Like opening a floodgate, on the very day the Flash awakened, Central City Bank was robbed by a metahuman who could control the weather. The police were helpless. Eyewitnesses flooded social media with their opinions, fiercely criticizing the government's inaction.
Thea held nothing but contempt for people who robbed banks the moment they got a little power. Ignorance was terrifying—how much money could you even steal that way?
The next day, on her way home from work, Thea sensed something unusual. Her secretary, Miss Mercie, immediately assumed a defensive stance. Don't let the secretary's delicate appearance fool you—she wore high heels and pencil skirts every day, walked with a catlike grace—but her combat skills matched Deathstroke's from back in the day.
"Don't worry, it's not an enemy. Someone's probably looking for me. You head back first." Thea gazed into the distance before flying toward a nearby high-rise.
Miss Mercie felt reassured. Thea and Luthor shared one trait: neither needed her protection. She'd honed her skills primarily to protect herself from getting caught in the crossfire of chaotic battles. Hearing Thea say everything was fine, she calmly headed to the parking garage.
Thea flew to the rooftop and waited two seconds. A yellow streak of lightning flashed past, and a young man approached her.
"Barry, long time no see. You look fully recovered. What brings you here?" Thea asked the still-green Flash. Shouldn't this guy be looking for Oliver? Why had he come to her?
Actually, Barry was a bit helpless too. Among the public-facing superheroes right now, there were Superman, Batman, and Thea. The first two were like dragons—rarely seen. He couldn't find them, and more importantly, he didn't have that kind of relationship with them. He'd gone to Green Arrow's place but had witnessed Oliver in bed with Shado. Calling someone out mid-passion to listen to his problems? That wasn't something a sane person would do.
So he'd made a detour from Star City to Metropolis, hoping to hear the insights of this renowned female superhero.
"I've spent my whole life searching for miracles, never expecting I'd become one myself. I want to help people, but unfortunately, I messed up on my very first try today."
"What if Professor Wells is right? What if I'm not a hero? What if I'm just someone who happened to get struck by lightning?"
Barry had clearly been holding this in for a while. He started from the beginning—well, not quite from the dawn of time, but from his origin story. Thea wanted to remind him that they'd discussed this before, and theoretically she knew some of what had happened. But seeing how desperately he needed to vent, she decided to let him explain in detail.
After a long stream of complaints, it basically came down to this: young Barry Allen hadn't found his proper positioning. With superpowers, he thought he should be a savior who bore all responsibility.
This was the complete opposite of those who got powers and ran wild. Thea couldn't quite recall the details, but she had her own methods.
With a gesture, she cast a water mirror spell. The water rippled, quickly displaying an elderly man's image.
Knowing Barry didn't recognize him, Thea explained: "Dr. Sivana. He spent his whole life searching for miracles. Six months ago, he finally received fate's blessing and gained extraordinary powers. Grateful for this divine gift, he donated a third of his fortune and regularly helps the poor. He's still donating books and rare manuscripts to various institutions."
"He's sixty years old and still contributing everything he can." Thea felt a bit guilty saying this—normally, Dr. Sivana would have been a major villain. Now that he'd received twenty percent of Black Adam's divine power, he'd been going overboard trying to earn Thea's favor. He hadn't just donated his fortune—he'd built bridges, paved roads, planted trees, supported education, helped widows and orphans. He'd done quite a lot of good deeds.
Thea hadn't shortchanged him either. Instead of giving him the dumbed-down New Genesis textbooks, she'd given him a copy of the teaching notes she'd originally prepared for Damian. He could use remote teaching or leave messages if he had questions.
Seeing Barry looking thoughtful, she gave another example. The image changed to show a green-skinned little boy. "This boy is Gar Logan, codename Beast Boy. Due to a lab accident, he underwent genetic mutation and can transform into any animal. He just turned nine. This is yesterday's footage of him rescuing a traffic accident victim."
The image showed Beast Boy transforming into a small horse and ramming the victim out from in front of a car with failed brakes to the other side of the road. Thea covered her face—it was hard to say which would hurt more, getting hit by the car or getting rammed by the small horse.
Seeing the same scene, Barry also felt embarrassed. This kid was way more hardcore than him...
Thea coughed. "See? Whether it's a sixty-year-old man or a nine-year-old child, even though they're both clumsy at it, they're both doing it. Doing something is better than doing nothing. Everyone needs to grow—heroes included. If you can't do it well today, there's always tomorrow. Heroes aren't built in a day, right?"
"Do what you're meant to do. The lightning didn't strike you by chance—it chose you." Thea looked at this favored child of the Speed Force, her tone solemn and dignified.
With some encouragement and perspective, Barry Allen regained his vitality and returned to Central City singing.
The Flash's debut battle! Thea thought about it for a moment and decided to go observe.
Relative to intelligence and charisma, Thea wasn't particularly good with speed. But for someone of her caliber, no matter how slow, she could still outpace this rookie Flash. Run back like a mule? Thea pursed her lips. Maybe in the future she could race him, but right now she wasn't in the mood. After orienting herself, she teleported directly to Central City.
Cloaked in invisibility, she entered S.T.A.R. Labs. Besides Caitlin detecting her visit, Cisco and Reverse-Flash remained completely oblivious.
Thea waited silently. What followed was like watching a movie. The Flash ran back. Cisco, like showing off a treasure, displayed the friction-resistant suit he'd designed with cutting-edge tech.
Then the weather-controlling meta showed up right on cue. The Flash's initial battle went poorly. Reverse-Flash, relying on his well-practiced pep talk, started pouring on the encouragement.
What left the deepest impression on Thea was him tearing his heart out screaming: "Run, Barry! Run! Run!"
Not bothering to watch the old man's heartfelt performance anymore, she headed to the scene, preparing to observe the Speed Force.
The meta was still shouting, even declaring himself God. Thea nearly fainted. Talk about ignorance being bliss—you conjure up one little tornado and think you're God?
She looked toward the Flash running counter to the tornado. More precisely, she was looking at the Speed Force.
One glance told her she'd guessed correctly. This too was a Source—it embodied the concept of speed, the origin of velocity itself.
Compared to the Rot and the Green, the Speed Force was even more elusive. In Thea's view, Barry was much like Swamp Thing—just a worker. Without fundamentally changing his life essence, his fate was to end up lying in the Speed Force space.
Rumor had it that the Speed Force only came into existence the moment lightning struck Barry Allen, instantly extending in both temporal directions to cover the entire timeline and parallel universes. But no matter how she looked, Thea couldn't see what made Barry special.
Thea released several wind-based acceleration spells, trying to help the rookie Flash speed up. Unfortunately, the Speed Force immunized against them all. She tried extracting a portion—this time it simply vanished into the air.