Because everyone gathered on this ship was a superhero, it wasn't hard for them to accept what was happening before their eyes.
Plenty of them had all kinds of thoughts swirling in their hearts, of course—but the moment they remembered they were about to dive into an ultra-time-space war that would slice across past, present, and future, they couldn't help getting excited.
Because right at this moment—
The Waverider set off once more, opening the curtain on the battle against the world-ending demon king of 2166: Savage!
The first stop on the Waverider's journey was the year 1975, at Saint Stanch University.
There, a history-obsessed professor named Boardman was working. Among all the people closest to the year 2020, he was the one who knew the most about Savage's whereabouts.
Rip Hunter said, "All right, everyone, we're about to take off! Sit tight!"
With a low hum, the Waverider once again pierced through time.
"Uuugh…"
The instant everyone felt the time ship come to a halt, they also felt something very strange happening to their bodies.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you," Rip said, glancing at them. "The first time you ride the Waverider for a long time-jump, you'll have all kinds of side effects. But as you travel more and more, those side effects will gradually lessen!"
The blonde, brown-eyed beauty Sara had just opened her mouth to roast Rip when her stomach suddenly lurched, flipping over and over.
"…I despise you, Rip Hunter," she groaned.
All around the ship, people couldn't stand steadily, or temporarily lost their hearing, or found their vision going blurry.
Only Saitama and Vivian stood there without reacting at all.
Rip stared in shock. "You two are really something. After a time jump this long, you don't have a single problem."
Saitama and Vivian only smiled faintly.
They had already been through so many things that a forty-year time jump like this barely even registered to them.
Once Rip waited out everyone's side effects, he started assigning tasks.
Some would go with him to find Professor Boardman, and some would stay on the Waverider to guard against unexpected situations.
But the way he divided people up left the others unhappy.
"Why is it that only you, Saitama, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Atom Palmer and a few others get to go? What about us?" Sara demanded.
Rip replied, "Because I'm afraid you'll interfere with the timeline."
Sara shot back, "You traveling through time like this is already interfering with the timeline."
Rip had half a mind to argue that when the Time Council's guardians traveled through time, it didn't count as "timeline interference" at all. It was like how scholars say "borrowing" books doesn't count as stealing.
But no matter how he tried to spin that logic, it clearly didn't hold water.
Could it be that the future's so-called guardians of the Time Council were really such shameless double-standards?
Saitama spoke up. "All right, stop complaining. I'll vouch for you. You can get off the ship—but don't cause trouble. That work for you?"
A teasing light flashed in Sara's beautiful eyes. "And why are you suddenly vouching for me? Did you suddenly start getting a little interested in me?"
Faced with the blonde beauty's playful remark, Saitama didn't react at all. His expression stayed the same—cold and unreadable.
Because he knew Sara was not that kind of frivolous person. If she was acting like this, she was obviously trying to stir things up between him and Vivian.
Ten minutes later—
Saitama, Atom Palmer, Hawkgirl, Hawkman, Rip Hunter, Professor Martin and the others stepped into the campus from one corner of Saint Stanch University.
Only then did everyone realize that in the America of 1975, the campus was suffused with a thick, retro-futuristic, almost cyberpunk atmosphere.
This was when Vivian's strengths came into play. "Campuses look like this now because books like Nelson's 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,' along with a whole wave of sci-fi novels, took the Western cultural world by storm. Everyone's come to be full of fantasies about the future."
Everyone except Saitama suddenly started looking at Vivian in a new light.
Up till now, they'd thought of Vivian as a mere decorative vase. But it seemed she was far more than that.
Professor Martin nodded. "Vivian's right. This time was exactly when sci-fi fiction was exploding in popularity. When I was a kid, it was because I read a sci-fi novel that I became interested in science in the first place." (If you want explosively爽快 stories, go read on Feilu!)
As they chatted, the group arrived at Boardman's office.
When they pushed the door open, they saw a Black man slumped over a typewriter, looking for all the world like a corpse.
Hawkgirl jumped. "No way—did we get here too late? Is he dead?"
Saitama coughed lightly. "Professor, it's time to wake up."
Professor Boardman jolted from a doze and looked up, right into the sight of Saitama and the others crowding his office.
"Who… who are you people?" he blurted.
Saitama said, "Professor Boardman, we heard you're very knowledgeable about the past. Is that true? We'd like to ask you about someone."
"Someone?" Boardman repeated, surprised. "If you want to find a person, you should go to a private law firm. They hire private investigators to help with that kind of job."
Saitama glanced around at the others. Everyone gave him a nod.
Saitama stepped closer to the professor. "We want you to help us find Savage."
Shock flashed across Boardman's eyes.
Then he noticed the two people beside Saitama—one a hawk-masked man, the other a hawk-masked woman—and suddenly understood.
"All right," Professor Boardman said. "Since you want to know, I'll tell you the whole story from the beginning."
Four thousand years ago—
Savage was originally an Egyptian priest.
Back then, his name was Hath-Set, and he secretly harbored feelings for a fellow priestess, Chay-Ara.
But Chay-Ara ignored the man at her side and secretly fell in love with Prince Khufu.
When Savage discovered this relationship, he was consumed by jealous fury.
He finally found an opportunity to kill the two of them, then prayed to the hawk god Horus to curse them forever.
What he never expected was that Chay-Ara had gone to Horus beforehand as well, begging the hawk god to protect the two of them.
As the two prayers and curses clashed, a meteorite fell from the sky, triggering a chain reaction.
From that moment on, the three lives became bound together.
Hawkman and Hawkgirl were forced to reincarnate over and over, while Savage gained true immortality—unable to die, only able to watch as Chay-Ara's soul reincarnated, generation after generation, and died in front of him each time.
Later, Savage discovered that if he killed Hawkgirl's incarnation at a given time, he could siphon power from her and Hawkman.
At that moment, he felt like his life finally had a purpose.
He would stand at the very peak of the world and steer the course of history to come.
Because he had decided: he would kill, forever and ever, the two people he himself had cursed.
(End of Chapter)
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