Meltdown
At Gotham bey
Batgirl was investigating several dumpings of nuclear waste. She got to the water and checked it with a scanner, hearing that the entire bey was radioactive before telling Bruce. "You hear that? You could pouch an egg in this water."
"That must be where they're loading the radioactive waste before dumping it out at sea."
Batgirl stood up and saw a truck backing up before engaging her invisibility feature on her suit before attaching a nearby hook to the back wheels of the truck and easily dealing with the loaders, knocking them all out before the truck tried to escape but didn't get far as when the hook was at its full line, the back tires broke off and Batgirl turned back uninvisibile before picking up the leader by the neck.
"Who hired you?!" The new Dark Knight asked threateningly.
"You think I'd tell you?" He asked before Batgirl noticed a phone in his coat, getting it before knocking out the thug and searching the contacts.
Meanwhile at Wayne-Powers
Powers was in a meeting with some clients, discussing a buyout offer to gain him more money and power until one of them spoke tiredly. "Mr. Powers, it's been a long night. My clients would like to go back to their hotel and rest up while thinking about your offer."
"Ladies and gentlemen, the buyout offer is on the table. Leave this room and I withdraw it." He warned politely, making them discuss it further. But that was when his phone rang before he turned his chair around and answered. "Powers."
Quite amazing numbers people put on speed dial, isn't it, asshole? Tonight's boat ride has been cancelled, though your goons are still going up the river. And it's only a matter of time before you'll be joining them. One day, you corrupt bastard. One day." Batgirl said threateningly, knowing this would make power even more mad.
Powers hung up the phone in anger as the radiation under his skin burnt through the bottom part of his eyes. Which his secretary noticed. "Sir, your eyes." She warned as she showed her boss, who quickly put his shades on to cover the radiation.
He then turned around again and spoke to his clients. "My friends, perhaps your right. It is an ungodly hour. We'll continue this negotiation tommorow when we're refreshed." Before leaving the office.
A bit later
Powers had gotten to his doctors, the radiation having burned through more of his skin, making the corrupt businessman angry. "It's barely lasts a day anymore." He said before tearing off the skin and asking his doctors as he stood up to rip off more. "What do I pay you people for?!"
"It's not the skin, sir. The radiation is getting stronger." One of the doctors explained.
"Is that supposed to pacify me?!" Powers asked as he grabbed the doctor.
"Mr. Powers, I have a suggestion." A female doctor with glasses said while walking up to him.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Dr Lake, Stephanie Lake."
"What's this suggestion of yours?"
"I could use your baseline DNA to build you a new body, then transfer your brain waves into it." Lake suggested.
"A new body?"
"Theoretically it should work. However I would like to test the process first, on someone who also has severally damaged DNA."
"You have someone in mind?" Power asked, making Lake smile, as she did have someone in mind for the procedure.
Lake then went to a freezing chamber where the candidate was. And as she walked in, the immortal head of the old Batman's rogue Mr. Freeze spoke to her. "Take a good look, doctor. I've been like this for nearly 50 years and I haven't aged 1 day. I have become what many men have dreamed of: an immortal. And yet, there hasn't been a day, an hour, a minute I haven't thought about death. It obsesses me, even now."
"What if I said I could give you life, a normal life?" Lake asked.
"Bah!" Freeze answered, as he knew a normal life left him the moment that chemical accident created him all those years ago, despite still, deep down, he still had a small bit of hope inside him.
"Victor, an incredible mind like yours deserves a body." Lake said with the right words, as she knew that Fries still had hope. This made Fries' eyes widen.
A bit later
The new body for Fries was physically complete as the transfer process was beginning. Powers, who was back in his skin then spoke to Freeze. "Dr. Lake and I have taken every precaution, Victor. Let me assure you-"
But Freeze cut him off coldly. "Save your breath. I am niether afraid not capable of being comforted by your words."
"Remember, there might be some momentary discomfort." Lake reminded Freeze before she began the process, with Freeze yelling in pain before everything went black for him.
Sometime later
Fries, now in his cloned body, finally woke up as if from a nightmare on a hospital bed before Powers spoke to him. "Welcome back to the living." He said before Fries got off the bed.
Lake, who was sitting beside him, rushed to stop him from doing anything rash. "I don't think you should-"
"Let's see what he can do." Powers said as he put his hand on her shoulder.
Fries touched the window and for the first time in decades, felt the sensation of the cold temperature. "Cold. It feels...cold." He said with a smile.
Later at Max's high school
That afternoon, when school was over, Terry walked along with his girlfriend Dana, with Max, in her winter trench coat, walking behind them. Dana asked her boyfriend "Hey Terry? You wanna grab a snack or something? I know a good place that sells great food not too far from here."
Terry liked that idea. "Sounds good to me." Then he glanced at Max. "You wanna join us, Max?"
Max shrugged as she didn't mind. "Sure, I don't have anything to do at the moment."
But just as they were about to leave, Max heard a familiar bark from a Danish hound before all three of the students looked to their right and saw Max's boss Bruce Wayne and his dog Ace.
Max sighed as she glanced back at her friends. "Sorry guys. Gotta go." She said with regret before running up to Bruce and Ace and walking with them.
Along the way, Bruce showed Max a video of a press conference from Powers, showing that Batman's former enemy Victor Fries aka Mr. Freeze now had a new body, presumably a cloned body.
Curious, Max asked her boss and mentor. "When was this on?"
"This morning." Bruce answered seriously. After Max handed Bruce's PDA back to him, he instructed his protege. "I want you to follow Fries. Don't let him out of your sight."
"Why?" Max asked.
"I don't trust him."
"Powers or Fries?"
"Neither." Bruce answered before leaving.
Understanding how Bruce was serious about this, Max nodded and went the other way. After finding a private space, she quickly changed into her Batgirl suit and flew off after hiding her regular clothes in a private spot that she'd remember.
A bit later at the train station
A cat was playing with a paper that was blowing in the cold wind as a train was closing in on the innocent little creature and would have hit her...had the seemingly now normal Victor Fries hadn't grabbed her in time.
"Molly!" A little girl with her mother cried out before Fries gently gave the little girl her cat with a smile as the mother and child smiled back gratefully before taking their leave, along with their pet's rescuer as Lake led him onto the train.
And from a distance, Batgirl saw the whole thing. "Wow. Mr. Freeze rescuing a cat. Doesn't seem like a threat at all. Maybe back in the day he was but now, just looking at him gives me doubts that he's still a threat to Gotham." She said with doubt that Fries could be a threat like because back in her mentor's day.
But regardless of her doubt, Batgirl continued to follow him all the way to Gotham Acres cemetery and saw them standing in front of a grave that Batgirl used her zoom feature to see the name on it. And strangely, it had Fries' full name. "Victor Fries? What the hell?" She asked with confusion before she used her sensitive touch microphones to hear what they were saying.
"How fitting that that desesed skull of mine should be buried like this." Victor said with a bit of happiness that his old head was buried.
"Frankly, I couldn't think of anything else to do with it." Lake told him.
"It was the right thing. It symbolizes the end of a life and the beginning of a new one." Fries said humbly as they stood close to each other.
But Batgirl then saw someone a few feet away from him and used her zoom feature to see that it was a masked assassin pointing a gun at Fries, so she quickly used her jet boots to get both him and the doctor out of the line of fire as he began shooting!
Once she got them out of the way, she told them both. "Stay down!" Before she threw 2 smoke bombs at the assassin before she jumped kicked him away and threw her wrapping ropes around him, restraining him by his legs!
"No! No! He's gotta die! The monster's gotta die!" He said in desperation before the new Dark Knight took off his mask, revealing an old man. "How could you save him? After what he did? What he did to me?"
Fries and Lake walked up to him and the former cold villain asked sympathetically. "What did I do?"
"You destroyed my life, my family...years ago. Gone, frozen... forever." The old man answered sadly.
Batgirl looked at Fries and said. "We'll let the cops take care of him."
But Fries thought differently with great remorse. "No. I've done this man enough damage." He said before taking the lines of the old man and stood back up. "No words can express my sorrow for the pain I've caused you. I beg your forgiveness. It was another life. Though that's hardly an excuse, I can only promise you this: I will do the best I can to make respirations to you and everyone I've ever hurt." He promised, making the old man walk away as Batgirl smiled at him, thinking that Fries had finally returned to the side of the angels after so many years.
Sometime later
Fries was at a news announcement at Studio 4, intending to keep his promise by starting a charity foundation for everyone he'd ever hurt, with even Max as a secret main supporter of it. "I'm calling it the Nora Fries Foundation, named after my former wife."
"And you intend to fund it yourself?" A woman asked him.
"Before I went to prison, my earnings were put in a blind trust." Fries answered. After all these years, it comes to quite a significant sum."
"A half billon, I hear. That's some charity."
"Not charity, justice."
Meanwhile at the Batcave
Max and Bruce were watching Fries' news announcement until Bruce turned off the screen. "More like blood money." The former Batman said with disdain before getting up and looking at a screen of the old Mr. Freeze he faced back in his day.
But Max, who had not seen what Mr. Freeze was capable of back in her mentor's day, was supporting Fries and his upcoming Foundation that he was intending to name after his former wife, who he had done everything that he did all for her before she was eventually cured by the Wayne Foundation. "Oh come on, Bruce. Can't you at least support him? Surely you of all people should believe that he can change. Even Mrs. McGinnis thinks that. He may have done bad things in the past, but now he's just trying to put his house in order."
"I used to believe that he could change. I even offered to help him find a cure for his condition. But by the time I tried to reach out to him, it was far too late. His body destroyed itself because of the accident that made him what he is. And it's a cold draft that blows through that house, you'll see, they all will." Bruce told his protege before walking away, leaving Max to look at Freeze's image with sympathy as she touched the screen to show the old Mr. Freeze compassion, as if he were standing in front of her right now. And despite what her mentor said, the pink haired girl was still hoping in her heart that Mr. Freeze was now dead and that Victor Fries could finally have a normal life after so many years of suffering.
Back with Fries
As everything was wrapping up and Fries was putting his coat on, the blonde woman spoke to him. "Great job, Victor."
"Thank you." He said before feeling a bit to warm as he started to sweat. "My, it's a little warm in here."
"It's the lights. And they say we don't work hard for our money." The woman said as Fries began to walk away.
As Fries stepped outside of the studio, he suddenly felt more and more got as he began sweating a lot, making him take off his coat and as he moved further, be took off his blue undercoat before getting to a bench to sit on as he still felt hit even though it wasn't that warm. But as snow began falling, he suddenly started feeling better, worrying him greatly as he knew what this must mean for him.
Later on at Wayne-Powers laboratories
After Fries got to Dr. Lake and she examined him, he waited in a room with 35 degrees to keep his temperature to a level that would keep him alive, with both now knowing for sure that he was reverting back into what he was before he got his cloned body.
Lake then called Powers and told him what she found out. "No doubt about it, he's reverting."
"Why? How? Don't you know what this means to me?" Powers asked, not worried about Fries but himself.
"There must be some kind of agent within the DNA." Lake theorized.
"If only we could biopsy his orgins at this stage." Powers suggested.
"That might be doable." Lake said before hanging up.
As Fries was waiting for Lake to tell him some good news, he saw her walking to the door controls before closing it. "Stephanie? Stephanie." He said before seeing her raise the temperature of the room to 91 degrees, which were very fetal to him at this stage, scaring him. "No, please! Open the door! Please." He said before collapsing due to the severe hot temperature.
As Fries looked at Lake while reaching out to her, he saw the remorseless and almost emotionless look on her face, making him believe that all this time, she had played with and exploited his emotions and hope for a normal life. And so, in an act of desperation, he threw the table he sat on at the door, breaking it and making Lake fall as Fries walked out and looked at her with vengeful look on his face before running out of the building, feeling the Sub-Zero temperature healing him before he ran off.
Sometime later
Batgirl was watching the compound, keeping an eye out for Fries, as Bruce had found out that he'd been betrayed by Powers and escaped and that he would surely come back for revenge on the people who tried to kill him once he'd gotten the tools he needed for it.
But Batgirl still had hope in her heart that Fries wouldn't go through with it and would try to find somewhere else to go, particularly somewhere very cold as Gotham was having a heat wave that would be in the 70s today. Or at the very least if he was still in Gotham, try to find him and convince him to not seek revenge and that there was still hope for him to have a normal life...if she could convince her mentor to help Fries, that is. "Even if he ran away like you said, it doesn't mean he's gonna come back."
"He'll be back, count on it. He lives for revenge."
"Not the Victor Fries I met." Batgirl said with doubt, not seeing how the remorseful and peaceful man she'd met a while ago could possibly be consumed by revenge so much that he practically lived for it.
"What you met was a ghost." Bruce told his protege, knowing that the Victor Fries Max had met was only a ghost compared to what the old Dark Knight of Gotham knew he was.
Meanwhile inside the building
"Security's checked every meat locker, deep freeze and cytogenetic plant in town. No sign of him." Lake told Powers and the other 2 doctors.
"We never should have started this." Another doctor said with worry.
"Sometimes you find the wrong answers before you find the right ones. That's what science is all about." Lake said with a remorseless tone, revealing that her experiment was for science and not actually helping Fries at all. "And anyway, if he's still hiding in Gotham, he's fried."
"What makes you so sure?" Powers asked.
"We're having a heat wave, Me. Powers. Today it hits 70." Lake answered with a smile.
But suddenly everything started shaking, as if an earthquake was hitting, worrying everyone. "Where's that coming from?" Powers asked as he nearly fell... before blocks of ice began coming up from the compound floor, making the other doctors run away as Powers and Lake made a run for the exit.
Outside of the building
It seemed that the ice was spreading through the whole building, making Batgirl realize that her mentor had been right that Fries had returned and was ready for revenge. "Oh, Fries, no." She said with a sad sigh before flying to the building.
Meanwhile inside
Powers and Lake were almost close to the exit when an ice wall blocked them off and made them fall... before Fries, now in an advanced version of his original suit, complete with 2 freeze blasters built into his hands, had rose up using his new blasters.
"Fries? How-" Powers asked before the new and improved Mr. Freeze cut him off.
"It's something I've kept in cold storage." He answered, revealing that he'd kept his advanced suit in cold storage due to never being able to use it since his old body destroyed itself due to the accident that created him.
As Lake and Powers got to their feet and began to run, Freeze fired an ice blast from his right arm, creating an ice floor that Powers slipped on and hit a nearby wall. "You have this all wrong." Powers said, trying to lie to save himself.
"Do I?" Freeze asked, knowing that he was lying.
But before he could fire another blast, Lake spoke out, getting his attention. "Victor, don't do it. Please." Before Powers tried to run again but Freeze fired a blast at him, sealing him in a block of ice as he screamed before the revenge driven villain advanced on Lake. "We were only trying to help you." She lied, saying her final words.
But Freeze had had enough of her lies. "Remember, there might be some momentary discomfort." He said, repeating the words she had said to him before firing a blast at her, killing her by freezing her cold with no chance of getting out as she screamed.
Freeze then exited the building and saw several of Powers guards, who fired on him before he easily froze them, along with a vehicle carrying more guards before walking to another part of the compound.
But unknown to him, Powers had used his radiation power to completely burn through his skin and the ice very easily, with his true face showing. And like Freeze, he was eager for revenge.
As Freeze entered the energy room and sealed it up with ice, along with freezing some of the windows as well, he went to the controls and set the compound up to explode before he saw Batgirl's shadow. "There's enough energy here to destroy the whole compound, Batgirl. I suggest you find a way out." He said while turning to the new Dark Knight.
"Fries, think. This can't be what you want. You'll only cause more pain, more suffering. I know those evil bastards tried to kill you, but there's innocent people in this compound that had nothing to do with it. Do you really want more innocent blood on your hands?" Batgirl asked, pleading with Fries not to do this, as innocent people would die.
"No. I end it all tonight. When this goes, I go too. Though I am very sorry about the people that will go with me." Freeze said with regret for the innocent people that would die with him. But it was a price he was willing to pay in order to finally end his suffering forever.
"Fries... I don't wanna fight you, I want to help you. But if you do this, you'll leave me no choice. I can't let innocent people die because you have a death wish. I can't." Batgirl said with regret, not wanting to fight against Fries but she also couldn't let innocent people suffer as well.
"I know. But now you leave me with no choice." Freeze said before firing ice blasts that the new Dark Knight easily avoided. Freeze even stopped a frozen part of the upper bridge from falling on him by blasting it away before Batgirl got in front of him and tried to throw a flame Batarang at Freeze but before she could, he froze her to a wall with only her neck and head free before Freeze walked up to her and softly touched her cheek, patting it gently. "You had your chance, Batgirl. But I want you to know that I am so sorry. Truly I am." He said with regret for the new Dark Knight and the rest of the innocent people that would die with him.
"So did you. And I'm not sorry. I'm not sorry at all!" An evil voice said from the right before a bright green arm that showed the skeleton arm beneath it touched Freeze in the chest part of his suit, causing him severe and lethal pain as the cold villain yelled in agony at the burning.
While struggling to get free from the ice, Batgirl heard the radioactive man speaking at Freeze while damaging his suit and cracking his helmet with high doses of radiation while evilly smirking, as they all, especially Freeze, knew that any kind of heat, especially high levels of radiation was even more lethal to Freeze then it was to an ordinary human due to his mutated DNA. "Yeah, you feel it, don't you? Right through your suit, the heat is on, Victor."
"Wait... that voice. He sounds so familiar." Batgirl theorized, as she could have sworn to have heard that voice from someone else before. Batgirl's eyes went wide when she finally realized who he really was and how he got this way. "Powers?! So that's how he was able to survive that Nerve Gas."
As Freeze tried to get free, Powers said with pure evil in his voice. "And behold I shall be a blight upon the land, and everything I touch shall wither and die." Before moving his arm to deliver the finishing blow that would kill Freeze.
But before Powers could deliver the killing blow, Batgirl, who had broken free from the ice, kicked the killer of her family and her friend's father away from Freeze before he fell to the floor as the new Dark Knight and her new enemy was now face to face.
"Batgirl." Powers said coldly.
Batgirl frowned as she looked at the man who was responsible for killing her whole family and Terry's father with pure hatred. "Powers. I should have known you'd be so desperate to survive that Nerve Gas. Let me guess: you were treated with extreme radiation and that, combined with your gas mutated you into this, is that right?!" She asked as she called upon the suit's full strength.
Though surprised that Batgirl recognized him and how she so cleverly figured out how he became what he was now, Powers evilly smirked. "What a very smart and clever girl you are. Although Powers is just a lair. Right now... Blight will do." Powers, now Blight said before he fired a radioactive blast at the new Dark Knight's face before tackling her to the ground!
Meanwhile
Bruce checked another screen on the Batcomputer and saw that the temperature near Max was rising fast. "Max, there's something hot in that room."
Back with Max
"It's Powers, or as he goes now by...Blight." Batgirl said before throwing Blight into a big metal pipe that burst upon contact with him before the 2 enemies walked up to each other as Freeze was back up and pressed a few buttons on the left arm of his suit.
As Batgirl was avoiding Blight's radioactive blasts, she informed Bruce. "Wayne, Powers has turned into a walking meltdown, and I know just how, too."
"Don't attack him directly, keep your distance from him. The suit will give you some protection, but it's not designed for such high levels of radiation." Bruce told his protege, knowing that the suit could give some protection from the elements but wasn't designed for high radiation levels.
Batgirl then jumped and tried restraining Blight with a Batarang with a grapple line and threw an electric Batarang at him but he just blasted it and used his power to burn the line while also hitting the new Dark Knight in the process before walking up to the one who partly turned him into this. "You only got a tan that time, Batgirl. Here comes the real burn. Quite fitting after you've done to me!"
"If anything, this is the real you, Powers. There was always a monster inside you and I just partly let it out. Now everyone will see what you really are!" Batgirl said with a hateful look as she got up.
"They'll never know what I am, because you won't be alive to tell them. Goodbye, Dark Knight." Blight said darkly before preparing an even bigger blast.
But suddenly, Freeze yelled out while holding up his left arm. "Blight, get away from her!" Before blasting Blight far away into an icy river.
Batgirl flew down and approached Fries, but he called her away. "Stay where you are." Before he heavily breathed as his suit was slowly shutting down due to the injuries Blight inflicted on him and his cracked helmet.
Batgirl then heard the ceiling crumbling. Knowing they hadn't much time she called out to him. "You gotta get out of here, Fries! The whole place is gonna go!"
Fries sighed deeply, not moving. "Believe me... you're the only one who cares anymore."
Batgirl was not going to let the man who was once a criminal, now redeemed die like this. "Fries, listen to me! This can't be what you want. You still have a chance to live a normal life. Just please, let me help you!" Batgirl said with sympathy in her heart for this tortured soul, pleading with Fries to reconsider.
Freeze looked at Batgirl for a moment, seeing that she really wanted to help him, only to shake his head in sadness and regret. "No, Batgirl... I had a second chance at life... and I dashed it all away when I put on this suit. No, it was when I began to revert back into this and them trying to kill me that my fate was sealed. And now I know that I will never have peace in this life. I... don't want to live like this any longer. I can't, I won't live like this any longer. I want... to die... and be with my wife in the afterlife... if there is one. I only ask for 1 thing: that you bring Blight to justice. He wronged you as well, though I don't know how. But don't let yourself become what I am. Don't let revenge consume and destroy you as it did me. Please, avenge everyone he has ever hurt. Please... avenge us." He requested, wanting every innocent soul that Powers/Blight had ever hurt and killed, including himself and whoever was under Batgirl's mask, avenged...by having the new Dark Knight bring that monster to justice. But not wanting the new Dark Knight of Gotham to become anything like him.
"Max, get out of there, now!" Bruce yelled through communication
Batgirl tried to run towards Fries, but he created a huge wall of ice with his left freeze gun, making it impossible for her to get through to try to save him. "Fries, NO!" She cried out as Fries bowed down his head and took his last breath before the ceiling fell and crushed him, killing him and finally ending his decades long suffering forever.
Batgirl, knowing now that there was nothing she could do for Fries now, quickly escaped the facility in time before it exploded as tears fell from her eyes, deeply saddened at the loss of Victor Fries, who in her opinion, was the most sympathetic villain that she and Bruce, in his time as Batman, had ever faced out of all of them. And it was then that she vowed to make Powers, Aka Blight, pay for what he did to her, her family, Terry's father and now Victor Fries.
Meanwhile
An aircraft was landing near the river Blight had gotten out of without any injury at all thanks to his radioactive body. As the aircraft landed, the doctors from before came out. "Mr. Powers, thank heavens. We used in interred scanner to locate you. Not that you would have been hard to spot without it."
"We also brought these, just in case you were cold." Another doctor said while holding some blankets as Blight got into the aircraft.
But Blight just rolled his eyes. "You are idiots." He said with annoyance before walking away, leaving the doctors to close the door before they took off into the air.
Later at the crack of dawn
Max and Bruce were standing on a bride, looking at the destroyed compound that Fries had died in. "With all his injuries and that cracked helmet, there's no way he got out." Max said with sadness at Fries' fate.
"It could have been worse. He could have blown up the whole compound like he intended, killed hundreds." Bruce reminded his protege.
Max looked at him before speaking. "Guess you were right about Fries all along." She said, knowing now that her mentor was right about Fries being a villain the whole time.
"We both were." Bruce told her softly, knowing that Max was also right about Fries, as despite the fact that he was a villain, he was also a good man.
Max sighed with regret, as she has failed, just as her mentor had in his time to save Fries from himself. "Before he died, he told me to avenge us, and he was referring to himself, me and everyone else that Powers has ever hurt by bringing him to justice. I intend to carry out that wish: by doing just that while also exposing him as the monster I partly made when I threw that Nerve Gas at him."
Bruce touched her shoulder. "And we will... together. But we can't expose Powers as Blight yet, not until we have evidence that Powers and Blight are the same person."
"Then we'll get the evidence...one day. One day, the entire city will see Powers for the monster he really is. It's just a matter of time. I owe it to everyone he's hurt not to, especially my family, Terry's father and now Victor Fries. One day, they'll get the justice they all deserve, and I'll see to it that they do."
"And so do I." Bruce said with the same vow before they both walked away from the compound to head to their respective homes.
There you go, my dear friends, the Meltdown episode is complete. Max and Bruce know that Powers and Blight are the same person but can't prove it yet, but it will come out eventually. I felt really sad for Fries in this universe. His life was taken from him with his beloved wife and it only got sadder once Fries' body destroyed itself until he was nothing but an immortal head, only to eventually have a 2nd chance at life and have it ripped away from him again and he decided that enough was enough and wanting to end it all.
Anyway, rate and review and I'll see you all next time, my dear friends.