It took ten minutes to reach the Eye. We came out of the Tube and were immediately swallowed by the crowd. Felicia looked as though she might float off the ground from sheer happiness. She really was built for the outside world.
"This is nice," Jean murmured, leaning into my shoulder. "We should do this more often. For her sake, if nothing else."
"We really should," I agreed, and leaned down to kiss her.
"Come on, you three! Move it!" Felicia was already twenty feet ahead of us, cutting toward the back of the queue for the giant riverside Ferris wheel with the energy of someone who had been cooped up far too long. "We need to reserve our spots!"
"What's the rush, Cat?" Wanda snorted as we caught up. "Going somewhere?"
"Just happy," Felicia said — and then held up her wrist. Three watches and as many wallets were stacked along her forearm, all of them recently acquired. A familiar gleam in her eye.
I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Are you serious right now?"
"Hey — you can take the girl out of the city, but you can't take the city out of the girl," Felicia said sweetly.
"You're a kleptomaniac," Wanda said.
"Just a little. Yes."
"Every single day," Wanda sighed, looking at Jean and me. "Honestly — how do the two of you manage?"
Jean smiled. "It helps considerably if you're in love with her."
"Or if you're sleeping with her," I added. "Genuinely, the trade-off is more than worth it."
Felicia's grin widened to something bordering on dangerous. "You absolutely bet it is."
Wanda shrugged. "I don't know — I've always thought Peter has a better figure than either of you, if we're being honest."
Felicia turned to her sharply. "Excuse me?"
"Just an observation."
Jean hummed thoughtfully and nodded. "She's not wrong, to be fair. Though to be fair to you, Wanda — you can't really appreciate the female form the way—"
"Trust me, Red," Wanda cut in, one eyebrow raised. "I can appreciate it perfectly well."
"Oh?" I said, wiggling my eyebrow at her. "Is there something you want to tell us, Wanda? Because I always thought Stephene was quite—"
"Finish that sentence and I will neuter you."
"Hey!" Felicia cried out, looking personally offended. "Don't punish us for his mistakes! We still need him!"
"I'm sure it'll grow back," Wanda said pleasantly. "Won't it, Peter?"
I was just about to offer a very considered counterargument when thunder rolled out across the city.
Not distant. Not coming. It arrived all at once, a single deafening crack that startled everyone around us. We all looked up instinctively, expecting rain, but the sky above was clear — or as clear as London ever managed.
"Was there supposed to be a storm today?" Jean asked, frowning upward.
Felicia went still. "I have a very bad feeling about this."
Loud thunder. Middle of the day. No clouds. That particular pattern had a very specific meaning, and my mind landed on it immediately. *Mood lightning. The Bifrost signature. It's starting.*
The Infinity Core beneath my shirt lit up — brighter than its usual low burn, pulsing in a way it had never done before. I pressed my hand flat over it before anyone passing could notice the glow. The girls had already seen it.
"Peter," Wanda said carefully, "are you building something in your chest without telling us? Because this is giving me very uncomfortable Stark flashbacks."
"Sexy," I said quietly, looking down at the Core, "talk to me."
"Analyzing... the Stone is reacting to an external energy signature. The resonance pattern suggests a nearby object with a comparable energy profile."
I narrowed my eyes. London. A Stone in London. The Reality Stone. *Of course.*
"There is an Infinity Stone here," I said under my breath. "Right now. In this city."
"What?!" Wanda hissed, stepping closer. "Are you certain?"
"Almost completely." I looked around at the crowds around us. "We need to move. Somewhere we won't be seen."
Jean had already spotted it. "There — that alley." She nodded toward a narrow passage across the pier.
Felicia looked at the sky, then at me, then at the Ferris wheel she had spent all morning looking forward to. She let out a long, defeated breath. "Just one day. That's literally all I asked for."
"I will make this up to you," I said. "I promise. But this takes priority."
"I know, I know." She sighed. "My timing has always been terrible."
We moved quickly through the crowd and slipped into the alley. People passed by the entrance without a glance.
"Costumes?" Jean asked.
"Not yet — not until we know what we're looking at." I pulled up a mental map of the situation. "Sexy, pull every camera feed in central London, flag anything unusual, and monitor all police frequencies for incident reports that could connect to... well, given that we have inexplicable thunder, scan for Thor."
"Understood, beginning now."
"Thor?" Felicia blinked. "He's here? Why?"
The answer clicked into place immediately. "Jane." I straightened up. "Sexy — access the London foreign residency register and find a Jane Foster, currently in the country." I thought quickly. "Also run an alternative search — Thor may not have arrived yet. Find Dr. Foster and any of her known associates."
"On it," Sexy replied, already working.
Wanda had moved to the mouth of the alley. Without ceremony she extended her hands, and several large bins and a dumpster slid into place across the entrance — giving us a working degree of privacy from the street.
"If we're involved in this, we need more than street clothes," Jean said. She and Felicia dropped their disguises. So did Wanda and I. As one, our ordinary clothes shifted and reformed into our costumes.
Jean looked at me pointedly. "Peter — there's no purpose in staying hidden if you walk out there in that suit and announce Spider-Man is in London."
"Agreed." I looked down at my chest. "Sexy — Dark Knight mode."
"Understood."
The suit reshaped. The black and red gave way to the armored bodysuit I had originally built to test Gwen — heavier, plated, with the long cape and the angular helmet, the white eye-lenses that left my face invisible.
Felicia's eyes went very wide. "I don't know precisely why," she said, "but I find that extremely attractive. Where has that been hiding?"
"Something I keep for special occasions," I said, the helmet modifying my voice into something lower and less recognizable. "Call me Batman."
Felicia snapped a sharp salute. "Yes, sir."
"Could we use the same template?" Wanda asked, tilting her head. "The mask alone would do — we need something."
"Right. Sexy — copy the base design into their suit specs and adjust proportions."
Within seconds, all three of them stood in female-cut versions of the Dark Knight armor — cape, plating, and all. The only distinguishing features were the bat emblems on their chests: Jean's in emerald green, Felicia's in white, Wanda's in deep red, mine in black.
Jean looked down at herself and gave a low, appreciative whistle. "This is very different from anything I've worn before. I don't usually go in for armor."
Felicia lifted her cape and peered around at the back of her suit. "Peter — did you deliberately size this a little small? Because I swear it's doing things back here."
"...No?" I said, unconvincingly.
"I got something," Sexy cut in. A hologram snapped open in the air before us. "I just intercepted a 999 call from one Darcy Lewis, reporting a missing person — Dr. Jane Foster."
"Location?" I asked.
"Already mapping." The hologram shifted to show a closed-off shipping yard nearby.
"Can you portal us there?" Wanda asked.
"One way to find out." I closed the display and drew my sling ring.
With the image of the location held firmly in mind, I opened the portal. We stepped through immediately and it closed behind us.
The shipping yard was strange even from the first second — containers standing at odd angles, the rainfall behaving impossibly, half the yard soaked and the other half completely dry, as though the storm was sorting itself by some logic no weather system had ever followed.
I scanned the yard and found him near the back — a man standing well over six feet in leather and chainmail armor, a cape over his shoulders and an extraordinarily large hammer in his hand. He was speaking with a woman. Jane Foster.
"Thor!" I called out, moving toward him.
The God of Thunder turned from Jane and immediately raised Mjolnir, wary. Jean and Wanda brought their hands up on instinct.
"It's fine," I said, lifting a hand. "Relax, everyone." I looked at Thor. "Really? You're going to try to hit me again? Last time you did that, you spent the next hour feeling terrible about it."
Thor studied me with obvious confusion. "I'm sorry — do I know you?"
I looked down at the armored costume and remembered. "Right. The suit. Sorry about that." I looked up. "Sexy — go classic."
The armor reshaped in a shimmer, reverting to my familiar red and black.
Thor's eyes went wide. "Spider?! Is it truly you?!"
"Spider-Man? Peter Parker?" Jane Foster stared. "What are you doing here?"
"Here to help," I said. I turned to Jane directly. "Something unusual is happening around you. Did you make contact with something — red, liquid-like in consistency? Possibly in a confined space underground?"
Jane's expression shifted completely. "How could you possibly know that?"
"I have a gift." I turned back to Thor. "We need to remove it from her. If we don't, she could die."
"Die?!" Thor stepped forward, voice rising.
"What's inside her?" I said simply. "The Aether."
Thor's face went pale. Jane looked between us, lost.
Jean's voice came into my mind, quiet and precise. "The Aether?"
"Another name for the Reality Stone," I replied silently.
"I'm sorry — what is the Aether?" Jane asked.
"Something very dangerous," Thor told her tightly. He turned to me. "Can you help her?"
"Yes. Come on — we won't take long." I turned and drew my sling ring again, opening a portal directly to the sanctum. The girls stepped through and waited on the other side.
"Wait — I can't just leave," Jane said. "Darcy and the police are out there, they'll have questions—"
"There isn't time," I said firmly. "Jane — your life is in danger right now. We sort you out first. Everything else can wait." I held the portal open and waited. She hesitated, then at Thor's quiet insistence she stepped through, looking startled as the gateway closed around her.
Thor stepped through last. I closed it and spread my arms. "Welcome to the London Sanctum. Make yourselves at home." I retracted the helmet, showing my face.
Thor studied me for a long moment. "Spider... you're much younger than I imagined."
"You honestly didn't know?" Jane asked, looking at him sideways.
Thor shook his head. "The last time I came to Earth was to stop Loki — there was not exactly time for pleasantries. I knew of Spider-Man, but I confess I pictured someone..." He searched for the word.
"Older?" I offered, smiling.
"Precisely."
"It was quite a scandal when his identity came out," Jane said, "given that the man who apparently saved the world twice was a teenager."
Thor raised an eyebrow. "Twice?"
"Inter-dimensional monkeys," I said pleasantly.
"Ah... well." Thor straightened up. "I have saved the Nine Realms since we last met, so if we are counting, that brings my total to nine against your two." He smiled with genuine warmth, and then his gaze moved to the girls who had removed their helmets. His eyes widened in a way that was thoroughly, magnificently predictable.
"By Odin's beard," he breathed, "Spider, who are these remarkable—"
"Your girlfriend is standing right next to you," I said.
Thor turned to Jane, registered her expression, and went scarlet. "I — I meant it only as a compliment! Simple words, Jane, nothing beyond that, I swear—"
Jean laughed softly. "He's going to be in trouble later. And if you must know, Prince of Asgard — we are Peter's companions. Much as the Warriors Three are yours."
Thor looked at her with clear interest. "You know our stories, red-haired one. What is your name?"
"Jean," she said, with a small, gracious bow. After all, the man was technically royalty — and wait. Disney owned Marvel. Thor was a prince. Which made him, by a certain logical extension, a Disney prince. I filed that away to think about later.
"We're not exactly like the Warriors Three," Wanda added with a dry smirk, "unless, of course, you happen to be romantically involved with two of the three."
Jane turned sharply to Thor, who looked genuinely alarmed. "No! I most certainly do not — wait. Did she say two?"
Felicia shrugged. "We have an unconventional arrangement."
Jane looked at the three of us in turn. "You're in a... polyamorous relationship?"
"Not me," Wanda said, raising a hand. "The other two. And while polyamorous is technically accurate, I personally think of it as Peter and his harem."
"We are not a harem!" Felicia said, affronted. "There are three of us, and we love each other! That's completely different!"
"Exactly," Jean agreed pleasantly — and then smirked. "Though I suppose the other women in his life could be loosely described as the harem. The two of us would be more accurately described as his wives."
I rubbed my temple. They had been having this exact argument for over a week. And don't misunderstand — there was something genuinely beautiful about having people love you that deeply. But when you actually cared about them and couldn't be everything they needed, all at once, it became something far more emotionally exhausting than any fantasy version of the situation would have you believe.
"By Odin's beard," Thor said under his breath, looking at me with something approaching reverence. "Spider, you are extraordinarily fortunate. It is a rare thing indeed for a man to inspire such devotion. Why, in my youth I once—"
*Thwip.*
I put a web line directly in his mouth. "Maybe stop right there, yes?" Thor looked furious. He appeared to be preparing a rebuttal when he noticed Jane. The look she was giving him was quietly devastating.
He peeled the webbing free and cleared his throat. "...A story for another time, perhaps."
"Always good to see you, Thor. Now — follow me." I led everyone down to my lab.
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Jane looked around the lab with barely contained wonder. "This is incredible. I had no idea you were a scientist. How did you do that thing with the portal? And how are you doing that now?!" She pointed at the instruments I was levitating into position with a thought.
"Magic," I said, pushing the examination table to the center of the room. "Up you get."
"I — sorry?"
"Let me," Jean said warmly, and with a gentle application of telekinesis Jane was lifted smoothly off her feet and settled onto the table. "He is serious, by the way. It genuinely is magic."
"How?!" Jane looked utterly overwhelmed. "And magic is actually real?"
"In a manner of speaking," I said, beginning to set up the monitoring circles. "It's more accurately the manipulation of energy fields through the brain's own processing architecture. The world is effectively the Matrix, and anyone who can rewrite the code with their mind is a Sorcerer."
"And what she just did — was that magic too?" Jane asked, looking at Jean.
"No — she's a mutant," Wanda said. "Related, but distinct. All mutant abilities are in a sense magical, but not all magic users are mutants."
Jane opened her mouth.
"Don't try to parse it," Felicia said sympathetically. "It just makes your head hurt. Trust me."
"You're a wizard now, Spider?" Thor asked, studying me with obvious surprise.
"A novice compared to most, but yes. And please — call me Peter. Spider-Man was supposed to be a secret identity, but that ship has rather sailed." I began summoning diagnostic circles to map Jane's internal body functions and magical aura, which was burning like a bonfire thanks to the Reality Stone's influence. "Things happened. An old enemy revealed my identity to the world. I dropped the name for a while, then took it back, then ended up studying the Mystic Arts somewhere along the way."
"What happened to the enemy?" Thor asked.
"He came back with an army from another dimension. I've been living out of a magical building in London ever since." I closed my eyes and shifted into Web Vision — and there it was. The red threads of the Reality Stone spooling outward from the center of her chest like roots from a seed, still growing, still spreading.
"It hasn't fully integrated yet," I said quietly, opening my eyes. "We have time." I picked up the vibranium radiation emitter from my tools and tossed it to Wanda. "Hold that over her chest. Keep it steady."
Wanda caught it without looking and moved into position. "What does it do?"
"Stabilizes the Aether. Suppresses it enough to work with." I set the rest of my instruments in place. "Jane — the Aether is simply another name for the Reality Stone. It's one of six Infinity Stones."
"Jane has an Infinity Stone inside of her?!" Thor's voice jumped two registers.
"Yes."
"I'm sorry — an infinity what?!" Jane looked as though she was reconsidering several major life choices simultaneously.
"Jean," I said, glancing across.
Jean was already moving. She stepped to the head of the table, placed her hands gently on either side of Jane's head, and let her ability flow. "There we go. Just breathe — we're here to help. Everything is going to be alright." The tension left Jane's face almost immediately, fear replaced by something closer to calm.
"An Infinity Stone," Thor said, more quietly now, "is a shard of creation — an object of immeasurable power." He took Jane's hand firmly in both of his, squeezing. "Peter — how did you come to know of them?"
"For one thing, I currently own one." I tapped the Infinity Core and let the yellow glow show briefly. "And I'm going to use the Mind Stone to pull the Aether out of Jane."
"How did you acquire that?!" Thor demanded.
"Thor." I met his eyes. "I will answer everything once Jane is safe. You have my word. Right now, hold her hand and don't let go, yes?"
The god hesitated, then nodded and took his place beside her. Jane smiled weakly at him. "Don't let go this time."
Thor's expression shifted into something quietly sorrowful. "I won't. I promise."
"Felicia — her legs?"
"Got it." Felicia moved into position and gave me a nod.
"Alright. Let's begin." I looked at the energy scalpel on my instrument tray — the one Tandy had made for me. I picked it up. "Jane, this may feel unusual."
I carefully lifted the hem of her shirt just enough to access her side and pressed the scalpel against her skin. The blade cut not into flesh but into her aura — her life essence, just beneath the physical surface.
Jane flinched. "What was that?"
"A weapon built to work on the spiritual rather than the physical plane," I explained. "If I drove this through your heart, you would be completely unharmed. What I'm cutting into is your aura."
"And why?"
"Because the Aether isn't a physical infection. It spreads through the aura first." I set the scalpel aside. "The Reality Stone is unique among the six. Where the others grant power in more direct ways, this one infects — it works like a virus, growing through its host. In an ordinary human, it's fatal. In someone extraordinary — say, a God — they might survive it, or even learn to wield it."
Jane's eyes went wide. "So it's been burning through me."
"In a sense, yes. But the vibranium radiation Wanda is channeling should have suppressed it enough." I scanned Jane once more. "Manageable. Alright." I looked down at my right hand and let the suit form a gauntlet over it — thick, reinforced, fingers ending in short curved edges.
I found the cut in Jane's aura and pressed my fingers in, carefully.
"Ergh—!" Jane's jaw tightened.
"Hold on," I said quietly. "Thor — keep her still."
"I have her," he said.
"How is someone this small so strong?!" Felicia grunted from the foot of the table.
Jean was sweating. "Peter — make it quick."
"Working on it." I felt the Aether beneath the surface — liquid-like, alien, pulsing against the gauntlet as though recognizing the threat. I got a grip. "Wanda — adjust the radiation field. Push the Aether toward the incision point."
"Got it." Wanda shifted the emitter, and I felt the Aether begin to yield — pushed from within toward me like something being squeezed out.
I pulled. Slowly. The jelly-like substance came — dark red, almost luminous, streaming out in threads as Jane's breath came in sharp gasps.
"Hold on, Jane," Thor said, voice strained.
"Thor," I said without looking up, "the Vibranium lock box on the table — grab it."
He moved quickly, snatched the box up, and held it open at my side.
One last pull — and the Aether came free entirely. Jane cried out — sharp and ragged — and then let out a long, shaking exhale, the tension leaving her body all at once.
I held the Aether over the open box. It pulsed and writhed. I lowered it in, and Thor shut the lid.
We both stood watching as the lock box trembled, heat radiating from the metal, and then — slowly — went quiet.
Jane gasped softly from the table. "I sincerely hope that is nothing like giving birth, because I have absolutely reconsidered my position on children."
I laughed, surprised by how much I needed that in the moment. "Demigods are off the table?"
"Firmly," Jane said, going pink.
Thor smiled, relief breaking through the worry on his face. He turned to me. "Peter. You seem to know a great deal about this Stone. Is there anything else I should know?"
"Watch for Dark Elves," I said.
Thor frowned. "They're extinct."
"I wouldn't assume that." I set the lock box in the stasis field I had designed for the Mind Stone. "If even a single survivor of their race is alive and aware that the Aether has activated, they will come."
"Why?"
"The Convergence," I said.
Thor went still. "Of course... it must be approaching."
"What's the Convergence?" Jane asked, sitting up carefully.
Thor explained. "The Nine Realms orbit as planets orbit a star. Every five thousand years they align — that is the Convergence. And the last time it happened, the Dark Elves attempted to use that alignment to destroy everything."
"And the signs are already there," Jane said slowly, looking at Thor. "Like what we saw in the shipping yard — the laws of physics behaving strangely."
"Exactly," I nodded. "How are you feeling, Jane?"
"Better," she said — and meant it. She looked at the lock box. "Is it actually contained?"
"Yes. Unless my future children decide to steal it, which is unfortunately a scenario I cannot fully rule out."
Thor laughed. I looked at him. He stopped laughing.
"...That wasn't a joke, was it."
All four of us shook our heads slowly.
"We need to get this Stone somewhere secure," I said, turning back to Thor. "Somewhere the Dark Elves cannot track it. My personal vote is a black hole."
"We cannot do that," Thor said. "An Infinity Stone is too powerful to simply discard."
"Agreed, unfortunately. Then Asgard?"
"Is the Space Stone not already there?" Wanda asked.
"It is," I said. "Keeping two Infinity Stones in the same location isn't ideal. But the lock box suppresses almost all energy output, so the risk of the Aether being traced is low." I looked at Thor. "Take it. But warn your people — an assault is coming. Have them ready."
"There is a man," Thor began, "a Collector of sorts—"
"No," I said immediately.
"You didn't let me—"
"I know exactly who you were about to suggest, and the answer is no. Under no circumstances. That man would gladly sacrifice his own kin to add to his collection. I will not leave an Infinity Stone with him."
Thor looked at me for a long moment. "How do you know of the Collector?"
"I have my ways." I let the answer sit there. "Take the Stone to Odin. It is safer in Asgard than anywhere else, even if the risk isn't zero."
Thor nodded. Then he turned and knelt before Jane — a motion so weighted with genuine feeling that even I had to look away briefly. "Jane. I'm sorry. I have to go again."
"You just got here."
"I know. I don't want to go. But keeping you safe means keeping you away from what's coming."
"Then bring her with you," Felicia said.
Everyone looked at her. She shrugged. "I mean — if the concern is her safety, isn't a realm full of the greatest warriors in the universe objectively the best place for her? Leaving her here alone doesn't seem particularly clever."
Thor turned to me. "Will prolonged proximity to the Stone affect her?"
"Not inside the lock box, no," I said. "The Aether responds instinctively rather than strategically — it won't single her out again."
"Then she comes," Wanda said flatly, as though the matter had just been settled.
Thor blinked. "You are all coming?"
"If we are going to be involved in this regardless," Jean said, "it is safer to be where the defenses are. Agreed?"
I nodded. "Can the Bifrost handle five passengers?"
Thor's expression broke into something genuinely delighted. "The Bifrost has teleported armies, Spider. I believe it can manage." He paused, and the delight tempered into something more serious. "Are you certain? Once you arrive, your existence — and the existence of your companions — will be known to the wider universe. I know I lack my brother's political subtlety, but even I understand what kind of target that places on your backs."
"The world is in danger," I said. "What would you have us do — sit this one out?"
Felicia raised an eyebrow. "With great power—"
"—comes great responsibility," all four of us finished together. I shook my head, smiling. I must have said that more times than I realized.
Thor smiled warmly. "Wise words. Come then — does the building have an open roof?"
"Follow me."
I led everyone up through the sanctum to the library, where we opened the large skylight and climbed out onto the slanting roof tiles. Thor helped Jane while the rest of us found our footing. I looked around. The neighborhood was quiet — most of the city was still at work.
Thor moved to the center of the roof and turned to us. "Stay close." We grouped around him. He raised Mjolnir toward the sky and roared: "Heimdall!"
And then the light came down.
"Woah!" I grabbed Felicia and Jean with both arms and shot a webline around Wanda's waist to pull her in, and then we were swept upward — a waterfall of brilliant light pouring over and through us, and the world dissolved into a current of color and noise and stardust.
There was a moment of total darkness.
And then stars — more stars than any sky on Earth could hold — and we were falling, rushing forward, the Bifrost pouring us through space in what looked from the inside like a wormhole threaded with impossible light.
We landed.
The golden dome of the observatory settled around us. I looked at my hands, looked at the girls — all present, all upright, somehow. A personal miracle.
Standing at the center of the room, one hand resting on the hilt of a sword embedded in a stone pillar, was Heimdall. He looked at me with those deep amber eyes that held something vast behind them. If I hadn't already known exactly where the Soul Stone was, he would have been my first guess.
"Welcome to Asgard," he said simply.
I looked around and let it hit me properly for the first time. "This is genuinely extraordinary."
"It truly is," Wanda agreed beside me, pulling my webbing off her waist with a telekinetic thought. "Next time — slightly less webbing."
"Noted. Sorry."
"Is all of this actually made of gold?" Felicia breathed, turning slowly, eyes wide as she took in the dome arching above us.
"It is, Ms. Hardy," Heimdall said. "And I would ask that you bear that in mind. Asgard does not look kindly upon thieves."
Felicia smiled. "So basically — don't get caught?"
The look Heimdall gave her suggested he was weighing the logistics of returning her to Earth via a slightly different route.
"Come," Thor said firmly, steering us forward before Felicia could test that theory any further. "There is no time to waste."
We stepped out of the observatory and onto the crystal bridge. The rainbow colors of the Bifrost ran along its surface like a living thing, stretching out further than I could see. Beyond it — the city.
I stopped walking and just looked.
I had seen it in films. I had pictured it a hundred times. But nothing about imagination could have prepared me for standing on a bridge in the middle of the sky looking at a civilization built from gold and sunlight — towers that reached for the clouds, architecture that managed to be both a fortress and a palace and a city all at once.
"It's..."
"Beautiful," Jean whispered beside me.
Thor smiled quietly at us. "Come. We have much to do." He signaled for one of the flying ships to descend toward the bridge. It came down smoothly — magnificent, broad-winged, the panels on its sides catching the light and scattering it in tiny rainbows.
Jane stepped aboard with the expression of someone doing their absolute best to remain scientifically composed and almost succeeding. "How does it stay airborne? Some kind of repulsion system — similar to Stark's technology?"
"No," I said, stepping aboard beside her and immediately slipping into the same groove, "it looks like it uses directed airflow — manipulating the density of air particles directly beneath the wing panels, creating a surface similar to liquid under pressure. The wings act as emitters."
"So they generate a frequency?"
"Something analogous, yes — I've seen hard light constructs that interact with physical matter. Why not sound used at the right frequency to create a supporting medium? Vibrations can shatter glass at the right pitch — the inverse principle could theoretically create a solid interface."
"You've seen hard light constructs interacting with the physical world?"
"More than once. The math isn't as far off as it seems when you factor in how vibration works at the quantum—"
"Oye! Nerds!" Wanda's voice cracked across the deck. "We have an extinct army allegedly en route to kill us, so if the two of you could possibly table the aeronautics lecture until later, I would deeply appreciate it."
"Right," I said, stepping back. "Sorry." My suit reformed, the jetpack rising from my back. I activated it and lifted off the deck. "I'll fly," I called to Thor. "No offense to the boat."
Thor laughed — a full, bright, genuine laugh. "You are full of surprises today, Spider! I love it!" He spun Mjolnir and launched himself skyward, rising like a bolt of living lightning.
I pushed the throttle and went after him.
The wind hit me all at once and I laughed — the kind of laugh that comes out when something is so good and so real that your body can't hold it. I chased the God of Thunder across the sky above Asgard, and for a moment, with all of this stretched out below me, it wasn't hard to believe that everything — all of it — might just be worth it.
"Men," Felicia sighed from the boat, watching us race into the golden distance.