Gotham City — East End
Under the night sky, Gotham still blazed with lights. At Sionis Tower, Black Mask was sprinting for the rooftop helipad, making a break for the helicopter waiting there.
"Damn Batman! How the hell does he just show up at my door like that?! Is he even human anymore?!"
Downstairs, most of the guards were already out of action. Batman hit like an unkillable demon—no matter how many men piled on, they ended up scrambling and crying for mercy.
With Batman about to reach his office, Black Mask's only idea was to run.
If I can get airborne, even if he wipes out everyone else, he won't catch me in time.
"Move it! Start it up—don't make me say it twice!"
He leapt into the chopper and shoved his pistol toward the pilot, roaring.
The rotors began to spin.
Then—
Batman burst onto the helipad.
"He's here! Go—hold him off!"
Black Mask kicked his bodyguard out of the helicopter in a panic, throwing him into Batman's path like a sacrificial speed bump.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Black Mask fired three shots.
Batman snapped his cape—
and the bullets sank into the fabric like it was some absurd, impossible material.
There wasn't time to think about where Batman bought a cape like that. Batman was already closing in.
Black Mask jammed the muzzle against the pilot's head.
"Fly, now! Or I'm feeding you this last bullet!"
The pistol had barely touched the pilot's temple when the man's body suddenly slumped forward, collapsing.
Black Mask froze—
and in that instant, a whip cracked across his right hand, knocking the gun away.
"AAH!"
Pain flared up his arm, but he couldn't waste time looking for the attacker.
He lunged toward the controls—
only for a woman in a sleek black catsuit and a cat-shaped mask to snap her whip again, bind him tight, and drag him off the helicopter like dead weight.
Black Mask's eyes widened as he recognized her.
"It's you! What are you doing here?! I knew the rumors were true—you and Batman are sleeping together!"
Catwoman. Gotham's infamous thief.
Their grudges could fill an encyclopedia. And right now, Black Mask could only writhe under her heel, reduced to a prop in her little game of teasing Batman.
Catwoman tilted her head toward Batman, smiling.
"Bats, I just did you a huge favor. How are you going to thank me?"
Batman didn't even look at her warmly—just a cold, clipped reply.
"Catwoman. I don't have time for this."
The communicator under his cowl crackled.
Robin's voice hit hard and fast.
"Batman, do you copy?! Flashpoint Thomas is going completely berserk in the Theater District! He even took out Joker!"
Robin had just finished reviewing Arkham's surveillance and mapping Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy's escape route. But when he pulled up the Theater District via Wayne satellites, what he saw made his blood run cold.
Thomas Wayne—driving an armored, weaponized version of the Batmobile—was using heavy firepower without restraint.
The gangsters on the front line were being shredded. And the moment Joker showed himself, Thomas put a grenade round into him and blew him apart.
"I understand," Batman said. "I'm on my way."
He glanced once at Black Mask—still pinned under Catwoman—then pressed a concealed switch on his suit.
Catwoman pointed back at the helicopter and laughed.
"Need a ride?"
Batman walked to the edge of the rooftop, almost amused.
"I've got my own."
And then he stepped off.
Catwoman rushed forward, ready to look over the edge—
only to see a bat-wing aircraft rising into the air, slicing away toward the Theater District at high speed.
She watched it go, muttering with genuine annoyance:
"When did he even park that thing here…?"
Under her boot, Black Mask had seen it too.
With Batman gone, he bared his teeth at Catwoman, suddenly bold.
"Batman's left! This is your last chance—let me go! If you don't, the day I get out, I'll make your friends wish they were dead!"
Catwoman didn't flinch.
"You think that scares me?"
Her whip cinched tighter. She casually bent down, picked up a pistol from the ground, and held it with practiced ease.
"You forgot something."
Black Mask swallowed.
Catwoman leveled the gun at his head.
"I'm not Batman."
Bang.
Gotham's Streets
Two streaks of lightning tore through the city—one yellow, one blue—each dragging a blurred silhouette behind it.
What had been a dead-even chase was shifting. As the seconds stretched on, Reverse-Flash was starting to fall behind.
"Reverse-Flash," Ben called over his shoulder, voice bright with mockery, "it's only been this long. You're already gassing out?"
Ben kept just enough distance to stay safe, probing for answers while baiting him.
Reverse-Flash looked like he'd swallowed glass.
Ever since he'd been killed by Thomas Wayne in the Flashpoint world, he'd been surviving by clinging to the Negative Speed Force—using it to keep cheating death, over and over.
But he'd never imagined this.
Ben Tennyson—this disaster, this variable that didn't exist in his history, this nobody who'd effectively appeared out of nowhere—
was stealing his Negative Speed Force.
As its true master, Reverse-Flash could feel it with brutal clarity.
His speed was draining.
His power was leaking away.
Worse, every time he got close to Ben, the loss accelerated—like Ben's chest emblem was a siphon with teeth.
And he could sense something even more terrifying:
Once the Negative Speed Force transferred into Ben…
its nature was being rebuilt. Rewritten.
Reverse-Flash was being forced to face the truth.
He was about to lose the Negative Speed Force.
He was about to lose his speed.
"I won't fall here," he snarled. "I won't!"
He screamed the words like a curse, trying to surge forward, trying to run away from this timeline, from this moment, from this mistake—
And then Ben's Omnitrix emblem spoke.
A clean, synthetic voice chimed from his chest:
"Unknown energy has been analyzed and restructured. Compatible species may connect to this energy and activate Speed Force Mode."
Ben glanced down.
The crackling electricity around him shifted—coiling into a blue ring that wrapped his body as he ran.
His eyes went wide with delighted realization.
"This isn't a malfunction," he breathed.
"It's a new feature. That's so cool."
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 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( Ending )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter108)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter82)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter144)
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 99
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 95
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 99
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 92
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 47
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 44
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 43
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