Chapter 3

Nora

AN: Hey guys, here's another chapter. I just came off celebrating my 21st birthday, so happy belated birthday to me. Make sure you review this once you're done.

"Take a seat...Humanitarian." Roger Craig Smith as Batman in Arkham Origins DLC: Cold Cold Heart

"This is your fault. You get me out a'this!" Penguin demanded pissed at the vigilantes for letting Freeze get away with Ferris who has the codes to the superweapon. But they cared less for his whining and moaning like a little baby, right now they want to know what is Freeze after and why does he need Ferris.

"Why does he need Boyle? What's he looking for?" he questioned,

"Boyle's got codes he needs to access some kind a'superweapon." Penguin replied "And now you let 'em have it!"

"That ice is the only thing protecting you from the asskick 3 on1 lesson, walrus." Jericho said, preventing an eye roll at the accusation.

"Yeah yeah, yeah." Penguin retorted with a sour look, "Look- You want to save our friend mister Boyle, yeah? But you'll never break through this ice. Gothcorp has a device. It's uh like a drill… a cryodrill."

"Tell us where it is." Jericho said, as much as he hated to admit it, Penguin's got a point, the ice wall is the only the thing between Freeze and them, so Penguin better tell the location of the cryodrill now or otherwise, he's in trouble.

"I had my men to bring our uh… acquisitions to the Poison nightclub." Penguin explained, "For safekeepin' of course."

"Then you better hope your men is still at Poison." He said, taking off in hurry while Batman and Talia followed pursuit. They better get to Poison now before his men decides to relocate.

"Oi, Arrow Boy!" The Hood turned his head around to see what Penguin's up to. He probably wanted to bribe since he's the less experienced of three heroes. "Do you have a price, yeah? Name it. it's yours if you get me out a'this bloody ice brick."

"You're good where you are." He sneered, denying the bribe from this dwarf, he's rotten apple as they say. Power-hungry criminals are the worst of the worst.

"But. You can't leaving me here. I'll freeze to death." Penguin stammered horrified at the situation he was in.

"Not my problem." The Hood declared,

"Oh, you're a cold hearted bastard, you know that?" he spat glowering at the hooded vigilante,

"So have I heard." The Hood responded as he went to catch up with them.

They burst through the door of Gothcorp and headed to the Impala with purpose. The Hood was about to leave on his own when Jericho called his name.

"Hey, man. There's a free seat for you if you'd like. Saves you the long road." The Hood was contemplating wherever he was going to take on that offer. Something told him to do it, trust him. If Sara trust Jericho, then he should do the same. He went in the backseat with Batman while Talia was in the front with her brother As they drove off to the city.

"Oracle, what's the status of XE Suits?"

"It just arrived in Starling City. Tell me the location so that I can initate the drop." Oracle replied quickly,

"Have it drop at a night club called Verdant. It's a secure drop zone." The Hood said,

"Was that…"

"Yep, you heard him. Once we put on the XE Suits, we're heading to poison night club to recover a cryodrill from Gothcorp." Jericho said,

"Understood."

Felicity was currently digging through Gothcorp's records to see if there was any connection between the Humanitarian of The Year and his former employee at Arrow cave as she called it underneath the Verdant nightclub when she heard an aircraft gliding past the nightclub above followed by a thump.

"Did you hear that?" she asked, hoping that Dig picked up aswell and to her luck, he did.

"I did. Better check it out." Dig and Felicity walked up the stairs and left the cave, they went outside of this cold winter night to see three sets of containers not far from the club.

"What the hell?" he murmured; approaching with caution. Judging by the appearance, they must be military based at best. He inspected one of the containers kneeling on the snow coated ground. He saw what looked like a hand scanner. Deciding to test if his hand fits, he placed his hand on the scanner and he recicved a electric shock for his efforts.

"Son of a…" he grumbled wincing back, it must be some kind of a security measure.

Just then a car, impala to be exact pulled up on the driveway and out stepped four people.

Diggle and Felicity turned around to see The Hood, Batman (Who they learned from Oliver earlier tonight) and the infamous Al Ghuls. Jericho and Talia.

Felicity's eyes widened in shock as she saw Jericho. He's here in Starling City? her thoughts were running rapid by now, "Oh my god. Oh my God. Oh my God. It's really him. How do I look? Is my hair to tight? Do my clothes fit? Is my shoes comfortable Look at me rambling, which should end in 3. 2. 1."

"Well, if isn't the lovely Felicity Smoak. Got to admit, for IT girl you're certainly alluring than most of them." he went to kiss her hand that caused her cheeks to turn a deep red.

"Thanks. I think." She acknowledged, Jericho went to his container and put his hand along with Batman and Talia on the scanners. The containers opened to reveal three sets of combat suits built to reek fear into hearts of the criminals.

Holy…" Felicity whisper in awe as she took a closer look. It is so like from Iron Man movies. Scrub that it's even better than Iron Man and Transformers combined.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Extreme Environment suits." Jericho announced while putting his suit on.

"I gotta get me one of those." Diggle declared,

"You ready, Felicity?" Diggle asked as they were about start their combat training. He was in his workout clothing while Felicity was in her sports bra and training shorts wrapping her hands in tape. She took a deep breath before she nodded.

"Yeah." she took a fighting stance that resembled a wolverine with clenched fists, arms spreading out a bit and a weak attempt of a mean face.
Diggle chuckled at her stance, it was obvious what she was trying to copy from, "Trying to copy your idol?"

"No. This is me trying release the animal in me." She defended, "Come on."

"Alright, whatever you say, lionheart." He joked, then said quietly, "She's got it bad." what he meant was for the past few days she started to fascinate Jericho by asking Sara about him. Diggle wondered if this was a way of moving on from Barry Allen who's in a coma due to a lab accident back in Coast City. She hadn't talked much about it since she came back. It's uncertain that she really wants to talk about her infatuation although it's very unlikely that she will admit it because she would deny all day long.

"Well, this feels really awesome." Jericho commented admiring the new suit he's put on, he parked the Impala within the perimeter of Poison Nightclub. Despite its bulk, he didn't feel heavy at all, he can thank the honey comb structure designed to protect from extreme cold with out increasing weight. During the travel, The Hood told them that Poison was owned by Max Fuller and that the club's a hot spot for the any criminal activity so it wouldn't be a surprise if Penguin's men crashed the party.

"Don't get too comfortable. Even though it's been ready for deployment, it still hasn't been tested out on field." Batman replied as they stepped out of the and walked towards the entrance. It was frozen shut. Looks like Penguin's Intel were solid. He used his thermo gloves to heat up the ice and when it was weak through, he smashed the ice to pieces.

They entered Poison and saw Penguin's men harassing some of the guest there.

Batman used a thermo charged batarang to break a barrier of ice above them. It came crashing down on them separating the hostages from the henchmen. Jericho, Batman and the Hood went to fight the henchmen whom one of them was armed with a cryoweapon. Talia managed to sneak past them unnoticed and went to the manager's office. She picked the lock and opened the door up to see Ricky Loose Lip's Leblanc taking a drink and a man she presumed Mr Fuller frozen solid in refrigerating ice.

"C'mon, man. I'm freezing." He pleaded,

"Well, you should've thought of that when you decided to pick up a fight that you knew you wouldn' win. In fact you should invest better bodyguards" Loose Lips wasn't going to listen to the man pleads. He's just sitting there and enjoys his drink.

"But. I'm- I'm freezing." he stammered,

"Quit whinin'. Atleast your drink is cold." He said, not caring the slightest, Talia grabbed his arm for arm drag and pressed her foot on his throat for interrogation.

"Hello, Richard. Pleased to see you." Talia greeted while keeping a steady foot on Loose lip's throat. Her voice sounded more robotic due to her XE Suit that was a bulky version of her outfit. "You stole a cryogenic drill from Gothcorp." She went down to business quickly.

"Well, yeah. But… it ain't here. Penguin said to sell out the parts. It's in pieces." He croaked,

"Where are they?" she sneered,

"I'll tell ya, I'll tell ya." he pulled out a note from his pocket in a hurry, Talia snatched it away from Loose Lips " Just… don't drop me off a roof, ok?"

"Perhaps next time." She stomped his face, putting him into sleep. She used her cellphone to scan the note that contained the locations of the cryodrill parts She went on to break Fuller free from the ice. She didn't stay for gratitude from the as she exited the office and joined the men securing the hostage

"I got locations of the cryodrill. We cover more ground if we split up."

"Agreed. Here." Batman handed the hood an earpiece, "You'll get in contact with Oracle, our Information Broker and us. it's a wireless relay system, slaved to the communicator. And if you're tempted to track us with it, don't bother. Signals are locked with quadruple cryptology, bounced through dozen different satellites."

"So, Hood tell me about how you know about my reputation?" Jericho asked as they were on the location of one of the cryodrill's components. They were concealing themselves behind a beaten up brick wall from armed henchmen.

"I saw you on Live TV from Blackgate on Christmas. And we have a mutual friend who told me all about you." He replied loud enough for both of vigilantes to hear

"And who might be?" Jericho inquired

"Sara Lance." He replied

He chuckled, shaking his head, Sara must've gone home for a quick visit and told Oliver about Jericho. "I should've known."

"She spoke very highly of you and Talia, like you were the royal family." he added,

"That we are." Jericho confirmed, The Hood wasn't wrong about that part. With the amount of wealth that his family inherited over 600 years; they were undoubtedly rich.

"She also told me that you left after an incident in Russia. Care to tell why?"

"Maybe later when we put those to sleep." Jericho pulled out his disruptor disabling the armed henchmen. The Hood fired two arrows, all on target. They jumped over the wall and went to the case that contained one of the components to the cryodrill. They retrieved the component.

"Batman, you there?" The Hood asked into his earpiece, "We just recovered the first component. Did you regain the second?"

"Yes. We're on our way to Gothcorp right now. But it requires some kind of superconducting fluid to operate." Batman replied,

"Let me search through the database." Oracle offered, "And here it is. It's a organic super coolant used in an experimental lab run by one Victor Fries."

"As in Mr. Freeze?" The Hood asked,

"It's too big to think as a coincidence, so yeah." Oracle confirmed, "It says here that Ferris had his lab shut down, some sort of accident."

"Is there a security office in Gothcorp?"

"It's on the 15th floor, just right below the IT Department."

"Thanks, Oracle. We're heading back to Gothcorp now."

"Oracle I'm inside the office." The Hood stated as he was now in the security office on the 15th floor, after taking the elevator shaft, Jericho, Batman and Talia was heading to the Organic's Lab to find a supercoolant for the cryodrill. "What I'm looking for exactly?"

"Try to find Victor's personal file on the file cabinet. There must be some clue to what happened to Freeze in that Lab accident."

"Affirmative." He responded; he opened one of the drawers that had the letters E-F in the last names.

He paged through the files for a couple of seconds before he found the file of one Victor Fries.

He opened to see an old wedding picture of the former employee and his wife Nora. He learned who she was earlier and by judging photo he can see why he married her. To think that once brilliant scientist had everything that anyone could dream. A well paid job, a loving wife. What went wrong? As he dug deeper into the profile of Freeze, he discovered Nora was struck with a terminal illness named Huntington's chorea. As he was in the middle of profile, a cd unexpectedly fell off the file and landed by his feet. He picked up the cd and examined it. It was a security video.

"Oracle I found a CD It's some kind of a security Video. Better check it out." he put the Cd in a dvd recorder and pressed play on the recorder. It showed Fries in work suit with a lab coat. He was currently running diagnostics on Nora who was in some kind of coma state in some of a freezing chamber, it must be the day of the Lab Accident. Suddenly some was calling out for behind the door.

"Open this door! Open it Now!"

"No." Victor gasped, fearing the worse. The door was blown away by the guards who entered the lab and they were soon joined by Ferris Boyle, he did not look happy.

"Get away from that equipment!" he demanded, He ordered the guards to shut the lab down, something that Victor wasn't going to let them do it that easily.

"Stop! This is my experiment!" he said,

"Your unauthorized experiment." Ferris corrected crossing arms with a frown, "I ordered funding suspended weeks ago. I'm already 3 million in debt, thanks to you." This was nothing like the man who was awarded Humanitarian award earlier tonight, he was showing his true colors. An uncaring, self-interested, unsympathetic man that was Ferris Boyle.

"You can't stop it now. My wife is in there." Victor reminded with pleading look

"So bring her out." Ferris Boyle inquired,

"You can't interrupt the process now."

"Open it." Boyle commanded one of the guards, the guard walked over to the freezing chamber to do just that.

"It's her only chance!" Victor tried to reason with the CEO but his request was denied by CEO

"This is my equipment! Mine!" he stated with a venomous tone in his voice, "I have every legal right to use it or not use it as I see fit. I say this project ends now!" in a last ditch effort, Fries grabbed a revolver from one of the guard's holster and aimed at the supposed "Humanitarian" Ferris Boyle. He raised his hand as if he was trying to calm Victor down.

"No! Stay away from her, murderer!" Victor demanded,

"Victor, I'm sorry. I lost my temper. It doesn't have to come to this. We can talk." For a spilt second Fries thought that he meant it lowering his revolver but it was only a false sense of security as Boyle sucker punched Victor, he stumbled back to a table of cryogenic chemicals soaking him with cold liquid.

"Get out! Get out!" Boyle got out of the dodge with the security guards, Victor's skin was starting to ice blue as his core temperature was and the last thing the camera showed was his hand reaching for Nora as they escaped.

"Dear God." Oliver whispered, it all made sense once the DVD reached the end of recording. There was no super weapon of sorts. Nora was here in Gothcorp. She was kept in the Propellant Research wing and Boyle was the only one who has security codes for Nora's freedom. All this violence, Fries was doing it for his dying wife.

"What's going on? Did you find anything useful?" Oracle asked,

"I think I did." He responded, taking the DVD and the file with him "I think I know why Freeze abducted Boyle. His wife Nora is being held in the Propellant Research lab."

"What?! Nora's here in Gothcorp!" she quizzed shock apparent in her voice

"Yes." He confirmed, "It was never his intention to kill Ferris, he needed Boyle's security access so that he could get Nora out of Gothcorp. I'm going to Contact Officer Lance at SCPD and send him the CD."

"I'll inform Batman and the others about this." She stated, "What was it on the CD by the way?"

"The truth." He exited the office and went to call Lance about the evidence he gathered against Boyle.

By the time she told them about their new development, every question that Jericho had was answered as everything fell into place, he got the whole story. Victor initially agreed to help Boyle with the advance Cryogenic Weapons program so that he could be suppled with limitless resources from Gothcorp for Nora's Huntingtons. But when Fries realized Boyle wasn't going to hold up his end of the deal, he decided to do the Huntington's research himself. Boyle didn't like that when he found out about the three million debt; so he confronted Fries. There was a struggle, which resulted Victor being drenched in a pool of cryogenic chemicals. Boyle and his guards escaped, and he put the lab under quarterine. Victor had somehow survived but it wasn't without any side effects. His core temperature had sunk into sub zero and he knew that leaving the lab would kill him. so he built a suit to keep his body temperature cool. All caused by Ferris Boyle. After that Jericho went to the Organics Lab to recover a supercoolant fluid for the Cryodrill. He found it in one of the labs.

"So, You're still going to need the gurney?" Oracle asked

"Yeah, but for not Victor." Jericho replied,

Once he had the supercoolant, Jericho, Batman and Talia headed back to the Propellant Research Wing and surprisingly Penguin was still there, stuck in the ice wall.

"You took your bloody time, your tossers. I'm freezin' to death!" Penguin exclaimed, "Did you get the cryodrill?"

"Yep, but we're not going to use it to save your sorry ass, walrus." Jericho replied,

"Oh you've come back to gloat, 'ave ya?" he remarked, "Oh, I'll 'ang ya with that bloody coat, you 'ear me!" Jericho punched him in face, breaking his nose before using the cryodrill to break through the ice. Once the cryodrill blasted a hole through the ice, they could go through to the Cryogenic testing Facility via testing secure entry. Jericho ripped open panel and crawled through the ventilation shaft to the Cryogenic testing Facility where Boyle had his lower body frozen stiff and his right arm was attached to one of the chambers while Freeze was waiting patiently for him to give up the code.

Jericho kicked panel open and jumped down as Freeze froze the panel and the ventilation hole, trapping Talia and Batman in there.

"Damnit!" Batman swore,

"Let him go, Victor." Jericho reasoned with his hands raised in surrender, Freeze pointed his cryoweapon at Son of The Demon.

"I'm taking my wife. You can't stop me." He argued,

"I know the truth and so will the police. Boyle will face judgment for his crimes." Jericho stated,

"It… It was accident. You don't know what you're talking about!" he tried to play the innocent card but Freeze wasn't going to be fooled, he pulled Boyle out of the ice and threw him in one of the cryo tubes next to Nora's. He then blasted ice towards Jericho evading the ice blast just in time.

"Nothing matters, Do you understand? Nothing but my Nora." He pressed a button on a control panel raising the platform that he was on.

"Victor! You've endangered lives all over the city! Nora would've never wanted this!" he pointed out

"No." Fries admitted deflated, walking over to the chamber placing his hand on the glass. Jericho saw a hint of emotion that freeze claims to be none in his eyes. "What she wants is to live a long life in the warmth of the sun, her hand in mine." His face darkened as his irises show malice and anger, "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!"

Penguin's men came into the facility under orders of Freeze to find Jericho though Jericho went to hide from armed goons. He noticed three control panels on in front of the cryotanks at each corner and a plan was already formulated in his mind.

"If I can disable the control panels by the overheating the cryotanks, I can force Freeze to lower the platform without being seen. I have to be fast though." Jericho thought, he ran towards the railing and used it as a support to jump over the gap to the first cryotank. He activated his thermal gloves to boil the cryotank

"Warning containment breach in cryotank 1." The speakers announced, Freeze walked over the platform once he heard the warning and blasted Ice at Jericho who avoided the ice by jumping down to the lower level, barely. Jericho ran over to the next corner as he climbed up the ladder and override the control panel on the second tank.

"He's at tank two!" Freeze announced, commanding the men to the second tank whom the cold liquid was becoming warm. The men just missed Jericho who grappled on a gargoyle heading for an early escape.

Just one left, He looked over the last tank and the men who were searching for him.

"Boyle is the real criminal, Jericho. Help me get Nora and no one needs to get hurt." Freeze offered,

"At any other day I would say yes, but not today, Victor!" Jericho shouted as he finished overheating the last cryotank. It forced Freeze to go to Plan B in case the reactors went override. He also lowered the platform down to prevent more containment breaches.

"Let's see how well you do when the air freezes in your lungs." Freeze declared as he released a gust cryovapor, freezing Jericho in place. Luckily the XE Suit was protecting him from the cryovapor with a mouthpiece attached to a oxygen tank on his back. It didn't protect him though from being in ice with the goons. Freeze jumped down from the platform to the lower levels where he laid his eyes on Jericho who used his suit to break free and scrambled away to safety. The ice on the ventilation shaft finally broke as Batman and Talia got out of it.

Freeze heard the ice break and looked up to see them. "Well, it appears we have some more unwanted guests."

He made a mistake by taking his eyes off the ball, as Jericho jumped from above and kicked him in the back and damaged his suit.

"You made a mistake there, Victor!" Jericho criticized as he took off to a safe distance.

"You only anger me, Jericho." Freeze hissed scolding himself for the distraction, looking around to where he was but he was nowhere in sights. An ice formation came crashing down on Freeze. His suit sustained more damage. Batman just sent a batarang from the platform when Freeze wasn't looking. He knew though Freeze wouldn't fall for it again.
Jericho broke through an ice wall that was formed during the cryovapor, surprising Freeze and damaged his suit once more.

"Cryogenic containment failing. Prime subject; Nora Fries in Danger.". Freeze decided to release another gust of cryovapor and headed back, this time Jericho saw it coming by taking cover in a corner out of sight while Batman and Talia went the other way, Batman broke the ice to the grate underneath Freeze who was working on the console once cryovapor cleared out, Jericho grappled on the ledge and went to Batman

"Ready, Talia?" Batman asked her, she nodded yes in response. They used thermal gloves to break the floor above him, he came down and they did a double team sending him through the window. He was down for. However while they subued down Boyle managed to get out of his imprisonment and disconnected Nora's freezing system in which caused her to slowly defrost from cryostasis.

"Thanks for the heavy lifting." He said in mocking them as he walked towards the console "But you and your girlfriend shouldn't stuck your noses in my business." He sent a burst of cry vapor, Batman pushed Talia and Freeze out of way, scarifying himself as he was concealed in the thick ice. Talia went over the railing but somehow gripped the railing. Thinking that the vigilantes were dead, he took this moment to let it all sink in.

"Here I thought that 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 these freaks dead, there won't anyone left to say otherwise." Freeze crawled on his arms trying desperately to save his wife; his suit was critically damaged. If she dies, he will lose the only good thing that has ever happened in his inadequate life. While Boyle was taunting Victor of how he'd failed, Jericho filmed what was taking place, recording the crime in progress and Boyle's true colors. He was busted for sure.

"Did you get everything, Oracle?" Jericho asked,

"Every minute. Now stop the son of a bitch." That was all the motivation he needed, he came out of the shadows and marched over to Boyle who was beating Freeze with a pipe. He ripped the pipe off Boyle who was shocked to see he was still alive.

"Good night, Humanitarian." He sneered in disgust before knocking his lights out. He sighed in relief as he went to help Talia back up whereas Batman just broke himself free out of the ice and the first thing he did was to restore cryogenic containment, thus saving Nora's life.

"We're sorry Victor." Jericho expressed his condolences kneeling next to him, "We can't grant you peace." He pulled out the supercoolant and indigested it into Freeze's suit "But we can bring you justice." Jericho followed Freeze's glance towards Nora whose life was secured for the time being.

"Nora." He called softly,

"Lt. Pike just confirmed that Gothcorp CEO Ferris Boyle has been taken into police custody. Police reports that Boyle stands accused of manslaughter, extortion, kidnapping and attempted murder. Shocking accusations given last night he accepted the Wayne Foundation's award for Humanitarian of the year. In other News, Moira Queen who recently

Jericho watched Starling City News from a distance as he was set to leave Starling City. After some persuasion, Freeze agreed on a deal with the DA to tell her about the illegal weapon operations that Ferris was running during his employment at Gothcorp so that he could get his sentence minimized and by looking at the evidence SCPD gathered, Ferris Boyle is probably looking to ten or 20 years in prison if he is lucky. Barb was on the phone talking to her Father who was on the way to Starling City to take Freeze back to Blackgate, Arkham Asylum was still under heavy re construction following the 4th of July by the Late Joker. Nora was currently held up at Starling General Hospital, Intensive Care Unit.

So, the way he sees it, the bad guy lost and nobody got hurt. He'll call it a job well done.

He smirked at the thought of it as he was heading back to his hotel room in the Starling City Plaza when he heard a voice from the other side of the street.

"Hi, Oliver. It's Sara."

He laid his eyes on a blonde woman walking across the street. The smirk faded once he recognized who it was, it can't be? she was supposed to be in Tibet or atleast that's what he knew last time he checked.

"You gotta be kiddin' me." Jericho muttered, still in shock

"Just wanted to let you know that I'm back in town. Call me when you get this."

He started to follow her as he ran over the road to the other side , the mysterious woman sensed that she was being followed with a few glances past her shoulder, so she tried to loose her tail but after a few minutes, she realized that her follower was still shadowing. she decided to head to a nearby alley and hid behind a dumpster preparing an ambush. Jericho glanced over the alley sensing that it could be a trap and it confirmed his gut feeling when the attacker tried to sucker punch him only for Jericho to turn around and caught fist, she used her other fist but he also caught it. He took a good look at her face and a smirk slowly crept up on his face when he recognized the attacker. While the Woman was surprised as she identified her follower but she concealed it while keeping her face emotionless.

"Sara Lance." Jericho said letting go of her fists and adjusted his leather jacket.

"Jericho." Sara drawled,

"You look pretty good… for a corpse." He commented, assessing her for a moment,

"After the Undertaking in the Glades, I've realized that there's no better place like home." Sara told him,

And there You have it. The first encounter between Jericho and Sara. what will happen between them? Will there be a confrontation?
Only time will tell.