Chapter 48: Flash?
As the first rays of sunlight kissed the ocean's surface, Rachel mercilessly dragged Luka, who had only managed an hour of sleep, out of the cryogenic chamber.
While Viltrumites could fight tirelessly for weeks or even months without rest, Luka had come to Earth for an indefinite vacation. Why couldn't Rachel let him sleep in?
Rachel, wearing her usual deadpan stare, shoved the shopping list she had painstakingly compiled on her phone in front of him. At the same time, she slapped a cleansing spell onto his face.
Similar to how teleportation magic worked, as long as the spell didn't harm Luka's physical body, this attribute-less, surface-level magic could still affect him.
It saved him the trouble of washing his face and brushing his teeth.
Looking completely resigned, Luka was forcibly dragged out of the escape pod by Rachel.
"Hurry up! There's a lot to buy. I've planned everything meticulously. Once we're done shopping, we'll rush back to build the house."
Rachel nimbly leaped onto Luka's back, wrapping her arms around his neck and her long legs firmly around his waist.
Luka voiced a brief protest.
"You've listed over a hundred items to buy. We definitely can't finish in one day. How about sleeping a bit longer?"
"I specifically chose this early hour so there'd be fewer people on the streets. We can take this chance to head straight to the center of Metropolis!"
Her excitement was so intense it nearly broke through the magic she used to suppress her emotions. She freed one arm and smacked his shoulder again and again.
"Okay, okay. Just hold on and stop squirming."
Her constant wiggling woke him up better than any alarm clock. He decided not to comment on the fact that she was currently treating him like a mount.
A few minutes later, the pair hovered above the clouds over central Metropolis. After carefully picking a secluded spot, Rachel activated her teleportation magic.
Accompanied by a faint purple light, the boy and girl appeared out of thin air in a dark, narrow alley.
Rachel jumped down eagerly and pulled Luka toward the first store marked on her phone's map.
"First, let's grab two coffees, then we'll go get you some clothes!"
"Do we really need coffee?"
"To experience a normal person's day, of course!"
"A normal person would be dragging themselves to work with a grumpy face after their coffee."
Throughout the morning, Rachel led Luka on a whirlwind tour of nearly every supermarket and specialty store in Metropolis.
The shopping list was far more extensive than just the dryers and washing machines she had mentioned the night before.
Bathtubs, plumbing fixtures, curtains, televisions, tables, chairs, and stools...
Everything needed for living, from food and clothing to shelter and daily necessities, was included.
Luka even mentally calculated the weight of the remaining construction materials they still needed to buy.
He realized Rachel intended to build a three-story mega-villa on that deserted beach, with each floor averaging over 250 square meters.
Moreover, they each had a massive wardrobe, averaging over thirty sets of everyday clothing per person.
Well, "averaging."
Luka had only bought five sets, as the seasons made no difference to him.
Most of the bulky items were discreetly stashed into Rachel's magic space whenever the opportunity arose.
But to maintain the illusion of being normal shoppers, they carried several deliberately chosen large and small bags in their hands.
Due to his enhanced physique, Luka felt fine, but Rachel's legs were trembling.
Rachel tossed the packages to the ground with a clatter, shook her trembling arms, and rapidly chanted a few spells.
Luka, who had also learned the fire-starting spell, could now understand some of it.
It was likely some kind of magic to restore physical strength and endurance.
Now refreshed and full of energy, Rachel grabbed the packages again.
Although it seemed like they had bought a mountain of things, including some designer clothes that had caught Rachel's eye, Luka roughly calculated that they hadn't even spent $100,000 that morning.
Rachel turned to Luka and gave him a faint, genuine smile for the first time.
Buried under a small mountain of bags, with every possible spot on his body fully loaded, Luka blinked his eyes. Only his eyes were visible above the edge of one of the totes.
He knew that such a pronounced smile meant Rachel was practically bursting with joy.
"How much money do we have left?" Rachel asked cautiously, since Luka had been holding the card.
"Um, about six million nine hundred thousand?"
"Wow~"
Stars seemed to sparkle in the girl's eyes.
As if her emotions had reached a critical point, Rachel suddenly strode toward Luka, her cheeks flushing briefly with a faint blush.
But in the next instant, under the oppressive aura of dark purple magic, Rachel's deadpan expression returned, her face paling once more.
She stared blankly at Luka, then retreated two steps, lowering her head.
"I'm sorry, I almost lost control again. I'll store these things in my magic space. Let's find a restaurant to eat."
Luka had glimpsed fragments of her memories, knowing that Rachel had to constantly suppress her emotions with magic. Otherwise, the Trigon-derived magic within her would spiral into a catastrophic rampage, potentially unleashing Trigon's power directly onto Earth.
Rachel's existence was, in truth, a constant struggle.
"Mm."
A few seconds later, Luka and Rachel, now empty-handed, began searching the streets for a restaurant that caught their eye.
As he walked beside the emotionless girl, Luka considered how to gently guide her toward opening up.
But the moment he opened his mouth, an inexplicable sense of danger made his pupils shrink to pinpricks.
In the distant sky, a golden lightning bolt seemed to flash.
Luka surged forward, positioning himself protectively in front of Rachel.
In less than the blink of an eye, the golden lightning had materialized before Luka.
The crimson-gold armor was battered and scarred, stained with dried blood in several places. Even the helmet, made of a special hardened material, had a jagged hole torn through its side.
Several strands of blond hair were stuck to the jagged opening, glued in place by dried blood.
Luka was taken aback. The sudden sense of threat had vanished as abruptly as it had appeared, as if it had never existed at all.
"Flash? What happened to you...?"
"Wait," Luka said, sensing something was off.
Though the armor, powers, and appearance were identical, this person's eyes and demeanor were completely different from the Flash he remembered.
The Flash he'd seen yesterday, who had awkwardly offered Superman a string of blessings with disclaimers, had been young, shy, and talkative.
This man, however, was weathered and composed, silently observing Luka without uttering a word.
"Who are you?" Luka asked, his voice low and steady.
The battle-worn Flash let out a cold snort. His voice was as dry and raspy as if he hadn't drunk water for three days.
"That's something you should ask yourself."
"In this twisted world, you're the one who shouldn't exist."
The battle-worn Flash stared at Luka, still seemingly undecided.
Then, the television in the storefront beside them, facing the window, began replaying the morning's top news.
A flicker of anger ignited in Flash's eyes, and from that moment, he no longer hesitated.
"I can't let the tragedies of that world happen here! The mad war between Atlantis and Themyscira will destroy everything!"
As the words fell, golden electricity crackled around him. His hand, its armor missing a large chunk, was formed into a hand blade, vibrating at a speed Luka's eyes couldn't even begin to track.
Death warning!!!
In 0.001 seconds, every muscle in Luka's body tensed, the force capable of instantly sinking all of Metropolis surging within him.
His eyes widened to their limit, driven by primal survival instincts, desperately trying to anticipate the Flash's attack trajectory.
But the golden blur was too fast.
By an infinite magnitude, perhaps.
Faster than Luka could ever hope to match in that moment.
["Hello, I'm your host, Lois. At 8 AM this morning, Planet Media received a bombshell announcement: Aquaman, a member of the Justice League, has officially withdrawn from the League and ordered all land dwellers to cease fishing, navigation, and other maritime activities in Gotham City's coastal areas."]