-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Note:
~ ~ denotes English
" " denotes Japanese
_ _ denotes thought
// // denotes use of electronic communication of sorts
All temperatures are referred to in celsius
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

It is known that Grant Walker sought the alliance of Victor Fries. 
This is certainly the reason why Oceana was doomed, but why Walker
sought the aid of a known and dangerous criminal is unknown.  Sources
say Walker had hoped to use Mr. Fries' wife, who was in cryogenic
sleep and had been for the past year, as an incentive for Fries to
agree to his plans.  This ill-concieved plan may have been the reason
for Fries' rampage which destroyed the $70 billion dollar city, as he
has always been at his most violent whenever matters concerned his
wife. 

Miraculously, Grant Walker survived the destruction of Oceana.  He
would not, however, tell what transpired in that doomed city, but
would only say that it was the death of his dream.  This began the
final and tragic stage of Mr. Walker's life, a fatal decline into
poverty and insanity. 

      -Jana Walker, 'The Rise and Fall of Grant Walker' (2014)
-----------------------------------------------------------------


BOOMERSERIESIIPOINTXPOWERRATING8POINT5PEAKPERFORMANCE9POINT2
WEAPONDESIGNATEKNUCKLEBOMBERDAMAGERATINGOF99POINT8VSNONMETAL
ANDLOWERGRADEALLOYS-

Information... too much information...

POWERAMPLIFICATIONRATIO:1:9.96TO20.50XULTRALITEALLOWSECONDARY
0POINT25CMOFCARBONFIBERCOMPOSITE-

Stop... make it stop...

GENOMMULTINATIONALCORPORATIONBRIANJMASONKILLEDMETHEYKILLEDME
AVENGEMEAVENGEMEAVENGEMEAVEN-

_stop_

Sylia's eyes flickered open briefly.  She blinked, went through some
breathing relaxation techniques, then opened her eyes.  After a few
more minutes, she got out of bed and prepared to face the day. 

Couldn't afford to be rattled by childish nightmares.

Not today.  Not ever.


=====================================
Megatokyo is about to freeze over...


	   ----------------
	   Bubblegum Crisis
	    Frozen Knights
	   ----------------


	 A BubbleGum Crisis
     Batman:The Animated Series
	      crossover

		Part 2
              Shattered


http://www.uh.edu/~rpm/bgc
=====================================

Normal cases allowed the Knight Sabers to prepare at their luxury.
Missing persons cases, by their very nature, weren't as generous.
As time went by, clues that were relevent one day might be useless
the next.  This was yet another reason why Sylia generally 
disliked them.

Sylia stood behind Nene, who was seated at a computer terminal
in the Knight Sabers HQ.  She was currently doing a background
check on Johnson & Gruber, as well as the missing Dr. Freys.

"How do things appear so far?" asked Sylia.

"Well, all records seem to indicate he existed, worked for Johnson and
Gruber, and was on the Poseidon on its final mission.  All records
_seem_ authentic."  As she spoke, images of a bald, thin man wearing
red goggles emerged on several screens.  "This is our man Freys,
according to the records.  The only way to confirm the validity of
these records further is to see the original documents, but they're
over in America."

Sylia frowned.  She had many contacts that ran deep, but those
contacts were mostly in Europe and Asia.  She hadn't developed a very
strong information network in the Americas just yet.  Then again,
Johnson & Gruber had a clean slate so far.

"Sylia, this is for a potential job, right?" asked Nene.

"Yes, it is."

"You know how the last 'missing persons' case went," said Nene,
frowning.

Sylia sighed.  "I remember all too well how that turned out, Nene. 
That's why I'm being careful this time.  You're not the only one
checking if this is valid or not." 

"Oh."

Sylia paced around idly, rubbing her chin.  Fargo had said things 
looked clean.  Mackie had agreed with that conclusion.  Nene hadn't 
found anything suspicious. Her other sources couldn't find anything 
wrong either.

She still had a nagging feeling.

"Just paranoid," she muttered.

"Hm?"

"Nothing.  I guess we'll take the job."

*

Carefully, gently, as if a sudden movement would shatter it, Dr. 
Fries moved his hand over the ice monolith that imprisoned his beloved
Nora.  So close, and yet again he was forbidden from her touch by the
cold, the bitter cold... 

"Mr. Freeze, sir?" said a GENOM technician meekly, shivering from the
brutal cold of Freeze's lab.

"Speak," commanded Freeze.

"All the equipment you requested has been moved here."

"Good."  He took a moment longer to gaze upon his wife, then 
turned away.

Freeze went to his hardsuit.  The one he donned today was, in
appearance, a replica of his original suit.  It was far more advanced
than that, with better armor, mobility, and strength.  He designed it
well, and unsupervised, just in case certain parties became hostile. 

He had one other suit, but that was in case he ran into some
opposition.  It was especially made for that of the Dark Knight
variety. It might have been 40 years, but he still felt paranoid about
_him_.

With a reptilian hiss Mr. Freeze's suit snapped shut, securing him
within its chilly confines.  He flexed an arm and allowed himself a
grim smile as he felt the power of the suit hum around him.

He checked the instrumentation, making sure that the coolants were
functioning.

He looked at Nora one more time.

"No."

"Pardon me, Mr. Freeze?" said the lackey.

"I wish to do this right.  The doctors have yet to discover how to
cure what ails her.  Until they do, Nora shall stay in cryogenic
sleep."

"Yessir."

"Leave me.  I wish to be alone."

*

[Johnson & Gruber offices, North American HQ]

In a dark and totally empty office, several individuals were
discussing the fate of their little world.  It all seemed rather high
tech and fabulous, except every now and then when one chairman would
accidentally put their arm through another chairman's head.

//~I have good news, gentlemen.  The Knight Sabers have accepted.~//

//~Splendid.~//

//~They're asking that the up-front fee be increased to $30
million.~//

//~Pretend to be reluctant, haggle a little.  We can't look too eager,
now can we?~//

//~Quite correct.~//

//~They ran some checks, of course, but our job was thorough enough. 
Freeze and Freys both were Gotham born.  Freys was just slightly
younger than Freeze.  Both of their records from Gotham were wrecked
as a result of the Cyber-Riot of 2021.  We had a blank slate to work
from.~//

//~It sounds all too easy.~//

//~Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.~//

//~Is the extraction team ready?~//

//~It's on standby.  Should the Sabers quit the job after they
discover who they're dealing with, we'll finish it up.~//

//~What if... what if it _is_ Genom that has him?~//

//~We're not ready to go to war with them.  If the Sabers can't get
Freeze, we cut our losses and quit.~//

*

Meanwhile, elsewhere, Madigan was also holding a business conference. 
This one, though, wasn't quite as cheerful. 

"Sir, how long until it arrives here?"

//Another two days.  Can you prevent Mr. Freeze from taking any action
until then?//

"Of that I am certain.  He insists on waiting for a cure to be found
before resurrecting his wife."

//Good.//

"So there really is no other cure for her condition?"

//Thus far, no.//

"Should I tell him?"

//Not just yet.  Perhaps, though, you should introduce him to the
idea of mind transplanting.//

"I'll see to it today, sir."

//How goes progress on the laser?//

"Freeze has two working freeze cannons and is currently building
more."

//Do we have the design specifications?//

"We do.  What he's done is amazing... normal lasers release the energy
of an object, usually resulting in a 'hot' reaction.  Mr. Freeze has 
found out how to adjust a laser so that it withdraws energy from its 
target, causing a 'cold explosion' of sorts."

//It sounds promising.//

"He's speculated on the possibility of a freeze bomb, but hasn't
looked into it much yet."

//Once he's done with the cryogenics, encourage him in that
direction.  Anything else to report?//

"No sir.  Things are running smoothly."

//Very well.  Keep up the good work.//

*

Oh, the wonders of future... ah... modern technology.

So interesting.

Mr. Freeze couldn't help but grin slightly.  Genom had provided for 
his needs well, especially when it came to parts for his advanced
battlesuit.  He was told that the general frame of it was from the
Genom line of battlemovers.  It wasn't the most advanced (which the
D.D. Battlemover, as he was told, laid claim to), but it wasn't far
behind, and certainly more than enough to satisfy his requirements. 
It was already built to withstand operations in the arctic, which 
made his adjustments to improve upon that easier to do.  He also 
had no need for the neutron bomb that the D.D. Battlemover came 
standard with.

In the past, it was necessary to attach two large tanks to his
back, which served the dual purpose of ammunition and coolant.  
Those cursed tanks were always an obvious weakness, bulging out 
and practically begging to be hit. No need for such large and 
obvious targets now.

With _this_ technology, not only had he been able to build a
battlesuit that kept the temperature down, but also protected him much
better and gave him far superior strength and agility than the old
suit.  If Batman were there and tried to punch through _that_, Freeze
suspected that he'd end up breaking his arm. 

Of course, he couldn't be left without defenses.  The lab technicians
had installed, with his supervison, a rail cannon in the left arm, a
gatling cannon on the right arm, and the ice laser cannon mounted to a
swivel base on the shoulder, aimed by optical guidence and assisted by
the heads up display.

The downside to this suit was that it wouldn't fit through most
conventional doorways.

Naturally, he had a backup.  It was the replica of his original suit.
Perhaps it was overly sentimental of him, but he wished to keep it. It
was by all means superior to the original in terms of armor strength
and speed.

It also fit through most conventional doorways.

*

It was am empty kareoke bar...

o/" I did it... myyyyyyyyyyyyy waaaaaaaaaaaaay o/"

...with the exception of a really bad singer...

"Finished yet?"

...and his very unappreciative audience of one.

"Can we get to business now?" asked Sylia.

"You sure you don't want to sing?" asked Fargo.

"_No_."

"Okay, okay."  He did his customary light-a-cigarette routine, took a
deep drag, and settled into the chair.  "There seems to be some
activity going on in the faultline on the east side.  Here."  He
pulled out a small map of the city and pointed to a particular stretch
of faultline.  Sylia remembered it.  That was the location of one of
their earliest clashes with boomers. 

Coincidence?  She wasn't a very large believer in coincidences.

"What makes you think our man might be there?" asked Sylia.

"Supply trucks have been moving around that area lately, and they
began their movement a week after Prof. Freys disappeared.  According
to my sources, those trucks were hauling, among other things,
chemicals and parts used for cryogenic purposes." 

"And our man Freys is a cryogenics specialist," said Sylia.  "I see.
When do these trucks usually come and go?"

"They blend in with the traffic of dump trucks that go there every
afternoon on the weekdays.  You can pick them out because they never
dump anything.  They go in, disappear, and come back out."

"One question: who is the supplier?" asked Sylia.

"Various industries like Mishima, Gulf & Bradley, GatesTech, you get
the idea.  There's no middle man, they're buying direct."

"It might be Genom,"  said Sylia.

"In this town, that goes without saying."

"Anything else?"

"Um, how about a song request?" asked Fargo sheepishly.

"Goodbye, Fargo."

"One song, please?"

"See you later."

Fargo sighed.  Shot down, once more, by Sylia Stingray.  And she still
hadn't noticed the suit.

*

[The next day, 10:20 a.m., East MegaTokyo Waste Storage Site]

Various automated trucks moved about amongst the hills of trash and
wreckage, unloading their daily collection of the waste of modern
civilization.

It made Priss' mood go from the usual roughness to that of distinct
annoyance.  At the moment, she was hidden at the cliffs overlooking
the faultline, hidden within ancient piles of scrap metal.

//Sylia, I'm watching garbage.//

//I know, Priss.//

//Sylia, I've been watching garbage for the past four hours.//

//I know that too, Priss.  I know you're not a morning person, but
you and Linna were the only ones that could do this.//

//Where's Nene?  She's the one with all the electronic surveillance!//

//She also couldn't get out of her work schedule today.  I'd be there
myself but I have several things to do here that can't wait.//

The silence resumed for a half-minute longer.

//Sylia... I'm sitting _in_ garbage.//

The sound of Sylia sighing could faintly be heard on the comm system.
//I know, Priss.//

//Stop complaining, will you?// said Linna, who was also hidden
somewhere in the dump site.  //I've been out here as long as you, and
I'm not whining.//

//Fine, okay,// said Priss. //I'll stop.//

//Any sign of security yet?// asked Sylia.

//Nothing solid, but I've got a feeling I'm being watched anyways,//
said Priss.  //Oh, heeey, cool!//

//What is it, Priss?// asked Sylia.

//An accoustic bass guitar!  Just needs new strings and it oughta be
fine!//

//Jeez,// muttered Linna.

//Do you have any idea _how_much_ one of these costs?// asked Priss.

//About 50,000 yen, Priss?// guessed Sylia.

//More or less, yeah.//

//Priss, don't be distracted from your job,// chided Sylia.

//Of course not.// she huffed.

//Wish Nene was here, though,// said Linna.  //She'd be able to scan
through this mess better than us.//

//Hey, guys, I think I'm on to something,// said Priss.  //I'm
following it now.//

//Priss-// said Sylia.

//I know, I know, be careful.//

*

Priss, in her armor, walked along the cliff's edge, looking down at
the dump site, and in particular at a dump truck that looked a little
_too_ clean.

It was only because of gut instinct that she followed it.  Priss
learned long ago that her instincts were to be listened to.

A moment later, Priss watched the large truck smoothly, silently,
easily disappeared into a large mound of boomer parts.

//Sylia, Linna, I got it.  Recording the info now.//

//Right then,// said Sylia, //get back to the truck and let's go
home.//

*

"Quincy, Sir, we've been discovered."

//I suppose it was only a matter of time.//

"We only have four BU-55Cs and two BU-12Bs.  The security measures of
this lab will not be able to stand up to an assault by the Knight Sabers
unless you send reinforcements."

//Reinforcements?// Quincy raised an eyebrow and hmmed.  //No... no
reinforcements.//

"But sir!  We're-"

//About to see a demonstration of the power of Mr. Freeze's
technology.  We'll have a squadron of boomers on alert here at the
Tower just in case things go wrong.//

"I see."

//Do we have the data on the laser?//

"Yes sir, he's submitted the data.  We've used it on two BU-12Bs.
They're armed with freeze cannons."

//Good.  Make sure that no researchers and managers are within the lab
tonight.  I suspect they'll attack and I don't want them getting any
worthwhile information from our staff.//

"We risk losing Freeze," said Madigan.

//No... somehow I think not.  Trust me, this should play to our
advantage in the end.//

"Yes sir."

Quincy's visage flickered and disappeared from the display, leaving
Madigan literally and proverbially in the dark.  She frowned.  Madigan
never did like being kept in the dark about things.  However, this was
chairman Quincy's decision.  She had to assume on faith that he knew
what he was doing.

*

[8:57pm]

Mr. Freeze had an irritating sense of deja-vu.

Something was going on, but nobody was telling him.  It felt like
Gothcorp all over again.  Of course, there was no way he'd stand
for that happening.

He went to a large monitor at the side of the room and held down
a button.

"Miss Madigan? Are you there? Madigan?"

//What can I do for you, Mr. Freeze?//

"It seems this facility is considerably more empty than usual.  Why is
that?"

//Company holiday, Mr. Freeze.  This is the anniversary of the
founding of Genom.  The non-essential personel are just cleaning up
before they leave for vacation.//

"Indeed."

//Mr. Freeze... there is something you should be aware of.//

"Yes?"

//There have been reports of a band of mercenaries known as the 'Knight
Sabers' that have been appearing near this site.  We're concerned 
that they may be after you.//

"And why is that?"

//Your past history is still that of an infamous 'super-villian'.  You
would be a prized catch by the likes of them.//

"I see."

//For security purposes, we have dispatched several boomers here,
among them two BU-12Bs armed with ice lasers.//

Mr. Freeze thought about that for a moment.  Something was nagging on
his mind but he wasn't sure what.

"Good," he finally said.

//If you wish to take the day off as well-//

"Thank you for the offer but I must decline.  I assume you are
leaving as well?"

//Yes, actually.//

"Before you leave... have they found a possible cure for Nora yet?"

//Not exactly.//

"Not exactly?  Explain."

//There is a procedure that may be used to save her life, but it is
rather drastic.//

"How so?"

//To be brief, we would transplant her brain into a modified 33 series
boomer.//

Mr. Freeze raised an eyebrow.  "You are correct.  That is drastic."

//If you wish, we can discuss it in detail today.//

"No.  That will not be neccessary."

//The discussion or the procedure?//

"Both."

//Well then, I'll be off.//

"Very well."

-click-

He walked to the ice monolith that held Nora and gazed longingly at
its sleeping prisoner.

~I suppose it's just you and I tonight, dear.~

*

[11:43 pm]

The Knight Sabers made their way effortlessly into the entrance of the
hidden base.  The entrance was disguised by some well-modeled but very
light plastic imitations of junkpiles.

"Jeez," mumbled Priss, thumping the plastic imitations lightly,
"cheapskates." 

From there, they made their way past the loading bay, bypassed several
security cameras with ease, and entered into a maze of hallways.

It was suspiciously empty.

At the moment, they were standing at an intersecton amongst the
twisting hallways, not sure which way to go.

//Hey, this doesn't seem right,// said Priss.

//I know what you mean,// said Linna.  //It's been too easy so far.//

//I can't get much on my sensors, there's too much interference here. 
I don't like it,// said Nene.  //This building is awfully empty, too. 
Real suspicious.//

//No kidding,// muttered Priss.  //I'd be expecting something like a
boomer right about-//

//Don't say that!// said Linna.

//Why the hell not?// Priss looked at Linna as if she'd gone mad.

//That's usually when something bad happens!// chided Linna.

//Oh.//

Sylia and Nene ignored the useless conversation.  They had better
things to do, like keep an eye on their scanners, even though they
were being scrambled severely by interference.

Priss paused, as did Linna, as if expecting a boomer attack at that
moment.  Since Nene and Sylia were behind them, they were held up too. 
Five seconds passed. 

//Stop being silly,// chided Sylia.

//Um... guys,// said Nene, //I think something's-//


And naturally, the first boomer chose that moment to emerge, 
smashing through a doorway.

//HEADS UP!  55C!// yelled Priss.  She and Sylia opened fire with their
arm cannons to cover Nene and Linna as they smashed down an office door.

//Told you,// muttered Linna.

//SHUT UP!// yelled Priss.  She and Sylia scrambled through the
doorway a second later, followed by a blaze of cannon fire.

//It's getting closer?// asked Linna.

//Yeah.   Smashes through doors, but doesn't wanna blast through the 
wall for some reason.  Go figure,// said Priss.

Priss and Linna knew what to do instinctively.  They were the
fighters, Priss being the heavy assault specialist, and Linna being
the martial arts expert.  One heavy footstep later, the boomer was
taken by surprise as it found two armored furies emerging from the
doorway, hammering away at it.  After several blasts from Priss's
cannon and a slice from Linna's monomolecular ribbons, it went down 
for the count. 

Priss took a deep breath.  //Well, that wasn't so bad.//

//Why aren't any alarms sounding?// wondered Nene.

//This definitely doesn't feel good,// said Priss.

//Keep alert,// said Sylia.

Without warning, two bomers charged in from one hallway, one from the 
other, catching them in a crossifre.

Priss summarized the feeling of the moment.

//Shit.//

Then the floor under them gave way.

*

Raise the left arm just so... adjust the tri-joint there...

-BOOM-

Mr. Freeze blinked.  He was in the middle of fine-tuning his 'battle
suit' and now there seemed to be a bit of a melee outside.  For a
moment, he considered calling for assistance.  He decided against it,
though, believing that if he wanted something done right, it'd have to
be done by himself.

*BLAM*BLAM*BLAM*BLAM*

Too bad the battlemover wasn't quite ready yet.

Silently, he prepared his 'original suit'.

*

//Well, that was a surprise,// said Priss.  She took a deep breath
then casually punted away the skull of a 55C. 

//Hey, it got us out of the crossfire, didn't it?// replied Linna. She
and Nene were sitting on top of the remains of the other two boomers. 

Priss stared at a hole in the ceiliing nearby.  //What made you think
of hitting the floor with the knuckle-bomber?//

//Just a guess,// she replied.

Priss laughed.  //Good guess, Linna.//

//Nene, any luck on clearing up your sensors?// asked Sylia.

//A little,// said Nene.  She adjusted her sensors for a little while,
then hmmed.  //Hey, Sylia, there's a major temperature drop twenty
meters to the south.//

//How cold?// asked Sylia.

//Twenty degrees below zero.//

//Cold... cryogenics maybe.  That must be where Fries is.  I
guess they put him to work.// Sylia checked her systems once more,
then straightened her posture.  //Priss, take the point, Linna guard
the back.  Let's go.//

//Wait!// yelled Nene, //Something else is coming!//

//What?!// yelled Priss.  She, Linna, and Sylia formed a protective
ring around Nene.

//What direction?// asked Sylia.

Nene stared hard into her sensors, which were being blurred with
static.  For a brief flickering moment, two blips appeared, streaking
across her screen.  //East and west, 20 meters closing fast!//

From the darkness on both sides emerged two BU-12B boomers, rushing
forwards on their thrusters attempting to ram the group.  The Sabers
all ducked and rolled out of the way, then stood up with weapons ready
as the boomers came around again, this time for armed combat.

Both of them raised their cannon arms quickly and...

*FWOOSH*

//What the hell?!// yelled Priss.

The two combat boomers were still aiming at them.  They also appeared
to be frozen.  The barrels of their arm cannons seemed jammed with
ice. 

//Nene, scan them over,// said Sylia.

Priss kept her cannon aimed on one and Sylia the other as Nene
analyzed them.

//They're... -130, and completely dead,// said Nene.

Priss experimentally tapped one, then gave it a good punch on the
back.  It shattered into hundreds of pieces.

//Hey,// she said, //this is neat.//

Sylia silently destroyed the other boomer with a single punch.  //This
is bizzare,// she said, inspecting to wreckage carefully.  //What
could have caused it?  The coolant system in boomers isn't powerful
enough to freeze them like this.  Maybe a new weapons system?//

//Genom quality control, gotta love it,// mused Priss. 

Sylia stood there, staring at the wreckage for a bit longer.  //I
definitely have a bad feeling about this.  Keep sharp, everyone, and
watch Freys carefully when we meet him.//

The door to the laboratory opened, and the four sabers cautiously
entered.  Their sight was briefly impaired by the dimness of the room.
It was barely lit in shades of blue, hinting of much machinery and
parts strewn about, with the occasional tendril of steam rising
upwards.

"Hello."

The sabers quickly aimed their weapons at the source of the voice.  A
pale figure wearing a blue exo-suit of some sort stepped out of the
shadows.

Sylia recognized him immediately.  "Mr. Freys?"

The figure looked strangely at her for a moment.

Mr. Freeze frowned.  He assumed this was the boomer security detail
that was left to guard him.  Judging by the sounds of violence outside
and the way they briefly aimed at HIM, these were definitely results
of shoddy workmanship.  

And they mispronounced his name, too.

"Freeze, not Freys," he said with a mild hint of annoyance.

Priss thought this was an incredibly stupid time to argue about points
of phonetics and pronounciation.

"We're here to rescue you," said Sylia.

Freeze frowned slightly.  "Rescue me?"  He looked over the four
carefully, then frowned as he saw, in clear lettering on one of
them, the words, 'Knight Sabers'.

Sylia was getting impatient, so she tried to speed up the proceedings.
"Yeah, your company hired us to get you and your wife away from
Genom."

The last company he worked for was Gothcorp.

The bastards.

"Is that so?"  He raised his right arm slowly...

//Sylia!  Something's wrong!// said Nene through their comm system.

//What is it?//

//He can't be alive!  It's -40 inside that suit!//

"I don't think I'm going anywhere," said Freeze.  "Especially not back
to Gothcorp."

//He's got a gun!// warned Priss.  The Sabers ducked under tables as
streams of blue laser fire blazed past them.  A moment later, two
laser turrets emerged from the ceiling and began opening fire with the
same icy effects as Freeze's gun. 

//Hey, guys, cover me,// said Priss.

//What are you planning?// asked Sylia.

//Target's hostile and he's a Genom convert,// said Priss.  //I'm
taking him down.//

"Here I come, you bastard!" Priss yelled.  She sprang from her hiding
place, using the jump jets to veer to the left and shot off her
cannon several times.  At the same time, Linna and Sylia opened fire
on the ceiling turrets and Nene aided by jamming their targeting
systems.  Sylia managed to destroy one, but the other surprised
Linna by moving out of its position and gliding along rails built
into the ceiling.

As Priss flew through the air with gun blazing, Freeze 
took aim with his own gun and fired. 

Priss smiled with satisfaction as she saw her target stumble back
with smoke billowing from his left shoulder.

Then she noticed something wrong.

//Oh shit!  My arm!// she yelled.

*

Freeze smiled grimly.  So, Gothcorp still wished to meddle with his
life?  These mercenaries would be sent back in coffins as his reply to
them.

He activated the comm unit in his suit.  //Genom Tower, this is
Freeze.  Come in.  I have a situation.//

//Genom Tower here.  What's the problem?//

//The Knight Sabers are here.  I have one down but the others are a
threat.  I've been injured.  Send help.//

//We'll have combat boomer units sent right away.//

*

From high above, a small team of mercenaries circled, watching the
events unfold below from their surveillance chopper.

"Uh oh," said one of them, watching over a set of displays in the
passenger area.

"What?"

"They're broadcasting to the Tower.  This is a Genom thing."

"Shit.  Come on, let's get outta here."

And so, Johnson & Gruber's direct involvement in this affair came
to a quiet end.

*

//Sylia, he just beamed a signal to Genom Tower,// said Nene.  //They
beamed back to him.  Could've been a distress signal.//  She crouched
even lower as a beam of light flew overhead.  The wall behind her was
quickly encased in ice.

//Priss, what happened?// asked Sylia.  //Are you okay?//

//He froze my damn arm!  Oh shit, I can't feel my hand!  My arm's
covered in ice!//

//How bad is it?// asked Sylia.

//Feels cold up to my shoulder,// replied Priss.  //Damn, it won't
move!//

Linna sprang from behind a lab bench and engaged Freeze in combat,
trying to get a knuckle bomber in.  Sylia covered her by opening fire
on the remaining ceiling turret, aided by Nene's jamming.  It was
quickly destroyed.  Nene emerged from her cover and tried to get 
a reading on Mr. Freeze's hardware.

//I'm gonna KILL that sonovabitch!// roared Priss.  //As soon as my
damn cannon defrosts.//

Freeze staggered back under Linna's assault, then shot wildly in
aggrivation. Linna flipped back for cover.  Unfortunately, this left
Nene as the only target in sight. 

Sylia saw this, but too late as Nene staggered backwards in fright.
That was the last thing she did before suddenly becoming encased in
a layer of ice.

//Nene!  Answer me!// yelled Sylia.

//C-c-cold... help...//

Freeze glared at his frozen adversary.  "I am Freeze.  I am reborn.  I
will never be used AGAIN!"  He smashed Nene's frozen form, shattering
ice and armor, knocking Nene away a few feet where she landed
gracelessly on her back.

//Linna!  Priss!  Nene's down!  We're leaving!// she commanded.

//WHAT?!// boomed Priss.  //No way!  I'm taking this bastard out!//

//Priss, don't argue with me,// said Sylia.  //Linna, get Nene out of
here, I'll cover you.//

//We can take him down, Sylia!// yelled Priss.  She slammed her
ice-encased weapon arm on the floor.  It didn't help at all.

//Your weapon arm is ruined, Nene is down, and more boomers are on
their way.  And if that wasn't bad enough, it turns out our 'rescue'
job was really an 'abduction' job,// said Sylia as she opened fire
with both laser cannons, forcing Freeze to retreat as Linna quickly
sprang towards Nene, lifting her with some difficulty, and raced to
the exit.

//Damn it all,// muttered Priss.

//We HAVE to leave,// said Sylia.

//Got Nene,// reported Linna.  //Head to the surface?//

//Roger, Linna.  See you there,// said Sylia.  She opened fire again,
aiming at Freeze's's position.  Freeze stood up defiantly and returned
fire, icing the walls and sealing the doorway. Sylia dodged his blasts
and tried to tag him while he was exposed.  Freeze was knocked back by
one shot, but dodged the next. 

Then she heard something shatter.

*

Freeze's eyes opened wide in horror.

"Oh God, Nora."

He forgot about Nora.  In the heat of the battle, lost in his rage
against Gothcorp, he forgot about Nora.  A foolish mistake, he thought
bitterly.

"Please... no...."

He saw small chunks of ice splayed about on the floor.

"LIGHTS!"

At his command, the lights turned on.

And for the second time in his life, Mr. Freeze felt overwhelmed with
grief and rage.

"NORAAAAAAAAAAA!"

*

Sylia stared at the large chunk of ice on the floor.  It contained a
human head.

"YOU KILLED NORA!" yelled Freeze.  He fired wildly at Sylia's hiding
place, quickly encasing a work table in ice.  "I'LL SEE YOU IN HELL!"

Even Priss was shocked at the sight of human remains encased in ice,
scattered everywhere.  //Oh shit.//

Nora.  That was his wife.  Sylia felt a leaden panic smothering her
soul. She just killed an innocent.

_No, don't think about that now.  Get out of the lab._

//Let's go!// Sylia yelled.

//Right behind you,// said Priss.  //Ow, my arm.//

Sylia blased down a wall and quickly retreated through it, Priss
following behind her.

Victor Fries didn't even think about chasing after them.  He had to
save his wife.  Gently, he lifted her still-frozen head.

'Nora... everything will be alright,' said Fries in a shaky voice.
'You'll see.  We'll be together again.'

-end part 2-

In visions of the dark night
I have dreamed of joy departed;
But a waking dream of life and light
Hath left me broken-hearted.

	    -Edgar Allan Poe, 'A Dream'