Monday 16th February 2009, 20:15.
New Jersey,
Gotham City,
East End.
The apartment complex that was home to Esau Jacobson was quiet at this time of night, it usually was considering its less-than-model inhabitants. While many were poor and had to work hard to provide for themselves and those few that had families with them, not all of them were hard-working citizens that got dealt a bad hand in life.
Sadly, as was often the case in Gotham, crime was the only way to provide for themselves and their families.
But often, less than savoury vices corrupted them, be it drugs, alcohol, or any other form of addiction that caught them all in a loop of destruction where those chances that could have been spent to better themselves and their families, got funnelled back into those very same vices. That was the curse of Gotham cities, families and children were abandoned in favour of finding a quick fix and way to escape the dark and terrible reality of the world they lived in.
More often than not in the form of a warm body.
Coming to a stop outside Esau's door, Barbara leaned the semi-conscious young man against the wall, one of his arms over her shoulder for support as she struggled to open the door. Just as soon as she managed to get the key, she looked to one side to see a particularly obese man walking down the corridor with a prostitute on either arm. He was loud and boisterous as he talked about all the things, he would do to them and she struggled to keep the bile from rising up her throat at the mental image he painted.
He was very thorough in his descriptions, disgustingly so. She had heard similar things aimed at her and her alter ego, Batgirl from the various thugs, random guys on the streets and even at her school. It had always made her uncomfortable, but she had built up a resistance to such things over time and with practice. Unfortunately, she had been unable to look at many of her teacher's and fathers' work colleagues in the same way. Certainly, they didn't know it was her or what Batgirl's real age was, but it still made her skin crawl.
"Alfie!" Esau groaned out loudly, making the obese man stop at the door and turn to face Esau who had stood up a bit straighter. If Barbara didn't know any better, she would say that he hadn't just gotten released from the hospital. But she did, she could see the way he was leaning against the wall slightly for support, his arm around her was tighter and his eyes would twitch as he withheld a grimace of pain at the slightest of movement.
"Esau, you're out already?" He barked out with a laugh, his fat stomach jiggling as the two prostitutes looked on in disgust at the men they were being paid to sleep with.
As if they were inherently better than him, the thought was laughable. If this weren't the East End, that might be a possibility, but in a place such as this, where the worst Gotham had to offer resided, simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time, forced down a difficult road was hardly an excuse. There was always an opportunity for those that slipped under the radar as many did, it was simply easier for them to not try and better themselves.
Barbara hated people like that the most.
Esau was one of those unlucky enough to be trapped, not because he refused to better himself, but because he was being stopped at every turn. He refused to back down and kept trying to go down the difficult and long road to become a contributing member of civil society. However, through the greed and actions of others, he was dragged back down, for every step he took forwards, he was forced to take two steps back. To see people like the three of them, those that had opportunities handed to them on a silver platter squander them while Esau was trapped with no way to escape, that angered Barbara the most.
"Look at you, goddamn nothing seems able to keep you down for long."
"You know me, Alfie." Esau shrugged his shoulders and turned his grimace into a short smirk so as to not show any discomfort. "Just try and keep your noise down a bit, I don't want to know what you're going to be using your dick for, it's an image I could do without."
Alfie smirked as his eyes roamed over Barbara's body clad in her school outfit as if just noticing her for the first time. "Oh, I see." His smirk turned lecherous as he looked at Esau once more. "I'll leave you two kids to it then. Come on ladies, daddies got an itch that needs scratching." With that, he continued down the corridor and straight past Esau and Barbara.
As he was doing so, Barbara opened the door to Esau's apartment and helped him inside, switching on the main light and leading him to the sofa. "I'm sorry about Alfie. I've kinda gotten used to him so I forget just how bad he can be."
Barbara shakes her head. "It's alright, Esau." She sat down and Esau slowly joined her, his head resting in her lap as he sprawled out over the rest of the sofa. "I could care less about what he has to say, I could just do without the mental image."
"Yeah." He snorts, eyes closed as he enjoys the feeling of Barbara's hands running through his hair and massaging his scalp. "Alfie's like that. He's got a very detailed imagination and likes to share it with everyone." A hard look comes over his face, his cerulean eyes opening to reveal them flashing a dangerous dark blue. "I didn't like the way he looked at you though."
"Neither did I," Barbara said, her left hand moving down to stroke his cheeks to help calm him down. The last thing he needed was to make his injuries worse by allowing his anger to get the best of him. "But I know that'd you save me should he try anything." She smiled down at him, trying to ease the tension in Esau.
"Yeah, you're right," Esau replied. "If he or anyone touched you in a way that you didn't want, I'd do more than just make them back off." He muttered darkly, his voice so quiet she almost struggled to hear, but she heard him anyway.
"I know you would." She whispered back and he looked at her in shock, as if surprised she heard him. When he realised that she had, his head looked away in shame at revealing his darker thoughts to her. "But I don't think we should be thinking about that anymore. How are you feeling?"
"I'm good. In a few more days I should be back to normal."
A lie.
They both knew it; his injuries may have healed, but he would be feeling twinges of pain for a couple more months and if he overworked them then there was a high chance he could go back to square one again.
"Okay, good." Barbara watched as Esau's eyes closed, his breath evening out as sleep soon claimed him.
The incident a month ago that put Esau in the hospital was a mystery to both her, her uncle and even Batman. All they knew was that it was linked to one of the many criminal gangs in Gotham and there were too many for answers to be found instantly. That didn't make it any easier for her, especially since Esau was being very tight-lipped about what happened. Not even Jim, a man Esau trusted and loved as if he was his own father could get the blonde to describe his attacker.
Every time the answer was always the same.
He entered his apartment, was hit in the back of the head and then beaten within an inch of his life.
The next thing he knew he was waking up in the hospital.
There were too many holes in the story, too many things that didn't make sense for Barbara to just leave it at that, too much at stake for her. First of all, Barbara knew Esau better than anyone and just how stubborn he could be. Even if he was hit in the back of the head and dazed, that wouldn't stop Esau from fighting back and he would do so viciously. She had seen him fight, not only at school but seen recordings of him fighting in Gotham's Underground Fights from the times she and Batman had raided them.
He was raw and untrained, but experienced and very instinctual.
It was a wild style that was a mix mash of various styles like Judo, Karate, Kickboxing, Boxing, Taekwondo, Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai and Wrestling. There was no set rhythm, no set guiding principle, just a random selection of techniques that Esau forced together. There were so many holes in his fighting style that it was laughable, but Esau was stubborn and often took blows to land a single devastating counter. He wasn't afraid of getting hurt and he had a surprising amount of power in his lean frame.
Against an amateur fighter, he would be a top contender, but against the likes of a pro or someone like herself, handling him would be easy. But for random thugs, let alone those that he claimed were junkies looking for some quick cash, they should be easy for Esau to handle, even while dazed. So, that told her that there was more to it than just the story he told her, especially when the place hadn't been wrecked as if indicating someone trying to steal from him.
Someone else had been there, the very person who had been keeping Esau trapped here, the person who had stopped Jim's every attempt to adopt Esau and forced him to live this life that he lived now. But who it was, Barbara didn't know, yet she was determined to find out.
Feeling her phone vibrating in her pocket she pulled it out to see that the caller ID was one, Richard Grayson. "Hey, Dick. What'd you need?" There was gibberish from the other end of the line. "Okay, does Bruce need me there?" She waited once more. "No, that's okay. Ring me if anything comes up that needs my help."
Turning off her phone, Barbara put it back in her pocket and slowly leaned back into the sofa.
-X-
Tuesday 17th February 2009, 11:15.
New Jersey,
Gotham City,
East End.
The next morning saw Esau slowly opening his eyes, desperately trying to fall back asleep and resist the shining glare of the Sun's rays upon his face. However, like every morning, the sun could not be denied and with a groan – a mix of pain and tiredness – he rose into a sitting position, slowly rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"Morning." Looking to the left, Esau saw Barbara moving towards him with a smile on her face and a steaming cup of coffee held carefully in both hands. She was dressed in pair of orange shorts she had left behind a couple of weeks ago and one of his jumpers which was far too big for her.
These moments were the ones he loved most, the sight of her when he woke up. It was no secret to anyone that knew Esau about his feelings for Barbara except, for the girl herself it seemed. But it was moments like these, where they acted like a mature, older couple that made him want a normal life. Though with his life how it was, he doubted that would ever happen now, maybe if things had been different but it was too late to tell now.
Black Mask had made it very clear last night that he 'owned' Esau and by extension, everything Esau took as his own. Esau would not put Barbara at risk or anyone so long as Black Mask was still around.
'Then I'll just have to get rid of him.' Shaking those thoughts from his head, he turned his full attention back to Barbara. "Morning." He greeted a smile of his own appearing on his face. Reaching forwards, he took the cup of coffee from her hands and lightly blew on it. "How long have you been up?"
Barbara made her way back to the countertop and picked up her own cup of coffee, her fifth already. "Since nine, I was going to wake you up because it's getting late." Esau looked at the clock and saw that it displayed a time of, 11:30.
"Damn." He cursed; he hadn't realised he had been so tired.
"It's to be expected, Esau." Barbara sat down beside him as Esau put the news on as it described how Batman, Robin and Batgirl had taken down a large drug cartel in Gotham last night with large amounts of gunfire being heard a few miles from this apartment complex. "Realistically the doctors said you should have spent another week in the hospital just to be safe. You, however, stubbornly refused and thus had to do a lot of walking, which won't help with your recovery."
Barbara quickly switched the channels not wanting Esau to focus on that anymore. She hadn't been at her best last night and had been unnecessarily violent in her takedowns of criminals which would no doubt be reported on. The fact that it was so close to where Esau lived left no words that needed to be said about her approach to them. What's one more broken rib to a broken body? The longer they stay down, the longer they'll live, be it by her hands or not.
It was something that both Batman and Robin had picked up on, the former deciding to force her to retire for the evening in order to cool off. Something Barbara had done so reluctantly and only because of how late in the morning it was becoming.
Esau clicked his teeth in annoyance. "Yeah, you're right." He said and saw the smug smile coming across Barbara's face. "You're lucky you're holding a cup of coffee in your hands right now because I'd attack you."
"Are you sure it's not just because you're a cripple?" She asked teasingly, making sure to take a loud sip of her coffee to add extra effect to her statement.
Esau narrowed his eyes at her, but this only served to make Barbara's smile widen behind her cup. "Don't push it." Laughing, Barbara got to her feet and moved to collect her phone that was on charge as Esau watched her do so, his mind playing over the events that had happened.
That night was a reminder to Esau that no matter how strong he thought he had become; it was all because Black Mask allowed him to. Be it the legs he uses to walk the city or the lungs that breathe in the putrid air that hangs thick. His overseer founds his limbs and organs lacking compared to the amusement found in letting Esau squirm like the insignificant vermin he saw him as such.
A stark reminder that it was not bureaucracy, but Black Mask that had stopped Jim from taking custody of Esau, the man had all but admitted it a year ago just to taunt Esau. Then, when Esau had started to grow old enough, he took Esau to the Underground Fighting Arena and watched him fight. He could still remember Black Mask praising him for surviving all the while he struggled to breathe after the beating, he had gotten.
Black Mask had been a constant at the beginning, always turning up to watch him fight and get beaten. It was his favourite thing to watch, like a comedy bit made just for him. And while terrified of Black Mask, the young Esau had strived to prove him wrong, to deny the crime lord who abused him the one thing he took pleasure out of.
Eventually, after many months of getting beaten into the ground. After every broken bone, cracked skull, and torn ligament. From the blood that would no longer fall to tears that would no longer flow, whimpers that cease to sound from responses that never came. Hope and wishes died off from innocence that could never be brought back. Forging a new being from the remains of a dead child.
Esau started to do just that.
He won his first fight, then his second and his third till eventually, he was the reigning champion, unbeaten in other forty fights. Around the tenth Black Mask lost interest and left. Of course, not without leaving Esau a parting gift for all the good times he brought. One that would make sure he forever remained his slave no matter how many times he fought and won.
Thus, Esau was never free. Black Mask would always be there, playing him like a marionette, a shadow over his shoulder just waiting for the moment to remind Esau as to who was in charge, and not just in the monetary means. Yet, none had ever been that bad before. Most of the time it was just a simple sharing of words and thinly veiled threats to everyone Esau cared for. On other occasions, it had been a quick beating, something Esau could pass off as a simple rough match when opponents managed to 'sneak' weapons past the referees.
Yet, last night could not be classified as that.
The doctors had claimed that it was a miracle he survived, obviously, Black Mask's goons had gone a 'little' overboard.
'I refuse to let that continue anymore.' Esau thought, his hand clenching into fists as he watched Barbara scroll through her phone, humming a small tune. 'I refuse to let Black Mask control my life anymore.' His life would be his own and Barbara would no longer be a tool for Black Mask to keep him in line. 'I'll protect you, I'll protect Jim. Even if that means leaving you and becoming something else, someone else!'
Batman.
Robin.
Batgirl.
They weren't heroes.
Heroes were meant to protect people no matter what. They were meant to ensure that guys like Black Mask couldn't force people to do their bidding. Heroes were meant to make sure that people like Black Mask were dealt with.
They hadn't.
They were put in jail for a couple of months and they were back out, free to do what they wanted again. How could one claim to be a hero when they only put people in jail, all that did was give them a chance to recover and grow stronger. It didn't stop anything or anyone, all it did was enable crime to grow stronger. The current day proved the folly and failure of the heroes, crime was still going and was smarter and stronger than ever before.
Well not anymore.
Black Mask.
Maroni.
Falcone.
All of them.
Every criminal in Gotham City would no longer be given a beating and a slap on the wrist like Batman and the rest of the so-called 'heroes' gave them. It was a kill-or-be-killed world and to kill someone, one must first be prepared to be killed in return. Esau had already faced death; it was time the criminals of Gotham City did the same. He would be the one to remind them of that simple rule that had clearly been forgotten by both heroes and villains alike. He will become their judge, jury and executioner.
If they wouldn't play by the rules if they could bend them to fit their needs, he wouldn't either.
He didn't care anymore.