March 4th, 2008

Central City

The room was freezing with frost on the walls, producing goosebumps all over my arms and legs. I could hear the sound of water dripping somewhere in the area, echoing off the walls as it melted. As I gained more and more focus, the more I realized how wrong everything felt. My hands and feet were bound and I wasn't the only one here. I looked around and there were nine other girls aside from me. We all were different in features, but we were all dressed in sports bras and spandex, like they took us from different athletic activities. Each and every one of us were waking up, some just examining the situation like I was, others screaming or crying. The girl next to me looked exactly my age, they all did.

"I'm Tori. What's your name?" The Blonde girl next to me inquired, most likely hoping to distract herself from what was really going on. I tried to think, not able to find even my own name in the storm cloud consuming my mind.

"I don't know." I told her, my voice shaking as I stood up to get a better look around the room. The bindings on my feet were just high enough on my ankles that I could push them down to make them loose, allowing for a weak but useful waddle. I found a broken mirror on the floor further away from the girls. When I picked up one of the larger shards, I saw myself. Like some of the other girls, I had a black eye and a swollen cheek, my lip was split and still swelling on the same side. But the swelling in my eye must have been going down because I could see both of my emerald green colored eyes. Something else odd was that my long black hair had frost from the roots to the ends, coated in pieces of ice and snow.

"What are you doing up?" I heard a chilling voice as someone came up behind me and shoved me back to my spot. The second I hit the ground, ice cracked and a chilled pain shot through my freezing limbs. It seemed they wanted us in a line, all ten of the girls in some sort of order. Other girls were screaming and crying even more now that our captors had shown their faces.

"Now, you will all have to hold still as you come back with me for a little surprise." The woman with distinct blue hair instructed. I recognized her and two men, one with his massive refrigeration suit and the other wearing a blue winter jacket and a ski goggles. They turned to face me and I saw the glare from their collective ice cold eyes, confirming the fear in the back of my mind. "And you, will be going first." Killer Frost cut my bindings and grabbed me by my hair, pulling me, kicking and screaming, out of the frozen room.

"Like hell I'm going anywhere!" I screamed, attacking Mister Freeze. I managed to stand up and punch the dome on his suit hard enough to crack it, trying to get away. My hand and wrist were crushed but I was free for the moment. But, Captain Cold blasted me in the back with ice, rendering me from being able to stop myself from crashing to the linoleum floor.

"Sorry, but we were given a deal we can't refuse. You are gonna have to just suck it up and be a good little girl." Mister Freeze kneeled down to my level, grabbing my chin as Frost grabbed one of my ankles and dragged me behind her.

"Please! Just let me go!" I cried, fighting her grip but I was just a weak thirteen year old girl. I couldn't do anything as they closed the door to the freezer prison and dragged me down the hallway.

"Fat chance, girly. Like Frost said, you have a surprise waiting for you." Mister Freeze smirked as I clawed at the floor, flailing and reaching for anything, but nothing was working. They pulled me into a room with all kinds of machinery and equipment that make my heart fall. Freeze grabbed me off the floor and threw me onto a metal table while Frost strapped down my hands and feet. I heard the door open, Mister Freeze, Captain Cold and Killer Frost backing away as a strange team of scientists entered, speaking in a language I couldn't understand. But one looked to the three ice villains and said something in english.

"Thank you, if the other specimens are anything like this one, our employer will hold up their end of the contract." One of the scientists said from behind their surgical masks. I was shaking with fear, the hyperventilation slowly taking hold as the scientist began running tests.

"What are you going to do?!" I half screamed as a tray of surgical tools was brought up to my table and another scientist began hooking me up to all sorts of monitors. I was shaking in my skin as I instinctively fought against the restraints.

"You have shown signs of genetic potential, we want to activate your inactive potential and study it." The scientist briefly but vaguely explained with his deep english accent. He stuck me with a needle and hooked me up to an IV as I struggled to fight the fusion of chemicals. Tears fell from my eyes as I slipped under, afraid of what was coming next.

It felt like an eternity of a hazy memories of pain and desperation. There were different procedures conducted all over my body to procure all kinds of samples. The two I remembered the most were the extractions of spinal fluid and bone marrow. The needles were absolutely the most painful things I had ever experienced. None of their experiments seemed to be working and I was losing hope from being pushed to my limits.

The surgeons did craniotomies that included a consciousness factor to test brain functions. I even remember them opening up my throat to run their tests on my vocal chords. There were surgeries that used an epidural instead of a sedative, so I could smell my burning flesh as they cauterized different incisions and punctures inflicted on my organs. When the sedatives were too weak, I felt their hands inside of my body cavity. Everything drove me towards insanity, no food or water, just fluids flowing into my arm from the IV. No one was coming for me.

The sedatives were wearing off completely and I felt weightless, but that was when I realized I was in a box, completely filled with water. There was an oxygen mask on my face as I fought against the restrains on my hands and feet, but they were looser than before, like I was tethered to the back wall of the box. I looked out past the glass and it was completely dark until the door opened and the lights switched on, I realized I was upside down as a single scientist coming through the door with a tablet, documenting my vitals.

Out of nowhere, the scientist turned a dial as three more scientist entered. There was a hum in the water and a moment where I realized exactly what was going to happen. I felt it all at once, electricity running all over my body as it flowed through the water. I tried extremely hard to bite back my screaming, but the convulsions threw off the oxygen mask. The scientists outside did nothing as water flooded into my lungs as I screamed, losing all of the air as I was forced to breathe. I was screaming at the top of my lungs, the pitch growing higher and higher in my ears as the thick acrylic glass began to crack, the water rippling and trembling around me. My hands and feet broke free from the chains as I struggled. As I flailed and clawed at the glass, it began to crack as my nails somehow left harsh scratches in the materials. The glass shattered and I came crashing out of the container as the water gushed out. I felt the glass shards sticking in my skin as I coughed up the water.

"Her potential has been activated, contact the employer." The british scientist ordered another. The third moved towards me with a sedation needle but I refused to be put down once again. An angry shriek ripped from my lungs as I lept at the nearest scientist, instinctively swiping at his neck. One of the others tried to stop me but I slashed my hands at his eyes, forcing his to cry out in pain as blood poured from the fresh lacerations on his face. The third one made the stupid mistake of trying to call for help, but I jammed my hand into his mouth and yanked, biting into his neck at just the right angle to sever his vocal chords.

I sprinted through the facility, trying to find the other girls. Each lab like the one I was in contained one girl after another, either dead or dying, even Tori. I couldn't carry all of them, so I pulled the fire alarm, hoping it would alert the authorities, but it alerted my captors as well. The three ice villains found me and chased me as I tried to find a way out. For some reason, I was actually able to dodge their blasts of ice without even looking back at them. Like I knew when and where the attacks were coming.

"Just get the little brat already!" Killer Frost shouted, aggravated that all three of them were missing me. I just somehow flipped off walls and swung on random pipes on the ceiling to propel myself forward, faster and faster without faltering.

"Give up, kid! You're not getting out of here!" Captain Cold bellowed as he shot ice at me. But the second he did so, I found my exit. I slipped out of a service entrance, hoping to find myself in an alley or a street. Where I ended up was just as useful, a sewer. I found the nearest manhole and pulled myself through, still running from the Ice Villains. Tears began to streak from my eyes as I felt the sun on my skin after my extended entrapment underground.

"Help!" I screamed, hoping to draw attention. If anything, the fact that I was running around in a sports bra and what I couldn't tell were spandex or just hip hugger underwear. "Someone body help me!" I shrieked as the Ice Villains surfaced, chasing me down the street. Pedestrians began running and screaming as the villains resumed their attacks. They finally began working together, sharp shards of ice clipping my skin with freezing cold slices. But, I managed to leap high up a wall and vault backwards onto Mister Freeze's suit, smashing right through the dome encasing his head. He acted quickly, freezing himself to stay alive. All I had left was Killer Frost and Captain Cold. I tried to maneuver out of the way of one of the attacks, but I was too slow, an ice pick lodging itself in between two of my ribs while a blast hit me square in the chest, sending me back into the wall. There were loud cracks and I was on the ground. I wanted to fight back, but the energy necessary to do so was fading fast as it was replaced with pain.

"Aw, poor baby, can't keep up anymore?" Killer Frost mocked me as she and Captain Cold closed in on me. In a flash of yellow and red, the two of them were on the ground. When the two colors materialized, I recognized the red one immediately as the Flash. The one in yellow must be new, seeming about my age, but I had never heard of him.

"Are you alright?" The Flash asked and I shook my head. I quickly remembered how I got here specifically.

"I-I was in a la-lab. That way down the street." I pointed in the general direction for him. "Two manholes, then go into the sewer and keep heading in the same direction until you find a service entrance. Some of the girls are already de-dead but a few are just hanging on by a thread." I blurted it all out as my vision was growing darker around the edges. It was getting harder and harder to breath as I hyperventilated.

"I'll go. Kid, she isn't lookin' too hot, get her to the hospital and stay with her. It's important that she's protected." Flash rushed his speech as I began slipping away.

"Got it, protect the girl." The boy clad in yellow and red said before scooping me up in his underdeveloped arms. Considering that a scrawny boy like him could carry me, I must be extremely underweight. But that worry slipped from my mind as my vision completely disappeared, only a single string of words echoing in my ears. "Just hold on, we're almost there."

"She should wake up any minute now." A voice said as I started to panic, thinking my escape was a dream. What was making this worse was the continuous beeping from what I recognized as a heart monitor and the tight feeling on my wrists and ankles. I opened my eyes, looking around the room, realizing I was in restraints in a hospital bed. The monitor began to go crazy as the hyperventilation began taking over. I struggled to breath as I pulled on the restraints, somehow managing to break free, the restraints weighing down my wrists.

"Woah, hey, just breath. You're in a hospital and you're safe." Someone said as they began undoing the restraints from my wrists. I calmed down and let my eyes adjust, recognizing where I was and who was around me.

"Sir, that patient is threat to the medical staff! You cannot just remove the restraints without consent!" I heard a female nurse snap at whom I recognized as the one who brought me here. His mentor was in the corner, watching out past the door like he was waiting for someone.

"With all do respect, the restraints are doing more harm than good." The boy snapped at the nurse. She pursed her lips, checking my vitals on the monitor. I kicked off the blanket and hugged my knees, only then noticing that my arms and legs were bandaged with gauze to cover the sutured areas from where the glass was embedded in my skin and the shards of ice sliced through. I glanced at the door and noticed a police officer enter the room with a recorder and a note pad. I noticed Flash in the corner, talking to someone in black, but I could make out anything but a gloved hand that occasionally made it through the door where I could see it.

"For confirmation, are you Sylvia Wayne, aged thirteen?" The police officer questioned, ready to write on his note pad. The fog in my mind forced panic to well up inside me once again.

"I don't know." The three little words slipped out of my mouth as the officer runs through the rest of his note pad, most likely to review his questions.

"Do you remember where you were taken from?" He asked, but I just looked down, rubbing the gauze on my legs. I felt a hand on my back, trying to comfort me but I just tensed up, the feeling of touch completely revolting to me.

"All I remember is waking up in a freezer locker with nine other girls." The words were bitter in my mouth and the looks I was receiving were making everything much worse. They all pitied me for what I went through.

"What can to tell us about who abducted you and the other girls?" The question struck a chord with me, but I fought the urge to lash out.

"Killer Frost, Mister Freeze and Captain Cold had us. I-I learned that they were in a co-contract with a group of scientists and their employers. Bu-but that's all I know." I lied on impulse. I wasn't going to let some police officer turn me into the government for more painful experiments. I wasn't going to let them deem me a freak on the record. I tore through those scientists like it was nothing.

"You don't know why the scientists had you?" He pushed the question but my look hardened into a glare.

"No." I whispered, shaking my head as I continued to rub the gauze wrapped around my legs.

"I think that's enough for the time being." Flash said, touching the shoulder of the police officer. Without a word, he simply stood up and left. "Kid, I think you should go down to the cafeteria, refuel." The Scarlet Speedster ordered.

"But I ha-" His protege protested, but Flash was giving him a glaring look. The boy just left and I was alone with the Justice Leaguer. But someone entered with a small boy in a hero uniform trailing at his cape.

"This is Batman. He has a few questions of his own for you." Flash introduced the man in the black bat suit. There was something familiar about him, but the fog was relentless in hiding my memories. He was absolutely intimidating, striking fear, but nothing he could do would ever be worse that what I've already gone through.

"We have much to discuss, starting with why you just lied to the police officer about what happened to you." The Dark Knight spoke in a deep, gruff voice that had the potential to insinuate fear, or command an army. It wasn't necessarily what I wanted to hear. The feeling of talking about… it… was so upsetting that I could feel the nausea rising in my stomach. But, there was some things I needed to know.

"I will give you information if you answer two questions." I scanned Batman's expression and he didn't seem like he was one for making deals, but I had to know. "How long was I down there?"

"You have been missing, on the record, for 46 days." He said quickly, like he was just going to rip off the band aid. Somehow, it seemed to be exactly what I needed, the nausea slipping away.

"Next question, who survived?" I just forced out the question, hoping that maybe Tori survived.

"There were scientists missing from outside the room you were found in. But there were only five survivors. Two of which were the ice villains whom of which escaped during the chaos. The other three are hospitalized here, Rebecca Dawson is catatonic, Katherine Goodwinn is sedated due to major neurosurgery to repair a brain bleed, and Sarah Winston is currently being brought to the ICU after extensive cardiothoracic surgery. You were very lucky to get out with just a few fractured ribs and a number of lacerations." Batman was very thorough in his answer, almost ensuring I couldn't stall a second further but I had to clarify.

"No one named Tori survived?" I referred to the one person I was able to learn the name of while I was down there.

"The coroner determined that her cause of death was from asphyxiation minutes before they found her. The fluid in her lungs prevented her from getting any oxygen." He seemed to be slowing down, nearly sympathetic to my predicament. With a sigh, I decided to explain, but not how he expected.

"I don't want to talk about the things that went on in that place, but the goal was to trigger what they called our inactive potential, something in our genomes." I began, taking a breath as I avoided the thoughts of insanity I developed in that frozen hell hole.

"What do you mean by inactive potential?" The little one asked. He wore a red vest embellished with an 'R' over a fitted black t-shirt. He had a gold utility belt matching that of Batman, and a short black cape with a yellow underside. The black gloves, leggings and boots all matched the cape perfectly.

"I attacked the scientists in the lab I was contained in." I had to pause for a moment, hearing myself say it outloud. The bat seemed unmoved, but Robin seemed confused. Everything began to pull at my brain all at once, and the tears just fell from my eyes. "I didn't mean to kill them if they didn't make it. I just wanted it to stop, so the instinct took over and I..."

"Flash why don't you take Robin to talk to Kid, inform him that the League will handling the situation, but be discreet." Batman looked back to the Scarlet Speedster and he disappeared with the raven haired boy, looking for his protege. He closed the door after them and came closer. "I only need you to explain how you were able to escape." The word seemed to just pour out of my mouth.

"They had me in a tank. I was upside down with an oxygen mask while they were electrocuting me. I just started screaming and fighting, somehow breaking my restraints and shattering the glass. I fell out and when they tried to sedate me…." I paused, looking down at my bony hands, realizing something. Just one thought and my nails extended into one inch long, black claws. "I don't know how I knew what to do, but I slashed one's throat, clawed another's eyes and… I'm not proud of this but the last one tried to call for help, so I sort of severed his vocal chord." I left out the detail about snapping the man's jaw before biting into his neck. Batman looked at me with a sort of sadness that I didn't expect. The man pulled back his cowl, revealing his face. His near black eyes began to soften despite the harsh facial features. The fog in my mind began disappearing.

"You figured out I was Batman the night you disappeared. You were angry that I kept it from you, so you went to your soccer game without a word. When you didn't come home, I never stopped looking." As he spoke, I started remembering things. Like Gotham, the Manor, my school, Alfred, everything. It was all flooding my mind as the storm inside qualmed.

"I'm sorry I left." I started crying, lunging to hug him, my father. Everything I held in, the pain, the misery, the emptiness, everything, just surged as I cried. I could feel my bones under my skin as he held me tightly. The pressure burning on my ribs and the sutures all over my body, but I didn't care. This was the safest I've felt since I woke up in that freezer.