13 End of Black Mask

"Give up, kid." Deadshot moved forward, his modified assault rifle aimed at Esau's head. "You're done." Instead, Esau shakily rose to his feet and presented one hand to show that dangling from one hand was a pin.

Deadshot's eyes widened in shock and moved back to put some distance between himself and Esau, at the same time the blonde leapt forwards after him. That's when the grenade exploded, the tower of boxes that had broken Esau's fall exploding outwards sending large spikes of wood out, piercing cars due to the sheer force behind them.

By some miracle, none of the large pieces of wood struck Esau or Deadshot as they were only peppered with smaller fragments. However, Esau was picked up, the explosive force of the grenade pushing him forwards quicker than he could actually move on his own.

Just like he had planned.

Deadshot who had lifted one of his wrist-mounted guns to shoot at Esau was suddenly caught off-guard as Esau closed the distance between them in a fraction of a second. One hand slapped his wrist back down and Deadshot was left defenceless as Esau slammed a powerful punch into his jaw.

Head whipping back, Deadshot went with the momentum and rolled across the ground, his modified gun skidding across the floor away from him.

Even then, Esau was on him and threw a roundhouse kick that Deadshot only just managed to block in time. This left him exposed to the front kick that struck his chest and once again, he rolled across the ground to try and put some distance between himself and Esau. But just like before, Esau was on him once more, quick and without hesitation, not giving Deadshot a chance to gather himself and it was working.

Scrambling to his feet, Deadshot managed to parry a straight jab with his right hand and with his left, lined up his wrist-mounted machine gun to pepper Esau with bullets. However, the blonde had expected this and gripped it with his free hand while swinging his other around to slam an elbow into Deadshot's jaw.

As Floyd stumbled away, Black Hood closed in while unsheathing one of his knives and with it came a realisation, he was unpredictable, but not dangerous. It was clear to see that Esau had a number of techniques under his belt and no set style or rhythm with which he fought making him unpredictable. Floyd couldn't predict how Esau was going to respond because he had so many options available to him and that would have made him dangerous.

If only he knew how to throw a punch and kick properly.

Black Hood was an amateur whose body was rigid, his body making overtly choreographed moves that not only left him completely exposed but made it easy to see it coming. His punching was more solid, yet even then, he didn't snap his punches, instead following through every time and as a result, putting himself off-balance as he overextended every strike. He didn't know how to pace himself, relying on brute force with the intention of every blow being a knockout blow, but in doing so, against a dangerous opponent, the danger of his unpredictable style was mitigated massively.

Not to mention, the time it took for him to decide on which move to respond with would take a fraction of a second if not more so than an average fighter. This was a dangerous thing for Black Hood as that minuscule moment of hesitation would leave him vulnerable and was precisely the reason why martial arts had developed set ways to counter and respond to certain strikes. It allowed martial artists to train their bodies on how to respond subconsciously, removing any hesitation or thinking required.

This was something Esau learned the hard way when Deadshot managed to duck and weave through his slashes with ease.

In the midst of their confrontation, Esau pulled out his second knife and came at Deadshot with increased ferociousness. Yet despite all that, Deadshot continued to weave in between his blows with ease, masterfully avoiding every strike with trained ease and occasionally parrying those blows that were getting a little too close for comfort.

As Esau came down to stab Deadshot in the shoulder, the man in question rose one hand to grip his wrist, stopping it dead in its track. When Esau went to stab into his opponent's side, it was once again stopped when Deadshot clamped his other hand around Esau's wrist leaving the blonde in quite an awkward position. While Deadshot had his arms comfortably on the right sides of his body, Esau on the other hand had his arms crossed over and so, was unable to exert as much force.

Something Deadshot used to his advantage as he drew Esau to him and head-butted Esau in the head.

Grunting, he stumbled temporarily dazed and Deadshot used this opportunity to finally line up his wrist-mounted machine guns and opened fire. A number of bullets embedded into Esau's bulletproof vest and the force would have already knocked him to his backside, the fact that a few bullets struck his legs only quickened the process.

"You did good, but I'm afraid this is where it ends," Deadshot informed, short of breath after the exchange he just had with Black Hood.

"Well done, Deadshot." Clapping came from up above and Esau and Deadshot turned to see Black Mask walking down the steps, flanked by his four remaining guards. "Well done indeed."

"Black Mask!" Esau spat out and got to his feet, Deadshot turned to face Esau once more, but he made a mistake and got too close to Esau. With a bloody grin, he smacked the gun to one side and pulled out his knife and stabbed it into Deadshot's side, right into the gap between two of the more burly parts of his armour.

His aim was good and the force behind it more so.

For you see, Deadshot's armour was not made of solely Kevlar and was made of other highly resistant and durable materials woven together. Parts of this armour were very thick and other parts were weaker to allow more manoeuvrability.

Esau just so happened to stab his knife right into one of those areas and Deadshot let out a shout of pain.

Black Mask and his thugs went to fire at Esau only for one of the boarded windows to be broken apart as the shadowy figure of Batman descended onto the ground.

The four guards recognised the more immediate and recognisable danger, turning to fire at Gotham's Dark Knight.

Esau on the other hand kneed Deadshot and threw him into a car while pulling out one of his guns and aiming it at the person he had been trying to kill all these weeks. "Black Mask!" He shouted, the man turning to look at Esau in shock and then the gun fired.

A single bullet rippled through the air and struck Black Mask dead centre in between his eyes.

With wide eyes and blood pooling from the headshot, Black Mask fell to the ground unable to comprehend that he was dead.

-X-

Tuesday 24th, March, 13:35.

New Jersey,

Gotham City,

Gotham Academy.

Barbara performed numerous backward handsprings, narrowly avoiding the many spiked projectiles thrown her way by Clayface. Each one was sharp and embedded deeply into the ground and would have no doubt skewered her completely had they hit, but she was light-footed and quick.

Landing in a crouch, she rolled to one side and launched two Batarangs that struck the ground at Clayface's feet, avoiding more projectiles. He didn't see them of course, he had been focused on Batman at the moment who had come upon him from above. The grotesque form that once belonged to an actor had changed his hands into that of a very sharp-looking scythe and a large hammer. He swung them around with no skill just pure power, instead hoping to land one powerful strike that would finish the caped crusader off once and for all.

Batman, however, expertly dodged all the strikes and after landing on Clayface's hammer, used that as a platform to backflip away into the air.

Before Clayface could do anything though, he noticed the many bat-shaped objects sticking into his body that all exploded in short succession of the other. This alone would not have done much, his body's unique constitution meant the explosives could only stall him for a short time. But this was exactly what Batman wanted as it stalled him long enough for Batgirl's Batarangs to also explode loosening the ground at the villains feet, sending him stumbling to the ground.

Both mentor and sidekick whipped out their heavily modified tasers that struck Clayface's body.

A normal taser can peak at around fifty thousand volts, this taser however peaked at ten times that number. The perfect amount necessary to knock Clayface out for good, the only problem was that it was a one-time use only and so, they had to be sparse when they used it.

Therefore, when the electricity actually ran through the conductive wire and came into contact with Clayface's body, the man-turned-creature roared out in pain before slumping to the ground unconscious.

His body slowly pooled out on the floor into a muddy puddle.

With a sigh, Batgirl moved towards Batman who was studying the unconscious body of Clayface closely. "Can you handle this, I need to, you know?"

"Go," Batman replied shortly.

"Okay, thanks." With that, Batgirl disappeared from the scene and back to school leaving Batman to watch as the police cautiously began to move Clayface's body into a specific holding container h had designed for the police.

'What were you up to, Basil Karlo? What were you aiming to achieve?' Before Batman could think further on this, his comm began beeping. "What have you got?"

"Reports of gunfire from the outskirts have come in," Alfred stated calmly, as Batman turned to face Clayface once more.

"When did they first get reported?"

"I do believe, it was a few moments after miss Gordon joined in to assist you with Clayface, sir." Batman's eyes narrowed, he was far too smart to believe in just coincidence, especially with something like that. "Sir?"

"Whereabouts in the outskirts?" Batman growled out as he pressed a button upon his suit to call for the Batwing.

"North West in one of the abandoned warehouses, I have already locked the location into the Batwing." Nodding his head, Batman used the grappling hook to get onto a nearby building and ran in the direction of the outskirts. His Batwing would come for him first, might as well make the journey quicker.

-X-

Tuesday 24th, March, 14:00.

New Jersey,

Gotham City,

Outskirts.

'It seems Black Hood has finished what he set out to achieve.' Batman thought grimly as he looked down upon the dead body of Black Mask with a frown.

From the looks of things, though Black Hood succeeded, it had not been clean or easy to achieve with numerous bodies scattered around the warehouse. Many of them were mutilated with bullet casings littering the floor, some cars burning and a large number of bullet holes covering the walls on all sides.

Even now, after having only just arrived a little more than ten minutes ago, he had deduced what happened.

But it was very clear to Batman that Black Hood was getting better.

Robin had described his fight in detail with Black Hood and said that he had dominated the fight with only a few minor hiccups to show for it. But no more than a few days later, Black Hood had gone on to fight Deadshot and live to tell the tale. It definitely showed that Black Hood had and was continuing to improve, making him wonder just how far Black Hood could go.

Speaking of Deadshot and Black Hood.

He couldn't find them anywhere.

He had spotted two sets of tracks, one leading east and one west.

The one going east he knew was to be Deadshot's and was no doubt going to the wind and somewhere safe, to recuperate and no doubt count his losses.

That meant that Black Hood had gone west and it seemed he had not been alone.

He could make out tyre tracks and Batman knew that someone had been here to help Black Hood get a quick getaway.

'He's definitely getting better.' Batman thought as he looked at the destruction in the warehouse and then his eyes landed on the crates, more specifically the blood coating some of them. 'Knowing Floyd, then it seems Black Hood did not escape unharmed and uninjured.'

The blood trail going west also helped Batman come to that conclusion as well.

"Alfred." He spoke to his butler over the radio. "Scan the records of the hospital and look for anyone that has come in recently or should do in the next day with a bullet wound." He did not expect Black Hood to go to a hospital, but it didn't hurt to be safe.

Moving forwards, Batman took a sample of the blood and then moved out to his Batwing.