Tuesday 1st December 2009, 14:30.
Florida,
Location Unknown.
It was a peaceful day, the wind calm, snow falling down from the sky, wafting gently in the breeze that moved across the landscape, the snow blanketing the horizon in a sea of white.
Everything was tranquil and peaceful.
However, that was not the case for everyone.
Collapsing to the ground with a groan, a topless Esau looked to see his opponent, Slade Wilson walking towards him with two escrima sticks held loosely in both hands. His form was covered in a thin sheen of sweat and a few bruises were beginning to form from where Esau had managed to land a number of blows.
Even then, Esau could clearly see them starting to heal.
"Get up, we're not done yet," Slade said as he twirled the escrima sticks in his hands slowly and elegantly. "You've only managed to land a handful of blows on me today. You're distracted and that's not good enough."
Breathing out, Esau reached for his own escrima sticks that had fallen out of his hands "I'm sorry I don't meet your ridiculous standards." Esau muttered as he pushed his battered and bruised body to his feet, licking his dry lips and tasting the coppery hint of blood as it flowed from a recently healed cut on his lip.
"Ridiculous?" Slade questioned as he shifted his footing into a ready stance, Esau doing the same. "It's hardly ridiculous when you did far better against me two months ago than you are now. You're distracted, plain and simple. In a fight that will get you killed and you'll never get to see Barbara Gordon again."
The mention of Barbara caused Esau to grit his teeth in annoyance.
It was safe to say that after accepting Deathstroke's offer of training, Esau hasn't seen her at all, not in person anyway. He had wanted to, he had already explained that he was going travelling to Jim and he had no doubt told Barbara in turn, but Esau never actually spoke to her about it. There were a lot of things he wanted to say, wanted to explain, yet he never did because he didn't know what to say.
He knew from her reaction to him being Black Hood that his joining Deathstroke was also not something she could accept either. They were friends, but Esau doubted they were that anymore, not after everything that had happened between them and Slade took full advantage of that fact. He taunted him with images of her, a reminder that she was not only under Slade's constant watchful gaze but also a target he could eliminate at any point if he so chose.
Yet Slade never did.
He had a different use for her.
Esau knew better than most, how much Barbara hated the guys her friends hung out with, they were the rich and snobby type, the ones to rely on their parent's money and name to get anything they wanted. Barbara was the only thing their name and money couldn't get, which led to them wanting her even more.
The pictures Slade took showed her there with them.
They were edited, Esau knew, taking in ways that were damning as to prove Barbara doing something she was not and Esau knew it because she hated those guys. Yet he could not deny the feelings that came to him when he saw those pictures, they were unbelievable in what they showed, but after so long since he had seen her and talked with her, they were like little seeds in his mind beginning to sprout.
The pictures were meant to foster anger within him, to push him further and they had worked perfectly and the number kept piling up. Esau had thrown himself into his training with gusto, trying to take his mind off those images with a single-minded determination that he hadn't experienced before, his already impressive improvement, skyrocketing.
However, his mind always returned to those images that Slade had left innocently on the bedside table in his room. Esau hadn't moved them, it was almost as if part of him refused to move them in order to make him focus on only training. To not focus on her and his feelings, but only on getting stronger.
When he had started out as Black Hood, Esau was intent on saving Barbara by any means, even if that meant letting her go.
Now that he knew Barbara was Batgirl, it had left Esau hurt and angry.
But it also left him with a feeling of hope.
They were both fighting crime in their own way, couldn't they find love and help one another?
Yet he knew better.
Barbara believed in the act of sparing criminals, letting the law deal with them, and giving criminals a second chance to reform themselves. Esau did not because he had lived amongst them, and knew that there was no reformation in a society that gave them no opportunity to do so. To her, killing was not a choice, to him, killing was the only option to deal with the criminals of Gotham City and the world at large.
They were on different sides, both sharing the same goal but separated by their methods and that would make them enemies. It was something Slade had told him, reminded him of many times, but Esau was starting to realise that after all this time. The longer he was away, the more he began to realise that he and Barbara were too different and that there were only two options available to him now.
He abandoned his path and convinced Barbara to do the same and leave this life behind.
Or, he continued down the path he was on and affirmed himself that he and Barbara would be enemies.
He had thought he made up his mind, determined to shoulder the burden of being her enemy, but clearly, he still held some reservations. The photos that Slade left, unmoved from his bedside table, had been on his mind more and more, and Esau has taken to looking at them more and more. Despite his intent to forget the feelings he had for her, he couldn't stop missing her, she had been an integral part of his life since he was born, and it was hard to forget someone like that.
The thing that made it worse, was that as he looked closer at those photos, he could see one thing that still gave him that feeling of hope.
In not a single photo was Barbara smiling, there was no light in her eyes to show that she was happy or enjoying herself.
'Maybe she's trying to get over me much like I tried to forget her.' Esau thought as he circled Slade slowly, the two opponents studying one another for any sign of an opening.
But that feeling of hope that bubbled, he squashed it down, narrowing his gaze and bursting forwards to attack Slade, escrima sticks singing as they moved through the air. Slade avoided the right, parrying the left and coming around with his own left, yet Esau stepped in the same direction, leaning forwards deeply to avoid the strike by a hairsbreadth.
Shifting his footing, he swung up, Slade stepping back slightly to avoid the strike, before stepping in with a front kick.
Esau spun around the strike, going with the momentum to come around with a strike to the head, which Slade parried upwards, yet the second escrima stick continued around. Slade stepped in close, blocking Esau's left forearm with his right knee coming up only to be blocked by Esau's own, who then quickly switched, his left knee coming up to nearly clip Slade on the chin.
The minute head movement avoided that strike, Slade spinning round and landing a kick to Esau midair who flipped, landing in a crouch.
Slade stood there with his hands lowered at his side and a frown on his face. "Good. That was more like it." He said, but his frown remained as the snow fell down around them. "But your earlier distraction has soured my mood. That is enough for today, take the rest of the day off and come back tomorrow, ready to train properly." With a sigh, Esau rose to his feet and made his way inside, intent on having a nice warm shower.
The house itself was big, extremely so to the point it bordered on being a full-scale mansion. It didn't have much in the way of bedrooms only having six very large rooms each of which was comparable to Esau's entire apartment in size. The rest of the house was made up entirely of storage rooms containing various amounts of guns and other forms of weaponry as well as quite a few training rooms, including its very own gun range, dojo and gym.
It was safe to say that Esau had some of the best facilities available which he used to help himself grow stronger and with Slade teaching him, Esau had progressed exponentially fast. So much so that Esau couldn't help but wonder just how much he had improved, Slade was still too much for him at this point.
A mountain he was nowhere near reaching the pinnacle of yet.
Slade was by far the better fighter, but not in the way one would think.
Esau had quickly come to learn that the serum had affected him differently than how it had affected Slade, a difference that played a key role. He had no special or unique ability like Slade's limited precognition which allowed him to see an opponent's move before he made it and react accordingly, a fact that was easier said than done in the heat of battle, but something Slade was very adept at doing. Esau had nothing like that, instead, every one of his physical abilities, strength, speed, stamina and so on had been enhanced to an even higher degree than Slade's own.
While Slade possessed the ability to see what was coming, Esau had the ability to overwhelm him with strength and speed. Yet that alone, was not enough, skill played an integral part in any fight, except, Esau was every bit as skilled as him, the man had said as such. His techniques were crisp and sharp, honed to absolute perfection and with incredible power behind them.
However, what determined a fight between them was not their serum or their skill, it was experience.
As Slade had explained, the thing that separated the pro fighters from the likes of heroes was not skill but the difference in their experience. Esau had all the skills that should put him on Slade's level, but he did not have the experience to be his equal, he could give him a fight and hold his own better than most, but winning was another matter entirely.
Even so, sparring wasn't a good measure of growth because it wasn't an area in which either of them went all out.
In a fight like his against Killer Croc, it showed just how far he had progressed and that while he still wasn't on the level of the likes of Batman or the Talon, he was still a good fighter.
Right now, he was suffering from the same problem.
But he knew that without a shadow of a doubt, he was far stronger than he had ever been before.
-X-
Tuesday 1st December 2009, 17:00.
New Jersey,
Gotham City,
Gotham Heights.
Pushing open the door to her room with a huff, Barbara moved towards her bed and collapsed face first on it, letting out a long, drawn out sight. She didn't even bothering getting changed out of her clothes and just remained where she was, no doubt putting some lipstick on her white pillow, but she was past the point of caring.
She has been convinced as her friends called it, but in reality, she had been strong-armed into going out with a group of her friends. All of them heading out shopping and along the way they so happened to 'run' into a group of boys from Gotham Academy, which so happened to include Ben. So, what should have been a fun day out with friends had quickly become an annoying day in which she had to avoid Ben and his pestering for a date.
Ever since Esau had left school and disappeared from Gotham entirely, every other guy who had been terrified of the blond had seen this as an excuse to start asking her out. She would have turned down everyone if it wasn't for her friends being nosy, accepting the dates on her behalf, not that she went, but it only seemed to make things worse.
Her feelings for Esau were still there however, he had decided to go travelling or so he said and Barbara didn't really know what to do. The whole hero business had caused its fair share of problems and damaged their friendship a great deal. She knew that if they had been in a relationship or attempted to pursue one, their relationship would probably crumble to pieces.
'God, why couldn't he just see that I'm not interested.' Barbara bemoaned mentally as she tried to dig her head further into her pillow.
Ben was an alright guy compared to a lot of the other guys, but it didn't change the fact that just because he was blonde and a nice guy, didn't mean he was her type.
She loved her friends, she really did but they could be just so...irritating.
Feeling her watch vibrate, Barbara lifted it up and answered the call coming through. "Yeah?"
"Batman wants you at the Cave," Robin said and with a groan, Barbara sat up.
"Alright, I'll be there in a bit."
-X-
Tuesday 1st December 2009, 17:30.
Florida,
Location Unknown.
Sifting through the papers on his desk, Slade picked out two pieces in particular that detailed potential missions, these two being the most profitable for him. While it would be easier to have these documented on a computer, the problem with that is there was a trace and in a world with the likes of Batman, such a trace was a weakness.
Paper and physical files could be destroyed.
That was why Slade only ever accepted missions delivered to him in these ways, rarely ever accepting missions from online sources. He was not concerned with a connection between him and a recent incident being discovered, but he was a professional and that meant ensuring the security of his clients, even if he didn't like them.
However, this mission was especially important as it would prove to be the final test for Esau. The deadline was approaching and his longest-running client wanted to see results, Slade needed something to show them he had fulfilled his end of the bargain. But above all else, he wanted to see if Esau had truly taken to the training as he seemed to have in the early days of his training before distraction and teenage hormones began to take hold.
Placing the papers down on his desk, Slade then pulled open the top drawer and reached inside. He turned quickly, throwing a knife cutting through the air and piercing through the head of a strange black figure that was partially rising from the ground.
Yet, before his eyes, the figure, only half out of the floor seems to split in two, both rising up out of the ground and standing before him. He was small, no taller than 5"5 and was very skinny, but his size was not what Slade noticed first. No, the thing that stood out to him the most was the pure black skin, his eyes, just circles of glowing white light. There was no mouth, no nose and no ear and Slade was hesitant to call the eyes, eyes.
"Who are you?" Slade questioned, having simultaneously pulled the gun attached to the underside of his desk when throwing the knife, aiming at the figure's head.
"I am Ignotus." The strange figure explained, its voice coming from both bodies, creating a strange echo-like effect. "A member of the Apostles?"
"Which number are you?"
Ignotus moved around, both bodies going in separate directions as it looked around the room, Slade's gun trailed on one as he kept a close eye on the other. "I have no number," Ignotus explained. "I am simply an agent of the Apostles. You can lower the gun, there is no ammo in it anyway, just blanks."
"Your doing I presume?"
There was no response, but the answer was clear.
Slade lowered his gun. "What can I do for you? The deadline has not yet been reached and I am in the process of conducting a final test for Esau."
"The First Apostle wishes for you to send him back to Gotham."
"To fight against Batgirl?"
"We wish to know if he can put aside his feelings in pursuit of a goal, no matter who stands in his way."
Slade doubted that was possible, especially not if Barbara Gordon stood in his way. "And if he cannot?" Esau put up walls around him, but he cared too much for those who managed to get past them. If he was able to put those feelings aside to succeed in a mission, Slade would be beyond impressed, but it was impossible.
If Esau was an important aspect of his plans, he would use him in ways that avoided such conflict, reducing the risk of failure as much as possible.
"There are other ways to ensure loyalty," Ignotus replied shortly. "The timeline does not change."
"Very well," Slade said, sitting down in his chair. "I have a mission that can fulfil those requirements."
"A part of me shall remain here, watching," Ignotus muttered, both of its bodies seemingly melting into the ground. "Do not fail us, Deathstroke. You may have the skills to the match best of us. But you do not have the power."
As Ignotus disappeared, Slade did not relax, the sense of being watched prevalent and clear, proof of the agents' words. Yet he did not worry, he had experienced such shows of force before, and the Apostles would not be the last. The world was always expanding, the powers behind it changing and growing with every passing day, the Apostle's greatest strength lay in its anonymity.
Without it, they would soon find themselves centre stage and targets of the governments, heroes and villains of the world. For now though, Slade would wait, information like this only grew in value as time passed by, the damage it could do growing with every day he waited.
He would hold his cards close to his chest, as he always did.
As of right now, it was more profitable to work with them than against them and so long as that remained the case, he would not do anything damaging. But that would not always remain the case and when that time came, the Apostles would find out how much damage just a few words to the right people could be.
They would also learn why he was known as Deathstroke the Terminator.