Milk_Is_My_Drug
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Chapter 22: A Cold Threat
🕑 Added 2025-05-16 18:42:20 +0000 UTCThe sharp ring of Ashborn’s private phone broke the morning calm. He answered immediately, and the voice on the other end was panicked and shaken.
“Sir, one of our labs, the cryogenics facility, it’s under assault. Hostages taken, but the details are unclear.”
Ashborn didn’t waste a second. “Call the helicopter. Now.”
He turned on his heel, stepping out of his office with urgency as Rex scrambled to follow orders. Minutes later, the Shadow Corp chopper soared through the sky, cutting a clean path toward the experimental cryogenics lab on the outskirts of the city.
When he arrived, the place was already a storm of flashing lights and cordoned lines. Police had surrounded the building, keeping civilians at a distance. Officers barked orders and spoke into radios, trying to get a handle on the chaos.
Ashborn disembarked from the helicopter, his long coat flaring slightly in the wind. He approached the nearest officer without hesitation.
“Ashborn Black. I own this place.”
The policeman blinked, startled, before holding out a hand to keep him back. “Sir, please — it’s dangerous. Some armed group’s taken the lab. We’re still trying to identify who they are. No contact yet.”
Before the conversation could continue, a gust of wind swept the street. A familiar red and blue blur descended from the sky and landed next to Ashborn.
Supergirl.
“Hey. You okay?” she greeted him.
Ashborn noted the change in her custom, her midsection is not exposed anymore but this was not the time to comment on that, he just gave a short nod. “I’m flattered you came. Where’s the big guy?”
She folded her arms, floating gently above the pavement. “Off-world with the League. But don’t worry, I’ve got this.”
A low creak echoed from the facility. The front doors slid open, and a small group stepped out. Men and women in heavy winter clothing, faces obscured behind dark sunglasses and hoods. Each one held a researcher at gunpoint. But the one who stood out, in a reinforced suit and a dome-like helmet that emitted a constant frosty mist, was unmistakable.
Mr. Freeze.
He raised one gloved hand, revealing a device in his palm, its core pulsing with a faint blue light and emitting a rhythmic tick.
“This is not a negotiation,” he called out, his voice robotic through the helmet’s filter. “If this bomb detonates, everything in a hundred-meter radius will be encased in solid ice. Move aside, or everyone here dies.”
The police hesitated. One officer called out, “There’s nowhere to run. Lay down your weapons and surrender!”
Above, Supergirl’s eyes narrowed. She began to rise into the air, scanning the bomb’s core with x-ray vision. But before she could act, a voice called out.
“Don’t.”
It was Ashborn. His tone was calm, but carried weight. Supergirl turned, confused. “What? Why not?”
Ashborn didn’t answer. Instead, he stepped forward.
The police yelled after him, startled. “Sir! Get back! It’s not safe!” Some even pointed their weapons at him reflexively, unsure of his intent. But Ashborn didn’t slow. He moved past the officers, past the barricades — until the guns of Freeze’s goons were pointed directly at him.
He kept walking.
“My name is Ashborn Black,” he began, his voice steady, his steps unshaken. “Owner of this fine establishment. And you… you’re far from Gotham, Mr. Victor Fries.”
Mr. Freeze’s head tilted slightly. The cold steam from his suit hissed louder as he raised the weapon in his free hand, aiming it at Ashborn’s heart.
“Didn’t expect a businessman to know my name.”
Ashborn smiled. “I make it a point to know the names of people qualified to be good employees.”
Freeze narrowed his eyes behind the visor. The goons looked at each other, unsure if this was a joke.
But Ashborn continued, “How about this: work for me — for the rest of your life. In return, I’ll give you what you want.”
A harsh scoff echoed through the speaker in Freeze’s helmet. “You don’t even know what I want. You couldn’t possibly understand.”
Ashborn’s smile sharpened. “Oh, but I do. I have the cure you are looking for. Was planning to visit you in Gotham, actually, but… I’ve been busy lately.”
Freeze’s weapon charged with a high-pitched whine, and he fired a shot at the ground just in front of Ashborn. The blast flash-froze a chunk of the pavement, sending a sheet of ice crackling outward.
Ashborn didn’t flinch.
“Is your pride too big to allow someone else to save Mrs Nora?” he asked.
Freeze growled, his grip tightening on the gun. “No one can be trusted. No one but me. I’m the only one who can save her.”
Ashborn looked at him for a moment — silent — then turned and began walking back toward the police.
He almost passed the barricade.
Almost.
Then, he stopped. His back to Freeze. The smile on his face now gone, his voice cold and sharp.
“I tried to be civil.”
He turned slowly.
“You will release everyone and surrender. Or I will pay any amount necessary to find where you hid your wife’s frozen body. I will tear through every decommissioned cryo-lab, every old hospital, every WayneTech storage unit in North America. And when I find her... I’ll destroy her.”
The words cut through the air like a razor.
“I’ll bring you her death certificate. And her head. Your choice.”
For the first time, Victor Fries hesitated and a heavy silence fell over everyone present. Supergirl and the police stood frozen themselves — not from any temperature drop, but from Ashborn’s words.
His threat echoed like a sinister bell tolling across the scene.
Even Mr. Freeze — stoic, logical, cold as his namesake — was briefly stunned.
“…Do you think I’ll believe your bluff?” Freeze’s voice wavered behind his helmet. “You do that… and you become a criminal.”
Ashborn didn’t stop walking. His back still to them, he let out a dark chuckle, dry and sharp like broken glass.
“Doctors pull life support when a case is hopeless. They call it mercy. Killing them becomes… a kindness.”
He paused and looked slightly over his shoulder, just enough for the glint of calculation in his narrowed eyes to be seen.
“You think I can’t make her death legal?” he said quietly but clearly. “I can get the order signed by medical professionals, pass it through judiciary review, and bury it under mountains of paperwork. Then I’ll leak a story pinning it all on you — how you ruined the future of a poor woman out of spite. The tragedy of Mrs. Nora.”
A shrug.
“That’s the benefit of having too much money… and friends in high places.”
No one said a word.
Then Ashborn turned away fully, the sharp edge of his coat slicing through the air as he walked.
“I’ve lost interest in you now. I’ll check the news later.”
And with that, he walked off — not sparing even a glance behind.
“YOU WON’T WALK AWAY FROM ME!” Mr. Freeze roared in sudden rage. He raised his freeze gun and fired — the icy beam tore across the air.
But Supergirl was faster. In a split-second blur, she dropped from the sky and threw herself in front of Ashborn, the ice shattering harmlessly against her invulnerable body.
Ashborn didn’t flinch. Didn’t even turn around.
“Get back here!” Freeze screamed, the calm logic in his voice fully replaced by desperation. And in a final wild attempt, he threw the ticking cryogenic bomb toward Ashborn’s direction.
“NO!” Supergirl’s voice rang out. She dashed forward and caught the bomb mid-air, the freezing core humming violently in her hands.
Without hesitation, she shot skyward, breaking the sound barrier as she soared high and far — and with one mighty throw, she flung the bomb beyond the city’s limits. A small distant pulse of light flashed in the sky, then vanished.
When she landed again, her boots thudded softly against the pavement. She looked back toward the scene.
Mr. Freeze stood still, his gun lowering slowly, his breath heavy. Around him, his crew looked between him and the police, unsure what to do.
But he knew.
He stared at the sky, where Ashborn’s helicopter began to raise. He feared that man now.
Because in Ashborn… he saw someone who would do anything to win.
And if that man really set his sights on Nora, what could he — a fugitive, a wanted criminal with no political standing — possibly do to protect her?
Nothing.
His hand fell to his side. His voice was quiet when he spoke.
“Surrender. Let the police take you in.”
His crew looked at him in disbelief, but obeyed, slowly dropping their weapons and raising their hands. The police moved in cautiously, cuffing the goons one by one.
Supergirl exhaled, a long and relieved breath. No casualties. No more explosions. No one harmed.
She looked to the sky again. The Shadow Corp helicopter grew smaller and smaller on the horizon.
In her heart, she didn’t know whether to feel grateful… or worried. That was the first time she saw Ashborn like that.
