Batman finds it more and more difficult to breathe, as the giant press continues to bear down upon him. Only his magnificent chest musculature allows him to keep drawing breaths. Batman knows that before long, his ribs will begin to bend . . . and then to break.
Any incentive to relax his grip on the device in his right hand, which would in turn relieve the tension on his body, is, however, overruled by the sight of the tortured visage of his young ward suspended above him. Once, as an experiment, Batman had, in the slightest, lessened the compression on Penguin's fiendish control device. While the reduction in pressure on his torso was barely noticeable, the effect on Robin's plight was obvious. Instantly, Robin's limbs were pulled even further apart. Batman could tell it was all the Boy Wonder could do to keep from letting out a scream. Now, no matter how hard Batman squeezes the control, Robin's situation fails to improve.
That is because, as The Penguin planned, the Teenaged Thunderbolt is gripping the mechanism in his right glove with all his might. Although the pain is agonizing, Robin is determined to sacrifice himself for his mentor.
Robin feels the ligaments and tendons in his arms and legs being stretched to their limit. Soon, he realizes, they will tear. Then, an arm and leg will be pulled out of their socket . . . and then . . .
The Boy Wonder's mind races back to similar situations in which he has been. Once, The Riddler had strapped Batman and him to giant power plant generator drive shafts. The centrifugal force almost tore the limbs from their bodies. In that instance, though, the rush of blood to their brains would have caused unconsciousness before they were dismembered. Another time, The Riddler had the Boy Wonder stretched on a medieval rack. In both cases, Robin was saved by Batman. Would this be the trap that would finally prove inescapable?
----------
Meanwhile, in Mr. Freeze's super-air conditioned hideout, Batgirl jumps to her feet and shouts, "No! It can't be!" The Dominoed Dare-Doll pushes past Mr. Freeze and makes her way to a door.
"Batgirl, no!" Mr. Freeze yells. "Don't go through that door!"
Batgirl ignores the villain's plea. Swinging open the door, she makes her way into what appears to be an ordinary office.
Within three steps, Batgirl sinks to her knees. The heat is unbearable. It reminds her of the time she was bound inside The Riddler's steam room, but ten times worse. She finds it impossible to breathe. Not only does the air burn her nose and throat, but the air seems to have become thick. She feels as if she is trying to take breaths of hot molasses.
The Caped Crimefightress pitches forward. Laying prone on the floor, the thought occurs to her that, "Maybe it's better to die right here and now, rather than to spend the rest of my life like Mr. Freeze." Before she can pass out, however, she feels a tugging at her boots.
Mr. Freeze, wearing the collar that directs streams of 50 degree below zero air at his head, drags Batgirl back into her new environment. Closing the door, Freeze remarks, "This open-top design freeze suit has proven too fragile for everyday use, but it works well in an emergency."
Batgirl discovers that once again she can breathe "normally." Mr. Freeze lectures her, sternly, "Now, I hope you've learned your lesson. You can never again go out into room temperature, unless you are wearing an air-conditioned suit."
Then, in a friendly manner, Freeze continues, "I've made a suit just for you. Here, let me get it." Mr. Freeze walks across the room to a closet. He opens it and removes a full-body freeze suit, in Batgirl purple with a yellow Bat-emblem on the chest!
Batgirl immediately takes offense at this grotesque mockery of her costume. She decides, though, now that Mr. Freeze has provided her with a means to leave this place, she will do so, but with him as her prisoner.
Batgirl was surprised that Freeze had allowed her to keep her utility belt. Now, she whips out a Batarang with Bat-Line attached and throws in around an overhead pipe. Her plan is to swing into Mr. Freeze, feet first.
Halfway through her arc of travel, however, the pipe gives way. Suddenly, the room begins to fill with steam!
"Batgirl! You fool!" Mr. Freeze cries desperately. "That was a hot air pipe! You've snapped it!! The hot and cold air meeting are creating steam!!!"
Batgirl and Mr. Freeze flail blindly about as their super-air conditioned refuge fills with steam. "Cold . . . M-M-Must have cold!" Mr. Freeze stutters, desperately searching for his air-conditioned suit. He runs into Batgirl, who responds by giving him a chorus-line kick to the jaw. Mr. Freeze stumbles back into the door which leads to the outside world. It pops open and the unfortunate villain tumbles through.
Batgirl follows him through the door, resolved to return the favor by rescuing the Criminal King of Cold. Before she can act, however, Batgirl is astonished to hear Mr. Freeze say, "Why . . . I -- can breathe normal again!"
Batgirl fills her lungs with air. Although the atmosphere in the office is a bit stale, it is the sweetest breath she has ever taken! "Yes, Mr. Freeze, that steam treatment must have changed us back to normal!"
"Oh, happy day! I'm no longer Mr. Freeze! I can go back to being Dr. Shivel again!" he ecstatically announces. "Batgirl, how can I ever thank you?!?"
"Do you know where Penguin has taken Batman and Robin?" Batgirl asks.
"Yes, of course," the grateful scientist replies. "I'll take you there at once, in my truck!"
----------
Penguin waddles over to one side of the room, to confer with his henchmen.
"Gosh, Penguin, you've outdone yourself this time!" Albert praises.
"Quack! Yes, I have, haven't I?" The Man of a Thousand Umbrellas answers, while puffing triumphantly on his cigarette holder. "When one of the Dynamic Dim-Wits finally passes out and drops the control, the other will instantly be killed! Oh, the look on the survivor's face when he learns he's caused the death of the other!! Wahhh! Wahhh! Wahhh!"
"Who do you think will survive, Penguin?" Edmont asks.
While this conversation continues, Batman whispers up to his young partner, "Robin, I think I've figured a way out of this . . . but you've got to do exactly as I instruct."
"Whatever you say, Batman," Robin responds through gritted teeth.
"All right, then," Batman directs, "on the count of three, drop your control device."
"What!" Robin objects. "No, Batman! You're just sacrificing yourself to save me! I won't do it!"
"No . . . Robin," Batman says with difficulty. "I'm not. We're going to do the one thing I'm sure the perverted mind of The Penguin would never expect. Besides, old chum, if I did sacrifice myself, you'd be left to face Penguin and his goons all by yourself . . . and in chains to boot."
"Gosh, Batman . . . when you put it that way . . ."
"Ready, Robin?" Batman counts, "One . . . two . . . three!"
Batman and Robin simultaneously release the control devices. Robin's chains immediately droop, while the lid of the press on Batman springs open! Batman leaps out and confronts Penguin and his gang. "Now, Penguin, it really is over!"
"What! You've escaped! but how?" Penguin demands.
"Never mind that, Penguin," Batman commands. "Are you and your thugs going to come quietly? or . . ."
"You may have escaped, Batman," Penguin rasps, "but, with Robin flying overhead, it's six of us against one of you . . . and after being squeezed like a grape, I'll bet that you're not in the best of condition!"
Penguin shouts to his men, "Let's take him! my Den of Deadly Dinos!"
The hoodlums swarm towards Batman. At that moment, Batgirl enters from a far door.
"Batgirl! You're alive!" Robin says, stating the obvious. Then, urgently, "Get me down from here!"
"Well, Robin," Batgirl answers with a smile, "I guess you can fly like your namesake!"
"Come on, Batgirl, this is no time for jokes," Robin rebukes. "Batman needs our help!"
Using the laser beam in her Batgirl compact, Batgirl quickly melts through Robin's bonds. The Boy Wonder positions himself so that as Batgirl cuts the last chain, he drops down on one of Penguin's hoods! Batgirl then hops onto the open press, using it has a platform to kick a couple of goons in the face, sending them sprawling.
Batman grabs Penguin by the waist and jacket. "Penguin, your particular species of bird should become extinct!" With that, the Caped Crusader tosses the fowl fiend into a wall, knocking him out cold.
As the dust of the battle clears, Batman and Robin approach Batgirl. "What happened to Mr. Freeze?" Robin wants to know.
"Dr. Shivel is outside in a truck, enjoying the sensation of sunshine of his face through the windshield." Batgirl explains Mr. Freeze's cure to the Dynamic Duo. She concludes, "We can use Dr. Shivel's truck to take Penguin and this lot to Police Headquarters."
Hours later, Batman, Robin, Batgirl, Commissioner Gordon and Chief O'Hara are all gathered in Gordon's office. The Police Commissioner is speaking, "So, with The Penguin and his men in custody, the archaeopteryx fossils and the Barosaurus skeleton recovered and with Dr. Shivel now undergoing treatment in a psychiatric hospital . . . well, Terrific Trio, I want to show you something."
With that, Commissioner Gordon presses a TV remote control. A wall panel slides away and, as a TV screen comes to life displaying portraits, a voice announces, "Status Report: Known Super-Criminals not currently in prison -
King Tut . . .
Mr. Freeze . . .
Nora Clavicle . . .
end of Status Report."
"There you have it," Commissioner Gordon announces. "King Tut and Mr. Freeze are now in the same psychiatric institution. Both seem to be practically cured of any criminal tendencies. Nora Clavicle hasn't been seen in Gotham City for months. Warden Crichton reports that the Arch Criminal Wing at the Gotham State Penitentiary is almost full. You three have done such a great job that Super-Villain activity in Gotham seems to be at an all-time low!"
"Well, you know the saying, Commissioner," Robin says with a smile, "Gotta catch ‘em all!"
Robin's four elders look at him blankly. The Boy Wonder concludes the adults aren't up on anime. "Never mind," Robin says with a grin, shaking his head.
"In any event," declares Chief O'Hara, "I hope that now perhaps we can all look forward to a quiet summer vacation."
EPILOGUE
"Warden, those two young girls from the Seagate Orphanage are here again," calls the Prison Captain through the door.
"Good, good. Send them in, send them in," answers Warden Crichton.
Identical twins, in their early teens, dressed in matching school uniforms, enter the Office of the Warden of Gotham State Penitentiary.
"Hello, ladies. So nice of you to stop by and see me," says the Warden graciously.
"And we brought you something, too," announces one of the twins. The other hands the Warden a box. He opens it.
"Coconut cream pie! My favorite! Thank you so much!" The Warden puts down his pipe and sticks a finger into the top of the pie, then puts the finger in his mouth. "What a delicious meringue!"
"Your very welcome, Warden," say the twin girls in unison.
"I suppose you're here to see Ms. Kyle, again?" asks the Warden. Two heads bob up and down. "Well, I think it's wonderful that your orphanage has instituted this program of encouraging visits with former residents. I'm sure you will be a very positive influence on Catwoman's . . . uh, I mean, Ms. Kyle's, rehabilitation. I'll see that you are taken to her at once."
"Umm, Warden," begins one of the girls shyly, "we have a favor to ask. We'd like to give this necklace to Selina." She holds a bead necklace in front of her.
"We made it ourselves in craft class!" the other girl chimes in proudly.
"Oh! May I see it?" asks the Warden. He examines it closely. The Warden has been feeling a bit guilty ever since he decided that letting the arch criminals wear their costumes in prison wasn't the best idea. While he has maintained the co-ed facilities in the arch criminal wing (reserved for repeat offenders), he worries that perhaps he has begun to lose faith in some of his modern penological theories. "I don't see any reason why you can't give your present to Ms. Kyle!" he concludes enthusiastically. "I'll issue the proper orders."
----------
About an hour later, the twins are in the back of a sedan, driving through the gates of Gotham State Penitentiary. Without taking her eyes off the road, the driver asks, "Well, Jennifer, any problems delivering the necklace to Catwoman?"
"No, Ms. Clavicle," Jennifer laughs, "it went purrrrfectly!"
"Excellent, excellent indeed!" Nora Clavicle cackles. "When the time is right, she will break the necklace apart and distribute Dr. Cassandra's camouflage pills to all the arch criminals!"
"Too bad Dr. Cassandra won't be able to take advantage of her own invention," notes Jennifer.
"Yes, I do feel badly leaving a woman of her character behind," says Nora, "but still, we will have engineered the largest jail break of super villains in history!"
THE END?????