Not long after Reverse-Flash fled, a yellow lightning bolt streaked into the area—dragging a red afterimage behind it like a comet tail.
"Hey, Ben! Batman said you ran into Reverse-Flash!"
The voice belonged to The Flash.
Ben—still in Fasttrack form—was just pulling himself out of a pile of shattered bricks and dust.
"The Flash? Why are you here…?"
He rubbed his head. The dizziness was real, but what came next was worse:
The world around him felt like it had frozen.
He could see each dust mote from the earlier shockwave hanging in the air like it had been pinned in place.
His hands trembled uncontrollably, vibrating like a motor.
"…What's happening to me?"
Barry's expression tightened. As the fastest man alive, he recognized the symptom instantly.
He sped up his thinking and movement, then matched his pace to Ben's, syncing their "frame rate" so they could talk normally.
"Don't panic. Let me see."
To Ben, everything else was still locked in pause—buildings, wind, debris, even drifting dust—except Barry, who moved naturally within Ben's warped perception.
Barry's eyes went straight to the Omnitrix symbol on Ben's chest.
It was flickering with dark red lightning.
That wasn't Barry's Speed Force.
That was Reverse-Flash's Negative Speed Force.
"You… connected to his Negative Speed Force," Barry said carefully.
Ben wasn't surprised. The fight had already hinted at it.
Fasttrack's speed came from biology—bloodline, not Speed Force—but once that negative connection latched on, his speed "overclocked," and he couldn't bring himself back down.
"How do I return to normal?"
Barry grimaced. If it were ordinary Speed Force, he could teach it directly.
But Negative Speed Force was a hostile mirror—dangerous to Speed Force users. Prolonged exposure could even disrupt their connection.
Barry glanced at Ben's still-transformed body and offered the simplest first step:
"Try switching back manually. Can you force the Omnitrix to disengage?"
Ben slapped the emblem.
It only pulsed with dark red lightning—no reversion.
He tried again. Nothing.
"No good. The Omnitrix is glitching. When Reverse-Flash tried to kill me, it triggered a huge defensive energy burst."
So the situation was ugly and simple:
Ben couldn't revert.
But at least the emblem wasn't counting down toward a self-destruct state—just crackling with that ominous red energy.
Barry exhaled, thinking fast.
"Then we have to do it the hard way. You'll need to learn control."
He'd recently taught Wally how to regulate Speed Force perception and pacing—breathing, focus, "throttle" control—so he could reuse the same framework.
But Barry didn't hide the risk:
He didn't want Ben leaning on Negative Speed Force too much.
It could destabilize the user emotionally, and—because it parasitically depends on the Speed Force—it could eventually push Ben toward conflict with Speedsters, even stealing Speed Force to maintain the power.
That was later.
Right now the goal was simply: make Ben functional again.
"Follow me," Barry instructed. "Feel the connection—don't fight it head-on. Then slow your awareness and your speed…"
Elsewhere: the match is lit
Gotham, East District — Sionis Group Tower.
The old Sionis empire had collapsed, bought out by Wayne Enterprises.
But for Roman Sionis, losing everything only cleared the path to what he was actually good at.
Once he put on the black skull mask of rage, he became Black Mask.
And it turned out he had real talent for crime.
His "debut" was a major one: he stormed Blackgate Prison, freed a large portion of inmates, and made them his.
With that manpower, he rose fast—Gotham's newest underworld star.
Standing at the top floor of a tower he'd acquired cheaply in the chaos after Apokolips' invasion, Black Mask surveyed the city.
In the glass reflection, he noticed a blurred yellow figure appear behind him—more vibration than body.
That Speedster had approached him recently, offering cooperation.
Black Mask didn't reject capable partners—especially when they offered terms he couldn't refuse.
Still, he'd been waiting.
His fists clenched as he forced down anger, not turning around.
"What about what you promised? How much longer do I wait?"
Behind the mask, Reverse-Flash felt nothing but contempt.
A tool didn't get to question him.
He tossed a stack of books onto the desk—the gang ledgers Thomas Wayne had collected.
"These are the gang accounts. You know what to do."
His voice stayed low, distorted by speed-hum.
"Remember my condition. Start moving. Make this city completely chaotic."
And then he was gone—lightning, vanishing so cleanly even cameras couldn't capture more than a smear.
A female secretary near Black Mask hesitated.
"Boss… is working with him really safe?"
Black Mask didn't care.
This was his ladder.
For too long, Batman's fear had kept Gotham's gangs like sewer rats—quiet, careful, hidden.
Now their leadership was dead.
The vacuum guaranteed war.
"He wants Gotham to burn," Black Mask said flatly. "And I want to rise higher in the fire. Since he built the stage… we start the show."
And the first rumor would be the spark that sets every faction on edge:
Their bosses were killed—by Penguin, working with Batman.
Back to Ben: control—at a cost
Under Barry's coaching, Ben finally managed to slow his thought-speed and movement-speed back into something close to normal.
Time resumed.
Dust fell.
The city flowed again.
Ben let out a long breath.
"Finally… I'm normal again. Still can't turn back, though."
The Omnitrix emblem continued to crackle with dark red lightning. Ben didn't feel the "negative emotion surge" Barry warned about—at least not yet.
Barry studied the emblem, uneasy.
"Do you know what Reverse-Flash is doing in Gotham?"
Ben didn't hold anything back.
"He pulled Bruce's father from the Flashpoint world into the main timeline. I think he wants father and son to hurt each other—break each other."
Barry's jaw tightened.
"That's exactly who he is."
He remembered Flashpoint: Reverse-Flash dropping his guard, getting ambushed and killed by Thomas Wayne. One death doesn't erase a time-traveling paradox, but it does create grudges that never cool.
Barry made a decision—quiet but firm.
He'd help stop Reverse-Flash this time.
"Where is Bruce's father now?"
"His mental state is bad. I've got him contained—Leslie is treating him."
And then Ben's stomach dropped.
Because the logic finally snapped into place:
Reverse-Flash was always faster than Ben.
If he wanted, he could have gone back to the Iceberg Lounge and disrupted the therapy at any time.
Instead, he lured Ben away.
Ben's eyes widened.
"…No. He pulled me out on purpose."
The realization landed like a punch:
Ben had been the distraction.
And while he was running, Gotham's war had already begun.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 175)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 126)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter100)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter82)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter134)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 87
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 79
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 64
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 73
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 45
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 49
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 45
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 45
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 31
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 27
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 26
My patreon : patreon.com/queen_sin