Saitama suddenly had an idea.
He wanted to power up little Barry, push him to level up as fast as possible, and get him to open a multiversal wormhole—
To kick off a whole new multiverse arc.
That way, he himself could head into the multiverse fair and square and start doing crossovers with heroes from other universes.
Because Saitama really, really wanted to visit Batman's universe and see for himself just how strong that man—the one who could defeat Superman—really was.
Saitama glanced at Barry Allen, who was just now struggling back to his feet beside him.
"Barry," he said, "were you completely stunned by Savage's power just now? It's fine. As long as you work hard and train with me, after a while you'll have power that surpasses Savage's."
Barry Allen's expression froze.
In his heart, he thought:
I don't believe a word of that!
But for some reason, when Saitama said that he would one day become a powerhouse who surpassed Savage, Barry still felt a little tempted to believe it.
Barry asked curiously, "How do you know I'll become that strong in the future?"
Saitama just smiled and stayed silent.
As a transmigrator who knew the entire DC storyline by heart, there was no way he was going to reveal his trump card to anyone.
Not even to someone as open and bright as Barry.
Because in the future, Barry would have to face a lot of problems that belonged to him alone, and who knew if he might blurt something out under pressure and leak Saitama's secret?
Fine.
Saitama admitted it—
In his heart, Barry was basically a big blabbermouth.
Saitama patted the dust off Barry Allen's clothes and said,
"Come on, Barry-boy. We've already beaten the big demon king. It's about time we deal with your situation."
"Deal with my situation?"
Hearing that, Barry Allen suddenly remembered that he still had something extremely important to do.
"Oh, God—Saitama, if you hadn't reminded me, I would've forgotten!"
"I'm supposed to go back to the past and save my mom! But now—but now I'm stuck at this point in time. How am I supposed to run back into the past and save her?"
"You have to understand, the reason I was able to run here in the first place was because, back in S.T.A.R. Labs' particle accelerator, I ran so fast I created a time remnant. I used the remnant's power to enter the time tunnel!"
What Barry called a "remnant" was a skill unique to speedsters.
In the TV show The Flash, this phenomenon was called a time remnant.
It was something that all speedsters who wielded the Speed Force could do.
But Barry right now was still way too green—barely a newbie who'd just gotten on track.
So when he was knocked out of the time tunnel by that shockwave earlier, he couldn't get back in.
Saitama saw Barry Allen getting more and more depressed as he talked and cut him off.
"Anyway! Leave it to me this time," Saitama said. "I'll take you to the point in time you want."
Barry Allen was even more shocked.
In his mind, Saitama was just a guy who solved everything with his fists—
Someone so far above everyone else that you couldn't even look up to him properly.
Since when could a guy like that travel through time like a speedster?
But Saitama didn't tell him how he planned to do it, so Barry couldn't figure it out right away.
It wasn't until Saitama brought him onto the Waverider and told the ship's honorary captain, Rip Hunter, that he wanted to take Barry Allen back to the year 2000—
To the very moment when Barry's mother had just died—
That things truly blew up.
The instant Rip Hunter heard that, he shouted,
"My God, Saitama, are you insane? You want to interfere with Barry Allen's life trajectory? Do you have any idea that Barry Allen is the future…"
He cut himself off mid-sentence.
As someone who had once been a Time Lord of the future, he was extremely wary of saying anything about what someone would become in the future in front of them.
But what he said was more than enough to draw everyone's attention.
Captain Cold was the first to react, sharp as ever.
"Hey, Captain," he said, "you almost spilled Barry's future just now. So you're telling me you know his life trajectory? Does that mean you also know ours?"
Heat Wave Mick grunted,
"Hm?"
The Atom, Ray Palmer, laughed and jumped right in,
"Haha, Captain, since you've already opened that can of worms, I want to ask about my future too. What happens to me? Does the Palmer Tech I founded become the biggest tech company of the future? And what about my Atom suit…"
Hawkman chimed in,
"And what about me and Kendra? If you don't mind, could you tell us what happens to us?"
Hawkgirl hesitated.
"I…"
Professor Stein was just about to ask something as well when he saw the irritated look on Rip Hunter's face and quickly shut his mouth.
He tugged on Jefferson's sleeve.
"Let's wait and see what he says first," he whispered.
Rip Hunter's expression went cold.
"Sorry. I can't tell you."
Everyone exploded.
"What? You can't tell us? What about all the stuff you already said before?"
Rip Hunter snapped,
"You guys are unbelievable. Each of you is supposed to be a so-called superhero, but you're acting like ordinary people on the street who are desperate to know their future."
"Don't you understand? Only by not knowing your own future can you truly live well."
"And if you really want to know your fate so badly, why don't you grab a deck of cards and do a reading?"
At that moment, the blonde beauty who had been quietly standing to the side—Sara Lance—
Silently walked up behind Rip Hunter.
She drew a cold, gleaming dagger and pressed it against his throat.
"Rip Hunter," Sara Lance said, "if you want our time-traveling journey to continue, then you're going to tell us the life trajectories of everyone here."
Rip Hunter's mouth was stubborn to the end.
"No," he said.
Sara applied a little more pressure, almost cutting his neck.
"Say it. Or not?"
Rip Hunter gritted his teeth.
"If you want to know your fate," he spat, "go ask the tarot cards."
Just when the whole ship was about to descend into outright chaos,
The Waverider's AI, Gideon, spoke up.
"Captain Rip Hunter," Gideon said,
"even if you do not wish to tell them, you must not let them ask the tarot cards. According to the ship AI's calculations, the life paths predicted by tarot cards are nothing more than vague outlines, with an accuracy rate of less than thirty percent."
Once Gideon said that, the atmosphere on the Waverider grew even more chaotic.
All the heroes started shouting at once.
"You bastard, you tricked us into getting on this ship, and now you won't tell us what happens in the future!"
"Did you forget the promise you made to us? You said that in the future, we'd become legendary heroes!"
"Yeah! If we're legendary heroes in the future, then why won't you tell us what happens?"
"There's got to be something about that that isn't true!"
Heat Wave Mick was furious.
He slammed his hand down on the Waverider's central console.
"Gideon! You're going to tell me my life trajectory in the future, or I'll blow you to pieces!"
Gideon replied calmly,
"I can tell you your life trajectory. However, the precondition is that I must first receive permission from our captain."
Seeing this, Rip Hunter was speechless to the extreme.
Right now, all he wanted to do was raise a middle finger at the ship's AI, Gideon.
So much for trusting it so much all this time.
What a total pig of a teammate!
But no matter what, Rip Hunter still refused to tell them what the future held.
He had made up his mind—
He would rather die than talk.
What he didn't expect was that, at this moment, Saitama stepped forward.
(End of Chapter)
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