Nightwing was getting annoyed. Very annoyed. This was the third group of thugs he had to dispatch in ten minutes. "There was no sign of Freeze, just his suit. He can't survive without it. I've got to find him before it's too late. I'm wasting time looking for him. Robin, can you try to locate him through thermal imagery. His internal body temperature should be higher than normal, but still unnaturally low for an average human."
"I'm searching now, stand by." the youngest bat replied. The computer screen he was facing suddenly emitted a low ding, providing a hit. "It looks like he's to the north of the Iceberg Lounge. There is a blip-." he was cut off by Batgirl.
"I'm getting a communication that the two GCPD officers are in the iceberg lounge." she interrupted.
"Patch me through." Nightwing ordered, running through the doorway and down the halls.
"Screw you." growled what sounded like an angry cop.
"Ah, that wasn't very nice." the Penguin sneered. Suddenly, the sound of something being sprayed and the officer's screams were audible. "You here that? That's the sound of a pig getting his hand frozen solid. And this..." There was a thunk, accompanied by a loud shattering noise, and increased screams. "...is the sound of that hand getting hit by a hammer!" the man cackled. "The whole bloody thing explodes!"
"Bastard!" growled Artemis angrily. Suddenly, the Londoner's voice was audible over both the communication line and the museum's loudspeakers.
"Hello Birdboy. Can you hear me? 'Course you can. I'm getting tired of waiting for you to show up. From now on, each minute that I wait, a cop loses a finger." Cackling was audible as the loudspeakers turned off. Nightwing slowed to a stop at the next corner.
"Robin, are there any other hostiles besides Cobblepot in the room?" Nightwing interrogated the younger vigilante.
"No, it's just the officers and him." muttered Robin.
Pulling out an electrically charged batarang, he tossed it at the felon, only for it to skid back across the floor, a few seconds later, frozen solid. While the bird themed criminal demanded to be fought, Nightwing spoke to the Team. "Penguin's position is too strong. Instead of trying to win a losing battle, I need to figure out a way to disable it. Maybe it's maker will have a solution." he stated, before running north of the Iceberg Lounge.
When he reached the partially frozen lake where the officers were, he pulled out a line launcher. Shooting it across the glittering expanse, he began to zip line above. Halfway across he disconnected the line and flipped, shoot in it another direction, before dropping and rolling over a handrail and onto the floor.
From where she was standing in the monitor womb, Cassie shrieked. "Does he have a death wish!" Several of the newer team members began to nod their heads in agreement.
"Who?" questioned a puzzled La'Gann as he entered the room. Ignoring the annoyed looks he received, he asked, "What's going on?" Cassue answered him.
"The warden of Arkham City captured Nightwing in his civilian identity and revealed he knew that he was Nightwing."
"Neptune's beard! What-" Nightwing chose to turn off his comm then.
Several minutes, eight thugs, a hacked door, Mr. Sickle, and a shattered wall later, he was staring at Victor Fries. The rogue was bare chested, and had medical tubing with a sluggish, cold liquid running through it. He was on his knees, weakly banging on the glass that held him. The temperature in the room was obviously of tropical nature, as the glass was fogged up with water droplets from the humidity. He crouched down, out of it's captive's line of sight, and began to hack the entrance of the room. As one of the glass walls began to rise, he could help but think that it was unfortunate that the younger members of the Team had to see this. The gasping, stumbling, villain didn't even have time to react as he was tackled and thrown on the ground.
Holding the blue skinned villain's head up he growled at him, "Joker's cure! Where is it?" "Forget the clown!" growled the villain with equal hostility. "I want Cobblepot! He has my suit, my weapons, he'll pay for what he's done to me."
"Penguin's mine." Nightwing argued back. "You need to focus on that cure, or innocent people will die."
"You do not understand," the older man narrowed his eyes. "I cannot complete my work without it. Everything depends on it. I must have it." To make sure the vigilante understood the gravity of the situation, he looked up at him for the first time during the conversation. "Everything." he stressed. Nightwing narrowed his eyes behind the mask, holding the ice villain's stare.
"Penguin's protecting himself with your ice gun. How do I get past it?"
"Do I look like a fool? Why would I tell you that?" Freeze growled. Nightwing sighed. He didn't want to bring her into this, but he had no choice.
"Because otherwise I won't help you get back your suit. Think about it Victor, you don't look well. With you gone, what might happen to Nora?" There was suddenly fire in Freeze's eyes which had previously held grim defeat.
"Leave her out of this, Nightwing!" Freeze spat the name out like a curse.
M'Gann was confused. She knew that Mr. Freeze was a Gotham villain with no regard for human life, yet he looked willing to die for this Nora person. By the expressions on the rest of the Team's faces most of the members were similarly confused. Turning to Batgirl, she asked her, "Who's Nora?" Pulling up a file, a Batgirl rattled off.
"Nora Fries is the wife of Victor Fries, alias Mr. Freezeand former ballerina. She suffers from a mortal case of Huntington's Chorea. She was put in cryostasis by Fries during the time he worked at Gothcorp so she would live long enough for him to find a cure for affliction. However, she was kidnapped by Fries's boss, Ferris Boyle. Freeze later attempted to kidnap him, which resulted in the accident that caused his body temperature to plummet, forcing him to become Mr. Freeze. While his intentions are good, he will do anything to help find a cure for Nora, including steal, vandalize property, and kill." Batgirl finished. Her lecture was ruined though by the sound of Freeze clawing at Nightwing while growling about 'kids stealing things that don't belong to them'. Frankly, most of the team was surprised to see this side of any of their villains, albeit one they didn't handle often. The group focused on the conversation between Nightwing and Mr. Freeze in time to hear the end.
"-There's a security override that I built into the suit." Freeze started his sentence confidently, but slowly spoke quieter and quieter. "To prevent anyone from using my weapons against me."
"It's been a pleasure, Victor. Keep thinking about that cure. I'll work on getting your suit back." The Team's leader grunted, before striding away. After a quick trip back across the ice and paste the iceberg lounge, Nightwing found himself staring at Freeze's suit. Glaring at the mech suit, as if it offended him, he wound up and punched through the glass, shattering it. Pulling out another vile of what appeared to be in the center of Freeze's chest, he handed it to a police officer. "When I leave, wait ten minutes before giving this to Freeze. He won't be dangerous." Then, he reached down and pulled out a computer chip that was barely the size of his pinkie.
"What are you going to do?" asked the officer. Nightwing slipped the chip into a port on his cryptographic sequencer and turned to the officer.
"I've got a bird to pluck."
Nightwing raced down the hall and rushed through the double doors to the Iceberg Lounge and dove behind the cover of a wall before the Penguin could hit him with another blast from the pilfered gun. "Come on out, Bird brain." the overweight Gothamite sneered, firing off to Nightwing's left. While the man's attention was drawn elsewhere, Nightwing crept within the chip's range of the ice gun. He took a deep breathe hoping that he hadn't read Freeze wrong and the man had just left him to die and pressed the button. Nothing happened. Suddenly, Cobblepot turned towards him, a smile spreading across his face, as he pulled the trigger, only for his gun to jam. "What? Fire! Damn you!" he demanded, looking down at the weapon. He looked back up just in time to get an uppercut to the face.
While the villain cradled his head, Batgirl berated Nightwing."That was impulsive and stupid and almost got you killed! What if the gun hadn't coincidentally jammed and you had been frozen? What would you have done, then?"
"I needed to get close enough to use the chip and I had a plan incase that happened." he lied. "I'm fine." he reassured her.
"I wouldn't say that, laddie." the Penguin growled. Nightwing mentally kicked himself. In the space of his conversation with Batgirl the villain had snuck off the island. "What do you-" he started, only for the floor to collapse beneath him. He struggled to move a heavy piece of rubble pinning him down from his chest as his head pounded. He began to thrash, yet the rubble only appeared to get stuck tighter. As his head whipped from side to side, he caught sight of a mound of muscle. Oh shit...