章 56: Rose Wilson
Tuesday 1st December 2009, 17:00.
Florida,
Location Unknown.
Bullets ripped through the air as the rhythmic sound of gunshots sounded in quick succession throughout the near-empty gun range. Each bullet was perfectly aimed, hitting numerous targets with headshots, precise shots that struck even the moving targets with near-pinpoint accuracy.
After having emptied his clip, Esau lowered his gun and unloaded the clip while reaching for another from the line of six he had already lined up in preparation. The empty one was discarded on a small pile to his right while he knocked the clip into place with practised ease and pointed his gun towards the targets once more
"Dad's annoyed." Caught off guard by the sudden appearance of someone behind him, Esau's aim was disturbed and the bullet struck the wall behind the target. "Ohh, I think you missed that one." The feminine voice teased and Esau turned around to see a beautiful young girl with white hair pulled into a ponytail standing before him with her hands crossed over her chest. Despite being a few years younger than him the copious amount of training had done wonders for her figure giving her one that women twice her age would kill for.
Esau would admit that he was shocked to learn that Slade had a recently turned fourteen-year-old daughter who he was training as a mercenary. However, Esau didn't judge her based on her age considering he once got his ass kicked by a twelve-year-old kid. That was the last time Esau was going to underestimate someone based on their age, especially when he had taken on adults and trained professionals himself, and lived to tell the tale.
Age was never a good indicator of skill in this world, not like it used to be.
They hadn't gotten along very well at first, one thing Esau had learned was that Slade wasn't exactly what you would call a loving parent. When Esau and Rose trained with Slade, he would beat them both into the ground and would even go so far as to break bones. They were lucky they had a healing ability courtesy of the serum Slade had provided them with both, but in a way that made things worse.
It meant he got to do it more often and inflict more pain upon them.
Yet, while Esau received praise, in the early days that was, Rose only got dismissed.
Even when she beat him in a spar, Slade would just brush her off and scold her for not ending the fight sooner.
Esau would have questioned how useful this was until he noticed that Rose while annoyed by this, would only push herself further. She craved Slade's praise and attention to the point every time she was criticised, Rose would not stop until she fixed the problem Slade had spotted in her form. It got to the point that Rose, who had originally been weaker than him, quickly caught up and then surpassed him.
This in turn forced Esau to improve quickly to catch up and then surpass her.
Esau didn't like Slade in the slightest, but he could certainly acknowledge the effectiveness of his tactic of using Rose's craving for his praise and not just purposefully depriving her of it, he also went one step further and gave it to someone else. At the same time, forcing Esau to constantly keep pushing himself to catch up or stay ahead of her, the punishment should he fail to do either being more than enough motivation for him.
Slade had purposefully built a rivalry between his two students and Esau was too impressed at how seamlessly he had done it to be annoyed.
"Really, Rose?" Esau asked dubiously as Rose's smile widened in response showing that she was not apologetic in the least.
While at first, they hadn't gotten along, Rose not liking him because of Slade's plan to foster a rivalry, over the course of the six months Esau had finally managed to break through Rose's cold and distant exterior. Now they were at least friendly, Esau wouldn't call themselves friends for fear of being stabbed, and she was very violent to the point it was a little scary that her first instinct was to stab no matter the situation.
"What? I didn't even try to sneak up on you, it's not my fault you're so distracted." She replied with a shrug of her shoulders as she walked up to Esau, taking the gun from his hand and aiming. In quick succession, the remaining eleven bullets whizzed through the air and struck the targets. However, unlike Esau, they were a little more inconsistent in their positioning.
"Your aims still off." Esau pointed out as Rose clicked her teeth in annoyance.
Taking another clip, Rose reloaded the gun aimed. "So what's got you so distracted, dad was complaining about it." She then fired and again the spacing of the bullets was a little off, Esau able to see her grip on the gun tightening, wisely taking a slight step back before things got violent, the girl had a serious temper.
"I'm pretty sure Slade doesn't complain." Esau found the very thought amusing. "But it's nothing, I'll be perfectly fine for tomorrow," Esau answered with a shrug and Rose gave him a smirk.
"You better be. Tomorrow's our first mission and I won't let it end in failure because you're still hung up on your girlfriend."
Esau released a sigh and took the gun from Rose. "I should never have told you about that." He said getting a small giggle from Rose, though she would once again kill him if he called her out on the sound. She really was violent and scary for a lithe fourteen-year-old, but then again, this was a fourteen-year-old girl who could lift half a ton with ease.
"I know, but you couldn't resist my charm."
By charm, she meant brandishing her broadsword with the same glare she always had that promised death by castration and demanded to know who Barbara Gordon was.
There was little in the way of charm there.
"Charm? Is that what you call it?" He teased getting a glare and a sharp punch to the shoulder in response. "Alright, alright." Raising both hands in a sign of surrender, Esau turned to face the targets and took aim once more. In quick succession, the bullets fired from his gun and ricocheted off the metal plates shaped like humans leaving a bright red spot in the place it hit. "See, I'll be perfectly fine, better than you anyway."
Scoffing, as Esau twirled the gun lazily in his hand, Rose crossed her arms over her chest once more. "So you're good at shooting guns, big whoop. I can still beat your ass with swords any day of the week."
"That is unless I bring Sais to the table." Esau shot back with a smirk, naming a traditional Japanese weapon known as a sword breaker.
This in turn caused Rose's scowl to become more prominent which was exactly what Esau wanted. "Kusarigama."
"Staff."
"Shuriken."
"Knives."
One after another the two named weapons upon which they had proved time and time again throughout their many spars that they were better at than the other. But while Esau remained calm with his cocky smirk in place, Rose was becoming more irritated and flustered, the blush on her cheeks from embarrassment becoming a deep red and her fists by her side clenching, knuckles going white and her arms shaking.
Unlike Esau, she wasn't experienced in keeping herself calm under pressure, Esau himself hadn't been so good either when he started out as Black Hood, but it had been something he had been working on. The serum and the enhancements it gave to his mind coupled with his own experience allowed Esau to keep calm when under pressure far easier than before.
"At the end of the day though, we both know that in hand-to-hand, there's one clear winner," Esau stated victoriously and Rose blushed in embarrassment, temporarily halted at the reminder of the many defeats she suffered in unarmed combat before her glare came back in full force.
"That's only because you're older, asshole!" She exclaimed angrily. "You're stronger and have a longer reach. Take that away and I'd wipe the floor with you."
"Whatever makes you sleep better at night." Esau shot back. "But it doesn't change the fact that I am the one that wipes the floor with you on a consistent basis. Just let that sink in for a little, I know it must be difficult for you, but don't worry," he leaned forwards and mockingly ruffled her hair. "I'm sure you'll be able to win fair and square in say, oh I don't know, a hundred years or so from now."
"Why you..." Rose snarled ready to rise to Esau's bait until a short cough interrupted the two.
"Yo, Wintergreen." Esau greeted casually with a wave and smile, while Rose took a deep breath to calm herself down, though her glare didn't abate in the slightest as it burned into the side of Esau's head. If looks could kill, Esau would be dead a hundred times over and each in equally imaginative and painful ways.
"Rose, Esau. Slade wants to see you." The British voice of Wintergreen, Slade's oldest friend and manservant said as he calmly stopped the two teenagers from arguing. An argument the elderly man knew would turn violent, especially with Rose's infamously short temper and Esau's penchant for teasing her endlessly. The number of times he had been forced to try and stop an angry and near murderous Rose from killing a laughing Esau had caused him to gain a few more grey hairs as a result.
"Ah." Esau shortly replied, a little nervous to see his current teacher, especially considering what had happened the last time they had talked. He really didn't want to have to deal with another lecture because Slade could break a man with words alone and Esau wasn't even joking. Wintergreen for the purpose of training under orders from Slade had shown videos of Slade meeting with various clients, it was all about the proper 'decorum' expected of a mercenary.
Let's just say that some of those clients had been torn down by Slade's brutally honest words when a few stupid fools had attempted to swindle Slade out of his money.
He hadn't used violence as Esau expected, nor did he resort to baseless threats.
Just words and a projection of calm, nonchalant confidence that caused those clients to fold near instantly and give him his money, plus a little extra for the 'inconvenience.'
Esau had been on the receiving end of a few lectures and he didn't like how uncomfortable or vulnerable he felt when Slade, with nary a few words, broke his confidence.
It was a testament to how skilled Slade was and how far Esau still had to go.
"Alright." Esau sighed knowing it was best to just bite the bullet and get it other with as quickly as possible. "Let's go see what he wants."
-X-
Wednesday 2nd December 2009, 23:00.
New Jersey,
Gotham City,
Gotham Heights.
Landing in a crouch, Batgirl moved to stand beside Robin as they looked down at the theatre which was currently hosting an auction. In most cases, the artefacts auctioned here were of little value in terms of actual power, but every now and then there were a few that could attract the attention of a few dangerous individuals.
Bruce had made it a routine to check the list and give it to a few of the supernatural experts like Zatara to know if there was anything to be on the lookout for. However, none of the artefacts had been magical in nature and it all looked like it would be a normal auction, which would be a welcome change.
Ever since the incident at Arkham Assault and the discovery of Joker's dirty bomb, criminals had been pouring out of the cracks like cockroaches. Each of them wanted to cause as much havoc as possible and that number had only grown once they learned that Black Hood hadn't been seen since said incident.
As much as Barbara didn't like Esau's methods, part of her could see that they were effective.
Either way, Barbara had been working even harder than usual to put criminals back behind bars.
On top of all that they were also looking for the single cache of Fearless Toxin that still eluded them to this day.
But right now, she just wanted to rest.
As determined as she was to save his city, she was only human and she required rest, something she was being deprived of lately. Luckily for her and Gotham, she had been trained to be able to function even when tired, though even that was being pushed to the limits.
"Anything yet?" Batgirl asked Robin, he had been remotely hacking into the security cameras and now all were being displayed on the holographic computer connected to his wrist.
"Nothing." He answered with a shake of his head before releasing a yawn. "Looks like Batman was just being paranoid." Despite having known that none of the artefacts being magical, Bruce had still been insistent that there was something in the auction that should not fall into the wrong hands.
He hadn't told them yet, which wasn't unusual it was just...odd.
Reaching up to her ear, Batgirl pressed the button on her commlink. "It's all clear," Batgirl said letting Bruce know as he sat in the auction.
The plan was simple, Batgirl and Robin would deal with those trying to get inside, while Bruce would use his considerable fortune to buy the artefact and if the enemy arrived before that, secure it.
If things went really bad, he would also act as the last line of defence
'Hopefully, it won't come to that.' Batgirl thought.
クリエイターの想い 
Carrots123
Carrots123 So, another chapter is done and with it, we get the introduction of Rose Wilson, daughter of Slade Wilson and the Ravager. They have a friendly rivalry with one another, one fostered by Slade Wilson to push the two to their limits and now they, have a mission. Meanwhile, in Gotham, the Bat Family are preparing for a potential attack upon an auction. Anyway, hope you all enjoyed and if you have any questions or suggestions, please let me know.
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