"My names Esau, what's your name?"
"Jason."
"Jason? That's a cool name, better than mine." Esau joked and despite everything, Jason smiled.
That's when they heard the sound of movement downstairs and Jason once again scurried further back beneath his bed.
Seeing this, Esau reached out with one hand having removed the glove in order to make it safer. "Jason, I need you to be brave and trust me. Can you do that?" He asked and after a few moments of hesitation, Jason nodded his head and took Esau's hand. "Okay, I'm going to get you out of here, follow me." He led Jason to the window and helped Jason climb out.
Turning back to the door, Esau strained his hearing for any sound or sign of movement.
There was none.
"Okay, are you any good at climbing." Jason nodded his head and Esau smiled at seeing the kid's enthusiasm. "That's good. Right, when you hear gunshots, I want you to climb down and run as fast as you can. Are there any neighbours that you know and trust?" Jason took a few moments to consider before eventually nodding his head. "Do you know where they live?" Another nod. "Do they live down that way?" He pointed in the direction of where a number of houses had been broken into and Jason shook his head.
Nodding his head, Esau released a sigh of relief. "That's good. I want you to run there as fast as you can and don't stop at all. Can you do that?" Again, Jason nodded his head and Esau smiled ruffling the kid's hair as he did so. "You're braver than me then." He said and Jason smiled lightly. "Okay, remember, run when you hear gunfire, run as fast as you can and do not stop. For anything." Esau stressed that last part before heading to the door.
"Thank you." A small voice whispered and Esau looked back to Jason to see that while terrified, he was giving a grateful smile to Esau.
Returning the smile, Esau gave a wave. "Don't mention it." Pulling open the door, Esau made his way through the corridor, taking note of a number of photos showing the sight of three to be quite happy. There were even a few photos of the two parents performing acrobatics in a circus, they were younger than in the other photos, clearly from before they had a child.
As he turned a corner and started making his way downstairs, Esau stopped against the wall and pulled out his pistols, preparing himself for facing Killer Croc. Yet, despite that mental preparation, it didn't get rid of the nerves that were making him jittery, more sweat beginning to form as his heart started pounding heavier than before.
The fight coming would be different than the one against the Talon.
It wouldn't be a matter of skill, but a matter of brute force strength.
He would need to be fast and light on his feet if he wanted to come out of here alive.
So, as he moved down the steps, slowly and quietly, he strained his hearing in order to pick up the sound of movement. He could hear some footsteps and what seemed to be the sound of slithering, yet it seemed to be a bit further away, putting him at ease a little. When he reached the bottom of the staircase, Esau pressed his back against the wall and looked around to see if he could find Killer Croc and noticed him feasting upon the bodies of Jason's parents.
Clenching his fists in anger, Esau moved quietly across the room to hide behind another wall, making sure to stick to the shadows as he did so.
Taking a deep breath, Esau raised both guns in preparation to fire and quickly spun round and fired at the crouched figure of Killer Croc. The bullet bounced harmlessly off the creature's armoured skin and clattered to the ground and upon seeing this, Esau quickly stopped firing. Knowing his guns would be useless, he pocketed his guns and instead pulled out his two knives, body tensing as Killer Croc turned menacingly around and snarled at Esau.
"You! You're not Batman?" It questioned, almost sounding insulted, but Esau ignored it.
Instead, his attention was focused on trying to see if Jason had remembered his instructions or if he had frozen up, while at the same time keeping his eyes on Killer Croc.
"Yeah, what's it to you?" Esau questioned.
Waylon Jones studied Esau closed before huffing, flexing his claws dangerously as his salivating mouth opened to reveal rows of sharp fangs. "No matter, I'll eat you anyway!" It roared only to stop when a shadow dropped down outside and began running.
Both Esau and Killer Croc looked to see that it was Jason running down the street.
Smirking beneath his mask, Esau turned to face Killer Croc and rushed forwards intent on using this opportunity to gain an advantage. Only for it to fail miserably when his knives scrapped against the scaly body of Killer Croc harmlessly, Esau quickly jumping back and barely avoided the claws that came within inches of cutting his face open.
'Stupid! Bullets bounced off this guy! What good was a knife going to do?' Despite cursing himself for his stupidity, Esau never once stopped moving.
Waylon Jones didn't allow him that privilege.
It was a dangerous game of cat and mouse as Esau moved around the room using his smaller size and greater agility to avoid every swipe and slash from Killer Croc with a mere hair's breadth between them. It was certainly more than Esau had expected when forced on the defensive having hoped to finish the fight as quickly as possible to avoid getting drawn into a long fight with a villain with super strength.
But in this situation, he had to do what he could and he was certainly doing better than he expected.
That all changed when his injuries started flaring, painkillers wearing off.
Broken ribs and torn muscles that had not been given the necessary time to recover made quick movements difficult. It was not impossible, the painkillers still in effect, but nowhere near as effective as they had been in the beginning, but the pain that did course through his body slowed him down enough for Killer Croc to land a blow.
The punch came fast, just like every movement of Killer Crocs, faster than a person that big had any right to be.
As a result, Esau tried to evade only to realise that he wouldn't be capable of doing so in time and tried to instead, raise his arms up in order to block. He had already jumped backwards and so the blow shouldn't have dealt that much damage and his arms were far enough away that when he brought them closer to his body in order to absorb the force of the blow it should once again, reduce the damage he felt.
In most cases, this would be true.
In fact, Esau would have been able to take this blow and be perfectly capable of continuing the fight if it was against a normal person.
However, this wasn't a normal person.
This was a superpower individual with the body of a humanoid crocodile and so, the blow struck with enough force to pick Esau clean off his feet and launch him through one wall and out of the other into the back garden of the small house. His back slammed against the ground, hard and he bounced off, rolling across the garden where he eventually came to a stop.
He didn't move, just laying there, his vision blurry and his head pounding. "Fuck!" He groaned out and went to push himself to his feet only for his right arm to be incapable of supporting his weight and looked to see that the broken bone was sticking out of the skin.
That was when the pain kicked in and Esau once again collapsed to the ground as his vision momentarily went blank.
But once it returned, out of the corner of his eye, he could see the hole in which he had been thrown through and from it he could make out the figure of Killer Croc menacingly making his way towards him. 'Shit! I can't win this! Fuck!' Growling reached Esau's ears and he looked to see Waylon Jones making his way across the garden, each large footstep causing the muddy ground to sink underneath the creature's large weight.
Unable to move properly, Esau could do nothing as Killer Croc wrapped one of its big hands around Esau's neck and picked him up off the ground. "I'm going to eat you now." Killer Croc told Esau simply only for him to tense up when something collided against his head.
Esau blinked when Killer Croc did the same.
Together the two looked, Killer Croc turning his head while Esau looked out of the corner of his eye, both seeing Jason standing there with a stone in his right hand while still clad in his pyjamas shivering. Whether it was from the fear or the cold neither knew, but it didn't stop the young child from standing there bravely.
"Let him go!"
"Jas-argh!" Esau choked out as Killer Croc squeezed on his neck and Esau saw his vision start to darken, the air supply to his lungs getting cut off. 'Dammit, I told you to run. Fuck! I'm going to pass out.' Yet despite his predicament, Esau was more concerned about Jason who had bravely, albeit stupidly come back to save him.
That's when another stone hit Waylon in his face and it actually hit him in the eye causing the humanoid creature to jerk sharply. This in turn resulted in his grip loosening on Esau's neck, allowing air to rush back into his lungs, Esau doing the only thing he could do.
He went for the only weakness he knew Killer Croc had.
The eyes.
The claws on his gloves flashed dangerously in the moonlight as they cut through the air, burying deeply into one of Killer Crocs eye sockets.
Reflexively, Killer Croc threw Esau away where he once again went straight through the wall of the house forming a new hole. All the while Killer Croc roared out in pain clutching at his injured eye, collapsing to one knee as blood poured out from between his fingers. Esau meanwhile ignored the pain in his body, adrenaline once again beginning to pump through his blood and helping to elevate some of the pain. But above all else, his desire to ensure that Jason got out of there alive drove Esau to get to his feet as quickly as possible.
"Esau!" Jason cried out rushing into the house and without a thought, Esau picked up Jason with his none broken arm and ran. He could hear Killer Croc still roaring in pain and knew it wouldn't be long before he came after them and so, Esau ran as fast as his injured body would allow.
-X-
Friday 24th April 2009, 23:30.
New Jersey,
Gotham City,
East End.
Pushing open the door to his apartment, Esau directed Jason in and after locking it behind him, looked around for his first aid kit. Pulling open a few cupboards, he eventually found it and placed it on the kitchen countertop and looked down at the bone, wincing at the sight. He couldn't feel it anymore, the arm having gone numb which was certainly a positive, but also not a good sign either.
Feeling eyes on him, Esau looked down to see Jason shaking as he looked at the bone with a mixture of disgust and awe in a way only a young child could.
Knowing that what was going to come wasn't a sight for Jason, Esau instead decided to get Jason settled down.
"Jason," Esau spoke up, gaining the kid's attention. "It's late, let's get you to bed, okay?" Jason hesitated but eventually relented with a nod of his head, silently allowing Esau to direct him towards his bedroom. He had to clean a little rubbish from his bed, Esau almost felt embarrassed and as if he was being judged for the mess of his room by a kid, but he brushed it off and instead let Jason clamber onto the bed.
"Are you mad?" Jason asked quietly and Esau went still before turning to look at Jason.
"Look, I'm not going to say what you did was smart. You risked your life and did exactly what I told you not to." Esau said and Jason remained silent even if he looked like he wanted to argue. "But I will admit you helped me," Esau admitted with a smile that Jason returned. "So, yeah, thank you. I guess you were my hero tonight."
Jason smiled once more and Esau stood up and out of the corner of his eyes, Esau caught the sight of the briefcase given to him by Deathstroke. His eyes then looked down at his arm, feeling the pain throughout his body, the numerous injuries he had accumulated still causing him immense pain.
'I got my ass kicked and I'll be out for a good couple of months, if not longer.' Esau thought as he began making his way towards the briefcase. 'Fuck it, I can't keep on being stubborn especially seeing as though I nearly got Jason killed. I was too weak and had to run and even then, I'm lucky that I managed to get both myself and Jason out of there in time.'
Moving forwards, Esau picked up the briefcase and left the room sparing one glance at Jason who seemed to be unusually still. Knowing that the kid was pretending to be asleep, Esau shook his head and closed the door behind him.