Saitama spoke calmly.
"I believe they'll choose to stay."
With that one sentence, Rip Hunter was left speechless.
Instead, it was the Flash, Barry Allen, who started getting curious about his own fate.
He asked, "Saitama, since you know their destinies, does that mean you know mine too?"
Saitama said, "Yeah."
Barry Allen said, "Then tell me!"
Saitama asked, "Which part do you want to hear?"
Barry replied, "The fate that's about to happen, I guess."
Saitama said, "You'll go back to your childhood together with me. You'll give everything you've got to stop that guy wreathed in blue lightning."
"After that, you'll get to live a life you've never experienced before—a life where your mother is alive and caring for you."
"But very soon you'll realize that a lot of things in your life have changed. You might have gained a lot, but you've lost a lot, too."
"In the end, you'll choose not to change anything… and return to S.T.A.R. Labs in the year 2020."
Barry Allen's only reaction was: "…"
Right now, Barry still didn't believe what Saitama was saying.
He hadn't yet realized just how important his adoptive father Joe, his childhood friend Iris, and the friends around him—Cisco, Caitlin, and the others—really were to him.
Barry Allen stubbornly said, "You really sound like some scammy fortune-teller, you know that? I'm not buying a word of it! This time, I'm definitely going to save my mom!"
Saitama replied, "Yeah? In that case, I'll help you this once."
By this time, the heroes gathered along the side wall of the Waverider had finished discussing their choices.
Sara Lance spoke up first.
"Saitama, if you're willing to help me change Laurel's fate, then I'll truly become a member of the Waverider's crew—and fight by your side."
Professor Stein said, "I'm already old anyway. If I can at least see this 'Earth-2' you mentioned, I'm willing to stay on this ship with you."
Jefferson said, "I want to help the old man fulfill his wish."
Ray Palmer, the Atom, scratched his head.
"Uh, actually, I'd really like you to help change my fate too…"
Hawkman and Hawkgirl added, "We need your help to defeat Savage!"
Saitama waited until all the heroes had spoken their minds, then glanced sidelong at Rip Hunter.
On Rip's face, there was nothing but the look of a man who'd completely conceded defeat.
Saitama said, "Just now, I told you your fates—but you need to understand something."
"The reason you ended up with those destinies is because, in a far, far future, there's a group of Time Lords working for the Time Court. They keep manipulating the timeline using the Eye of the O-Core to make it all happen."
"And if we want to break our fate, there's only one choice left to us: we have to go to that distant future and shatter the Time Court's control."
"Do you understand what I'm saying?"
Saitama's words instantly snapped these still-confused heroes awake.
Not long ago, they'd all just been playing their usual roles in their own cities.
Then, all of a sudden, they'd joined the Waverider and started traveling through time.
Then, out of nowhere, they'd been told their destinies.
Before they could even process that, Saitama had slammed their minds with yet another "mental nuke."
Right now, every single one of them was dazed.
Captain Cold sucked in a breath.
"Saitama, if you'd told me from the start that this was your plan, I'd have backed you all the way!"
Sara Lance said, "I think this is the right choice."
Ray Palmer said, "I originally thought you just wanted to help Hawkman and Hawkgirl beat Savage and tweak the future a little. I didn't expect you to go for something this big!"
"Now it feels like we're sitting in the middle of a giant gamble. The stakes are pretty steep… but I say we push all our chips in and go all-in with you."
Professor Stein glanced at Jefferson.
"What about you?"
Jefferson replied, "I'm with you."
"Good," Stein said. "Then we'll fight side by side and show those people in the Time Court what kind of power we nobodies actually have."
His face flushed red as he spoke, and he took a deep breath.
"By the way… where exactly is my daughter?"
Saitama said, "Professor Stein, don't rush it. You'll get the chance to see your daughter in the future."
As they were talking, the Waverider's AI, Gideon, suddenly sounded an alarm.
"Warning, warning. A change in a past timeline has been detected. A timeline alteration has been triggered by an atomic power circuit board left behind by Dr. Palmer."
As Gideon spoke, she projected the butterfly effect of this change in the past timeline right in front of everyone's eyes.
The demon king Savage, who was originally supposed to rule the world in 2166, suddenly obtained power ahead of schedule and destroyed every DC city in the year 2020.
"Oh, my God! Wasn't that guy dead already?" the heroes shouted in shock.
Rip Hunter wiped a hand down his face and sighed.
"This is exactly what makes the Time Court so terrifying. They control everything along the entire timeline. Even if we kill Savage at one point in time, they can just find another living Savage at a different point and keep their chosen timeline going."
Everyone was stunned all over again.
It was like a loose thread had frayed into countless strands—just thinking about it made their scalps tingle.
But if you ran through it logically, it wasn't that hard to grasp the basic idea.
Before the heroes defeated the Time Court, any trouble they caused the Court would only ever be temporary.
They not only had to face the immortal demon king Savage,
They also had to face the endless obstacles created by the Time Court.
But while all the other heroes felt their scalps going numb at the sight in front of them,
Only Saitama had a faint, almost playful smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"Looks like it's time to farm another boss," he said. "I wonder what kind of loot this 'demon king Savage' is going to drop for me this time."
The people in the Time Court had no idea.
They had just provoked someone they really shouldn't have—Saitama.
Not that it mattered much.
With how arrogant the Time Court was in the DC Universe, even if they knew that messing with Saitama would end badly, they'd probably still insist on doing it anyway.
In the end, whose power would prove greater—Saitama's fist, or the Eye of the O-Core under their control?
Saitama looked around at the others and said,
"In that case, why don't we clean up the mess Ray Palmer made first—then send Barry home?"
The others, hearing someone speak up—and seeing that the one speaking was Saitama—nodded immediately.
"We'll do whatever you say!"
Saitama turned toward the honorary captain, Rip Hunter.
"Let's go then, Captain," he said. "Set a course for 1975—the Ivy Town campus district."
(End of Chapter)
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