"Can this thing really pinpoint my world?" The Flash held the device, shaped vaguely like an oddly carved turtle, in both hands, studying it with the curiosity of a child discovering a new toy. This was no ordinary trinket. It was the Karasuki, a device capable of traveling between parallel worlds.
"Theoretically? Yes," Shin replied, his tone carefully neutral. "But this is the first time someone like you has traveled here alone, and then had us try to locate your home world by locking onto you. I can't promise the accuracy will be perfect."
"Relax," the Flash said, grinning broadly as he thumped his own chest. "If it doesn't work, I'll just come back to pick you up. I've got you covered."
Shin almost choked. You'll cover us? The mental image was absurd by the time that happened, the Flash would probably have lost his super speed. Without the Speed Force, covering anyone would be the least of his worries.
He rolled his eyes but let the comment pass without argument. By now, Shin had pieced together what the Scarlet Speedster had done before arriving here. The moment the Flash had mentioned his recent trip into the past, Shin recognized the story. Barry had gone back to save his mother. That meant only one thing, the infamous Flashpoint event.
In this timeline, after stopping the Reverse-Flash, Barry had been pulled into another world by the Speed Force itself, shielding him from the backlash of the timeline shift. But once he returned home, the changes would catch up. The moment he re-entered his own reality, he'd find himself in the Flashpoint timeline stripped of the Speed Force entirely.
And Flashpoint was no utopia. It was a twisted, shadowed version of the DC Universe:
The Justice League didn't exist.
Aquaman and Wonder Woman were locked in a brutal war that threatened to annihilate the world.
A young Bruce Wayne had been killed in that fateful alley; Martha Wayne had lost her mind, becoming the Joker, while Thomas Wayne had become a far more lethal, gun-wielding Batman.
Gorilla Grodd ruled over Africa with an iron fist.
Cosmic threats ran unchecked across the universe.
Even Superman's fate was grim. His ship had crashed not in Kansas but in the heart of Metropolis. The military had seized the alien child, locking him away from sunlight. Instead of the world's greatest hero, he had become a pale, malnourished specimen for human experimentation.
In the end, the Flashpoint version of Barry Allen had realized his mistake. He had gone back once more to stop his past self from saving his mother, restoring the main timeline, though not without permanent changes. Many events, origins, and even personalities had shifted, making it a soft reboot of the DC continuity.
When Shin had first pulled this information from Barry, even he was caught off guard. It was almost absurdly coincidental that he had crossed paths with the Flash right before the most pivotal, unstable event in the DC multiverse.
And then, an idea had struck him. Everyone knew that the Flashpoint timeline was doomed to collapse.
Which meant… anything taken from it wouldn't matter. No butterfly effect, no ripple into the restored timeline, just a treasure trove waiting to be plundered.
Of course, he wasn't entirely certain whether the timeline's correction would erase anything they carried out. But from what Barry described, the Flashpoint world didn't fully vanish after the reset it persisted as a splintered parallel reality. If that was true, then their loot would survive intact.
Opportunity was knocking.
Without wasting time, Shin used Barry's Speed Force to charge the Karasuki. It helped that the Flash, with his trusting and slightly naïve nature, didn't question much. If Batman were here instead, Shin knew the process would have been an interrogation, not a cooperation.
The Karasuki was no ordinary artifact. As a dimensional vessel, it could absorb and store any form of energy tied to time and space. The Speed Force, being a fundamental and near-infinite universal constant, was the purest fuel imaginable. In mere moments, the device was fully charged.
Even better, because the Flash himself had charged it, the Karasuki now had a direct lock on him as a dimensional coordinate. That meant it could track him across worlds, even without a preset destination.
"Well," Barry said, stepping back and dusting off his hands. "Guess I'll be heading out. If you can't find the right place, don't worry... I'll swing back later."
He glanced around, his tone softening. "You know… I actually like this world. It's quieter. More peaceful than mine."
With that, he grinned, raised a hand in farewell, and vanished in a golden streak that left ripples of lightning in the air.
Shin smirked faintly. "Waiting for him to come back? That's wishful thinking." In reality, Barry wouldn't return until the Flashpoint mess was resolved, and Shin had no intention of waiting.
Retrieving the now fully charged plow, he reached for Wanda's hand. "Alright. Let's get moving."
The transition was instant.
A light, steady drizzle fell over the unfamiliar city. The sky was heavy with grey clouds, casting everything in a washed-out, lifeless hue. The air smelled faintly of rust and smoke. People shuffled along the streets with the mechanical, hollow-eyed expressions of those who had long since given up hope.
From a massive public screen, a news anchor spoke in a strained, almost fearful tone.
"Negotiations between the Amazonian and Atlantean delegations have once again failed. Both factions have mobilized their forces and are preparing for total war—"
Gunfire erupted somewhere in the distance, punctuated by sharp cries of pain. No one around them screamed or rushed to help. The pedestrians merely adjusted their path, drifting away from the noise with the weary efficiency of those who had seen it too many times before.
"This…" Wanda wrinkled her nose as her eyes scanned the street. "This is Barry's world? It's awful. Even Hell's Kitchen is livelier than this dump."
She wasn't exaggerating. Hell's Kitchen, with all its gangs and turf wars, still pulsed with life, dangerous, chaotic life, but life nonetheless. This place felt hollow. Dead. The air itself seemed to hum with despair.
Then her gaze caught on the massive screen again, and she froze. Two familiar figures stood at the center of the broadcast: Diana of Themyscira and the towering figure of Arthur Curry.
"Hold up," Wanda blurted, eyes wide. "Isn't that Diana? And the big guy—that's Arthur, right? What the hell is going on?"
She leaned closer to get a better view. "Wait, Atlantis is going to war with the Amazons? Have they both lost their minds? Where's the rest of the Justice League? Is anyone trying to stop this?"
"Or…" she hesitated, "…did we land in the wrong place entirely? Maybe this isn't Barry's world at all."
"It's possible," Shin said, crossing his arms. "But the more likely explanation is that Barry did exactly what I think he did, he changed the past. The butterfly effect isn't something you can dodge, no matter how fast you run."
He looked up at the darkened clouds. "Most likely, saving his mother set off a chain of events that twisted the entire world into this."
Wanda fell silent for a moment, mulling over the thought. "So the Speed Force… It's not just powerful—it's dangerous."
Her words carried more weight than she realized. Wanda herself had never truly unleashed the full chaos of her own powers in this timeline, but she knew the stories. The Scarlet Witch, in her original universe, had rewritten reality more than once, each time plunging the world into chaos.
And now, she was standing in a place shaped by a similar force. Only this time, the architect wasn't her.
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