Daniel was in the middle of a shooting game with Mera when his hand stopped on the controller.
A faint vibration passed through the floor, subtle enough that most people in the arcade hadn't noticed it, but Daniel immediately looked away from the screen and scanned the room.
"Hmm... Mera, did you feel that?"
Mera glanced at him, then at the screen. "Yeah. Your defeat."
Daniel looked down and saw DEFEATED flashing across the screen.
He stared at it for a moment, then sighed.
"Well, at least these games are good for venting frustration."
Mera gave him an amused look, lowering her controller. "That's one way to deal with losing."
He was about to answer when the vibration came again, much stronger this time. His expression changed immediately.
Mera caught it and stopped smiling. "You felt something?"
"Yeah."
Daniel looked toward Central City, but before he could say anything else, the entire arcade shook.
The floor lurched hard enough to throw several people off balance, machines rattled against the floor, and the ceiling lights flickered rapidly. A few machines shut down completely, leaving only their emergency lights glowing through the sudden dark.
For a second, everyone froze. Then someone screamed.
"Get out!"
The crowd broke instantly.
Teenagers abandoned their games and rushed for the exits, parents grabbed their kids and shoved through the growing crush. A chair went over, someone slipped, and within seconds people were pushing each other just to reach the doors first.
"Move!"
"Get out of the way!"
"Something's happening!"
The panic spread faster than the shaking had. Daniel watched people funnel toward the same narrow exit and realized the crowd itself was becoming more dangerous than whatever had caused the disturbance.
"Stop!"
His voice cut through the arcade. Several people froze and turned toward him.
He stepped forward, voice firm enough to carry over the remaining screams.
"You're going to get yourselves killed if you keep pushing. Nobody runs, nobody shoves, nobody blocks the exit. Move out one at a time and keep your hands off the people in front of you."
A man near the entrance tried to push past someone.
Daniel's gaze landed on him. "Did you not hear me?"
The man stopped immediately. The crowd began moving again, this time in a controlled line instead of a stampede.
Parents pulled their kids close, and teenagers who'd been panicking moments earlier started helping people who'd fallen.
Daniel waited until the worst of it cleared, then turned to Mera. "Mera, take Rachel back to the mansion. I'll find out what caused this."
Mera nodded, but before she could answer, Rachel hurried over, having heard the commotion. "Umm... is something happening?"
Mera glanced at Daniel, who was already looking toward the damaged ceiling and the still-trembling machines. "I don't know."
She lowered her voice as Rachel came closer. "But Daniel isn't the type to spend time explaining when something like this happens. He usually goes, finds whatever caused it, deals with it, and comes back like nothing happened."
Rachel looked toward Daniel — already walking for the exit. "...That's reassuring."
Mera gave her a small smile. "You'll get used to him."
Daniel appeared on a rooftop overlooking S.T.A.R. Labs, and the moment he looked up, his expression changed.
A massive tear stretched across the sky above Central City, twisting the clouds around its edges as space itself folded inward. The center was already darkening, pulling light toward it while flashes of energy ran along the opening.
"Fuck me... they actually created a black hole."
He stared at it for a few seconds.
It hadn't fully collapsed into a true singularity yet, but the process had started — space folding into itself, and if nobody stopped whatever was causing it, the rupture would keep growing until Central City was swallowed along with everything around it.
He looked toward S.T.A.R. Labs. "Flash and Reverse-Flash..." He rubbed his forehead.
"I leave for one afternoon and these two idiots decide to tear a hole through space-time."
Before he could say anything else, he vanished from the rooftop.
Inside S.T.A.R. Labs, alarms blared while the building shook violently. Equipment rattled across the tables, monitors flickered, and several ceiling panels came loose.
Cisco struggled to keep his balance, staring at the readings on the main monitor.
"Cisco, what the hell is happening?" Caitlin asked, gripping the edge of the console as another tremor rolled through.
Cisco checked the data rapidly. "Those two speedsters generated enough Speed Force energy to rip open a hole in space-time."
Caitlin stared at the widening distortion on the screen. "And it's getting bigger?"
He nodded grimly. "Yeah, and that's the problem. The rupture isn't stabilizing." He pointed at the readings. "It's feeding on the energy around it. If it keeps growing, we're not dealing with a temporary wormhole anymore."
Caitlin's face tightened. "Then what are we dealing with?"
"A singularity." Cisco swallowed. "If we don't stop it soon, Central City's got a very big problem."
He grabbed the communicator and switched to Barry's channel. Barry was already inside the particle accelerator, running the chamber while the whole facility shook around him.
"Barry, can you get out of there? We need to stop this before the rupture gets any bigger," Cisco said.
"Got it," Barry replied, accelerating and vanishing from the chamber in a red blur.
A few seconds later, the Flash emerged outside S.T.A.R. Labs and looked up at the sky. His expression changed the moment he spotted Daniel.
Daniel hovered beneath the enormous rupture, both hands raised, straining to keep the distorted space from expanding further. The Mark of Nexus glowed across his body as he forced the surrounding space into a stable configuration.
Barry ran toward him. "Are you doing okay?"
The moment the words left his mouth, he realized how stupid the question sounded.
Daniel turned his head, clearly irritated. "Fuck you, Barry. Do I look okay?"
The strain was obvious even from a distance. He was already pushing the Mark of Nexus far beyond its normal use, forcing space itself to obey his calculations while his Anti-Dimension ability warped the spatial axis around the rupture.
He wasn't simply holding the tear shut.
He was forcing the surrounding space into a configuration where the collapsing region couldn't finish becoming a singularity.
*****
A/N: If you'd like to read ahead of the Webnovel release schedule, you can join my Patreon!
The Patreon version is 30 chapters ahead.
👉 patreon.com/Universal_Peace