In the skies above Gotham City.
Red and gold lightning crisscrossed—the Speed Force Storm. A baby struck by a bolt would become a decrepit old man in an instant. Even the Flash had to take extra care when fighting in such an environment.
"Barry!" The Red Death descended into the center of the storm, the black-and-red bats behind him almost entirely consumed by the Speed Force Storm. "Is this the trap you prepared for me? It's useless. I told you, just like always, no matter how fast you run, you're still too late to do anything!"
The Red Death, the Batman of Earth -52, had once caused the destruction of the Bat Family through a mistake. He needed the Speed Force to return to the past and save the friends and family he had lost. But the Flash, who possessed the Speed Force, understood all too well how dangerous it was to use it to rewrite the past. He had done everything he could to stop Batman, but he had failed.
The Batman of Earth -52 had appealed to the Flash's sympathy, then frozen him with Mr. Freeze's technology. When the Flash woke, Batman had already strapped him to the Batmobile, using the principle behind the Cosmic Treadmill to draw out all his Speed Force.
In the end, the Flash's and Batman's bodies had both been pulverized by the Speed Force and reassembled into a new monster. With a corrupted Batman's mind and the Flash's Speed Force, he was the Red Death.
"Bruce!" The Flash of the Roland Universe knew the Red Death's origins and looked at him with deeply conflicted feelings.
"I am neither Bruce Wayne nor Barry Allen. I am—the Red Death!" The Red Death began running through the gaps in the Speed Force Storm, scarlet bats streaming