Tuesday 20th July 2010, 11:30.
Rhode Island,
Happy Harbour,
Mount Justice.
Slapping Kaldur's fist to one side, Esau responded with a straight jab that the Atlantan avoided by simply moving his head slightly to one side. As Esau's fist came within a hair's breadth of striking his cheek, Kaldur responded by gripping hold of it with both hands and flipping the blonde over his shoulder. Yet, he had experienced this move far too many times to be caught unaware of what to do next, Esau instead went with the momentum and landed on one foot.
Even then though, he hadn't quite accounted for the difference in strength between guys like Deathstroke and Aqualad.
An Atlantean as Esau had come to learn the hard way, was not weak by any stretch of the imagination.
They were, in fact, the very opposite, their bodies have adapted to the immense pressure of the ocean to the point that their bodies were more durable and stronger than even Esau could hope to match. That was an average Atlantean, Kaldur was by no means average and was one of its premiere and strongest warriors, he was a cut above the rest.
As a result, his landing was not quite perfect, knees buckling and putting him off-balance just enough for Kaldur who had kept hold of his arm with one of his, to step in and sweep his leg out from underneath him. Where, with a little extra force added by his free hand, Kaldur slammed Esau back first onto the ground, keeping him pinned there with incredible strength.
Grunting, Esau ignored the simulations words that told him he had lost and instead accepted Kaldur's hand, allowing the Atlantean to pull him to his feet. "I'm going to feel that in the morning." Esau's quipped getting a smile from Kaldur.
"You say that every time." He replied, thumb wiping the small droplets of sweat that had begun to form on his brow, perhaps the only sign of him being in a fight. Esau would not deny that in the past, such a thing would have wounded his pride, but there was no place for pride in this life that he lived. Instead, he found himself feeling a little accomplishment at having pushed a physically superior and very skilled fighter to such a level.
At the end of the day, Esau was the more skilled of the two of them, but Kaldur was also skilled in his own right, slightly below Barbara and Robin, who themselves, were below him even though they had closed that gap massively in the time he had been trapped in Cadmus. However, that difference in skill between him and Kaldur was not something that could overcome the sheer disparity in strength, nor did the difference in experience, it was just too far a gap.
Esau could recognise that fact and it did not bother him anymore, instead, it only made him more determined.
"I'm just glad you decided to not use your other powers." Kaldur continued, Esau shaking his head, wet hair sticking to his forehead having been sweating much more than the Atlantean.
"Your advice of meditating has helped a little," Esau admitted, he meditated daily, a thing he had never tried before and something he did not particularly enjoy due to its monotony. "But I've barely made any improvement." The anger was still there, a constant whisper in the back of his mind that told him to just let go, the voice sounding familiar to the strange being that had called him his 'Protector.'
"None?"
Esau nodded his head, chugging down some water. "Basically." He said irritably. "I can manage to keep control in the initial stages of the transformation, but the longer I hold it the more difficult it gets let alone using more of the power."
"I am sorry." Kaldur apologised, frowning. "I had hoped that meditation would have been of some aid to you."
Esau waved it off. "It's fine, don't worry about it. Without it, I'd have probably made no progress whatsoever. I've just got to keep at it and hope things get easier." His words made both Esau and Kaldur frown, it by no means sound appealing. "Luckily for me, I'm known to be quite stubborn. It might be difficult to control for me at the moment, but I'm sure I will see improvement eventually."
"Of that, I have no doubt." Kaldur agreed, having come to know Esau well enough to know how stubborn he could be.
Their fights were the perfect example of said stubbornness, often lasting far longer than they should on account of Esau refusing to give up. Just continuing to get up and come at him with nary a pause, nearly catching him off-guard on a few occasions. Kaldur could understand very well how he managed to take on both Batgirl and Robin, two people he recognised as far more skilled than him, on his own. It wasn't just the skill, experience or serum that Esau had that gave him an edge, it was his determination that was aided by his insane stamina.
Most people would stay down after taking hits from him, even when he was holding back.
Esau though just got up and kept coming at him.
It was quite inspiring.
"Have either of those three actually trained recently?" Esau asked, breaking through the silence that had befallen them as they looked upon the others within Mount Justice. Barbara was nowhere in sight, but she and Robin had been sparring not so long ago, Dick was now in the kitchen talking with M'gann who was baking, both ignoring Wally's unsuccessful flirting. But both boys seemed a little oblivious to the infatuation she held for Superboy, or Dick seemed to be purposefully ignoring it, the clone of Superman sitting and watching television.
Kaldur looked to Superboy, M'gann and Wally before shaking his head. "I don't believe so, no. But it's fine, this team is new and we're all just settling in."
"I would agree with you if it hadn't nearly been two weeks since this team had been put together and, to be honest, those three are the ones that need training the most." Kaldur could not deny that at all because out of all of them, those three had the most powerful abilities that by all accounts, should make them the strongest on their team.
M'gann with just the combination of telekinesis and telepathy should be the most dangerous on their team, not even mention all the other abilities that come with her Martian physiology. However, besides not training her abilities or training herself, M'gann lacked the mentality to use those powers in the way they should be used. As a result, early on when Batman had overseen them settling down into Mount Justice personally, M'gann had lost to a combined effort from Barbara and Dick and even one-on-one, she struggled.
Next was Wally.
He was the fastest on their team and that was it.
That simple fact seemed to have made Wally very arrogant, stuck in the belief that no one could hit him or beat him and when they did, said that it was luck. His childishness and immaturity led to him not only failing to recognise his own faults but accepting any form of constructive criticism that could actually help him improve. When it came to the one time Wally had sparred, he spent more time trying to show off to Barbara and M'gann that he had been outwitted by Robin.
Then there was Superboy.
Due to being the clone of Superman, Superboy was the physically strongest person on this team, surpassing even Kaldur who was by no means weak. But he was practically a ticking time bomb, bursting into bouts of rage when things did not go his way, making his brawler fighting style even more full of openings. He was incredibly strong but had no form or technique making him easy to avoid even for non-superpowered fighters like Barbara and Dick despite his speed.
"This team is a fucking joke," Esau murmured. "I get why you agreed to this, getting out from under your mentors and all that stuff, but this will never work. The moment we get given a mission, whatever plan we go in with will fall to shit the moment it begins because no one has a fucking clue."
Kaldur reached forward, placing one hand on Esau's shoulder reassuringly. "I know, but sometimes it takes time." Esau disagreed with that statement entirely, beginning to see why Batman didn't want Kaldur as the leader of this team, he was in denial of the obvious.
"They've had plenty of time, more than enough." Esau pointed out. "I've worked as a team before, with people who I didn't like and didn't like me. Hell, I've worked with a team of villains before and let me tell you something, those guys were obvious in the fact they wanted to kill each other and they still functioned better as a team than this lot. They were professionals who understood one simple fact, our lives are on the line, one simple mistake, one simple error and you or someone else on your team are dead. Even if you don't like them, the moment one person dies, that mission becomes even harder."
These...kids, they were too weak.
"You lot have spent far too much time being coddled by your mentors that you don't even realise how dangerous it is out there. You could rush in against guys far stronger than you and do so comfortably with the knowledge that your mentors will be there to save you when things get tough." Esau continued. "None of you know how to do things without that safety net and the thing is, I think you still believe that when shit gets real, your mentors will bail you out of trouble. Trust me, I've been bailed out twice only and on the second occasion, I was on the verge of death already."
Kaldur went to deny this, only to pause, brow furrowing in thought.
"One thing I've learned a lot is that when you get involved in this stuff, there's no shallow end to learn how to swim in. It's sink or swim and believe me, you'll more than likely sink long before you learn to swim." Esau was lucky, it was something he had come to terms with quite recently, but a harsh truth nonetheless. "When we face an opponent we can't take on individually, we're going to need teamwork to take them down and we don't have that at all. Batman's left the task of selecting a leader to us and no one except me and you have been willing to try and do something about that."
Each time they did, it ended in arguments between mostly Dick and Wally, the two dead set on the belief they should be the leaders of this team.
"Not only that, but unlike the villains, we don't have an ounce of professionalism." That was not something Esau would have ever thought he would be saying, but it was the truth. "We've got two big egos and one walking ball of rage that refuse to cooperate with anyone. That's nearly half of our team right there. Not to mention that even if we did get teamwork, it doesn't mean shit when we come up against guys that have taken on the Justice League and won. Those three especially need to get off their asses and start training individually before we even begin looking at working as a group."
Esau took a deep breath, his frustration beginning to bubble over and a heat rushing across his body, Kaldur spared a wary glance when he saw the blonde's nails begin to grow. However, he relaxed when he saw the nails return to normal after Esau took a few, deep, calming breaths as his frustration, while not disappearing, did come under control.
'I'm beginning to regret this already.' Esau thought, considering telling Batman to shove his offer up his ass.
"Then perhaps you should do something," Kaldur suggested helpfully and Esau sighed.
"I would, but Superboy listens to no one, Megan has next to zero self-confidence and Wally hates my guts."
Kaldur smiled slightly at that. "I wouldn't say hate, it's more of an extreme disliking towards you."
"That is not helping me at all," Esau muttered exasperatedly as he inwardly cursed Batman's entire existence and not for the first time. 'If I had known just how difficult it was going to be just to get this entire team to train let alone lead them on missions, I would have charged you more.