"Well," the Captain said to her companions, her head poking out of the door to the restroom while the rest of her was safely kneeling inside, "it's not Mister Freeze."

"Then who?" Al asked. "Who else has a freeze ray?--and so help me, Techie, if you start singing about laundry day and underthings tumbling, I will knock you on your ass."

"I wasn't gonna," Techie replied, innocent face fixed firmly in place.

"Captain Cold," the Captain answered loudly, ducking back into the bathroom fully. "And it's technically a cold gun, not an ice gun. It slows things down on a molecular level to absolute zero. The ice is--"

"Science lesson later, Mon Capitan." The Captain shrugged and stuck her head back outside so that she could watch the fray.

"But...really? Captain Cold?" Al joined the Captain, her chin resting on the other woman's head. "You're kidding."

"Not just Captain Cold. I see…Captain Cold, Icicle, Killer Frost and...is that Coldsnap? I thought he was dead." The Captain shook her head. "Four cold themed villains teaming up. Of course. Why not?"

"Why do supervillains with similar powers always think that teaming up is a good idea?" Al asked. "'Oh, my cold gun has failed to stop the hero. Surely if I get five cold guns, that will do the trick!' If you want to be a successful villain team-up, you need to diversify."

"At least Mr. Freeze was smart enough not to get involved."

"I dunno, guys, the publicity gimmick possibilities are pretty enticing. If I were a cold themed villain, I might want to hook up with a group of guys like me," Techie replied, finally succumbing to curiosity and bringing her chin to rest on Al's head so that she too could watch the tussle between Guy Gardner and the three villains. "We could call ourselves the Ice Pack."

"There are other themes to be had, Ops," the Captain said. A beam of bright blue hit the wall to her left and she retreated, forcefully dragging the other two henchgirls with her. Once bearings were regained all around, the conversation resumed.

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

The Captain thought for a moment. "Like…the Killers. Yeah! You could get Killer Frost to work with Killer…Moth. Oh, no, that's a terrible idea."

"How about the Dead Heads?" Al suggested. "Deathstroke, Deadshot, Dead…uh…there must be more than just them. There've gotta be."

"How about the Captains?" Techie asked, lifting an eyebrow. "Captain Cold, Captain Nazi, Captain Boomerang and of course, The Captain."

"The Captains isn't a very catchy name for a supervillain team-up," Al said with a roll of her eyes. "And Captain Boomerang barely counts as a villain. I mean, he throws boomerangs. That's his whole shtick."

The Captain crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, I like him."

"Well, you have problems."

"A boomerang can be a perfectly formidable weapon," the Captain reasoned, "provided it's a real one."

"As opposed to pretend?"

"Hey, hey guys," Techie said, excitement evident in her tone. "They could call themselves 'Captains Courageous."

"But they're villains. And we're off names, now we're on weaponry. Keep up."

More civilians screamed in terror and the girls ceased their senseless conversation, peeking out from their hiding place. Guy was valiantly deflecting ice beam blasts with the ring, hurling chunks of green energy shaped like snowballs at his foes. Half a dozen people had been frozen, standing around the makeshift arena like ornamental statues, their faces set in expressions of naked terror.

'Um…guys, should we maybe…be doing something?" Al asked, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth.

"We can't get involved."

Techie turned on the Captain. "Why not?"

"Do we have any stake in this fight whatsoever? Does any of this really concern us?" the Captain asked. "We're Gotham based. I don't see anybody out there we need to score villain brownie points with, do you?"

Al and Techie glanced at each other. "Who said anything about the villains?"

"You're not…you're not suggesting what I think you're suggesting, are you?"

"You yourself just said we don't have any stake in this fight. We're completely neutral," Al said. "We're so neutral we don't have to defend anyone, not even ourselves, 'cause as far as the hero knows, we're perfectly innocent civilians."

"This may be one of the only times we get to play the White Hats."

"Okay--and I can't believe I'm being the logical one in this scenario--are we even armed? And before you answer, remember: good guys don't use fear toxin."

Techie thought for a moment. "Brute force?"

"Sure, be my guest if you want to become henchcicles."

"She's got one 'a them thar 'valid points' again, Techie."

"When has that ever stopped us?"

Al turned back to the Captain. "She's got one 'a them thar valid points too, Cap'n. We should take them to an alley and let 'em fight it out to see which one is more valid."

"It all comes down to what we want to do, doesn't it? Do we want to hide in the bathroom like pussies--"

"We are pussies, Ops. By definition, we're all pussies."

"--or, do we want to go out there and get our hands dirty?"