Dante admitted it—he was genuinely dumbfounded.
But not because of their identities. Sure, a couple of faces were unfamiliar, but he immediately recognized Sara Lance.
So, he guessed it instantly: the Legendary Team.
No, what really threw him was where the Legendary Team came from.
As Sara Lance explained, Dante gradually pieced it all together.
Apparently, he—the future him—created the Legendary Team. Recruited talents from different points in the timeline.
Sara Lance, White Canary—Oliver Queen's ex's sister. Presumed dead in a shipwreck, rescued by the League of Assassins, trained as one of their own.
Martin Stein—top nuclear physicist, inventor of the Firestorm Matrix.
Jefferson Jackson—mechanic of the Waverider. The two could merge into Firestorm.
And then Ray Palmer. The Atom himself.
Those were the usual suspects.
The other two? Total blanks to Dante… until Sara introduced them.
First up: the loudmouth from earlier who wouldn't shut up—"Stark." Full name: Howard Stark.
Tony Stark's dad.
Apparently, they snatched him up while he was being hunted by the Winter Soldier. The invisibility rig that used optical distortion? That was his invention.
Then came the silent one—the woman who interrupted Sara and spoke up herself:
"Dante, my name is Fongji Wu."
"Hmmn!?"
It didn't click immediately.
Fongji Wu… wasn't that the White Phoenix?
And the most powerful Iron Fist in recorded history.
But the shock only lasted a second.
This Fongji Wu clearly only had the Dragon Power of the Iron Fist.
Made sense. If she had become the White Phoenix, she'd probably be off-world by now.
"Let me get this straight. I'm the acting director in your timeline? Where's Director Fury?"
"I really can't say too much. Just know that Director Fury is alive and well. But after you officially announced the formation of the Legendary Team and defined its mission… you vanished."
Dante nodded. Made sense to respect the timeline. People who mess with time usually get messed up by time.
Unless he ever goes full Ion Man and learns to rewrite time himself.
"So, I asked you to come back to this moment and recruit new members?"
"That's right. You said there would only be three prisoners in the Bureau's superpower containment wing during this period—and that all three were perfect candidates to join the Waverider."
Dante turned to look at the trio still sitting in stunned silence inside the prison.
To be fair… they were core members of the original Legends.
Still, the recruitment style? Kinda messed up.
Who the hell forms a heroic time-travel team by raiding their own prison?
Then again, the Legends always did have that "temporal labor reform" energy.
Honestly, it wasn't a bad idea. Otherwise, these three would just sit here burning government rations.
Might as well let them contribute to protecting the timeline.
"If it was my future self's decision, then take them."
"…You just believe that?" Sara blinked.
"Why wouldn't he?" Harley Quinn cut in, shrugging as she gestured at Dante. "That sounds exactly like something this guy would do."
Outside the prison, Dante and Sara quickly finalized the handover.
Constantine, Captain Cold, and Heat Wave—now officially conscripted into time patrol.
As they were preparing to leave, Sara suddenly remembered something.
"Oh right, Dante—go to the training room on the twelfth floor. There's someone waiting for you."
"Huh?"
"This person requested to meet you in this timeline—and you agreed."
"Isn't that gonna cause timeline distortion?"
"The timeline is sturdier than you think… You taught me that, Teacher."
"…Teacher? You call me Teacher?"
"Well… I only call you that, but… you were the closest thing to a father figure I had."
"…Does everyone in the FBI just copy-paste that line?"
Dante waved her off, sending his future protégé-slash-time daughter on her way, but couldn't help muttering.
He distinctly remembered Fury saying that line.
And if nothing went wrong, Coulson would probably say something similar to Skye in the future.
So this was his legacy, huh?
One emotional line.
Passed down across three generations of the FBI.
From past to future. From agent to agent.
Truly… beautiful.
"Wow, she said you're her dad."
"So this is time travel! So cool!"
"Cool, my ass. Most of the time, you'll be stuck on standby inside the time buffer zone. Picture this—an endless green void, cosmic spatial distortion, no day or night…"
"Okay, so basically Arkham. No windows there either. No time. No sanity. Who cares! Let's go, let's go—didn't your daughter say someone unexpected is waiting in the training room?" Harley squealed, leaping onto Dante's back and pinching his butt, "Giddy up, cowboy! Destination: training room!"
Dante didn't have the heart to toss her off, so he just carried this unhinged woman into the elevator.
He had a feeling Internal Affairs was going to file an even longer report about him tomorrow.
When they reached the twelfth floor, he finally dropped Harley.
He straightened his collar and checked to make sure the lipstick bite marks weren't showing.
Then he pushed open the training room doors.
Inside, a massive sandbag was being pummeled with relentless force—each strike fast, fierce, and way beyond normal human limits.
Brown hair whipped with each movement. Jeans, plain white shirt, but under the simplicity—a solid, battle-hardened physique.
BANG.
The person-height sandbag flew off the chain from a final punch, bursting open as sand exploded across the floor.
Dante and Harley stepped in.
The woman noticed them right away—but didn't seem surprised. She casually walked over, grabbing a leather satchel from against the wall.
It looked like… a shield?
As she approached, Dante realized—she was just about his height.
"Your future self told me… if I ever completed my mission and didn't know where to go, I could come to this timeline."
"Let me introduce myself."
"My name is Peggy Carter."
"You can also call me… Captain Carter."
(To be continued.)
***
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