Chapter 247: Speed Force: Feed Me Peanuts!!!
In the ever-changing city.
The crimson Speed Force swirling in Reverse-Flash’s eyes seemed to reflect past scenes that ordinary people could not glimpse.
His assertion that Batman had already known “before disappearing” cast even deeper confusion in everyone’s hearts, leaving the superheroes present somewhat baffled.
“Bruce could make a plan in such a sudden accident?” Even Superman found it hard to believe. After all, whether it was the Weeping Angel or being erased by the timeline, these were things even Batman could hardly predict, and changes in the timeline happen instantly and have global effects.
He did not believe even Bruce could foresee it in that situation.
“Of course.”
Reverse-Flash slightly tugged at the corner of his mouth, revealing a profound smile. He did not directly answer the question. Some truths are indeed hard for non-speedsters to understand.
“Is that so.” Only Ian, being held by Superman, blinked his eyes thoughtfully. He swallowed the last bite of chicken feet forcefully and then waved his oily hands.
“We have to trust Uncle Bruce! He’s Batman! Nothing can stump him, even if time gets messed up, he can straighten it out for you!”
Ian spoke in an extremely inciting tone, as if giving a speech.
Demonstrating Batman’s status in his actions.
“You just want to become a speedster, right.”
But Clark, as the old father, had already seen through what little schemes Ian was calculating in his heart.
“Hehe, not really… I don’t love being a speedster, I just love saving the world.” Ian righteously turned a blind eye to his conscience; perhaps his conscience had long adapted to this level of torment.
Without any ripples.
After speaking, Ian turned his gaze to Reverse-Flash, feeling a surge of astonishment in his heart.
The weight of the world’s status… This concept involving the underlying rules of the universe was something even he had only gradually figured out after awakening the system and accessing a large amount of forbidden knowledge.
He never expected that Reverse-Flash’s earlier statement seemed to have touched the edge of this essence.
Are speedsters too smart? Ian was unwilling to admit this; he preferred to believe that the Speed Force’s profound perception of time might guide its user to glimpse the mysteries of existence itself.
After all, the Speed Force is one of the pillar forces of the DC universe.
“You don’t talk.”
Superman did not want Ian to continue talking nonsense, so he helplessly made his request to Ian. As a filial son, Ian certainly would not refuse Superman’s extremely excessive request.
After all, he was really very filial.
“What do we need to do?” Ultimately, The Flash Barry Allen stepped forward, pulling the topic back to reality. He was the only one present who could dialogue with Reverse-Flash in the field of speed.
“Yes, we should take action. We don’t have enough time to waste. Not just me, you’re all facing the same predicament as I am.”
Reverse-Flash restrained that trace of smile, his tone becoming urgent.
“We need to speed up, Barry. Time waits for no one. Once all the dust settles, the timeline will be completely fixed, and reversing it will be next to impossible.”
He pointed to the surrounding city outlines that were twisting like poor signal, trying to stabilize—that was the intuitive manifestation of the timeline gradually solidifying.
“That’s true.” Barry stared at this arch-nemesis, his blue eyes full of distrust: “Swan, how do you make us believe you’re not trying to use us to accomplish some conspiracy of yours? Like… creating a speedster that’s easier to control? Or stealing more Speed Force.”
He glanced at the eager Ian.
“Is that how you think of me?” Reverse-Flash let out a sneer, with a hint of mockery: “Barry, you’re like a soldier returning from a long and brutal war. I can clearly feel your deep-rooted distrust of me… and the fear hidden deep inside.”
He paused, his gaze sweeping over the heroes on high alert, finally landing on Superman’s gaze burning like the sun. “However, as I admitted before, in this matter, I will indeed stand on the same side as you. After all, Superman is right here; I can’t run away, can I?”
His tone also carried a bit of helplessness.
“Mm.”
Clark stepped forward, his voice calm yet containing an undeniable force: “It had better be so, Swan. If Ian suffers any harm in this process, or any ‘unfortunate accidents’ occur, no matter which corner of the timeline you flee to, you need to always believe that I will inevitably find you.”
This threat from the God of Man was as heavy as a mountain.
Reverse-Flash’s throat under the mask involuntarily rolled.
He certainly knew Superman’s words were probably not just talk; after all, having shuttled through time and the multiverse for so many years, Reverse-Flash had never heard of such a bizarre Superman.
The span of evolution was too great.
So great that Reverse-Flash almost believed Superman had undergone a new mutation.
“Of course.”
Ultimately, he still didn’t dare to talk tough to Superman like he did to The Flash.
“I’m so moved!”
Ian, being held by Superman, seized the opportunity to make a moved expression: “Old Man! I’m so moved! Really! If you let go of my neck and let me stand on my own, I could definitely be even more moved!”
He took the chance to make his request.
Unfortunately, no one paid attention.
Superman ignored his youngest son’s antics, his arm steady as a rock.
“Hehe.”
Wonder Woman Diana’s gaze kept moving between Ian and Reverse-Flash.
She slightly furrowed her brows, her expression somewhat strange. As the Amazon Princess, and also as a woman, her intuition was far sharper than others’.
At this moment, observing the two people, Wonder Woman Diana always felt that the expectant expression on Ian’s face seemed not just expecting to become a speedster… Deep in that gaze, there seemed to be hidden something more complex, almost… eagerly anticipating Reverse-Flash to really trick him?
If she observed such emotions on someone else, Diana might think she was overthinking, but Ian Kent’s reputation in her heart was indeed the type of personality that could have such expectations.
That reputation.
Truly steady as a rock.
“Eobard Thawne,” Diana suddenly spoke, her voice carrying the majesty and warning of a goddess, “If I were you, I wouldn’t play any tricks. Because what you should worry about isn’t actually Superman.”
Her words were profound.
As if seeing through something deeper.
Whether Reverse-Flash heeded this warning was unknown. He simply turned his gaze to the nearby Star Labs building: “We need the help of the particle accelerator, at least to use it to create a relatively stable special force field environment that can amplify and guide the Speed Force.”
“Leave that to me,” Barry immediately chimed in, “I can communicate with the friends in the lab…”
He knew full well that Reverse-Flash still needed to hide the identity of Harrison Wells, so he was cooperating in the act at this moment, with no intention of exposing Reverse-Flash’s true identity.
Just as Batman had once told The Flash, an enemy out in the open isn’t scary, but putting such an enemy back into the shadows is true stupidity.
This wasn’t just clear to The Flash; the entire Justice League understood it. Seeing The Flash and Reverse-Flash acting, even Aquaman had no intention of exposing Reverse-Flash.
To be fair, The Flash’s proposal wasn’t bad.
However.
“Communicate with them? After all these years of growth, you still only know talk, talk, talk.” Unexpectedly, Reverse-Flash directly shook his head and mocked The Flash.
“Communication is too slow, Barry. I only have that patience for you. For others, anyone… speedsters should have the right way to handle problems.”
Who knows if this was a true confession.
Anyway, Ian was totally shipping this pair.
“Kiss one, kiss one.”
His quiet cheering clearly reached everyone’s ears. At least in Ian’s view, Reverse-Flash was shy; after all, if not shy, why run?
“Whoosh~”
Suddenly, after his “confession” to The Flash, crimson lightning erupted around Reverse-Flash again. Turning into a streak of light, he smashed through the reinforced glass outer wall of Star Labs at a speed the naked eye could hardly catch. With body resonance, he directly phased through the wall and entered.
Genuine wall-phasing is a required course every speedster should learn.
Also running on water… ignoring gravity to climb walls—yes, this isn’t some neighboring purple ninja village bloodline legend, but “ninja” required courses that speedsters learn.
“Damn it! We have to keep an eye on him! He loves pulling little tricks! He might screw us over big time the moment he’s out of life danger!” The Flash cursed lowly, golden lightning exploding around him. He followed closely, clearly having been tricked by Reverse-Flash many times, so he became cautious.
The Flash instantly caught up.
Superman, Wonder Woman, and others also followed without hesitation, each using their abilities to rush into the laboratory.
By the time they entered, the lab interior was already a mess. Several of Barry Allen’s good friends had been directly knocked out by Reverse-Flash’s high-speed entry into the area.
And in the particle accelerator’s main control hall, they saw a shocking scene.
“You too!” Reverse-Flash was using a clean hand blade to strike the neck of Dr. Harrison Wells, who sat in a wheelchair with a “shocked” expression!
This shouldn’t have happened, after all, Reverse-Flash was Dr. Harrison Wells—at least at this time node, he was impersonating the original Harrison Wells.
For this kind of self-hitting segment.
Even Ian watched with some amazement.
“To act, so he created a time remnant for better cover of his public identity…” The Flash understood almost instantly, feeling speechless inside. The other heroes exchanged glances, also showing expressions of understanding and helplessness.
Thoughts roughly the same as Barry’s.
Reverse-Flash must be a drama king!
Too good at acting!
“See? Speedster, speed is always our greatest advantage.” After performing this “self-hitting” act, Reverse-Flash didn’t even look at his “self” slumped in the wheelchair. He walked straight to the massive and complex particle accelerator main console, his hands turning into afterimages on the keyboard.
While couldn’t help lecturing The Flash, he was quickly modifying the dense parameters on it.
“When two streams of homologous Speed Force from different time nodes in two spacetimes produce strong resonance, it forms a very subtle cross-time connection, the principle similar to quantum entanglement. This not only helps us precisely locate what era those three children were sent to, but also allows us to exploit a ‘loophole’ in the Speed Force rules to temporarily… create a speedster who can run to the past!”
Reverse-Flash explained while operating.
“To be honest, I don’t understand a single punctuation mark of what he’s saying.”
Aquaman shrugged, indicating he was just a king. Though his education level was decent, he wasn’t a top graduate from some King’s University.
“Uh…”
The Flash could understand, but he truly wasn’t as good at lecturing as Reverse-Flash. The superheroes were all drawn into thinking by Reverse-Flash’s explanation.
Even Wonder Woman Diana was pretending to think.
“Temporarily?” Only Ian was unwilling to think, sharply catching this keyword. He immediately became displeased, his body starting to twist.
“Why temporarily? I don’t want a trial card! I want permanent Speed Force membership!” He seemed ready for a reflexive protest, his gaze at Reverse-Flash full of displeasure.
Fortunately, Superman’s hand on his nape pressed slightly harder, instantly making him behave. Otherwise, Reverse-Flash would probably suffer Ian’s aura along with threats and inducements right then.
Why no inducements?
Mainly, facing a villain, human rights can naturally be ignored a bit. As a capitalist, Ian’s personality was to save where he could; he wouldn’t let his moral bottom line exceed the law too much.
“What do you plan to do?”
After slightly using his Super Brain to calculate the parameters Reverse-Flash was adjusting, getting nowhere and being urged by his Super Brain to use the Bat Brain instead, Superman couldn’t show he didn’t understand. He could only keep a straight face, look at Reverse-Flash, and directly ask the core question.
“I can’t explain it clearly to you in a short time.”
Reverse-Flash didn’t turn his head.
His gaze was fixed on the data rapidly scrolling on the screen.
“You just need to know this is a speedster’s game; only speedsters can intervene.” After speaking, he meaningfully looked at The Flash Barry beside him.
“So,” Barry sighed, rubbing his brow, “you’re asking me to cooperate with you?”
Hearing this, Reverse-Flash finally stopped his actions, turned around, and nodded affirmatively: “Exactly. The Speed Force that Batman collected in the past originates from you. So, only you can produce the strongest resonance and vibration with the Speed Force existing in the past spacetime that’s being used by Batman.”
He could indeed see the past.
But no one knew why, since he had confirmed the time point, he didn’t tell those present—perhaps just like The Flash’s understanding of him.
While Reverse-Flash wanted to save himself, he also had his own abacus.
“You’d better really have a plan.” The Flash looked at the complex parameters on the screen that made his head spin, giving up on understanding. After all, he was just a super genius, not a super genius educated in the future.
“So what should I do?”
The Flash directly asked.
“No need to be nervous.”
A mild smile reappeared on Reverse-Flash’s face. He pointed to the particle accelerator’s ring track, which was now emitting a low hum and preheating.
“Do what you’re best at, Barry.”
“Run, Barry, run!”
Saying this, Reverse-Flash restarted the particle accelerator. Underground in Star Labs, the massive particle accelerator ring tunnel’s low hum gradually turned into a deafening roar.
“Bzzz!!!”
Inside the restarted machine, powerful energy was gathering.
The entire space was filled with the smell of ozone and high voltage electricity.
Then, the specially configured force field activated, isolating the tunnel interior from the outside, forming an independent and stable high-energy environment.
It was operating normally.
Not damaged as The Flash had always thought—perhaps Reverse-Flash had tampered with this machine before, causing Star Labs to never be able to fix it.
“Good, no problems.”
Reverse-Flash stood at the main console.
On the screen, according to his special parameters, the energy flow diagram was building with astonishing efficiency. His crimson gaze stared at the data stream, performing calculations.
He had to ensure everything proceeded in the direction he predicted.
“My turn.” The Flash Barry Allen stood at the starting point of the ring track, taking a deep breath. He looked back at his comrades behind—Superman still holding Ian, expression grave; Wonder Woman gripping the Sword of Vulcan, ready for any mishap; Aquaman and Cyborg also on alert.
“Barry, be careful.” Diana warned solemnly.
“That’s exactly what I mean.”
Aquaman touched his nose.
“If they’re all meaning that, I mean that too.”
Cyborg was also a quick learner.
“I’ll keep an eye on this guy.”
Only Superman was more concerned about whether Reverse-Flash would try something.
“Wait for my good news.”
Barry nodded, giving everyone a “don’t worry” look. Despite his distrust of Reverse-Flash, this was currently the only visible hope. Dazzling golden lightning began erupting around him, crackling electric arcs reflecting off the blue energy flows in the tunnel.
“Now, Barry! Enter the track, push your Speed Force to the limit! Resonate with the past!” Reverse-Flash’s voice came through the communicator.
Carrying a trace of irrepressible excitement.
“Got it!”
No longer hesitating, Barry turned into a golden lightning bolt, instantly rushing into the ring track!
His speed, under the force field’s boost and his own will’s drive, rose crazily with unprecedented efficiency. Solid-like golden Speed Force energy surged from his body, merging with the entire accelerator force field, forming a massive, constantly rotating golden energy vortex.
At the same time, on the main console screen, an originally extremely weak, almost undetectable signal point suddenly became clear and stable after Barry started running!
That was the Speed Force signal from the past spacetime, homologous with Barry!
“Signal locked!” Reverse-Flash stared at the screen, his voice laced with mania and excitement. “Resonance establishing! Bridge… building!”
How could he not be excited.
The time passage could be re-established, meaning Reverse-Flash still had that chance to escape this barbaric era and return to the civilized 31st century he knew.
Hope reignited.
Reverse-Flash was thrilled.
He rapidly tapped the keyboard.
Guiding the two streams of Speed Force across time to draw closer, intertwine. Past and future, because of these two homologous lightning bolts, wondrously intersected at this moment.
Meanwhile, in the past spacetime, inside the Batcave under Gotham City. Bruce Wayne had long removed his badly damaged Bat armor, changing into a black combat suit convenient for research. Before him was a massive machine with complex structure and rugged mechanical aesthetics.
It connected to the Batcave’s main power source and multiple analysis modules. The machine’s core was a focusing chamber made of special crystals and superconducting materials.
“When I look to the future, I hope the future doesn’t burn my eyes.” Bruce carefully inserted the test tube sealed with golden lightning into the focusing chamber’s slot. The Speed Force in the tube seemed to sense something, flowing more actively, tiny electric arcs jumping on the inner wall.
Alfred stood beside him.
He held a drink to replenish energy, but his gaze closely followed Bruce’s every move, his face showing obvious worry.
“Young Master, are you sure you want to do this? Our understanding of this energy is still very limited.” Alfred knew full well Bruce had just stolen a bit of this energy from that young man.
Not even having time for more experiments and information gathering.
“This is also a way to understand it, isn’t it?” Bruce’s response was as concise and firm as ever. He walked to the main console, fingers quickly operating physical switches and virtual interfaces. “The future can be changed, but it is also our best way to probe the identities of those children.”
Bruce Wayne operated frantically.
The complex startup procedures completed one by one.
Then, the machine emitted a low charging hum, blue lights sequentially lighting up in the internal energy conduits. Around the focusing chamber, subtle spatial distortions began.
As if the air itself was trembling slightly.
“Good, as always, no mistakes.”
The biggest difference between DC old man and Marvel inventor genius is that DC old man’s plans rarely fail, while Marvel inventor genius Tony Stark excels at learning from failures to do better.
Bruce finally checked all safety protocols and energy containment fields, took a deep breath, and pressed the red startup button.
“Bzzz—!!!”
The machine emitted a deeper, yet more heart-shaking roar than Star Labs’ particle accelerator! Powerful energy was injected into the focusing chamber, stimulating the Speed Force sample inside! The golden lightning in the test tube erupted violently, like an awakened sun, blinding golden light instantly filling the entire focusing chamber!
It poured through complex energy circuits into the entire machine! An invisible, cross-dimensional fluctuation quietly spread from the Batcave.
Between past and future.
At two different spacetime nodes, due to Batman’s activation and The Flash’s running, the two homologous Speed Force streams reached perfect resonance frequency at this moment!
An invisible bridge pierced the barrier of time.
Reverse-Flash at the future main console, seeing the peak resonance curve on the screen, showed a victorious expression. While Batman in the past stared tightly at the strange data on the machine readings, brows furrowed, as if discovering something unexpected.
Reverse-Flash stared at the energy curve perfectly resonating with the past spacetime on the screen, crimson light flaring in his eyes. He originally wanted to handle the next operation himself, but as electric arcs just lit up on his body, he felt Superman’s terrifying gaze. With no choice, he abruptly turned to shout at Superman, who was giving him the death gaze.
“Now! Throw him in! Into the core area of the Speed Force field!” No wonder Reverse-Flash could only give instructions; mainly, he realized he couldn’t outrun Superman’s eyeball movement.
How could he act personally?
Personal action wouldn’t work at all.
If he dared to activate Speed Force even a little, he feared Superman would splat him against the wall.
“No need to throw! No need! I’ll climb in myself!”
Before Superman could act.
Ian, being held, burst with intense excitement and anticipation in his eyes. He forcibly broke free from Superman’s non-full-strength grip, like an unleashed wild dog, with joyful yet determined momentum, actively leaping into the particle accelerator’s violent golden energy vortex!
“Ian!”
Superman was slightly worried.
But after raising his hand, he hesitated and lowered it.
“That’s Ian Kent… Clark, do you really think the little guy you raised is some porcelain doll? I feel your worry is completely unnecessary.”
Diana covered her forehead, somewhat helplessly teasing Superman. To be fair, this woman’s mouth sometimes seemed blessed.
The instant Ian’s figure submerged into that blinding golden light.
“No!!!!!! Don’t let him come!!!!!”
A voice rang out from the particle accelerator.
There should only be The Flash Barry Allen inside, but at this moment, this voice absolutely wasn’t one Barry Allen could make.
It was a shriek as if countless male, female, old, and young voices twisted and overlapped, filled with terror, anger, and despair, suddenly exploding from the particle accelerator’s core.
Its will firmly refusing.
This voice pierced the machine’s roar, pierced physical barriers, carrying a soul-shaking tremor, echoing deep in everyone’s eardrums!
“The Speed Force… is speaking!?”
Only Reverse-Flash horrifiedly realized what was happening.
