Diana donned her armor quickly, then she and Steve made their way to the roof of the hotel. Wind whipping her hair about her, she stood beside him, still thanks to his own stillness, waiting for Tony Stark's arrival.
… and cursed herself for being ten kinds of an idiot.
She must have said it out loud, because she heard Steve's quiet, "Diana?"
"There is another who can help," she said, and pulled out her phone. There were only a handful of numbers programmed in, and she touched the one that would call Arthur Curry.
Please answer. The phrase repeated itself in her mind like a mantra as the phone rang once. Twice. A third time.
"Hey, Princess. What's up?"
"I need your help, Arthur," Diana said. "How quickly can you get to Themyscira?"
The question must have surprised him, because he was silent for several long minutes. "I won't exactly be welcome there, even if the war was before my time."
"They may be under attack," Diana said. "If not now, then soon. They need to be warned."
"I'll do everything I can, but I'm in New York right now, so it may not be as fast as you were hoping."
"Where in New York?"
"A hotel not far from the United Nations."
"Just a few blocks from me, then. I'm at the Warwick Hotel."
"Sorry you can't hitch a ride," he said, and the background noise suggested he was donning his armor.
"I have a jet coming - no, it's here. Hold on a moment."
The jet came in to hover beside the roof, its rear ramp lowered.
"Well? What are you waiting for?" Stark's voice came through some kind of loudspeaker. "Climb aboard."
"Climb?" Steve muttered just barely loud enough to be heard over the engine. "More like jump."
Diana laughed. "I will if you will."
They leapt together, landing on the ramp and striding further aboard the aircraft as the ramp raised behind them.
"So, where are we off to?" Stark asked, striding forward from the cockpit. A suit of Iron Man armor stood off to one side. "And your suit's back there," he added with a jerk of his thumb.
"Who's that?" Arthur's voice came through the phone, and Diana brought it back to her ear.
"Iron Man," she said.
"Huh. You do have interesting friends, Princess."
She couldn't resist pointing out, "Including you."
"Yeah, well, I'm about to dive in the river, so I'm going to hang up. I'll surface and call when I have information for you - and then maybe that jet of yours can pick me up."
"Thank you, Arthur." The words seemed inadequate in themselves. Diana hoped he heard how much she meant them.
"You'd do the same for me." The call ended.
And while from anyone else his response might have been dismissive, from Arthur it was just a statement of fact, one warrior to another. In another world, she and Arthur might have been more than comrades, more than friends. In this world, she treasured his friendship and reminded herself to tell him so when she could.
"Well?" Tony Stark's voice brought her back to the present. "We can't just hover over Manhattan all day. Where to?"
"East," Diana answered. "But slowly - I'm waiting for intel about what we're going to face when we get there."
"Intel?" Tony repeated, incredulous. "From who? The fish in the sea?"
Diana smiled. "Something like that."
"Fine. I'll get us headed east. You don't peek while Cap's getting into his Capsuit."
WW = CA = WW
Steve shed his clothes and pulled on his star-spangled uniform quickly, unwillingly amused that Tony had assigned himself to guard Steve's virtue as he did. Then again, it was the kind of thing Howard might have done, if the 1940s had been even a little different than they were.
Beneath the amusement - which, he admitted to himself if to no one else, was only a momentary distraction - Steve's nerves fluttered in a way they hadn't since he got into the machine that made him a super-soldier.
He was about to see a place and meet people out of myth. More to the point, he was about to meet Diana's mother. He wasn't certain he was ready for that, not so soon into their more-than-friends relationship, but the circumstances were what they were, and he'd always been one to see a duty through, no matter what it was.
And, just like that, there was his plan: arrive at Themyscira. Try not to be overwhelmed by the fact that Amazons were people of myth. If Hydra had not yet attacked, brief the queen and her generals, and offer to assist in defending Themyscira. If Hydra had attacked, join the fight or, if the fight was over, join the resistance. Then, when the fighting was finally done, ask the queen's permission to court her daughter.
"All in a day's work," he murmured, settling his shield on his back.
"You mind briefing me?" Tony asked, drawing Steve's attention to where the other man perched on a seat across from him.
A glance told him that Diana had moved forward to stare out the windscreen at the ocean below them, so Steve focused on Tony. "About what?"
"What are we flying into? Besides Hydra, I mean. Tell me about this place we're headed - Themyscira."
It felt wrong to talk about Diana's home without her, but she sat just a few feet away, and Tony would know it all soon enough. Steve took a breath. "How much do you know about Greek mythology?"
"The basics. Why?"
"Diana's an Amazon."
Tony stared at him long enough that Steve half-feared he'd gone into some kind of fugue state. "You're shitting me."
Steve frowned. "I haven't heard that expression before."
"It means you're trying to give me a line of bullshit - you can't be serious. An Amazon?"
"Her mother is Hippolyta, their queen. Diana left Themyscira for our world when a pilot from the American Expeditionary Forces crashed on the shore of Themyscira and they learned about the Great War - sorry, World War One. She left so she could stop it. And she couldn't go back."
Tony appeared to consider that. "Huh. So we're heading for an island of women."
"Warrior women," Steve corrected, hoping to head off any lewd or lascivious thoughts that might be settling in Tony's mind.
"But that makes perfect sense," Tony said. "Of course. Hydra would see them as prime … well … breeding stock."
"I am certain they think so." Diana's voice made Tony jump, and even Steve was surprised that he hadn't heard her approach. "But that speaks more to their arrogance than what they'll find on Themyscira."
"And what will they find?" Tony asked.
Diana smirked. "Thousands of women who spend much of each day training for war."
"Why?"
Diana blinked. "Why what?"
"Why train for war, when they're isolated from the rest of the world? Civil war?"
"Not as isolated as you might think," Diana said. "We've gone to war with Atlantis -"
"Wait - Atlantis? Seriously?" Tony shook his head. "My entire worldview just got upended."
"You fought aliens a few months ago," Diana returned. "Surely Atlantis isn't as upending as that?"
Tony shrugged. "Jury's out. So, war with Atlantis. What else?"
"Other things I shouldn't tell you. I only told you of Atlantis because it's possible that -"
Her phone ringing interrupted her, and she answered it with only a, "Yes?" Then her expression lightened. She ended the call and said, "Please hover for a moment and lower the ramp. We're meeting someone."
"In the middle of the Atlantic?" Steve asked before he could help himself.
"She was just talking about Atlantis, Rogers," Tony said. "Keep up."
There was no real heat in the words, because Tony sounded as surprised as Steve felt. Still, Tony made the necessary adjustments, and the ramp lowered.
It was only a few minutes before a man jumped up onto the ramp, a waterspout behind him fortunately not splashing into the jet - much - though seawater pooled at his feet. The man easily topped Steve's height by several inches and had dark hair that fell past his shoulders. As muscular as Thor, he wore an armored shirt of some yellow metal and carried a golden trident, of all things.
The man's gaze swept past Steve and Tony to land on Diana, and he grinned.
"Your highness," he said, and Steve blinked at his American accent.
"Your highness," Diana returned with a matching smile. Then she said, "Arthur, King of Atlantis, meet Captain Steve Rogers and Tony Stark."
Shifting his trident to his left hand, the man - Arthur - offered his right to Tony. "Pleasure to meet you, Iron Man."
Tony shook the man's hand, his expression just a little dazed. Of course he recovered quickly. "King Arthur. Really?"
"Tony." Steve couldn't help the exasperated tone.
"Named for the legend," Arthur said. "The king part was an accident. My mentor and my girlfriend are after me to take an Atlantean name, but I figure I am who I am and they can deal with it."
"It would help keep your identity secret," Diana said. "Which may be helpful after you speak to the United Nations."
"I'll think about it." Then the man - Arthur - turned to Steve, again offering his hand. "My dad would be falling all over himself if he knew I met you."
Steve quirked an eyebrow as he shook hands. "Meeting a ninety-odd-year-old man is noteworthy?"
"If he's Captain America. My grandpa served with the 107th Infantry, told lots of stories about you."
The 107th. Bucky's regiment. Steve shoved the storm of memories and emotions down.
"A lot of guys did a lot more with a lot less," Steve told him. "But I did what I could."
"That's all anyone can do," Arthur agreed, then turned back to Diana. "You were right. A transport ship - stealth design, heavily armored - has breached the barrier around the island."
Diana blanched. "Then they're already under attack."
"But fighting back," Arthur said firmly. "And with some … enthusiasm, from what I heard."
"Heard? From who?" Tony asked.
"You can't hide from the sea," Diana said. "We can stop hovering now."
"Yeah, right. Of course." Tony shook his head and returned to the cockpit.