Chapter 3
It's such an "Ice" Day (part 1)
"It's always a pleasure to see that SOME adults aren't so bad," Rachel said as she clapped inside the auditorium a few days later. It seemed that Gallagher Elementary had the honor of getting a visit from renowned humanitarian, Ferris Boyle. "Any of you faces of tomorrow have any questions?" he asked, before Bruce Wayne spoke up, "I'm sorry if this sounds rude, but as someone who's seen his fair share of secrets in his life, I MUST know if there's any chance my friends in the research department are wrong about the rumors about how you treat people whenever the cameras aren't rolling." "A fair question, I must admit," Mr. Boyle replied, "Everyone wears a mask from time to time, but I believe that you should only threaten someone when you are yourself threatened and that…did somebody forget to pay the heating bill?"
To everyone's astonishment, he wasn't joking: it was getting incredibly cold in the building, which was saying something since winter was only just starting. Suddenly, a wall burst open and men wearing black masks burst into the room shooting sub-machine guns. A man in a mechanized suit with blue skin walked up to the microphone and stated, "Those who do not wish to die are allowed 1 minute to leave, but if you refuse, your pleas for help will be trampled upon like snow on the ground." Immediately, Ferris bolted for the exit, only to find his legs frosted over. "Except for you: I require a moment of your time," the man in the suit declared.
"Victor Fries? You're supposed to be dead!" Boyle declared, to which Fries stated, "For all intents and purposes, I am. And the name's Mr. Freeze now." One of the security forces pulled out a gun at this and stated, "Let him go or I'll shoot." Knocking him away, Freeze stated, "Treats are meaningless to a man who's lost EVERYTHING!" "Let's get as many people out of here as we can," Bruce whispered to Fanny, to which she nodded, "We MIGHT be able to take down this guy, but first we need to minimize the possible causalities."
As soon as they rallied everyone outside, however, it became clear that the men in the black masks weren't the ONLY pieces of muscle the man known as "Mr. Freeze" had brought along, for the hallways ALSO were crawling with… "Ice Cream Men," Numbuh 1 growled upon noticing their ranks, to which Bruce inquired, "I wonder what they're doing with Black Mask's men?" "Not sure yet, but whatever it is, it CAN'T be good," Numbuh 2 remarked. "In that case," Bruce stated taking out a phone, "I better try and get some assistance. Alfred, can you hear me?" There was silence, and then, "Only just, sir: the weather seems to be messing with communications." "See if you can't contact the police for me," Bruce said with a small grin, "Also, be sure to send something my way to help with eliminating the possibility of hostages." "Will do, sir: will you be require anything else?" the apparent voice of Alfred inquired, to which Bruce stated, "Something that can deal with sub-zero temperatures would be nice." "I'll send it immediately," was the reply.
"Who was that?" Numbuh 5 asked, to which Bruce stated, "That was Alfred, my butler and surrogate father." "He seems nice," Numbuh 3 stated, to which he replied with, "You have no idea. I'm going to check to see if he's here yet: TRY to stay out of danger." As he ran off, Numbuh 4 stated, "Want to start taking out those creeps?"
15 minutes later…
Armed with mustard blasters, gumball launchers, and other weapons, the KND, and Tommy, who'd decided to tag along, had yet to find any lead on where "Mr. Freeze" was taking Mr. Boyle. Though they'd taken out a few of the goons here and there, it seemed that a lot of them were decked out with advanced weapons, some of which seemed to be based on freezing the opponents. Suddenly, a large figure wearing body armor approached them. "I'm going to tear you apart," he stated, before being knocked down to the ground. "Not while I'M here, you won't," Batman, wearing a bulkier version of his normal suit that had the chin covered up, declared.
"Even YOU can't take down all of us alone," stated a voice from a bunch of armed thugs that suddenly burst in to the room. "Then it's a good thing he's NOT alone," Rachel declared. "You guys take the infantry men: Goliath's cousin is MINE," Batman deadpanned. Simply nodding, Fanny and the others took down the goons, paying close attention as the Dark Knight made a few swipes at the man in the armor a few times with his cape before proceeding to punch the man with a few quick and precise jabs. He then proceeded to pull what seemed to be an important piece of the armor off, causing it to fall off completely, which influenced one of the smaller men to try and attack Batman while his attention was elsewhere. Thinking quickly, Fanny fired a stun gun at them, drawing their attention long enough for the Caped Crusader to knock out the large figure.
A few minutes later, all of the thugs were knocked out, except for one, who Batman quickly grabbed. "Where is Freeze taking Feris?" he demanded, to which the thug chuckled slightly, "You really think I'll talk? I KNOW you won't kill me." "True, but you can't say the same about THEM, can you?" the Dark Knight said, gesturing towards the KND members. The thug gulped as even Numbuh 3 had murder in her eyes, so he quickly stated, "Even if I wanted to tell you, Black Mask will KILL me if I tell you what's going on." "There are worse things than death: what to see them?" Batman threatened.
"Alright, you win," the thug relented, "That Freeze character promised Roman some of Bole's secret technology in exchange for help with what's he's got planned." "Which is?" Fanny questioned, to which Batman remarked, "What she said." "I don't know if even Sionis knows," the thug replies, "but whatever it is, it's got something to do with some sort of experiment in cryo-technology that seems to be hush-hush." "Same to you, I'm afraid," stated the Dark Knight as he knocked him unconscious.
"I don't suppose that I can tell you to leave this to the professionals, can I?" the Caped Crusader inquired, to which Tommy retorted with, "I don't see YOU leaving this to the police." "I would if they actually DID their job," he barked out, before sighing and saying, "Sorry: I've just seen too many backstabbers in my life." "It's alright," Rachel stated, "but you have to understand that you're not alone in this: there ARE people out there who want to help you." Sighing, Tommy then stated, "Sorry about what I said: I just don't understand why you're doing this." "I'm doing this because I made a promise to make sure NOBODY spread tyranny without being punished, adult or otherwise," Batman declared with determination, before pressing a few buttons on the mini-computer on his sleeve, "If you TRULY want to help, meet me at Burton Corp." With that, he grappled into the darkness.
Author's note:
Just so that you know, this chapter, and one or two afterwards, is/will be reminiscent of "Batman: Arkham Origins, Cold, Cold Heart." Also, I'm modifying some of the Batman-verse terminology to fit with the KND storyline (which is why I said "Burton Corp" and not "Goth Corp"). Until next time, remember that the hammer of justice is unisex (bonus points to anyone who knows where I got this from).
