Chapter 268 Battle for the Cowl (10)

(E/N: Just a heads up so you won’t be confused, we’ve changed Bloodstone to Bloody Stone)

There was basically only one way to become a badass – it was to be frustrated and for Batman villains, it was even worse.

For villains, being disfigured was normal, there were several who were born with deformities[1], don’t even mention those who fell into a chemical bath [2].  Childhood frustration was a must; being laughed at by their peers, being autistic, or being discriminated against [3]. Getting thrown into prison at the age of ten… [4] A badass could have them all.

Heroes like Batman, who lost both his parents in a street robbery and then grew up to be a vigilante, had an absolutely tender heart for sure. No wonder Bane beat him.

Besides that, either their career life or love must be at a dead end. Their true love always dies in an unnatural way [5], vegetables should be appreciative for keeping their lives [6]. Also, you can’t make a proper career while working as a prosecutor, [7], restaurateurs [8], or a businessman…[9]

Compared with these people, the death of relatives and friends, were those even a thing? The best they could do was to enter the top 40 on American Idol. Naturally, only the monster’s family could have no dead in decades.

The confusing part was that some of the villains still had very high academic accomplishments. The title of professor was all over the street, there were also “xx scientist” with a Nobel Prize; if you were a laboratory assistant or something, you’d be embarrassed to even say hello to an inmate in an asylum for lunatics.

Mister Freeze was a protagonist that possessed some of the characteristics that were mentioned above.

His name was Victor Fries, he was a cryogenic scientist. His beloved wife suffered from a serious degenerative disease that couldn’t be cured by the medical technology of that time. Thus, he froze his wife while he worked on a cure for her.

Then the company that funded his research pulled the plug on his lab, causing an accident that turned him into a cold-blooded creature, which meant that his body’s temperature must be kept at subzero at all the time. Thus, he made special protective armor and began to do extreme things, giving rise to a supercriminal.

Today, this dude was debugging some equipment that could only be understood by him, but then, outside the factory, two uninvited guests arrived.

Mr. Freeze had been a villain for a long time. He installed surveillance cameras in hidden areas around the factory, so if the police were to find him, he’d be ready to run or fight.

This time, however, he saw something that puzzled him. First, a guy dressed up like Joker showed up for no reason and started to check out the place as soon as he arrived. Then, a stranger came along and after a few moments, the stranger stabbed himself and started a superhero level fight, in which the stranger took control of a blood monster, while the Joker Coser relied on his superb skills and shiny cards.

By the time Mr. Freeze got to this point, he had taken out his most powerful freeze gun because he thought that if they went on like this, he would be involved…

“Help! Professor Fries!” Feng Bujue shouted for help and started to look for Mr. Freeze.

It didn’t take much time to find him. The largest factory room on the first floor was empty and the upper floors were basically the same which he confirmed at a glance. The only thing that remained was a locked door on the top of the building.

Feng Bujue considered fleeing elsewhere for a moment but discarded the thought because of two things, the first reason was, although running back downtown might make King in Shadow stop his manhunt temporarily, it was like giving up the resources on Mr. Freeze. As things stood, the guy at number 19 was too tough and if he doesn’t get some help from someone or something in the scenario, he’d indeed lose.

The second reason he rejected the idea was because he was still considering how  King in Shadow found him. Gotham City was so big, thus, King in Shadow must be depending on a skill or a piece of equipment to follow him from a distance or a kind of Summoning. If Feng Bujue ignores that and flees, King in Shadow could easily just find him again.

Under an unknown kind of surveillance, Feng Bujue couldn’t execute any other strategies and no matter what he wants to do, it will be destroyed or be easily intercepted by others.

Therefore, Feng Bujue made up his mind to take down King in Shadow right here.

That’s the reason he used an alternate version of plan 3.

“Professor Fries!” Feng Bujue broke the lock on the door with his pipe wrench and rushed into Mr. Freeze’s laboratory  “Help!”

Boom — Boom —

As he was speaking, the Bloody Stone was approaching the third floor of the building from behind him creating sounds as it moved. The speed at which the monster was chasing him wasn’t actually slow, it was just hindered by its huge shape and every door and stair was an obstacle for it which gave some time to Feng Bujue.

“Don’t move, boy.” Mr. Freeze pointed his gun at Feng Bujue: “Who are you?”

“WELL…” Feng Bujue took a deep breath and started to speak at a rate of a firing submachine gun, “I’M A TRAVELER FROM THE FUTURE CALLED FENG BUJUE AND I HAVE MEDICINE THAT WILL CURE BOTH YOU AND YOUR WIFE BUT CURRENTLY, I HAVE A NEARLY TWENTY FEET TALL MONSTER WEIGHING A TON CHASING ME, THE MAN CONTROLLING THE MONSTER IS SUFFERING FROM SEVERE HYPOCHONDRIA AND THINKS HE IS ON A HIGHER LEVEL THAN THE PEOPLE OF THIS DIMENSION AND HE WANTS TO KILL ME. ANYWAY ONCE I DIE NO ONE CAN GET THE DRUG, so please save me! Professor!”

Roar –

The Bloody Stone had just appeared at the back of Feng Bujue and roared, followed by King in Shadow.

There was only one psychological weakness in Mr. Freeze’s life and that was his wife. Although he didn’t believe what Feng Bujue said completely but compared to a huge monster rushing into his laboratory, he is apparently more willing to believe and help a human trying to negotiate with him.

“Get down.” Mr. Freeze said COLDLY.

The maximum power of the freeze gun was not a joke. A bold white light pulsed out, making the already low temperatures surrounding them to plummet again.

King in Shadow was obviously unprepared and the only thing he could do was hide behind the Bloody Stone. Unfortunately, it didn’t help.

The freeze gun could freeze a large swimming pool in 10 seconds, so while the combined size of King in Shadow and the Bloody Stone was less than half the size of the room, after being hit by the frozen pulse, they were frozen in a thick layer of ice in seconds, they were like flies in amber and was unable to move.

“Ouch…” Feng Bujue lifted his head from the floor. He felt more lucky than joyful, fortunately, I met King in Shadow before I attacked Mr. Freeze, it seems that I underestimated the strength of the villains in this scenario…

“Boy.” With the sound of the freeze gun being recharged, Mr. Freeze turned the muzzle and aimed it at Feng Bujue. “I heard you have the medicine that can cure my wife?” he sneered.

“Yes, and I’ll gladly give it to you.” Feng Bujue smiled, “making me into a popsicle will just complicate matters”

“Hum…” Mr. Freeze put down the gun. “If you have that medicine, prove it to me.”

“No problem.” Feng Bujue quickly got up and adjusted his clothes and to be on the safe side, he said, “I’m going to take something out of a dimensional pocket and I’m not going to shoot you, so… “

“Bullets can’t penetrate my armor.” Mr. Freeze interrupted, “do it quickly.”

“Ok… Ok.” Feng Bujue nodded. The way Mr. Freeze saw it, it was just Feng Bujue reaching into the inside pocket of his jacket.

What Feng Bujue wanted to take out was, of course, SCP-500, but he would never be stupid as to take out the whole bottle. He unscrewed the cap in his pocket secretly and took out a piece, held it in his fist and then spread his palm to show Mr. Freeze: “This is it.”

“It looks like aspirin to me.” Mr. Freeze replied.

“Sure… sure… But, if you want to see results, you shall do an experiment.”

“You’re the perfect one.” Mr. Freeze stared at Feng Bujue.

“I guess so…” Feng Bujue roasted, holding out his hand. “All right, professor, use your freeze gun on my hand.”

Mr. Freeze was startled and seemed a bit surprised: “Oh? Are you sure?”

“100 percent sure.” When Feng Bujue replied, he glanced back at King in Shadow and the Bloody Stone at the door. “By the way, how long does it take for people who are frozen by the freeze gun to die?”

“Much faster than you think.” Mr. Freeze said, taking another small version of the freeze gun, “It’s not like going into a refrigerator. It’s cellular death caused by severe temperatures. And… In cases like theirs, sealed in huge chunks of ice, they usually just die of asphyxiation.”

“That is to say… In three to five minut- Ahhhh!” Feng Bujue’s hand got shot by a pulse and was covered with frost.

“This injury of yours, unlike theirs, is at a special frequency.” Mr. Freeze said bluntly, “The damage to your cytoplasm will be so severe and irreversible that in a minute, even if your forearm is to be amputated, you won’t feel anything.”

“Wait a minute, then.” Feng Bujue replied calmly as if it wasn’t his hand that was going to be amputated.

“Ha… You remind me of another madman.” Mr. Freeze laughed.

“Ah… I know him.” Feng Bujue put on a grim smile and spoke in a sick tone: “People dressed as a bat are insane~ “

 

 

 

[1] Killer Croc

[2] Joker

[3] The Mad Hatter

[4] Bane

[5] The Scarecrow

[6] Mr. Freeze

[7] Two-Face

[8] Penguin

[9] The Riddler

(T/N: Extra Reference! See SCP-500 at http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-500 )

(E/N: So we’re not sure about the references as of the moment, so please do fact check us if you know more. Thaaaanks :), I’ll prolly get rid of this noter once we sort it out. – BlueCity )