RNP Chapter 44 Madman and Fool
Chapter 44 Madman and Fool
"Whatever you want."
Joey parted ways with Kara amidst her incredulous and disappointed gaze.
Joey could understand Kara's feelings. What was happening on this planet was a world war more devastating than any war in history, and it would be even more devastating in the foreseeable future.
More than a decade ago, he had been a messenger traversing war zones. He didn't even need his superhuman senses to know what would happen in this war: hatred, slaughter, rape, looting, death...
Seeing just one such incident can keep you up all night, let alone thousands of them happening in front of you at the same time.
The battlefield is the place furthest from humanity.
But as he said before, none of this matters at all.
Barry Allen, the Flash, is haunted by the death of his mother during his childhood. He travels back in time through the Speed Force to save her life. This act breaks through the timeline of the entire universe, creating the living hell we see today.
But everything will be corrected once the Flash regains the Speed Force. All the things that are happening now that are driving Kara to the brink of collapse, including Kara herself and her nearly twenty years of imprisonment and torture by humans, will be like a game save, as if they never happened or ever existed.
This universe is temporary. All people in the world are like a drop of rain falling into the ocean. Their joys and sorrows, births, aging, sickness and death will disappear without making a ripple.
~~~~
Wayne Manor received an uninvited guest today.
Barry Allen, an ordinary clerk from the Central City Criminal Investigation Department, works as a CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) officer, but his off-duty secret job is being the Flash.
When he woke up, the whole world was no longer the same; everything he knew had been turned upside down.
Barry's mother is still alive. Barry had just seen her two days ago. He could even recall the image of his mother cutting every piece of birthday cake for him from childhood to adulthood.
The history of this world has changed, making everything now seem unfamiliar.
His lover, Iris West, married someone else and had children, while most of his friends in the Justice League either disappeared or became major villains preparing to destroy the world.
Barry couldn't solve the world's problems by himself, so he had to turn to the only superhero he knew in the world—Batman.
He was stuck in traffic for a full five hours before he could drive from Central City to Gotham.
Yes, driving, because there is no Flash in this world either. Barry Allen lost the Speed Force, and he is now just an ordinary person.
Upon entering Wayne Manor, Barry Allen was met with only desolation. Every corner of the manor was covered in cobwebs and dust, and not a single light was lit at night, making it particularly eerie.
Although Bruce Wayne's desolate mansion was already eerie enough to be used as a filming location for "American Horror Story" or "The Styles Man".
But at least every inch of the manor was carefully tended by the butler, Alfred, unlike now, where this godforsaken place looks like it hasn't been inhabited for twenty years.
Using his phone for light, Barry easily found the hidden switch behind the manor's clockwork and entered the Batcave. In addition to the Batsuit, he was greeted by a large number of powerful firearms.
The Batman of this world has clearly changed. At least the Batman that Flash Barry knew never used a weapon that could so easily take lives.
Barry was figuring out how to explain the situation to Batman in this bizarre world, but it shouldn't be too difficult. Even if Batman had undergone significant changes like everyone else, at least his mind was still sharp...
A shadowy bat-like figure with bloodshot eyes had already quietly emerged from the shadows behind Barry.
With a thud, Barry was struck hard in the back, instantly losing his balance. A deep, oppressive voice came from behind him:
"Who are you?! How did you get into the bat cave?!"
The Batman of this world obviously doesn't know Barry.
Barry immediately begged for mercy. Although Batman didn't kill, he knew all too well that the other man's iron fist was no joke: "Bruce, stop! It's me!"
Batman was visibly taken aback when he heard the name "Bruce." Just as Barry breathed a sigh of relief and was about to start a conversation with him, he was met with an even more brutal attack.
Batman pounced on Barry like a ghost, grabbed his hand, and decisively snapped one of his fingers:
"Bruce is long dead! I watched him die in my arms!"
At this moment, Barry, amidst excruciating pain in his fingers, finally got a clear look at the Batman standing before him.
The half of his face exposed beneath the bat mask was covered in wrinkles and white stubble. Barry looked at this aged bat and finally understood what was going on:
"My God! I understand! Bruce Wayne died in the alley that night, and you survived. You are Bruce's father—Thomas Wayne!"
Upon hearing the name Bruce again, Thomas Wayne's eyes, hidden beneath his mask, turned even more bloodshot:
"If you dare mention my dead son again, I promise you'll suffer the greatest pain before you die! Now tell me how you discovered the Bat Cave?!"
Thomas Wayne was a surgeon, and Barry knew he was absolutely capable of keeping his word, so to avoid breaking a few more bones, he began to explain in detail:
"I have a secret identity just like you: 'The Flash.' My name is Barry Allen, and I'm the fastest man in the world..."
Thump! Thomas Wayne punched Barry in the temple, interrupting his rambling:
"You're some damn fast man in the world! You can't even dodge my punch! You're just out of steam!"
Thomas Wayne felt that the management of Arkham Asylum was too lax. How could they let a madman like him, who was talking nonsense, escape?
"What I'm saying is true! This world isn't the normal world I know!"
Barry, a law-abiding citizen his entire life, was experiencing torture by Batman for the first time, and he certainly didn't want to experience it again.
"I can prove it! The ring! Look at my ring!"
Barry's Flash suit is hidden in his tiny ring using super-compression technology, a fact that proves he's no ordinary person.
The ring activated, and a large set of battle suits made of unknown material popped out from the ring slot, which was less than a centimeter square. This made Thomas, the old bat, believe it a little more and temporarily stop interrogating him.
But Barry himself was stunned, because what popped out of the ring was not his own red uniform, but the yellow uniform of Reverse-Flash, which he hated the most.
Without even thinking, Barry immediately concluded that these must be the work of his archenemy, Reverse-Flash.
I must find him quickly and stop this madness before it's destroyed by Wonder Woman and Aquaman's war!
But first, Barry needs to become the Flash again, which requires him to recreate the process by which he gained his superpowers.
To be honest, Old Bat still didn't quite believe the madman in front of him, but there was one thing in Barry's ramblings that bothered him:
"I still don't believe you, but you just said that in your world, the ones who survive are...?"
"Yes, in the normal world, your son, Bruce Wayne, survived, and he is Batman."
"Tell me what to do."
····
Barry Allen's Flash powers come from an accidental lightning strike. When he was struck by lightning, a bunch of chemicals were sprayed on him, and the combined effect made him the fastest man in the world.
"No, I think doing that will only make you the fastest person to die in the world."
Thomas Wayne, as Batman, has no shortage of any chemical agents Barry needs, and Gotham City's thick cloud cover means it's never short of thunderstorms.
While preparing the chemicals Barry requested, Thomas also set up a lightning rod connected to Barry to ensure that the lightning strikes would hit Barry Allen precisely.
"When I said you were in need of electricity, that was a medical order, meaning you should go to Arkham Asylum for electroconvulsive therapy."
Thomas flipped the lightning rod and fled the rooftop. He was willing to stake his years of medical experience on it, saying that Barry would have been killed if a miracle hadn't happened.
"I'm not saying I'm going to leave you exposed to a thunderstorm in Gotham City and get struck by lightning. Believe me, that would be an extremely painful way to die."
"I don't know if this will work out, but I have to do it."
Barry Allen himself wasn't sure if the adventure would succeed, but he knew he had to do something:
"Because this world is on the verge of collapse."
With a deafening roar, the lightning rod performed its intended function, striking Barry Allen precisely, the intense heat from the high pressure igniting him completely.
Seeing the fireball writhing and screaming in agony, Thomas lunged at it as if waking from a dream.
When he extinguished the flames, he found that the fool named Barry Allen was already dead.
"No......"
Thomas suddenly realized that everything that had happened tonight might just be a fantasy concocted by himself, a madman, and a complete idiot who had been roasted alive.
His longing for his son drove him insane, just like Martha, and in that madness, he electrocuted another innocent fool.
"No......"
Joey had just visited Central City and, with almost no effort, retrieved his Kryptonian spaceship and the Kryptonian suit belonging to the Aiur family from Star Labs.
At this moment, he had changed into a Kryptonian suit and was carrying a spaceship, preparing to fly to the North Pole to build his own lonely fortress, when he was attracted by an unusual bolt of lightning.
When he turned his gaze over, what he saw was Batman, and a charred corpse in his arms whose heart had stopped beating.
Barry Allen.
In Joey's original understanding, Barry Allen was supposed to regain his superpowers with the help of Batman in this world, and then use the Speed Force to reshape the entire universe and erase this apocalyptic crisis.
But now everything is different.
Because The Flash is dead.