Dateline: Sunday, July 5, 1981, 7:35 PM, Parisian Standard Time.

Kimberly's nerves were more frayed than a broom's bristles. She didn't have the confidence in her powers that other superheroes had. Then again, I don't suppose one can develop much confidence in one's abilities when one's parents think that their child is a freak of nature, now, can one? And no, I'm not referring to one of her brothers or sisters, because Kim is an only child. But I'm getting off topic.

"Well, here we are," said the pilot, "Venice, Italy. It might look beautiful this time of year, if not for the slight problem."

Alas, today Venice looked like a giant skating rink. Kim figured that with all this ice around, not only would all normal activity cease, but also the buildings might crumble under the tremendous pressure. While she thought about all the terrible things that might happen afterwards, the pilot was saying something. She didn't know what it was, not paying attention and all, but what he said was this…

"Um, I can't seem to find a spot to land, Missus Parr, so it looks like you're going to have to jump!"
At the word "jump," Kim snapped back to reality. "What? Are you completely nuts? I can't jump from here!"

"Relax, You can use the parachute!" He set the copter on autopilot and fumbled around in the cockpit. "Uh, oh," he mumbled.

"What? What 'Uh, oh'?"

"I can't seem to find the parachute!"

"Perfect."

"No problem, you can still jump out, you'll be fine!"

"Fine?" Kim screeched. "You expect me to jump out of a helicopter, land on solid ice, and walk away without a scratch?"

"Well, yes, aren't you Liquegirl?"

Kim wished she could disappear, like her sister-in-law. It was humiliating to forget your own super powers. Ashamed, she grabbed her suit and dived out of the cockpit. While in free fall, she screamed, not because she was scared of the coming hit, but because she was angry at forgetting who she was. And she was scared of the coming hit, of course, I mean, wouldn't you be?

Anyway, she landed on one of the frozen canals, right in the center of town. As you might expect, when she landed on the ice, her body spattered all over the place. While it didn't hurt per se, it was very uncomfortable, like being drenched in ice cold water, only in reverse, that kind of thing. Kim realized she had to pull her body back into solid form before she froze where she was. But it was no easy task to chase after her lost body parts. Somehow, she managed to pull it off.

Now, like her comrades in other nations, Kim's plan was to find a place to dress out, then combat her assigned villain. However, it didn't go exactly this way, because Auntie Arctica, the villain in question, had found her first. Arctica was quite tall, with white hair and very pale skin.

"Well," she said in a frighteningly deep voice, "that's some trick you've got, missy! So, are you Frozone's new sidekick? He is coming to stop me, isn't he?"

"Frozone retired six years ago," Kim explained, "and you should have done the same! I'm part of a new age of supers. I'm LIQUEGIRL!" She struck a heroic pose on that last word.

"You don't look like much of a super," Auntie Arctica pointed out. "Where's your suit?"

Kim looked down. She just now noticed she was still in plain clothes. Embarrassed, she ducked behind a building to change. It wasn't easy, with the ice being as slippery as it is. She reemerged later. "As I was saying, I'm LIQUEGIRL!" she repeated, striking the same heroic pose.

"Much better," Arctica jeered, "but I'm afraid it's too little, too late! As you can see, I've already frozen the canals of Venice, which is the only route of transportation therein. Now that…" Though she was still a rookie superhero, Liquegirl could tell the best time to strike was now. However, the slippery surface under her feet had other plans for her.

"Thought you'd get me in the middle of my speech, did you?" said Arctica when she saw Liquegirl fall flat on her face. She struggled to get back up to her feet, but as soon as she did, Arctica fired an icy cold blast at her. Her liquid body froze only in the abdomen where she was hit, but besides that, the ice beam had pushed her backwards. She slid down the canal until she rammed up against a low bridge.

"Oof!"

Liquegirl examined her bizarre injury. Her belly was like solid ice. She tried to make it melt back herself, but it wouldn't go.

"Okay," she told herself, "don't panic. Your stomach has just been frozen solid, that's all, no big deal." And then she remembered something her then fiancée had told her. "How can I use this to my advantage?" She looked at the bridge she just ran into, and got an idea.

Liquegirl lay down on the ice and pulled herself up next to the bridge. She planted her feet against the structure, preparing to shove off. As soon as she did, she rolled over onto her frozen stomach, to reduce friction. Her plan was to make herself into a human torpedo, to knock Auntie Arctica off her feet. When she found herself losing velocity, she sped up by pulling herself along like her super idol Elastigirl. (You can figure out what that looks like for yourself.)

As soon as she spotted her target, she brought her head down and her arms in to become more aerodynamic. Unfortunately, in this position, she was unable to see Auntie Arctica. It didn't matter, because Auntie Arctica couldn't see her anyway.

POW!

Now, I myself have never had a middle-aged woman fall on top of me, but I imagine it must not be very pleasant. On the bright side, the tremendous pressure applied to Liquegirl's body seemed to have melted her frozen stomach to its usual viscosity.

"Ow!" In a fit of rage, Arctica got up. She fired another cold snap at the fluid female, but she saw it coming and dodged it. Liquegirl got to her feet and assumed a fighting stance. She dodged a few more ice beams, then gave Arctica a swift kick in the stomach. Or rather, she tried to, because Arctica grabbed her foot and flipped her like a quarter.

From the ground, Liquegirl saw another freeze beam coming at her. She tried to avoid it, but it caught her right hand, freezing it into a fist. This upset her quite a bit. So much so, it fact, that she got up and did something rash and stupid. She charged at Auntie Arctica with her ice-fist raised, planning to punch her lights out. But Arctica moved out of the way, and while she passed, she froze her feet and ankles too. Liquegirl fell one more.

"What's the matter, Alpha Forcer? Cold feet?" Arctica laughed at her own stupid joke. Liquegirl was dejected, but she still held out one last glimmer of hope that she might do something wonderful to win.

"You're pathetic, you realize that?" said Arctica. "But I shouldn't expect anything less. After all, you're no Frozone. Ah, Frozone, now there was a super hero…" She was monologuing again. Excellent! Now she had time to formulate a plan. She was a genius; she should be able to think of something. So why was nothing coming? Ugh, this was so frustrating! She pounded her still frozen fist against the ice. Surprisingly, she punched a hole in it. She looked back at her ice fist. There was no pain! At these cold temperatures, her frozen body must be invulnerable! Now she knew what she had to do!

"Well, I suppose that's enough gibber-gabber," said Auntie Arctica. "Do you have any last words before I send you to the deep freeze?"

Liquegirl got up. "No, but I do have a last request. Would you mind showing me the back of your head?"

Arctica laughed. "With your feet encased in ice, I shouldn't fear you running away. So, feast your eyes on this!" She turned her back on Liquegirl and pulled her hair up.

"Oh, my, that's pretty nice," said Liquegirl, right before she delivered a devastating right jab in the back of her skull. Arctica went down so hard, that she cracked the ice when she hit.

"I hate comedy fights," she mumbled before she drifted off to La-La Land.

"Well, that takes care of that," Liquegirl said. "Now, all that's left to do is wait for the hot Italian sun to melt all this ice. Speaking of melting…" She looked at her still frozen hand and feet. "Where's a nice sauna when you need one?" Just then, she heard the voices of her teammates over her radio. She didn't want to interrupt their conversations, so she just listened.

"I'll bet your wife will come through without a scrape," said José. "There are few thing on Earth that can hurt Liquegirl."

With her hand frozen into a fist, it wasn't easy to push the talk button on her radio, but she did it. "Define 'hurt'," she said.

The whole team greeted her warmly. Ironic, isn't it?

"So, how'd you do?" asked Violet. Kimberly told her.

"Wow!" said Dash in surprise. "So, it's like your powers change at such low temperatures, like you become a new superhero!"

"Perhaps," said Kim, "but I'm getting quite tried of being so cold!"

"Well," said Ashley, "it looks like we did it! Mission accomplished!"

"Right on!" said José. "So when do we go home?"

"I suppose we could stay here for just one day longer, you know, so we can heal, sightsee, enjoy Europe," said Violet, "But the day after that, we should be on the first flight back to California."

"Roger that," said everyone.

"Okay then, Python out."

"Rocket out.

"Blind Tracy out."

"Heartthrob out."

"Liquegirl out."

(A/N: Whew! Nice exciting time, huh? Well, don't get too comfortable, because I'm just getting started! This little trip across the pond is still part of the introduction! The real story begins when the team gets back home! Until next time, please review!)