Chapter 19: To Know Fear
Gasping and spluttering for air, Esau dropped to his knees, coughing to try and clear his lungs of the gas that he had inhaled. His hand waved around, trying to part the remainder that surrounded his head almost like a bubble as his head fell to the floor.
Once his coughing fit had ceased, he looked around at his surroundings but something was very wrong.
The world around him was pulsing and glaringly vibrant in a way that was nauseating.
Around the edges of his vision, the world blurred away into darkness making his field of view narrow and disconcerting.
Eventually, his gaze locked onto the sight that laid out before him, Black Mask standing tall and strong, a beaten and dead Barbara at his feet.
The sight caused him to freeze only for a moment before his face twisted into a vicious visage of rage and anger as he burst to his feet with a roar. He didn't know how Black Mask had come back to life, nor did he care as he charged toward the man and tackled him, picking the crime lord up off his feet and carrying him across the warehouse. There they slammed into one of the wooden crates, the two bursting through it, breaking apart as they rolled across the floor before coming to a stop.
"Black Hood, what are you doing?" The deceased crime lord questioned, rising to his feet warily.
"I don't know how you're alive." Black Hood didn't answer his question and instead glared hatefully at him, both of them slowly rising to their feet. "But I'll kill you again if I have to."
Meanwhile, Scarecrow looked to see Black Hood engaging Batgirl in a fight and he couldn't help but give a short laugh at this. To think, he had been so worried about four heroes turning up to stop him and it turns out that one of their little party wasn't immune to his Fear Toxin.
Whatever Black Hood was seeing was something he feared, but it also seemed that it was something that filled him with rage. An interesting combination, yet not uncommon and it worked perfectly in his favour as with Batman and Robin being too busy with Killer Croc upstairs, his biggest problem had been getting past Black Hood and Batgirl.
But that little problem had solved itself.
Still, not one to waste an opportunity to escape, Scarecrow rushed out of his base intent on putting as much distance between himself and the Bat Family. 'And that'll be the last time I ever work with those Owls.' He vowed mentally.
-X-
Wednesday 8th April 2009, 19:15.
New Jersey,
Gotham City,
East End.
Using Killer Crocs' chest as a springboard, Robin backflipped through the air while simultaneously throwing Batarangs at the cannibalistic criminal. However, Killer Croc had long since grown used to fighting Batman and Robin and smacked them to one side so that they harmlessly exploded away from him.
Clicking his teeth in annoyance, Robin sprang to one side avoiding the heavy crate thrown his way.
Up from above, using Robins' distraction as the best opportunity, Batman jumped down from the rafters and landed a kick to Waylon's head. The force behind it knocked the mutated human's head down and made him bend his knees to better absorb the impact.
From his bent over position, Waylon with a growl, sprung up and swiped at Batman only to hit nothing but air and then hear the sound of beeping. Knowing what this meant, he charged at Batman who had just landed on the ground only for the hero to use a grappling hook to get out of harm's way. That's when the numerous charges that had been planted on his head exploded dazing the superhuman for a few moments.
But it was not enough to knock him unconscious.
"The distributions not being stopped," Robin informed his mentor, having used this break to check on what was happening downstairs.
That's when they heard a low growl that rose in volume and turned to see Killer Croc glaring at them out from the smoke, his scaled head lightly singed. Quickly thinking over what to do, Batman came to a quick conclusion and gave a nod to Robin.
The two then pulled out a few small, black balls and chucked them on the ground filling to room with smoke that clouded their vision as they exploded. But this wasn't just any fog, it had been specifically designed by Batman to counter those with super senses, like enhanced smell. If this was normal fog, those individuals could have been able to discern the position of Batman and Robin if they had the proper training. Therefore, Batman had modified his smoke bombs to also be filled with a strong scent that masked his and anyone else's in the cloud of smoke.
As a result, Waylon was blind and unable to find either Batman or Robin.
Eventually, though, the smoke cleared and the superhuman looked around to see that both the superheroes had disappeared. That's when he felt something pierce into his skin and looked to see two needles poking out of his back that were connected to a metal wire of some sort. Then came the electric current which caused Killer Croc to roar out in pain before he angrily ripped them out and tugged on them. Yet, Batman nor Robin was pulled down as a result and instead, only received a modified taser.
Crushing it in his hand, Waylon snarled and started looking around for any sight of Batman. "Come out, Batman." He growled, his feet stomping on the ground as he started to move around. "I can't wait to feast on you."
That's when he heard the sound of something cutting through the air and turned to see numerous Batarangs coming straight at him. They were too close and moving too quickly for him to avoid or stop them so he instead, braced himself as he once again found himself engulfed in an explosion.
-X-
Wednesday 8th April 2009, 19:15.
New Jersey,
Gotham City,
East End.
Fighting Black Hood was harder than she had expected.
Much harder.
His techniques were amateurish like Robin had described, but his skills and experience were anything but.
Batgirl could see why the common thugs posed not threat to Gotham's newest vigilante.
Yet she had faced more skilled and more dangerous opponents than him, for all his experience and skill, she had just as much if not more in many areas. Even in the areas that Black Hood was superior to her in, like his physicality, the heavily choreographed techniques that possessed numerous exploitable holes were enough for her to equal the playing field.
So, in that case, why was she struggling to keep up?
Every hole in his defence and offence showed itself as plain as day, yet every time she exploited said hole, it wouldn't even stall Black Hood. Sometimes it would daze him for a few moments, allowing her to move back and gain some breathing room, but in most cases, he just kept coming.
At first, she had the advantage.
Every strike that came her way was blocked, parried or evaded completely and each time she did so, a new opening in his defence would present itself to her. Yet as time went by, it was like he was adapting, learning how she fought and changing his style as the fight went on, utilising his vast number of techniques to better respond. Whereas his large number of available techniques with no set style had proved to be a weakness in the beginning, it was proving to be the only thing to keep him in the fight as he switched up his movements just as Batgirl began to fall into a rhythm.
Every she had landed a blow, it struck true, Black Hood becoming dazed and stopping him from coming back at her right away. Now though, he had learned how to move with the momentum of her strike and use that to not only stay up close and personal, but also use that momentum to give his next strike even more power.
All the while minimising the amount of damage he took.
For her, that was a dangerous thing to deal with, her sprained wrist could attest to that.
Ducking under a blow, Batgirl jumped into the air and landed a knee to the underside of his jaw before pushing off his chest to gain some room. Both of them were suspended in the air temporarily before landing on the ground and rolling to their feet.
However, Barbara knew that the blow hadn't done much damage to him, he had already started jumping in the air, and his head moved back so she only clipped his chin with her knee, mitigating the damage she dealt. It was honestly starting to get a little annoying to see him getting better and better, forever closing that gap between them bit by bit.
No words were shared as they stared at her, Batgirl soon realised that whatever he was seeing while under the influence of the Fear Toxin, had blinded him with such rage that he didn't even spare the time to think let alone speak before charging in once more.
Like now for example, the roar escaped him from his lips as he rushed her once more.
The jab-cross combo was dodged with a simple movement of her head and she responded with an uppercut. To avoid this, Black Hood leaned his body to one side, allowing her fist to brush along the side of his face. Continuing with this, Batgirl hooked her arm around his shoulder, stepping in close and clasping her wrist together.
A twist of her wrist and hips nearly picked Black Hood off the ground, however, he responded by shifting his footing ever so slightly and turned the tables upon her.
Grunting, Batgirl tried to put some distance between him and her, but he had gripped onto her cape and instead threw her into a pile of wooden crates. Quickly shaking her head, Batgirl got to her feet as Black Hood charged at her once more, never giving her time to rest or recover. Punch after punch was thrown at Batgirl who masterfully dodged every single one thrown her way, parrying those she couldn't. Every now and then, she would throw a kick or a jab at Black Hood only for it to barely stall her opponent.
He just kept coming and it was beginning to get to her, Batgirl panicking.
That's when they were both rocked by the sound of an explosion, the force of it picking them both off their feet and launching them through the air, skidding slightly as they landed before coming to a stop.
Groaning, Batgirl winced as her ears rang while she looked around to see what was happening. All she could see were flames from the various mixers that had been producing Fearless Toxin and looked to see where Black Hood had gone or who had caused the explosion.
Luckily for her, Black Hood had been closer to the explosion and had landed head-first on the ground knocking him unconscious and therefore, unable to attack her in her dazed and vulnerable state.
"-rl!" Wincing, she looked to see Robin rushing towards her and she realised that he had done this. "-girl!" That was good, it meant that they had succeeded in ruining Scarecrow's supply of the new toxin, even if he had escaped. "Batgirl!" Looking up, Batgirl saw Robin crouch down beside her. "You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." She murmured sluggishly, rubbing her head to get rid of the headache that was beginning to form.
"Where's Scarecrow?" He asked and Batgirl shook her head which was all the answer Robin needed. With a nod of his head, Robin activated his holographic computer that was connected to his wristwatch and started to trace the tracker that was still on Scarecrow. "I've got him."
Then he took off, leaving Batgirl to kneel there as she looked at the unconscious form of the Black Hood.
Looking closer she could actually see that his hood had become a little dislodged and looked at the few locks of blonde hair that poked out from underneath. It was bright, almost a whitish color and reminded her of Esau's hair for how bright it is.
'Could it?' She questioned, the line of thought entering her mind and refusing to leave as she examined Black Hood closer. Same build, same height, bright blonde hair and blue eyes and from what she remembered of the way Esau fought earlier today, they had similar fighting styles, nearly identical actually. 'Except, Black Hood was a little more aggressive but that was mainly because he had two knives where Esau had one. It could be, but why?'
Overcome with curiosity, she moved closer and reached out to pull Black Hood's hood down further to get a better look. But just as her hand came within inches of touching his hood, another hand gripped her wrist stopping her before she could.
Looking up, she saw that the hand belonged to Batman. "What are you doing?" He asked and Batgirl looked at him in shock, mostly because she didn't know why he was stopping her and also because he had come out of nowhere.
"I'm seeing who he is, don't you want to know?" She asked and Batman said nothing, but it was the look he gave her that made her understand why he had stopped her. "You already know." She summarized. "Of course you do, you would have never worked alongside him if you didn't know who he was or at least have a strong suspicion."
Batman let go of her wrist and instead crouched down beside Black Hood, moving his hood back into place while Batgirl rose to her feet.
"Scarecrow?" Batman asked, trying to change the topic and while Batgirl wanted to press this further, she didn't.
"Gone, but Robins going after him."
Nodding his head, Batman picked Black Hood up and put him over his shoulder. "Return to the cave." He said before exiting the warehouse, leaving Batgirl there alone, but despite his orders, Batgirl couldn't leave without having the answers she wanted; no needed.
She needed to know if Esau was Black Hood because she would...'What would I do?' She asked herself once more. 'No, I'll deal with that later, right now I need answers.' With that, Batgirl made to follow after Batman, he couldn't have gotten far with Black Hood unconscious. Therefore allowing her to catch up relatively quickly.
She would get answers tonight about Black Hood's true identity and that's all that mattered to her right now.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Carrots123
Carrots123 So, another chapter is done and with it, Esau proves to be a more than capable foe against Batgirl. This is because of the unique advantages of his fighting style, he is formless and when enraged, those like Batgirl who would lose their form and become much easier to face, Esau uniquely becomes much stronger. Thanks to the Fear Toxin, Esau sees an image that enrages him and makes him suffer from tunnel vision and becomes ignorant of pain. However, in the aftermath of this fight, Batgirl's suspicions become aroused about who Black Hood might be. Anyway, hope you all enjoyed and if you have any questions or suggestions, please let me know.
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