Good Person or Bad Person?

Chapter update is here.

Find a quiet spot, turn the page, and let’s see what this story has been hiding 🌙

✦

Bright moonlight spilled across the earth.

The Gulag camp.

High electric fences, searchlights that left almost no blind spots, and Soviet soldiers patrolling back and forth made the place heavily guarded and nearly impossible to escape.

In a room on the top floor of one building, Damon stood by the window and looked down at the open yard below.

One month earlier, on the day after Emily Sung left, they had moved here. The hole in the villa wall would not be repaired anytime soon, and the day the Legends were captured was drawing closer. They might as well move directly into the camp.

This place was called a hellish prison from which no one left once they entered, but for Damon and the others, living here was no different from living in a villa.

Whatever they wanted, whatever they wanted to eat, whatever books they wanted to read, someone arranged it.

The Firestorm project's laboratory was here as well. Valentina spent almost every day buried in research. Lilah was even more focused on studying interrogation techniques. With ready-made prisoners for practice, her progress was shockingly fast. Damon had watched a few times when he was bored, and her cruel, cold-blooded queenly air was growing stronger by the day.

They were all absorbed in something.

Damon was the one who had grown bored.

Books might hold worlds of gold and beauty, as the saying went, but after mastering the basics of physics and electronic engineering, Damon had lost his earlier passion for study.

Knock, knock, knock.

Someone knocked on the door.

"Come in," Damon said, turning around.

Two soldiers escorted Laurie inside.

"Leave us."

Damon waved a hand. The soldiers turned and exited, closing the door behind them.

Since they had moved to the Gulag camp, Laurie, who had not left with Emily Sung and had nowhere else to go, had naturally been brought along. Damon had Valentina arrange a single cell for her and then stopped paying attention.

If Lilah had not started her period today and mentioned Laurie, Damon might have nearly forgotten her.

Laurie wore a clean prison uniform. Her face was clean as well, but the confidence and heroic spirit she had carried when they first met were gone. She seemed numb and hollow.

A perfectly good superhero had been broken badly.

Damon smiled and walked toward her. Laurie backed away by reflex, fearful and resistant.

"Do not move," Damon snapped.

Laurie stopped and pleaded, "What... what do you want?"

"What do you think?"

Damon grabbed Laurie's hand and dragged her directly to the bed. Screams and pleas soon rang out.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

The sound of high heels echoed in the corridor. Valentina, her face bright with excitement, walked quickly toward Damon's room. Before she got close, she heard the screams inside. She paused, and her steps slowed.

Lilah?

No. That was not Lilah's voice.

Another female prisoner?

That seemed impossible. He had not even touched Valentina, so why would he look for prisoners who had already been tortured out of shape?

Oh. Her.

Valentina remembered.

She stood outside the door and hesitated for a moment, but pushed it open anyway. Other matters could wait. This could not.

"Something happened?" Damon asked Valentina with a frown.

Valentina nodded.

"Just as you said, the Legends have finally arrived. I captured Martin Stein, Mick Rory, and Ray Palmer."

"They finally came."

Damon smiled.

"Treat them properly first. I will be there shortly."

"Be quick."

Valentina looked at Laurie, whose face was wet with tears, and found it difficult to understand. Laurie had known something like this would happen, yet she had refused to leave earlier. Did American superheroes all have something wrong with their heads?

"That is one thing I cannot do quickly."

"Vandal Savage is here too," Valentina said, then turned and left.

The screams continued.

Another hour drifted by.

Damon dressed, looked at the numb and disheveled Laurie, and smiled faintly.

"I will be leaving this place soon. Think about whether you want to come with me."

Laurie said nothing, but her dull eyes shifted slightly.

Bang.

The door closed.

After stepping out, Damon casually found someone to lead him to the Legends.

The interrogation room.

Damon pushed the door open and entered.

Ray Palmer and Heat Wave were hanging from restraints and enduring electric shocks. Vandal Savage and Valentina were trying to persuade Martin Stein to hand over the Firestorm formula.

"Lively room. I am not late, am I?"

Damon waved with a smile.

"Damon?"

"Why are you here?"

"Thank God. Are you here to rescue us?"

The three Legends were shocked by Damon's sudden appearance. Their earlier despair instantly filled with hope.

Things between them had been unpleasant before, but they had dealt with him, and Sara's relationship with him was not ordinary. Surely Sara had asked him for help. That had to be why he appeared here.

With Damon's strength, rescuing them should be effortless.

The joy of surviving disaster had barely begun to spread when they realized Vandal Savage and Valentina did not look surprised at all. There were no shouts of alarm from outside either.

"You came at the right time," Vandal Savage said to Damon with a smile. "This stubborn old man is yours."

"Okay."

Damon answered with a smile.

What was going on?

The three Legends froze.

Why did it sound as if they were working together?

"Damon, you..."

Ray Palmer had just started to question him angrily when Damon pointed casually.

Zzzzt.

A current stronger than the earlier torture struck Ray instantly.

"These two are useless. Let them go," Damon said casually.

"Let them go? Are you certain?"

Vandal Savage hesitated.

"Without them, the old man may not cooperate easily."

"He will."

Damon smiled brightly and looked at Martin Stein.

"Will you not?"

Martin looked at Damon in confusion, unsure whether he should believe him. Perhaps Damon had some plan to save them. Either way, at least Ray and Mick could leave.

With that thought, he nodded.

"As you said. If you let them go, I will cooperate."

"See? Simple."

Damon clapped with a smile.

Vandal Savage did not know whether he should trust Damon. He looked at Valentina, and Valentina gave a slight nod.

"Release them."

Vandal issued the order in a low voice.

Soon Ray Palmer and Heat Wave were taken down, brought out, and thrown directly out of the Gulag camp.

✦
✦
✦

Ready for more?

The next chapters are already waiting on my Patreon, along with early access, previews, and extra story updates 🗝️

https://www.patreon.com/cw/TheBacklotFanfiction