Issue #6: "Frost Bitten" Pt. 2

It had been about fifteen minutes since Crystal Frost had left Firestorm encased in a block of ice, from his toes to the top of his forehead. Inside of the New York brownstone belonging to Martin Stein, Firestorm would have seemed to have been dead to an uninformed observer. His pupil-less eyes were fixed upward, staring lifelessly at the ceiling, devoid of their typical orange hue. His mouth was slightly agape and crusted over with frost. There was no visible confirmation of his chest rising and falling to indicate that air was flowing in and out of his body. The flaming hair, which was becoming his trademark (much like Superman’s S-shield or the lightning bolt for the Flash), was nothing more than a wisp of smoke, floating up and dissipating into the air.

However, underneath the surface, the atomic particles that comprised the Firestorm Matrix had been joining together, during the last fifteen minutes, replenishing the energy that was depleted earlier by Frost and, now, the orange glow returned to the eyes of the Nuclear Man. His flaming hair ignited once again, though not nearly as bright and vibrant. The ice surrounding Firestorm’s body began to crack and exploded from his body as he took a large gasp of air, and then he fell to the floor.

“F-f-freeezing…” Firestorm said through the chatter of his teeth, taking short, deep gasps of air in-between the words.

“Ronald, calm yourself,” Professor Stein said mentally to the eighteen-year-old co-host of the Firestorm Matrix.

“C-c-can’t m-move,” Ronnie said, trying to lift himself up from the floor of Martin Stein’s home.

“That’s because we are dangerously low on energy, Ronald. Crystal nearly killed us,” Stein explained. “Concentrate on increasing your body density; it’ll cause more energy to be released when the particles undergo fusion. We won’t get near full capacity without sunlight, but hopefully we’ll be able to generate enough energy to go after Crystal.”

“Hell, no, there is no way I’m going anywhere near her,” Ronnie said, his voice losing the chatter as he was beginning to lose the cold feeling. “This is the kind of thing I wanted to avoid. I only wanted to help normal people.”

“Ronald, we cannot let her run loose in the city. It seems that her body cannot generate energy and needs to absorb it to survive. If that’s the case, she’s going to freeze others just like she froze us. We have a responsibility to find a way to stop her and help her.”

“I still can’t move,” Ronnie said. His voice was strained as he tried to pick himself up to no avail. “Since we’re stuck here, why don’t you tell me the deal between you and our Ice Princess? I think I deserve some kind of explanation since… you know… she almost killed me.”

“I suppose. Crystal was a former student of mine. She was brilliant and beautiful. We connected at a time when I was going through some marital difficulties and we started an affair. It was torrid and passionate, but short-lived. I had met Clarissa and let’s just say Crystal didn’t take it well. Later, after a restraining order had been taken out, Crystal took a job as research assistant with some company and went to the Arctic to experiment on some new cryogenics technology. I never heard from her since, until today…”

“Wow, Professor. You were really pimpin’ back in the day.”

“Ronald, it’s not something to be proud of. That relationship cost me my marriage and would’ve cost me my career as a member of the Hudson faculty, had I not taken the position with the Hudson Power Company.”

“Professor, despite her psychotic attitude and, from what you’ve told me, stalker-ish mentality, she’s a total babe.”

“Ronald…”

“Anyway, I think I can move now,” Ronnie said as he began moving his fingers and started to pick himself up. His face contorted in pain, and every joint felt like a bag of needles, puncturing the adjacent muscles which burned with every movement. The pain started to subside as Ronnie finally stood upright and began to flex his muscles and move his joints.

“Professor, I still feel exhausted.”

“That feeling won’t go away anytime soon, Ronald.”

“Right, so how are we going to stop your psycho ex-girlfriend?”

“Ronald, what happened to your trepidation from earlier?”

“Well, it’s what you said earlier - you were right about our responsibility to stop what happened to us from happening to someone else. I guess we are going to have to deal with superpowered psychos at some point.”

“Okay, Ronald, but we have to tread carefully. First, we need to find Crystal.”

“I’m ahead of you,” Ronnie said as he walked outside. “We can alter our vision to pick up cold temperatures.”

“You’re thinking on the right track, Ronald. A more accurate way might be to track the flow of energy. Crystal’s body must be continually absorbing any energy that’s around her. Look for energy currents.”

Ronnie took to the sky and flew high enough so he could get most of the city in his line of vision. There, he began to alter his vision to detect energy currents around the city. “I see a large concentration of energy flowing towards the Village.”

“The Village? But who could she possibly know there?” Martin stein asked, but then the truth hit him, “Clarissa lives there!”

“Your recent ex-girlfriend.”

“And the woman I chose over Crystal. We’ve got to get there fast.”



Clarissa Clemens exited the elevator and entered the lobby of her Greenwich Village Apartment building. She was dressed to impress. She wore a backless black dress with matching stiletto heels and gloves that went past her elbows. Her long blonde hair was done up and showed off the nape of her neck, which was adorned with a string of pearls that Martin Stein had given her on one of their anniversaries. Slung over her shoulder was a Louis Vuitton bag, which she looked into to make sure that she wasn’t forgetting any necessary accessories.

“Hey, Ms. Clemens, you look very pretty tonight. Got a hot date?” the African-American concierge asked as she passed the lobby desk.

“More like a business dinner, Willy,” Clarissa said as she walked past him, flashing him a smile.

“Sure don’t seem that way, Ms. Clemens, I’d like to know what kind of businessman gets to have business dinners with beautiful women like yourself.”

“You’re such a flirt,” Clarissa said as she walked to the door. Most people thought she was just another piece of arm candy for the rich and powerful men that she typically dated and didn’t expect that they were dealing with a very cerebral mind. Both of her parents were physicians and she graduated magna cum laude from NYU with a business degree. She was on her way to meet a childhood friend for a business opportunity that her friend wouldn’t elaborate on.

“Well, have a great night, ma’am.”

“Thank You, Willy,” Clarissa said as she approached the front door. She noticed a sudden change in temperature. Goosebumps rose up her arms, her breath suddenly became visible and she began to shiver as the bellhop from outside was thrown through the door and landed at Clarissa’s feet. He had a giant icicle protruding from his chest.

Clarissa wanted to run away like everyone else in the lobby but she couldn’t. She looked down and saw that her feet were encased in ice up to her ankles. She wanted to scream but the cold began to intensify and the only sound she could muster was the chatter of her teeth. Ice began to accumulate at the corners of her eyes and lips and then began to crust over them as a feminine figure began to walk towards her.

The woman, with a grayish complexion, walked over to Clarissa, her white, low-V-neck dress swaying with every movement of her strutting hips, her knee–length high-heeled boots clicking on the tiled floor. She stopped in front of Clarissa and smiled as she gave her a look up and down with her pupil-less eyes that looked as if they were carved out of a frozen lake.

“It’s good to finally meet you,” Crystal Frost said as she placed her gloved hand on Clarissa’s cheek and traced a line down with her fingers, past her chin and stopping at her stomach, leaving a trail of intense cold for Clarissa to feel. Crystal leaned in close placing her purplish lips near her ear.

“But frankly, I still don’t see what Martin saw in you,” Crystal said with a smile, and giggled, with Clarissa feeling every single breath of arctic air.



Firestorm followed the energy trail to the Greenwich Apartment building, but it was not really necessary as Crystal didn’t exactly cover her tracks. A trail of ice, snow and frozen carcasses lined the streets along the energy flow that Ronnie and Martin were following.

“The bodies, Ronald. They seem to be similar to those dead bodies that were found upstate, leading down to the city. Crystal may be the serial killer that’s been in the papers lately.”

“Well, I hope your plan keep us from being her latest victims,” Ronnie replied as he reached their destination. The front of the building was blown out and Firestorm could feel the intense cold coming from inside.

“I hope Clarissa’s okay,” Stein said as Ronnie flew through the door, and right in the main lobby was Crystal Frost, holding the frozen body of Willy, the concierge, by his neck.

“Wow, you managed to break free,” Crystal said as she smiled at the sight of Firestorm. “I’m so glad too, I’m sick of dealing with men who can’t satisfy.” She leaned over and gave Willy a kiss on the cheek before squeezing her hand, which popped Willy’s head off of his body, sending it to dropping to the ground, shattering it.

“Oh my God,” Firestorm yelled.

“Well, are you going to do something?” Crystal asked as orbs of white energy surrounded her hands. “Or are you going to make me make the first move?” A pair of icicles, three feet long and about a foot wide at their base, emerged from the white orbs. Crystal threw one, then the other, at Firestorm.

“Ronald, remember what we discussed. We have to be mindful of any potential energy we release,” the professor reminded him as Ronnie lowered his density and let the two icicles fly harmlessly though his transparent form, and then countered with two energy blasts.

“Oh, come on,” Crystal laughed as she stood still. “Didn’t you learn…” She was interrupted and knocked off of her feet by the energy blast.

“That hurt…” Crystal said, in shock.

“Yeah, babe,” Firestorm replied. “You can’t absorb energy from an object that’s colder than you, so we’ve altered our energy blasts to become concentrated blasts of cold, keeping them colder than your body’s temperature.”

“I’m impressed; maybe Martin has taught you something,” Crystal said, dodging two more energy blasts from Firestorm. She shot a series of smaller icicles from her fingertips towards the nuclear-powered hero. Firestorm transmuted wave after wave of them into vapor, and, after the last wave, found that Frost had used them as a shield to try and get in close. Firestorm let Frost pass though his transparent form, and followed up with an energy blast that knocked Crystal into a curtain. Firestorm transmuted the curtain into a metal harness to keep her incapacitated.

“Give it up, Frosty, you’ve lost,” Firestorm said.

“Ask her where Clarissa is?” Martin asked.

“I will,” Firestorm whispered. He cleared his throat and continued, “Where is Clarissa?”

Crystal Frost laughed. “She’s on ice somewhere.” Firestorm turned his back on his adversary and began to look for the professor’s former girlfriend. Unknown to him, Frost’s restraints began to frost over and crack.



“God, Ronald, I don’t think I could forgive myself if she did anything to her.” Firestorm scanned the lobby and found a figure that was draped in a long white table cloth. He pulled on it to reveal Clarissa, attached to an ice pole in an upright position, with bands of ice surrounding her eyes and mouth. “Is she…”

“I don’t know, Professor,” Ronnie said as he lifted his hands and transmuted all of the ice away. Clarissa stood still for a moment, before she took a gasp of air through her mouth and collapsed into Firestorm’s arms. Ronnie gently laid her down on the ground. He transmuted her clothing into a sweater and sweats. He also pulled the table cloth over her, and then transmuted it into a comfortable blanket.

“Looks like she’s going to be okay, Professor,” Ronnie said as he stood up.

“Thank God, but I doubt she will be happy that you ruined her dress.”

“Yeah, well if she doesn’t like it, I can recreate the ice and leave her in it.”

“Don’t get offended, Ronald. It was meant to be taken in jest.”

“I know; I’m just not in a joking mood,” Ronnie replied. He looked down and Clarissa seemed to be trying to tell him something. “What’s the matter, ma’am?” Ronnie asked before he felt an ice-cold grip around his neck, picking him up and then slamming him to the ground.

Firestorm felt the cold, voluptuous body of his attacker press against his back and felt her cold breath on the back of his neck. “Too bad you didn’t apply your lesson in thermodynamics to that metal harness, but, don’t worry, this time I’ll make sure you stay dead.”

Frost used her free hand and stuck it into Firestorm’s flaming hair. Ronnie let out a loud scream as he felt the familiar sensation of Frost draining his power. He began to panic and start to fly around the room, crashing through walls and the various sculptures and pottery of the lobby, trying to get Killer Frost to release her hold, but to no avail.

“Ronald, calm down. All we need is to alter our body temperature, much like we did with our energy blasts.” Ronnie failed to listen to the professor and started to fly straight up, into the night sky.

“The power… Oh god…” Crystal yelled in pleasure as she continued to drain Firestorm’s energy.

“You want the power; I’ll give you all the power you can handle,” Ronnie said as rays of light began to materialize from his eyes, mouth and the top of his head, where Crystal Frost was siphoning Firestorm’s energy. Soon Crystal Frost’s pleasure began to turn into pain.

“It’s too much, too soon…” she stammered as she was no longer in control of the flow of energy. Ronnie continued to fly upward as light began to emerge from the center of his chest, before an extraordinary blast of energy burst forward and upward, illuminating the night sky. Firestorm and Frost, both unconscious, began to descend back towards the Village.



One week later…

Martin Stein woke after falling on the floor next to his couch, landing on some empty bottles of Jack Daniels and Jose Cuervo. He picked himself up and threw himself back on his couch and moaned as his hangover began to wash over him. Things weren’t looking as optimistic as they had been doing the week before. His blackouts had been getting longer in duration, and his visions of the fire-like aliens had become more detailed and strange. He also hadn’t got the job he was up for at Concordance Research and he’d been hired instead as an associate instead of a project head, a job which he started next week.

He had recently read in the newspaper that his former lover, Crystal Frost, had become some kind of metahuman monster and had been found near Greenwich Village. She had attacked his former girlfriend, Clarissa Clemens, but was eventually stopped by Firestorm. He couldn’t help but feel responsible for the situation, but drowned the feeling away with alcohol.

Firestorm, Crystal and Clarissa… some coincidence… Martin thought as he drifted off to sleep again.



Ronnie Raymond had walked by himself to school today. He couldn’t believe that he was still alive after that battle with Crystal Frost. One minute, they were in the air and the next minute, he’d woken up in an alley, next to Martin Stein. His body still ached from the fight, some of which Professor Stein believed was because of their expulsion of energy that left them almost drained. To counteract that, Ronnie had begun transforming into Firestorm more frequently, sometimes just to fly around or avoid bus fare, much to Professor Stein’s dismay. Ronnie did it under the guise that it was important that they needed to absorb as much energy as possible and couldn’t do it in their civilian identities.

Plus, it was a lot of fun too. And Ronnie wanted to have as much fun as possible. The battle with Frost made him feel that this could end at any moment, so he was going to enjoy it. Ronnie was about to cross the street, when a car shot past him, followed by a couple of police cruisers. Ronnie ran into a nearby alley and, in a flash of light, transformed into Firestorm.

“Yahoo! Time to kick some butt,” Firestorm screamed in joyous triumph.




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