Chapter 78.
"T'Challa, can our Wakandan satellite technology track Mr. Felix's current position?" the old king asked urgently as he watched Felix vanish from sight.
"Father, our satellites can barely capture his silhouette. His speed is extraordinary—he's already exceeded Mach 5 and continues accelerating! Mach 6, Mach 7... he's now beyond Mach 10, and there's no sign of deceleration!"
T'Challa's voice carried a mixture of awe and disbelief.
"Is this even humanly possible? No wonder he requires that vibranium-forged armor. At his current velocity, even steel would melt from air friction and the resulting heat buildup."
"But what propulsion system is he using to achieve such speeds? It defies all understanding!"
T'Challa stood transfixed. While he –could barely accept Felix's ability to fly unassisted—after all, the man commanded thunder and lightning—this flight speed was utterly abnormal.
How could any human achieve such velocity? Where was the scientific explanation? Felix carried no visible engine or propulsion device.
Even with Wakanda's technology far surpassing the rest of the world, their most advanced aircraft could barely reach Mach 10, and only because their hulls were constructed from vibranium.
"Let me offer some advice," Tony interjected with a knowing smile. "Don't try to find scientific explanations for anything Felix does. After spending considerable time with him, I've concluded that nothing about him follows conventional science. Save yourself the headache."
Tony's expression reflected his own past struggles with this reality. He vividly remembered when terrorists had kidnapped him, and Felix had appeared seemingly from nowhere, instantly shattering his scientific worldview.
Since then, Tony had learned not to overthink Felix's abilities—it was an exercise in futility. After Felix entered the picture, the entire world seemed to operate by different rules. Magicians and interdimensional beings had –become commonplace. In that context, Felix's unaided supersonic flight seemed almost mundane.
"I agree with Mr. Stark," Banner added quietly. "Despite knowing Mr. Felix for less than a day, I've already learned not to analyze his actions too deeply. Doing so will only make you question decades of scientific understanding."
The usually reserved Banner spoke from recent experience. After yesterday's events, he no longer considered Felix bound by normal human limitations. After all, few people could treat the Hulk like a kindergarten child and send him flying hundreds of meters with a single punch.
Meanwhile, Felix remained oblivious to the discussion about his flight capabilities below. Ironically, he couldn't answer their questions about his propulsion method either.
He recalled explanations of Superman's flight ability in the DC universe—the biological field control theory that allowed both rapid flight and the ability to catch falling aircraft without them crumbling. While somewhat fantastical, it provided a theoretical framework.
However, after copying Homelander's abilities, Felix had no understanding of why he could fly. The ability felt as natural as walking or running—he simply willed it to happen. He detected no biological field manipulation or any other mechanism. The power to explain his flight to others simply didn't exist.
In mere seconds, Felix soared above 10,000 meters, approaching the stratosphere. He ceased his ascent, hovering as his bright red cape danced in the high-altitude winds.
Below him, white clouds drifted and reformed in the wind currents, some dispersing while others condensed into new formations. He could clearly see the ground far below, including the tiny figures of Tony and the others in Wakanda. An indescribable feeling swelled within his heart.
This was his first –time hovering above the world, quietly surveying the earth from such heights. Felix felt a profound connection to humanity's eternal dream—escaping gravity's constraints and soaring freely through the beautiful blue sky.
The sensation of unrestricted flight transcended description. It differed completely from traveling in aircraft—this was pure, unencumbered freedom.
"Since I'm here, I might as well enjoy the experience," Felix thought.
He dove straight down, plunging into a white cloud below. The powerful airflow from his extreme speed instantly shattered the cloud into fragments. Without slowing, he burst through the dispersed moisture and continued forward. The relative airflow battered his body and face, yet caused no discomfort or resistance.
Felix began to play. He constantly varied his flight trajectory and techniques—sprinting forward to shatter clouds, then instantly accelerating before decelerating to trace beautiful arcs across the sky. Sometimes he would stop abruptly and reverse direction, or perform lateral jumps creating zigzag patterns through the air.
At times, he swam through the clouds as if they were water, changing from nose-down to skyward-facing positions, then spiraling forward with his entire body rotating in corkscrew patterns.
Like a child discovering a new playground, Felix reveled in the experience. He performed increasingly difficult aerial maneuvers that surpassed even the most sophisticated military aircraft in both speed and agility.
He climbed higher, leaving the clouds far below as the ground became increasingly distant. Just before reaching the edge of space, he would plummet earthward like a meteor, accelerating through his dive toward the planet's surface.
The sky had become his domain, and for the first time, Felix truly understood what it meant to be free.
As he dove through the atmosphere at extreme velocity, the friction generated by his passage created a brilliant tail flame trailing behind him, making him appear like a falling meteor blazing across the sky.
During his descent, Felix suddenly realized he had arrived above an ocean. In an instant, he changed his flight direction from vertical to horizontal, skimming across the water's surface at barely a few meters altitude.
The powerful airflow generated by his passage carved the sea apart like an invisible blade. The ocean surface split into two massive waves spreading outward from his flight path, leaving a deep "furrow" in the water that remained long after he had passed, only slowly filling back in as the displaced seawater gradually returned.
After completing his oceanic flight experience, Felix abruptly stopped and redirected skyward. The tremendous inertia and reaction forces that should have affected him seemed to have no impact whatsoever.
"I wonder what my maximum flight speed actually is. There's only one way to find out! David, record my next speed test!"
Perhaps inspired by his aerial acrobatics, Felix suddenly conceived this experiment.
Without further delay, he ascended once again to nearly 10,000 meters, hovering in the air. After issuing the command to the device on his wrist, he assumed a sprinting position.
"Three, two, one... Go!"
Felix's body shot forward instantaneously, moving several times faster than any bullet. Almost immediately, he shattered the sound barrier, creating a sonic boom cloud around him before it dissipated.
His flight path remained parallel to the ground as he continued accelerating. He was determined to discover his maximum velocity.
"Mach 2... Mach 7... Mach 11... Mach 14... Mach 15!"
Upon reaching Mach 15, Felix realized he could no longer accelerate further. Rather than stopping, he maintained this peak velocity and continued flying forward.
After only a few dozen seconds, he noticed a black speck appearing ahead. Looking closer, he identified it as a massive aircraft.
If Felix maintained his current speed and trajectory, he would inevitably collide with the plane. At such tremendous velocity, he would punch straight through the aircraft like a missile. While his enhanced physiology would remain unharmed, the plane would be completely destroyed, killing everyone aboard.
Within a second, Felix had nearly caught up with the aircraft. Unwilling to cause such destruction, he immediately altered his flight path, pulling up sharply to soar safely over the plane.
"Oh my God! Did something just fly over our heads?"
The captain of the passenger aircraft had engaged autopilot during the smooth flight, never expecting anything unusual at 10,000 meters altitude. But suddenly, a shadow flashed across his vision, leaving his jaw agape as he exclaimed in disbelief.
"What's wrong with you? You startled me!"
The co-pilot had been looking down at his instruments and missed Felix's passage entirely. Startled by the captain's outburst, he quickly raised his head but saw nothing, prompting his complaint.
"I just saw something fly directly over us, but it vanished instantly! It was very small—not like an aircraft, more like a person. Could it have been Iron Man?"
The captain explained excitedly to his co-pilot.
"Do you think we're racing on some mountain road? We're at 10,000 meters altitude, flying at 868 kilometers per hour! Even if it were Iron Man, it would be impossible to exceed our speed, right–? And it disappeared instantly?"
"Even if something could actually surpass us, wouldn't you at least see its contrail? But I just looked up and saw nothing! Our radar shows no anomalies either. Are you sure you weren't seeing things?"
The co-pilot dismissed the matter entirely, assuming the captain had been hallucinating.
"Well, maybe I was seeing things after all."
The captain checked the aircraft's radar and instruments—everything appeared normal. Had he really been mistaken?
But just as he voiced this doubt, the plane suddenly lurched violently.
Such turbulence typically occurred only when encountering powerful air currents, but their aircraft was flying at nearly 10,000 meters altitude. Logically, they shouldn't encounter such intense airflow at this height.
"Damn it, we're nearly at the stratosphere! Where could such strong turbulence come from? Forget about what just happened—focus on controlling the aircraft's flight status. I'll calm the passengers!"
Feeling the sudden violent shaking, the co-pilot couldn't help but cry out in alarm before busily attending to his duties.
While this level of turbulence didn't pose significant danger to the aircraft, at 10,000 meters altitude, any carelessness could result in a catastrophic accident, potentially killing hundreds of passengers.
Felix, having avoided the aircraft, didn't slow down but continued sprinting forward at maximum velocity. He wanted to test whether sustained full-power flight would cause fatigue.
However, after flying in this state for nearly half an hour, Felix felt no trace of exhaustion. He had encountered several passenger jets along the way, but had simply maneuvered around them as before, continuing at full speed.
"David, what was my maximum flight speed just now?"
Having confirmed that brief periods of full-speed flight caused no fatigue, Felix decided to end the test. He hovered in the air and asked his AI assistant.
"Sir, your maximum –flight speed was 5,208 meters per second, approximately Mach 15.3. You flew for a total of 28 minutes and 56 seconds, covering approximately 8,848 kilometers."
At fifteen times the speed of sound, less than half an hour's flight had already covered nearly 9,000 kilometers. Since Earth's circumference along the equator was only 40,000 kilometers, Felix could circle the globe in roughly two and a half hours at full speed.
These statistics were extraordinary—anyone who saw them would be shocked. After all, the fastest fighter jets in the Marvel world barely reached Mach 5, yet Felix exceeded that by more than three times.
However, Felix remained somewhat unsatisfied with these results. He remembered that Superman in the movies had demonstrated flight speeds of approximately Mach 25-30, nearly twice his current capability.
Superman's base strength should also exceed 10,000 tons, while his own was only around 5,000-6,000 tons. Moreover, Superman possessed numerous special abilities that Felix lacked, such as freeze breath and bioelectric fields.
So while his own strength appeared formidable, it depended on the comparison. Against the genuine Superman, he fell far short.
Felix had thoroughly enjoyed the thrill of high-speed flight and had accurately assessed his current strength and maximum velocity. After examining his vibranium suit and finding it completely undamaged despite the full-speed flight, he considered his test perfectly successful.
Although his strength didn't match the genuine Superman's, it was sufficient to intimidate almost any force on Marvel Earth. This was precisely why Felix had unabashedly demonstrated his aerial abilities.
With superhuman strength and the ability to traverse space at will, what purpose would there be in continuing to hide and act cautiously? Having such powerful abilities while remaining constantly concealed would be pointless—he might as well find some remote location and live as a hermit.
Felix wasn't afraid of others discovering his current strength. He was certain that his recent actions had already attracted attention from numerous organizations. He could even sense that dozens of surveillance satellites were now tracking him, with key personnel from various forces closely monitoring his every move—including military forces.
But Felix didn't care about any of this. He had no ulterior motives; he simply acted on impulse. This was the confidence that strength provided—he feared no one who might cause him trouble.
"Should I leave a lasting impression on these forces watching me? So that any random troublemakers won't dare bother me in the future?"
Indeed, Felix was feeling confident. Once this idea formed in his mind, he increasingly wanted to act on it.
He had read many novels back on Earth where protagonists' special abilities were discovered, leading to constant surveillance and harassment from various organizations. This experience had inspired his idea of making a show of force.
"But I don't currently have a target to demonstrate my strength against. What should I do?"
Felix hovered in the air, thinking intently...
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