Hello! I know it's been ages since I last updated, but between all my end-of-semester work, finals, and transferring schools for the fall, I got a bit sidetracked. Thankfully, that's all out of the way, and I can focus more on my writing. As always, please review as I love hearing from you all, and I hope you enjoy chapter 9!


Much to Laura's surprise, GothCorp was practically deserted.

When she pulled into the building's large parking garage, her little black Impala had been the sole vehicle in the concrete structure, save for a lone delivery van parked opposite the entrance, its driver nowhere to be seen. Grateful for the lack of an audience, the sergeant quickly parked the vehicle and opened the trunk, fishing around for the duffel bag she always kept inside. Running around during an investigation in a dress and heels was hardly practical, and the brunette was never more grateful for her habit of keeping a change of clothes in her car. Stripping out of her formal attire, Laura quickly redressed into the jeans, hoodie, leather jacket, and hiking boots kept in the bag, grabbing her spare holster and a few extra clips for good measure. She had a feeling she'd need them before the night was through.

Hurrying over to the main building, Laura pushed open the unlocked front door, entering the lobby and startling the guard leaning back in his chair at the security desk by the far wall, the man nearly falling out of his seat in surprise. Once he'd recovered, the guard quickly stood and moved to block her path, preventing her from coming further into the building.

"Miss, you can't be in here. You need to leave, or else I'm going to have to call the police."

"I am the police," She told him, fishing her badge off her belt and handing it to the security guard who examined it carefully. "Sergeant Anderson, GCPD Homicide Division. I need to get into the cryogenics lab."

The guard looked at her in confusion, handing her back her badge. "Wait, homicide? Ma'am, nobody's been murdered here. I think you've got the wrong place."

"Believe me, I'm in the right place." She told the guard, fixing him with the harsh look she usually saved for interrogations. "One of your former employees killed about a dozen people tonight and took Ferris Boyle hostage. We have no idea where they are or where they're going, but that employee used to work in the cryogenics lab. If there is any evidence up there giving any indication as to where they're going or what he's going to do, I need to see it. Do you understand?"

"Ma'am," The man said hesitantly, gaze flicking between her and the security desk. "That floor has been quarantined, I really can't let you up there. And if you don't have a warrant…"

"I'll come back with a warrant if need be," Laura told him, carefully arranging her face into a slightly softer look. "But that's going to take time. And by the time a judge signs off on that warrant and I can make my way back here, Ferris Boyle will probably be dead."

"I-" The man hesitated.

"Listen," She cut him off, "You seem like a nice guy, and I understand you're just trying to do your job, but so am I. A man's life is in danger, and if there is going to be any chance we can save him, I need to get ahead of the psychopath that took him, and that means seeing what's in that lab."

The guard looked at her for a long moment before nodding, making his way back towards the desk and typing something into the security station's computer. A small machine whirred to life, spitting out a small white keycard emblazoned with GothCorp's logo, which the man then grabbed and handed to her.

"This will give you the security clearance you need to get around. The lab's on level six, east side of the building. Just…just make sure Mr. Boyle's alright, will you?"

Laura shot the man a small smile before heading off towards the elevator. "I'll do everything I can."

Swiping the keycard and slipping inside the elevator as soon as the doors slid open, the brunette quickly hit the button for the sixth floor. As the doors slid shut once more and the elevator began to ascend, Laura felt her heart rate pick up. Something sinister was going on at GothCorp, something Ferris Boyle had gone to great lengths to cover up, and Laura was determined to get to the bottom of it, once and for all.

-IX-

"Those men were armed. How'd you do that?"

Bruce glanced at the stunned face of the security guard standing beside him, whom was gaping at his handiwork. When the vigilante had entered the lobby of GothCorp, he'd found not a soul in sight and initially had thought it empty. He would have continued on towards the elevators to follow Freeze and Penguin's trail if he hadn't heard the guard's yelp of pain from the balcony above, accompanied by threats of 'drastic measures' from one of Penguin's men should the guard not comply. Bruce had then grappled up, knocking two of the men's heads together and rendering them unconscious, tossing the third headfirst through the plaster of the wall when he charged.

"Where are they taking Ferris?" He asked, ignoring the guard's question.

"Mr. Boyle? They uh – they're heading to the Propellant Research Wing. These guys have been raiding the whole facility."

"Do you have the codes to the security door?"

"No, I don't have clearance." The guard told him, shaking his head. "But my boss does. A bunch of them took him to the Organics Lab, through the lobby."

Bruce turned away from the guard to leap off the balcony and onto the floor below. "I'll make sure they don't hurt your boss. Get yourself to safety."

"I will," The guard assured him. "Oh! But you might want to keep an eye out. One of your cop buddies headed through here a while ago."

The vigilante froze, one hand still on the balcony railing in preparation to vault himself over. "Which cop?" He asked tersely, more for confirmation of his own suspicions than need for information. He already had an idea of exactly which cop was running around the building.

"Don't know for sure," He heard the guard say from behind him. "I only saw her through one of the security cameras, and they don't have audio. Pretty, brunette, wearing jeans and a black leather jacket. She guilted my boss into giving her a security card for the experimental research labs, and he's not the type to roll over easy. Sound familiar?"

Bruce ground his teeth together as his suspicions were confirmed. He'd told her to stay in the manor and wait for Gordon. "Yes."

Without another word, the vigilante vaulted over the balcony railing and onto the main floor of the lobby below, hurrying in the direction the guard had indicated. He had to get those security codes if he was going to get Ferris out of this alive.

And more likely than not, he thought to himself with no small amount of irritation, Laura Anderson as well.

-IX-

GothCorp was absolutely freezing.

It hadn't been in the beginning, of course. The research labs she'd had to weave her way through had well-contained the cryogenic chemicals being manufactured within, but when Freeze and Penguin had showed up and began dousing the place in ice, the temperature within the building had dropped like a rock. Truthfully, their entrance had been somewhat unexpected; Laura had half-expected the criminal duo to whisk Boyle away to some ice-themed villainous lair halfway across the city like in a Saturday morning cartoon. That had been far too much to ask for, however, as GothCorp's halls were now crawling with dozens of Penguin's men, and it was all the sergeant could do to continue towards the cryogenics lab while still remaining out of sight.

I should have brought more bullets.

Laura made her way down the hall, following the signs posted on the walls pointing in the direction of the cryogenics lab. After what seemed like ages of dashing down hallways and hiding herself in alcoves in an attempt to remain unseen, she rounded one last corner and finally came face-to-face with the cryogenics lab. Letting out a sigh of relief that she'd finally reached her destination, the brunette hurried towards the large double doors at the end of the hall before freezing in place as the sound of gunfire erupted from a doorway to her left. Peeking through the thick glass window adjacent the doorway, Laura could see the door she was nearest led out onto a metal catwalk above a large open room. Peering down, she nearly groaned in frustration at the scene below her, knowing the situation at hand had just become a lot more complicated.

On the far side of the room, two of Penguin's men armed with sniper rifles were firing at Fries, who himself was hiding behind some heavy lab equipment on a raised platform not far below where she was looking out into the room. Cobblepot stood behind a handful more of his men on the ground below, holding Ferris Boyle in front of him like a human shield, a gun pressed threateningly into the industrialist's back. Even across the large distance of the lab, she could make out the terrified look on Boyle's face, his arms raised above his head, almost as if in surrender.

"Give me Boyle, or I'll freeze this entire room." Fries threatened, peeking out slightly from behind the lab equipment.

"I know you won't!" Penguin mocked, harshly jabbing the gun into the small of Boyle's back. "Boyle's got the codes you need, an' I ain't givin' 'im up 'less I get what he's givin' ya."

"What's behind this door is of no interest to you!" Freeze snapped.

Laura looked to the left, spotting yet another set of heavy metal doors leading out of the propellant lab.

"What I'm interested in is the weapons I was promised." Penguin shouted, his men letting loose another handful of shots when Fries stepped too far out from behind his cover. "I know you're holdin' out on me."

"This will not end well for you, Cobblepot."

"Oh-ho! I think you're confused 'bout what exactly is about to 'appen 'ere," The Englishman growled, yanking Boyle down onto his knees and pressing the gun against the back of the man's head. "As soon as you show us that big fishbowl, my boys'll blow it open. And if that doesn't work, I'll be sure to blow your precious codes right out of Mr. Boyle 'ere's brains!"

Almost as if he had been waiting for a cue, Batman suddenly descended from the ceiling, landing down between two of Penguin's men with a hard thud, throwing both of the men off-balance. Not wasting a second, the vigilante quickly dispatched both of the men before turning his attention to their employer. Yanking Boyle back onto his feet with a snarled curse, Cobblepot and the handful of his thugs who still remained conscious opened fire on the caped man, forcing him to take cover. Laura saw a flurry of movement from below her as Freeze took the opportunity granted to him and opened fire with his own gun, the high-pitched whine filling the air as the weapon's bright blue beam encased the gangster and his minions in ice. Hanging over the catwalk, a massive container of chemicals swung loose, its supports too damaged by the gunfire to continue keeping it aloft, slamming into the metal walkway and sending Batman crashing to the ground. With the coast clear, Freeze strode across the room to a terrified Ferris Boyle, whom had been encased in ice by Freeze's blast, and seized the industrialist by the throat, yanking him out of the ice.

"Now you belong to me," Fries snarled, leaning down and pressing his face so close to Boyle, the mist from the man's breath created condensation on the glass dome of the blue man's suit.

"I'll give you one chance to let him go," Laura heard Batman snarl, the vigilante having recovered from his unceremonious landing and now stalked across the room towards the pair.

"Threats are meaningless to a man who has lost everything." Freeze said condescendingly, pressing the ice ray mounted on his suit against Boyle's side, and the industrialist let out a yelp of pain.

Wayne hesitated for a moment and that was all the opportunity the former GothCorp employee required, pulling Boyle to the side and shooting a large tank nearby, rupturing the container and creating a massive explosion of chemicals. The blast sent Batman flying backwards and created a massive sheet of ice that divided the room in two, completely blocking Wayne from following Freeze as the scientist dragged Boyle out of the room.

As Freeze led Boyle further into the building, Laura felt the already-frigid temperature drop dangerously. If it'd been cold in the labs before, whatever chemicals Freeze had released only made it even more so, a coating of frost rapidly creeping across the window and seeping across whatever insulation separated the hallway from the lab. To her horror, the brunette noticed as her own breath began to condensate before her eyes and a layer of frost started to coat the leather of her jacket.

"Emergency. Propellant Research Wing compromised. Initiate evacuation procedures immediately."

"Yeah, no shit." Laura muttered at the loudspeaker's warning as the hurried to the end of the hall, swiping her keycard at the door to the cryogenics lab and hurrying inside as the magnetic locks deactivated to let her through. As the doors slammed shut and locked once again behind her, the brunette let out a sigh of relief as the creeping frost coated the outside of the door but followed no further, whatever insulation GothCorp had installed keeping the cold of the hall out just as well as its intended purpose of keeping the lab's in.

Her moment of relief didn't last long, as a horrible realization came to her as she watched the small window built into the door cover in frost as chemical vapors flooded the hall, blocking her view into the outside world.

I'm trapped in here. I'd freeze to death before I could make the front door, and even that's only if the way to the lobby isn't blocked off by ice or Penguin's men. I've got nowhere to go, and no one even knows I'm here.

As she took a deep breath to steady herself and slow down her now-racing heart, Laura made her way further into the antechamber outside the laboratory proper, attempting to formulate a plan. She was safe from Penguin's men, at least; it'd take a tank to knock down the lab's doors, and that's only if they hadn't frozen to death in the attempt. Wayne was skulking around the building as well, so at the very least she knew someone would be going after Boyle while she was holed up. It was only a matter of time before Gordon finished will Anarky's goons, if he hadn't already, and she was sure he would be able to gleam where she'd gone from whatever information Barbara passed along. It would take a while, but she'd be out eventually.

With that thought in mind, Laura peered into the large glass window separating her from the main room of the laboratory, determined to make the most of her time stuck in the room. She turned to head through the doorway separating the small observation center from the lab itself, only to be met with a large wall of ice sealing the doorway to the lab and blocking her path. The brunette let out an angry huff, irritated that yet another obstacle had been thrown in her way and her efforts to get to the lab had been in vain. Grinding her teeth in frustration, Laura made to sit herself down in the office chair in front of the small security console, prepared to spend the next few hours sitting alone in boredom.

At least she would have, if she hadn't looked down and noticed the body lying on the floor.

-IX-

Unfreezing the last of Fries' victims, Bruce didn't even stop to wait for the man's stuttered thanks before hurrying down the hall towards the cryogenics lab. Every minute he didn't have the components for the cryo-drill was another moment Ferris was at Freeze's mercy, the industrialist being put through God-knows what at the hands of that madman, if he was even still alive. Shaking off that train of thought, the vigilante rounded one final corner, dashing to the end of the hall and entering the access codes that would allow him entrance into Freeze's old lab.

Entering the antechamber of the laboratory, Bruce quickly scanned the room, spotting the doorway to the main lab off to the side of a small security console, the entrance blocked by a massive sheet of ice. Drawing his gaze downward, the billionaire spotted a body lying on the floor just in front of the ice sheet; male, dressed in a security uniform, his skin the same sickly shade of blue as Fries'. As he kneeled down to examine the body further, he froze as the telltale click of a gun's safety being flicked off sounded from behind him. His mind raced, trying to determine the best possible way to disarm his unseen opponent without disrupting the crime scene.

"What the hell are you wearing?"

Bruce turned his head to see the source of the feminine voice behind him, only to be met with the sight of Laura Anderson lowering a small handgun she'd had pointed at his back. She'd had a change of attire since he'd last seen her at the manor, he noticed, the green (And slightly bloodstained) dress she'd sported long gone in favor of the leather jacket and jeans the lobby security guard had described. Her hair was slightly damp as well, likely from the melting of ice that had no doubt formed in the espresso-brown strands.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, the intimidating tone he'd attempted to convey somewhat lost by the XE suit's voice filter.

"Same as you, I'd guess," She raised an eyebrow at his tone, clearly unimpressed. "Looking for clues about Freeze, and why he'd go after Boyle."

"How did you even know to come here?"

"I do this for a living, remember?" Anderson snorted, flicking on the safety of her gun and replacing it in the holster on her hip. "Believe it or not, I'm actually pretty good at my job."

Bruce ignored the comment, instead kneeling back down beside the body and pressing a small button on the side of his cowl near his temple, watching as the electronic display built into his suit's visors flash to life, streams of data filtering across his field of view.

"What are you doing?" Anderson asked from behind him, facial features twisted into a frown at him seemingly staring at a corpse.

"Determining the cause of death." He answered shortly as the biometric scanner processed the information it had gleamed from its scan of the security guard's remains.

"What, you've got a tricorder built into that helmet?" The brunette laughed, her humor fading when he neglected to answer. "Wait, you've actually got a tricorder built into that thing?"

"It's a biometric scanner."

"It's a tricorder," Anderson retorted, moving to stand next to him and peering down at the security guard's body. "So, how did he die? I didn't notice any wound patterns."

"Heat stroke," He answered, pushing away from the body and standing to his full height. "But the control room doesn't show signs of overheating."

"And that stuff?" The sergeant asked, nodding towards patches of an off-white substance that dotted the deceased guard's uniform.

"Some kind of crystallized chemical residue. Traces of it lead back into the lab."

Not waiting for Anderson to comment further, Bruce stepped over the guard's remains, pressing one gloved hand to the massive sheet of ice blocking his path and activating the XE suit's thermal gloves. In a moment, the heat from the gauntlets caused the ice to make a loud crack, and Bruce brought one arm back before bringing it sharply forward, his fist crashing through the wall of ice and shattering it to pieces. He strode through the wall's remains, Anderson on his heels, and stepped forward into the laboratory.

"Signs of a struggle," The sergeant pointed out, gesturing towards various pieces of scientific equipment that had been rather violently knocked over.

Bruce simply nodded, activating his scanner once more and making a sweep of the room as Anderson headed over to a small terminal in the corner of the lab.

As the scanner on his suit ran a set of palm prints he'd found on the laboratory's observation window through his recognition software, Anderson called out from behind him.

"Hey, Bats! You're going to want to see this."

Grinding his teeth at the irritating nickname, the vigilante nonetheless turned and made his way over to where the sergeant was standing, the screen on terminal she'd occupied herself with lit up with the paused frame of a video. Once he stood at her side, Anderson pressed a button on the terminal's keyboard and the video began to play.

"My name is Doctor Victor Fries," the video began, and Bruce barely recognized the man standing in front of the camera. While the face this man wore was identical to that of the man wreaking havoc inside the GothCorp facility, that was where the similarities ended. The man on the screen favored an ill-fitting suit and lab coat rather than the massive exo-suit he now sported, and though this version of Fries was certainly pale, it was nothing in comparison to the sickly, hypothermic blue hue his skin now took on. This recorded Fries' demeanor was hesitant, almost skittish, a radical change from the apathetic and arrogant man he had become.

"I am recording what I pray to be humanity's first step towards immortality." The video continued, breaking Bruce out of his train of thought. "Behind me you see the CC-100," the recorded Fries explained, gesturing towards a large cylindrical pod contained within the now-empty machine resting in the laboratory. "A cryogenic freezing chamber of my own design."

"I created it for the express purpose of freezing subjects stricken with inoperable ailments, subjects like my own beloved wife, Nora." The recording continued, a grimace momentarily flashing across Fries' face when he spoke of his wife, as if it physically pained him to think of her illness. "Once a remedy has been found-"

Fries' monologue was interrupted by the door to the laboratory being forced open, four men pushing through the doorframe once the locks had been disengaged. Three of the men were unfamiliar, dressed in security uniforms and flanking the fourth figure, whom Bruce recognized immediately.

"Ferris Boyle?"

"Get away from that equipment!" The recorded Ferris snarled, giving Fries a hard shove. As the scientist hit the ground and let out a yelp of pain, the billionaire turned to the guards still hovering in the doorway. "Shut this stuff down."

"Stop!" Fries yelled, picking himself up off the floor and lunging at his former employer, grabbing him by the lapels of his suit. "This is MY experiment!"

"Your unauthorized experiment," Boyle sneered, shoving the scientist once more as two security guards grabbed Fries by the arms to keep him from going at the industrialist again. "I hired you to make weapons, and a year later I've got almost nothing to show for it. I'm already 12 million in debt thanks to you, and I'm done wasting my time and money on your little pet project."

"You can't do this! That's my WIFE in there! You can't-"

"This is MY equipment! Mine!" Boyle snarled, getting in Fries' face even as the scientist struggled in the iron grip of the GothCorp security guards. "I have every legal right to use it or not use it as I see fit, and I say this project ends NOW! We had a deal Victor, a deal you went back on. You want to save your precious wife? Maybe you should have thought of that before not meeting your end of the bargain."

Boyle nodding his head towards the remaining security guard, and said guard quickly made his way over to the large machine in the center of the room, disengaging the cylindrical pod from its housing and wheeling it through the lab and out the door, ignoring all else as Fries' pleading and struggling became even more frantic.

"Oh, would you shut up already?!" Boyle snapped, grabbing a pistol out of the holster hanging on one of the security guards' belt and smashing the butt of the gun into the scientist's forehead with an audible crack. The blow knocked Fries back, sending him careening out of the arms of the security guards and into a small table near the observation window to the lab. Fries reached out to try and catch himself, managing to grab onto a piece of lab equipment Bruce recognized as the cryogenic cannon that was currently mounted on Freeze's exo-suit. The cannon fired, its bright blue beam freezing one of the security guards in a block of ice and hitting a massive container of unknown chemicals resting against the wall. The container gave a long, strained groan before its metallic walls burst, its contents exploding outwards and the shockwave destroying the camera, ending the recording in a feed of static.

"Jesus Christ…" Anderson murmured beside him, eyes wide in shock.

Bruce leaned over the terminal and commandeered the keyboard from the sergeant, sifting through the files within and attempting to work through his anger before he put his fist through a wall; up until tonight, he'd considered Ferris not only a colleague, but a friend. But after this?

After this, he should consider himself lucky if he isn't celebrating the New Year in traction.

"Fries was researching Huntington's Chorea," He explained as Anderson leaned over his shoulder to read the display on the screen. "He and Boyle seem to have gotten into a disagreement as to how he should have been spending his time."

"So Nora Fries becomes terminally ill, Victor strikes a deal with Boyle to provide him weapons in exchange for a cure, Boyle doesn't deliver, Fries decides to put his wife into stasis and do the research himself, and when Boyle finds out, he kidnaps Mrs. Fries and leaves Victor for dead when things go wrong?" The brunette surmised.

"And Boyle had the lab locked down and quarantined so no one could find out what happened." Bruce finished.

Anderson made a disgusted noise in the back of her throat. "And that stronzo has the balls to waltz around telling people what a humanitarian he is. Wayne ought to beat him over the head with that goddamn trophy."

I just might, he thought to himself darkly, downloading the files from Fries' terminal onto the onboard computer in his suit and uploading them into the Batcave's memory banks; there was no way in hell Boyle was getting away with this, and he was going to take the man down hard.

"And Fries? Whatever that explosion was, it what, mutated him?"

"It altered his metabolism, making survival outside of a sub-zero environment impossible."

"Which is why that guard died of heatstroke in a 70º room, and why Fries is running around in that suit. He must have seen the guard die when he left the lab, and built himself that super-suit so he could get out of here, rescue his wife, and get his revenge on Boyle."

"Exactly."

Anderson looked up at him, one eyebrow raised. "Don't sound so surprised. Like I said, I do this for a living."

Bruce didn't respond, turning from the terminal and heading towards the lab's observation chamber and out the door into the hall. Anderson followed a step behind, unholstering her sidearm once more as they made their way further into the facility.

"I'm going to have to leave the room to have plausible deniability for whatever you do to Boyle, aren't I?"

In that moment, Bruce was grateful for the XE suit's full face mask, as it hid the small twitch in the corner of his mouth, the barest hint of a smile.

"Maybe."