Chapter 47 Taking it upon oneself? Rabbit.
Just as Dick's car was about to leave Brudhaven, the strange, doctor-like smell that had been lingering in his nostrils vanished in an instant.
The scent of formaldehyde and rotting lilies receded like a tide, disappearing without a trace along with the surrounding mist.
Dickla opened the car door and jumped out, only to find that the mutants, who had just been attacking madly as if they had lost their siege, had suddenly stopped moving.
They were like statues, frozen in place, motionless, maintaining the pose they had just taken.
Dick's communicator rang the next second, and Matthew's anxious voice came from the other end of the receiver. The background sound was the howling wind, which made it sound like Matthew was on a plane.
“…It must be Allen, we have to find him.” Matthew’s voice was anxious. “I found Luther’s lab, there were many spores inside, but just now, they all lost their activity.”
He also found Harry and Peter, who, like the other children, had not mutated and were living peacefully at Osborne Manor.
Harry had discovered 'Matthew' who had somehow escaped early on and had been trying to contact them. But Broodhaven seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth a few hours earlier; no signals could be transmitted, and Harry's message only came after Matthew left Broodhaven.
Harry was extremely worried. When Matthew arrived, Harry was learning to fly Osborne's private plane, looking like he was about to single-handedly rescue his brother from Broodhaven.
Peter used his spider silk to tie up the crazed people on the streets of New York, turning them into dumplings one by one.
Matthew had already learned from Harry that Allen had developed a potion to combat the spore virus. When he learned that the potion could dissolve the internal organs of 'squid' infected with spores, he realized that Allen had prepared this long ago.
Triskell was bound to Eren by a twist of fate, and there must be something about Eren that attracts Triskell.
'Trishel' never appeared out of thin air. It's impossible that Alan was completely unaware of it all these years. He faced the monster inside his body alone and tried to kill it, but unfortunately, he must have failed many times.
If there were other solutions, Allen wouldn't have resorted to this suicidal potion.
“So…you’re planning to…” Dick suddenly shut his mouth.
He touched the vial of medicine that Allen had given him earlier, which he always carried with him.
Matthew keenly noticed Dick's pause and calmly continued, "Do you know where Allen put that drug? We need it. New York has fallen, and the surrounding cities are now teeming with mutants. If we let the virus spread any further..."
He hadn't said the rest, but Dick was well aware of the consequences.
He had previously tried to contact Batman and the Justice League, but he failed. The sudden and pervasive virus may have already infiltrated the Batcave, and Batman's condition is unknown.
Dick hoped Bruce would survive for now, but he wasn't sure if Batman had grown bat wings and flown away after the spore attack.
The lighthouse on the outskirts of Brudhaven had been completely transformed into a gigantic monster, its limbs made of twisted vines, and its enormous eye in the center staring intently at everything around it, as if looking down on a group of ants.
It is rising higher and higher, becoming more and more bloated, while also spreading the spore virus further and further.
Dick adjusted the car radio, only to find that he couldn't receive any signal. The sky turned gray, but not a single light was turned on in Brudhaven. The traces of industrial civilization seemed to have been completely erased, replaced by primal wildness.
Dick looked up, feeling a little dizzy. The surrounding air became hot, causing sweat to drip down his head.
It was winter, but the air in Brudhaven was humid and sticky, like the sweltering heat before summer arrived early.
“Alan gave me the potion,” Dick said softly. “Alan is still inside that monster’s body. I suspect he has merged with ‘Trishel’…they are one.”
Matthew seemed stunned for a moment before speaking, his words somewhat incoherent, "Harry said Alan injected Osborn with that kind of potion... I went to check, Norman is dead, his room is full of mycelium and spores, but they've all lost their activity. We need to find a way to rescue Alan first, Alan said he was lying to Luther..."
Allen was lying to them.
Dick thought to himself.
He and Harry both knew what the potion was for; Alan had said it himself, that it could kill him.
When he saw Allen in the lab before, Allen had really lost control.
"That potion kills both the spores and the host! That little bastard Allen never said that!" Matthew's voice was filled with anger. "He even lied to me, saying he had a way to control that monster!"
Matthew's voice came through intermittently, but was broken into segments by the crackling sound of electricity, making it impossible for Dick to understand what the other person was saying. However, Matthew's voice soon disappeared as well.
Dick suddenly realized that the surroundings seemed to have become eerily quiet.
Suddenly, a little rabbit darted out of the bushes, staring at Dick with innocent red eyes, motionless.
Dick remembered seeing this rabbit in Allen's lab.
So he crouched down, wanting to reach out and touch the rabbit.
Suddenly, the rabbit turned and darted into the bushes.
A white mist lingered around the rabbit's feet, gently enveloping Dick like an invitation, and he smelled that strange scent of lilies again.
Dick suddenly felt a little dizzy, and he mechanically moved his legs, turned around and followed.
When Dick finally caught up with the rabbit named Little Bear, he realized he had unknowingly returned to the suburban lighthouse. The huge, inverted triple helix-shaped tumor floating in mid-air trembled slightly, beating like a heart.
Countless jet-black vines grew all over the lighthouse, completely enveloping it without leaving a single gap. Something seemed to be wriggling and crawling beneath those vines, and the constantly rising and falling skin was a sight that made one feel physically uncomfortable.
The fog seemed to blur time and space, and Dick wasn't even sure how long he had been wandering around in a daze.
He picked up his phone, only to find that it was no longer working. The metal casing, made by Battech, was covered in rust, as if it had been buried underground for hundreds of years.
Dick pressed the power button and found that the thing was completely useless and had turned into a piece of scrap metal.
The tumor stared intently at him with an evil eye in mid-air, but Dick felt its gaze pass right through his body.
He carefully hid behind the bushes to observe the eye, and as he looked, he discovered that a familiar figure seemed to be hidden deep within the eyeball.
He moved his feet.
Walking a few more steps, he discovered that the suburban forest belonging to Brudhaven was now unrecognizable. The towering bushes made Dick feel as if he had entered a tropical rainforest. The sudden increase in temperature and humidity made him feel as if he were soaking in water.
Human faces grew on the bushes, and sharp teeth sprouted from the edges of the flowers. Dick saw two dolphins with antlers emerge from the creek and cry out to him.
Everything seemed absurd and bizarre.
Several figures could be vaguely seen emerging from the thick fog not far away.
Dick cautiously approached, only to discover that it was actually a vine that had grown into the shape of a human.
The vines coalesced into small, human-shaped clusters, some with outstretched hands, others in a running posture, as if they were attending a party.
When Dick approached them from behind, he suddenly discovered that they still retained human characteristics.
He looked closely and suddenly his back was soaked with cold sweat.
A familiar mark was visible on the part of one of the figures not covered by vines. The tattered aerospace materials had gradually faded, the brilliant gold turning into a worn orange, but Dick was certain he wouldn't mistake it; it was the mark of the Lightning family.
The green vines on his face still vaguely resembled Wally's features.
Dick walked forward with trepidation. The next figure carried a quiver on his back, with the Green Arrow family logo on several unused arrows.
Next, Dick saw many familiar faces. He saw Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth on a dolphin in the creek and mechanical feathers on the wings of an eagle soaring across the sky.
Dick chased after the deer running through the forest in disbelief, running faster and faster, recognizing more and more of its features.
Finally, he ran like a madman toward the huge tumor hanging in the air.
The world has fallen.
The mutations caused by the spores have likely spread globally. Life continues, but humanity has become unrecognizable. They have lost their self-awareness and become monsters living in symbiosis with plants and fungi!
Dick couldn't understand how all this had happened. He had just saved people who were running around, but in the blink of an eye, it felt like a hundred years had passed.
The rabbit and bear leaped and suddenly jumped onto Dick's shoulder, their long ears drooping behind them.
Its red eyes were fixed on Dick, as if it could see right through him.
Dick saw sadness in those red eyes.
He suddenly froze.
The rabbit nuzzled his cheek affectionately, as if reluctant to part with Dick.
Dick reached out and took the rabbit off his shoulder.
And the little rabbit, which was no bigger than Dick's palm, was left for Dick to hold as he pleased.
“Allen?” Dick asked softly.
The rabbit looked up at him.
"Darkness will prevail..." A faint voice came from somewhere, and Dick listened carefully, but the more he listened, the more his consciousness became blurred.
The same dizzying, disorienting feeling he had just experienced struck Dick's brain again. The sunlight refracted into strange, colorful spots, blurring his vision.
When Dick regained consciousness, he found himself still in the car.
Matthew's call hadn't been disconnected. He heard a voice on the other end of the line: "Dick? Are you still there? Tell me the whereabouts of that drug. If we don't stop it soon, the whole world will be infected! We'll find a way... We can save Allen!"
Dick clutched his wildly beating heart, and in a daze, he seemed to hear Allen's voice again.
“You could have stopped all of this,” Allen said, “but it would have been too late if you had gone any later. Use that drug and kill me.”
Dick suddenly reached out, grabbed the rabbit, and stuffed it into his pocket.
"You're dead, Allen, you little brat who makes decisions on his own!" Dick slammed on the gas. "Rabbits should be kept in cages. What color cage do you like? How about pink?"
The rabbit seemed stunned for a moment, then its eyes blazed with anger as it bit into Dick's wrist.
Dick sneered, then stuffed the rabbit further into his pocket, ruffling its fur and even pulling its tail.
The rabbit was so angry that it kicked its hind legs wildly, but it couldn't break free from Dick's grasp.
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