As he comforted Kara through her voiceless sobs, Zhang Ye kept thinking about how to resolve this crisis. Though he already had a plan in mind, he had no idea whether it would succeed in practice, nor did he dare guarantee it.
After a while, Kara had calmed down considerably. It was the first time she had ever cried so openly in front of someone else, and she felt somewhat embarrassed. She kept her head deeply lowered, unwilling to let Zhang Ye see her face.
"Do you have a way?" After a long silence, Kara broke the quiet.
Hearing that, Zhang Ye let out a soft breath. He gazed at the rising sun, its morning light spilling across the earth and warming his face. Then he smiled. "There will always be a way. Before that, I need you to trust me, okay?"
Kara did not respond, which counted as tacit acceptance of Zhang Ye's words.
Zhang Ye smiled faintly and stood up. "Stay here and get some sun. It'll be good for your body. I left some clothes here; you can change into them later. I need to go down and make some preparations. You... if you feel better, you can come down and find me. Everyone here is one of us. You can trust them."
With that, Zhang Ye opened the rooftop door and returned inside. He still had one most important thing to do.
Leaning against the railing at the edge of the rooftop, Kara waited until she sensed that Zhang Ye had left before slowly raising her head. In silence, she wiped away the tears on her face. Honestly, she did not know what she should do next, nor did she know what reason she had to keep living.
The only faith she had always clung to was raising her cousin until he grew up. Now that her cousin was dead, Kara suddenly felt a chilling sense of relief, a vague and intangible feeling.
It was as if she were duckweed, drifting with the wind, yet never having anywhere to rely on—she could no longer find any meaning in living.
Everything around her sank into silence. Even the birdsong seemed to grow quieter. Though the sun shone upon her, Kara could not feel any warmth. Leaning against the railing, she stared blankly at the sky and let out a faint sigh.
Meanwhile.
After returning to the Batcave, Zhang Ye found that these people really worked fast. In less than no time, Old Batman had assembled a steel chair with Barry Allen's help. It looked strange, though, rather like an ancient torture device.
Besides that, Batman was trying to create artificial rain. To do that, he would need the Bat-Plane's assistance. Fortunately, Gotham was already a city often plagued by rainy weather, which greatly reduced the difficulty of artificial rainfall.
Beside him, Barry Allen was helping assemble an enormous bat-shaped kite. Shortly, they would fly it into the sky and release small electrical charges to attract lightning, allowing someone to be struck by it.
Pietro and Little Barry Allen had already returned. They had gathered all the experimental reagents at top speed. Once the bat kite was completed and Batman made the final adjustments, they could begin.
Seeing this, Zhang Ye could not help but nod. He would be lying if he said he was not envious of these people's efficiency. Look at these superheroes—every last one of them was a technological expert. Batman went without saying, but even The Flash knew a great deal about physics, chemistry, and the like.
Then he looked at himself. It was not as though he had accomplished nothing, but aside from memories that gave him some understanding of the plots of these Multiverses, Zhang Ye truly had nothing worth showing off.
Not dwelling on it, Zhang Ye gathered his thoughts and waved at Little Barry Allen, who was chatting with Pietro.
Seeing Zhang Ye's gesture, Little Barry Allen froze for a moment, then pointed at himself in surprise, seemingly unable to understand why Zhang Ye had suddenly called for him.
"What is it, Zhang? Did you need something?" When Zhang Ye nodded at him, Little Barry Allen blinked and instantly appeared in front of him, asking excitedly.
Ever since he had gained these superpowers, he had been nothing but trouble. Barry Allen seemed to dislike him, wearing a cold expression every day even when he only wanted to cheer him up. As for Batman, he treated him like he was invisible and never paid him any attention.
Only Zhang Ye and Pietro were willing to speak to him properly, which greatly increased Little Barry Allen's fondness for them.
Looking at Little Barry Allen, Zhang Ye took the Time Twister from his pocket, where he had kept it close to his body all this time.
"It's not a big deal. My machine is out of power, but ordinary energy can't power it. So I need your Speed Force lightning to help me 'charge' this little thing."
The Time Twister came with energy conversion capabilities. In other words, any form of energy could charge it, though the charging speed varied depending on the strength of the energy source.
The best sources would naturally be massive energy sources like nuclear power or rocket engines. Iron Man's reactor and a Green Lantern's lantern should work as well.
Originally, Zhang Ye had tried using the Zeus Scepter to release lightning and charge it. But he soon gave up, because even if he drained every bit of electricity stored within that scepter, it would not charge even one percent of the Time Twister's power. It was simply too time-consuming and laborious.
So Zhang Ye set his sights on The Flash. The Speed Force was an incredibly magical power, and the energy it contained was terrifyingly immense. Otherwise, it would not allow speedsters to travel through time so freely.
After all, in so many major events, aside from being sacrificed, when had The Flash not ended up as a hamster on a running wheel, providing villains with enormous amounts of energy? That alone showed how the Speed Force used by The Flash was a powerful energy source coveted by countless villains.
"What is this? It looks so weird. Is it a game console?" Little Barry Allen took the Time Twister and curiously fiddled with it, but after playing with it for quite a while, he still could not figure out what it was.
"You don't need to worry about what it does. You only need to know that it's very important to me. So, Barry, I'm counting on you."
"No problem, leave it to me." Little Barry Allen excitedly patted his chest. Being needed felt far too good. He was more than willing to help others, but then he paused again and blinked.
"Um... how do I charge this thing?"
Hearing that, Zhang Ye stroked his chin and pondered for a moment before speaking.
"If I'm not mistaken, you might be able to take it outside and run a few laps with it."
Before you continue