Out Cold
Her eyes open, absorbing the light as her lungs gulp in air, the cold melting off of her skin as she stands up, ready for the doctors to turn on the lights that should be blinding her, prepared for the painful shots that inject poison into her body.
But all that comes is cold, and a warm voice that reminds her of a robot.
“Mr. Stark and the other Avengers are assembling,” Jarvis says.
“Why is it this temperature?”
“It is sixteen below and dropping. My sensors show that there is an intruder.”
There is a pause, and then Jarvis speaks again.
“Mr. Stark requests your presence in the meeting room.”
“Thank you, Jarvis,” she says, grabbing a knife that she snagged, shoving it in her long-sleeved sweatshirt that Sam gave her.
Mr. Stark said that Pepper was going to be back in three days, and then she’d force her to get some more clothes. She’s content with what she has, which is only a few shirts, some underclothes, some shorts, pants, and now socks. She prefers to go barefoot, since it gives her a better grip on the floor, but that is restricted until her feet are healed, according to Natasha.
Gretchen heads for the meeting room, finding the door open, the Avengers inside, Cap and Tony in a quarrel.
“What's the mission?”
“There's some weird dude with a freeze gun on the run from security. Half of our guards are frozen, and the rest of the people in here have frostbite, or are getting there.”
“What floor?”
“Fifth.”
“I thought you said you fixed the security problem,” Cap says to Stark.
“Yeah, but I forgot that I broke that window and I haven't replaced it with the bulletproof stuff yet.”
“Didn't that happen two weeks ago?”
“I was busy! Pepper and I were on vacation, and it ended up with me battling another guy with metal arms.”
While they were talking, Gretchen--it still sounds weird to her, that name--Bucky, and Natasha went towards the stairs, running to the fifth floor as they bickered.
“You just got out of a fight with a giant glass beast less than twenty-four hours ago,” Bucky says. “I can handle this.”
“I know this man,” Gretchen snaps back. “Unless this is another man with freezing capabilities, he is named William Nightingale. The Program called him Captain Freeze. The Experiment was ordered to help him escape a S.H.I.E.L.D. base twenty years ago.”
“And he's back?”
“The Program controls him. It must have sent him to kill me,” she says, switching back to human mode.
The Experiment is beginning to peek through less, but it's still there. The programming and training and routine are still there, and it's hard to shake old habits.
'My name is Gretchen. I was born on June eighth. I am not a possession. My name is Gretchen,I was born on June eighth...'
She repeats it in her mind, even as she finds her way down the staircases to meet Captain Freeze, as Bucky and Natasha ask her questions, as she answers.
“Does he have actual powers, or does he have a weapon?” Bucky finally asks, making Gretchen realize that the two Avengers have no idea what they are in for.
“Wait,” she says, stopping, turning around to look at them. “The villain is capable of destroying your bodies. Freeze carries no weapon; he is one. The ice erupts from his fingertips, the wind from his breath, the harsh cold from his skin. The man is pure ice that will not melt in any heat that I have tried. The only way to defeat him is to trap him.”
“In what?”
“The container I awoke in. Is it still operational?”
“Of course,” Natasha responds with, pulling out her phone to message Stark.
“I will draw him there.”
“Captain Cold-” Bucky starts, but she corrects him.
“Freeze.”
“The guy wants to kill you,” he says firmly.
“Yes.”
“Why let him get close to you?”
“If I do not draw him close, he will annihilate everyone and everything in his path. James, I have to do this. And all I need from you is to stay out of the way. I've killed too many. I need to keep a life.”
“Stark says it's ready,” Nat interrupts, talking about the Hulk container.
“Experiment 346!” A man's voice bellows, going past the walls and to her ears.
Without another word, Gretchen turns and runs to the man.
Bucky follows, ready to defend the woman. The sight that greets him stops him.
The man is held by his throat, high in the air, blue eyes wide.
“My name is Gretchen,” his enemy says in an even tone, angry. “Good. Not bad.”
“Please, let me go!” Freeze begs, strained. “Please! I was obeying orders!”
Bucky watches as the anger flees from her eyes, her face falling as she lets him go.
“Captain Freeze, I would suggest you flee. Hydra will come after you.”
The villain nods, meek.
Gretchen turns, and Bucky opens his mouth just as the man smiles and raises his hands.
“Look out!”
Bucky races towards her just as she takes a nearby thin railing, tears it from the wall, and shoves it next to Nightingale's head, and then twists the metal over his neck and into the wall.
Bucky grabs absolutely nothing and just punches the man straight in the jaw, knocking him out.
“Out cold, huh, Gretchen?” Bucky remarks.
Gretchen doesn't even get the joke.