Thursday 3rd December 2009, 07:30.
New Jersey,
Gotham City,
Gotham Heights.
Panting heavily, the young turned into a sharp corner, slipping slightly on the ice, but quickly managed to scramble back to his feet and continue running. He didn't know if anyone was following him, yet he wouldn't put it past those at the orphanage to have figured out that he had already run away. It wouldn't be the first time he had tried to escape, but whereas before he had been too eager and got caught as a result, he had decided to be a bit calmer this time.
Coming to a stop, Jason Todd braced his hands against his knees as he sucked in air to his lungs, the short distance he had run being exhausting upon his body. However, he hadn't felt comfortable stopping any closer to the orphanage lest they had been following him and caught up in the time he was resting.
After having been saved by Black Hood, Jason had been taken to the Police Station and then later taken to an orphanage. He didn't know why Esau couldn't look after him, but he was still extremely grateful, that's why he had stayed there for so long, yet he just couldn't be there any longer.
Especially when he learned that Black Hood hadn't been seen for six months. 'Esau wouldn't just leave, he promised to save Gotham as he saved me.' In Jason's mind, there had to be a reason why Black Hood was missing and he was going to find out.
-X-
Thursday 3rd December 2009, 07:30.
Florida,
Location Unknown.
Even though it had been raining recently turning the once pure white snow into a greyish slush, Wintergreen had been hard at work clearing the courtyard. Large piles of slushy snow piled up at the corners and edges of the courtyard forming a wall-like structure that made it useable.
As Slade, Rose and Esau stepped out into the courtyard, each in varying states of dress that one shouldn't wear in such cold conditions. Yet despite that, none of them acted like it was any different and why should they? Slade had made sure to ensure that both of them were fighting in some of the worst conditions and they had come out on top, travelling around the world to get the environmental conditions he was looking for.
The serum, besides its regenerative and enhancing abilities, also gave one's body the ability to adapt to the surroundings around them. It was limited and therefore one couldn't step out into the vacuum of space and survive as Esau had wondered for a time before Slade dashed those budding hopes. The time taken for their bodies to adapt would mean they would die in space before they could adapt, but their bodies adapted in order to be able to fight in some of the coldest conditions wearing the bare minimum. On the other hand, fighting in warm conditions in far too much clothing, each one for a normal person would be debilitating to them, but for these three they only suffered some minor discomfort before their bodies adapted.
As such, the three moved calmly, their body temperature increasing in order to combat the cold air and keep their body from shutting down. Eventually coming to a stop with Rose on one side, standing beside one another with Slade turning to face them a slight distance in front.
"So why exactly are we here, I thought we had the day off?" Rose asked as she looked at her father with her arms crossed over her chest.
Slade nodded his head in agreement. "You did, but I realised after going over what happened yesterday, it was best to increase my schedule a little." The way he phrased it put both of them on edge and by the smile on Slade's face, that had been his intention.
"What schedule?" Esau questioned cautiously.
"I have, over my long career amassed quite a fortune and with my powers, I will remain in top shape, but I can still be killed. Maybe not from old age, but there are certain poisons, powerful and potent poisons that can affect me and let's not mention the number of superpowered individuals out there that could attempt to kill me in the future." Slade explained as he looked at both of them with a calm look on his face. "Yet I have no heir upon which to pass on my fortune to when that day eventually comes."
"You mean you're going to...die?" Rose asked, her voice quiet because, despite everything, she still loved her father even if she didn't act like it, nor did he seem to reciprocate those feelings.
Snorting, Slade shook his head. "Not right now, but I would be foolish to believe that someone may not kill me in the future." By the way his eyes stared at each of them, it was safe to say that he imagined that someday in the future, it could be one of them and Esau found that hard to deny.
If he was to be a mercenary in order to gain information and change the world, there would be people who would hire Slade to kill him. Or there would be times when he would be hired to kill Slade and it went the same for Rose. For a mercenary, death wasn't a possibility it was an inevitability. Very few managed to actually die of old age and Slade wouldn't be one of those people, his powers ensured that old age would never be a problem.
The only way he would get out of the business was if he was killed and he fully expected it to be one of them.
Yet at the same time, Esau felt something was a little off about the whole thing, especially with the suddenness that Slade brought this about. He had never struck Slade as the type of person to care about legacy and having an heir, perhaps it was just him having never understood Slade at all. Yet he couldn't shake the idea that something was off about this whole thing.
"When that happens, my fortune must pass onto someone. One of you will be that heir." Rose looked at him unsurely and Esau took notice of how tense she was. "However, while one of you is too desperate for attention, the other is too blinded by their feelings for others. Both of you are emotional and allow them to rule your actions."
He moved back till he stood at the very edge of the courtyard.
"Therefore, you will fight and the victor shall be made my heir. For the loser, death is your prize."
Esau grit his teeth, his fists clenched tightly at his sides. "What the fuck is this?! Some kind of sick joke?! You think we'll kill each other for some stupid fortune?!" Esau raged as he glared murderously at Slade who only looked back at him amusedly.
"Oh, I knew you would have problems with this task. That's your problem, Esau. You try to keep people at a distance, but deep down you're just a scared little child in desperate need of a friend." Slade said with a smirk on his face. "You struggle to make friends, but your actions draw people to you naturally and when you make friends, you hold them closely, unable to let them go. Always willing to protect them no matter the cost. Rose is much the same way, she keeps people at a distance but eventually caves in and lets people in. This is a test to see which of you can discard that bond. An essential thing needed for a mercenary."
"And if we refuse?" Esau demanded, his voice low and hostile.
"You can refuse." The way he said it told Esau that there would be severe consequences if he refused, but Esau didn't care.
There was no way he was going to kill Rose.
"But what happens if one of you doesn't?"
It took a moment for those words to sink in and when they did, Esau warily looked to Rose whose form was tense and her head downcast. "Rose?" There was no answer. "You can't be seriously thinking of going through with this...are you?" Yet again, there was no answer except the sound of bones cracking as she clenched her fists tightly. Esau realised that Rose was not in the right frame of mind and took a cautious step back, but this proved to be the wrong move to make.
As soon as he moved, Rose did as well and swung her fist up to hit him on the chin.
Luckily, Esau was far enough back that all it took to fully avoid was leaning his head back only slightly.
Even then he could feel the wind as her fist missed his chin by a hair's breadth before being forced to move his head from side to side in order to avoid her combination of lefts and rights. Each one he avoided with just the barest of movement and then Rose swung up with a roundhouse kick that Esau blocked with his forearm, bringing it in closer to his body in order to better absorb the force.
From this, he then pushed her leg away and instead of being off-balance, Rose went with the momentum, swinging a full three-sixty and striking the side of Esau's temple with a spinning hook kick. Temporarily, Esau saw stars as he stumbled backwards and while still reeling from the blow, had the sense to keep moving, each strike Rose tried to hit him mostly missed, but the final few struck.
Three punches to the face and a kick to the ribs.
By this point however, Esau had fully managed to recover from the spinning hook kick and when Rose went to land a fourth blow to his cheek, he instead parried it downwards. Rose unwillingly stumbled forwards just at the same time as Esau swung his leg up, his shin digging into her stomach and lifting her up off the ground, wind rushing from her lungs and spittle flying from her mouth.
Yet as Rose dropped to her knees coughing and gasping for air, Esau did not continue to attack and instead moved back.
"Rose, don't do this!" He pleaded as he watched Rose curl her hands into a fist as she pushed herself to her feet. "Please, I don't want to fight you." His words fell on deaf ears as Rose came charging at him once more, but Esau was more than ready.
Each strike was masterfully parried or dodged with quick footwork and even when Rose tried to use Esau's favoured tactic of going with the momentum to add more to his own strike, he instead easily avoided it. Rose was an extremely skilled fighter that had at first been more than a match for Esau and then later surpassed him. But as the first few weeks turned into a month, then two and then three, Esau just improved much quicker.
There were areas of combat that Esau doubted he would ever match Rose in terms of skill, swords for example. But when it came to hand-to-hand combat, Esau was her better and it was obvious to see.
No matter how fast or how hard Rose threw each punch and kick, even when she overextended leaving openings in her defence in order to add more power to her strikes, Esau still weathered the storm. Never once taking each blow head-on and instead knocking her strikes just ever so slightly to one side in order to miss him. It was a much better way of defending than blocking and he was extremely good at it.
Growling, Rose stopped her attack and moved back glaring at Esau as she breathed forcibly through her nose like an angry bull. "Fight me, you fucking coward!" She cried out in outrage as her arms trembled in barely contained rage. "Stop fucking hold back and fight me!"
Reeling back as if struck, Esau looked at her in shock. "R-Rose?" He stuttered her name and this only seemed to enrage Rose more.
"Don't you fucking dare!" She snarled. "Don't you fucking dare try and stop me, now stop being a fucking pussy and fight me you coward! Or am I not good enough for you? Is that it? Is it because I'm a girl that you're holding back?!"
"That's not it and you know that," Esau answered quietly as he took in the distress and near-rabid desperation behind her anger and it hurt him to see her like this. "I don't believe for a second this bullshit that he's sprouting. Something's off and we both know that." Esau angrily swiped his hand in Slade's direction who looked entirely too amused by the display before him. "He's trying to split us apart and I'm not going to give him what he wants, are you?"
That was the wrong thing to say obviously and Esau realised that. "Of course I am!" She cried out, her eyes starting to tear up. "He's my father and I'm not going to fail him." Angrily, she paced from side to side, always keeping her eyes on Esau. "And when I win this fight I want it to be because I beat you when you tried to fight me, not because you let me so stop holding back and fight me!"
Esau remained silent as he took her in and could see just how much this meant to her even if she obviously didn't like the idea of killing him. They had grown close over the course of their six months together and while Rose certainly viewed him as a friend, she wanted her father's attention more.
'Alright, Rose.' Esau took a deep breath to centre himself as Rose came charging towards him once more. 'If this is what you want, I won't hold back.' Out of the corner of his eyes, he spared a glance to Slade, his body tensing in anger. 'Then I'm coming for you.'