Mick took the first bite from his sandwich when someone came from behind him, took the bottle of beer Mick had taken for himself and started gulping it down. Mick jumped from his chair and came face to face with a man he had never seen before – a man who had definitely not been here before.
Mick glared at the man who stole his beer. Whatever he had expected from this thief, it was not a rather handsome young man with impressive brown hair that fell below his shoulders. He wore a wreath of ivy on his head in his left hand, the strange guy held a staff wrapped in ivy leaves with a pine cone on top. And all the while Mick glared, the man did not stop gulping down the beer – not even to catch his breath.
"Who are you?" Mick yelled and he wished he'd taken his heat gun to the kitchen with him.
The man only spoke when there was not a drop of beer left in the bottle.
"Dionysus. God of wine." His voice was surprisingly low for a guy who could pass as a teenager if he truly wanted to. The god placed the empty bottle on the table. "Beer's good, too."
Mick rolled his eyes and marched over to the fridge. He almost bumped into Dionysus' shoulder. The god spoke again in a monotonous voice while Mick grabbed himself a new beer from the fridge.
"I hereby name you my champion. May your…" the god paused, "fire burn brighter than before, may you never be deluded by hallucinations and paranoia."
"Whatever." Mick was not the least bit star-struck by this sudden apparition and his new status as a champion. So much has happened, he just needed a beer to properly digest the information.
Dionysus took that bottle of beer straight from Mick's hand and then vanished. At that point, Mick could not take it anymore – another beer stolen! – and screamed at the top of his lungs to let out his frustrations.
Nate ran into the kitchen, looking around with a bewildered and worried look in his eyes. As soon as he saw Mick was fuming, he came closes but proceeded with caution.
"What's going on?"
"A god stole my beer!" Mick exclaimed.
Any sane person would try to limit the number of beers Mick had, but given the Legends knew how angry Mick would be when they attempted to do this, they decided against it. besides, a placated Mick often cooperated better than the Mick who hadn't had a beer.
"Who was it?" Nate asked.
"Dio…" What was the name again? It was something strange. Diagonal? Diabetes? No, impossible. Then he had it.
"Diogenes."
"Dionysus?" Nate asked. Luckily, he understood which god Mick meant under these circumstances.
"That's the one."
"Makes sense," Nate said and he nodded. Since Mick was not under attack and Nate had already eaten, he left the kitchen again. No doubt Mick would finally take a bottle of beer to drink it himself. In the meantime, Nate sighed deeply. Though this course of action was foreseeable, he had hoped the literal god of alcohol would not endorse Mick.
While he made his way through the Waverider, something from the corner of his eye caught his attention. Nate stopped and tried to see what it was, but he couldn't quite make it out. It was a shadow, but whose? There was nobody else but him and with a constant stream of light, there were barely any shadows inside the time ship.
Nate turned his head. His suspicions were confirmed – there was nobody but him in the corridor and the shadow seemed to have permanently made its home in the corner of his eye.
Nate shook it off and walked away. Whoever – or whatever – was stalking him would make itself known one way or another, sooner or later. The question was; did they have good or bad intentions, and who was it?
After lunch, Ray escorted Nora back to her room. Zari would've done it, but she had heard that the damage Mick had done to the timeship was still causing minor inconveniences. In other words, Ray was the only one who wanted to take Nora back to the confinement of her room. After her help with the Chimera, she was allowed to have a bit more space, but the Legends were still calmer when Nora stayed in her room. True, she no longer was a prisoner, but she was still treated like one.
Nora did not appreciate that attitude, especially since Ray was so devoted to his job of looking after her that he barely seemed to remember she may like to have some personal space. He did keep his distance, but he often came this close to crossing that border.
"You don't have to follow me around, you know?" Nora said, a hint of irritation in her voice.
"Actually, I do have to," Ray said. Nora stopped and turned to him with a questioning look; God, she was beautiful. "They don't trust you."
"And you do?" Nora asked, folding her arms. The question could've been expected, but still, Ray had not seen it coming. What did he have to say about it? The others would think of him as naïve for trusting her. Then again, he wanted to convince Nora that she could trust him, when that time came and when she needed a person on the ship she could unconditionally trust.
"Well…" he said after a pause that lasted a little too long.
"Thought so," Nora interrupted him. She turned her back to him and walked to her room. Ray stood there for a moment before he recovered and followed her through the hallway.
"Wait, Nora." He ran those few yards she had put between herself and her lovesick puppy to close the distance. He refrained from gently taking her arm to stop her in her tracks; instead, he decided to walk beside her. There was enough space in the hallway for two people to walk beside one another. "I was wondering if… what were you doing before you were…"
"Forced to give up what I had to stay with you against my will?" she finished the sentence. She did not sound happy with the decision that had been made without her consent. Ray nodded, painfully aware of the situation.
"Kinda," he said. what else could he say? With that kind of answer, he'd understand if she didn't want to tell him what she had been up to after she had escaped the Time Prison with the time stone he had given her. But she surprised him and told him what he wanted to know.
"I had a good life," she said, a small smile appearing on her face. "It's not necessarily the best, but I had a life. I worked at a renaissance fair in 2018."
"Really?" Ray was surprised as well as excited for her. she had picked what could possibly be the perfect job for someone like her – someone who didn't have a high school diploma, who liked that dressing up and the lifestyle. Then again, that life probably looked a thousand times better than being stuck on the Waverider because a higher being said so.
"Hide close enough so they won't think to look for you there," Nora explained.
"That's smart." Ray nodded. After a couple more steps, he stopped her.
"I'm so sorry you got dragged into this."
"That's not your fault," Nora said. Ray frowned. he couldn't help but feel that technically, it was their fault. The reasons for certain events happening have their roots in the actions of the Legends.
"Those gods chose you to stop an evil that escaped Hell. It happened at the same time we broke Mallus free," Ray explained. Nora's eyes widened – she was shocked, but at least she now knew. He hoped that she would not start blaming the Legends because Periboea's escape had been far out of their control.
"I'd hoped they wouldn't consider you as a champion," Ray continued. He was unable to look her in the eyes. "At least you would have still had a kind of normal life."
Kind of. As normal as life working on a renaissance fair could be.
A smile briefly flashed across her face. "Thanks, but it doesn't do anything to change the situation."
"I know," he responded. He took a deep breath. "But if you ever… need any help or someone to talk to, someone who understands… you can come to me."
"You don't understand," she said. If there had been friendliness in her voice before, there was not a trace of it anymore. Her stare was colder, but not as unfriendly as her tone.
Ray shrugged. Of course he didn't. But he could make the effort, get her to open up and who knows… maybe she would believe he is trustworthy. Maybe it could become something more in the long run. But the first maybe was the more important one, and a lot less selfish.
"I can learn to understand," he said.
Nora nodded. Still, she wasn't sure whether she believed that was possible. "I'm going to my room now."
"Okay."
Nora turned her back to Ray and without saying another word, she walked back to her room at the end of this hallway. Ray did not accompany her for this short distance and only moved again when the doors of Nora's room slid closed.
Great job, Ray. Now you've ruined it.
Ray returned to the lab; maybe he could still do something useful over there. And if not, it was never too late to brush up on the more obscure myths and mythological creatures.
The time seismograph registered another anomaly in the timeline. Sara noticed it and alerted the other Legends, urging them to come to the bridge. Not everyone arrived simultaneously; for instance, Mick was late as per usual, strolling in with an indifferent look on his face. at least he could go outside and burn something for real with lasting consequences and effects on nature. At least he could see whether his champion title truly had any effect on someone's performance in battle.
"Where are we going now?" Mick asked his teammates.
"Crete, 617," Sara answered, leaning with one hand against the console. Crete belonged geographically to Greece and it was the biggest island of the Greek archipelago. It was also the original home of Knossos and the Minotaur. How fitting they should go there.
"Some people have been found with deep gashes in their bodies, which could have been made by large birds," Ray explained. Like Sara, he stood at the console and must have read some reports displayed on the console.
"Another Greek monster," Mick said. After the boar and the Minotaur, he had started to have enough of the situation. Then the Chimera came, and now they had to find yet another Greek monster! Of course, if they had proof the Giantess was telling these monsters to attack, it would at least feel useful, but they did not have that yet.
"Possibly," Amaya said and she turned her gaze to Nate. Reading up on the mythology had been a good move on his part; so he could not both show off his newfound knowledge and possibly lead the Legends in the right direction when it came to the creatures they would fight.
"It could be a Fury," Nate said. "But they don't usually work alone." Which meant they had to be extra careful when they landed. They no longer would have strength in numbers, since they had no idea how many of them would be there.
"Strap in," Sara told the Legends. "We're going to Crete."