Chapter 61:

All That Work for Nothing

DC: The Infinite Villain

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Bad luck had been following the Legends so closely that few people in history could call themselves more unfortunate.

They had barely begun operating as a team when the White Canary, Sara Lance, had nearly left because her sister suddenly had a boyfriend. Fortunately, they had managed to drop the culprit on Themyscira, the island ruled by the future Wonder Woman, Diana, and countless Amazon warriors.

They had thought that would correct the temporal aberration.

And the result?

Sara Lance stayed with the team, but the Birds of Prey still came into being. The only difference was that without Damon, the team kept a lower profile. No one knew Sara was alive, so she still betrayed the League of Assassins to protect her family, still died, still returned to life, and still joined the Legends.

Other than her personal history, almost nothing had actually been fixed.

That might have been acceptable. At least the crisis of Sara leaving the team had been avoided.

They had intended to kill Vandal Savage and then go back for Damon.

But the nickname "garbage heap team" had not come from nowhere.

Savage was still alive and well, while Hawkman had died. After barely escaping that disaster, Rip Hunter and the others were hunted like prey by Chronos, a time bounty hunter sent by Rip's former employers, the Time Masters.

What could they do?

After discussing it, everyone decided to send Damon back first.

And that proved another old truth.

If you try hard enough, there is almost no situation you cannot make worse.

Themyscira had Diana, the future Wonder Woman, and an island full of fierce Amazons.

Yet Damon had enslaved it.

And somehow, the Amazons did not even look eager to resist anymore.

Could anyone believe that?

It was as absurd as Vandal Savage suddenly choking to death on water after the Legends failed to kill him no matter what they tried.

It was not that they could not understand the world.

The world was simply changing too fast.

Watching the Amazons around them glare like predators, and watching Damon lead people aboard the Waverider, Rip Hunter regretted everything.

On the Waverider, Artemis, Diana, and Hippolyta looked around with curiosity at the futuristic ship.

"This... ship can truly travel through time?" Diana asked.

Damon waved a hand and did not answer. He was busy checking on the Birds of Prey and Helena.

After Damon "disappeared," Felicity had taken the initiative to find Laurel and Catwoman, and the three of them had started searching together. One wanted to find her boyfriend. One wanted to learn who had caused her sister's death. One wanted the Clean Slate program that could erase her criminal record.

While looking for Damon, they also solved several crimes in the city, and the Birds of Prey gradually took shape.

Meanwhile, Helena had lost her evidence, and Damon had vanished from the face of the earth. She had not stayed idle either.

You want to find Damon?

What a coincidence. So do I.

Helena found the Birds of Prey directly, explained the situation briefly, and gave them two choices.

Either hand over Damon, or hand over the deleted evidence.

Damon?

They were looking for him too.

The evidence?

Deleted.

And that was how the two sides locked horns.

Recollecting the evidence would be too difficult, so Helena decided to act personally under the name Huntress. Catwoman stayed out of it, but Laurel, who had a lawyer's instincts, and Felicity, who was kindhearted and believed in justice, refused to let Helena go through with murder.

The grudge deepened.

It had not reached the point where they were trying to kill one another, but they were absolutely incompatible. The Birds of Prey had stopped Huntress from killing Frank several times, while Huntress had caused plenty of trouble for them in return.

Working alone put Huntress at a disadvantage, but overall, both sides had won and lost.

It was not exactly what Damon had imagined, but with the Birds of Prey and Huntress tearing into one another, none of them had the time or energy to think about the man who had humiliated them.

That meant his goal had been reached.

"They came to take you back, did they not?" Diana came to his side and asked. "Will you... go with them?"

Artemis and Hippolyta immediately looked over.

"You cannot bear to see me leave?"

Damon smiled and reached out, draping an arm over Diana's shoulder.

Diana snorted and shoved his hand away.

"No matter where you are, I will defeat you and make you pay."

"Then I am afraid you will never forget me for the rest of your life."

Damon laughed without concern.

"Artemis, bring them here."

"Yes."

Artemis left and soon returned with the Legends under guard.

Damon looked over the ashen-faced team and clicked his tongue.

"When a wave rises too high, it breaks on the shore. You all got too clever, and now you regret it, do you not? All that fierce maneuvering, and the result is this mess. You damaged Themyscira, turned the Amazons into my slaves, and even Wonder Woman was forced by me. Tell me, how serious could this temporal aberration become? What if Wonder Woman hates men because of this, refuses to join the Justice League in the future, and spends her life taking revenge on men around the world?"

He smiled brightly.

"Do you feel useless yet? Do you feel like you can ruin anything you touch? Do not despair."

His grin widened.

"At least your judgment about me was right."

No one spoke.

"We will send you back," Rip Hunter said, then turned seriously toward Hippolyta, Diana, and Artemis. "Then we will correct this temporal aberration. I promise we will undo all of this and make sure the things he did never happened."

"Ha... hahahaha..."

When Rip finished, Damon laughed.

The laugh grew louder and louder.

He pointed at each of the Legends, then toward the three Amazons, mocking them with open arrogance.

"Do you know what matters? Even if you had the chance, even if I did not stop you, they would absolutely refuse."

"Are you insane?" Hawkgirl, Kendra Saunders, could not help shouting.

"He was already insane. Insane people say insane things," Sara Lance added.

"Sometimes, if you never try, you never learn what despair means."

Damon looked at Hippolyta and smiled.

"As the queen of the Amazons who became my slave, tell them. Do you want them to change what happened?"

Change what happened?

Then who would stop Eris, goddess of discord?