Barry Allen slowly turned around.
The golden arcs of electricity surrounding his body gradually subsided and receded into his body.
He raised his hand, hesitated for a moment, but finally pulled down the hood covering his face.
Beneath his sweat-soaked, short brown hair was a face in his early twenties with well-defined features, tired yet exuding a sense of weariness beyond his years.
But those blue eyes, those familiar brows, were exactly the same as the little boy Nora remembered.
He opened his mouth, and a few words escaped from his parched throat. "It's me, Mom."
Nora Allen covered her mouth, tears streaming down her face.
She rushed forward and hugged the child, who was a head taller than her, without hesitation.
She could feel her son's taut muscles; beneath his dark red uniform was a heart beating for her.
She buried her face in her son's chest, choking back tears, and said, "My child... my child... I am so proud of you."
Barry stiffly hugged her back; the warmth of his mother's embrace, the illusion he had chased his whole life, was now burning real.
He wanted to say something more, to tell her how much he missed her, and to ask her how she had been all these years.
But Thomas Wayne's cold face flashed through his mind. "On the battlefield, there's no time for sentimentality."
He gently pushed his mother away, cupped her face, and wiped away her tears. "Mom, it's not safe here. I'll take you somewhere else first."
"Wait!" Nora grabbed his arm, pointing urgently to the rubble behind them. "There's another child, that little girl, she's hurt!"
Barry looked in the direction she pointed, and his Speed Force vision instantly locked onto the small figure hiding in the shadows, curled up in fear.
Without the slightest hesitation, he nodded to his mother.
He took Nora's hand.
The world lost its color and form in an instant.
For Nora, one second she was in Hell ruins, and the next, everything around her had turned into a wide, cold, and enormous cave.
In her arms, a little girl was unconscious.
A man dressed in Batsuit, with an aged face and a gloomy demeanor, emerged from the darkness.
" Thomas, take good care of her for me!" Barry's voice echoed in the cave as he gently placed the little girl on a metal platform.
Thomas Wayne glanced down at the deep, bone-revealing wound on the girl's leg, his brow furrowing.
But when he looked up again, the red figure had vanished without a trace.
Thomas glanced silently at Nora, who looked completely bewildered, then turned and took a first-aid kit from a cabinet, beginning to treat the girl's wounds.
Meanwhile, the wailing in the Central City took on a different character.
Just as an Atlantis soldier was about to aim his water cannon at a residential building, a red lightning bolt flashed past. Before he could even blink, the bones in his limbs cracked with a sickening sound, and he collapsed to the ground, emitting a grotesque scream.
An Amazon Warrior leaps across a rooftop, her longsword reflecting the firelight. The next moment, she crashes straight down from mid-air, her arms and legs snapping at bizarre angles, the excruciating pain causing her to writhe wildly on the ground.
The killing stopped.
Instead, the city was filled with the incessant, echoing groans of the invaders.
That red lightning bolt became a nightmare for all Atlanteans and Amazons.
He is everywhere; you can't see him, you can't catch him, and you can only lie on the ground in despair after your limbs have been crippled, watching him rush towards his next target.
The civilians who were lucky enough to survive stared in disbelief at this unbelievable scene.
One moment they are executioners reaping lives, the next they are worms crawling on the ground.
They didn't know what had happened, only that the red figure was their savior.
In the center of the battlefield, Aquaman Arthur Curry was pinning Shazam to the ground.
His tall figure cast a deep shadow, and he held the golden trident high in his hand, its tip aimed at Shazam's throat.
On the wall not far away, Cyborg was impaled in the shoulder by another trident, pinned there unable to move, sparks crackling from his body.
"Tell me where you've hidden Diana!" Arthur roared, his voice filled with surging fury. "Hand her over!"
"Cough... cough..." Shazam spat out a mouthful of blood, but forced a defiant smile. "Even if you hand it over, do you think you'll let us go?"
"I will grant you merciful destruction," Arthur replied, devoid of any emotion.
"Ha, so we still have to fight, right?" Shazam shrugged, looking indifferent.
This attitude thoroughly enraged Arthur.
Without another word, his arm muscles bulged, and the trident, whistling through the air, slammed down!
Just then, his hand went empty.
The golden trident, a symbol of the Atlantis monarchy, vanished into thin air.
Arthur was stunned.
"Is this what you're looking for?"
A teasing question came from not far away.
Arthur turned his head sharply and saw a guy in a dark red uniform playing with his trident in one hand.
"Another fool who doesn't know his own limits." Arthur shoved Shazam aside, stood up, and looked down at Barry. "Very well, you'll die by my hand too."
No sooner had he finished speaking than two crisp popping sounds came from his knees.
"Snap!"
Unimaginable pain shot through his legs, and Arthur's once-proud kingly body could no longer stand, collapsing heavily to his knees.
Before he could even roar, the red figure wielding the trident was already right in front of him.
Barry used the shaft of his trident to strike Arthur's elbow joints with incredible speed and precision.
"Snap! Snap!"
Two more crisp sounds of bones cracking rang out.
Arthur's arms were also ruined.
He knelt on the ground, his limbs broken, and could only muster his last strength to let out Beast- like roar.
Barry casually stuck the trident into the ground beside him and let out a long sigh.
Finally... the situation is under control for now.
However, before he could catch his breath, the sky suddenly darkened.
It wasn't dark clouds, but a shadow so huge it was unimaginable, that it obscured the entire sky Central City.
A massive, menacing black spaceship, resembling a deep-sea monster, slowly entered the atmosphere.
The next second, all televisions, radios, mobile phones, and electronic screens around the world were once again forcibly taken over by the same signal.
A cold, imposing male face appeared on the screen; he wore black armor and had a peculiar symbol on his chest.
General Zod's declaration resounded across the globe. "You have twelve hours to hand her over to me. Otherwise, this city will be the fate of all of you."
As soon as he finished speaking, the hatch on the belly of the enormous spaceship opened.
One after another, black dots jumped straight down from ten thousand meters in the sky!
They had no parachutes, no aircraft; they simply fell in freefall, transforming into black meteors that hurtled straight toward the Central City!
Barry Allen looked up at the dozens of figures plummeting at breakneck speed, completely stunned.
"Are you kidding me?! These guys... how could I possibly handle them all by myself?!"
No, you are not alone.
Shazam, dragging his wounded body, walked to his side along with Cyborg, who had already pulled out his trident.
Just then, Thomas Wayne's unique, hoarse, and steady command came through the communicator in Barry's ear.
"Kid, leave this to me. You three, immediately evacuate all the surviving civilians!"
Before Barry could respond, a blinding yellow light shot into the sky from the other end of the city!
Thomas Wayne wore a yellow Batsuit, the light behind him forming a pair of enormous, menacing bat wings made of pure light energy.
He transformed into a yellow shooting star, and without the slightest hesitation, charged straight towards the dozens of falling Kryptonian.