Droosha awoke with a shudder. She was freezing. She moved her upper body and ice cracked and slipped off in small sheets. Somewhere below her something hissed and popped. Her lower body was still encased in ice. Of course, Coldfinger had pushed her into that vat. He'd tried to freeze her. She was stuck in a slab of ice that had frozen itself to the metal walls of the vat, above the level of the liquid nitrogen below. The ice that encased her upper body had started to melt. The lower part still felt solid, which, despite the discomfort and numbness it brought, was probably the only thing stopping her from falling into the liquid nitrogen.
Which would permanently freeze her.
Droosha heard the clank of metal above her. Was Coldfinger coming back to finish the job? She certainly couldn't give him a swift kick now.
"Droosha!"
It took a second for the sound of her husband's voice to sink in. "Boxter," her voice came out a croak. It felt as if there were shards of ice in her throat. She tried to clear it, thinking he couldn't have heard her. But before she could speak again the clank of rapid footsteps on metal rang out.
Boxter crashed into the railing above so hard it visibly vibrated as he leaned over. "Droosha! Sweetie, are you okay? I thought… Kelly thought Coldfinger said he was going to freeze you…"
"He kind of did," Droosha said hoarsely. "I don't think it worked as well as he thought."
"Hang on, I'll find something to get you out of there."
"Honey, the kids…"
Boxter had already disappeared. He came back a moment later, dragging a thick black rope, and slung it over the railing.
"Boxter…"
"Don't be scared; I'll get you out."
"Boxter!" she snapped. At least her voice was coming back, though her throat still felt like sandpaper. "Have you looked for the kids? Coldfinger still has Kelly. And Maz. Go and find them first!"
"SheZow is here. She's looking for them."
That brought some relief. "Okay, just as long as you're not wasting your time on me when they need…"
"I'm not wasting my time!" Boxter growled. He wouldn't look at her, but instead secured the black rope to the railing. He was struggling to tie it off properly.
Good lord, it wasn't even a rope, it was a bloody fire hose. "You can't spray that down in here! Don't you remember in high school – throw water in on this stuff and it'll explode!"
"I'm not spraying it; it's a rope!" he shot back.
"It's not a rope. It's a hose! You can't climb down on that; it's too dangerous!"
Boxter ignored her and began to tie the hose around his waist.
"Boxter, don't you dare come down in here. What about the kids?"
"Don't try and bully me out of this, alright? I'm coming in after you."
"Don't be stupid!"
"Of course I'm being stupid! I love you!" he snapped. Then he drew in a breath. "I love you. And I thought I'd lost you. And the kids. So now I've found you, I'm not just going to walk away. If something happens…" he swallowed hard. "But it won't, I'm coming in after you. And the kids will be fine. SheZow's going to find them. She'll do a better job of keeping them safe than me. But I'm coming for you."
"Oh, sweetheart…" Droosha blinked back tears. "I know you love me." And that made what she had to tell him all the harder. "But if something happens to me and to you as well, if we both fall in here, SheZow might be able to rescue Kelly, but is she going to look after her if that happens? And Guy… I hope he's okay…"
"He's fine," Boxter said shakily. "He's back at the house."
At least something was going right. "Okay. I know you want to save me. But if you can't, and this ice cracks and drops me or something, you can't come in after me. You know that right? The kids need you. They can't lose us both."
Boxter watched her for a long moment and Droosha could see his jaw trembling. "I'm still going to try to get you out, sweetheart. But I'll be careful. If you fall in," he choked and turned his attention to the knot at his waist, yanking it tighter again. "I'll be safe on this, promise. I can't promise I'll ever forgive myself though."
Droosha felt tears prick her eyes again. Luckily, it seemed to be too cold down in the vat for them to flow properly. "Oh sweetie, I… okay. You make sure you tie that nice and tight. And hurry up once you do – my boobs are freezing."
Boxter smiled faintly. "I can help with that."
"Cheeky bastard."
Guy followed Kelly's map. He was lost within five minutes. "Is it a SheZow power not to be able to read maps or something?!" He poked at his phone screen.
"Sorry, sweetie, I think that's all you," said Sheila, popping up from his ring in a flash of pink. "You need to…"
A clank sounded from somewhere up in the roofing. Guy shuddered as his SheSP went off.
"You're not real good at following instructions, are you?" Coldfinger appeared on a walkway above.
"Coldfinger! You're not going to get away with this!"
"Actually, SheCow, I am," Coldfinger snickered. "I warned you but you didn't listen…"
"Where are Kelly and Maz?!"
"Oh, they're nice and snug, don't you worry. Well, actually you should… you see, because you've gone and showed your face, I'm going to have to move my plans to freeze Megadale forward a bit. Not really a problem for me; I'm all set to go. But you're little friends are going to be in a bit of a pickle."
Coldfinger turned to a wide vertical metal pipe that was right beside him on the walkway. The walkway accessed a big red valve wheel and Coldfinger began to turn this as he spoke. "You see, I need to get all of the liquid nitrogen out of the storage vats, and move it up closer to the roof where I can get at it more easily. And your little friends just happen to be stuck right where all that liquid nitrogen has to travel through."
Guy hands balled into fists. "You leave them alone! You touch them, and I'll take that liquid nitrogen and cram it right up…"
"You can't blame me, SheCow," Coldfinger laughed. "You could've stayed away. If I'd been able to leave this until midnight, their bonds might have melted and they could've escaped." He leaned into the valve wheel with one last effort and the pipe groaned and let out a horrendous shudder.
Too late, Guy realised he had been activating the flow of liquid nitrogen. "Hey! Boomerang brush!" He hurled the weapon at Coldfinger and hit the villain square in the nose.
"Ow!" Coldfinger crashed to the walkway floor, clutching at his face.
Guy flew up to the walkway. He landed, and just as he did a blast of ice shot past him and impacted the valve wheel. "You missed, genius," He turned his attention to the valve. He had to turn that off quick. It would be no match for SheZow's superstrength. He grasped it in his hands, ignoring the sudden cold from Coldfinger's missed hit. The valve resisted slightly, let out a groan, and then the wheel snapped clean off in Guy's hands. "Wha…?!" He stared at the wheel in his hands, eyes wide. "Wait, go back on…" He pushed it back into the hole it had snapped out of, but it had no hope of engaging.
Coldfinger cackled. "I didn't miss, genius. Metal's brittle at low temperatures, didn't you know that? Hah! Guess I would've done alright at Megadale University… too late now, I suppose. Because it'll be frozen solid in under an hour!"
Guy whirled back around and tossed the useless wheel. "No, it won't! I'll stop you!"
"But your friends will be frozen in about two minutes, remember? So I don't think so."
Guy's chest heaved, his fists tense. He glared at Coldfinger. And then he shot off the walkway and flew as fast as he could through the factory.
He had to find them. He had to. He couldn't lose his sister. Or Maz. And if he did, Dad would know exactly who to blame.
Guy flew through a door; he still had no idea where he was. Where he was going. Where were they?
"Your second left," Sheila's voice cut into his panic. "Then right after that."
"Thanks Sheila." Guy breathed a sigh of relief and followed Sheila's directions. He shot into a wide open space with some sort of conveyer system.
"Guy!" Kelly's voice made its way up from somewhere below. She and Maz were stuck to some sort of waterslide looking thing below. Guy momentarily wondered what such a thing was doing in a factory, when from one end of the room a rumble sounded. Steam began to hiss from under a sluice gate.
Guy flew down to Kelly and Maz. "Hang on, I'll get you out." He took out his laser lipstick and cut the tape that held them to the chairs. But their feet and the chairs were still frozen to the floor.
Behind them came the roar of liquid being released and the temperature began to drop.
Kelly let out a little shriek. "Guy! Get us out of here!"
"Cover your ears."
Maz and Kelly both did as instructed.
Guy drew in a deep breath and let out a supersonic shriek. The ice around Maz and Kelly's feet began to vibrate and shattered.
The freezing liquid rocketed towards them.
Guy grabbed Maz and Kelly by the collar and hoisted them into the air just as the liquid nitrogen raced beneath them, engulfing the chairs. He flew them up to one of the metal walkways and deposited them on their feet.
"Hey!" said Kelly. Both she and Maz promptly fell over.
"Jeesh, sorry," Guy winced. "Are you okay?"
"I think my toes are still frozen," Maz grumbled, massaging his feet.
"Where's Coldfinger?" Kelly asked.
"He's going to freeze Megadale now!" said Guy. "I nearly had him, but I had to…" He let out a huff and bit down on his words. He didn't want to blame Kelly and Maz for letting Coldfinger go.
"That must be what all the liquid nitrogen coming through was about," said Kelly. "If he wants to use it, he'll probably have to head to the roof. You need to stop him, Guy."
"Sure, but are you going to be okay?"
"We'll be fine, dude," said Maz. He struggled to stand up but fell over again. "We'll follow you as soon as we can."
Guy took off to the roof.
Boxter made his way cautiously down the side of the insulated metal vat. He'd found a set of thin metal rungs in the interior, but he wouldn't have been happy using these without his quickly fashioned rope. They were small, and slippery with ice.
"Be careful, honey," said Droosha from below.
Boxter winced as his shoe slipped off a rung and the rope brought him up short.
"Boxter!"
"Heh…" He was almost there. "I'm fine. It's just like, you know, that time you took me ab sailing…"
"They had proper equipment. And you still got stuck."
"Hey, only for ten minutes or something."
"It was almost half an hour. I know. I counted."
"Well, I guess we're even now, huh? At least I didn't get stuck in an ice cube. " Boxter took another few cautious steps downwards, feeling for the rungs beneath him. He wasn't sure if he was trying to start up the banter for his own sake, or Droosha's. He was nervous enough climbing into this thing. Despite the chill, he was sweating, which made the cold worse. But he had a rope and he wasn't half encased in ice.
He was right beside her now. Boxter anchored one hand firmly to a rung and swung himself out a bit so he could properly see Droosha and her icy prison. He forced his best, goofy grin. "Come here often?"
Droosha was trying hard to glare at him, but she smiled back faintly. And she was trembling. God, she must be freezing. "Funny, mister. How bad is it? I can't see anything down there."
Her upper body was defrosted, to her waist. Her lower was still encased in the ice. Near the top it was cracking a little but lower down, closer to the steaming nitrogen, it looked rock solid. Boxter swallowed. "Not too bad. But I don't think the rest of this is going to defrost. I might be able to crack it though. Get you out that way."
"Just don't knock the slab off the wall. Or…"
"Yeah, I know."
Boxter began fumbling with the hose about his waist. He should've looked for a tool or a bit of metal before he came down. At least he'd left enough hose loose on the end that he could get the metal nozzle free. "Okay, just hold still. I'll be careful."
"Forget careful," Droosha said, "just get me out of this."
Boxter swung himself over closer and Droosha grabbed onto his shoulder to help him stay in place beside her. He began to chip away at the ice on top, where it was most brittle.
Droosha held onto him tighter, wrapping her arms around his neck. "You're warm."
"Yeah…" Boxter continued to chip away at the ice. Even Droosha's breath was cold. But having her so near sent shivers through him. So near, and he could still lose her.
"It's okay, honey. We'll both be out of this soon," she said.
Boxter swallowed, suddenly finding himself unable to reply. He continued to chip away at the ice. Why was she telling him it was going to be okay? It should've been the other way around.
Something in the factory hissed and then the vat and everything around them rumbled and shook.
"What the hell's that?" Droosha said. She held onto Boxter's neck tighter, which was probably a good thing, because the sudden vibration almost swung him away from her.
Boxter let the hose nozzle swing loose and gripped onto his wife tight. "I don't know."
A roar of moving liquid followed. The steam in the vat stirred up and shot skywards. It cleared, if only a little, and the rumbling subsided. But it was replaced by a far more worrying sound.
A cracking.
Boxter glanced down at the slab of ice, struggling to see through the still dissipating steam. Maybe it was cracking around Droosha, ready to release. But then Droosha's body jerked downwards; weight dragged at Boxter's shoulders as he struggled to hold on to her.
"Boxter!"
Boxter grunted and just managed to arrest the fall of the slab of ice. It had only partly released from the vat wall. But the cracking noise continued. He could feel the rubber of the hose pulling tight about his waist, the noose closing so tight it hurt. He squeezed his eyes shut. But he wasn't about to let Droosha go.
"Honey, it's okay, you can let me go…"
"No," Boxter choked out. But his grip was slipping, the muscles in his shoulders tearing. God, he couldn't hold on to a half tonne of ice.
Droosha's grip slipped free. The hose sprung back, slamming Boxter into the vat wall. Somehow, his hand found one of the rungs, and he held onto this for dear life. He still hadn't opened his eyes. And he couldn't. He'd let her go.
Boxter sagged against the vat wall. He was shaking. Not from the cold. He'd let her go.
"Boxter?"
Boxter cracked open his eyes. The steam in the bottom of the vat had almost cleared. The vat was empty.
Droosha was sprawled on the metal floor, chunks of ice strewn about her. "I think… I think all that rumbling was these things emptying. It's okay, sweetheart. I'm not…"
Boxter fumbled with the knot at his waist and slipped free of the rope. He landed on the metal floor, slipping on the icy build up and skidded down on his knees to throw his arms around Droosha's neck. "Babe." He couldn't put any more words together. Only hold her tight to his chest and bury his face in her shoulder.
A/n: I think I may have mentioned it before, but I ship Droosha and Boxter so much. They're such cuties.
