Chapter 154: A Plant Situation
2023-10-23 Author: Rowing Without Oars 233
Gotham, the city outskirts.
"I told you, you can't do this!"
The one shouting was a trembling Old Man, dressed in a worn-out jacket. His figure was slightly stooped, but his gaze was surprisingly firm.
This was a woodland that had been here for a very long time. Lush trees surrounded a lake, its surface as calm as a mirror, with ripples spreading across it when a gentle breeze blew. The towering trees and dense shrubs formed a verdant ocean.
But that was all in the past.
Now, the area was filled with modern facilities and billowing dust. Roxxon Industries had bought this land, preparing to fill in the lake and clear the woodland. It had already become a construction site.
Cranes, bulldozers, and loaders surrounded the woodland. Excavators continuously dug up mud and sand, while workers' vehicles hauled gravel, pouring it ceaselessly into the pits.
The Foreman, wearing a safety helmet and possessing bronze skin, had his attention drawn by the Old Man's shouts and couldn't help but frown.
"Here we go again."
He walked over and patted the shoulders of the two staff members who were blocking the Old Man from the restricted area.
"You two stand down. I'll handle this."
The Foreman stood before the Old Man and said impatiently, "You again? I believe I told you yesterday that I wouldn't be so polite the next time you came."
"No, it's you who don't understand," the Old Man said with agitation. "This is a cursed jungle, and it has been for a very long time.
"Long ago, there was a swamp here, a swamp that buried evil! A notorious drug lord from this city many years ago sleeps here because his wicked deeds incurred the wrath of the Swamp God!
"This has been a long-standing custom among the nearby residents. No one dares to pass through here at night, because we all know that the Swamp God resides here."
"Cut the crap," the Foreman interrupted impatiently. "Listen, old-timer. Here's the deal: our construction schedule is already tight, and now it seems some unknown eco-terrorists have targeted this project.
"So we're all under a lot of pressure right now and have no time to listen to your boring urban legends. If you know what's good for you, this had better be the last time you come here to harass us.
"Otherwise, don't blame me for not warning you..."
A piercing noise interrupted his words, followed by an unsettling roar. The Foreman was startled and turned his head. "What's going on?"
"It's the drill... The drill seems to be having problems."
The Foreman temporarily ignored the Old Man and quickly went over to check the situation.
"Looks like a failure in the hydraulic system... We'll have to take it apart to see what's wrong."
The machine's casing was removed, exposing the structure beneath. But the sight that appeared under the casing left everyone stunned.
It was grass.
Or to be more precise, it was all sorts of grass-like plants that had, from who knows where, crept into the equipment's interior and were now extending out from every crevice of the machine.
"I'll be damned..."
The Foreman muttered, then suddenly heard a scream from behind him.
Everyone turned to see a worker, caught completely off guard, being dragged by his leg into the darkness, disappearing from sight.
"What's happening!?" the Foreman exclaimed, stunned.
The next moment, the lights went out.
The jungle had begun its counterattack.
Streaks of vines shot out from the darkness like tentacles, their overwhelming power coiling around the people on site and unceremoniously dragging them into the darkness. The ground cracked open, and unknown plants burst forth from underground. Excavators were overturned, equipment sparked and popped with explosions, and cables were sliced in two.
The sounds of heavy objects falling, explosions, and the workers' screams filled the air. In an instant, the plants had taken over the entire area, and the construction site was in chaos.
The Old Man cowered in a corner, watching the plants shoot up and figures fly about, trembling uncontrollably.
"I warned you... I warned you all..."
***
Central City.
"So, you're sure you traveled through time?"
In a Central City coffee shop, Orin Vale looked suspiciously at Barry from across the table.
"At least ninety percent sure... no, eighty... seventy... okay, no lower than that," Barry said with certainty.
"Tell me about it. What happened?"
Orin Vale took a sip of his coffee, simultaneously making a quick mental assessment: not as good as his own.
"Okay... *phew*... It's really good to have someone to talk to about this. I really have no one else to share it with." Barry took a deep breath and said, "It's like this. You know, I've recently been trying to... um... use my talent to help people and stuff.
"And recently, some guys with superpowers have popped up in Central City. Among them was one I encountered yesterday. He can control the weather and calls himself the 'Weather Wizard'."
Orin Vale remembered him. He seemed to be a member of The Flash's classic villain group, the Rogues. But actually, this guy didn't rely on a superpower but on a piece of black technology, the "Weather Wand," which was created by a scientist named Clyde but stolen by the Weather Wizard.
"To put it simply, the Weather Wizard was cornered by me, and he decided to go all out. He unleashed his power, and I'd never seen him use such strong power before. He wanted to create a tsunami to flood Central City. Although I found and knocked him out, it was too late. The tsunami was unstoppable.
"And obviously, I don't have your kind of strength; I couldn't possibly push it back. So I came up with an idea..."
"You ran along the coastline as fast as you could, trying to create a Speed Force wind wall to push it back, right?" Orin Vale said.
Barry looked surprised. "How... how did you know?"
"A guess."
Orin Vale recalled this plotline from the first season of *The Flash* TV series. That was Barry's first time-travel experience. The Flash back then was still a rookie who had just started out. To push back the tsunami, he ran as fast as he could and accidentally rushed into a time-space tunnel, emerging a day earlier.
"Yeah. After coming back this time, I knew the Weather Wizard's location a day in advance and apprehended him... but I still think it's impossible. I'm fast, but I can't be faster than light..."
"That's not for certain," Orin Vale said. "Perhaps the situation was urgent, and you broke your limits without realizing it. Or maybe it was just your instinct tapping into some of the Speed Force's hidden properties."
Different versions of The Flash's time-travel lore have different rules. Sometimes he's required to go at faster-than-light speed, but in versions like the TV show, it's not necessary.
Orin Vale wasn't there at the time and lacked data, so he couldn't jump to any conclusions before further research.
"We might need to run some tests. Or it would be great if we could find a way to extract the Speed Force energy from your running and store it for research..."
"Like a treadmill?" Barry suggested.
"Exactly, like a treadmill. You're very smart," Orin Vale said with a smile.
He hadn't had much contact with time-based abilities back in the Land of Light, but understanding these laws was quite important now that he was in the DC Universe. Because of the existence of the unique group known as speedsters, time-messing incidents in the DC Universe were ridiculously more frequent than in the neighboring Marvel Universe.
Figuring out how these rules worked was not only an essential skill but also a means of self-preservation during the dazzling time crises of the later stages.
And in the entire DC Universe, the one who could help him master this knowledge the fastest was definitely the Barry sitting right in front of him.
A device called the "Cosmic Treadmill" was an indispensable artifact for this purpose. It was tailor-made for The Flash and could store, amplify, and release the Speed Force. It even allowed for manual settings to travel to a specific timeline, a particular point in time, or a locked-on parallel world. This would allow The Flash, at a sufficient speed, to run to any dimension and any point in time and space.
During the great Justice League vs. Avengers event, the Third Flash even successfully used the Cosmic Treadmill to blast through the DC Universe's blockade, the Source Wall, and run over to the neighboring Marvel.
As he spoke, Orin Vale had already added this device to his to-do checklist.
As of now, that checklist was already getting quite long...
"But there's one thing you need to know," Orin Vale said solemnly. "Even if you successfully master this technique, it's one of those moves that you must absolutely not use casually.
"Time travel is an extremely dangerous thing. Disturbing the laws of time will cause a series of troubles. Even the smallest change to the past can lead to destructive consequences."
"The Butterfly Effect. I get that," Barry nodded repeatedly.
"It's more than just that," Orin Vale said. "It can also cause a series of other problems... but let's talk about that slowly during the research process."
The most famous major event caused by The Flash, "Flashpoint," nearly brought about the destruction of the entire world. And even after he undid his changes to the past and tried his best to leave history untouched, it still resulted in a reboot of the main world's settings.
Many heroes died because of it, many others never even existed, and many more origin stories were changed as a result.
Not to mention, time travel is also very dangerous for the speedster himself. Traveling through time has a certain probability of attracting the attention of the Time Wraiths, undead beings that reside in the Speed Force and specifically hunt down speedsters who mess with time. In theory, once targeted, no speedster can outrun a Time Wraith.
"Oh, sorry, hold on a second. I need to take this call."
Orin Vale made a hand gesture to Barry and answered his phone.
It was Kara calling.
"What's up?"
"Uh... I think you might want to come back and see." Kara sounded a bit awkward. "At our place... there's a bit of a plant situation."
(end of chapter)