Flashpoint

Chapter 10: Flashpoint

Gotham. Heavy rain.

Thunder rumbled faintly beneath the overcast sky.

A bright purple sports car sat in the curtain of rain, its wipers swaying frantically.

The car shook slightly.

A few seconds later, it set off again and changed course midway, heading for... Wayne Manor!

The dilapidated Wayne Manor.

Weeds, mixed with shattered beer bottles, climbed up the rusted iron gates.

A yellow taxi came to a stop, its headlights illuminating the gates ahead.

The rain in the beams was like knives.

The old white driver said to the blond young man getting out, "I'll wait here for half an hour. If Mr. Wayne throws you out, I'll drive you away!"

The driver pointed upward. "The rain's getting heavier!"

"Thanks!" The blond young man nodded and hurried toward Wayne Manor, his figure gradually swallowed by the rain and darkness.

Only the old white driver remained in the car.

He lit a cigarette and turned on the car radio.

"Toyman has escaped from Arkham Asylum and attacked someone beside Gotham City Hall..."

"Those lunatics!" The old white driver snorted disdainfully.

He did not know whether he was mocking his own numb reaction to hearing the news or mocking this insane world.

Vroom, vroom!!

The engine roared loudly through the heavy rain.

The bright purple sports car tore through the curtain of rain, immediately drawing the old white driver's attention.

Based on his years of studying cars, he estimated that this sports car was worth at least a million.

As the bright purple sports car drew nearer, the old white driver finally saw what it looked like.

A ridiculous red-nosed Joker woman had been spray-painted on its hood.

"It's that lunatic, damn it!" The old white driver immediately started his car and floored the gas pedal. As the bright purple car approached, he fled blindly into the rain.

The bright purple car stopped.

The moment the window lowered a few inches, rainwater poured inside.

"Ptooey, ptooey!" Yoyo, the Joker woman, raised a hand to wipe the rain from her face, smearing away much of her thick white foundation in the process.

She quickly rolled the window back up, then turned to Li Zu, who sat in the passenger seat fiddling with a rag doll. "What you said is true?"

"Of course!"

Li Zu shifted his gaze from the doll to this world's "Joker woman," Yoyo.

She was not Harley Quinn. Her name was Yoyo, and in this world, she occupied the same role as the Joker woman: crazily worshipping and loving the Joker, who was also a woman.

"Hehehe, Ms. Joker will be so happy!" She pulled a metal yo-yo from her waist pouch.

The yo-yo was streaked with purple and pink and flashed with cool lights.

With a light shake, its glow became blinding.

"We'll split up. You charge in through the front door, and I'll circle around from the back!" Li Zu pointed toward the front entrance. "What do you think?"

"Hahaha, do you even need to ask?"

Yoyo was impatient. She kicked open the car door and rushed out, not caring in the slightest that it was her own car.

Li Zu placed the Powerpuff Girls rag doll in the car. "Goodbye, Buttercup~"

He rubbed the doll's head before pushing open the door and charging into the downpour.

The rain soaked Li Zu in an instant. His clothes became heavy, making it difficult to move his legs.

There was no doubt that Yoyo was insane, and she was a lunatic who loved only the Joker. When she told Li Zu that she wanted Batman's head, Li Zu did not reject her childish idea. Instead, he told Yoyo... Batman's true identity was Bruce Wayne of Wayne Manor.

Li Zu walked around outside Wayne Manor through the heavy rain.

At a time like this, the safest thing should have been to avoid Batman, but Li Zu seemed to have other plans after learning that the Joker was a woman, Batman killed people, there was no Superman in this world, Wonder Woman and Aquaman had an affair that started World War III, and a whole series of other things.

"The Batcave should be nearby. The waterfall... I should find the waterfall first!"

His luck was good. Before long, he spotted a waterfall.

"What a coincidence!" He saw another figure.

The blond young man who had brutally beaten him with his fists beside Gotham City Hall.

The other man was acting furtively, and he appeared to be looking for the Batcave as well.

The heavy rain concealed Li Zu's footsteps, allowing him to follow behind the other man without being noticed.

Splash~

He passed through the waterfall.

"Cough, cough! I've never entered the Bat... cave this way before?" The blond young man coughed out water, but when he saw the scene before him, he froze instinctively.

There was no dark Batcave.

There was no supercomputer, Batwing, Batmobile, or Batcycle belonging to Batman either.

Instead, the air was filled with the rich aroma of wine.

"This world has changed so much!"

Fortunately, although the high-tech equipment was gone, that Batsuit was still there.

"That's... a handgun!" The blond young man stared in disbelief at the handgun on the table and the box of bullets beside it. Just as he reached for them—

Whoosh—!!

A black shadow rushed in from the corner of his eye.

The blond young man raised his hand to fight back, but his hand was seized instead.

Crack!

The sound of his arm dislocating.

"Ah!!"

The blond young man could not help screaming.

"Who sent you? Joker, Toyman, Riddler?" Batman twisted the blond young man's dislocated arm as he interrogated him.

"Bruce, it's me!! Bruce!!" The blond young man hurriedly exposed the other man's identity.

But all he received was another "Crack!"

"Ah—!!"

The blond young man's thumb was broken.

"You! Why! Do you! Know! That! Name!" Batman's throat sounded like it was biting down on flames. His interrogation was now filled with fury.

"Of course I know. You're Batman, Bruce... I'm Barry!" The blond young man did not dare struggle. He was completely outmatched in fighting skills.

"That is not enough to deceive me!" Batman's anger did not subside.

Then another crack rang out. The blond young man calling himself "Barry" had his index finger broken.

"Tell me why you know that name!"

Fury revealed a flaw in Batman's disguise. It was not the forceful, youthful voice it should have been. Beneath the rage were helplessness and weariness, like a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties.

The blond young man, Barry, stopped gritting his teeth to endure the agony. He turned and stared directly into the pair of eyes beneath the bat cowl.

"You're Thomas! You're Thomas Wayne, Bruce's father, aren't you?"

Barry's voice trembled slightly. "I never expected things to change this much!"

"In that alley, the one who died wasn't you. It was Bruce, right?"

"What did you say?" Batman gripped the blond young man's throat and pressed the handgun to his head. "What do you mean, I was the one who should have died?"

At the entrance to the Batcave.

Li Zu crouched low.

The waterfall behind him concealed his presence, while the two men ahead were too emotionally agitated to spare him any attention.

"Barry Allen? The Flash?" After the other man introduced himself, Li Zu could already guess the identity of the guy who had beaten him senseless.

"Thomas Wayne."

In that instant, Li Zu understood the chain of events and why everything had become so twisted and unreasonable.

What Barry Allen said next confirmed his guess even further.

"I possess the Speed Force. By running, I can travel through time and alter the timeline."

"I wanted to change the past where my mother died, so I ran through the timeline into the past and saved her."

"In this world where my mother did not die, everything changed... I lost the Speed Force, there is no Superman here... and you, who should have died in that alley, survived, while Bruce, who should have become Batman, died!"

(End of Chapter)