*Watch Batman: The Animated Series episode 'Heart of Ice'. It is seriously one of the greatest half hours of television I've ever seen. It was the first time people began to treat Mr. Freeze as a real and scary adversary, not just a D-list character. 'Nuff said.
"I need to find you." Victor Fries said as he rubbed his gloved hand over a picture of Nora in her younger years during their newlywed phase.
He was alone in the basement of Adam's house, preparing for the final assault. Adam was upstairs, trying to locate the guards hiding Perry by using the Wayne Enterprises databases. Victor sat down, still staring at the picture of Nora stuck to the side of the nitrogen tank with a magnet and he used his powers to make a small rose-like ice ball. He struggled to get the shape right and formed a crude rosebud in his palms. He sat it on the counter beside him and he waited in silence, angry that any tear he'd shed would cause intense pain. He screamed loudly and fell to his knees, unbuckling the entire cryo suit and exposing him to the negative 20 degrees that swirled around the basement. He was only wearing black skin-tight pants that protected his sensitive areas and large pieces of the same organic fabric covered his forearms. He looked at his wife's picture again before crying, ignoring the pain and shaking as his emotions took over for the first time in days.
"Nora!" he screamed.
Large burns trailed down his face and he wiped away the searing cold tears from his eyes as he mourned. Every second of the day, her sweet face flashed into his mind and he couldn't handle the pain inside his heart any longer. He punched the counter as hard as he could, a shield of ice forming across his knuckles as he cried loudly, wanting to rescue her and do nothing more than watch her be happy. He didn't even need her in his life. He just needed Nora to be free of Perry.
"Are you okay down there?" Adam yelled from upstairs.
Victor didn't respond immediately, trying to rid his face of burning tears before he walked over to the stairway and looked up at his partner.
"I'm fine. Any news on Perry?"
"Big news. I have his location. And Nora's. You're not going to believe where she is." Adam said.
WayneTech Labs . . .
Perry woke up from his scotch-fueled nap and wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth as he lifted his head. He looked over the designs for the new company logo and felt his ego shine bright for a moment until his head became full of nails. He groaned loudly and held his forehead as he grabbed his phone and checked for any messages. He gave one last look at the new company named he planned to used and stood up as he listened to the voicemails on his phone. The new company read: GOTHCORP.
Hey, this is Lucius again. I just wanted to know what you wanted to do about the rest of Fries' lab work. I know we were ordered to hand over everything to the police but I just read this document on your tablet about keeping all of it for 'special conditioning'. I just wanted to know what that meant. Call me back whenever you get a chance.
"Shit." Perry said, shaking his head and slamming his phone down on the table beside his resting desk.
He walked around the office section of the lab, grabbing a lab coat and placing the goggles over his head. He pulled out his ID badge and placed the barcode over the red scanner that turned green when he hovered over it. The lock on the next door disabled and he walked into the lab hallway, the blinding-white lights turning on one after another as he found the lab room he needed to investigate. He tapped the door and walked inside, seeing his glorious creation and ultimate weapon against Victor Fries. Standing in front of him was the container that held Nora Fries inside his frozen prison. He walked over to her lock mechanism and grabbed the dial, twisting it counter-clockwise, pressing in, and entering his four-digit passcode on the keypad beside the dial. Within seconds, the liquid drained out from the container and the weight from the support harness around her waist and legs woke her up in a spasm of kicking and screaming. Her drenched blonde hair hung over her face and she began throwing up cyro fluid inside her lungs. Perry pulled down the front section of the container and walked over to her. She swallowed hard and tried to move farther away from him even though she knew she was trapped.
"How long have I been out for this time, Browning?" she asked as her breathing slowed and her body began to shiver.
"Five weeks. Your husband's been busy, Nora. He's gone through a few changes." Perry replied, leaving her attached to the harness as he pulled out a T.V. that sat on a rolling cart and played the camera footage from the night of Victor's transformation.
After it was over, Nora was in shock. She looked at Perry and wanted to kill him. He had been pushed to the absolute limit. This was torture. Not only for Victor; but for her as well.
"What did you do to him?" she demanded to know. Her knuckles were white-hot and any discomfort with the temperature went away with her fury warming her body up.
"I tested him and he surpassed what I thought he was capable of. He took out the Wayne Building just to send me a warning. Yeah. Entire thing. He's got some kind of cryokinectic abilities now and that's how he's making the CK-21 work better than I ever could. He fixed the formula with some special gene inside him."
"You are a bastard. You've kept me here for three years and made him think I still have MacGregor's. What kind of sick man are you?"
"A smart one, Nora. I needed him to work for me and you were the perfect bargaining chip. I cured you. Isn't that enough?"
Nora shook her head and gave a scoff at his presence.
"You are despicable," she began as she continued to hang from her harness.
"You could have saved so many lives in the last few years. You would be the richest man on the planet. You found the cure to Alzheimer's, MacGregor's, severe seizures; in the meantime you could have been saving literally millions of people instead of working for a crime boss."
Perry looked at her and pointed a finger at her head. He gave a small laugh and placed his hand over the knob. She panicked and he reveled in her anticipation.
"For every life I could save, I'd lose ten more. The human race is going to die off eventually. In the meantime, I'm going to milk it for all it's worth."
And with that final comment, he twisted the dial with a smile on his face and watched as the container resealed itself and Nora accepted her frozen fate once again, becoming submerged in the cryo liquid that instantly put her in paralysis. Once the deed was done, Perry took off his protective gear and walked back to his secret office, pouring a glass of scotch and taking a sip with a huge smile across his face.
Tonight, there would be war. And at the end of it all, Perry would stand above everyone, beating the odds like he always had.
