"What do you know of my wife?" Mister Freeze asked in a flat voice, but I could hear the edge in his tone.
"Enough, but then again, you can always keep pursuing your little squabbles with the bat. That is, if your wife comes second to your ego." I poked as I followed the sensor ping of our now eavesdropper. Mister Freeze's hand creeped towards his cannon, but I raised a finger to stop him. "Think before your actions reflect poorly upon you."
"I will take your offer under advisement." Mister Freeze ground out.
Shaking my head, I then stood up from my seat, "That is no longer an option. You see, your little temper tantrum has caused a cascade of problems. The only way forward is to either take the deal, or tangle with the one currently watching."
Mister Freeze then shifted positions, but it was clear that he understood. Whatever plan he was hatching wasn't going to succeed and that meant one of the bat-family was here to kick his teeth in. Ignoring the shifting body above us, I kept my gaze locked on Mister Freeze, it would reflect poorly on me if I was to let my guard down right now.
"How do I know that this deal will do more than benefit you and your goals." Mister Freeze asked his control counsel.
"Ohh, that's going to happen since I facilitated such a deal for you," I said with a wave of my hand nonchalantly. "Now, if you please, I would like to examine Nora, I believe you have her stashed around here somewhere."
"Do not speak of my wife as if she was some mere luggage," Mister Freeze said, his voice going flat.
"I would if she was not sleeping inside of a box, now enough dick measuring, please lead the way." I said, then I got up from my seat. Mister Freeze looked at me with a clearly neutral expression on his face. His hand moved, but I wasn't playing his game. Only fools played by the pre-established rules and I was no Batman. The only game I played was the one where I always win.
Always stack the deck in your favor.
With his freeze ray disposed of, Mister Freeze had no choice but to stand there as if he had his dick in his hands. Instead of saying anything, Mister Freeze did an about face and started to walk. Before following his path, I looked up towards the iced over rafters. There was a shift of movement as something shifted in the shadows, smirking at her attempt at stealth, I then turned back around.
Zelda kept little miss batgirl on my HUD's radar as I walked down the long spiral staircase of the Gotham Observatory. We walked and a red sensor trailed our path as we made it to the dormitories. That caused me to release a snort. It would seem that her genius level intellect wasn't so genius after all. If it was where it should have been then she would have stayed behind to use the chance I had given her.
This was the time that she needed to dismantle Mister Freeze's machine, then again, Barbara Gordon had always been the nosey sort. Ignoring her sensor trail on my HUD, I watched as Mister Freeze opened the door to the master suite of the dormitories. I stood in the doorway and took in the care in which he moved about the room. The lack of sound drew my attention to the ground for me to notice the crystalline like gelatin.
Noting that for later study, I kept my pace slow yet steady as I walked up to a waiting Mister Freeze by the double doors that lead to the master bedroom. It would seem that the care in which I moved gained his appreciation because he gave me a nod before slowly opening the door. Laying on the bed was a cryopod and within said pod laid Nora Fries.
I didn't walk into the room, but I did watch as Mister Freeze slowly walked over and ran a gloved hand along his wifes cryopod. He was allowed his moment of silence before I broke it by summoning Zelda out from my armor.
{Scanning…}
{Scanning…}
{Aliment recognized… MacGregor Syndrome advanced stages...}
{Cure…. Possible...}
{Would need lungs drained of fluid post cryogenesis.}
{Regeneration serum #256 for muscular dystrophy.}
"Then do it, cure my wife," Mister Freeze commanded of me.
"Return Zelda," I commanded my own tone firm as I stood facing Mister Freeze. "You would need to take the deal. No deal, no cure."
Mister Freeze stood there before me and I could hear his teeth grind.
"Fine, I accept your deal, I'll dance like a puppet for the powers that be." Mister Freeze ground out through his teeth. For a moment, I worried that his teeth would shatter because of the sub zero temperatures. Then I got over it with a shrug and took out two discs and their control unit from my utility belt.
Mister Freeze caught the two discs I threw his way. With that in hand, I then floated the control unit over to him before explaining their use. "The discs are anti-gravitational lift units, place one at the top and the other at the bottom of your wife's cryo-unit. The control unit is obvious, gather your things, I shall speak with our guest."
Turning away from the room, I then took a step away and raised a hand. Looking upward, I located the little bat-shaped listening device. Plucking the device out of the wall above the door, I carried it with me as I walked back up the spiral staircase. On my HUD was that same red life sign following along.
Going back to the weather console, I started the power down procedure since we were leaving. We might as well leave Gotham in a better condition than it was in before. It didn't take long before the prompts came up on the screen asking for a yes or no selection. Before hitting the selection, I took a step back and looked up once more to the rafters.
"You can come down now." I spoke, leaning back into the large chair that could hold Mister Freeze in his armor. For the briefest of moments there was nothing; no sound, no movement. Then there was a flutter of activity as a bat shaped person came flying down with a grapple line extended into the rafters.
Yeah, there was no stopping me from rolling my eyes at her actions, and they called me dramatic.
"Why are you here Viktor?!" Batgirl tried to growl as she pointed a finger at me.
"My, my, that's not a tone to take with me Miss Gordon, not with leather pants like those." I replied all too smugly. The fact that I knew who she was came as a startling surprise if her body language was anything to go by. Yeah, if she was going to break the rules then I don't see why I shouldn't.
"You, you, you know my secret identity?"
"Well, since you have decided to breach decorum. I don't see the need to fake such a thing as act like I do not know who is under that cowl." I replied with a shrug. "Now, since you did not take the chance I gave you to shut down the weather outside, I must ask. Why are you here?"
Barbara went silent for a moment before gathering her thoughts. "To stop Mr. Freeze of course."
"Now, now, we both know that's not the truth," I said while holding up the listening device. "Like I said before, if you truly wanted to stop him. You would have taken that offered chance instead of following us so you could eavesdrop on our private conversation."
She didn't say anything so I decided to take a shot in the dark.
"You wouldn't be here for a live performance would you?" I ask a little bit of a lusty tone sneaking its way into my voice. "I heard Selena has been quite vocal about my last performance. Is that why you came in the tight leather instead of properly heated armored pants?"
The mouth parts that showed beneath the cowl went red at the cheeks.
"You, you, scoundrel," Barbara squeaked before lashing out with a high kick towards my head. Shaking my head at the foolishness, I stopped her boot halfway to my face with its metallic parts.
Letting out a fake disappointed sigh, I trailed a finger down her nicely toned calf, up her shapely thigh, then gave her ass a nice squeeze through the leather pants that appeared to be painted on that ass.
With the way the leather flexed and the supple feel in my hand, I was certain that Bruce wasn't the one that picked these out for her. Pretty sure he would think that they weren't tactical or something along those lines.
A shiver went down my spine as I slashed that thought in half, I then telekinetically pulled her grappling hook out from its location at the back of her utility belt. Of course I was still keeping up my master of magnetism shtick.
After giving her nice ass one more smack, I then used the metal wire of her grappling hook to tie her to the chair. I then turned the chair so that she would be able to see the command prompt on the screen.
"Untie me this instant!" Barbara yelled at me as I took a step away. I faked another sigh, shook my head at her, then turned around and summoned the freeze ray to my hands.
"Relax, I didn't make it that tight. If I properly judged any of your skills, then you would be able to get yourself out while I leave with my latest employee." I said before turning to see Mister Freeze walk into the room. He instantly zeroed in on Batgirl tied to the chair and his arm twitched. Yeah, he wasn't able to do anything because I still had his freeze ray well outside of his reach.
Levitating Mister Freeze with the cryopod of his wife, I gave Barbara one last long look. Now that I had gotten my fill, I turned sharply while levitating myself up into the air. I then flew both myself and my new company out of the Gotham Observatory. It didn't take us long to get out and into the waiting blizzard. As I flew us back the way I came, I snapped the grappling line that was holding Barbara tied to the chair.
Her movements were almost instant as she reached for the control console in order to shut down the ongoing storm. I knew that she was going to investigate that failure in the grappling line, but of course that was for later for her. Right now though, Barbara was doing just what I wanted her to.
The storm was coming to an end and we were already halfway to where my VTOL waited with a company of ninja assassins. The snow stopped coming down as we landed and my people started to strap in Nora as I put her cryo-unit down in the cargo bay.
Mister Freeze looked at me with his hard neutral expression and I ignored him to stand at the opening of the cargo bay. Once Nora was strapped in properly, I finally decided to speak so that he could stop looming over my shoulder.
"I have already given my people the command to prepare the medical bay for when we arrive." I said calmly as I looked out over the now slowly shrinking Gotham. "I will hold up my end of the deal, but I want plans for repairing the ice caps finished before the week is out so that I may present them to the United Nations. And if I were you, I would take this time to come up with an explanation about the whole Super Villain thing to your wife."
The flight path took us over the city and everyone inside the cargo bay could feel the tension in the air as I waited. I knew that it could happen anytime soon and I refuse to let it not happen on my own terms.
The silence was palpable, the air felt so crisp on my skin that little goosebumps ran their way up my arms. For the briefest of moments, the moon shone through the clouds giving a glimpse of clarity to this mad mad world. It was sad to know that it would never shine on this mad mad city. What I did know was that eventually I would be able to save this city, but that wasn't going to be today.
The moment of revery that I was having was abruptly interrupted by a sharp hiss. Instinct and reflexes kicked in as an arm snapped outwards catching the grapple line that was about to connect with VTOL. Looking around for where it came from, I finally found the culprit.
Bruce looked at me from his perch on the Gotham bridge, his gaze was hard and I could feel the anger pouring out of him. I sent a mental command to my pilots to keep us in a hover before jumping out of my VTOL. Just to be flashy and distract from my abilities, the booters on my armor activated, catching me in the air. I caught myself in the air before turning and flying to Bruce's location.
Hovering before him, I noticed that Bruce never moved from his perch on the Gotham bridge. Interesting, I would think that with the amount of anger pouring out of the man he would have taken the chance to hit me with a cheap shot.
Bruce said nothing as I hovered before him on my armor boosters, his eyes narrowed at me as he took in my armor.
"So, you went Villain."
"There is no such thing as hero or villains in the world. Only fools put arbitrary titles like that on people." I replied with a nonchalant wave of my hand. "I never took you for being such a fool."
Bruce was silent for a moment before speaking some more. "The world is chaotic, titles come with rules that define the lines that be."
Before I could say anything, I felt a large object enter my range of perception. Deciding to see if he was going to take the bait since he was already being all sneaky. I turned my head to play like I just picked up the Batjet in the sky.
The moment my gaze was off of his form, Bruce was on the move for his utility belt. I played the pause like I hadn't noticed him, then I turned around just in time for him to pull out a fucking EMP pulse device.
Unfortunately for Bruce, I was also quick on the draw.
My own grappling hook fired out of my right arm gauntlet to wrap it's way around the EMP pulse device. A bolt of electricity ran down the metallic wiring, but Bruce had already released his hold on the device.
Not interested in fighting on a battlefield for which I hadn't prepared myself, I detached my own grapple wire. The wire flew faster than a striking snake to catch Bruce mid-dive off the bridge.
"There are things to do, so you can understand if I'm in a rush. Part of the deal I made was to have the good doctor out of the city." I said as I had the metallic wire wrap tight enough to rub marks into his Batsuit. "I am the Master of Magnetism."
"I know."