It was fast.
Nothing more than a blur even to his eyes.
Yet his body was already in motion, shifting and twisting to avoid the fist coming straight toward his face to avoid the damage's brunt as it scrapped against the underside of his chin. Moving backwards with the blow, Esau righted his footing and raised his arms to deflect the follow-up blow, instantly returning fire with a roundhouse kick that his doppelgänger absorbed using this to come up with a hook.
Bracing one hand against the ground, Esau spun underneath the strike and came around with a spinning hook kick to the temple only to strike an open palm that clamped down tightly upon his heel. Esau lashed out with his other foot to his doppelgängers wrist in response, dislodging its grip and freeing him from a dangerous situation.
Landing on his feet, Esau immediately closed the distance between himself and the Kitsune who matched his approach.
The two threw crosses they simultaneously avoided as their arms interlocked in a contest of strength that cost Esau heavily as he was dragged back. The Kitsune planted its feet firmly and used this position to throw Esau backwards, his feet skidding against the ground as his doppelgänger rushed to keep ahold of his advantage.
Esau quickly crossed his arms to try and block the straight cross that came his way only for his guard to completely break apart upon impact. Once more he was flung backwards, his arms out to his side leaving himself completely exposed as Esau frowned in bemusement and frustration. This wasn't the first time in the course of their fights that the strength his doppelgänger possessed seemed to become explosively more powerful. It was often during the midst of their exchanges when Esau began to find his rhythm that his doppelgänger switched up the amount of power he used.
As the claws came toward him, Esau did not attempt to resist or continue the fight.
He could have, but at this point, Esau just let it happen.
His mind was preoccupied with the thoughts of why.
Why did his doppelgänger's power seem to for short instances become exponentially greater?
It made no sense.
As the claws pierced through his chest and once more, Esau was defeated, he did not feel frustration.
No, instead he felt himself getting closer to the answer he sought.
Once he found it.
Then he would be able to defeat his doppelgänger.
Of that, he knew for certain.
-X-
Tuesday 31st August 2010, 17:05.
Rhode Island,
Happy Harbour,
Mount Justice.
Opening his eyes slowly, Esau collapsed back onto his bed, sprawling out across it as he stared up at the ceiling deep in thought. Things had been relatively quiet in the team with there being little in the way of missions recently allowing them some necessary time to rest and more importantly, train both their individual and team skills. Despite having improved dramatically from how they were in the beginning, it was clear that there was still much that needed to be worked on for everyone.
Esau had used this time precisely for that reason.
Though recently he had taken a back seat away from leading team training, allowing Kaldur and Barbara to lead it. 'I'm getting closer.' Esau thought to himself with a frown. 'So much closer.'
It was there.
The victory that he sought.
Just within reach.
All he had to do was reach out and take it then the power he sought would be his.
But it was just out of reach.
He was missing one vital bit of information, the final piece of the puzzle and when he had that Esau would be able to defeat his opponent once and for all. In the last couple of days, he had entered his mind and constantly battled against his doppelgänger and with each battle he closed that gap between them.
Esau had long since grown used to its strength and speed.
That had been the first thing he had adapted to.
Strong and fast it may be, but it was still nothing in comparison to Kaldur and Connor who Esau regularly sparred against.
The next had been its unique way of fighting and this had taken some time, in fact, it was the reason he had suffered the ass-kickings he had been dealt with for the last ten days straight. But that was simply because of how...alien its way of fighting was to Esau. He was used to individuals fighting on two feet, throwing combinations of punches, kicks, elbows, knees and throws with short grappling exchanges here and there.
Yet the way his doppelgänger fought was completely different.
He was every bit as skilled as him, having many of the similar combinations he had but with twists in them that made them entirely unique. As Esau had used to be, the doppelgänger was fond of using his claws, fighting in a way similar to how Talon had tried to teach him in some ways. Using a plethora of little cuts to accumulate damage until he could go for the finishing blow. However, his doppelgänger was also fond of using his claws and even fangs to simply tear apart flesh in a savage and brutal fashion that Talon never would have.
On top of that, he did not simply stick to one level of combat.
Instead, he would often bound around on all fours, using that to propel himself around with incredible speed and allow him to attack from odd and awkward angles that made it difficult to defend against.
All in all, the way his doppelgänger fought was truly a unique mixture of many individuals and unique twists that made it difficult to understand. It had only been his experience and stubbornness that allowed him to survive those early exchanges for as long as he had. Yet since then his doppelgänger had introduced a new facet that completely threw a wrench into his plans.
That being his random moments of explosive strength.
Esau had grown to understand just how powerful his doppelgänger could be and yet, for single instances that power grew immensely and completely shifted the tides of the fight. Though Esau had grown to adapt to this, not being taken out instantly with the follow-up strike it was never without serious injury that resulted in his death soon after.
The question Esau had was not what his doppelgänger was doing, but how?
'If I can just figure out how he's doing it I can use that to my advantage.' Esau knew more often than not when it was coming and it was often in unavoidable situations when there was nothing he could do to stop it. Those instances were far harder to come by since Esau had understood what his doppelgänger was doing, but that didn't mean they were unavoidable forever. However, Esau knew that if he was able to understand how and possibly do the same himself then maybe he could catch his doppelgänger off-guard and snatch that victory he needed.
"So, this is where you are?" Looking up, Esay turned to see Barbara standing in the doorway of his room, leaning against the doorway and still cradling her side.
"Are you okay?" He asked worriedly, but Barbara waved off his concerns with a smile and a nod of her head.
"Ah, it's not as bad as it was." She told him, moving to sit down on the end of his bed.
While Esau had been meeting with Jason Blood, the rest of the team had ventured out on a mission to deal with Clayface. A simple mission that would and should have been easy for the team to handle, purely being given as a means to give Aqualad experience leading the team. Esau had made it clear to Batman on numerous occasions that he did not intend to remain at the team for long and as Esau began to focus more and more upon gaining control of his powers that time was fast approaching.
As a result, giving Aqualad more experience as a field leader had been important and it had gone badly.
Clayface was certainly a powerful villain, yet Barbara and Dick alone would have been more than enough considering their experience with the Gotham supervillain. With the rest of the team, it was overkill and should have been routine mission of putting down a criminal on the loose, alleviating some of the burden from the members of the Justice League.
Yet it had turned into a disaster.
Kaldur had been distracted, plain and simple.
The orders he gave were varying between excellent and terrible resulting in them not properly functioning as a team as they got in each other's way. This allowed Clayface to be far more effective and far more difficult to defeat than he should have. Ultimately they won, but not without suffering a number of injuries something which even to this day Esau could not understand why Kaldur had been so distracted.
"That's good. I'm still worried though." Barbara smiled lightly at him.
Though that smile dipped lightly when she took note of his complexion. "What about you though? Are you okay?" It was no secret that Esau had been distant from the team over the last couple of days following the incident with Clayface. He had not been a part of the mission having been kept back by Batman and since then he had also been mostly locked away in his room rarely been seen by the rest of the team.
"I'm frustrated." Esau answered honestly.
"With what?"
He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Everything." He admitted. "Being a hero like this, in a team, it feels odd." It was almost like he was an impostor and while Esau would not deny he had built some friendships with the people around him, namely Barbara, Kaldur and Connor. Even building a rapport with the others on the team besides Wally which Esau doubted at this point would ever develop into an actual friendship of any kind considering Wally was the way he was.
"That's not all though." Barbara wasn't fooled.
She had known Esau for a long time and she knew this ploy of his.
Telling part of the truth to keep the remainder of it secret.
"What did Batman want?" Barbara knew that whatever was bothering him the most at this moment in time, it all stemmed from whatever Batman had kept him behind for.
Seeing the look in her eyes, Esau chuckled lowly, shaking his head. "Sometimes you know me a little too well." He said and Barbara smiled. "I met with Jason Blood, gave me his business and told me to talk with him if I need any tips on controlling my powers. The gist of it though is that I'm on my own and need to handle this my way."
Barbara looked at him in bemusement. "But your powers are definitely demonic in origin, right?" Esau nodded his head. "Then surely he should be able to offer more help than that."
"Basically, the source of our powers and how we go about gaining control of them is completely different."
"So, what worked for him won't work for you?"
Esau shrugged. "Pretty much, yeah."
"Well, that sucks." Barbara said with a frown.
"Tell me about it."
There was a pause following this, neither of them saying anything as they just remained in silence.
However, Barbara's curiosity got the best of her.
"What do you have to do to gain control of your powers?" She wondered, knowing he had tried meditation and performing katas while using said powers to gain more freedom within it. Yet it seemed that no matter what he did he was always on the verge of losing control.
"It's..." Esau let out a deep sigh. "It's complicated."
Barbara raised a brow. "As is everything in our lives." She replied making him snort in amusement. "But seriously, I want to help. Maybe I can offer a new perspective on things?"
"...There's a Kyūbi no Kitsune in my head." He admitted eventually after much deliberation. "Ten of them and I'm guessing each represents the different levels of my powers."
"The wall?" Barbara remembered Esau describing how he felt like even when reaching the utmost amount of power he could control while meditating, there was still more within that well and yet beyond a wall there was even more.
"It has consciousness." That made Barbara startle, looking to Esau in shock and a little fear, but not for her; for him. "I'm fighting it in my head, I have to in order to gain control of its powers. But I have to do so without using its powers. The thing is though, it's learned everything I have and created its own entirely unique style of fighting. It has full control of its power and uses them in ways I didn't even think of using. It's faster than me, stronger and every bit as skilled."
Barbara remained silent, digesting everything she was being told.
"The thing is, I've got a hang of its way of fighting and the way it uses its healing." Esau continued. "And I'm so close. So fucking close. But at key moments, just when the tide could shift in my favour its power just explodes to an even greater degree than anything before."
"It's purposefully damaging its body for explosive strength." Esau looked at her in questioning. "Bruce told me about it. Early on when he first started fighting against supervillains like Killer Croc. He would push his body way beyond its limits, tearing muscles and breaking bones with every blow. Yet as a result, his power would be even greater." It was a truly sacrificial method of fighting that Bruce had used early on before he found the weakness of each foe he faced and was still something he used as a last-ditch effort when needed to score the victory.
The human body had limits as to how much power it could produce and while said limit varied from person to person, the fact remained constant throughout even for superpowered individuals. Everyone had a limit and when they pushed beyond said limits, their power would grow exponentially, but at the cost of their body.
"From what you're describing, that could be what it's doing." Barbara explained. "And with its healing factor..."
"It can continue to repeat said explosive strength without fear." Esau nodded his head in agreement. "That's it. That's what I need."