After the sorrow, Robert Queen buried his beloved daughter, left the Queen mansion where his wife and daughter rested eternally, and continued guarding Star City alone for two more years—until Steppenwolf descended upon Earth.
Well... Thea was utterly speechless. Every single acquaintance from her spacetime—every last one—was dead in this world!
"Uh, besides you, does this world have other superheroes? Are they now...?" Cisco couldn't help asking.
At this question, the locals all looked dejected. Seeing the two old men unwilling to answer, Harrison's daughter—Jesse Wells—replied: "Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman—they were our strongest heroes here."
"Oh? You have Wonder Woman here too?" Thea's curiosity was instantly piqued.
Jesse glanced at her carefully. "Steppenwolf used a device to control all of humanity globally. Batman had sacrificed himself to destroy the opponent's command tower and control center, saving everyone. However, the cost was still unbearably high for humanity. Superman was captured, Batman had sacrificed himself, and Wonder Woman was reportedly killed in a sneak attack by Steppenwolf. The superheroes who protected humanity—they're all gone now..."
WHOOSH! The temperature, which had just returned to normal, visibly plummeted again.
Thea asked somewhat incredulously, "What was your Wonder Woman's name?"
Jesse looked at her father, then at Robert Queen. All three shook their heads—they didn't know.
"Did she look like this?" Thea conjured an image of Diana in her original novice divine armor.
Just as Jesse was about to nod, Barry rushed to Thea's side to comfort her. Your wife is alive and well at home—this has nothing to do with you, right?
Though Thea understood this, she still felt furious! Extremely furious! Steppenwolf, that bastard—he'd actually killed this spacetime's Diana! She wouldn't rest until she chopped him to pieces!
She took several deep breaths, forcibly emptying her mind of distractions, before continuing her questions. "So who's leading your superheroes now?"
Jesse didn't know this answer. Robert Queen said wearily, "Still Batman, but the current Batman is his father—an old man even older than me who donned the cape again for his son. Sigh..."
Hearing of Batman's death actually saddened Thea somewhat. Though he had no superpowers, from any angle, Batman was a superhero worthy of being called great. As a human, he'd reached the extreme of what he could achieve.
Superman captured and turned enemy, Diana and Batman both dead in battle—no wonder this world was so miserable.
"So besides Batman, are there no other heroes?" Thea really didn't have high expectations for old Batman. His son could cheat; he himself might not have that ability. Moreover, from Robert's tone, old Batman was older than him! Nearly seventy years old!
Jesse Quick—this Miss Jesse Wells had mentioned during introductions that her friends called her Jesse Quick, though Thea didn't see what was "quick" about her. Maybe it was an inside joke.
The girl's face lit up as if mentioning her idol, excitement radiating. "Hawkgirl! Hawkgirl is our superheroes' representative now!"
After speaking, she looked at Thea and Barry, surprised to find no reaction. "Your world doesn't have Hawkgirl?"
Barry directly stated he'd never heard of her. Thea scratched her head. She'd killed Horus, so theoretically Hawkman and Hawkgirl shouldn't exist. But that was her world, her timeline.
New Gods fusing with the Source possessed uniqueness, but Old Gods—especially faith gods—were different. There could exist gods with the same name and divine domain.
So this spacetime having a Horus and a Hawkgirl wasn't surprising.
But! Hawkgirl was this world's highest superhero combat power! This was simply tragic. That poor little bird who could only fly around swinging a hammer—Thea felt she could defeat her even in her skateboarding phase. Now such a person shouldered the burden. No wonder this world was saturated with despair.
Jesse introduced several other superpowered humans resisting Steppenwolf's tyranny: Sandman, Captain Steel, Atom Smasher, Dr. Light—a diverse mix of heroes. Their main reason for resistance was that Steppenwolf left them no way out.
The situation wasn't optimistic. To rely purely on these Earth heroes to save this world—this Earth-2 as Thea named it in her mind—would require a miracle.
Thea felt she represented that miracle!
"Barry, here." She suddenly remembered the USB drive Reverse-Flash had given her. Though he was dead, Barry should still see it.
This Earth's encoding differed slightly from their original Earth, but fortunately, Dr. Harrison was still a remarkable scientist. After some tinkering, he accessed their original Earth's information.
Seeing someone identical to himself talking on screen—that feeling was truly magical.
For Barry, it was pure shock. He hadn't expected Reverse-Flash to leave this video. Other matters aside, at least his father could be cleared and stand in the sunlight again.
Though Thea had secretly pushed for his father's medical parole, being able to clear all charges left Barry extremely emotional.
Cisco didn't know how to comfort his best friend. Their feelings about Reverse-Flash were all complicated. They'd trusted him so much, only to be betrayed. Now that he was dead, looking back left them at a loss.
"Should I send you back first to handle your father's situation?" Thea felt Barry's condition was poor. In the upcoming legion-level combat, his help wouldn't be significant.
But just as she finished speaking, a low voice echoed around them: "He's going nowhere! Become my speed!"
A figure wrapped in blue lightning rapidly approached. In its lightning-fast motion, the air was violently compressed, carrying irresistible kinetic energy. The enemy's target was precisely Barry.
This was Godspeed?! The speed was unbelievably fast. Even Thea couldn't keep up with his movements. This guy's pure speed exceeded everyone and every god she'd encountered. Barry, the Speed Force's golden child, was no match.
However, attacking the enemy's weakness and dragging them to your level before defeating them—that was magic's precious value.
Time Stop! Thea crushed a gem she carried, releasing a pre-stored time stop spell.
In the partially frozen time, the gap between the mysterious speedster and Barry became visible.
Barry's movements were stiff, barely maintaining a running posture. Meanwhile, the speedster could maintain relatively high-speed movement—clearly several levels above Barry.
Sensing his own anomaly, the speedster in black leather turned to look at Thea.
"What are you looking at?!" Since arriving in this world, Thea's mood had never been pleasant. Acquaintances dead by the truckload, plus a corrupted Thea causing trouble in the multiverse—nothing about this situation felt remotely joyful.
Now some idiot came asking for a beating—she'd gladly oblige.
"CRACK!—" Her whip lashed out. The Silver Fire, brilliant as stars, danced forth. The whip's tip traced points of starlight swirling everywhere. Her Silver Fire was no longer pure magical flame—drawing on the fire she'd obtained from Poseidon, she'd added Underwater Fire to it.
The ocean goddess Amphitrite had collected this small flame in the ocean's deepest reaches over a very long time, accumulating it bit by bit.