Batman 4 - Batman & Robin (28 page)

Batgirl frowned. Freeze’s skiers were closing fast with her Batblade. Remembering Batman’s instructions, she hit a key and a status panel displayed a menu of her vehicle’s special functions.

“Nice extras package,” Batgirl muttered, seeing it now for the first time.

She thought for a moment, then selected a setting called “ice cutter.” Suddenly, the Batblade’s scythe peeled back, revealing a much sharper blade beneath it.

Applying the same skills that won her all those motorcycle races, Batgirl spun and side-skidded, her blade sending a cascade of frozen ice into the faces of the oncoming Icemen. Unable to hang on to their tow ropes under the onslaught, the villains were driven backward in helpless somersaults across the surface of the frozen river.

Batgirl had a new appreciation for her vehicle as she brought it out of its side skid. “Now, that’s what I call a close shave.”

In the vehicle Robin had already nicknamed the Bathammer, Batman was shooting for the center of the frozen river, heading straight for Freeze’s truck. Its side guns blazed at him.

Clenching his jaw, the Dark Knight hit a control stud—sending two torpedoes shooting out of the Bathammer’s chassis. They hit the frigid surface directly in front of Freeze’s truck and exploded, sending chunks of ice flying in every direction.

The driver of the truck must have seen the hole in the ice created by the blast, but he was unable to swerve in time. The truck hit the steaming pool, tilted up nose first, and began to sink into the icy waters.

As Batman whipped past the vehicle, he glanced out his window to assure himself that Freeze’s henchmen were able to crawl to safety. From the looks of things, they’d be fine.

“Don’t sink and drive,” he breathed.

Then he went on to his next objective—that being Gotham Observatory. As Freeze’s beams bathed the city, the Bathammer fired its turbos and closed in on the beams’ source.

Freeze cursed. His Icemen had barely even slowed Batman down, and the crime fighter’s sidekicks were unscathed as well. He tilted the telescope down until he had them in his sights.

“Not so fast,” he said. “Time you cooled your heels.”

Then he fired.

The freezing ray hit the frozen channel in front of the Bat-trio and created a wall of rock-hard ice, effectively blocking the river from one bank to the other. Freeze grunted with satisfaction.

“Let them plow their way through that,” he grated.

The words were barely out of his mouth before Batman’s vehicle went into some kind of overdrive and blew a hole right through the frozen barrier. Freeze flinched, as if he’d felt the impact himself.

The other two Batvehicles negotiated the wall their own way—by shooting up the face of it and sailing over. They hit the ice on the other side without missing a beat and whipped in alongside the speeding Batman.

Freeze cursed again, this time more volubly. His targets were too close to the observatory building now to be seen, much less fired at. He turned to a monitor, which showed him the Bat-team making its way up the giant cliffs at the tower’s base.

He turned to his own sidekick. The giant in the leather mask stood by patiently, awaiting his orders as Poison Ivy had instructed.

“Mr. Bane,” said Freeze, “I’ll finish off the city. You, as they say in show business, are on. Take the boys and kill those meddling kids.” He leaned closer to the muscle-bound Bane, so there would be no mistake. “But bring the Bat to
me
.”

As Batgirl scaled Freeze’s ice cliffs, using the spikes and ropes she’d found stored in her Batblade, she glanced at her newfound allies. If someone had told her a week ago that she’d be working with Batman and Robin, she’d have called them crazy.

Yet here she was.

“We have eleven minutes to stop Freeze and thaw the city,” said Batman, shouting to be heard over the howl of the wind.

Batgirl wasn’t sure how he knew that. On the other hand, she wasn’t about to question anything he said. After all, he
was
the most famous crime fighter in the world. If he believed it, it must be fact.

She turned to Robin. “Pardon me for saying so, but this sort of thing always looked so hard to me. The scaling, I mean. It’s rather easy, isn’t it?”

Robin shot her a sober look. “Crime fighter’s rule number one. Never say that.”

“Why?” she asked.

Abruptly, a squad of ice-climbing thugs poured over the ledge above them, suspended on ropes. And as they slid down, their guns barked fiery death.

“That’s why,” Robin told her.

One of the shooters came flying down his rope right at them, his gun blazing. Robin swung wide on his line, grabbed Batgirl, and pulled her out of the line of fire. Hitting a snowbank, they let go of their ropes and rolled one over the other.

Batgirl was nervous—but she tried not to show it. “Does this mean we’re going steady?” she asked Robin, looking into his eyes with a show of merry bravado.

She’d barely gotten the words out before four Icemen landed in the snow beside them. Their guns were drawn, their barrels steaming.

Batgirl caught sight of Batman up on another ledge, a higher one just below the observatory. He was going nose to nose with another squad of Icemen—and holding his own, from the look of it.

More than I can say for us,
Batgirl sighed inwardly. Surrounded by the Icemen, she and Robin moved back-to-back. Their enemies leered, savoring the moment of their demise.

“Crime fighter’s rule number two,” said Robin.

“I’m afraid to ask,” she responded.

“Be ready for anything.”

Then he did the last thing she would have expected. He put his hands together and yelled, the echo shooting up the hill. A tremendous rumbling came back to them—and a cantilevered overhang of snow collapsed on some of the Icemen, burying them.

Batgirl smiled. The odds still weren’t very good—but they were good enough. As Robin did a standing backflip into the thugs directly behind him, she chose the low road—and, pivoting on the heel of her hand, took out a couple more with a leg sweep.

“Pow!” she said, kicking another thug. She socked another. “Wham!” And backhanded a third. “Kazow!”

Robin looked at her. “What are you doing?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. It just feels right.”

Slowly but surely, she and Robin began fighting their way through the Icemen in the direction of the observatory.

Batman pulled himself up onto the aperture ledge of the observatory, his breath freezing in a cloud about him. Beneath his mask he was perspiring, having expended too much energy on Freeze’s Icemen.

Suddenly, he saw two heads pop up at the opposite side of the ledge. He tensed for a moment—until he recognized them as Robin and Batgirl. Dragging themselves up, they joined him.

The giant chamber was empty—eerily so. The telescope had been abandoned, though it was still aimed at Gotham.

“No sign of the snowman,” said Batman.

Robin grunted. “Maybe he melted.”

“Don’t we wish,” Batgirl gibed.

Batman spotted the frozen scientists, helpless in their sheaths of ice. Shooting a Batgrapple into the ceiling, he swung across the room toward the tower and dropped a couple of Batcharges at their feet. Then he continued his swing and landed on the telescope platform below.

Robin and Batgirl were right behind him. They landed on the platform a moment after he did.

Up on the tower, the Batcharges began to glow. Their radiating heat started thawing the scientists.

Batgirl turned to him ominously. “I hope you’ve got about ten million more of those little toys.” She pointed to the digital clock on the telescope’s control console.

The time was 11:52.

“Freeze started his barrage about three minutes ago,” said Robin. “Eight more and a city full of Gothamites are ice cubes forever.”

Batman thought furiously. Then it hit him. “Sunlight could reverse the freezing process.”

“Sunrise isn’t for five hours,” Batgirl reminded him.

Batman glanced at her. “Here.”

“But it’s morning in the Congo,” Robin added, his eyes lighting up.

Batman pointed to a screen showing a series of satellites—the same one the scientists had used for their demonstration at the press conference. “If we could relay the sunlight—”

“From the other side of the equator—” Robin said, continuing Batman’s thought.

Batgirl smiled. “It’ll take the satellites about a minute to realign, I expect, but . . . damn!”

Robin looked at her. “Damn? Damn is not good.”

“Those targeting mirrors are frozen,” she said tautly. “The sun-beam won’t work without them.”

Batman glanced at the two small mirrors sitting on the telescope barrel. Both were encased in ice.

“I’ll set the telescope,” he decided. “You two thaw the mirrors.”

His sidekicks raced out onto the surface of the telescope. Each one pulled a laser from his or her Utility Belt.

“I love this belt,” said Batgirl. “Can I get a matching handbag?”

A moment later, their lasers flared, and they began thawing the mirrors. At the same time, Batman turned his attention to the telescope’s main control console. He began working the keyboard.

Typing feverishly, he tried to visualize the results of his efforts. High above the earth, satellite thrusters would be firing. The giant orbital mirrors designed to work with the telescope would be turning . . .

On the monitor in front of him, graphic representations of the satellites were making adjustments to his specifications. He targeted a blinking graphic of Gotham.

Beside him, the digital clock showed 11:54.

Six minutes. No more.

Batman aimed the telescope. But the shaft shuddered with a sudden impact—and the Gotham skyline visible through the crosshairs was obscured by an unexpected blur.

Even before a hand closed like a vise over his windpipe, the Dark Knight had a fair idea what had happened.

It was Freeze. He had dropped from the rafters onto the mighty cylinder and stuck his helmeted face in front of the targeting scope. And then grabbed Batman while he still had the element of surprise.

“Tonight’s forecast,” the villain laughed, “a Freeze is coming!”

With that, he used his considerable strength to hurl Batman up over his head. The Dark Knight landed on the telescope barrel—just in time to see Freeze reach out with his free hand and yank on the telescope’s joystick. The far end of the barrel swung down all of a sudden.