Saturday 25th April 2009, 18:00.
New Jersey,
Gotham City,
East End.
Bracing his hands against the wall, Esau let the warm water run over his body, releasing a sigh as he felt his tense muscles loosen off. His eyes slowly closed as he remembered back to his fight against Killer Croc a little over an hour ago, but he wasn't as physically exhausted as he thought he might be.
It hadn't lasted as long as he had expected and while he certainly wasn't as physically strong or as fast as the supervillain, it was his enhanced mind that gave him the edge needed to finish the fight decisively. The serum hadn't made him smarter in the conventional sense, it had instead enhanced his ability to process and store information. Even when moving at great speeds, Esau hadn't suffered from tunnel vision and had been able to process everything around him with ease.
Killer Croc who moved at greater speeds than himself seemed to move in slow motion to his eyes.
In a way, this was also a downside as Killer Croc has come close to killing him on many occasions.
This was all down to the fact that while Killer Croc appeared to be moving slowly to his mind, his body had not been able to fully keep up. As a result, he misjudged when to move on a few occasions and suffered a few cuts here and there before he managed to adapt.
Yet those cuts were already healed.
Stepping out of the shower, Esau dried his body off and wrapped the towel around his waist, moving out into his bedroom, he stopped and looked at his image in the mirror.
Over the course of the months in which he had become Black Hood, there was no denying the physical changes he had undergone, his muscle mass seemed to have shrunk over the past few weeks. Whereas in the beginning, Esau had focused heavily on increasing his strength, one thing he had learned from fighting Barbara and Robin was that while stronger, he was nowhere near as fast. So, in the past few weeks, he had been working on increasing his speed, giving him a much slimmer and leaner build than the bulky one he had previously.
Not only that, but the number of scars littering his body had doubled in number, mostly from Talon and his undead servants.
But he also had a few newer bullet and knife wounds.
Tracing his finger along one particularly large scar, Esau released another sigh. 'So, it seems while I have a regenerative ability, it does not heal old scars.'He wasn't overly bothered by this, his scars showed that he had come from small beginnings and had risen above them, but he wouldn't lie and say that he wished they weren't there as well.
His eyes then trailed to his hands that he raised up.
They hadn't changed, but he could feel the difference, the same feeling that he could feel throughout his entire body. His body temperature had shot through the roof going from thirty-seven degrees Celsius to seventy-four degrees Celsius.
It would be worrying if Esau didn't feel any different, the only reason he knew about the difference was that one of his kinder and friendlier neighbours pointed it out. The man had thought he was sick and so had Esau at first until he realised he didn't feel sick and had shown no symptoms, making him believe it was linked to the serum.
Either way, Esau felt powerful.
Sure, he was still learning to control his new body's changes, yet he couldn't see that as a major downside.
In his fight with Killer Croc, he had found himself adapting and learning how his body had changed much better than when he had actually been training.
'Adversity breed excellence.' Esau recounted having read that as part of his homework when he had still been at school.
The saying never rang truer than when it did for him when he was fighting against Killer Croc or his entire career as Black Hood. Esau would not lie that he had become frustrated and disheartened at how much he had been beaten. Against the likes of Deadshot, Batman or Talon who were masters of fighting, what hope did he have against them with the little experience he had?
Very little and it had shown.
But against the likes of Killer Croc?
His victory was proof enough.
It showed just how far Esau had come and he couldn't help but realise how stupid he had been.
Of course, he wasn't going to be able to bridge the gap between himself and Batman in the space of two months.
That was ridiculous and yet, he had expected to be able to do just that.
It would take more than a few sessions in local martial arts clubs to be on the same level as Batman, but that was fine, he hadn't realised how quickly he had been improving. It was just the level of his opponents that made it difficult to show just how much because Killer Croc was dangerous and Esau had already seen the clip of his fight against said supervillain blowing up on YouTube.
Turns out one of the civilians that had been hiding, had also been recording the fight.
It was choppy and all over the place, but the video showed how easily Esau had been able to keep Killer Croc at bay. Sure, he had made a few slip-ups, but they were nothing important and didn't even switch the flow of the battle in Killer Croc's favour. From the start to the end, Esau had been in control of the battle and had dictated the flow.
Esau doubted he could have done it so easily if it wasn't for the serum.
'I still need to get stronger. Killer Croc is someone without much in the way of skill and I know from first-hand experience, that what I need to improve on is my skill. If I want any chance at beating the likes of Talon again, I need to get better.' While Talon was incarcerated, Esau had no doubts he would get out eventually.
If the likes of Killer Croc could get out of prison, then someone as skilled and as cunning as Talon would have no problems.
Esau would prepare for that moment and when Talon got out, Esau would be ready.
He would not lose again.
-X-
Sunday 26th April 2009, 12:30.
New Jersey,
Gotham City,
Wayne Manor.
"He's on the move again." Bruce looked up from where he was stretching on the floor to see Dick sitting in front of the Batcomputer with numerous camera feeds being displayed on it. "That makes it the fifth time today."
Standing up, Bruce made his way towards his protégé. "Where?"
"East End still. He hasn't left it since, well since the Court of Owls." Dick informed Bruce who nodded his head in understanding as he turned back to stretch his body. While he had slowly recovered, he had started to do some light training, nothing overly major as to worsen his injuries, but enough to keep him in shape and prepared for when he was fully recovered.
Dick on the other hand was still recovering and so spent most of his day using the Batcomputer to study the patterns of criminals. Things in the wider Gotham area had been quiet since the Court of Owls, which was good, but the same could not be said for the East End. The Hammer's takeover of the Casa Nostra was especially worrying and something Batman knew he would have to focus on when everything else calmed down.
Yet, Killer Croc had proved the most immediate threat, he feared what the cannibalistic killer could accomplish and what other opportunistic criminals would do in his absence. Even with Barbara still capable, she was as he had explained, emotionally compromised and wouldn't be able to fully think her actions through.
Skilled she might be, but she was still learning.
As a result, Bruce decided to wait.
He hated to hear the reports on how the people Killer Croc had killed in his moment of absence, but Bruce didn't have a choice. He could have called in for help and while he certainly was willing to ask for help, he needed to be careful.
There were some threats and situations where in reality he should have called in for help.
But right now, despite how bad things had gotten, he couldn't.
If he called for help, he would be giving credence to all those little whispers circulating amongst the criminals of Gotham. It would embolden them, though if things had continued, Bruce would have bitten the bullet and done exactly that. He had already broken the criminals of Gotham once and driven them into the shadows, he could do it again and he would.
However, there was no need to do so.
As of yesterday, Black Hood had done what many people had thought he wouldn't be capable of, killed Killer Croc.
Bruce had seen the fight that had been posted on the internet and he would admit that he was impressed.
Primarily though, he was worried, extremely so.
The increased strength, speed and sheer calmness upon which Esau operated in that fight were beyond anything Esau had shown before. He had dictated the flow of the battle with ease he shouldn't have and had never displayed before. Somehow, he had improved drastically in the space of a few days and it worried Bruce because improvements of that level were not natural.
"He's doing good, really good," Dick spoke up after a few minutes. "Since Killer Croc's death, crime that had been steadily rising by five percent has dropped drastically and is still dropping, especially in the East End. Not so much in the other parts of Gotham because Esau's not there, obviously." Dick looked closely at the statistics shown by the Batcomputer that had already calculated and compiled the data in seconds. "But he's doing good."
Bruce remained silent as he spared a glance at the screen.
'Perhaps, but maybe that is the problem.' Bruce thought as he narrowed his eyes. 'He's too accurate and precise in his actions which doesn't make sense, the information needed to be that accurate is beyond Esau's ability. Not even his supporters should be able to receive accurate data like that. So where is he getting it from?'
With that thought in his mind, Bruce felt his frustrations grow.
Esau was still young and despite having been manipulated by Alton Carver once, Bruce had a feeling Esau might be unknowingly being manipulated again.
A worrying thought, especially seeing as though it seems Esau in the space of a few days was improving at a far faster pace than before.
With every fight Esau was in he improved, adapted and grew stronger.
If he was being manipulated and it was successful this time, Esau could prove to be a dangerous threat.