released him and stood over him. Thor knelt before him in homage, but Anthony noticed that he hadn't dropped his weapon as the other barbarians had. It wasn't necessary. He knew he could trust Thor. He motioned for Thor to follow him as they strode towards the battlefield.

The lightning strikes had disheartened the British army. But after the Black Knight had drawn his ebony blade and laughed off a bolt of lightning, he had been able to rally the troops to complete their charge. Many more of the Angles fell beneath their assault. As they fell back to charge again, the Angles tried charging the flanks of the British army. The archers drove them back into the path of the lancers and even more of the barbarians were cut down. When the Britons prepared to make another charge, The Angles began throwing down their weapons. By now, the foot soldiers had completely encircled the Anglish army and were starting to move in for the kill.

When lightning began striking the Britons, the Angles had felt that they had a chance, after all. They charged at the footsoldiers on the sides of the British army hoping to outflank them. Asc saw the British King flying into the air and being knocked out of the sky by his ally, Thor. Then the British started charging again and Asc knew they were in trouble. All around him he saw men being squewered by the British lances. In desperation, they charged at the foot soldiers only to be driven back by a hail of arrows. He saw the lancers preparing to charge again. Asc looked around. As far as he could tell, none of the Anglish leaders were still amongst the living. In the distance, Thor was completely occupied with fighting the British King to a standstill. They could count on no help from the god of thunder.
"Throw down your arms!" Asc yelled at what was left of the Anglish army.

By the time that King Anthony and Thor had walked back to where the two armies had clashed, all of the surviving members of the Anglish army had been taken prisoner. With the Black Knight acting as translator, Anthony was able to locate the highest ranking Anglish chieftain that had survived and negotiate with him. But first he addressed the god of Thunder.
"I know that you are a great warrior." Began Anthony. "In fact, we are destined to become close friends and allies. So I wanted you to listen in on my negotiations with your mortal allies so that you can be sure that I am dealing with them fairly."
"Spoken like a true king. Very well, I will watch and listen to make sure thou art as noble as thy words seemeth." answered Thor.
"Fair enough," replied Anthony.
"Firstly, with whom am I dealing?" Said Anthony to the Anglish leader.
"Beowulf, my lord." replied the Angle.
"THE BEOWULF?" asked Anthony incredulously.
"I guess if Arther and Camelot are real, then Beowulf could be too." Mused the King to himself.
"Why are you here? Why have you invaded my realm?" asked Anthony.
"We've had a poor harvest this year." Beowulf began. There isn't enough food for my people. Two of the Jutish Chieftains, Horsa and Asc, have been agitating to get my people to invade Britain for several years. But when they got a runecaster to persuade the God of Thunder to join their cause, this tipped the balance in favor of invasion. King Cole had no choice but to lead us here."
"Where is your king now?” asked Anthony.
"Dead, my Lord" replied Beowulf.
"Are this Horsa or Asc still amongst the living?" asked Anthony.
"Yes I am, you fiend." Said Asc. "First you kill my Uncle, now you've killed my father! Mark my words, some how, some way I shall have my vengeance!"
"Your family has attacked my realm twice." Said Anthony. "If there is a next time, I will not be so merciful.
And as for the Anglish famine, if you, Beowulf, are willing to swear that you will leave my realm and never return. I will sell you enough grain on credit to get you through the winter. We've had a bumper harvest this year. In addition, if you pay us back for the grain, I will sell you the plows that made such large crops possible."
"My lord, you are more than generous!" replied Beowulf.
"Well Thor, does my solution meet with you approval?" asked Anthony
"Indeed. Thou art a most generous and merciful mortal." Thor replied. "In truth, I had many misgivings about interfering in the affairs of mortals. But I was told that the Britons already had a god intervening on their side. I merely sought to give my followers a fair chance. However, fighting on the side of mortals and fighting for them are two different things. I was willing to aid my followers, but I can not fight their battles for them. Once they hadst lost the battle, it became pointless to match thy might with my own."

After the negotiations with the Angles were complete, Sir Finn offered to let the King stay in the castle in his own room. But Anthony refused. He preferred to stay in his own tent rather than using royal privilege to eject someone from their own bedroom. When he opened the flap of his tent he found Nineve waiting for him.
"Hail the conquering hero" she said with a curtsy.
"What are you doing here?!" asked Anthony. "How did you get here?"
"Is that all you have to say to me? If you would rather, I could leave." said Nineve as she headed for the door of the tent.
"No! No! I am glad to see you,” exclaimed Anthony as he took her into his arms. "I am just surprised that you are here." He kissed her passionately.

The next morning Anthony awoke to the sounds of shouting. It seemed to be coming from two different directions. Looking around he saw that Nineve was no where to be found. She must have left during the night. He hoped that the shouting wasn't someone taking out a grudge against her for the death of Merlin. As he got dressed and armored up, he began to wake up. He identified one of the commotions as an argument between Lancelot and Ewain. On the other end of the camp, Sir Pellinore was cursing about someone stealing his horse. Stepping out of his tent, Anthony thought. "I could really use some coffee right out now. Damn! I miss the twenty-first century!"
When he got to the quarreling knights, their voices had fallen to whispers. Anthony saw Lancelot reaching for his sword.
"Stop!" shouted the King. "What is going on here?"
"Sire," said Lancelot "this knave has been spreading lies about my Lady Gwenevere."
Anthony's eyes narrowed. He didn't like where this was going.
"What sort of things has he been saying?" asked the King.
"I don't want them to spread, so I dare not repeat them. Still, honor must be satisfied." replied Lancelot, drawing his sword.
Anthony interposed himself between the two men as he heard Ewain drawing his own sword.
"I can not let my knights kill each other every time there is a dispute." said Anthony. "I have alternative. We will dull the tips of your lances and you will try to knock each other off of your horses. The last knight on his horse wins." Anthony was glad he had seen all those old movies with jousting scenes. But he knew that if things followed the pattern that they had in legend, this would not be Lancelot's last duel in defense of Gwenevere's honor.

While Lancelot and Ewain were preparing for their joust, Anthony talked to Pellinore about his stolen horse. A search was organized to look for the animal, but it produced no results.


Once the two combatants were armored up and mounted, King Anthony called all of the Knights and had them mark off an area for the joust to take place in with spectators on the sidelines. All of this took awhile and Anthony hoped that Lancelot's and Ewain's tempers had cooled. Once every one was in place, the King addressed the crowd.
"Knights of the Round Table, Soldiers of Britain, hear now the words of your King. In the past you have settled disputes amongst your selves by raising your swords against each other. No Longer. From this day forth, disputes between Knights will be settled not by a fight to the death, but by a contest of skill. These two brave Knights, Sir Lancelot and Sir Ewain, have such a grievance with each other. To settle their conflict, they will each attempt to unhorse the other. May justice prevail."
The herald blew the trumpet signaling that the contest was to begin. Both Knights urged their horses to charge and they began hurling towards each other. Ewain lowered his lance and pointed in directly at Lancelot's heart. Lancelot charged forward with his lanced raised. This made Ewain think that Lancelot was forfeiting the match. Perhaps Lancelot had come to his senses? Ewain relaxed his left arm and lowered his shield slightly. Suddenly, when it was almost too late, Lancelot lowered his lance at Ewain. As the two Knights crashed together, Ewain's lance slid off of Lancelot's shield. Sir Lancelot's spear caught his opponent at just the right angle. He forced Ewain's shield down and caught the edge on one of the plates of his armor. The sudden snag twisted Ewain violently sending him flying to the ground. Lancelot turned his horse around and charged at Ewain again. His Opponent lay prone on the ground struggling to stand. One drawback to plate armor is that it made getting up after falling very difficult. Lancelot stopped just short of trampling Ewain and lowered his spear point at his opponent's throat.
"Do you yield?" demanded Lancelot.
"Yes, I yield." replied Ewain with resignation.
“Tell them you Lied” demanded Lancelot.
“I made it all up!” Ewain lied. “none of what I said about Lady Gwenevere it true!”

As the British army made its’ way South after driving off the Angles, Nineve visited King Anthony in his tent several times. No one saw her enter the camp. She would just be there in his tent when he went to bed and gone the next morning. They made it back to Camelot in time for Yule/Christmas and Nineve was already there waiting for him. As the Yule Log burned, Nineve led songs until late in the evening. Late at night, after most people had gone to sleep, She would awaken Anthony so they could make love. But afterwards, she never went to sleep. He wanted to spend his days by the fire with her, but Nineve insisted that he take care of his normal business.
When he visited the factory, he found that while he had been up north fighting the war, all the parts for his tower had been made and it was ready for construction. He ordered them to begin work.

448

“This meeting of the Round Table is called to order” said King Anthony. “Sir Lancelot?”
“When we deported the Angles, we found that The Jutish Chieftain, Asc, was not among them.” Said Lancelot. “We think that he is the one who stole Sir Pellinore’s horse. He is believed to be at large some where in the British countryside.”
“We can’t have him wandering around causing trouble now can we?” said Anthony. “Get some posters printed up that offer a 10,000 denari reward for him dead or alive. Sir Brian?”
“Since we finished the rails to the mines” began Sir Brian, “The horses have been able to pull the ore to the steel mill in all kinds of weather. On the rails, the wheels of the carts do not get bogged in the mud. As a result, Steel production has increased dramatically. On thing puzzles me though. This strange steel tower you are building, are you going to put walls on it? It seems to me that in its’ current state, anyone seeking refuge in the tower would be vulnerable to arrowfire.”
“The purpose of the tower is not military” replied King Anthony. “All will be made clear after the tower is complete. If I tried to explain it now, you would have difficulty believing me. It is something that has to be seen to be believed. It should be finished by Mayday. I would like to have a meeting of the Round Table then to demonstrate my latest innovation.”
The rest of the meeting went smoothly as Kay reported on the expanded schools and literacy.

Spring came and the strange metallic tower was completed. When the Round Table met again, King Anthony began his demonstration.
“I am sure you are wondering what the purpose of the new tower is” began King Anthony. “It is called a radio tower. With it, we can send sounds through the air over long distances. In order to hear those sounds, you need a special receiver like this. To make it work, you turn this crank which turns your muscle power into something similar to lightning. Allow me to demonstrate.”
Anthony began turning the crank and from the radio came the sound of musicians who were playing in another part of the castle. The Knights were dumbfounded! As the song came to an end, a voice announced in Britannic: “You are listening to Radio Britain, bringing you music and news from the halls of Camelot. And to our listeners at the Round Table, we say welcome! And now back to more music from the Piper family.”
Anthony stopped turning the crank and the music faded away. “In addition to music and entertainment, we can also use radio to keep our subjects informed, sell products to the populace and even relay orders to our army from far away. The crank can be turned by muscle power or it can be hooked up to a waterwheel. SE will sell these radios to people all over Britain. Everyone will want one. Now, who wants to be the first to buy their very own radio receiver?”
The Knights of the Round Table clambered to buy radios as fiercely as they had to buy stock in the company that produces them when it had been created a few years before.
Later that evening, Anthony attended the Beltaine celebration at Stonehenge. Just as last year, every one in attendance was naked. It was a different group of people than he had seen at Glastonbury. But Gwenevere was there, looking as beautiful as ever. The priestesses arrived and Anthony was disappointed that Nineve was not among them. He knew she was at that moment performing this same ceremony and Glastonbury. But he was still disappointed. As the dance progressed, he saw Gwenevere step out of the line and head towards him. But before she could choose him, the woman on his right pulled him out of the line. He turned to see Gawain’s wife, Shannon, smiling as she led him away from the crowd. Once they had walked some distance into the field, she pulled him closer and kissed him. Shannon was quite a bit older than the women Anthony was used to sleeping with, but what she lacked in youth, she made up for with skill. She quickly overcame any inhibitions he may have had about sleeping with another man’s wife. He had been here long enough to know that Gawain would not be challenging anyone over the night’s activities. To him, this was all right and proper.
After they finished King Anthony said: “Wow! That was amazing! Where did you learn to be such an amazing lover? I guess Ben Franklin was right about older women.”
“Who?” asked Shannon?
“It does not matter” replied Anthony. “He is just someone I have heard of who said that older women make better lovers.”
Two days later Sir Gawain lost a joust against Sir Lancelot and recanted his “lies” about Gwenevere.

449
Yule came, and once again, Nineve led songs round the fire and late at night visited Anthony in his bed. She had been visiting him occasionally throughout the year and Anthony always looked foreword to her next visit. After the Christmas celebration, the Knights of the Round Table met for their annual meeting.

“This meeting of the Round Table is hereby called to order” Said King Anthony. “Let us start with Sir Lancelot. How are things going in the rest of the world?”
“Well Sire, books have been selling well in Gaul” Replied Sir Lancelot. “The people there seem to have an insatiable thirst for Latin literature and history.”
“Hopefully, flooding their market with cheap Latin books will awaken desire for them to return to the former glory days of Rome” said the King. “What about the Eastern Empire?”
“News form the East is scare” answered Lancelot. “I had to rely on sailor’s stories gathered from the merchant ships that come to Britain. By all accounts, the Huns have been raiding the Eastern Romans but have left the West Romans alone. But we can not be sure without first hand reports. I have also been hearing a number of disturbing tales about the Vandals in the Western Mediterranean.”
“I intend to solve that problem and soon” replied Anthony. “Sir Pellinore, How goes the search?”
“The Jutish chieftain, Asc is still at large somewhere in Britain” answered Pellinore. “We have searched everywhere in the kingdom and have yet to find a single person who claims to have seen him. I believe that he has escaped to the north, in Pictland.”
“Well, I guess no news is good news” said the King. “Still I can not help feeling that he will be back some day. Sir Kay?
“We now have schools established in all parts of the kingdom” answered Kay. “We have also had a groundswell of interest in literacy from the adults. Now that books are readily available, everyone wants to learn how to read them. I think we should start having adult classes in the winter. Also, radio receivers have been very popular throughout the kingdom. Everybody wants one. Already, people are opening up radio pubs where people can buy drinks and listen to Radio Britain.”
“Classes for adults are a good idea” said Anthony. “But the time has come for us to leave the safety of our island and start shaping world events. I have told you about the coming Dark Age that threatens all we have built. Now, we must act to prevent the fall of civilization. Take care of your affairs. On the spring Equinox, we will meet here again. Bring your best ten soldiers and be prepared for war! This meeting is adjourned.”

Spring came and the Knights of the Round Table gathered at Camelot with an army five hundred strong. At King Anthony’s request, Sir Lancelot and Sir Marcus had brought their wives, Gwenevere and Lydia along with a few servants. Once they were gathered together, King Anthony addressed the crowd while a microphone carried his words over the radio to the rest of the Kingdom.
“Knights of the Round Table, loyal Britons, today is the day we begin shaping world events! Today is the day we show the world that in Britain, might stands for right! For too long have the barbarians nibbled away at the civilized world, bringing with them darkness and chaos. No more! It ends now! The Vandals have taken the province of Africa from Rome. Now, they have begun attacking our merchant ships! They hope that we will pay them tribute to “protect” our ships from pirates as the Romans do. But every one knows that THEY are the pirates that merchant ships need protecting from! To their requests for tribute I say: Millions for Defense, but not one denari for tribute!”
Anthony knew he was using a cliché, but in this era, his words sounded wholly original to everyone but himself.
“And so, we go to liberate Africa and break the power of the Vandals once and for all! But I do not leave my people alone without a ruler while I am abroad. Britain needs a ruler in my absence. Therefore, I am Appointing Sir Kay and Sir Brian as Co-Regents until I return. And now, we go forth to save civilization!”

King Anthony led the army to the coastal city of Sabrina. The city had been closed to the world for a couple of years by guards who owed their loyalty solely to Anthony. Now for the first time, the Knights of the Round Table were being let into the City. Within, they saw that the city had its’ own steel mill and factory. At the harbor, was the fleet that the King had been secretly building. The ships were modified roman galleys. The sails had been removed and in their place each ship had a large smoke stack like a steel mill. In addition, each ship had its’ own radio tower. On each side of the ship was what appeared to be a water wheel. None of the ships had oars. And the smaller ships had large metal cylinders protruding from the oar holes.
Most of the warriors and all of the horses were loaded onto two of the larger ships. The Knights of the Round Table were distributed amongst the smaller ships. After they cast off, Anthony visited each of the ships to explain his battle plan and to introduce them to all the new technologies in his new Navy.
“Gentlemen, this is the future of Naval Warfare” began Anthony. “I built the larger ships first to carry freight. Smaller ships like this one are designed for actually engaging the enemy. Each ship has an engine that turns water into steam and uses that steam to turn a wheel which moves the ship. In addition, the steam engine also generates electricity for the radio and the lights. The fleet can communicate with each other via radio and with Camelot. I know the electric lights are new to you, but I thought they would be safer on board a coal burning ship.” Anthony had resisted introducing electric light to the 5th century as long as he could. He thought candles and oil lamps gave life a more romantic atmosphere than electric lights. He hoped they wouldn’t spread to Camelot. “And finally, we come to the cannons. Think of them as a more advanced form of catapults. It will take some training to learn how to use them, but even with steam engines, it will take awhile to get to Carthage.”

King Geiserich frowned. Standing here on the city walls of Carthage gave the Vandal Chieftain a commanding view of the sea. Off on the edge of horizon he could see the unmistakable sight of tiny wisps of smoke. Smoke on the open sea could only mean one thing. Pirates! But as far as he knew, all his ships were in port right now. If he wasn’t responsible for this attack he could see signs of in the distance, then someone else must be trying to move in on his territory.
“Hunneric!” called Geiserich.
“Yes, My lord?” replied his son as he ran to see what his King wanted.
“Take ten of our fastest ships and see what that smoke is about” replied Geiserich as he pointed out at the sea. “Someone is trying to horn in on our territory. Leave their ships intact but kill everyone on board. We must send them a message. This sea belongs to the Vandals!”

In the weeks that it took to steam from Wales to the part of the Mediterranean that lies between Sardinia and Carthage King Anthony had diligently drilled the fleet on the tactics that they would need. Still, one detail that hadn’t occurred to him was the need for lookouts in crow’s nests. As a result, the Vandals got quite close before they were spotted.
“Sir Lancelot,” cried Finagan the sailor, “a fleet of ships are approaching off our starboard side!”
“Tell the Radioman to alert the rest of the fleet” commanded Lancelot. “Battle stations! All hands to Battle Stations!”

Hunneric felt confident as the Vandals approached their quarry. With the wind at their back and the slaves rowing, their galleys could go at quite a clip. Before the Vandals were even noticed they go close enough to see that the ships they were approaching were not burning out of control. The strange ships had neither sails nor oarsmen, just a pair of strange metal masts, one of which produced the smoke that had attracted him to this part of the sea. As the Vandals sailed toward these strange ships, five of them both changed direction and started sail upwind toward the Vandals. It was difficult to judge speed in sailing ships, but the two fleets were approaching each other at an unbelievable rate.
“Prepare to board!” shouted Hunneric at his crew as the strange ships drew near. Since he had been given instructions to leave the enemy ships intact, ramming was out of the question.
The Vandals lined up near the drawbridges on the starboard side of the galley while on the lower deck, the drummer prepared to slow down the pace he was setting for the slaves who were chained to their oars. Hunneric’s ship passed between two of the enemy ships and his pilot tried to draw near to the one on the starboard side. Suddenly the were loud booming sounds as flames shot out of the strange metal cylinders that protruded from the oar holes of the enemy ships. Large iron balls crashed into his ship on both sides pulverizing everything they hit. His ship was crippled as smoke and a foul stench filled the air. As the smoke began to clear, Hunneric accessed the situation. None of his sails were working as their masts had all been damaged beyond repair and only half of his oars were working. The lost ones had either had the oars broken or its’ oarsmen killed. Many of the warriors on deck had been wounded or killed. The other ships in the Vandal fleet were in similar condition save one. He could find not trace of it. It seemed to have disappeared. The enemy fleet had passed him by and was now to stern. In unison, they were making a turn and coming back for another pass.
“Full speed ahead!” shouted Hunerric in a fruitless attempt to flee the demon ships that bore down on him.
With no sails and underpowered oars, he could not get very much speed out of the crew. The other Vandal ships took off in separate directions as they tried to scatter away to safety. He saw the enemy ships split up and each one pursued a different one of his ships. When the first enemy ship got within range of one of his ships, he saw the smoke of cannon fire and a flash that destroyed the Vandal ship. It had broken in half and sunk with all hands aboard. When Hunneric’s pursuer caught up with him, it let fly a volley that left him with too few oars to move. He was dead in the water and starting to sink.
“Please unlock us, Master” pleaded on of the slaves as the oar deck filled with water.
“Shut up!” retorted Hunneric “If I’m going down with the ship, then so are you!”
Many of the remaining Vandal warriors were frantically stripping off their armor in the hopes that they would be able to swim to another ship. Hunneric didn’t bother. He was the Captain and he planned to go down with his ship. He saw another one of the Vandal ships break in two and go under. The enemy kept hammering away at them until all of the Vandal ships were sinking or sunk. Hunneric never knew who his executioners had been.

King Anthony had set the helmet radio of his Iron Man armor for shortwave to aid in coordinating his fleet. The battle had gone flawlessly, just as he’d planned. Going into the midst of the Vandal fleet allowed the British ships to shoot their cannon on both sides to devastating effect. An occasional replusor blast from the Iron Man armor allowed him to quickly sink ships without fighting the battle single handedly. Once the battle was over, the entire British fleet steamed over to the coast off Carthage.
“We are in Luck!” exclaimed Anthony, lowering his spyglass. “It looks like nearly all of the Vandal ships are currently in Port. All ships, Fire at will in the docked ships! Don’t leave them a single ship!”
There was a terrific din as cannons and replusor blasts turned all of the ships in Carthage into kindling. The noise attracted the attention of the Vandals, who sent about a hundred warriors to investigate. Once the ships had been destroyed, The British ships moved in closer and began firing on the Warriors on the beach, forcing them to retreat. The Vandals fled into the city and closed the gates behind them.

“Here we come. Any minute we should reaching shore” said Sir Lancelot as he sat in the bow of the rowboat looking back at the freighter he had left. His boat, dangerously full of heavily armored knights was the first to go a shore to secure the area and give the British a safe place to come ashore. King Anthony was on the second boat along with a group of specially trained sailors and several hoists they would need to get on their horses. From some freighters, horses were being lowered into the water so that they could swim to shore. While other freighters lowered boatloads of armored knights into the water so they could come ashore.
“Now!” shouted Lancelot as the boat ran aground. “Everyone overboard! Move it! Move it! We have got to send the boat back for the next load!”
Sir Ewain fell down and Sir Percy had to help him to his feet before he drowned. Other wise, they made it onto shore without incident and the boat, relieved of their weight, no longer touched bottom, allowing the lone sailor, who had not gone ashore, to begin rowing back to the freighter for another load. Once the knights had reached dry land, some Vandals who had been hiding in the bushes charged at them.
“Form a semi-circle, as we planned!” commanded Lancelot as he drew his sword.
The knights formed a semi circle and began fighting the Vandals. The second boat came ashore and King Anthony and the sailors began setting up the frames for the hoists. At one point, one of the barbarians managed to slip through the British line and stabbed Anthony in the back. His sword didn’t even penetrate the Iron Man armor and Anthony dispatched the Vandal with one blow from his cybernetically enhanced strength fist. The skirmish was quickly over however, and several of the horses were ashore when the next boat arrived. The knights scrambled to catch the horses as they came ashore and began mounting up. It took several hours before the British army was all ashore and mounted up. Since The Knights of the Round Table had been told to bring their best 10 soldiers, all of the soldiers were lancers dressed in plate armor.
It was nearing dusk as the knights approached the city gates. By then, the city was prepared for a long siege. They stopped just short of bow range. And King Anthony dismounted and strode forward ignoring the hail of arrows that bounced off of the Iron Man armor. He pointed his gloves at the city gates. Suddenly instead of a repulsor blast, Anthony felt heat building up in his palms.
“Damit! The transistors!” Anthony swore as he pulled his gauntlets off. “I’ll never be recreate them in this century! Ow! Damit!”
One of the arrows had gone through his hand. He turned his back on the hail of arrows and nursed his hand.
“Let’s see. I’ve lost my replusors, so I can’t blast down the gate. I can’t fly over the gate. I guess I’ll have to use sheer force” mused Anthony to himself. “The gloves should have cooled by now. But first I’ve got to get this arrow out of my paw. Ow!”
Anthony put his gauntlets back on and turned to face the city gates. He could feel the life support systems of his armor sealing up his wound as he walked up to the city gates. His eye slits automatically closed just in the nick of time as boiling oil was poured onto him. With the Iron Man armor multiplying his strength a hundredfold, he was easily able to break down the city gates. As walked through the threshold, he drew his sword. He’d only worn it for appearance sake. Now he was glad he had it.
“Charge!” commanded King Anthony as he ran into the city.
The knights charged forward.
Within the city, the people screamed and fled. Another barbarian army was invading the city! Their experience when the Vandals had first arrived had taught them what to expect this night, Rape, pillage and slaughter.