Injustice: The Path To Hell (DC Comics)

Tuesday 17th March 2009, 22:10.

New Jersey,

Gotham City,

The Bowery.

Taking a deep breath, Esau did a quick check of his current equipment. His outfit consisted of black cargo pants, boots and a hoodie, with a stolen bulletproof vest underneath. All things were in place, with a Bowie knife attached to each of his thighs and a pistol holstered to his left hip.

Tonight, was the night he had been planning for a while.

Ever since his argument with Barbara about his alter ego, Black Hood and the mortality of his new job, things had been quiet between the two. He had all but stopped going to school and focused most of his time on training in nearby gyms, making sure not to draw too much attention. Esau had to say he was already receiving results having already put on a few pounds and grown two inches in the span of a month. Most of that was due to the fact he was still growing and going through puberty, but the weight he had put on wa due to a mixture of training diets and heavy workouts.

This meant that he and Barbara barely had any time to break down the wall that had started to form between the two of them. But Esau knew that it would take more than just a simple apology to heal some of the open wounds in their friendship. Esau didn't really know how to take back what he said when he still meant everything he said and Esau knew that Barbara felt the same way. Who was meant to go first when they both felt they were in the right and the other was in the wrong?

Yet Esau didn't have the time and while he would never admit it, he was a little scared that maybe Barbara didn't want him anymore. She had really stuck to her word and had not made any attempts to reach out to him and had left it to him to come to her when he had 'sorted himself out.' But the thing was, Esau didn't know where to begin, didn't know how he could convince Barbara that this is who he is, who he always was. He had already come too far, the first step he had taken so long ago and it was too late for him to turn back.

She had made it clear that she didn't like who he was becoming and he was terrified that maybe when she realised that this was the way he always thought, she would leave.

'Perhaps that's for the best.' A part of him whispered. 'That way she will never get hurt, never become a target that my enemies will use to hurt me.' That was also what scared him, the thought of his enemies – which there would be many if he continued down this path – getting to Barbara to get to him.

But it all boiled down to two simple things.

Did he love Barbara enough to let her go and seek a life with someone else – the thought alone made his heart clench – safe and sound without the threat of a supervillain hurting her. Or was he going to be selfish and seek a life with her, knowing that supervillains were out there and could strike at any moment?

He would have liked to say the answer was much easier to answer than he had thought, but it also wasn't. As much as it would pain him to see Barbara with another person, as long as she was happy and safe, he would accept it. Her happiness and safety were all that mattered because he would protect those he cared about with fierce ruthlessness.

"Man, this is so boring."

Breaking out of his dark thoughts, Esau took a peek around the corner and saw two guards sitting outside a small warehouse. They weren't very well-dressed, their outfits mired in sweat and grime as they nursed a beer in one hand and the one on the left also nursing his holstered gun. Even the masks on their faces, animal masks were worn and dirty, resting on the side of their heads to reveal their faces.

"Don't understand why the boss is getting so spooked by this new vigilante. We already have to deal with the flying Rats and now this bitch shows up, ain't as if the little shit is as batty as the batshit Bat. Ha, see what I did there?"

The man beside him sighed in annoyance. "Yes, I did. Now shut up, you're pissing me off."

"Bah, fuck you too," Esau smirked, that one was obviously drunk and while his partner seemed more alert, there was no doubting his slightly glazed eyes that were clearly seen with the light shining on them from the light above them.

This just made his job much easier.

He honestly expected Black Mask to have more…professional guards in place. However, from what he was seeing these guys were new, obviously the few small-time criminals who were willing to work for Black Mask despite Black Hood hunting those working for said crime lord with a single-minded determination that had left the rest of Gotham's criminal entity silent as they watched on in amusement. Many already making plans on how they can best benefit from his downfall.

Not that it was unsurprising.

Gotham had always been divided amongst the various crime lords all over the city with no one able to unify them all, Carmine Falcone having come the closest. However, even though he had been unable to properly conquer all of Gotham, that was until Roman Sionis came around. His father, Richard Sionis, the original Black Mask and founder of the False Face Society had been a small-time crime lord in Gotham. But when Batman came around and hunted down and destroyed the original layout of Gotham in his crusade against crime, Roman capitalised.

He had done what no one had ever been able to do, take over all of Gotham's criminal underground. Just once would have been enough to immortalise him, but then he did it a second and then a third time. The False Face Society had consistently been one of the biggest players in Gotham City and no doubt everyone was watching to see how things would unfold before making their move.

Right now, the False Face Society was in dire straights with many of its original members either dead or have left to join other enterprises in order to escape his wrath. This forced Black Mask to recruit lesser and more desperate individuals to fill in the gap that had been left behind. He knew this for a fact simply because they lacked the tailored suits and masks worn by the higher-ups of Black Mask's False Face Society.

Pulling down his now seemingly iconic hood, Esau walked towards the two thugs, a bag slung over his shoulder. "Hey kid, you ain't meant to be here." The soberer of the two said, both of them rising to their feet with the drunkard stumbling slightly, gripping hold onto the chair behind him for balance.

"I've got my payment," Esau said calmly, shaking his bag slightly before chucking it at the drunk man who fell on his ass with the bag on his lap. "Tell Black Mask, that Esau Jacobson has paid his share."

"Alright, we'll do so." The second guy replied, his hand slowly moving away from the gun on his side. "Now get out of here kid, you ain't meant to be here."

"Yeah, yeah I know," Esau replied as he watched the drunkard open the bag to see it was empty.

"Hey!" The drunkard yelled as his partner looked to see what the problem was. "This is empty, shithead." The soberer of the two turned back, not seeing the widening of his partner's eyes as Esau unholstered his pistol with a silencer attached to the end.

Two bullets exited the barrels quicker than they could react and hit them both in the chest where they dropped to the ground, dead. "Really, what a surprise." He mocked, moving forwards and picking up the body of the taller of the two and moving towards the door. From what he had learnt of this warehouse it was the armoury of Black Mask's operation

Lots of guns, ammunition and even explosives.

All things he'll graciously, like the kind soul he is, repurpose for more double means.

Everything inside is perfect for him to expand his horizons in attacking Black Mask's operational structure. He had learnt a lot about Black Mask since he was a kid and one of those things was that he was very methodical in the way he ran his criminal empire. The thugs that worked for him had rotational shifts, one week a group of thugs would be on the streets dealing in either drugs, prostitutes, guns or collecting tax. The next, that same group would be working in one of the bases.

Each thug was assigned to only one base and that way, should they be arrested then they couldn't give away the inner workings of Black Mask's operations.

Smart, simple and effective.

Yet it also had one significant downside.

Esau in his tenure as Black Hood had been killing Black Mask's thugs in the street and therefore, reducing the number of people defending hideouts of the crime lord's empire. Now normally this wouldn't be a problem, but the minor criminals that Black Mask could have hired to fill in the gaps, knew that Black Hood – was a hero that now killed, a terrifying thought to them all – but most of all had beef with Black Mask. Therefore, no one wanted to work for him, not even the desperate.

Except for a few of course.

When the pay is good, who cares what risk it may bring?

Then there was the fact that Esau knew that Black Mask was a very prideful individual and would never, not even if it meant saving his life, go begging to any of the other crime families for help. This worked in Esau's favour as it meant that this armoury, once defended by twenty men each week, now had a defensive force of less than ten. Two of them were already dead at his feet, well one was, and the other was held in his grasp.

He may not be a person known or praised for his patience, but Esau was a very determined individual. Taking out Black Mask was not going to be an instant thing; it would take time and careful planning.

The past few weeks had been filled with Esau taking out Black Mask's thugs and weakening his manpower. Then the next stage of his plan was to take out the armoury, leaving Black Mask and his goons extremely short-supplied on firepower, while increasing his own. After that, it was a matter of waiting for Black Mask to make the next move and if Esau knew him as well as he thought he did, then that would involve running to a more secure location.

Pressing a buzzer on the door, Esau leaned the body against the door just enough to make it seem like the guard was closing his eyes while waiting. Meanwhile, he moved the dead body of the drunkard to the base of the door. Thankfully, he managed to get that done just in time and moved to hide on the opposite side of the door before a hatch opened and another thug peeked through.

"What you want, Jonny? Your shift ain't done yet." The man asked, but there was silence. Obviously cautious because of this, he looked around and Esau pressed himself further against the wall so as to not be seen. "Jonny, what the fuck is going on?" It was then that, Esau kicked the thug's legs and the dead body fell to the ground. "What the fuck?!"

There was a buzzing sound and the door opened and the man came charging out, eyes looking around wildly to find out what was going on. A cry of shock then escaped his mouth as he tripped over the body of the second guard on the ground, eyes finally noticing Esau. Yet that was all he could do as Esau fired off another round into the man's head.

Not saying anything, Esau pushed the body of one of the thugs into the closing door, keeping it from locking and moved to loot through the two bodies. After he had done it, he tucked the two new guns into his pants and moved into the warehouse.

It was quiet, for most of the journey, the lack of manpower meant that patrolling the armoury was much more difficult with far more holes in their defence. This was precisely what Esau had intended to cause with his actions, leaving openings that would have not been here originally. But even then, things were a little too quiet for his liking, that was until as he progressed a little deeper, he heard the sound of jeering and shouting.

Pulling up to a stop of an open doorway, he took a peek around the corner and saw five men sitting around a poker table, with a sixth seat empty. '7 rounds left in my Glock, with two magazines remaining. Another Glock, no silencer and one magazine. A Smith and Wesson M&P, ten-round magazine and no silencer.' He recounted mentally before taking another peek. 'Okay, only two are carrying guns, the rest are just knives. I think.'

"Hey!" Esau froze and looked at the man standing across from him, his hands clenched by his side. Reacting quickly, Esau turned his silenced Glock on the man and fired a headshot before performing a diving roll into the now silenced room, just as the wall he was standing behind was riddled with bullet holes.

"Shit! It's the fucking Hooded freak!" One man shouted, just as Esau got to his feet and fired two bullets, one to the chest and then to the head of the closest thug.

"Kill the little shit!"

Esau took a moment to take stock of the situation.

He had killed the closest guy, holding a knife.

One more was charging towards him, also holding a knife.

The remaining three were standing behind the table, two holding their pistols and one having an AK-47 that must have been hidden from his sight.

Reacting quickly, Esau did not fire his gun and instead counter-charged the thug holding a knife and body-slammed him. This was done just as gunfire erupted once more, however, Esau was now hidden behind the body of one of his enemies.

Blood splashed into the air as the three firing goons tried to break through Esau's human shield and kill him. But those bullets that did manage to get through were so slow that they harmlessly collided with bulletproof armour and didn't even stall him as Esau continued his charge, using the dead body as a shield.

With a grunt, he pushed the much lighter body over the top and into the three goons who had to put a hold on their firing to avoid the body of their dead comrade. One, however, was not so lucky and was sent to the ground as the body collided with his face.

This allowed Esau to train his gun on one goon and fire two bullets into him. Just as he went to turn his gun on the second, the thug that had fallen on the floor kicked the table into Esau. This didn't hurt, but thanks to that he was distracted enough that his aim went off track, the bullet colliding harmlessly into the wall.

Stepping back, Esau ejected the magazine and went to pull out a second magazine when he had to duck behind the table as the thug holding the AK-47 managed to start firing once more.

Thankfully, he didn't have to wait long as the man had to stop to reload.

With one hand braced on the top of the table, Esau jumped over the table while simultaneously lashing out with a kick that knocked the AK to one side. Landing on the ground he spun round and sent a spinning, back kick into the stomach of the thug who kicked the table and had just gotten to his feet, who collided against the wall before he could start firing his pistol.

"Ahhh!" The man that had held the AK charged forward in a mad frenzy, but Esau parried the punch to one side and slammed a chop to the man's neck. Meanwhile, his other hand moved down and smoothly pulled out one of his Bowie knives and drove it up straight into the man's head through his jaw with a hammer grip.

Pulling the blade free and wiping the blood off on his sleeve, Esau turned to look at the only remaining thug who had dropped to his knees in surrender, flipping the knife around into an ice-pick grip. "Please man, I surrender." The man dropped his gun and pushed it towards Esau's feet, who looked at it and then at the man. "I'm done, I swear. I won't kill anyone, hell I'll turn myself in. Just please, don't kill me."

Esau stood silently, allowing the man to continue begging for his life pathetically. "Okay." The man sighed with relief, almost collapsing to the ground with relief.

"Thank you." The man shook, the adrenaline leaving his body weak. "Thank you."

"But you will go to Black Mask and tell him what happened here." The man froze in shock and fear. "Tell him that Black Hood was someone he created and that I'm coming for him next." There was no movement from the thug as he stared up at Esau in shock and fear. "Go on."

"Please! He'll kill me, let me do anything but that!" That man cried out in fear, knowing that even going to Black Mask to report failure would mean his death.

"If you don't go." Esau pulled out a gun and pointed it at the man. "Then I'll kill you now. Your choice, but think quick, my trigger finger is getting itchy."

Tears streamed down the man's face as he shakily got to his feet and moved to leave.

"Oh, if you think of trying to hide and not doing as I ask." Esau, fully embracing his Black Hood persona calmly broke the silence, the lighting of the room ensuring that not even a single feature could be seen. "Then I will find you and finish off what I started."

Nodding his head, the man rushed out of the armoury and Esau watched him go with a calm expression. It was a baseless threat, there was nothing stopping the man from running away because it would make the man extremely unlucky to run into Black Hood again. But it didn't matter, while Esau hated killing and threatening people, Black Hood did not, it required him to be a force of nature, a monster that would kill without hesitation.

'Man.' Esau thought as he looked up at the ceiling in thought. 'This doesn't get any easier.' Not even now, after having done this for just shy of a month. The act of killing was something that while on the outside, came easy to him. On the inside, it filled him with sadness and self-loathing at what his life had become. He would keep repeating, 'This is who I am, I'm doing this to protect Barbara, to protect Jim.' A mantra to try and keep himself mentally strong enough to keep doing what was needed.

Frightened he would wake up someday to a bitter reality that this is the new him. Thinking back to all those words he said to Barbara, were they just words? It's easy enough to say he'll kill millions, but really doing so is harrowing...he wonders when it'll become easy and if that would be a good thing.

Clenching his fist, Esau moved to the front and took the bag he had left there and moved towards the various crates scattered in each room, making sure to fill it to the brim.

It was heavy, extremely so.

But the choices he had made and the consequences of his actions were heavier and he would continue to bare them alone.