-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Note:
~ ~ denotes English
" " denotes Japanese
_ _ denotes thought
// // denotes use of electronic communication of sorts
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

The patient seems to be, for the most part, recovered from her
childhood trauma.  By all reports, she is very intelligent, bright,
and easy to talk to. 

However, there are still lingering effects that stay with her to this
day.  While she is easy to talk to and polite, she seems to have no
circle of friends.  Around boomers she becomes far more serious and
suspicious in nature.  She still refuses to discuss matters concerning
her deceased father.  When she decides upon a goal, she pursues it
relentlessly, almost obsessively, often putting aside her emotions
while doing so. 

While she has not developed 'normally', the subject has developed as
well as could be hoped.  Further evaluation should not be neccessary.

      -Psychological evaluation of Sylia Stingray (age 15)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Linna was gone.

Priss was gone.

Nene... was unreachable.

"God, can this get any worse?" she mumbled quietly.

//Sis... they... it...//

//What is it, Mackie?//

//The AD Police Tower... it's destroyed.//

She was afraid to ask.  She had to ask.  //Casualties?//

//Yes,// replied Mackie.  He was trying to stay calm, she knew he was,
but she could sense the fear in his voice too.

//Is... is Nene...//

//I don't know yet.  Nothing's confirmed,// replied Mackie shakily.
//Sis, what are we gonna do?//

She was... numb.  There was no other word that fit as well.  In the
span of a few hours she'd managed to lose her entire team.

There was nothing left.

No, not everything was gone.

There was still Freeze.  An icy determination locked itself in her
consciousness, a goal she was determined to reach.

Victor Fries, in her mind,  was a dead man.

It just so happened that he picked that moment to step out from the
shadows.

=====================================
MegaTokyo is about to freeze over...


	  ----------------
	  BubbleGum Crisis
	   Frozen Knights
	  ----------------


  A BGC/Batman:The Animated Series
	      crossover

	       Part 5
 Tne End Is The Beginning Is The End

=====================================

The moment was frozen in time.  The boomers hovered overhead like
bees.  People were fleeing from the flying debris.  The brave
survivors of the AD Police stared in absolute horror as their home
base was destroyed before their eyes.  The building was, quite
literally, shattered to the ground. 

There was silence on the AD Police comm channels.  What was there to
say?  A moment of silence seemed only too appropriate for the
occasion.

Then time began moving again.  The boomers, having accomplished their
task, blazed off into the night.

Leon just stared at the wreckage, his mind absolutely stunned.  He
opened the hatch of the Battlemover to see with his own eyes the
destruction of his home away from home.

//All units, dig through that rubble!// barked Leon.  //There may be
survivors in there!//

The surviving K-suits began sifting through the rubble.  The others
moved debris by hand.  Those without gloves found out the hard way
that the structure was still _very_ cold. 

Damn.  Damn damn damn, what a mess.  The chief would definitely be
pissed... if he was still alive.

Might as well check on what forces were left.  After ordering a
sound-off, the final tally was five K-11 suits, four K-12s suits, a
dozen 'fire bee' choppers, two combat helicopters, thirty-three
able-bodied men and women with heavy weaponry, and four armored
personnel transport vehicles. 

Each and every officer was stressed out and pushed to the limit.

He really hoped they weren't needed elsewhere tonight.

//AD Police!  This is the MegaTokyo Fusion Plant!  We're under attack!
Please, we need assistance!//

Damn.

The Nuclear Reactor defenses consisted of a small team of humans,
maybe twenty, armed moderately.  The most powerful weaponry they'd
have would probably be grenade launchers.  They'd also have a dozen
older model combat boomers.  Against 30 combat boomers they'd
eventually lose.

"Always something," grumbled Leon.

//You say something, Leon-chan?// asked Daley.

//Yeah... All K-12s units, air support, and 8th batallion, get ready
to move out.  The fusion plant is under attack.//

The officers stirred with a groan.  Leon could sympathize.  No rest
for the wicked, which in turn meant the good guys didn't get much rest
either.

*

"YOU!"

Sylia didn't hesitate, firing away with both cannons, sending Mr.
Freeze reeling backwards in a shower of sparks and fire.  Freeze
shambled backwards, still under a shower of sparks, and that's when
Sylia knew something wasn't quite right.

Keeping her left cannon charged, she approached Freeze's prone body
cautiously.  With the occasional spark and flicker of lights, she
confirmed her suspicions.

This Freeze was a boomer.

"Quick to murder.  Showing your true colors, I see," crackled the
replica. 

"What have you done with them?" asked Sylia.

"Nothing yet," replied Mr. Freeze.  "Tell me, how does it feel?"

"Stop playing games and tell me-"

"How does it feel to have your world shattered?"

"Tell me what you want."

The replica stayed silent for a moment.  "What do I want?" it asked.
"I want you to suffer."

"It's me you're after.  Let the others go," said Sylia. 

"Are you familiar with the Geo City project?"

"Yes, I am."

"I await your arrival."  The Freeze duplicate then sparked violently
and died.

*

Geo City was an ambitious project, funded by the Tyrell Corporation,
with support from a wide variety of other businesses and corporations,
including Genom.  It was designed to be the future of urban
development. 

The problem with modern Japan was that there was precious little land
left to develop.  Towers filled the skies in man's early attempts to
make the most out of space.  Naturally, the next place to go was down. 
Geo City was entirely an underground project, built on the edge of
MegaTokyo.  The sheer size of the area matched Genom Tower easily, and
was home to gardens, golf courses, theme parks, residential areas, as
well as various shopping, commercial, industrial zones and even a
military development lab.

It impressed Sylia as she scanned through the schematics.  While she
rode the sky carrier across the city, she reviewed the site of her
future clash.  There were many places where Freeze could stage an
ambush, too many places.  It was a tough battleground with plenty of
cover.  However, the great size of it also meant that there were many
ways to sneak in.  The smaller size of her suit should give her an
advantage as well, she thought.

She also needed every advantage she could get.  Off to the side, her
motoslave was being charged while computers made sure it was ready for
optimal performance.

There was also one more trick quite literally up her sleeve.  If Mr. 
Freeze got close enough, she'd show him.

//Hey, sis.//

Sylia turned her attention from the displays and schematics of Geo
City to the visual intercom.

"Yes, Mackie?"

//You want me to suit up?//

"Absolutely not, Mackie."

//But sis!//

"You're not fully trained for combat situations and Mr. Freeze is a
serious threat.  I don't want to have to worry about you.  After you
drop me off, go back to base and stand by.  Is that clear?"

She was answered by silence.

"Mackie?  I... don't want to lose you too.  Understand?"

//Yeah, I understsand.  And sis?//

"Yes?"

//Be careful down there.//

"Don't worry, I will."

*

The MegaTokyo Fusion Plant was a fortress-like structure built by the
bay. It was circular in nature, with the main entrance being at the
center of the large disc, behind several concrete barriers.  At the
moment, the sparse forces guarding the reactor were doing their best
to keep the invading forces at bay.  Men and security boomers were
taking cover in the concrete barriers, while on the grounds around and
the skies above, the 'ice' boomers hovered about, slowly and surely
advancing on the defensive circle. 

The plant supervisor marched around in the underground monitoring
station, watching as the defense forces fell.

"Where are those reinforcements?!  Our men are gonna fall in a matter
of minutes!"

The sound of explosions rocked the surface, as a boomer suddenly
exploded in the air.

//MegaTokyo Fusion Station, this is Detective Leon McNichol.  We have
arrived.//

There were rounds of cheers from within the control room, and the
remaining defense forces of the station felt a second wind as they saw
the AD Police charge towards their position, surprising the boomers
and forcing them back.

//Form a defensive line, men!// barked Leon.  //Get those kill zones
set up!  We're the only thing between them and a big bang!//

*

There were over 200 ways to enter Geo City.  There were doors, access
hatches, air vents, elevators, all sorts of methods.  That was the one
weakness to Freeze's plan.  If she were to do this sort of thing,
she'd make sure her enemy's options were limited.

Fortunately for her, Geo City had amazingly large air vents, big
enough for her to wear her moto-slave as armor and travel through it. 
She traveled cautiously through the massive air shaft, her footsteps
echoing far too loud for her comfort.  The air was cold, very cold,
about 14 degrees celsius and slowly going lower.

The massive public announcement system came to life, with Mr. Freeze's
voice booming, //I know you're here.//

Sylia paused, scanning the dark corridor with all the equipment at her
disposal.  No sensors of any sort were visible, but then again, if he
had powerful sensors running in every block he wouldn't need them
inside the shaft.

//Let me introduce to you a new breed of boomer,// said Freeze calmly.
In the distance, Sylia heard the thrum of jet engines.

//It's a modified BU-12B.  By now, the AD Police is very well 
acquainted with them, and has even given them a new name.  Ice 
Boomer.  Rather catchy, don't you think?//

The roar of jet thrusters became louder, but the echo of the chamber
made it impossible to tell from which direction it was coming.  

//With my knowledge, it's been given quite a few extra features that
aren't important to you... except for its weaponry.  In addition to
its machine gun and rail cannon, I've also given it the capability to
generate freeze rays.//

To her left, the shaft wall shattered.  An ice blue BU-12B stepped
through it.  Sylia didn't waste a second, as she raised the
moto-slave's cannon and opened fire.  The boomer was clipped on the
right arm, quickly shifted left, and opened fire with its ice cannon.

//There he is now.  Enjoy.//

Close quarters fighting with a combat boomer was not to her liking. 
Sylia borrowed a trick from Linna and blasted the floor of the shaft. 
Down below, at a dizzying depth, a sea of green awaited.  She didn't
hesitate at all and tumbled downward and onwards.

*

Mr. Freeze watched from the large array of monitors in the room as
_that_ Knight Saber dodged his creation and fell downward, into the
botanical garden.

Pity, that.  The garden was suffering badly enough when he turned down
the temperature.  With her trampling through, it would definitely not
be the same.

"Your leader... she is quite resourceful," he said to two armored
figures encased in ice.  They didn't reply.

Unnoticed by Freeze, the security camera system system continued
its feed to a remote location.

*

Assisted by the moto-slave thrusters, Sylia landed gently in the
garden.  Her surroundings were dimly lit, leaving shadows and mist
everywhere around her.  From above, she could hear thrusters flaring
to life.  It was coming after her.

She smiled.  Ice blue stuck out like a sore thumb against the dark
sky, and the flaring thrusters were a giveaway too.  She took aim with
the motoslave cannon and opened fire.

The boomer fired its left thrusters and spun quickly out of the way.
Sylia's eyebrow raised.  Impressive maneuverability, that boomer.
She saw the tell-tale flare of the boomer's main cannon and flew
deeper into the forest as a beam of blue slammed through the trees,
icing everything in its path.

The ice cannon countermeasure beeped, and the message <FREQUENCY
LOCKED> appeared on Sylia's heads up display.  Good, she thought, it
was working.  She wasn't about to test it, though, intending to save
it as a surprise for Freeze. 

She brought up a heads up display map of Geo City, zooming in on her
current position.  There had to be a better location to make a stand
than here.  Glancing quickly at it, she noted a three way intersection
was nearby.  From there, she saw quite a few options.  With a sharp
kick of her thrusters, she burst out of the forest area and through
the dimly lit corridors, past empty office blocks and yet to be
completed store fronts.  Sylia wasn't sure what options she would take,
but figured she'd iron it all out by the time she got there.

*

Mr. Freeze was growing more impressed by the minute.  This last one,
their leader (according to the research done by Genom) was very
talented.  She reminded him very much of a certain Dark Knight.

He briefly wondered whatever happened to his adversary of old.

Once this was over, he entertained the thought of visiting Gotham, If
only just to see how it had changed over the years.  He considered
taking some time to destroy any remnants of Gothcorp that might still
exist. 

For now, it was cat and mouse time, and it seemed the mouse was
getting away.  Time to send in another cat.

*

A warning flared on Sylia's sensors.  In her display, a boomer was
approaching from up ahead, cutting off one of the passageways.  She
swerved to the left passageway and the boomer was soon in pursuit. 
The sound of boosters grew louder and she knew without looking that
her first 'escort' had caught up and joined the chase.  Every now and
then they'd shoot a burst of ice laser fire, but be fairly bad about
the aim.

She saw what Freeze was doing, nudging her towards him... or towards a
trap.

Well, if that's where he wanted her to go, fine.  However, she didn't
care for her 'escorts' at all.  She shifted the motoslave thrusters to
reverse, swerving to dodge the boomers as they blazed past her,
clearly caught off guard by her maneuver.  While they turned around,
Sylia opened fire with the motoslave cannon, taking one out with a
direct hit to the through the sensor array of its head and into the
'brain'.  The second boomer opened fire with its ice laser, straight 
towards Sylia.

If it had hit, it would have probably gotten her leg.  However,
A foot before the beam would have hit her, it turned to ice instead.
The effect, if she had time to appreciate it, was much like a
waterfall, with the beam ending in a continual flow of ice falling
down to the floor.

Sylia silently cursed to herself and swerved into an empty store for
cover, shattering the glass along the way. If Freeze was watching
carefully, he'd have seen that.  There went one surprise.  She hoped
he wouldn't be able to counter the countermeasure too easily.

A few seconds later the boomer charged in after her, as she expected. 
The BU-12B series rarely hesitated to pursue.  Unfortunately for it,
she had had enough time to land, spin around, and raise the motoslave
cannon up.  The boomer noticed this in time to bring its arms up in
defense, but Sylia was expecting that too.  A burst of cannon fire at
its elbow tore the boomer's weapon arm off, leaving its head
vulnerable.  Another burst of cannon fire struck it dead center in the
sensor arrays and through the brain. 

The boomer shuddered, refusing to die.  Sylia walked up to it and
slammed the motoslave's fist into the hole in its head.

//Very well done,// echoed Freeze's voice from all around her.

"Stop wasting my time."

//Did I mention that as we speak, about thirty of my ice boomers are
laying seige to the MegaTokyo Fusion Plant?  The resulting explosion
should be interesting.//

"Why?" shouted Sylia.  "What do you expect from all this?"

//What do I expect?  I expect you to be unhappy.//

"Millions will die!"

//You want stop me?//

"Yes."

//You're welcome to try.//

"I will if I find you," mumbled Sylia.

Just as she spoke, a narrow trail of fluorescent lights lit up and
into the darkness.

//I'm waiting.//

*

Two late shift security guards were watching the monitors with an
astonished look on their faces.

"Hey, isn't that a Knight Saber on camera 32?"

"Looks like it."

"Doesn't that guy on camera 17 look like that nut that threatened the
city this morning?"

"Mr. Freeze?  Yup."

There was a brief, contemplative moment of silence.

"The police are too busy, with that boomer rampage going on at the
moment, y'know."

"Nothing we can do about it either."

There was another, longer, brief moment of silence.

"You figure the media would pay for this footage?"

"Definitely."

"A fair amount?"

"Quite possibly.  Let's find out, yeah?"

*

It's cold, thought Priss.

Actually, what she was thinking was something along those lines,
except with several rather vulgar slang words tossed in.

She'd been frozen for quite a while.  She wasn't exactly sure how
long, but it was more than an hour.  Priss knew this because a little
while back the internal thermal generator died, and Sylia said those
things would die in an hour, theoretically, if Priss was unfortunate
enough to get hit with an ice laser.

The hardsuit refused to respond to commands.  Apparently, Sylia was
correct in saying the suit wouldn't survive a full impact hit from
Freeze's weapon.  She really wished Sylia was wrong, just once.

Her first hour in the suit wasn't so bad.  It was a little warm, yes,
but she knew it could have been _much_ colder.  After the thermal
generators died, however, things were going downhill.  There was a
small stretch of time where the temperature was fairly balmy.  It was
not to last.

Since then, the temperature had dropped to decidedly uncomfortable and
probably unhealthy levels.  The ice water that was filling up her suit
didn't help at all.  At this rate, she wouldn't be able to strum a
guitar for weeks.  She wouldn't be able to ride her bike for a while
too.  That really pissed her off. 

She saw, for a moment, something large moving through the thick layer
of ice she was stuck in.  That, she guessed, was Mr. Freeze.

Despite her weakened condition, she dedicated a brief string of
obscene insults to the man.

Her string of obscenities got longer when she felt the ice block she
was trapped in shift around, sloshing the ice water around places on
her that used to be dry.

*

The long path of lights led Sylia to the Geo City Military Facility.
She was not surprised.  It was the best place to make a stand, after
all.  The Facility was a 40 floor building, rising upwards to the
surface majestically.  There were various balconies and walkways
connecting it to the nearby buildings, and a very tough front gate
designed to make sure that the boomers they were testing within would
not be able to escape should they go rogue.

Inside the facility was, among other things, a test battlefield the
size of a large stadium.  It was, according to the plans for the area,
supposed to be a perfect simulation of urban combat zones that were
often encountered in the Euro-wars.  If she guessed right, that's
where she would be directed to.

The massive steel doors opened, creaking with effort.  What lay beyond
was obscured by mist and fog generated by the increasingly cold
temperatures.

Again, a string of lights led the way.  Sylia followed.

*

Their forces were being decimated.  The ice boomers as a group, proved
to be uncannily intelligent.  Their teamwork and strategy was proving
too much for the combined might of the survivors of the AD Police and
the sparse (and woefully armed) fusion reactor security forces. 

They had managed to take down a number of the enemy boomers, leaving
the enemy at an estimated 20 in number, but the cost had been great. 
All the K-11 troopers were either destroyed or crippled beyond
usefulness.  Many of the foot troopers were wounded, and those that
weren't were running low on ammunition.  The firebee and combat
helicopters had been decimated quickly, with few survivers. 

The only forces that were still able to fight were the K-12 suits,
which were also running low on ammunition, and the security combat
boomers.  Amazingly, only three had been destroyed, and the others
were responsible for half of the ice boomer kills.  There was also, of
course, Leon's Battlemover, which was also running low on ammo. 

"Wait a minute!  Why the hell isn't someone calling the JSDF?" whined
Leon as he raced across the barriers dodging cannon, machine gun, and
ice laser fire. 

//Actually, we just got word that the JSDF is on the way,// said
Daley. 

"Great!" said Leon.

//In two hours.//

"IN TWO HOURS?!"  Leon worked off some of his stress by firing the
last of his grenades at an ice boomer that was trying to sneak in
undetected behind a concrete wall.  He was mildly satisfied as he saw
one of its arms fly off in the explosion.  Too bad it wasn't the
weapon arm.

"Damn," he muttered, "what ELSE can go wrong?"

He found out a moment later, when two ice boomers barreled down at
the defensive line in a suicide dive.

*

Sylia's guess was correct.

The urban combat zone of the military complex lived up to its name,
with perfect re-creations of war-torn downtown streets, complete with
fire-scorched, ammunition-shattered walls and pothole-littered
streets.  She was standing in what seemed to be main street, with
something that could have been city hall at the far end of the street
some 50 yards down.  Sylia's sensors detected something at the far end
and her heads up display zoomed in on it.

Freeze stood there, flanked to his left and right by two unknown
objects covered by large cloth. 

His battlesuit looked to her like a recent model of the Battlemover
series, probably the 2032 design.  It looked quite a lot like the D.D. 
Battlemover's human mode, except it was a bit thicker all around
and colored in dark blue.  Considering his need for a sub-zero
environment and all the extra equipment that would require, it was
almost certain his suit was slow.  She suspected he made up for it,
though, with heavy weaponry and armor. Her sensors confirmed that
guess, informing her her via heads up display of its features:  rail
cannon, gatling gun, ice laser, and armor almost twice as thick as the
D.D line. The armor was thicker than that of the D.D., but it was
probably also much slower.  It was what she expected of him. 

"Welcome," said Freeze, his voice echoing through the empty streets. 
"We've been waiting."

"We?" asked Sylia.

Freeze pulled the cloth aside, unveiling Priss and Linna, trapped in
their armor inside blocks of ice.

"The situation seems familiar," said Freeze dryly.

"What do you mean?" asked Sylia.

The gigantic fists of Freeze's battlesuit moved forward, then swung
violently back, shattering the ice blocks instantly.  The prone forms
of Linna and Priss were flung back, slamming into and through the wall
behind them.

"Definitely familiar," said Freeze.

Sylia panicked for a moment, then thought the situation through.  At
the very worst, they should only be suffering from hypothermia and
some bruises.  No need to fear.  Couldn't afford to lose her focus. 

Then her sensors detected a buildup of power in Freeze's ice cannon. 
She quickly took cover in the ruins of the buildings as Freeze made
his move, covering the entire street in ice after a few seconds of
blasting.

The footsteps of his modified battlemover shook the earth, echoing
thunder in the air.  He moved methodically and constantly towards her
position.

*

It appeared to Freeze that she came well armed for battle, appearing
in that extra armor of hers.  It even sported Really Big Guns.

"It was an accident," echoed his enemy's voice.  "We were tricked.  We
didn't know it was you."

"A convenient lie," said Freeze.

"We were deceived by a big corporation, wronged, just like you were,"
said the enemy.

He knew better than to listen to his enemy's words.  Batman did that
too often in the past.  He would not make the same mistake again. 

Freeze checked his sensors, then rocketed upwards.  He suspected she
wouldn't anticipate his battlesuit capable of flight.  He was right. 

*

"You're working with Genom?" asked Sylia.  "They'll use you, just like
they used..."

Something wasn't right.  She heard a hissing noise.  Rockets?  She
looked up just in time to see the massive bulk of Freeze's battlemover
come barreling down at her, feet first.  She jetted out of the way,
opening fire on the sensor arrays of his armor with the motoslave
cannon.  Freeze was knocked back slightly with each massive shot, but
the armor held. 

He was disoriented, but apparently not enough to prevent him from
taking aim with the freeze cannon.  The shot went wild, hitting floor,
ceiling, and by luck, the motoslave cannon.  The beam froze the weapon
instantly, ruining it and the hand that held it.  The beam's advance,
however, was halted in mid-air about a foot from the motoroid main
body.

Ah, he noted, the countermeasure.  Well, there was a way around that.

*

//V... viC... tOr//

*

The kamikaze attacks of the ice boomers were devastating.  Those not
in power suits of some kind were cut down quickly by the surprisingly
large explosions their self-destruct mechanisms set off.  The K-type
power suits and defense boomers were next to go as more ice boomers
plowed straight into them and self-destructed in earth-shaking
explosions.  The handful of men and K-suits retreated further into the
building. 

Things were looking grim.  There were still at least a dozen hostile
boomers out there compared to their rag-tag group.  It would take a
miracle to save them, thought Leon.

*

With the loss of her main motoslave cannon, Sylia retreated
desperately, falling back and speeding away in flight while her 
'ice laser' countermeasure device was beeping frantically, flashing
<<WAVELENGHT VARYING>> in loud red.  Freeze kept his ice cannon
pounding at her, breaking slightly through the invisible barrier.  
The motoslave armor became iced slightly, losing efficiency and
flexibility.

Finally, Sylia dove behind a building and did a quick systems check. 
Some damage was done to the motoslave, but it was still very much
operable.  From its back, a second, much smaller cannon detached,
sliding downward.  It was caught by the left hand in a manner that
would make most gunslingers envious, and then twirled into shooting
position. 

She was reluctant to use it, but it appeared to be her best option at
hand.

"Freeze, I'll ask you one more time," she said, her voice amplified
and echoing through the large chamber.  "We can settle this
peacefully."

"You really think so?" boomed Freeze's even voice, amplified by sound
system in Geo City.  "I think not."

"We're alike, you and I," said Sylia.  She retreated carefully,
looking for a good sniper's nest.  The shots to Freeze's arrays
were all solid hits, and she was betting that he was at least as blind
to the area as she was at the moment.

"Explain," said Freeze.  He eyed the surroundings carefully.  The
cannon blasts to his battlemover disabled his connection to the
facility sensors, reducing his field of visibility greatly.  He hoped
to keep her talking so he could narrow down her current location.

"Gothcorp took away everything you had.  They took your dreams, your
hopes, your wife, everything."   Sylia eyed an archway.  It looked
solid enough for her plan.  

"Your point?" asked Freeze.  She was near.  North?  Northwest?
Somewhere in that area.  Not too far away either.

"Genom took from me any hope of a normal life!"  She could hear his
footsteps closer, rumbling with each step.  "They killed my father and
corrupted his dreams!"

"Your point?" he said dryly.  By the sound of it, she was definitely
more to the west now, not too far.

"Do you really think Genom won't turn against you?  They'll betray
you like they betrayed my father!  They're no better than Gothcorp!"

"I've made preparations," said Freeze.  "Genom won't double-cross me."

"And what would Nora think of your actions?" asked Sylia.

"Don't talk to me of Nora," said Freeze.  "_You_ ruined _her_ hope for
a normal life!"

A part of Sylia winced.  The rest of her, however, pushed ever onward.
"You're destroying MegaTokyo."

"A city of sin," retorted Freeze.

"You'd kill the innocent as well as the guilty?" asked Sylia.

Freeze hesitated in his step.

"Nora would understand," said Freeze firmly.  "She always understood."

"She'd be sad and ashamed," said Sylia.  It was clear that he was
becoming enraged.  Perfect.  "Sad that the man she loved is gone, and
ashamed of the man he's become," she continued.

"Enough!" boomed Freeze.

He stomped through the ruins with a quicker pace, then paused when a
glint of metal caught his eye.  Before he could aim the freeze cannon,
he heard minute little sounds, a bit like the sound of ice falling in
a hailstorm accompanied by odd splattering noises.  A second later,
the front of his suit was ablaze with blinding yellow flames.  Freeze
yelled in surprise and tried to pat down the flames with the
battlemover's hands, but that just caused the hands to catch fire as
well. 

He opened fire and struck the enemy dead center with the ice laser,
stopping the rain of projectiles that were still burning his suit.
He would have liked to enjoyed the moment, but his battlemover was on
fire and it seemed like it wouldn't stop.

*

Sylia watched Freeze's battlemover go up in flames as the pellets
filled with inferno gel struck it.  Inferno gel was a thermite mix
similar to napalm, but was fairly nastier in effect.  With the amount
that had struck him, Freeze would be in flames for at least five
minutes.  By the time it would stop his armor would be burned away.

The first part of the plan was working perfectly.  The loss of the
motoslave was not good, but not unexpected.

Now for the second.

Sylia leapt down from the high archway where she was hiding,
unsheathing her blades, and landed behind Freeze undetected.  With a
straight thrust, she pierced the battlemover's back and cut into its
power drive.

As the battlemover shuddered its death throes, Sylia discovered a very
bad problem.

Her blade was stuck.

*

Mr. Freeze was nearly overwhelmed with all the warning klaxons
flashing across his heads up display.  The armor was being eaten away
by the flames, something had suddenly slammed into his back, and now
the warning indicator said that the power plant was about to explode.

He needed to get out.  Quickly.

He really didn't plan on needing an emergency eject switch.

He opened the cockpit of the battlemover and spent the next two
seconds thinking of better ways to design the hatch so that it
wouldn't move so slowly.  He spent the next two seconds after that
undoing (actually, ripping out)  all the harnesses that kept his
exo-suit in place (and mulled over ideas on how to make THAT process
much swifter next time around as well).

He would've spent the next ten seconds getting out of the suit and
running, but that was when the battlemover exploded. 

*

"Hey, Linna."

Linna groaned.  She wasn't in the mood for conversation.  Being
battered around by bear-shaped boomers was bad enough.  They managed
to make a few cracks in the armor before they froze her, so the
effectiveness of the thermal lining within was cut down considerably.
She had a bad feeling she'd be in bed with a fever, or worse,
pneumonia if she didn't get warm soon.

"C'mon, wake up."  A hand gently nudged her.

"C-cold," Linna managed to mumble.  She turned away from the offending
hand.

"Damn it, get up already will ya?!"

She finally opened her eyes.  That didn't do any good, since her power
had died a while back and her sensors were long dead.  With some
effort, she lifted her visor. 

"Oh, s'you," she mumbled.

"Gee, thanks for the warm welcome," grumbled Priss.  "C'mon, we've
gotta get outta here."

Linna took a moment to get some deep breaths in and meditate a little
to get her focus back together.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"Dunno.  We're underground, wherever we are, _really_ underground. 
Looks like an underground slum or something.  Now c'mon, before Freeze
gets back." 

With a groan, Linna made her way to her feet.  Melted water leaked out
of her suit as she did so, spilling out of the joints, cracks, and
holes of her suit.

"Damn, he really got you, didn't he?" said Priss.

"I n-need a warm bath," grumbled Linna, shivering badly in her suit.

"Where's the other guys?" asked Priss.

"D-dunno.  F-Freeze got me after he g-got you."

"Got any power left in your suit?"

Linna shook her head.  "N-nothing.  Yours?"

"Dead too."

Suddenly, a loud explosion echoed through the air as a flare of fire
rose up a few blocks away.

"What was that?" asked Linna.

"Dunno," said Priss, "but I hope it wasn't the others."

*

The last thing she remembered was the building turning so _cold_, then
shattering down on her head like glass.  She didn't feel so cold
now, just numb.  She was grateful for the numbness.  It blocked out
the feeling of tons of icy debris and rubble that was all around her
and slowly crushing her to death.

She tried to call out for help but the weight of the debris on her
chest made just breathing difficult.  Nene wondered briefly if she'd 
become claustrophobic after this.

The realization of what had passed finally caught up to her.  Mr. 
Freeze had destroyed the AD Police.  He did it.  It was nothing now
but a burial mound for her and all the others that might've been
trapped here. 

Damn it all, that just didn't seem fair.  There was so much left that
needed to be done!  Genom was still committing criminal acts and
running the world unopposed.  Priss and Linna still needed to be
rescued.  Sylia needed her help.  Nene never got around to getting
that cute pet, perfect love, and sweet sweet home... 

"Help... me," she managed to say in a strained, hoarse voice.  Nene
tried to free one of her arms.  Had to start somewhere, right?  There
was no way she'd let this be the end.  It was a lousy way to die. 

"Help me."

*

Sylia was a mess.

She had failed to unjam her blade from the back of the battlemover,
and as a result was at ground zero when it exploded.  It slammed her
through a building wall and left her suit damaged badly. 

Warning lights were flashing and a diagram of the suit popped up in
Sylia's heads up display with yellow and red areas flashing all over.
Her armor was cracked or shattered in most of the front.

Her left arm cannon was questionable.  The left blade, which she had
used to pierce Freeze's suit, was absolutely ruined.

The condition of the right arm wasn't bad at all.  However,
considering what was attached to that arm, things could have been much
worse.  Sylia had another inferno round gun mounted to the hand, and
all the ammunition had been set off in the explosion. Fortunately,
she'd planned for such an emergency and the gun had been jettisoned
the moment the inferno rounds caught fire.  In fact, it was still in
flames a few feet away and would probably be burning for a solid hour. 

All this damage was just the suit.  The force of the blast had hit her
hard, leaving her winded and dazed.  Her face and upper body felt like
one really large bruise and she really hoped nothing was broken aside
from her left arm.

It would be a stupid way to die.  She mentally noted that next time
she'd design the blades so that she'd be able to detatch them if they
ever became jammed. 

She remained there, head still spinning, and wondered why it was all
dark.  After a few seconds more of mulling the situation over, she
figured it out.  The A/V sensors were probably ruined in the
explosion.  She raised her visor (it fell off when she touched it,
actually) and looked around.  From the hole in the wall she had made,
tongues of flame were visible.  That was, presumably, Mr. Freeze's
battlemover in flames. 

Best to make sure, though.  Sylia stood up, hearing the parts of her
hardsuit groan and creak in protest.  No, she thought, she definitely
was not in good shape.

*

The Genom scientists were proceeding carefully with the restoration
process, nervous of the revolutionary nature of it all.  It was
presented to Mr. Freeze as a possible solution to his problem, but
what they hadn't mentioned was that the process was only successful
twice before, and in one of those cases the patient ended up with a
messiah complex and homicidal tendencies.

"Left hemisphere activity 74%."

"Right hemisphere activity 82%."

"Consciousness imminent.  Prepare for shock."

//V... Victor...//

*

"What the..."

The ragtag remains of the AD Police watched as the remaining ice
boomers, about a dozen, flew off into the night.  Leon watched, in his
battlemover, utterly baffled.

"Where the hell are they going?" he mumbled.

//Hey, don't look a gift horse in the mouth,// said Daley.  //We
wouldn't have lasted much longer.//

"Good point."

//Well, what do we do now?//

"Well... we don't have enough manpower to go in pursuit and they still
might come back.  We're staying here.  Any report from HQ?"

//We've got some casualties,// replied Daley.  //The Chief managed to
evacuate a lot of the staff, but some were caught when the building
fell.//

"Well, at this point I'll take whatever good news I can get."

His mind was nagging at him, though.  There seemed to be something
missing from the day.  There was a natural rhythm to these things.  A
mad scientist makes a threat, boomers attack, AD Police hold the line,
the Knight Sabers come in and... 

Oh.

"Where the hell are they?" he muttered.

//Who?//

"The Knight Sabers."

//Oh... now that you mention it, that is strange.  You think they're
okay?//

"Who knows?  They're probably confronting Mr. Freeze in some heroic
fashion.  Something like that."

//AD Police, this is N-Police.  There is an outbreak of riots in the
Tinsel City sector, requesting backup.  Please respond.//

What was left of the AD Police let out a collective groan.

"Always something to keep us entertained," said Leon, with a heavy
touch of sarcasm.

*

Something was wrong.

Sylia walked quietly, as quiet as one could in a battered hardsuit,
and approached Freeze's battlemover carefully.  Being battered,
bruised, with one arm functioning was plenty of reason to be careful. 

A careful examination of the wreckage confirmed Sylia's suspicions and
fears.  The battlemover's cockpit was damaged, but not as badly as the
mover's backside.  It was designed to direct as much of the blast as
possible away from the pilot in case the power plant ever
self-destructed.

Another, much more strategically important revelation was that, by the
appearances of the cockpit design, it was built to hold a person
wearing a powersuit.

This meant that Mr. Freeze was most likely in better shape at the
moment than she was, and definitely armored.

She looked around, examining the area carefully, and followed a
suspicious trail of clear fluid (she suspected it was coolant) across
the darkness of the pseudo-city blocks.  A few blocks later the liquid
was mixed with a few splotches of red.

Of course, she thought, Freeze's suits were never designed for crash
protection.  They were designed mostly for keeping him cool and
serving as battle armor.  The blast would have slammed him around
violently at the very least.  That was good.  It helped to even
things, if only a little.

Sylia walked through the streets, knowing that it was only an
imitation of a war-torn city, but feeling disturbed anyways by the
image of it all.  This was what mankind was preparing for, this dark
and violent future, pressed onward by the might of Genom and its
promises of a better tomorrow.

Soon she heard a metallic shambling sort of noise, then a crash
somewhere up ahead in the darkness.  She advanced slowly further,
still following the trail of coolant and blood, until it led to the
inside of one of the 'buildings'.  It was much like all the others,
made of brick with with no power, broken windows, and large gaping
holes made by ammunition fire.

Either Freeze was seeking refuge or he was setting a trap.  Whatever
the case, it was certainly foolish to enter through the front door.

She hesitated.   Was she in any shape to finish this?  She thought
about going back to check on the others, regrouping, and coming back
to fight another day.

No.

She did that last time and as a result Mr. Freeze wrecked havoc on
MegaTokyo.  This was going to end now.

As quietly as one could in a hardsuit, she made her way through the
cluttered alleyway between buildings, intending to find an alternate
way inside.

*

For the first time in a long time, Mr. Freeze was feeling something
akin to fear.  

First he lost the battlemover, which was a rather large shock to his
pride.  The thought of being defeated wasn't even in his mind when he
left for battle.  He admitted to himself it was clearly a case of
overconfidence. 

Then he was injured in the battlemover's demise.  The powersuit he
wore at all times was designed for two purposes:  keeping the
temperature at sub-zero and enhancing his hand-to-hand combat ability.
It spared him some injury in the battlemover's explosion, but if he'd
had forseen the need, he would have designed the suit so that he would
not now be suffering the concussion and cut on his head as well as a
very sore back and the multitude of bruises that were no doubt forming
all over his body.  He was definitely irritated about the cut.  It was
leaving red smears all over the dome of his suit. 

As if his injuries wasn't enough, his powersuit was damaged.  The
heads up display was flickering intermittently, which irritated him to
no end.  That was nothing, though, compared to the problems he had to
deal with now that the cooling system was damaged.  When the cockpit
of the battlemover exploded, most of its force was directed at his
back, and in particular, the section of the powersuit that just
happened to contain the cooling system.  At the rate of things, he
estimated that he had another hour until it failed.  He had to get
back to Genom Tower somehow.  His last spare powersuit was there.

He felt a wave of darkness hit and almost fell over.  Almost passed
out, he concluded.  Not good.  To add to the trouble, his flickering
sensors indicated a presence walking along the outside of the building
and getting closer.  Couldn't afford to pass out now.

His mission wasn't done.

His enemy was still out there, alive.

Nora was waiting.

*

A squadron of boomers flew silently through the night.  Some of them
were battered.  Most of them weren't.  All of them hovered around
Genom tower, as if waiting for something.

A moment later, something white smashed out of the heart of Genom
tower.  The boomers circled it for a moment, then flew off into the
night.

//Madigan! Report!//

//Unit NF has escaped, sir!//

//Why?  Who provoked it?//

//We don't know, sir.  It said something about needing to leave, then
took Freeze's FA powersuit and flew off.//

//Track it!//

*

There was a brief sound of something moving.  Something metallic.
Then silence.

Sylia stood, still in the alleyway, looking around carefully.  The
sound came from within the building, beyond the brick wall.  A moment
later a fist smashed out from the wall, destroying it with ease,
revealing Mr. Freeze's beaten form.  With surprising quickness his
hand latched on to her shoulder in an iron grip.  She twisted, trying
to get away, with no success.

With his other arm he raised up his freeze gun.  Using her only good
arm, she wrestled with the gun.  Freeze was quick to notice her
weakness.  He let go of her shoulder and grabbed her good arm, holding
it aside. 

Sylia grimaced.  This would be a lousy way to die.

Freeze pulled the trigger.

The gun sputtered.  Freeze blinked.

Sylia reacted faster than Freeze.   She struck quick with repeated
knee strikes to Freeze's midsection.  Unfortunately, Freeze's armor
was still fairly solid there.  He retaliated by moving both hands to
her neck, lifting her up, and slammed her against the wall.

For the first and last time, they looked at each other, face to face.

"Pity," said Freeze.  "A waste of youth".  With his powersuit hands,
he slowly began to crush her throat.

Somewhere in Sylia's mind, a small voice whispered, _sorry._

She raised her arm and shot at the dome covering his head.  The cannon
sputtered, then fired, shattering the protective casing.

Mr. Freeze coughed, gasping for air.  He didn't let go. 

She took aim at his chest and fired.  The cannon whined for a moment,
then failed to fire.

Freeze squeezed harder.

Sylia's monoblade slid out, locking into place.  She slammed it
forward, through layers of armor and into Freeze's chest.

He shuddered a moment but didn't let go.

She stabbed again.

Freeze gritted his teeth, then put all his energy into crushing her
windpipe.

Sylia stabbed again.  And again.  And again.

She felt her throat being crushed, her lungs burning for oxygen.
Blackness flickered in and threatened to overwhelm her.  

And Sylia kept on slashing and slashing and slashing...

Suddenly she fell, dropped down to the hard concrete and rubble-strewn
floor.  She gasped for breath, trying to get to her feet.  Sylia was
dimly aware of something wet on her face and the sound of feet
staggering away. 

She staggered to her feet and looked around.  At the end of the alley,
she could see Freeze crawling on the ground, still trying to get away. 
Then she looked down and saw Mr. Freeze's damaged ice cannon, next to
his severed arm. 

She shook her head sadly.  It didn't have to be this way at all.

Slowly, she made her way out of the alley, following Mr. Freeze's
trail, and stepped out to the street once more.  Freeze was there,
collapsed under a solitary street light, staring up at the light,
gasping for air like a fish out of water.  A pool of coolant and 
blood surrounded him. 

Sylia leaned against the street light and looked down at her foe.  He
looked up at her, all traces of emotion gone again.  

"For what it's worth," she said, "I'm sorry." 

Freeze merely closed his eyes.

Sylia tried to stand upright, but still lacked the strength.  She
thought she heard someone calling her name.

"Sylia!"

Hm.  There it was again.

She slowly turned around, muscles now groaning since the rush of
adrenaline had abandoned them, and saw two figures limping towards
her.

"Priss?  Linna?"

Thank God.  Thank God they were alive.  As they rushed to her, she
took a few staggering steps towards them, then collapsed into their
arms.

"Sylia!  What happened?" asked Linna.

"I'll... tell you later."

"Hey," said Priss, looking suspiciously around in the dark skies of
Geo City, "you hear something?"

In the distance, the sound of rockets burning in the darkness began.
At first, it was quiet as a whisper, then became an angry roar.

"Shit," said Priss, "I think we'd better get outta here."

*

Beaten.

He'd been beaten.

Again.

Victor Fries felt himself go numb.  Must be shock, his logical mind
concluded.  Massive loss of blood.  Head going light.  Everything
turning blurry, so blurry.

The emergency preservation units weren't turning on.  Bad.  Very bad.

He was going to die.

_Nora... I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..._

Far above, he thought he saw a blinding, white light.

_The light of God?_ he wondered.  _Am I deserving of His mercy?  Oh
Nora, it won't be heaven without you._

All around him, the messengers of God landed, descending on fiery
wings.  They stood in silence, all with their backs to him.

He tried to speak, but only managed a bloody gurgle.

Another light appeared, this one with a more gentle glow than the
rest.  He squinted his eyes, trying to focus on this angel.  His eyes
failed to focus, but that didn't prevent him from seeing a cascade of
blond hair and hearing a soft gentle voice.

~Victor.~

His heart raced.  His spirit soared.  Could it be?

~Nng... Nng...~  He tried to speak her name, but once more, could only
manage a bloody gurgle.

~Sssh,~ she said, stroking a gentle hand across his forehead.

He wanted to cry at that moment.  It was so long, so very long since
she last touched him.

~That's enough, Victor.  Let's go home.~

She reached down and touched something on his suit.  Everything was
cold, suddenly, soothingly cold.  With a smile, he fell asleep.

It was over.

*

"What the fuck was that?" asked Priss.

Linna shrugged.

Sylia was too tired to answer.


   -end part 5-