Chapter 6: Having a Cool Time

Freeze grinned coldly from inside the helmet of his suit as he inspected the two obstacles that stood in his way. One was a small female that he didn't expect much trouble from, but the other one, that Nightwing twerp, was another story. He'd fought him once before with another mediocre nuisance, Batman. He studied them, the nozzle of his freeze gun jutted below them as he froze the ground beneath their feet.

Cory and Nightwing's feet began to slip and slid clumsily, before they both swooped backwards against the icy floor. Freeze's blue frost bitten face leered at them as he aimed at Cory, whom Nightwing yanked back just a second of the blue ray. He pulled her to her feet and she frowned at the fact that he save her like some damn damsel in distress. She felt somewhat useless and her hands went to the tool black utility belt she had brought with her, now clasped around her hips. They grasped the heavy combat leather gloves with iron incased around the knuckles she had received from her father on her sixteenth birthday and she slipped them on.

The gray luster of the metal gleamed, as its weight became familiar to her again by opening and re-closing her hands slowly. She and Nightwing dodged another cold blast from freeze, ducking and drawling closer to the counter of the bar. "We need to go for the suit, right?" Cory asked, giving him a quick back-glance and Nightwing nodded, taking out a small tazer from the compartments around his forearm.

"If I jam this to the back of it, I could make a shortage. While I work on this, keep him option-less," Cory gave her head a nod before they split, her going at Freeze head on, and her agile partner gliding up to a wall, bouncing off and landing nimbly on the back of Mr. Freeze with a solid thump. Victor Fries roared a fierce growl as he thrashed his body around in a whipping motion, his gun going off in random dispersals. Nightwing kept his grip on through all his buck-wild lashings.

Cory hoisted herself up, swinging on Freeze's arm that held the freeze gun. She then propelled herself to his chest, where she smashed an iron knuckle into his helmet, shattering the glass. She leaped back to escape the swat of his spazzing arm. A gnarled scream erupted from Freeze as the sudden transition from extreme cold to room temperature overwhelmed him, his blue tinged face bubbling and fizzing like humanized nitrogen-solid.

That was when Nightwing tazered his suit and it began motion-less, before slowly falling back, a boiling Mr. Freeze inside its broken helmet. Cory huffed and turned away from the pain super-villain. "I'll go call 911," She announced drifting out of the building without hearing Nightwing's reply. She came to a pay phone and dialed the paramedics, leaving a brief message for law enforcement and the location before hanging up promptly. Cory snuck into the bathroom from the outside window and quickly returned to normal.

She crawled out of the bathroom, acting as if she were looking to see if the place was safe once and spotted Dick slowly rising from behind the bar counter, his Nightwing costume hidden under his snazzy suit. "I-is he gone?" she asked with a mock timid voice. Dick nodded hugging her as they exited the torn restaurant. "Seems like villains like to interrupt us a lot," Dick grinned laughing with a nod. They walked back to the car and Dick drove her home for the night.

Later on Dick came back to his apartment to find Bruce already there. "Pretty sure this is breaking and entering." He sighed taking a seat on his couch. "What's the matter, now?"

"Freeze was found with severe second degree burns to his face." Bruce's eyes were narrowed at him. "Did you do that?" Dick shrugged flipping on his TV. "Dick?"

"I didn't mean for it to happen, Blood smashed his freak'in fish tank." Bruce's face stiffened at the mention of Blood. He felt the familiar ache on his shoulder where she knocked him out and his fists clenched.

"Why was she there?" he spat out in an acid voice. Dick looked up at him and shrugged and Bruce thought he might strangle him if he did it again.

"Anti-hero," Dick answered simply, flipping the channels of the TV nonchalantly and another look of awkward stony surprise swept Wayne's face. What is up with those two idiots?