"It's probably because of Cyborg," Green Arrow said. "I don't know why Grid wants to destroy humanity so badly. But isn't the most important thing right now to rescue the Flash and stop this threat?"
"That's true," Shin nodded. "Leave it to me. I'll be back soon."
Shin was genuinely confident in himself now. After enhancing his Kryptonian bloodline to three-quarters saturation, not only did he experience a temporary surge in power, but both his strength and speed had entered a significant growth phase. Though it had only been an hour or two, Shin felt his overall combat capability had increased by nearly fifty percent.
With that kind of exponential growth, even someone as cautious as Shin couldn't resist the urge to act boldly.
"Only you? Shouldn't we notify the others?" Green Arrow asked hesitantly.
Shin shook his head. "It's pointless. They can't keep up at this level. Don't worry... I'll be quick."
As soon as he finished speaking, Shin turned into a beam of golden light and vanished from sight.
Traveling at over ten thousand times the speed of sound, he arrived on the Antarctic ice sheet almost instantly. There, he saw the fully-formed super hurricane that had been steadily intensifying.
With both Observation Haki and super vision activated, Shin immediately locked onto a figure dashing wildly within the chaotic center of the storm.
"So fast... Flash's speed is now approaching mine," Shin muttered, surprised. "He's at least hitting 7,000 to 8,000 times the speed of sound, far faster than before."
Unlike most speedsters, Barry Allen, the second-generation Flash and origin point of the Speed Force, didn't consume it while running. On the contrary, he generated more of it as he moved. In essence, the more Barry ran, the faster he became, creating a self-reinforcing loop of acceleration.
When Barry first awakened his power, his top speed had barely reached five times the speed of sound. Before that moment, even the Reverse Flash, who had traveled back through time, couldn't access the Speed Force because it simply didn't exist yet.
[T/N: Chat, is this true? I know for sure that Reverse Flash lost his speed, but I'm not sure if this is the reason. Please take this with a grain of salt.]
Even in cinematic universes, Barry's mastery of the Speed Force was enough to bend time and space. His theoretical upper limit exceeded the speed of light, proof of how broken the Speed Force could be.
So while Shin was surprised, he wasn't shocked. The idea that Barry's speed had increased significantly made perfect sense, given how long he'd been active recently.
Now, Antarctica had become a realm of chaos. From a distance, it looked like a blizzard of apocalyptic scale. Snow wasn't falling, it was rising violently from the ground upward. Visibility was near zero, and anyone who set foot in that tempest would be instantly swept skyward. Even someone as powerful as Wonder Woman might struggle to maintain footing in such extreme conditions.
"I still don't understand the Speed Force," Shin muttered. "If everything within the Speed Force is moving equally fast, shouldn't storm formation be impossible? But whatever... Speed Force logic isn't exactly scientific. No point overthinking it."
With that, he launched himself forward with a thunderous boom, diving into the storm and homing in on Barry, who was running deep within the Speed Force field.
Although the raw speed difference between them was only 10–20%, when you're dealing with thousands of times the speed of sound, even a small margin becomes massive. At this point, Barry was operating at a level Shin estimated to be somewhere near 8,000 times the speed of sound, possibly more.
The moment Barry, now partially merged with Grid's robotic enhancements, sensed Shin's presence, it was already too late. Shin was upon him in an instant, gripping the back of his suit and activating his devouring mist.
The dark mist engulfed Barry entirely, ripping him out of his accelerated state and halting his motion instantly.
With Barry removed, the residual Speed Force energy violently erupted, destabilizing the center of the hurricane. The once-stable storm formation collapsed like a deflating balloon.
The skies above Antarctica shattered with light and sound as the raging storm fell apart. Sheets of ice cracked open, exposing ancient layers of frozen earth not touched by sunlight for millennia. Fortunately, the chaos only lasted a few minutes before it completely subsided. With Barry removed from the loop and the atmospheric pressure collapsing, the hurricane could no longer sustain itself.
"Only managed to catch one?" Shin thought aloud. "Where's the other Barry? If both were running together, no wonder the Speed Force amplified so quickly... doubling the speed force input would lead to exponential acceleration."
He narrowed his eyes. "The faster you run, the faster you get. It's a terrifying feedback loop. No wonder Barry's speed skyrocketed. At this rate, he really could hit lightspeed soon."
These thoughts all flickered through Shin's mind in the span of a second. With a leap, he soared back to the Justice League's base, reappearing just a few seconds later.
Green Arrow, who hadn't moved from his station, looked up in shock. "Wait—you're back already?"
"Of course," Shin said casually, waving a hand. "Mission complete."
He gestured, and his dark dimension unfurled, revealing the restrained form of the Flash. Barry was tightly bound in secondary adamantium, completely immobilized. Without the ability to accelerate, he couldn't use the Speed Force.
If this were Superman, not even adamantium could hold him. But Barry? He was much easier to detain under these conditions.
Shin, despite having no need for the Flash's bloodline, avoided using the same brutal methods he'd employed with Superman. If he had gone that route, the signs would have been obvious to the League, and besides, Barry's healing factor wasn't nearly as absurd as Clark's. A beatdown like that could leave him bedridden for months.
Shin actually liked Barry. The younger speedster's earnestness and naivety made him endearing. There was no need to be overly harsh.
So instead of tearing him apart for intel, Shin opted to preserve Barry's physical form. It wouldn't be difficult to undo Grid's robotic control with a more delicate approach.
Green Arrow knelt beside Barry and began inspecting him carefully. Though not a professional scientist, Oliver Queen possessed solid technical knowledge, especially for someone without powers. In fact, most non-powered heroes in the comic world had to be part-time scientists or engineers just to keep up.
In comic logic, an "amateur" scientist like Green Arrow would still put most PhDs to shame.
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