Chapter 15: Final Confrontation
Batman was making his way through the Secure Testing Entry to get to where Nora, Freeze, and Boyle were. He then climbed up a ladder and entered a small space that had one ventilating duct that was covered by a grate. Batman used his great strength to tear the grate right off its hinges and crawled through the duct. He saw through the tiny cracks of the duct the whole Cryogenic Testing Facility and he clearly saw Freeze talking to Boyle who was iced to a cryogenic freezing chamber which happened to be the one that held freeze's terminally ill wife in suspended animation. "Your body core temperature is dangerously low, Ferris. All I want is to get Nora and leave.", Freeze said. "I'm not giving you the code! I'll see you both dead before I give you a damn thing!", Boyle said angrily. "Then join me in my fate...and freeze.", Freeze responded. "You're a peon, Victor! A pleb! What are you without me, huh? You've got nothing! No money, no resources! Everything around you, I built! Without me, you'd still be turning bugs into ice cubes!", Boyle said. "You stole from me, Victor. You thought I'd just let that go?", Boyle asked. "You still have time, Boyle. Or are you so empty you have nothing to live for?", Freeze asked. "You'll never save your wife! Look at you! You're out of ideas!", Boyle said. "A few more degrees below zero and we'll see if I need any.", Freeze said. "You don't have the guts to do it!", Boyle dared Freeze. "Keep stalling and the cold will do it for me.", Freeze shot back. Once they stopped arguing, Batman kicked open the grate door. The grate landed on the floor and this caught Freeze's attention. He then froze the grate and the opening in the duct where it was. Batman then appeared out of a corner and began to try to reason with the villain. "Victor, you have to let him go.", Batman said. Freeze then had his gun pointed at Batman and said, "I'm taking my wife! You can't stop me!". "I know the truth and so will the police. Boyle will face judgment for his crimes.", Batman said as he slowly approached him. "It..it was an accident! You don't know what you're talking about!", Boyle said while still being frozen to Nora's container. Freeze then grabbed Boyle by the throat and broke him out of the ice. Boyle was then thrown into another chamber and the door closed shut. Boyle was trying to get the door open with no luck. Freeze then fired his cannon at Batman, but Batman got out of the way. "Nothing matters, do you understand? Nothing but my Nora!", Freeze said as he used the controls to raise the platform he was on higher. "You've endangered lives all over this city. Nora would never have wanted this.", he said. "No. What she wants is to live a long life in the warmth of the sun, her hand in mine.", Freeze said as he put his hand on the glass on Nora's chamber while admiring her beauty. "But because of him, she'll only feel the icy touch of a man whose emotions run as cold as the blood in his veins!", Freeze angrily said. He then called upon the rest of his henchman. "We made a deal. Now get in here and honor our bargain! Find the Batman!", Freeze ordered. Then eight goons in parkas came running into the room. "On my way.", one guy said. Batman then grappled up onto one of the vantage points above to stay out of sight. He used this height to survey the room and he saw that the room was powered by a total of three cryogenic reactors. He knew he had to disable all of them. He grappled over to and flew down to tank one and disabled that one. "Warning! Cryotank one, overload in progress.", a computerized voice said. "He's at tank one.", Freeze told his goons. Once tank one exploded, Batman grappled back up. "Boyle is the real criminal here, not me!", Freeze said to Batman, and Batman knew that, but he couldn't let Victor get away with all he's done tonight. Batman made his way to the second tank and disabled it. "Warning! Cryotank two, overload in progress.", the voice said. "He's at tank two.", Freeze told his goons. Once tank two exploded, Batman grappled back up. "Do you understand how it feels to have someone taken away from you? Someone you truly love?", Freeze asked Batman. And Batman of course knew how it felt ever since he lost his parents. That was something he and Victor had in common. He made his way to the last tank and disabled it. "Warning! Cryotank three, overload in progress.", the voice warned. "He's at tank three.", Freeze told his goons. Once tank three exploded, Batman grappled back up before the thugs got there. Once all the tanks were destroyed, Freeze pushed buttons on the controls. "Let's see how well you do when the air freezes in your lungs.", Freeze said as cold air was emitted from the machines. The thugs got to higher ground just in time so they would not be affected by the cold. Once the air cleared, Batman was frozen in place. Freeze saw where Batman was now and that he was unable to move. "Now I have you!", he said as he jumped down to Batman's level. He then got his gun ready to fire and said, "Freeze in Hell, Batman!". But the hero managed to break free from the ice just in time and used a smoke pellet to disappear. Freeze fired his ice beam into the smoke. Once it cleared away, he saw that Batman was gone. "Find him! Now!", Freeze ordered his men. "Yes, sir.", one guy said. Batman was on another vantage point looking down at the thugs and their heavily armored boss walking around searching for him. He saw that there were plenty of icicles on the ceiling. He got out one of his thermal batarangs and threw it at one. The icicle hit and knocked out one of the thugs. He then saw Freeze was right under another one. He chucked another batarang at an icicle and it fell and hit Freeze causing slight damage to his suit. Batman then flew down to the ground to avoid being spotted. Freeze then looked up and saw where Batman had done that. "You won't escape that way.", he said as he froze each and every vantage point in the room. Batman had to be more careful now. He snuck up on a thug and silently took him out without anyone else hearing. He saw Freeze coming and hid under a grate in the floor. He waited until Freeze was on top of the grate and then pounced out from it to attack him. Batman had caused slightly more damage to Freeze's suit after that. He then quickly darted away before the villain got back up. "Damn you, Batman for forcing my hand!", he said as he then froze the grates that he was in. Batman saw two more thugs were standing side by side in front of him and not aware that he was behind them. He used this opportunity to knock both of them out at the same time by banging their heads together. Freeze heard this and went over to investigate. He saw that two more of his men were out cold. "Well, Batman, come out and do what you came to do.", he said. Unbeknownst to him, Batman was right behind an ice wall that was behind Freeze. He used his thermal gloves to break through the ice and attack him again, causing significantly more damage to the suit. Before Victor got back up, Batman quickly darted away again. Then the computer voice came on again and said, "Containment failure in capsule one. Prime subject, Nora Fries, in danger.". "No, Nora!", Freeze said with distress. Freeze then climbed up the ladder to a control platform and pressed the button to set off the cool air again. Batman got to safety before being frozen again. The four remaining thugs however were completely encased in blocks of ice like a caveman. Batman saw he had an opportunity to take him down. While he was distracted. Freeze was too busy working on restoring the containment to notice Batman sneaking behind him. Batman used his thermal gloves to break the ice that was covering an opening that he then snuck through to get underneath the glass that Freeze was standing on. "Damn it! I should've just killed him! Him and the Bat! Hold on, Nora! I've almost got you!", Freeze said to himself. Before he could finish victor felt a heating at his robotic feet. He then fell through the floor as it collapsed. Batman then grabbed Victor and through him against a railing. He then jumped in midair, heated his gloves and hit Freeze with one last final blow that cracked open his helmet. Freeze fell to the floor in a weakened state. Even though it was cold in the facility, it wasn't that cold enough for him to survive for long and his suit was damaged enough to have his supercoolant leak out. Batman looked at Victor and felt pity for him. At first, he thought he was the villain in this story, but he actually turned out to be the victim. The real villain still had to be dealt with. "Thanks for doing all the heavy lifting, Batman.", Boyle said on the platform above who somehow managed to get out of the chamber he was in. Batman looked up with anger at his old friend. "But you shouldn't have stuck your nose in my business.", Boyle said as he pressed the controls to turn on the frigid air. The air froze Batman in ice again, rendering him motionless. He then hit the controls to make the platform descend back down. "And here I thought I was going to have a problem explaining what happened in your lab. I mean the police are never going to look at me after what you did. And with this Bat freak dead, there won't be anyone left to say otherwise.", Boyle said as the platform came to a stop. Boyle just watched Victor crawl towards him very weakly. The computer voice once again said, "Cryogenic containment failing.". "Nora.", Freeze said as he weakly reached his hand out to his wife. "And that just leaves you.", Boyle said. "Please. You can save her. You just have to bypass the...", Victor said and then trailed off. Boyle then kicked victor onto his back and tore a metal piece off of his suit. "No, Victor! She dies! But I'll keep you alive long enough to see her go!", Boyle said as he began to beat Victor to death with that metal piece. Batman then started to break free from the ice that held him in order to save Freeze. Once he was free, Batman charged at Boyle. He grabbed the weapon out of Boyle's hand and punched him. Boyle fell to the ground and Batman held him in place with his foot. Batman then gave one last punch that knocked Boyle out cold. "Sweet dreams, humanitarian.", Batman said. He then went over to Nora's pod and entered the codes needed to restore her containment. "Cryogenic containment restored.", the voice said. Victor then began to feel calm once Batman saved his wife. Batman walked over to Victor and knelt down beside him. "I'm sorry, Victor. I can't give you peace, but I can give you justice.", he said as he got out a container filled with the supercoolant that he grabbed from the lab. Once he inserted it into the suit, Victor began to feel normal again. Both Batman and Victor looked at Nora in her cold slumber. "Nora.", Victor said with longing.