Every hero present—Superman and Wonder Woman included—was transfixed and shaken by that terrifying shriek from the core of the particle accelerator, a sound like countless human voices twisted and layered on top of one another.
"What's happening?"
"What's going on?"
"Barry! Ian! Can you still hear us?"
None of them could make sense of it in that moment.
Only tension.
Only the Reverse-Flash.
Eobard Thawne—the Speedster whose understanding of the Speed Force exceeded even the Flash's, let alone Batman's—went deathly pale the instant he heard that voice.
His pupils dilated violently with the extremity of his shock.
"That's wrong—damn it!!!" The Reverse-Flash's mind ran calculations at a speed that eclipsed any normal human capacity, and in one one-hundredth of a second it produced a conclusion that made his skin crawl—that voice hadn't come from any physical entity. It was the Speed Force itself screaming.
Yes. The Speed Force was screaming.
The cosmic force that formed the very cornerstone of the temporal dimension was expressing a fear and resistance the likes of which had never been seen.
"Crackle crackle crackle~"
At the same moment he arrived at this realization, inside the particle accelerator, the pure Speed Force generated by Flash Barry Allen's running had already—guided by the specialized force field the Reverse-Flash had meticulously configured—coiled and wrapped and woven itself around Ian like threads of living golden silk, enveloping him completely the moment he had crawled inside.
A complex, brilliantly glowing Speed Force "network" formed across the surface of Ian's body.
"Wait, wait—I just remembered I have Savitar's armor in my collection!"
Standing at the center of the golden energy vortex, Ian seemed to feel the "entrance ceremony" was lacking sufficient ceremony, and actually had the leisure to try digging through his pocket dimension for some appropriate "equipment" to mark the occasion.
However, the Speed Force moved far beyond his reaction time.
The next instant, blinding golden light swallowed his silhouette entirely, and the young man vanished from where he stood—forcibly dragged into that dimension which ordinary people could not comprehend and which even Speedsters must approach with reverence.
The Speed Force.
What was the Speed Force?
The Speed Force was not simply kinetic energy or electrical energy, nor was it anything so simple as a "source of superpowers." It was a dimensional energy field existing outside the spacetime continuum.
The Speed Force was a concept beyond physical law, existing outside the spacetime continuum itself.
It was the source of all speed, all kinetic energy, all temporal flow—and the very foundation maintaining the stability of the DC universe's entire timeline.
When Barry Allen was struck by lightning in the laboratory, he didn't merely gain superpowers. He retroactively created the Speed Force itself in the timeline.
Barry was therefore both the Speed Force's user and the cornerstone of the Speed Force's existence. He was called the "Father of the Speed Force"—and this was the reason he could accomplish things the Reverse-Flash never could.
It was precisely by exploiting Barry Allen's unique nature that the Reverse-Flash opened the door to the Speed Force. Under his operation, Ian successfully entered the Speed Force by the method of... unauthorized entry.
"Oh, unauthorized entry really does feel awful."
Ian felt as though he had been thrown inside a kaleidoscope spinning at maximum velocity—or as though he had plunged into a raging river made of pure energy and time itself.
Here there was no up or down, no past or future. Every fragment of time—ancient battles, cities of the future, ordinary breakfasts, bone-deep farewells—had been shattered like broken glass, mixing with golden lightning and flowing geometric bands of light, flickering and streaming and reassembling and annihilating itself in the space all around him.
This was the Speed Force's interior as Barry Allen had always described it.
An abstract and magnificent dimension.
"Is anyone home?" Ian showed no sign of disorientation from the chaos, and his voice rang out with uncanny clarity through the maelstrom—carrying a note of leisurely ease, as though strolling through his own backyard.
"If nobody's home... then under the Law of Salvage, this place belongs to me now. I'll need to set up a home here—claim it, mark it."
And having said it, Ian went ahead and practiced his excellent virtue of following through.
Unauthorized entry?
I, Ian Kent, am clearly a new immigrant!
He naturally wasn't going to use the inefficient marking method of animals.
As a "lord" who possessed the status of Superman's son and his own additional dimension, Ian considered the most effective and most "civilized" form of territorial marking to be releasing the essential power of his personal additional dimension and engaging in a deep-level... "mating" with this Speed Force space? No—that word was a bit inelegant.
The more refined phrasing would be: "merging" with it a few times.
He believed.
The wondrous state of two dimensions merging and linking together would constitute the most unshakeable declaration of ownership. Inside Ian's body, the strange energy blended of light and darkness began to stir, as a trace of the [Abstract Entity] concept belonging to his personal dimension began to emanate outward—the fundamental essence of the [Abstract World] beginning to probe its way into the surrounding pure golden Speed Force.
"STOP!"
Ian's brazen, universe-defiling act—reaching out to corrupt one of the foundational cosmic forces—apparently frightened the Speed Force itself half to death.
The surrounding spacetime turbulence seemed to have a pause button pressed on it, then contracted and solidified inward at a pace that bordered on panic! The chaotic shards whirled back together at blinding speed, and at last locked into a scene Ian recognized at once.
It was the peaceful image of the Kent family farm in Kansas—warm sunshine, the barn standing tall.
"Stop! You reckless little brat!"
A voice accompanied the scene.
Ian turned.
His "father," Clark Kent, wearing the classic Superman suit, was pushing open the door of the farmhouse, stepping out with an expression of fury pressed well past its limits.
"Illiterate child—the rule you were trying to cite just now should be 'the doctrine of prior appropriation,' which only applies to unclaimed territory. And to medieval pirates..." The Speed Force's manifestation as "Superman Clark" spoke, voice straining to contain its rage, attempting to arm itself with knowledge and logic.
"If you wanted me to be afraid of you... you should speak more calmly," Ian tilted his head and interrupted without the slightest sign of concern, his tone even carrying a hint of reproach.
"Because my dad would never snap at me like this."
Honestly.
Ian felt the performance was somewhat undermining his ability to stay immersed. He of course knew perfectly well that the figure before him was not the real Clark, but a manifestation shaped by the Speed Force.
This kind of technique was something he had seen the Speed Force use back when he used to watch The Flash. Completely old-fashioned.
The reason the Speed Force had chosen Clark rather than Lois was perhaps that, without this particular disguise, it wouldn't dare show its face to him at all.
"Are you trying to hide something behind the anger?" Ian tested it out—and sure enough, when he stepped a few paces forward, the Speed Force manifested as Superman stepped a few paces back.
As though Ian were some lethal plague, the Speed Force deathly afraid of his "body" making contact with its own.
"Oh—so it turns out it's actually you who's afraid of me?" Ian looked as though he had discovered a new continent, a flash of surprised comprehension crossing his eyes.
He stared at the Speed Force avatar, which was wearing a very guarded expression, and turned the situation over in his mind.
His super-intelligence ran at full power.
A three-digit intellect, when it thought, truly thought fast.
"Don't come any closer!" The Speed Force's warning sounded all bark and no bite—utterly devoid of threat. It was plainly rattled.
In truth, faced with the vast majority of beings in the universe—even the most powerful of gods—it would never have experienced such intense emotional turbulence. After all, it was the universe's own rule made manifest.
An unbreakable supreme authority.
Even the Endless would give it due respect.
And yet.
The boy before it was, as fate would have it, one of the exceptions that could be counted on two hands—or perhaps even on one. There was a quality about him that produced in the Speed Force a deeply... unsettled feeling.
"Would touching you mean I gain the right to use the Speed Force—that I become a Speedster?" Ian voiced his reasoning, and the feet carrying him toward the Speed Force avatar did not slow.
He was even breaking into a run.
Sparks were practically flying from his heels against the ground.
"No! You guessed wrong!" The Speed Force avatar that had taken Clark's shape nearly screamed out—it dared not admit the truth. Because it could see with perfect clarity what would happen after that touch—not the simple granting of power, but something deeper. A deeper, irreversible "contamination" or "binding."
This boy in front of it would absolutely not stop just because it said no!
As the source and symbol of time itself, it understood clearly that it could actively refuse and repel the attempts of most people who tried to take control of the Speed Force.
But Superman's youngest son was the sole exception. Something about the young man seemed to bear a unique, inexplicable marking that the Speed Force itself could not fully comprehend.
The terror of something [Permitted by God].
"Oh? Is that right? I'm not very good at guessing what's on other people's minds." Ian put on a picture of pure, guileless innocence—while his feet surged forward once more and closed the gap in an instant.
The Speed Force, of course, retreated in turn.
Its avatar moved like a startled rabbit.
Retreating with equal speed.
"I told you! You cannot touch me! You'll be torn apart! Blasted away! If you keep this up... I'm going to become your true nightmare!" The Speed Force issued its threats with increasingly little conviction while continuing its pale denials. Its denial was, in itself, a perfect exposure of the fact that it simply was not good at lying.
"Sure! Then let's both freeze in place—one, two, three, statue!"
Watching Ian continue to show absolutely zero sportsmanship—
And as Ian said those words he came charging forward like a dog off its leash—the Speed Force avatar could no longer maintain Superman's form and dissolved directly into a stream of golden light.
Running for its life.
This was a genuine, full-scale running for its life.
"Damn it! When I stayed hidden you tried to mess with me! Now that I've come out it's no different!"
It was deeply aggrieved.
"Do you even understand what it means to be a new immigrant?! This is the most classic American open stratagem! I can tell you've never paid any attention to our American history!"
"We have a whole tradition of this sort of thing!"
Ian's counterargument was airtight.
"You stay back!" The Speed Force scolded loudly as it fled. "You have absolutely no idea what you're doing!"
"Hm? That's the third time you've questioned my intelligence! Truly vicious intentions! Completely inexcusable!" Ian gave chase without letting up, making his rebuttal with the air of someone who had every right to be indignant.
His tone was even more aggrieved than the Speed Force's.
"Of course I know what I need to do! I need to become a Speedster and then save the world! The Justice League can vouch for me! I am a superhero!"
"You're the villain standing in the superhero's way!"
"A villain who's rotten to the core!"
Ian's tone was righteously indignant.
"It's because of you people!" The Speed Force, hearing this, erupted with fury, its voice actually trembling. "You foolish creatures! You're destroying the balance of the entire universe!"
This outburst was clearly not directed solely at Ian—it was also accounting for the entire Justice League in the indictment. Though ninety percent of the rage was almost certainly tilted toward the Flash and the Reverse-Flash, those two treacherous double-crossing Speedsters.
Inside this sacred dimension responsible for maintaining the flow of time, a jaw-dropping, utterly absurd chase scene—you run, I pursue—was in full swing. That said, Ian wasn't entirely incapable of listening to reason.
"Stop running, and I'll give you a chance to make your argument. I'm not the type to cause catastrophic damage without understanding what I'm doing. I'm a new-era superhero who knows how to conduct a rigorous interrogation."
It was just that.
His earnest persuasion.
The Speed Force apparently was not moved by.
It even summoned several hundred [Massive Trucks] in an attempt to trigger Ian's [psychological condition].
It had some effect.
But an Ian in a triggered state was not actually deterred in any real way.
"Damn it!! Using massive trucks to scare me!! You're done for! I'm telling you! Jesus himself could show up and he'd go down with you!"
He simply transformed himself within the Speed Force into a towering, furious giant—one whose single footstep could flatten several [Massive Trucks] and who ran with terrifying speed on top of it all.
...
Though the interior of the Speed Force had been thrown into chaos by Ian's intrusion, seemingly enduring what felt like an endless chase, in the real world, the time elapsed was so brief as to be nearly nonexistent.
To Wonder Woman Diana and Aquaman Arthur, whose dynamic visual perception far surpassed ordinary human capacity—
Ian's figure had only just entered the golden light vortex of the particle accelerator the moment before, and the act of his "disappearing" had not even been fully captured and confirmed by their eyes.
And it was in that same instant.
"Wrong! It's all wrong!"
The Reverse-Flash's scream erupted at essentially the same nanosecond as Ian's disappearance!
The Reverse Speed Force blazed off him with unprecedented intensity, like a beast thrashing in its death throes, as he threw everything he had and lunged toward the spot where Ian had vanished.
It was obvious—the Reverse-Flash was trying to seize that vanishingly brief window, using the properties of the Reverse Speed Force to forcibly drag the "disaster magnet" who had made the Speed Force scream back out of the timestream and into reality.
Did he succeed?
Of course not.
Because if he had, none of what was currently happening inside the Speed Force space would be happening. His attempt was doomed to fail—and not simply because his speed might have been insufficient.
Right before everyone's eyes.
"Bang!"
The Reverse-Flash had barely taken a few steps forward.
He hadn't even truly gotten close to the particle accelerator's entrance.
A hand that seemed forged from pure steel moved with a speed he could not begin to comprehend—coming from behind, arriving before him, seizing the whole of his face with precise, savage force.
"BOOM!!!"
A deeply muffled, massive impact.
The Reverse-Flash felt an irresistible force crash into him, the world spinning wildly—and then Superman Clark Kent, hand closed around his skull, slammed him headfirst into the concrete wall beside them with full force.
The brickwork shattered and cratered like brittle biscuits, spiderweb cracks radiating outward. Pain engulfed him in an instant, and the Reverse-Flash felt as though his very skull was crying out.
"Don't—"
He didn't even have time to register his own injuries, because Superman's eyes—suffused with a dangerous red—were now inches from his face, the cold killing intent within them almost enough to freeze his blood solid.
"What were you trying to do?" Superman's voice was utterly calm, and the calmer it was, the more it made the Reverse-Flash's soul tremble at its core.
"I wasn't trying to pull anything! Clark! Look around you! Look—now!" The Reverse-Flash made no attempt to resist—he understood that resistance was pointless against that absolute force. He simply used everything he had left to shout in a panic, his voice distorted by the pressure being applied to his face.
Superman turned his head.
"What do you mean?"
Wonder Woman and Aquaman snapped to alertness and swept their gazes across the surroundings. Cyborg activated every scanning system in his body.
And Flash Barry Allen, who had just stopped running and emerged from the particle accelerator tunnel, answered the unasked question through his actions alone—in the very first instant.
"Thawne! You said this would work! You're deceiving us again!" The Flash demanded furiously—his perception was more direct than anyone else present.
As a Speedster.
He could feel the stability of the surrounding spacetime collapsing at a rate that was unprecedented—which was why the color had drained from his face, and why he had appeared instantly before the Reverse-Flash, who was still being pressed into the wall.
The Flash grabbed the Reverse-Flash by the throat!
In a single moment, the Reverse-Flash found his skull gripped by Superman and his neck seized by the Flash simultaneously. He was, by any measure, in an absolutely hopeless position. And yet he didn't seem to particularly care anymore.
His expression was extraordinarily complicated.
"Ian's been sent in! Then why—why hasn't the change in the world stopped?! If anything, it's accelerating!" Barry pressed, voice urgent.
He pointed toward the laboratory windows, where the buildings outside were visibly warping and flickering at an increasing rate—some of the emerging silhouettes now completely alien in appearance, looking nothing like anything of earthly construction.
"You already know why, Barry. You know. You just don't dare let yourself think it." The Reverse-Flash's expression had gone blank, his eyes filled with remorse, bitterness, and the despair of someone who had glimpsed a terrible truth.
"It's... us..." The Reverse-Flash's voice grew weak and insubstantial. He struggled to move his eyes toward the Flash, who still had his throat in a grip—and the look in those eyes was full of nothing but dread and helplessness.
"Batman may have been wrong too. What we just did... our actions just now... that is the true reason the world began to change not long ago. The real cause..."
The classic time problem had revealed itself.
Damian. Jordan. Jonathan. They were not the true architects of everything.
Their actions.
The plan to send Ian back to the past.
That was the true origin of all the change.
Now.
The origin point had been anchored.
Like the first domino being knocked over, triggering a chain reaction—accelerating the collapse of the entire temporal structure, and accelerating the Reverse-Flash's own erasure.
"Time... isn't it." The Reverse-Flash let out a bitter laugh.
Everything was sliding toward the worst possible outcome—irreversibly. His body had begun to grow semi-transparent, the tips of his fingers fading, as though being erased by an unseen hand.
Disappearing, piece by piece.
The erasure from the timeline had caught up with even him—a Speedster.