Reverse-Flash hadn't forgotten about Barry Allen's situation either. He needed to treat his own wound as well. He sent Cisco and Caitlin to pick Barry up—the excuse was ready-made. Their good friend Barry is injured, weren't they going to bring him back?
Once the two left, he finally had time to treat his wound. It was horrifying! A palm-sized area on his calf was completely frostbitten, with cellular regeneration severely suppressed. Fortunately, Reverse-Flash's knowledge was exceptional. He immediately mixed a large batch of medicinal ointment and applied it to the affected area. Still, it would take at least ten days to fully recover.
He'd barely finished covering his tracks when the main group returned almost simultaneously.
Thea, Oliver, Barry, and his companions all came back. Iris was extremely worried.
"Don't worry, leave him to us. We're very familiar with his condition." Reverse-Flash calmly reassured Iris, while he constantly observed Thea out of the corner of his eye. Why isn't she leaving? You have so many things to do—staying in Central City really interferes with the great cause of human interstellar travel. Please, just go!
His prayer actually came true. A few minutes later, both Thea and Oliver received phone calls. Oliver's team had found Vertigo's new hideout, while Thea received a call from her company about an urgent matter.
Thea was deeply disappointed—she'd been holding back a head full of mischief, ready to watch Reverse-Flash squirm with his lies. Still, she didn't waste time and flew off with Oliver to their separate destinations.
After handling the urgent business, Thea turned her attention back to Reverse-Flash's situation. Reverse-Flash gave Barry an excuse about muscle strain, then went on and on about how unscientific and irregular his running movements were. The implication was clear: this injury resulted from accumulated damage from poor running habits. Then he sent Barry off to the underground tunnel to practice running properly.
Lies could be maintained temporarily but not forever. Reverse-Flash just wanted to accumulate enough power to return to his own world as quickly as possible. He was sick of these superheroes.
Unfortunately, while he was clever, others weren't fools either. After lying in bed for a day, Barry discovered the problem. With Reverse-Flash running back and forth in plain sight like that, how could it go unnoticed?
Especially since Barry had been searching for the red lightning for over twenty years, and now it seemed to be surfacing. He couldn't hold back anymore.
He ran directly to Metropolis to question Thea, who had seen the red lightning that day. Thea neither concealed nor embellished—she repeated Reverse-Flash's entire spiel.
"Are you from the future, Barry?" she asked with feigned curiosity.
Future my ass! How would I not know if I were a time traveler? Barry immediately rejected this conclusion. "I'm definitely not. My birth records, family history—everything is documented. How could I be from the future? That's ridiculous!"
"If I'm not, then that means the red lightning is from the future? Did he kill my mother? Why would he do that?" Thea naturally wouldn't tell him he was replicating history and creating The Flash. She shook her head, claiming not to know.
Barry hadn't expected an outsider to know such inside information anyway. He could only return home and rack his brains thinking.
Even with his head about to explode, he couldn't figure it out. Naturally, he turned to his companions at S.T.A.R. Labs for help. Reverse-Flash pretended to be utterly shocked, helping Barry strategize against himself. The absurdity of the situation was beyond words.
This was his helplessness, really. He could have ignored Captain Cold's disturbance, but this hero identity served a purpose for him. It was a choice he made before deliberately exposing his trail: draw the attention of a bunch of superheroes, or just have Barry investigate him alone? He chose the latter. Barry was just one person, right under his nose every day—not too hard to deceive.
His battle with Captain Cold was his proof of loyalty to the superhero community. Whether it worked or not, he needed to stabilize external forces first. If those heroes from outside didn't investigate him, he'd have enough time to travel back. Reverse-Flash was betting that Barry wouldn't let outsiders get involved in his mother's murder case. And he won that bet—Barry only asked about the red lightning and never once mentioned getting help. He was determined to investigate the truth himself.
Time slowly passed. Everyone seemed busy. Green Arrow was studying under the Demon's Head and fighting crime. The Flash was pursuing the real culprit. Superman was living his domestic life since Lois was pregnant—a child potentially carrying both Earth and Kryptonian bloodlines would soon be born.
Martian Manhunter was also busy training his grand-niece. His grand-niece was quite the troublemaker. After getting familiar with Earth for a few days, she saw Starfire's livestream and announced she wanted to become a celebrity. It worried Martian Manhunter sick.
Batman was even busier. With the interstellar travel plan advancing, he was relocating his experimental base.
His scope was massive. While Thea simply built an underground lab and called it done, this guy was building his laboratory on the moon. With humanity developing Mars faster and faster, his lunar base could be discovered at any moment. He had to move farther away.
After multiple site surveys, he ultimately relocated all the way to Tethys, one of Saturn's moons. The whole operation took half a month to complete.
Thea herself was also incredibly busy. The space carrier modification had reached a critical stage. The military had poured enormous effort into it—materials, labor, technology—all invested without counting the cost.
Nearly every scientist they could gather had assembled, conducting final adjustments.
The military had committed the Ford-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, which had yet to enter active service, for complete renovation. Their determination was undeniable.
On this day, under bright sunshine, numerous political dignitaries, business magnates, and scientists gathered at the Guam U.S. military base.
Among them were many scientists from Queen Industries, Dr. Silas Stone from the Red Room, and many generals from the military. The president, who hadn't appeared publicly in a while, was there, along with a host of government officials.
Also present were Thea, Ray Palmer, Maxwell Lord, and a large group of financial consortium representatives who'd provided funding support to the military.
They would observe the entire ignition and launch sequence of the space carrier from the command center. The carrier's commander was Major General Alice, a relatively young female general. When Thea first heard the name, she'd given her a couple of looks before realizing she had nothing to do with Resident Evil and moved on.
This test flight was semi-classified. Nobody was confident that such a massive ship could actually fly. Even Thea couldn't guarantee it. That's why she'd come in person—if something went wrong mid-process and the whole thing started falling, she'd be there to catch it.
Nobody dared call in reporters. All the stakeholders silently watched as the warship underwent pre-flight inspections.
This warship's hull alone cost over $200 billion, and subsequent modifications doubled that again. This was the main reason the military couldn't handle the pressure and absorbed consortium funding. As for what benefits the consortiums extracted from the government in return, that wasn't their concern.
The young Major General Alice was issuing commands in an orderly fashion. The nuclear reactor started up. Four propellers positioned in pairs began generating power. The propellers combined with jet engines created hybrid force, slowly pushing this aircraft carrier—originally weighing 80,000 tons but reduced to 50,000 tons after Lord Technologies replaced tungsten alloy with large amounts of hafnium metal—into the air.
Not only were the command room personnel tense, but Major General Alice aboard the Ford was equally nervous. If this massive hunk of metal fell, she'd be finished. This wasn't like a plane with ejection seats and parachutes. With something this big, if it dropped, few would survive.