DC: A New Beginning-Chapter 57: Flashpoint

Reverse-Flash bent down and picked up the broken helmet from the ground.

"In the future, superheroes are studied as historical heroes."

"Some people study old textbooks and museum exhibits about the super-powered beings of the 20th and 21st centuries, not because they want to be heroes."

"I was one of them. I worshipped the Flash—the greatest one of all."

Reverse-Flash cradled the helmet in one hand, gently running his fingers over the remaining lightning bolt symbol on the left side.

A thin thread of golden lightning was drawn out using some mysterious technique.

"Locard’s Exchange Principle—whenever two objects come into contact, a transfer of material occurs."

"But after I extracted the Speed Force from the Flash’s suit and used it to give myself powers, I looked in the endless flow of time... and saw something that shattered everything I believed in."

Reverse-Flash lifted the helmet, flickering with fine threads of yellow lightning, with a smile at the corner of his mouth.

"I used to worship you more than anything. You could travel through time, yet you still held to your moral bottom line. I thought the fact that I could be born safely in the future was the best proof of your great self-discipline. However, it turns out you were just messing up the timeline again and again—then doing everything you could to fix it each time."

"The Earth still has a future only because you got lucky. Your so-called greatness is just you pulling off one-in-a-billion odds again and again. A single impulsive change to the timeline could’ve wiped out humanity’s future completely."

"If you can do it, then why can’t I?!"

Viktor watched Reverse-Flash basically perform this whole monologue alone at a dead man’s helmet, then wiped the complicated expression off his face.

As Reverse-Flash’s grin grew wide enough that even his constant vibrating couldn’t hide it and broke into some strange villainous laugh, Viktor raised his hand.

"Uh, Mr. Thawne... I don’t think our problem here includes a villain origin speech?"

Reverse-Flash paused and wiped the expression from his face.

"You have zero sense of epic atmosphere. I was just doing a bit of necessary emotional preparation before personally stepping into grand history."

He scratched his head and found Reverse-Flash’s little habit kind of hard to understand.

It might be just how people from the future felt and were unable to suppress their excitement about participating in historical moments.

"Then... do I need to introduce myself like that too?"

Viktor clenched his fist and cleared his throat, summoning a look of world-weary depth in his eyes, and began:

"I come from a planet where conquest is glory—"

"You don’t need to. I already know your history by heart."

Reverse-Flash cut him off without mercy and redirected their attention to the Flash’s helmet.

"Usually, it’s very hard for Flashes from different universes to intersect. However, it isn’t impossible."

"I said it to you before that every time the Flash tampers with time, there’s an extremely high chance things get worse. Clearly, that madman who wanted to kill you wasn’t lucky enough to fix things again."

"During one interference with the timeline, he probably accidentally created a world that was about to be completely destroyed, and that terrified him."

"He panicked and dove into the timestream to stop his past self, but the time-paradox that would happen from doing that would erase the world that was created just because of his own selfish choice. Even if that world was already on the edge of collapse." 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"But nature itself tries to save itself—and so does the universe. It didn’t want to be wiped out by someone so careless."

"From a broad multiverse perspective, there just happened to be another Flash who barged into the tunnel constructed by the Speed Force."

"A madman who wanted to ’make things right’ but was actually causing destruction, and there was a ’fool’ who maybe didn’t even have a plan and was just driven by feelings. At some moment, perhaps by the universe’s own will, the two barriers of time and space, weakened by the Speed Force, overlapped and crashed into each other."

"The madman arrived here, and the ’fool’ ended up in that world that desperately wanted to save itself."

Viktor patiently listened to the explanation.

In fact, the moment he saw the letter signed "Thomas Wayne," Viktor already kind of understood where that other Flash came from.

The Flashpoint event.

It was a really famous storyline... but it’s hard to say if it was "good" or "bad."

Before that madman tried to fix his own mistake, Earth in that universe was probably right in the middle of Captain Atom blowing himself up.

The Flashpoint Aquaman was nothing like the big, kind-of-dumb guy from this world. He was more like a tyrant who shared Orm’s ideology.

In the final stage of the event, Aquaman modified Captain Atom into an unstable bomb that continuously absorbed excess energy, supposedly powerful enough to trigger an apocalypse.

’If the Flash of this universe got dragged into a Flashpoint world on the verge of collapse... could he even still be alive right now?’

He glanced at Reverse-Flash and quietly dismissed that thought.

If this lunatic didn’t have someone in "reality" to play house with, Reverse-Flash definitely wouldn’t be this calm right now.

"A world that’s about to be destroyed pulled our Flash over there. What can they even do? What could they still have time to pull off?"

Reverse-Flash held out the helmet he’d been squeezing in his hand and offered it to him.

"How fast destruction happens stops being a problem the moment they capture a young, naive speedster."

"As long as the apocalypse doesn’t happen instantly, even if it’s coming in the next hour or the next minute, they still have endless chances to try experiments... until they work him to death."

"If they succeed even once, they can open a door out of the apocalypse—into our world. This new world... where the Justice League has just fallen apart."

Viktor thought about that man who talked nonstop, who couldn’t help fidgeting even while standing still.

He imagined that slightly awkward, introverted speedster being conned, tricked, manipulated, or just outright strapped to an operating table surrounded by a group of lunatics terrified of the apocalypse.

Viktor frowned slightly.

"In the original timeline, how did this world stop the invasion?"

Reverse-Flash’s mouth twitched.

"Everything I just told you can be deduced and analyzed through technological means in this era. I merely sped up the process a little, but with a question like yours and directly asking for the answer, I can’t answer that."

"The only thing I can tell you is this world cannot avoid a terrible war. It might not become a total disaster, but it will be a massive trauma for many people."

’And not just one war...’

Reverse-Flash added that silently in his own mind.

Viktor looked slightly helplessly at the silent Rachel.

He didn’t want a war to break out in this world.

It wasn’t just that his vacation spot would get caught in the crossfire, but it was especially because that person, who could draw power from the wars of this world, would benefit.

Of course, Viktor’s earlier glance at Rachel had only been a silent understanding between them, but some things were worth confirming twice.

He extended a hand toward Rachel.

She blinked, stepped forward, and let his fingers rest gently against her forehead.

The two of them had a brief, private mental conversation, connected through the soul bond they had formed with each other not long ago.

...

600 POWER STONES = 1 BONUS Chapter

[email protected]/Sothisq

You can find up to 15 advanced Chapters on my Patreon.