Hello all my dearest friends and readers! Here is the piece explaining the liquid nitrogen trap! I am much more familiar with this version and since the scene wasn't very long, I extended it with material from my other stories. I hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Fantastic Four.

Captive In The Cold

Victor sat calmly in his chair, looking regal despite his deformities resulting in him now wearing the gifted metal mask from the people of Latveria and a green cowl that he had kept hidden for reasons only he knew.

Balancing a small random object between his metallic hands, Victor thought about every single event that led to this very moment.

The failed space mission

His company going bankrupt

Losing everything he worked his entire life for

His company, publicity, money, the woman he was sure would be his wife.

The fact that Sue was no longer a part of his life was what upset Victor the most. He could have had any other woman in the world, but she was the one he wanted. Two years he had been with this woman, but her decision to stay at the Baxter Building instead of going with him was one major reason why he lost her.

With the artifact now in his metallic grip, Victor looked across the conference room and stared at the object of his hatred.

His hated rival and now frozen prisoner Reed Richards.

In Victor's mind, everything was his fault and that he deserved every single moment of this. The endless amounts of liquid nitrogen making its way into his body. His skin turning an unhealthy shade of blue. His powers disabled. Slowly becoming more and more delirious as he fought to stay awake. Given the amount of time that had passed since hooking Reed to the liquid nitrogen tanks, Victor wondered exactly how quickly his heart would be beating, Given the fact that Reed was fully conscious, probably meant that it was beating so quickly that it felt like it was literally breaking and probably painful. A closer look also showed Victor that Reed was also struggling to breathe.

At that moment, a sadistic smile began to appear on Victor's face.

. . .

The hallways were dark and quiet as Victor dragged Reed's unconscious form to the conference room. Once inside and closing the door behind them, Victor just dropped the unconscious scientist on the carpet and walked over to the glass case that held the metal mask. Victor smashed the top of the case with a metallic fist and slowly pulled out the mask.

This was it.

Gently holding the mask, Victor slowly walks into a darkened corner of the conference room and just a few moments later, remerged now wearing both the mask and the green cowl. Feeling more empowered than ever, Victor walked past his hated rival and over to the ominous looking metal chair and the tanks beside it.

Victor had thought about waiting a few more minutes to put them to use, but decided that he had waited long enough. Turning away from the structure, Victor quickly walks over to Reed's still unconscious body and grabbing his collar, dragged him over to the chair and once he got Reed onto it, immediately shackled his wrists to the arms of the chair. Victor then went over to the tanks and pulled out the hoses that they were connected to and after checking the needles that he had attached on the top, went on to insert one of them into Reed's left shoulder and the other one into his lower right abdomen.

Afterwards, Victor turned on the tanks and immediately large amounts of liquid nitrogen made their way through the hoses and directly into Reed's body, slowly starting to freeze him and allowing him to regain consciousness at the same time.

Having not been noticed yet, Victor returned to his chair and silently watched Reed try to make sense of what was happening to him.

. . .

Reed desperately tried to move as Victor walked closer to him, but couldn't even lift his fingers and despite receiving another round of painful chills, continued to try before Victor got too close. But even he knew that any chance of escape at this point was futile. As Victor got closer to his frozen prisoner, he could see the nerves and fears starting to appear on his face. Once Victor was close enough, and knowing what's going to happen, reached for Reed's right hand. Slipping his own hand beneath the index finger and without a word, bent it back, causing both a horrible cracking sound and Reed agonizing pain. But since the liquid nitrogen had frozen Reed's jaw shut, he was unable to scream and could only groan in response. Yet, it did not stop Victor at all. Knowing that Reed could now feel pain and that his frozen jaw played a part in his struggle to breathe, Victor went on to gently wrap one of his metallic hands around Reed's neck, smirking as he felt his pulse increase.

"He's scared now." Victor thought as he gently squeezed Reed's neck, slowly starting to suffocate him. Unable to open his mouth to try and get air or grab Victor's hands in an attempt to get his throat free, Reed forced himself to try and shake Victor's hand off, his reward being failure and laughter from his captor. Normally, Victor would have ended it there, but figured out another way to take Reed's disabled powers for granted.

Releasing his neck and giving Reed false hope that Victor was going to turn away, the latter suddenly grabbed Reed's frozen jaw and tilted his head back giving him another round of agonizing pain as well as an increase in struggling to breathe. The smirk on Victor's face grew as he tilted Reed's head back further and knowing that he was once again suffocating and now in pain, he couldn't help but just watch Reed struggle against him.

"What's the matter Reed? Having trouble breathing?" Victor mocked while running a thumb across Reed's frozen lips with another idea having formed.

"Tell me you can't breathe and then I'll let go." Victor said, knowing perfectly well that Reed was unable to speak, let alone open his mouth.

The freezing scientist didn't know whether or not Victor was telling the truth, but still decided to try and force his mouth open, but the liquid nitrogen continued to deny him that ability.

Victor knew that he was enjoying suffocating his frozen prisoner way too much, but he couldn't help himself. Seeing Reed in this helpless state gave Victor such a huge satisfaction that he wanted to take advantage of it as best as he could. For once he was the smarter one. The more powerful one. Now Reed was paying the price for it.

With his frozen jaw still trapped in a metallic grip, Reed hoped that his agonizing groans would be enough, but even after several minutes of doing so, his captor did not budge. He knew that Victor had given him this challenge purposely, knowing that he would fail. It was just another way to torture him.

Now running out of air, Reed made one more attempt to open his mouth, but just as he was about to decide to give up, his jaw was suddenly released…although Victor's hand was back on his neck.

"Don't get any ideas. I was growing bored of waiting." Victor sarcastically said while moving his hand away but leaning in closer to Reed's face.

"I could tell that you were also in a lot of pain. But how would you know when…"

Victor gently grabbed another one of Reed's fingers and with a sadistic smile still forming on his face, bent it back, relishing the cracking noise and another set of painful groans.

"you don't know the meaning of the word."

I hope you enjoyed it!

Please rate and review!