"No!!"
The instant the Omnitrix finished its analysis, Reverse-Flash let out a furious roar.
With the Omnitrix's reconstruction of the Negative Speed Force complete, he could no longer claw his speed back from the kid in front of him.
That meant only one thing:
If he wanted to survive, he'd have to steal more time and speed from someone else.
At this point in time… which speedsters are still available?
As Reverse-Flash began to calculate his next target and angle away from the battlefield, Ben caught the shift in his rhythm immediately.
"You think you can run? Not happening."
Blue lightning surged harder from the Omnitrix emblem. Ben was at Reverse-Flash's face before the words even finished leaving his mouth, and then—
Left. Right. Left. Right.
A relentless barrage of ugly, brutal punches.
"ORA ORA ORA ORA—!"
In XLR8 form, Ben's claws became a blur. They tore across Reverse-Flash's body, carving open one bloody hole after another.
Reverse-Flash—drained of almost all his Negative Speed Force—was already collapsing. He tried to guard, tried to sway away, tried to accelerate…
But his body simply couldn't keep up anymore.
When Ben finally stopped and stepped back—
Reverse-Flash was sprawled on the ground, limp, breath gone, his outline turning fuzzy, like a bad signal.
He was fading.
The Shockwave
Ben dropped out of Speed Force mode—
and immediately heard it.
A thunderous boom rolling across the district.
BOOOOM—!
"What now?"
Ben snapped back into motion and raced toward the sound.
When he arrived, The Flash was already there—he'd finished dealing with the Reverse-Flash on his end and returned to the battlefield.
The scene was horrific.
Bodies. Debris. Smoke.
And in the middle of it all, Thomas Wayne—still in that armored Bat-vehicle—was methodically sweeping the area with heavy weapons like he was mowing grass.
Flash's expression tightened.
"Batman's on his way. Let's get the injured out of here."
As the moral core of the League, Flash couldn't stomach what was basically a massacre.
Ben nodded.
"Yeah. Let's move."
Whatever's going on with Grandpa Batman… this is something Bruce has to deal with himself.
The Omnitrix icon pulsed. Blue electricity wrapped Ben again.
Ben and Flash outran the gunfire, moved faster than the bullets, and started extracting everyone—one by one—dragging, lifting, carrying—
Delivering them beyond the kill zone into the civilian evacuation perimeter under Commissioner Gordon's control.
When the last person was out—
A bat-shaped aircraft cut through the sky.
Batman arrived.
He looked down at the armored vehicle. His jaw didn't move. No speech. No theatrics.
He had plenty of vehicles like that himself.
Father and Son, on Open Comms
"Bruce. You finally showed up," Thomas Wayne's voice crackled over the channel. "You're slow."
"I've been cleaning up the mess you created," Batman shot back. "If I did what you did—only dealing with these street-level goons—then by tomorrow, Gotham's underworld would belong to Black Mask."
Bruce had never intended to play Thomas's "competition."
The way the gangs united and immediately moved on Penguin's territory didn't match Bruce's profile of Gotham's ecosystem.
So he had Robin trace the source of the street narrative—
And while Thomas was "ending the war," Bruce hit the real accelerant: Black Mask.
Now there was only one problem left.
Thomas Wayne.
"I'll deal with him after I finish here," Thomas snarled. "I'm taking the underworld and rebuilding order with my own hands."
He didn't care if Gotham saw him as a tyrant.
He only cared about speed—results—control.
Then Thomas rotated the turret.
Locked onto Batman's aircraft.
And fired.
"You don't get that chance!"
Batman banked hard, dodging through the sky—
But the midair explosions still shredded the aircraft's body. Damage alarms screamed.
Batman set the plane's auto-destruction mode, locked its trajectory onto Thomas's armored vehicle…
Then ejected.
BOOOOM—!
The batcraft slammed into the armored car.
Self-destruct engaged.
A roaring fireball swallowed both machines.
Two streaks of light shot in and out—
Flash and Ben each grabbed one man, yanking Batman and Thomas Wayne clear of the blast radius at the last instant.
The Real Enemy
Thomas stared back at the wreckage—his armored vehicle now mangled, though the cockpit section looked like it could've survived even without rescue.
"You're too soft, Bruce," Thomas said, voice low. "Same as ever. You're still a good kid."
He sounded almost… disappointed.
"If you could actually bring yourself to kill me, maybe I'd finally let go."
But he'd seen the truth.
Bruce wouldn't cross the line.
And in Thomas's eyes, that meant Bruce wasn't "fit" to face Gotham's deepest darkness.
"Your kindness is exactly why you waste your time on small fry," Thomas pressed on. "And because of that, you'll never find the enemy you really need to fight."
Bruce's expression tightened with confusion.
Ben, however, already knew where this was heading.
"You mean the Court of Owls?"
Thomas's head snapped toward him.
"You know them?"
Bruce's eyes narrowed.
"The Court of Owls… isn't that just a story?"
A childhood rumor.
A scary bedtime myth Thomas used to frighten him with.
But if Ben was saying it out loud like it was real—
Bruce had to treat it like a threat vector.
"Who's in it?" Batman demanded.
Ben scratched the side of his jaw.
Court members didn't exactly walk around with nametags. He couldn't list names cleanly.
But he remembered one thing with absolute clarity:
"If you wiped out Gotham's government and Wayne Enterprises' upper management, you'd probably catch some innocents…"
He shrugged.
"…but if you kill ten, you'll hit nine that deserve it—and you'll still miss someone."
It was exaggerated.
But the shape of it was true.
Bruce had poured money, philanthropy, and infrastructure into Gotham for years—
and again and again, projects would get diverted, skimmed, reshaped into profit pipelines.
A machine feeding a machine.
Batman's voice went sharp.
"Lucius?"
If Lucius Fox was compromised, then Bruce would have to assume Wayne Enterprises was hostile territory—and he'd have to rebuild his entire operational stack: gear, supply lines, fabrication, everything.
Ben answered immediately.
"He's the one person in the company you can trust."
Batman exhaled—relief so small it was almost invisible.
But the implication hit harder:
Lucius had been carrying an impossible load, shielding Bruce's mission from inside a poisoned institution.
Thomas looked at Bruce and said, almost like a final verdict:
"This city needs Batman…"
His gaze shifted, deliberate.
"…but it needs Bruce Wayne even more."
...
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 ( 126 )
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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