Southwest Australia.
The Nullarbor Plain.
A bolt of red lightning ran along the road.
This was the longest and straightest highway in Australia, with a total length of 90 miles, extending over the southernmost tip of the country.
It had been abandoned for many years, and few people remember the existence of this road except for those crazy tourists.
Those truck fleets that occasionally crossed had already changed their driving routes.
After all, no one wanted to drive along a straight, long road. The dullness and tedium along the way would make people drowsy.
However, this road was simply perfect for another group of people in the world.
Just avoid the kangaroos and Australian ostriches that suddenly appear, and you could run as fast as you want.
A straight and long track, in the eyes of a speedster, was simply heavenly.
The surrounding scenery became blurred into flickering fragments of light and shadow, and even the sound of the wind gradually faded until it was silent.
The red speedster, called 'the Flash', seemed to be speeding in a vacuum tube, with golden lightning all around him, as if walking in another world, a multi-dimension where time was absolutely still.
Barry couldn't feel any physical existence, and there was nothing to obstruct him. The wind, the air, the resistance, everything, disappeared.
Only speed, ever-accelerating speed.
'This is the beauty of the Speed Force.'
Barry thought so.
He used to come to this place to think.
In the process of running at extreme speed, his mind was sharper and faster than usual.
Many difficult problems that couldn't be studied thoroughly would be solved in an instant.
But, today...
Barry just wanted to run as fast as he could. He didn't want to think about anything.
A forever lingering shadow haunted him, like a ghost that followed him everywhere.
Even if he was fast enough to break through the speed of light, beyond time, even if he was the fastest man in the world, the dark shadow hidden deep in his heart was always hanging over his head, laughing at his childhood self.
'No matter how fast you run, you can't save everyone -- you can't save the people you care about!'
The Reverse-Flash's words echoed in Barry's mind.
Time and space resembled an unconventional circle, where the starting and ending points were often interconnected.
Eobard Thawne was a person of the 25th century.
He worshiped the Flash and studied the source of the Flash's ability. He finally understood the mystery of the Speed Force.
Thawne successfully reproduced the accident that led to the birth of the Flash and became the new speedster.
With his super speed, he became 'Reverse-Flash', turning into the Flash's nemesis.
In the end, in order to destroy his opponent, he had to break the boundary of time and travel to the past to kill the Flash, who hadn't grown up yet.
This was the beginning of everything. Time and space were intertwined into a circle. Thawne killed Barry's mother but also contributed to the birth of the Flash.
In turn, the Flash made him the speedster, nicknamed 'Reverse-Flash', a super criminal.
'Barry, we should learn to accept the things that can't be changed -- when my parents died in that dark alley, I already accepted my fate.'
The dark knight of Gotham once said this.
'But, Barry, you can't forget that this is a void in your heart that can never be filled...'
That ethereal voice echoes quietly in his heart, like a faint light in the deep darkness, drawing people toward it.
The red lightning was still galloping, like the giant that chased the sun in that Asian mythology.
The unprecedented feeling of emptiness filled his body. Barry inexplicably felt very cold.
Even though he was accompanied by his family and friends, the unspeakable weakness wrapped around him, constantly reminding him ...
'You have the ability to save her, but you didn't!'
"No, I tried ... Mom."
The shadow of his childhood reappeared in his mind. Barry stopped running, wearing a painful expression.
He held his head in his hands, whispering to himself.
Just like his companion, the Dark Knight of Gotham, who could never forget what happened in that alley…
It was impossible for him to forget that the woman who used to sit by the bed and read a bedtime story for him quietly died in front of his eyes.
'You watched her die for the sake of so-called 'heroic' justice and faith! You watched your own mother die in front of you, the fastest man in the world, even if time couldn't catch up with you, and yet - you didn't save her!'
That disembodied voice, like the roaring thunder of an impending rainstorm, exploded in his head again and again. The voice of the Reverse-Flash laughed wildly.
Half kneeling on the ground, the Flash closed his eyes in pain.
The irreparable regret in his heart was like a hole in the canvas of life, and no emotion could fill the grief of losing a loved one.
'Barry, the opportunity is near, catch up with time, leave it far behind, and you can undo that regret. '
In the psychic world, there seemed to be another voice, a strong emotion formed by Barry's regret and remorse.
"Catch up with time ... undo regret?"
The Flash murmured.
On the endless highway, barren weeds and kangaroos crossing the highway in groups in the distance were about to sink into the warm sunset on the horizon.
Barry looked around blankly. The world was so vivid, real, and beautiful.
He was the Flash, Midtown's hero, a member of the Justice League, the fastest man in the world, and a superhero admired by everyone.
"Mom ..."
But now, he was like a child who had lost his parents.
"Let go of the responsibility ... and throw away the restraints ... and run with all your might!"
As the breeze blew across the plain, Barry stood up, turned around, and looked back into the distance.
At the far end of the world, there was a city that belonged to him, his friends who loved and cared about him, and his partner who insisted on being by his side.
In the other direction, beyond time, there might be nothing there.
But there was a gentle woman who was willing to tell him a bedtime story, would help him pull up the blankets and sing a lullaby...
"Mom."
Barry turned his head back and waved his hand back as if to say goodbye.
In the next moment, the red lightning stirred up the air and turned into an incomparable stream of light.
Bang, there was a roar in the air. Barry had broken through the sound barrier.
Golden lightning lingered around his body. He approached the Speed Force world, which existed in another dimension.
Faster, faster, faster!
With increasing speed, Barry seemed to be racing against time. As long as he caught up with the light ahead and surpassed the speed of light, he would be able to open the door of space and time and make up for the hole that existed deep in his heart.
In the normal world, the red lightning had disappeared, and the surrounding space was like flowing water, rippling in a circle, the light gradually distorted and flickered into a blurred picture, like a scene formed by the shattering of the void, in which there are deep memories in everyone's heart.
Barry was indifferent, his eyes filled with determination.
The golden lightning was getting stronger and stronger, almost completely wrapping his entire body. It was an illusory picture that existed in different timelines, just to slow down the pace of the speedster. As long as he hesitated a little and paused, the time turbulence would sweep him into it, thus getting lost in the Speed Force and gradually assimilated into it.
Boom!
Countless lights were intertwined, tiny points gradually expanded. Barry ran with all his might, feeling like a blazing fire, violently releasing the heat and light in his body.
The constant speed flowing forward in time suddenly stalled. The red lightning looked like it was running in sticky glue; he was about to reach the limit of speed.
"A little faster--"
Like a mountain smashing into the surface of a calm lake, a booming explosion came out of the void of space, like a rolling thunder cloud.
Time was completely still, like a torrent rushing forward, instantly solidified by an extremely powerful force.
The whole world seemed to freeze, and his mind turned slowly.
Boom---
There was another loud bang, and the light reversed, just like a backdraft.
Everything was speeding backward.
It was as if the clock of time was being turned back by an unknown being.
The world was going backward, and space and time were also going backward!
In the space-time tunnel composed of endless light and shadows, Barry ran at high speed, and the golden lightning produced by Speed Force kept lingering around him.
The torrent of history passed by, and many things that had happened, those beautiful, painful, happy, and sad memories, all turned into streamers one by one. He didn't look at them, and he just wanted to run to his destination -- the place where it all started.
"Mom."
Barry cried out as an incandescent light wrapped around him and plunged deeper into the space-time tunnel.
At this moment, the Flash didn't know that his momentary impulse had allowed a group of people from the world outside the Source Wall to seize the opportunity.
...
...
In the Marvel Universe.
"It's a deal."
After listening to Eternity's explanation, Luke nodded his head and said, "I wouldn't mind taking a more exciting trip and making a modest contribution to face the crisis the multiverse is in."
Faced with the invitation of the five creation gods of the universe, he smiled and agreed to do so.
'As they said.'
'This is a good opportunity!'