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Posted by Killer Frost
on 5/29/2009, 6:13 pm
90.210.93.176
It was warm, a heat wave in fact. It had had made the labs at Wayne Enterprises almost to hot to bear. Already several workers had suffered from fatigue and had been sent home by the work supervisor, the lucky ones that is. For the rest of us, we had to increase production. An audit on some form of new bio-chemical energy source designed to power a new set of eco-friendly jets was shown to be way behind in development, as such every lab that could be spared had been pulled to provide a full chemical workup and analysis and see just why the liquid was destabilising at high altitude, the obvious rational was air pressure, but the lab directly opposite mine had spent the last two days testing that very theory. Only to have there supervisor spend most of today being shouted at by his boss for failure in producing any real results.
The truth of the matter was we were tired, under staffed and now under serious pressure, the contract for this research is estimated in the millions and should we fail to secure it, well jobs are on the line. But lucky for me, I’m an expert at dealing with another side effect of high altitude, extreme temperature change. It was the only test I felt ambitious to try on my own, as a low level tech support, I had been shunted to a desk on my own. But science for me has been a passion since high school and now back in a real lab with high-level equipment, I was beginning to discover I was good at it.
Over the course of the afternoon I had begun to make head way, almost ninety percent of the lab specimens showed a breakdown in cellular maturation whenever temperatures approached zero. The only problem now, was convincing my supervisor.
“Louise, how many times have I told you, your not even really part of the staff here. You are here as a token give back to the community pipe dream, dreamt up by our playboy rich kid boss at the top Bruce Wayne. So you listen to me and listen to me good, you continue to perform the titration reaction tests, the same as you did last week and leave the big stuff to the real scientists”
“But if you would just look at the data, I’ve already proven that the new fuel breaks down at low temperatures”
“Yes Louise, I heard you the first time you shouted it in my direction. Except that the plane is designed to protect against that sort of thing. So its back to the drawing board for us and back to them damn titrations for you”
“But Geoff what if…”
“What if, what if? Are you seriously suggesting that a billion dollar plane, dreamed up by over a hundred of this industries greatest minds, is built out of some glue and sticky tape?”
“That’s not what I’m suggesting”
“Good then you wont see any problem in following my orders”
“But”
“Good day”
He has always hated me, ever since I was given a workstation in his lab, he is a great scientist theirs no doubt about it, but to get where he is, he’s had to sacrifice a lot. I heard he’s sustained two heart attacks, and already well on his way to a third divorce. Some of the other girls say he loves his four by four workstation more than his wife. But where they see gossip, I see dedication and I almost respect him. That is until he just blow off a full days research.
I hear a crash, and in seconds I hear screaming. The ventilation systems have already begun to suck out any air inside the room, desperately trying to contain the threat of fire or toxic inhalation but they’re to late. A chemical reaction has already occurred and the sprinklers are just giving the chemical a surface upon which it can move. The fuel was designed to be a catalyst, producing massive amounts of energy with only a little amount of fuel; in essence it was now sustaining itself.
“EVERYBODY OUT”
Already an evacuation was on the way. “Louise come on shift your legs” I heard his words, but behind me was the potential proof needed to save the jobs of everyone in this room. In away I guess I was just trying to prove myself, but damn it, it was my work. So I ignored his words, even after the fifth time he called them and in the end I’m not sure if the fire was to big, or he had simply given up trying. But by the time I had gathered what I needed I realised I was trapped. The security protocol had now prioritised the reaction as unstable and had initiated a failsafe lock down, designed to seal the fire in completely. Which means as I stare at the raging wall of flames, I’m left with the scientific knowledge to know I will be either consumed as a food source by the fires insatiable lust, or suffocate to death as the fire exhausts all of its oxygen supply, but either way I am going to die.
The smoke is thick and black, and I can no longer even see through the glass like walls of the lab to the people outside, if anyone at all was even trying to help me, then they where having little success, the heavy toxic air had forced me to my knees, only then in the pit of despair do I realise I’m no longer alone.
“LOUISE, get up you fool, I cannot let you die”
“Who’s there?”
“Your master, or have you forgotten so soon our little discussion”
I desperately try and shake it off; I convince myself it is nothing more than delirium brought on by extraneous circumstances, but the voice keeps talking no matter how hard I try to focus.
“You have to save yourself Louise, but you must be smart. Only absorb a little heat. Just enough to protect yourself”
“What are you talking about?”
“You were chosen to be of service to me because you where smart, yet already you fail us. You are a Killer, a cold hearted one at that, so embrace your powers or die this day”
“I don’t know how?”
“Then let me show you”
I feel a strangeness wash over me, almost out of body. I see with my eyes but control nothing of what I do. My legs walk me over to the wall of heat, my skin feels the essence of the fire, and with my hands outstretched I wash them in its pure heat, but to my surprise I do not burn. Instead I feel a pulse of life wash over me and as I breath out, so to does the pulse, like pins and needles the tingling spreads in a wave of frost, blanketing the entire lab in a breath of cold air. The effect is almost instantaneous; the chemicals molecular structure loses its source of energy, forcing the chemical reaction to breakdown and stop.
Only then does my body finally fail me…
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Several Hours Later
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“She sustained heavy ventilation poisoning, I don’t even know how she is alive”
“I’d still like to ask her some questions”
“She’s stable Mr… Batman is it? And way healthier than she should be given the circumstances you describe, but her medical files would seem to suggest she has a fragile mental state at best and this event may have triggered a relapse. So tread delicately or I assure you, I don’t care who you are, I will see you sent to prison”
“Understood”
I watch them stare at each other, neither one of them wanting to break contact and in the end it is Batman that wins out, but I would swear it was only because the Nurse had somewhere else to be.
“I’ll be back in less than ten minutes Batman and I would prefer it if we didn’t see each other when I return” this time the nurse doesn’t wait for an answer, she simply turns on her feet and leaves the room, making sure to give the leather bat one final glance before closing the door to my room.
“Louise can you hear me”
“Erm…yes” strange, his voice seems much softer now.
“I need to ask you a question”
“Ill answer it if I can Batman”
“I need to know how you put out that fire”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, the chemical reaction set off in that lab contained enough of the new jet fire you’ve all been working on to burn down most of Wayne Enterprises let alone a single lab and yet somehow not only did you mange to stop the reaction, but footage from the scene has you walking directly into the heart of the fire and despite a little inhalation damage to the lungs, your body shows no signs of burns at all”
“I don’t know what to say”
“Then allow me to be frank, as Killer Frost you has the ability to absorb heat and transmute that energy in to waves of cold. However the report form Arkham Asylum seemed to suggest that as Louise Lincoln, all traits to that side of your persona had been repressed, in essence you had been cured of your more, killer tendencies and with it, your powers also.”
“What is it you are driving at, because it would seem to me that you already have your answers and are just wanting me to confirm them?”
“Smart, and your right. What I guess I need to know now is. What’s going to happen next?”
At that precise minute I grab my head, as a pain, like a hot needle is drilled directly in to my skull.
“ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH” I barely hear my scream, as the pain intensifies.
“Louise, what is happening?”
“Ohh god Batman help me, I think I’m losing my mind” Tears stream down my face as the world around me goes blank and somewhere in the back of my head like a little worm, I feel a sick laughter rise from deep within.
To be continued in battle….
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