Saitama's words left the speedster standing in front of him—The Flash, Barry Allen—completely unconvinced.
In Barry's mind, the only reason he hadn't finished Saitama in a single blow just now… was because he'd held back.
He'd been afraid that using his atomic-level vibration punch at full strength would kill Saitama outright.
After all, no matter how powerful Saitama looked, at the end of the day he was still just a man with immense physical strength.
Whereas Barry himself was a metahuman—someone who possessed superpowers.
"Mr. Saitama," Barry said, "I really don't think you have any way to withstand this move of mine. Since you don't believe how strong it is, I'll just have to show you for real this time! But I'm warning you in advance, this is an atomic-level—"
Barry hadn't even finished his sentence before Saitama cut him off.
"Alright, Barry, I know this move is amazing," Saitama said. "Just hurry up and use it already."
Saitama felt a little speechless.
He knew Barry Allen was a good person with a strong sense of justice, but he hadn't expected this other side of him—being such a chatterbox.
Then again, thinking about it, The Flash being a motormouth actually fit his character perfectly.
After all, in his little "Flash team," there was also that guy with the brilliant brain who specialized in building physics-based gadgets—Cisco.
Those two really were a perfect pair.
Barry's body started vibrating again.
"Saitama, I'm coming!" Barry shouted.
Buzz, buzz, buzz!
As Barry charged toward Saitama, he pushed his body toward atomic-level vibration.
Because he was moving so fast, a fiery-looking trail of light appeared all over him.
This was the manifestation of the Speed Force.
"Saitama, be careful!" Barry called out. "If you can't handle this, don't try to tank it head-on!"
But in the very next instant, Barry suddenly felt a raging gale slam into him.
Saitama had thrown a punch.
And that punch had actually whipped up something like a hurricane.
No—Barry quickly realized—it wasn't a hurricane.
When he focused on how those wind gusts were forming, he finally understood.
They were the afterimages of Saitama's fist, layered together into a solid wall of compressed air.
And that wall of air was vibrating too.
Its vibration frequency was exactly opposite to the vibration running through Barry's own body.
Boom!
Barry slammed full-force into that air wall whose frequency was the inverse of his own, and was sent flying backward on the spot.
An instant later, he looked like a guy who'd just been hit by a rampaging Lamborghini—knocked high into the sky in one shot, tracing a long arc overhead before crashing down to the ground with a thud.
Meanwhile, in another time…
The year 2020.
STAR Labs.
Barry's teammates, who were monitoring his vital signs and data, suddenly saw a massive spike in his readings.
"Not good, something's happened to Barry!" Cisco shouted.
"You're kidding! Oh my god!" Caitlin gasped. "This is… we need to shock his heart with a defibrillator!"
"But Barry's already traveled through time," Cisco said. "We can't exactly hook that thing up to him right now!"
He rapped his knuckles against his own head in frustration. "At this point, all we can do is hope the emergency protocols in his suit kick in on their own…"
Back on Saitama's side.
A few heroes looked at Barry Allen—who had just fought Saitama and then been beaten down in just a few punches and kicks—and didn't know what to say.
"Bar-kid is still too impulsive," Captain Cold remarked. "If it were me, I'd gather intel on Saitama first, then prepare before I ever thought about going toe-to-toe with him.
"But honestly, once I finished collecting info on Saitama, I'd probably just give up. Because I definitely can't beat him."
Heat Wave Mick snorted. "Obviously. He's our top fighter around here!"
Sara Lance shook her head. "To think even Barry couldn't beat Saitama… just how strong is this guy?"
"Alright, that's enough marveling at how strong Saitama is," Rip Hunter cut in. "We still have business to handle. Let's get Barry back to the Waverider first."
Fused together into Firestorm, Jefferson and Professor Martin Stein exchanged a helpless look.
"Looks like we're the ones delivering Barry again this time," they said.
But the Atom, Ray Palmer, spoke up. "Hold on, I can help with that too!"
In the end, the job of carrying Barry back to the Waverider was handed off to Atom Palmer.
The others strolled back toward the ship together.
Before long, everyone aboard the Waverider was gathered in one place.
Hawkman and Hawkgirl were there, along with an elderly direct descendant of theirs who'd lived through two world wars.
Barry Allen, who had been rescued by the Waverider's systems, was gradually waking up as well.
And all around them, the other heroes were arguing over what their next move should be.
Even though many of them didn't fully understand why Saitama and Rip Hunter had recruited them for this mission, they all firmly believed one thing:
They could change the future.
For heroes who hadn't yet truly fought against the most powerful enemies, having that kind of confidence really came down to just one reason.
Saitama was simply too strong.
Once the discussion had died down a bit, Rip Hunter stepped forward and called the meeting to order.
"Our goal on this trip," he began, "is to defeat the world-ending tyrant of 2166—Savage.
"On the way here, far too many things have happened, and there have been a few… minor accidents as well."
Rip glanced at Barry Allen—the "accident" he was referring to was clearly this speedster who'd randomly ended up in the wrong show.
"But our objective hasn't changed," Rip continued. "So I have a proposal. I'd like to know if all of you agree with it.
"We head straight to 1975, track down Savage—the bastard—and take him out. Then we send Barry back to 1995.
"What do you all think?"
Everyone nodded in agreement as soon as they heard it.
Only Barry looked stunned. "Wait… you're telling me this ship of yours can actually travel through time?"
"We'll know whether it can or not once we try," Rip said. "Gideon, set our time coordinates."
In the next moment, the whole group began traveling through time together, heading straight for Norway in the year 1975.
Under the guidance of Professor Goodman—the elderly direct descendant of Hawkman and Hawkgirl who had lived through two world wars—they arrived at a northern fjord in Norway.
A secret arms deal was about to take place there.
At this particular moment in history, the Soviet Union had just seized half the world's power, and NATO was preparing to counter it.
And in this Norwegian arms deal, that single, extremely expensive nuclear warhead on the table was the butterfly whose wings could stir up a world war.
Everyone used the Waverider's wardrobe room to disguise themselves in the fashion of the era, then headed to the deal site.
Saitama, looking around, suddenly realized something strange.
His shiny bald head… had actually become the trendy hairstyle of this era.
That left him feeling more than a little speechless.
A man in a black suit stood at the entrance of the arms hall, checking the invitations of each guest as they arrived.
"Who are you people?" the man asked.
"I am Amuhad Ahmed Alasdine," Saitama said.
The man was startled by the long, elaborate name. But then his eyes shifted to the beautiful, golden-haired, brown-eyed woman at Saitama's side.
"And who is he?" the man asked, nodding toward her.
Saitama frowned slightly. "Uh, this…"
Before he could figure out how to answer, Vivian cut in smoothly.
"I'm my husband's wife's wife," she said.
Everyone: "…"
The doorman: "…"
"Don't look so shocked, friend," Vivian went on. "In our Arab country, it's perfectly normal for a man to have several wives. Sometimes, how many wives you have is a symbol of status and wealth."
As she spoke, Vivian took the lead, casually snatching back the invitations the doorman had just checked.
"If this deal gets delayed," she said coolly, "it's on you. Are you sure you're ready to take responsibility for that?"
(End of Chapter)
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