It felt good to finally talk about it...

Violet told him everything. It wasn't important to her anymore. And, after all, she did owe this boy an explanation.

When she finished, they remained silent for a while.

"Now I finally know what this cryotis-thing is." Wilbur said suddenly.

Violet smiled bitterly. "My two little brothers grew up long ago. One of them even has a daughter who is older than me." She said, as if she could hardly believe the story herself.

"Wow. And you wanted to travel back and prevent that." Wilbur noted thoughtfully.

Violet only nodded. She got a tight knot in her throat and prepared herself to be overwhelmed with a lecture by him.

"I understand," Wilbur began hesitantly, "And ... you're really a Super?" He asked, his voice filled with a mixture of admiration and incredulity.

Violet nodded and swallowed. She had never told anyone, who wasn't also a Super, about her special abilities.

Wilbur nodded thoughtfully. Then he shrugged and stood up.

"Well then, come on! We need to get out of here!" He said, rubbing his hands.

"What? How?! I can't do that!" Violet protested.

"Sure you can! C'mon!" Wilbur offered her his hand.

Violet looked up at him. Then she dropped her gaze and sighed, completely discouraged. "This is useless." She muttered under her breath.

Wilbur took a deep breath, then began resolutely, "Well, I certainly won't sit here and wait for the end!" But Violet said nothing.

"You haven't even tried to escape yet, Violet," Wilbur's tone slowly became more accusing, "You've wasted your time wallowing in self-pity!"

Violet felt attacked. "Excuse me? Until now, everything I've done has backfired disastrously!" She answered. Her voice cracked, almost as if she was going to cry again.

"Yes, but now I'm here," Wilbur replied softly, "I'll help you." He started to walk around inside the cell, examining the blueish energy shield surrounding them.
"Haha, very funny." Violet murmured sarcastically, burying her face in her hands. She huddled against the metallic wall of the cell.

Wilbur looked back at her with a slight smile. This time, he wouldn't be dragged down by her depression. It wasn't in his nature to simply throw in the towel.

Although Violet saw things differently, he was still hopeful. After all, she was a Super! That had to be useful somehow!

He walked towards her and crouched directly in front of her. "You really are from another time," He said with a comforting smile, "You can't just give up in a situation like this. You know, my father always says -"

"'Keep moving forward.' I know, I know." Violet interrupted, without lifting her head. "But clever sayings won't help us now!" She added desperately.

"Hey, we're friends, right?" He asked her, putting a hand on her slender shoulder and giving her a gentle smile.

But Violet didn't return his smile when she looked up. Instead, she stared out into the emptiness of the cell, as if she remembered something.

"Well ..." she began hesitantly.

When he saw her skeptical expression, Wilbur suddenly remembered how their older selves had interacted with each other, and he was doubtful ...

What had happened that they hated each other's guts? Had Wilbur done something? Or would he do something? Or maybe Violet? And would the same thing happen to their relationship?

When their eyes met, Wilbur knew that Violet was thinking the same thing.

"I don't know." She finished.

Wilbur pushed these thoughts out of his mind. "Forget those idiots." He said finally, "They obviously have no idea!" Then, he stood up and offered her his hand again. "C'mon. Let's get out of here."

Violet took a deep breath and took his hand, letting him help her up. Violet noticed that his touch was warm and comforting. Somehow, she could feel it give her a bit more strength again.

"Okay, and what do you think we should do?" she asked, still not very motivated. She didn't believe that they could escape so easily, especially after her previous attempt to generate a force field had failed.
"That is an excellent question!" Wilbur exclaimed with a laugh. But he suddenly fell silent when he saw Violet's skeptical, and slightly annoyed, gaze.

"Well ... that's, um... kinda my catchphrase." He explained sheepishly. Violet only rose an eyebrow.

Wilbur's face felt hot all of a sudden. He turned away and coughed. "Ahem. Well, you can make force fields. So, why don't you simply run through this energy shield?"

"I don't think that'll work." Violet replied skeptically.

"Well, not with that attitude it won't." Wilbur said, crossing his arms.

Violet sighed and gave herself a push. After all, there was nothing to lose...

She took a deep breath and generated a force field. It was a strange feeling, not wearing a mask or a suit, and using her powers with someone watching.

Slowly, she stepped towards the energy shield. When her force field touched the energy shield, there was a loud crackle, as the two forms of energy met.

She went along, with Wilbur right alongside her, and she slowly had to apply more of an effort to press her force field through the energy shield. But after a strong push, she and Wilbur made it to the other side.

What they didn't know was that the energy shield of the cell worked like a laser barrier. If it was interrupted somewhere, an alarm started automatically.

The two teenagers wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but suddenly everything was drenched in blood red light, and a siren droned in a deafening volume. The force shield around the cell disappeared.

"Any more brilliant ideas?" Violet cried over the noise of the alarm. She wasn't really surprised. Wilbur, however, was quite disappointed.

"Oops." He said, gritting his teeth.

Suddenly, a door opened, causing bright light fell into the red room, and the silhouette of a person appeared. The two frightened teenagers backed up into the cell once again, until they stood completely against the metal wall.

The alarm went out, the normal lights switched on again, and the shield reappeared. But this time, the room outside the cell was also illuminated.

The room in front of the cell was narrow, just enough space for two people to run next to each other. On both sides appeared more square platforms and more cells, but all were empty and switched off.
In front of their cell stood a very pale young woman with very light blond hair and white-blue eyes. She wore a yellow and black suit, similar to the ones that super heroes used to wear, but she wasn't masked. She glared at the two prisoners emotionlessly.

"So, you two." Robac's voice suddenly sounded from a loudspeaker and echoed through the hall. "You tried to escape from my comfy little cell. That is not okay! Delta 4-15 will now show you what happens to people who get on my nerves!"

Instinctively, Violet grabbed Wilbur's hand.

But the young woman remained where she was - she didn't move an inch. She simply stared at the two teenagers with her cold eyes. Then, suddenly, her eyes began to glow!

At that moment, Wilbur and Violet saw their breath rising in clouds of white steam. They could feel the room quickly become colder - so cold that even droplets of steam froze into ice and trickled to the ground. The entire water in the air was frozen in an instant! Ice crystals formed with incredible speed. They almost seemed to crawl along the floor and the walls of the cell.

Wilbur and Violet jerked away from the wall just in time, before their hands froze to it. Even their hair and clothing was covered with ice.

Apparently, this woman was able to manipulate the temperature in a room simply by her presence.

Just as their hands and feet started to become numb from the cold, it seemed to stop cooling.
The eyes of the young woman became normal again, and she left without saying a single word.

When the door was closed, the light in the hall turned off automatically, leaving only the pale illumination of the cell.

"Not g-g-good." Wilbur shivered. Ice crystals had formed on his clothes and his skin.

"Be happy. Freezing is c-c-cool." Violet said. Her hair was all white from the ice.

"Sure..." Wilbur replied, not fully understanding what she meant.

"You just doze off peacefully and die, just like that... without pain ..." She continued with an empty gaze.

Violet's negative and hopeless attitude was slowly getting on Wilbur's nerves.

"We won't die!" He said forcefully, almost aggressively, as he looked at her sternly. She only just stared at the floor.
Wilbur sighed and he surveyed the cell once again. "Let's see," He said, "We can't go through that sh-shield thing. So ... we need to find another way." He said with chattering teeth.
He looked towards Violet again. She was still staring motionlessly at the floor. Had she even heard what he had just said?

"Violet!"

"Huh, what?" She said, startled from her thoughts, her slim body trembling from cold, "Oh yes ... find another way. Sure."

Wilbur sighed, then gave a slight smile. "You know, for a Super, you're not very helpful." He pointed out.

"If I remember correctly, it was your great idea that brought us into this mess!" Violet said, gesturing towards the deep frozen cell.

"We shouldn't argue," Wilbur said determinedly, "We should save our energy and find a way out of here." He could feel his feet becoming numb from the cold. Violet didn't felt much better. Her whole body was trembling.

It had to be under - 4E Fahrenheit!

"There is no way out of here! Don't you get it?!" Violet cried suddenly. Why should they raise false hopes, only to be disappointed again? Why couldn't he understand that all his efforts would be useless?

Unmoved, Wilbur rose an eyebrow. He simply didn't want to understand!

"Look, it's not as if we could dig a tunnel like in an old gangster movie and -" Violet fell silent all of a sudden. She and Wilbur both looked to the metal floor of the cell.

"You think you can do that?" Wilbur asked after a pause.

"Maybe. If the force field is strong enough .." Violet's voice sounded slightly more enthusiastic again. "I have to concentrate on this. Tell me if you see someone coming." She added, squatting on the ground.

Wilbur went close to the edge of the cell (making sure to keep away from the energy shield) and kept an eye on the door.

It was difficult for Violet to stretch out her numb fingers, but with a lot of will power, she managed to generate a force field into the ground. It was very exhausting to increase the intensity of the force field, enabling it to cut the metal floor. But she made it. The force field disappeared, and only a round slot in the floor was visible.

"I've got it!" Violet whispered enthusiastically.
"Really?" Wilbur turned around, and saw Violet trying to lift the round plate with her numb fingers. He immediately crouched next to her in order to help.

"Violet! You're the best!" He exclaimed, trembling both from the cold and from excitement.

"Oh, not really." Violet murmured, but Wilbur could've sworn that he saw her blushing.

They had almost lifted the plate from the ground. Pleasant warm air started to stream into the cell already.

Suddenly, the ground quaked! The two teenagers were hurled through the cell and the plate fell into the opening again, closing off their escape route.

Then, the lights went out! The cell was filled with absolute darkness.

"Wilbur?" Violet cried out worriedly. Hopefully, he was okay! Carefully, she felt her way through the cell.

"I'm here," Wilbur answered, then started screaming, "Aaah! What's that?"

"It's just me." Violet reassured him, after she had accidentally touched his back.

"Wait a sec, the electricity's off," Wilbur began, "That means... we can get out of here!" He grabbed Violet's wrist and dragged her after him. He didn't care much about which direction they were going in. The most important thing was that they could finally leave this stupid cell.

In the same moment, the lights turned on again ...and so did the energy shield.

Wilbur's face collided with the blue shield, and he was hurled violently backwards. He fell painfully to the ground and remained there.

"Wilbur!" Violet called in fright, rushing towards him. His hands were covering his face. "Are you okay?" She asked concernedly, trying to pull his hands from his face, but Wilbur struggled.

"No! Not my face! Not my beautiful face!" He cried out over-dramatically, "I'm totally deformed!"

"Oh, of course not! Now let me see!" She said, pulling his hands away with some effort and pressing them on the floor.

Wilbur squinted his eyes and turned his head away. "No! Don't look at me! I'm ugly! I look like the Hunchback of Notre Dame! Wilbur Robinson, the boy who doesn't need a mask on Halloween!" He cried desperately.

"Chill! Everything's alright."
"My face is okay?"

"Yes."

"I'm not deformed?" Wilbur squeaked, and squinted through one eye.

"Not more than before." Violet said reassuringly. Wilbur breathed a sigh of relief, but then he covered his face again.

"My nose! Is my nose still there? I can't feel my nose anymore!" He shrieked, staring cross-eyed at his nose.

"Yeah, your nose is still -" Violet was interrupted by a hydraulic hissing. Suddenly, the door opened again.

A masked young man, Lightning, stretched his head inside. When he saw that the two young teenagers were still in the cell, he disappeared again. Apparently, he had just checked whether the two prisoners had used the blackout to escape.

When the door closed again, the two time travelers breathed a sigh of relief. Then, they tried again to lift the round plate out of the hole, just like a manhole cover. It took a while, and though her fingers hurt from the cold, they managed it with some effort.

The cell was flooded with orange-yellow light, coming from the corridor below them.

"Violet! You're a genius!" Wilbur whispered excitedly while he took Violet's shoulders and shook her slightly.

Violet just smiled with a blush. "Shh! Let's get out of here!" She whispered.

They climbed down into the corridor, and closed the hole in the cell again. They snuck carefully along the dimly lit corridor. It was pleasant in the comparatively warm hallway. After a while, they started to warm up. But something was strange...

The two looked at each other.

"Where's this wind coming from?" Wilbur finally whispered.

"If we are underground, there shouldn't be any wind." Violet replied worriedly. Her hair was flying around her head. If it was a ventilation system, then it was really effective.

They tiptoed further along. The corridor ended in a dark room at a balustrade. The wind was getting stronger here, and the air was fresh and cool.
But only at a second glance, they saw that it wasn't a room in front of them, but the dark night sky of Todayland!

It was already dark, and a few clouds floated through the peaceful black-blue sky.

But instead of being happy that they finally found a way out, Wilbur and Violet bent over the railing in silence.

The ground was many hundred feet below them! The building was floating silently in the sky! And darkness replaced where the bright lights of the city should be.

"Great," Wilbur moaned, "And how do we get down now?"

He looked at Violet. As far as he could tell in the dim twilight, she looked very solemn. "You can't fly by any chance, can you?" He asked skeptically.

Violet shook her head slowly. She was disappointed. They finally managed to leave the cell, and now they still were captured?

Against her expectations, Wilbur remained silent. What happened to his "keep moving forward" attitude?

"I guess it's up to us now." She said quietly. They remained silent for a while.

"You mean, we'll stop him." Wilbur noted finally. A hesitant nod was the answer. Violet couldn't expect him to risk his own life.

"Okay! What's the plan?" He asked, now fully motivated.

"Well, what do we know?" Violet asked.

"Hmm ... well, if his plan is the same from your time, then he has a crystal ... and a deadly weapon."

"And thanks to us, a time machine as well." Violet added worriedly.

Wilbur took a deep breath. "Doesn't look too good." He muttered. But then his mood changed abruptly. "I say we destroy as much as possible!" He exclaimed, slamming his fist into his hand.

Violet smiled bitterly. "We need to get to the time machine before him," She said seriously, "If we return to our time, that will solve one problem at least." Her future self would have to take care of the rest. Also, if they went back, they could avoid having this situation happen at all.

"Exactly, then the city will be just destroyed from this gigantic laser canon." Wilbur said sarcastically.

"You got a better idea?" Violet hissed. He froze and gulped at her angry gaze.
"Um ... okay. You're the expert here! Let's do it your way."

Violet smiled in satisfaction. Then, they made their way back into the floating building.