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The reason for Flashback's uncontrolled ability is unknown.
But Ghost speculates that it might be related to Flashback's own mental illness.
"...Is he... does he have a problem here?"
Having witnessed Flashback's ability burst and hearing Flashback and Ghost talk about Flashback, Barry asked Ghost in astonishment.
Out of politeness, Barry didn't directly say that Flashback might have a mental illness, but instead pointed to his own head.
Ghost explained:
"We abandoned Supes all have some physical defects, and Flashback, before he gained the ability to travel through parallel worlds, wasn't even considered a Supe..."
Before the parallel worlds intersected, Flashback himself didn't possess any superpowers.
If it weren't for the certainty that he had been injected with Compound V, a situation like 'talking to himself' would only be regarded as a mental illness.
In fact, Flashback was treated that way before.
It wasn't until the parallel universes intersected that Flashback discovered he could exchange things from another universe with things from this universe.
This ability, strictly speaking, is also garbage.
Exchanging items, and only being able to exchange counterparts from parallel worlds, seems useless no matter how you look at it.
What's more, exchanging might cause temporal dislocations, just like many of the Supes who were transferred with Flashback haven't arrived yet, and it's unknown what time they were teleported to.
With such obvious flaws, Ghost would certainly not have chosen to let Flashback use his ability if it weren't for escaping.
And now, Flashback's ability has indeed gone wrong.
"Alright, since Flashback is the root of everything, can't we just find it?"
"The problem is how to find it?" Ghost recalled the scene he saw in Flashback's memory, "The room where Flashback was is blocked, and we can't even tell up from down, or left from right now."
Before, Ghost could still try to find a way out by continuously breaking through in one direction.
But now, the spatial intersection might have become more severe, and Ghost doesn't dare to continue using this method to find a way, let alone find a person.
"Don't rush... can't rush, I'll think of a way... I'll think of a way..."
Barry, also at a loss, muttered to himself as he paced back and forth.
With the spatial distortion, Barry's speed couldn't be fully exploited.
Mainly, his ability consumes a lot of calories, which is fine for a short period, but over a long time, if his physical strength isn't replenished, he might starve to death here before he even finds a way out.
Therefore, his ability cannot be used casually.
Of course, Barry could also choose to find a place with a relatively long straight path, run at top speed, and see if he could trigger the Time Bowl to return to the past before they entered the cruise ship.
However, the internal structure of the cruise ship is intricate and extends in all directions, and due to being abandoned for a long time, many places are blocked, making it extremely difficult to find a long straight route.
Barry could only temporarily abandon the idea of returning to the past.
Perhaps when he truly reaches a dead end, Barry will consider using the method of returning to the past to find a way out.
But certainly not now.
Clack, clack.
Just as everyone was at a loss, crisp footsteps suddenly came from outside the cabin.
Everyone instantly shut their mouths, including the Narrator, who had just been 'mm-mm-m' trying to tear off the tape from his mouth; he also stopped struggling and stared in the direction of the door.
"Is there someone else in this cabin?"
Barry, hearing the footsteps, spoke in an extremely low voice, his mouth opening and closing exaggeratedly, allowing people to understand what he was saying through lip-reading and faint sounds.
Ghost and Flashback shook their heads almost in unison.
Other than them and Flashback, no one else would come to this cabin.
And it's late at night now; besides those who are seeking death by wanting to 'explore' here, there would be almost no one else.
"Could it be Flashback?"
Flashback also asked in a low voice.
Perhaps it was Flashback, who had recovered to normal, looking for people on the cruise ship.
"I'll go out and see..."
Ghost, the only one among them who could freely enter and exit, offered to go out and check the situation.
The others didn't refuse; letting Ghost go out to see was better than directly opening the door to observe the outside situation.
Exchanging glances with everyone, Ghost nodded slightly, found a hidden corner, and stealthily slipped out from underground.
But only a few seconds later, Ghost darted back.
Her expression was terrified; she instinctively covered her mouth and shook her head repeatedly at Barry and the others, as if she had seen the most terrifying thing in the world.
And just as Ghost reacted this way, the footsteps outside suddenly stopped.
They stopped right outside the cabin where they were hiding!
Thump, thump, thump.
Then knocking sounds began, and Ghost's head shook even faster as a result.
The extent of her shaking made one worry if she would shake her head off.
An inexplicable atmosphere of terror emerged within the cabin.
Barry swallowed hard, covering his mouth to keep from making a sound, and Flashback even closed his eyes, pretending to be asleep.
And the terrifying situation wasn't just that.
When the knocking sounded, a strange noise, a mixture of multiple voices, came from outside the door.
That voice said:
"Save... me..."
"!?"
Barry took a deep breath.
In that instant, he felt as if he had suddenly run from the world of Superheroes into some terrifying and bizarre supernatural world!
And what scared him even more was that if Ghost hadn't been shaking her head constantly, telling him not to open the door, he probably would have gone out to see if someone was really asking for help after hearing the plea!
Now that there was something outside the door, Barry didn't dare to ask Ghost what she had seen; he could only stare at the door with wide eyes, not daring to make a sound.
Thump thump thump thump—
"Save..."
The knocking suddenly became more urgent, and the thing outside the door was frantically pounding on it with an intensity that suggested it wouldn't stop until the door was shattered.
Looking at the force of the pounding, it didn't look like someone asking for help at all; it looked more like a robber trying to break in.
In fact, if the cabin door hadn't been made of metal, it probably would have been broken open by the thing outside.
Time passed minute by minute.
The knocking sound gradually weakened.
Perhaps thinking there was no one inside, the thing outside finally stopped knocking, and accompanied by 'clack clack' footsteps, it left the door.
After the thing left, no one dared to make a sound.
A few more minutes passed, until Ghost cautiously poked her head out, confirmed the thing had left, and then slumped 'sitting' in mid-air, her voice trembling as she said:
"F***, you scared me to death!"
"You... what did you see just now?"
Once safe, Barry immediately asked.
Ghost recalled what she had just seen, explaining with a trembling voice:
"A... a thing that only appears in horror movies! I... I can't describe it..."
Before Ghost finished speaking, Flashback walked over, trying his best to envelop everyone with his hands, using his ability to recreate Ghost's memory.
Then Barry saw what Ghost had seen.
It was indeed something very difficult to describe in words.
...
"Holy crap... what the hell is this thing?!"
Kevin, who had sensed the presence of life through the 'Mist threads,' couldn't help but curse when he saw the 'life' he had sensed.
Standing in front of Kevin was a monster.
A monster that was hard to describe.
From its appearance, the thing looked like a person, but its body was bloated, and its head was as large as three human heads combined.
Its eyes, nose, and ears were all mixed together as if they hadn't been carefully designed, and its body had several limbs different from those of others.
It was simply a humanoid blob of flesh, as if people had been forcibly pieced together!
Honestly, for a moment, Kevin even thought he had run onto the set of a horror game!
Even though Kevin was powerful, he was still startled by this thing.
This isn't an idiom; it's a description—Kevin was truly scared and jumped.
Think about it: in a dimly lit cabin, late at night after the sun had set, suddenly encountering such a monster—anyone would be startled.
"What in the world is this thing?"
Kevin, having calmed down, tentatively approached the monster in front of him.
He bound the monster with mist threads, squatted beside it, and began to analyze and examine it.
"It has a physical form, isn't very strong, only says 'help me,' but seems to have no self-awareness... and why are its clothes so well-fitting...?"
The monster was wearing clothes that looked somewhat like casual wear, but unlike ordinary casual wear, this casual wear had a lot of sleeves.
Each of the monster's extra arms and legs was covered by a corresponding sleeve and pant leg; Kevin found no obvious seams on those sleeves and pant legs, proving that they were integrated with the clothes the monster was wearing.
"Hmm? What's this?"
Examining the monster's body, Kevin suddenly discovered something in its clothes pocket.
Frowning, he took out the items and found it was a wallet.
The wallet was thick, as if many wallets were stacked together, and some parts were stuck together.
Kevin used a little force to open the stuck parts and found some US dollars and a driver's license inside.
Taking out the US dollars, Kevin found that the patterns on the bills were distorted and overlapped, and the feel was not that of normal currency; holding them felt like holding a stack of paper.
The driver's license was the same; most of the patterns on it were blurry, but fortunately, he could barely make out the photo and name of the driver's license owner.
Jack Wilson, from Ohio, according to the date of birth, he should be 21 years old this year.
The young man in the photo was a blond Caucasian, with a high nose bridge and blue eyes, looking quite handsome.
He just didn't know why his driver's license was on this monster.
No, Kevin didn't not know; he just didn't want to think about it.
"...It seems this place is much more dangerous than I imagined."
Putting down the wallet and driver's license, Kevin put the wallet back on the monster's body, sighed softly, and muttered to himself.
Clearly, this monster in front of Kevin was the white young man from the photo, except that he... or rather, they, were no longer one person.
Through the overlapping spaces, they became fused monsters, losing their sanity, acting purely on instinct, looking for someone to save them.
But unfortunately, no one could save them.
Including Kevin.
All Kevin could do was place his finger on the monster's forehead and release it.
After sending off the individual once named 'Jack,' Kevin's expression was very serious.
He had underestimated the danger of spatial intersection.
He thought that the collision of parallel worlds would only make the internal space of a certain area more complex, which was indeed true; the environment inside the originally not-so-complex abandoned cruise ship became intricate and accessible everywhere, as if any path could be taken.
But the real danger wasn't that.
The real danger came from the overlap of counterparts from different worlds!
Just like this unlucky Jack in front of him.
He became like this because he overlapped and intersected with many parallel worlds; all of him merged into one him, but not completely.
The collision and overlap of so many of his own thoughts in an instant shattered his mind and consciousness, and countless bodies overlapped on one person, causing him to become a bizarrely shaped monster.
Kevin didn't know if this was just an isolated case that happened by chance.
But he didn't dare to gamble.
He had to find a way to resolve this matter as quickly as possible.
And to solve the current crisis, either find the source that caused all of this, or find a way to stabilize this space.
To prevent it from continuing to spread or overlap.
Kevin himself certainly couldn't find a solution.
But it didn't matter; someone should have a solution.
With a flicker in his eyes, Kevin's figure suddenly vanished from where he stood.
Facing a problem he couldn't solve, Kevin finally made a decision that went against his ancestors' teachings.
Call for outside help!
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