Chapter 1: Breaking Free

The lights of Paris danced as people walked the endless streets of the glorious city. At 19:00 on a clear Friday evening, the citizens gallivanted about to and fro, enjoying its wonders. Yes, all was alive and well, completely unaware of what activity stirred beneath their feet. Far beneath them, hardly anyone would guess that an inactive Evil base lay resting. The last visitors had left some time ago, confident that the base would forever be silenced. But exactly how long would forever last?

Traveling past the security doors, down the eerie corridors once filled with hustling villains, the only sound was silence, more still than a graveyard. Eventually, all the passages led to one place: a large open room where the once prosperous (well, some of them were) villains stood, forever trapped in their icy grave. Or so they thought. Again, how long is forever?

Though most of the villains remained motionless, a closer look would reveal otherwise. One statue set apart from the others began to twitch with fervor. A crack appeared, and then a few more, until a loud shattering sound pierced the silence, banishing it forever. In the place of the ice sculpture, a young woman in her early teens stood before falling to her knees as exhaustion racked her body. She took a few moments to catch her breath before taking off in search of her "friend," if he could still be called such. Perhaps the word acquaintance would be better said. After all, it had been quite a while since she'd been able to speak to him face to face without fear of interruptions. Nevertheless, if she wanted to escape this cold, frozen prison, she'd need some help. And no one was better at escaping than he was. Piece by piece, she inspected every statue, searching for any sign of her friend- ahem, acquaintance. It was taking longer than she'd hoped to look since she had never anticipated this many villains being defeated all at once. This one? No, never seen him before. How about this one? No, far too old! Her search was beginning to seem fruitless. However, this didn't mean she wasn't entertained. While most of the figures wore faces of agony or fatigue, some looked startled or shocked. Probably didn't anticipate being beaten so sudden. To these, she let out a slight giggle, if only to lighten her mood a little. Yet soon even she began to grow a little weary. She had just broken out herself.

Finally, once she'd reached the top shelf (they just had to put her on the bottom shelf!) she found who she was looking for. There was only one problem: he wasn't alone in the ice. Hmmm…this was going to be more difficult than she thought. Circling the figure, she couldn't think of any way of breaking him out without waking the others. It was all or nothing, as they'd say. She shrugged. The more the merrier.

But how to release them without hurting them? Her own method wouldn't work here. No, she'd need an ally. Looking to her left she noticed another lone statue of another teenage boy. Perhaps life was cutting her some slack after all. He would do nicely.

"So, you honestly believe that they aren't going to get out of that ice?" Jinx asked later that day, once everyone had begun to slow down. Well, sort of. The titans sat around the dinner table munching on some pizza they'd ordered. Beast Boy was making a fuss about how no one bothered to order vegetarian while Cyborg continued to down half the pizza. Everyone else went back and forth between eating and watching, or eating and talking.

Kid Flash, after snatching a slice or two before it was gone, turned to look at his girlfriend next to him with a slightly annoyed look. "This again? I already told you, they aren't coming back." he said, patting her back.

"How do you know that? We don't know anything about that machine or how long it lasts!" Jinx retaliated.

"I'm pretty sure that if the Brain in a jar was that confident in winning and making us all trophies, then he would have made that machine powerful enough to hold us for a loooong time!"

"But how long is long? It could mean just a few days, or weeks. We have no way of knowing exactly when they will break free. For all we know, they could be coming after us right now at this very moment!" She cried, flailing her arms. By this time, they'd attracted the others attention, including Cyborg's, who was attempting to shove the meat pizza down Beast Boy's throat (playfully).

"Easy there, Babe, now you're getting me uptight," Kid Flash answered gently, doing his best to calm her down without much success.

"Something wrong?" Robin asked curiously before biting into his first slice of pizza, then setting it down.

"Yeah, you sound upset." Cyborg followed up, finishing his tenth slice in one gulp.

"Nah, we're good! It's just her monthly! Hey, did I ever thank you guys for letting us stay here while we look for our own place?" Kid Flash asked while dodging the plate she'd tossed at his head.

Robin smiled. "I told you, it's not a problem. Anything for a fellow titan."

"YES, it is ever so wonderful to share space with a dear friend, especially one who has seen the light of good and come away from the darkness of evil!" Starfire gushed.

"Yeah…what she said." Raven uttered.

"Um, thank you?" Jinx said.

"Relax, Sweetie, everyone here likes you, trusts you, and can't live without you. Well, maybe that last one only applies to me, but you get what I mean." Kid Flash reassured her, placing his arm on her shoulders. "Right, Guys?"

"You bet!"

"Sure."

"Whatever."

"Hee, hee, hee!"

"That's right! Hey Robin, are you gonna finish that?"

With that, everyone was back to chatting amongst themselves, with the exception of Robin now fighting with Cyborg to preserve his sole piece of pizza. Kid Flash laughed along with them hoping his cheerfulness would rub off on his still silent girlfriend. Soon however, even Jinx started to join in, to his relief. With everyone distracted he leaned down close enough for his next few words to be audible to her ears alone. He whispered, "Don't worry those rotten icicles aren't going anywhere."

See-More attempted to pick himself off the floor, still in a daze. His teeth began chattering involuntarily due to the state he had previously been in, and his body didn't seem to want to cooperate with his brain. Try as he might, he couldn't get to his feet without stumbling and falling all over himself, thus repeating the process all over again. Grabbing his head, he let out a soft groan. He felt like he'd just been hit with a sledgehammer filled with bricks covered with cement and enlarged to ten times its size. Somewhere past the fog, a voice called his name, and he swore he could feel a hand shaking his shoulder. After blinking his eye a few times, a face came into view. A few seconds later he could make out details that proved it to be feminine. Seconds more and he could hear the voice a bit more clearly too. Finally, after gaining most of his senses, he took a breath and got to his feet without falling this time. Hmm, maybe he hadn't been too far off after all. When enlarged, her wings could knock a guy unconscious.

"Sorry See-More, I couldn't think of any other way to free you," she said.

"Angel?" he heard his voice croak in surprise. "What the heck are you doing here?"

"Uh, saving your life, thawing you out, giving you a hand, whichever way you want to put it," she answered, shrugging her shoulders.

See-More was dumbfounded. He hadn't spoken to Angel since the first H.I.V.E. academy was destroyed, and now suddenly here she was rescuing him? They hadn't even been that close at school. He scratched his head in confusion. There had to be something he was missing.

Her face grew stern. "Listen See-More, I really need your help."

Ah, now that made more sense. She needed help, naturally. He sighed, "OK, what is it girl?"

"I need you to help me release these guys," she said, making her way over to the H.I.V.E. members still frozen in the ice.

"Why do you need my help? Why don't you just free them the way you freed me?" he argued. They needed the beating as much as he did, in his opinion.

"If I try to crack the ice with all of them bunched together, they might hurt one another, especially since Mammoth is on the bottom."

"They'll cushion each other."

She glared at him. "Come on See-More, they're your friends! You should be more willing to help them out than me!"

"Ugh, yeah, about that…" He muttered nervously, unsure of whether to explain or not. After Jinx disappeared, he'd gone off to look for her without telling any of the others. At some point during his search, See-More had been picked up by the Brotherhood of Evil and was forced to join. Once he'd been delivered to the base, he discovered the remaining H.I.V.E. Five members already here. It had not been a friendly reunion. None of them were very pleased with him for ditching the group, and that was putting it lightly. He'd been relieved when the Brain had partnered him with Warp instead of them. Otherwise, he was sure they would have killed him on the spot.

"Well?" Angel asked impatiently, tapping her foot. It snapped him out of his thoughts.

"Uh, long story short, those guys and I, we're not exactly on the best terms right now, and I like my eye right where it is." See-More answered cryptically. He crossed his arms in an effort to show her that he was done arguing, and that he wasn't changing his mind. Unfortunately, Angel wasn't backing down either.

"Come on See-More, don't make me do it!" She warned.

"Do what?" he said with a giant question mark on his eye before wishing he hadn't asked. All of a sudden, he felt all warm and fluffy inside, a feeling that didn't sit with him well. Slowly, the feeling spread outwards from his chest to his head, and down to the tip of his toes. He glanced over at Angel. She had her hands clasped in front of her resting beneath her chin, and her eyes had become shiny as though she were about to cry.

"Please, See-More, I need you. You're the only one I can turn to. Won't you free them?" She whispered, batting her eyelashes pitifully.

Aw man, he cursed to himself. See-More had forgotten the other reason why she was called 'Angel.' Along with her wings, Angel had the strange ability to change the emotional atmosphere around her from tense anger to soothing comfort. It didn't sound very intimidating, but was really quite effective. Once a person was caught in it, he or she became easy to manipulate, even if they didn't realize it. Thankfully, Angel didn't use her "power" often, but when she did, it was almost impossible to ignore. And try while he tried his best to fight it, in the end, he was fighting a lost battle.

"OK fine, I'll do it." He consented grudgingly.

"Thanks See-More, I knew I could count on you!" Angel answered cheerfully.

Without another word, he made his way over to the others, switched his eye to laser, and slowly began to thaw the ice, all the while preparing for the earful was sure to get once they were free. Maybe they'd be too tired to complain. Maybe. Probably not.