The next day, Barry, like a criminal, was personally escorted by Nick Fury to Superman's mansion. A suburban manor in San Antonio.
Following the humourless, stern-faced man into the courtyard, he saw a beautiful lady.
"Would you like some tea? Or soda? Luke is over at the pool."
Peggy brushed her hair, glanced at a nervous and confused Barry, and smiled.
"Soda."
The latter thought for a moment and replied.
Pizza and Coca-Cola were his favourites.
The extremely fast runner burned a terrifying amount of calories.
In the beginning, Barry had to be injected with several large bags of glucose every day to supplement his diet.
"Get over there yourself."
Nick Fury sat in the living room and pointed to the swimming pool.
The glass door was pushed open, and the midday sun streamed in.
Barry saw the figure on the deckchair, wearing swimming trunks, sunglasses, topless and with a glass of juice in his hand.
Like a tourist on holiday in Hawaii, his lifestyle was laid back and relaxed.
"Which Barry are you?"
Luke asked aloud when he saw the Flash for the first time.
He had dealt with more than just Barry Allen of the Flashpoint Paradox.
And the Flash also existed in the second time branch that was later restarted.
In that world, Luke was Superman's older cousin and Lex Luthor's godfather and thoroughly influenced the direction of the plot.
Theoretically, the Flash of that branch would also know of his existence.
"How many of me do you know?"
Barry scratched his head and curiously asked.
Superman's older cousin had too many secrets, just like Batman.
As his teammate, it gave him a sense of security.
But if he became an enemy, it would be a headache.
"Okay, you're probably Barry from Flashpoint."
Luke took off his sunglasses and lazily said, "If it were the Flash in another timeline, they would have tackled other doubts first."
"For example, which parallel world is this?"
Barry Allen, who had experienced the Flashpoint world, was probably the speedster who understood the parallel universe the most, apart from Wally West, Kid Flash.
It can't be helped. Who made them both be the first to be sacrificed whenever a big event comes along?
Like the bat family, most of whom had lost both parents and had miserable lives;
Or the Superman family, always facing a lot of problems and feeling lost as they grew up.
Perhaps the point of the Flash family's existence was to create a switch that could be reset at any time for those beings located in the Omniverse, manipulating the destiny of the heroes.
Before the outbreak of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, the second-generation Flash -- Barry Allen, was the key object of sacrifice.
After that, the third generation Flash -- Wally West, took up the mantle.
In comics such as Zero Hour, Rebirth and Metal, they die and come back to life, live and are sacrificed, and so on and so forth.
The Flash family was full of loyalty.
"It's clear that this isn't even the multiverse I'm from."
The Flash had a wry smile on his face. He looked at Luke and said, "I've lost the Speed Force and can't sense its energy, its force range, its presence, in the slightest."
Speed Force was a magical force that belonged to the DC Universe, with Barry acting as a 'generator'.
He was very strongly connected to the walls of Speed Force, generating Speed Force with every step he took in his runs.
"At the very beginning, there was no way that white-haired guy could catch me, but the longer I ran, the slower I got, and my Speed Force was depleted from my body and wasn't getting replenished ... This is a problem I've never encountered before!"
Barry's sober analysis led to deductions.
"Speed Force does come from outside the Source Wall, but regardless, it's tightly connected to me."
"There have been times when I've lost my lightning-like speed, but those were just tests. I've always been able to find it if I feel it with my heart."
"But now, the Speed Force has disappeared."
Luke nodded his head. It seems that all members of the Justice League, as long as they were separated from Batman, would be able to regain their true IQ.
He had already understood what had happened. Purely in terms of speed, Quicksilver was certainly no match for the Flash.
But this was Marvel's studio. With Barry Allen away from home, without a constant stream of Speed Force, he would soon be drained and turned into a normal human being.
In any case, that race across two studios yesterday...
In the end, it was won by Quicksilver.
"You can understand this world as being similar to each other and yet very different, mirror universes."
Luke stood up, stretched his muscles, hooked Barry's shoulders and chuckled, "Or, you can think of them as two comic book companies running the same business. Borrowing from each other for the sake of serialisation, for sales, for buzz ... is normal. So, there are superheroes like you, like Superman, like Batman ..."
"See that guy? He looks serious like someone owed him money and didn't pay. He's the head agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., specialising in dealing with superhero groups, and has about as much status and usefulness as Amanda Waller of A.R.G.U.S."
"On top of that, the world has rich superheroes who are worth billions and can build high-tech battle armour, and some Norse god whose dad is Odin, and ..."
Luke, like a family accountant, pointed out the identity and backgrounds of The Avengers one by one.
"Did you find anything, Barry?"
The Flash was a little confused and almost got sidetracked by the various character connections spewing out of Luke's mouth.
Quickly sorting through the complicated information, he finally realised something was wrong.
"I see what you mean."
Barry's smile was bitter; 'It was too similar.'
This time, he broke out of the Source Wall and arrived in a strange time and space that wasn't a parallel universe.
"Okay, the introduction of the world's background is done."
Luke snapped his fingers and brought the topic back.
"Now it's my turn to ask the questions, how did you find me? To be more precise, how did you get here?"
The Flash was known to be able to reverse time and restart the universe by running on all cylinders.
But when did he get the ability to pierce through?
"The picture."
Barry blinked. His eyes looked through the floor to ceiling window at Peggy, who was wearing an apron and had a family-like vibe.
There was also Malena, who had just walked down the stairs. The other woman had an odd expression on her face.
"What picture?"
Luke subconsciously asked.
Barry pulled out an old yellowed photograph with a slightly blurred picture.
It was Luke and Wonder Woman.
It was a picture of them together, in the Flashpoint world.
"I won't tell Diana -- assuming she doesn't pursue it."
Barry gave his assurance with great integrity.
Needless to say, he didn't expect Luke to be a playboy like Bruce.
This was completely unlike Superman.
For the most part, Clark's real girlfriend would only be Lois Lane.
"Oh, you don't need to worry about that."
Luke didn't believe a single punctuation mark in the Flash's promise.
He and Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern, were the famous gossip kings of the Justice League.
"It seems that you've found out about the guy who stole a decade of your universe and changed the origins of superheroes."
Luke didn't care about that little problem. He took the picture and spoke with soft eyes.
Logically, this should have been in Diana's possession.
The Flash got it from somewhere and borrowed its special nature as an anchor point to run to the Marvel universe.
Barry Allen went to a lot of trouble to take a trip and make a cameo appearance.
"That's right, Wally told me all about it. There's a terrible being trying to manipulate the Justice League and manipulate everything secretly!"
Barry's face was stony, not as relaxed as before.
"His name is Dr Manhattan."
Luke was blunt, remembering that the blue man owed him a debt that he had yet to settle.
"We can talk about the specifics on the way. Right now, I need you to run, Barry."
'Run?'
The Flash closed his eyes and still didn't sense the Speed Force.
Without that energy, how could he travel between studios?
"Just run, and you're done!"
Luke lightly said.
He raised his hand and snapped his fingers. A pure white light enveloped them.
Sitting in the living room, Nick Fury, holding his tea, watched wide-eyed as the two figures disappeared.
"If I hadn't been prepared, I would have thought I'd had too much to drink."
The Director lamented.
His task was done, and it was time for him to go back to S.H.I.E.L.D.
He placed the cup down and saw a cute cat on the sofa.
"Hey ... come here, little one, let me pet you."
Nick Fury was usually serious, but like most humans on earth, he couldn't resist the charms of a fluffy cat.
He also couldn't resist the urge to go over and tease Superman's cat a bit.