rThe texaswookie looks up as a door opens and an armored figure stomps through the door. A red glow from where the eyes would be reflect off the little bit of light. "So, who are you?" The writer questions curiously eyeing the figure nervously having learned what this meant.
I am the person that comes to get a few words from you before you start up on this chapter of the story. The figure responding in a hollow echoing tone that was slightly unnerving. The figure finally stepped into the light and the writer notes that the figure is wearing some form of body armor that covers them a glass dome covers their head allowing a person to see the red tinted glasses on the bald head of the blue skinned super villain. The writer tries to move out of the way but the bulky gun that the man carries is activated and a stream of ice fires from the gun incasing the writer up to his knees in ice. Do you know how long it would take for a human to die with that much ice surrounding their body? The figure questioned idly. If you get help you might only lose the function of your legs. Of Course I could increase it to cover more of you. The figure said as he powered his gun up and blasted again this time bringing the ice up to his waist.
"What is your malfunction?" The writer questions, as he tries to move his legs, only to realize that the ice is an effective prison holding him in place without even the comforting sound of cracking. The writer uselessly pounds on the ice doing nothing more than hurting his hand against the unforgiving ice
"Now then, do you want to say those words or do you want to chance me adding another layer or do you want to say those words and allow me to free you? The armored man asked him.
"Fine, I'll do it." The writer complains shaking his hand painfully. "I the Texaswookie, do hereby renounce any claim whatsoever to the characters or places now that I think about it that are the property of D.C comics. I also renounce any claim of ownership to any of the Angel/Buffy characters whom are the property of Joss. There are you happy now?" The writer asked of the blue skinned man that had watched on emotionlessly as the writer spoke.
"I am satisfied." The figure responded to the writer with a nod of his head.
"So, do you think you could please get me out of this thing before frostbite sets in?" Texaswookie pleads of the high tech villain. I mean I did carry out my part of the deal. He pointed out to him.
"Very well," Freeze says as he walks forward and slams his fist into the ice freeing the figure.
"Remind me to stay far away from you." The writer says as he watches the arm of the villain in disbelief as he realized that he had not even felt it as he slammed his hand into the ice and that it hadn't even scratched his armor either. "Got to go now and you have to go get your chains on." The writer says as he runs out the door.
Angel watched as Gunn handed out the next set of folder to each of the group. He looked at the names that had been placed on the folder. Fred let out an excited squeak. "Victor Fries, as in Dr. Victor Fries?" The woman asked in wonderment. "I remember reading up on some of his work when I was younger." The brunette's eyes glazed over in excitement that those who knew her were accustomed too.
Lorne smiled at the young woman. "Well Freddykins, since you already know who the guy is why don't you tell us just who it is that the guy is." The demon told the young woman the excitement that the woman felt over something as simple as seeing a name that she recognized was somewhat contagious and made them all forget for just a moment just exactly what kind of people it was that they were having to defend.
"Right," Fred returned to her friend with a smile and began telling them what she knew of the man off the top of her head. "He's Dr. Victor Fries, and is possibly the leading expert in cryogenic technologies, he's also a leader in the field of Molecular Biology, bringing many of the things that we now about cryogenics years ahead of what we thought that we would be at. He's written papers of all sorts on the matter and the last I really heard about him he was conducting medical research with several companies and was on the verge of several breakthroughs that would prove some of his latest theories and finally put him on the map. He's won several awards for his various breakthroughs in the medical field they say he might actually be the one to perfect the technology completely. Oddly enough though I don't think that he has written any papers in recent years I would have to look into it to be sure though." The scientist in the demon hunter looked somewhat eager at the idea of looking up this new avenue of research and finding out more about what the man may or may not have discovered in the recent years since she had last looked.
"What's cryogenics?" Angel finally asked curiously. He had never been overly interested in the medical and scientific world and as he was a vampire he never really had to worry as sooner or later anything and everything barring a lost limb was healable and made needing to know medical knowledge rather unneeded since he would just heal from whatever it was in a matter of time and blood. He could splint broken limbs, dig bullets out, treat arrow or bolt wounds, and sew cuts up but that was all that he could do. The few things that could affect him like the poisons that Faith had hit him with were all magical based and had magical based cures to all of them.
"Cryogenics is the science of freezing a live body for later treatment." Wesley informed the vampire. "The idea is that the person and the body can be preserved and saved at a later date when we actually know how to cure the person of whatever disease that they may have at the time. In theory the freezing should even stop a person from aging so that when they are cured they don't die the minute they leave the chamber."
Angel looked around the room for a moment. "You're serious aren't you?" He finally questioned in a slightly skeptic tone of voice to the Watcher who nodded his head in return. Angel shook his head at that and wondered how they thought these things up.
"If it helps you any, consider it somewhat like time travel or a suspended animation spell that puts you to sleep." Wesley informed the vampire who nodded his head in acceptance of the crazy idea and comparison.
"So what kind of crime did Dr. Fries get caught up in, did he take money for his research from someone he shouldn't have?" Fred asked curiously.
Gunn looked at the young woman almost sadly, confusing and worrying her. "Let me guess, all of the information that you have on the good Doc was from before you went and took your little jaunt into Pylea right?" He asked her knowingly. The woman nodded her head in confusion wondering where the man was going with his questions. "Victor Fries has had a bit of a job change since his days of working on that stuff." The lawyer explained as he began reading from his file. "He now gets his jollies out of freezing people now whether they need to be frozen or not." Everyone turned the page from a picture of the man in a lab coat to see an armored figure wielding a giant gun in both hands. "According to what we know he was involved in a lab accident after freezing his wife who was suffering some really odd disease. The man supplying money for the research a Mr. Ferris Boyle wanted to stop him and attempted to unfreeze her. They fought and Dr. Fries was somehow affected by some stuff there the results were interesting to say the least."
Gunn looked a bit uncomfortable and disturbed as he read ahead a bit but continued on with the briefing. "According to this the accident damaged his body in ways that are unknown. He is forced to stay in a refrigerated room or suit at all times or he'll die. He might be able to go about in someplace like the Arctic without needing his armor suit. The armored suit is actually a device of his own creation to allow him to move around as he needs to. The suit has been heavily modified over the years and allows him to have all sorts of other enhancements like super strength and what not. He's also created several weapons that use his cryogenic technology most of them are a type of freeze ray that incase people in blocks of ice. With this technology he's not done a whole lot of good. He prefers to use his technology for various crime sprees. He uses his technology to try and hold the city prison unless they pay him so much money or whatever. When that happens one of the vigilantes that swing around this area do something to stop or counteract whatever it is that he has got going. Most of his crimes seem to follow an ice theme though. When he's performing these crimes though he's not performing them as Dr. Fries instead he's doing the work under the name of Mr. Freeze, yet another of the Batman's Rogues gallery. The list of crimes that he's being charged for are misuse of company resources, attempted murder, multiple counts for attempted blackmail, attempted murder, destruction of property, and stealing anywhere from a small bank or private collector all the way up to stealing from the government and private collectors. His favorite precious gem happens to be diamonds as they look good in icy environments and are easier to slip by when packed with the tons of ice that he usually moves around."
"What's he using the money for?" Fred asked nervously as one of the men she had looked up to as a role model was revealed to be nothing more than a criminal freak.
"Originally he was using the money to fund his research into curing his wife." Gunn said as he looked his file over.
"See, then he hasn't completely lost it then." Fred said happily as she tried to find some good out of the mess.
"And what is he doing with the money now Gunn?" Wesley questioned having caught the play on words that the lawyer had used when describing the use of the ill gotten funds that the criminal managed to gather.
"Now a days he just uses his money to start something else, buy more equipment or whatever so that he can research or pay his men off. When he needs something really big he just steals it though. Most of his money seems to go into armor and weapons upgrades as he needs them. Since the heroes always manage to find counters to his guns or weakness in his armor he's always trying to make them better."
"I guess that we have to meet him then since he hasn't tried to end the world." Angel said tiredly.
"Yeah, from what I can tell the most he's done is try to freeze the city a few dozen times over." Gunn noted to the group.
"Have the guards turn down the temperature or whatever and we'll talk with him and see what there is that we can do for him." Angel finally told the others.
"Right-O Angel cakes, one chilled criminal scientist shaken up in the head." Lorne said as he began making the calls. A few moments later the group heard a stomping sound and watched as the doors opened to admit the armored figure that was Mr. Freeze.
"Dr. Fries." Fred greeted the man politely while the others just nodded their heads in greetings to the man. "We're the head members of Wolfram & Hart. I'm Winifred Burkle, head of the Science Division, over there is Mr. Wyndam-Pryce head of our Research Division, then there's Lorne the head of the Entertainment Division, Charles Gunn head of Legal Department and finally but certainly not least there's Angel the CEO of the entire operation at Wolfram & Hart America.
"Madame," the villain said respectfully as he looked the group over nodding to the various figures as they were introduced to him. He had been told he was going to be meeting the legal team that he wanted to hire and was glad that they were finally here. Joker had told them all about the entrance interview and that as long as they hadn't tried to destroy the world then there was a more than average chance that they could get representation. The group was actually rather young looking though he knew that sometimes that wasn't always the case.
"Dr. Fries, or would you prefer Mr. Freeze?" Gunn asked as he greeted the man with blue tinted skin.
"Either will work." The criminal returned to the man. "I rarely go by the Doctor anymore though it doesn't really apply to me as much as it used too. That part of my life is for the most part gone, and over with these day. You might say that I go by my professional name more often now than my real name."
"That's understandable." Gunn returned with an understanding smile as he returned to his seat. "You got a rep and an official name now and you got to stick with it. People that think otherwise don't understand what you had to do to get that name. You earned the name and it ain't right to ignore what it means to have that name."
"You do understand." Mr. Freeze said with a smile as he looked the man over with a new appreciation of him than what he had moments ago.
"Yes," Wesley said dryly, "your reputation can be quite important in your line of business Doctor."
"Let's get started on why we're here." Angel said before anyone else could say anything he didn't want anyone riled up over anything. "Now, you want us to represent you in court and deal with anything that you may or may not have done. Is this correct?"
"Indeed it is Mr. Angel." Mr. Freeze replied to Angel.
It's just Angel, no Mister." The vampire returned to the blue skinned man.
"Very well," He agreed easily enough. "Yes, I do need legal representative to help me out with all of the legal problems that I have managed to accumulate since the accident that made me what I am today." The arctic criminal admitted.
"Gunn, if you'll read off on the various crimes that Mr. Freeze here is being charged with." Angel told his friend who nodded as he picked up the file on the man.
"Well, according to this he's being charged for are misuse of company resources, attempted murder, multiple counts for attempted blackmail, attempted murder, destruction of property, stealing anywhere from a small bank or private collector all the way up to stealing from the government and private collectors, and a few weapon laws violations with his experimental weapons." Gunn told the others as he looked at the list again.
"Yes I have no need or want to destroy the world, I merely want the power and to acquire that power and technology to help myself I must do things that I am not proud of." Mr. Freeze explained to the group.
"So you haven't tried too or planned to destroy the world or anything like that then?" Angel tried to clarify for the entire group hoping that he would slip up and admit to trying to destroy the world or something.
"Of course not, I am not one of Superman's villains after all. I happen to have a method to my madness you might say." Freeze replied haughtily looking somewhat insulted that someone would have to even ask him a question like that.
"And that is probably the most disturbing way he could have put it." Wesley commented from where he was sitting.
"Well I'm glad that you haven't gone completely bad Dr. Fries." Fred cheered from where she was sitting causing the man to let a small smile of amusement to tug at the corner of his lips.
It had been a long time since someone had believed in him to find one such person sitting across from him was a relief."Thank you for your vote of confidence." Mr. Freeze told the young woman.
"Lorne?" Angel asked the demon who was busy massaging his head. The demon seemed to be suffering somewhat ever since they had entered the town it was like the destinies of everyone was giving him headaches he hadn't even had anyone sing for him.
"While I would love to have everyone here locked up Angel cakes. No offense meant." He told Mr. Freeze who shrugged unconcerned about the demon or his beliefs. "This guy hasn't done anything that would make us throw the key away when dealing with him though. So I guess that I vote that we protect his sorry self. That is what you want right Blue Belle?" The green skinned demon questioned of Mr. Freeze who nodded his head in agreement. "Then I say that we go ahead and do it to it.
"You know I'm all for representing him." Eve said from her seat where she had been placed.
"Eve, you're supposed to keep quiet as in not make any sounds." Angel returned to her. You're here to be the eyes and ears of Wolfram and Hart not to make a choice on your own."
"But that's no fun." The woman said with a bit of a pout that she aimed at the vampire who ignored it. Eve simply had nothing when you compared her pout to the pouts of Buffy, Cordy, and Fred. "Oh yeah, I hope when you're negotiating that you get us some of the early designs for some of his weapons and armor. Those things could be useful to us at some point you never know when you may need it to fight a dragon or something like." She said with a smirk.
"I can accept those terms of payment." Mr. Freeze commented, wanting to get the group back on track in dealing with his case.
Angel looked at the woman oddly. "I really doubt that we'll ever be fighting dragons." Angel told the woman.
"It would be good technology to have though." Fred pointed out.
Angel merely shook his head at the woman. "Fine, Wes?"
"I can't find a reason not to." The former Watcher admitted to them.
"How about you Gunn?" Angel asked.
"I'm in, besides he'll be a lot easier to deal with than the clown anyways. We can use his condition to ask about possible reactions to his mental state we can also use the fact that he was desperate to save his wife at the time and that it was the actions of his former employer that set everything off as it is now. The fact that she is now up and walking around thanks to some other experimental procedures could actually justify that one and get most of the court to lean our way. He might not get out of prison but his time shouldn't be too bad either." Gunn said as he began telling them of ways that he could weaken the prosecution on their case.
"Alright," Angel said before turning to the criminal and letting his eyes flash golden. "It looks like we have decided to work with you. Make no mistake though, if you try and destroy the world or even try and create an Ice Age that would destroy everything we'll bury you so deep that you'll be hitting lava." Angel promised him with a small growl in his voice.
Mr. Freeze was unimpressed with the display having seen much more intimidating by the Batman. He had to admit though that the threat was somewhat impressive as it might be just enough to surely kill him. "I'll remember what you said."
"Good." Angel said flatly as his eyes returned to normal.
The others ignored Angel and his display of power as they summoned the guards who took their newest client away so that they could continue their interviews.