39 The Hammer

Thursday 23rd April 2009, 22:00.

New Jersey,

Gotham City,

East End.

There was always going to be conflict.

Gotham would cease to exist without it, the city had been built upon the violent acts of its inhabitants after all. This environment created a certain sort of people, those equally as easily to scare as they were impossible to surrender without a fight. It was why, despite everything Batman had done, the chaos the villains of Gotham had created, people still turned to crime. They not only didn't know a different type of life, but it was the only way for them to survive.

Even though they may be terrified of the consequences of their actions, people still turned to crime in order to survive. Yet, as humanity had done since the dawn of mankind, when their livelihoods were threatened, when their entire existence was threatened, they fought back.

Now was no different.

His reputation was large and infamous, driving people away from Black Mask in fear of getting caught in his rampage. But they had other options, other organisations they could attach themselves to.

These people did not.

Even as he cut them down, bullets piercing through flesh and bone, they did not surrender. They knew now, better than ever before, that he was going to come after them all the same. It was better for them to try their hardest until their dying breaths to fight back, rather than trying to live on false hopes.

Throwing the grenade into the factory, it exploded outwards, causing a chain reaction that grew with the addition of other harmful and flammable chemicals. The eruption destroyed the room and many others, Esau meanwhile walking out onto the streets, stepping over bodies as he moved on by, not even sparing them a glance.

The polices scouring of Gotham had caused a great upheaval that had sent reverberations throughout the city. Along with it, a number of top lieutenants and in a few rare heads of Families and syndicates had been arrested. The Court of Owls had used the police as tools, planting evidence that gave the police all they needed to arrest them. They had used the urgent threat of the Fearless Toxin to force the police into action, they tearing the city apart in search of the toxin. The evidence they planted on the way was obvious, but in a city as corrupt as Gotham, such things were sometimes a necessary evil.

With these actions, the Court of Owls had crippled Gotham's organised crime and would have capitalised upon it had they not been stopped. But instead, it opened the way for the Casa Nostra to make a move, still fighting one another, yet also turn their attention outwards.

They had since been expanding rapidly, or had been for a few short hours.

That's when Black Hood made a move.

He didn't waste time like he had done against Black Mask, Esau was much more skilled and experienced than he was back then. Instead, he had made big moves and plays from the outset, though not without a little help on the side when it came to information.

His group of supporters serving as his own information network as well as arms dealers. They purchased weapons from local gun stores that were then delivered to him, no matter whether they were illegal or not to own, such things didn't exist in Gotham. But above all else, they moved about the streets, as always pretending to ignore everything going on around them, but secretly documenting everything they heard.

Esau knew of a few who had been caught for doing such things, the natural consequence being death. But he liked to think that their sacrifices had not been in vain and that their killers paid the price whether by his hand or another's.

Yet it was by no means easy, the injuries that still plagued him from his fight against the Undead Talons and Talon making fighting many times more difficult. They got in his way, making his punches slower and weaker, the movements once concise and sharp, sluggish and off-balance. However, over the past few hours, with very little time spent sleeping or resting, Esau had adapted, just as he always seemed to do. Adrenaline kept pumping through his body, allowing him to move despite the agony he was in, Esau instead altering the movements of his techniques in order to maximise power and speed in his current state of injury.

It had been, as it always was, trial and error.

Fights against even the most common of thugs had been difficult, but the best teaching experience to adapt to fighting while injured. Now, while nowhere near his best, Esau was still proving that as Black Hood, he was a forced to be reckoned with. He relying not just purely on his fists, but instead thinking much more clearly on his next move, constantly keeping his injuries as a factor when making his move.

The vibration of his phone made Esau pause, looking around to the nearby rooftops only to see nothing. "What is it?" He asked gruffly, answering the phone.

"I have some news." Deathstroke's voice sounded down the other end.

His supporters despite all the hard work were not his only source of information, but they also weren't even his best source of information. Despite their numbers and how widespread they were, it was clear they couldn't tap into the right channels to get the best and most up-to-date sources of information on the inner goings of Gotham. They often only figured out something was going on when or after it had happened which was by no means a good thing for him.

Deathstroke on the other hand could give him that information giving Esau plenty of time to react accordingly. Esau didn't like it, but he could not deny that he would be nowhere near as effective as he was being if it wasn't for Deathstroke's information.

"What news?"

"The Panessa Family is dead." A single statement that left Esau momentarily stunned.

The Panessa Family was one of the six Families of the Casa Nostra and also one of the more powerful ones as well. Out of the six Families, it was more than likely that the Panessa was going to be one of the most suspected to take control of the Casa Nostra thanks to their connections with the Falcone Family.

Yet, the Panessa Family were dead?

Esau had certainly targeted them purely because of the power they held and their potential to take control of the Casa Nostra, the base he had just attacked was one of their outposts, but they were dead? That didn't make sense to him because Esau had by no means done enough damage to them that it would enable the other Families to take them out so quickly.

"How?"

"You played a small part," Deathstroke answered. "The police and the other families a smaller part."

"Then who? Batman?"

"Batman hasn't been seen since he attacked the Street Demonz for being suspected of transporting the Fearless Toxin." They had been guilty of it, a biker gang working as hired muscle that proved very effective as guards of convoys and such. Mostly because they knew the tricks of the trade when it came to attacking armoured convoys. It was because of that reason Batman had attacked them, but that was before the final confrontation with the Court of Owls in the Batcave.

"Another one of the crime syndicates? The Cartels or Triads?" They were the most likely options because unlike the other Families and syndicates of Gotham, their man base wasn't here, it was elsewhere, often overseas. While that made them weaker here in Gotham, less established and such, it did mean they could recover much quicker in times of crisis like these.

"The Hammer."

Another pause.

"Who?"

"The Hammer," Deathstroke repeated.

"I heard you the first time, but who the fuck is that?" Esau replied.

"You don't know, that's surprising. Though I suppose they're not that well-established outside of being a group of hired muscle for most of the other organisations." Deathstroke muttered more to himself. "The Hammer is a group of ex-KGB, Navy Seals, SAS and other special forces groups from across the world. They have more recently been expanding their numbers by inviting regular servicemen that had been honourably and dishonourably discharged from military service."

From that alone, Esau got a picture of what kind of organisation they were like, but he was hardly concerned. Though he got his ass kicked, he had managed to survive against the likes of Deadshot and Talon, also momentarily fight Robin on equal footing and temporarily overwhelm Batgirl.

Esau was cautious, but confident that should he face them, he'd win, even while injured.

He just needed to think and weigh his options.

"They mostly work as hired muscle and as hitmen. Most organisations in Gotham hire the Hammer to target political and corporate rivals, used not just by the criminal element of the city, but even the so-called respectable elements in Gotham." Deathstroke explained. "They have more recently been working as gun smugglers throughout the city, with some minor dabbling in narcotics and such. But they've kept their heads down and avoided stepping on too many toes. They're quite respected and in very high demand because like mercenaries, they work for the highest bidders."

"But they don't want to live like that anymore?" Esau questioned, starting to see where this was going.

"I'm not certain, but I suspect so yes," Deathstroke replied. "However, the Beretti, Cassamento, Galante and Inzerillo Families are holding a meeting. They suspect the newest addition to the Casa Nostra, the Bertinelli Family behind the Panessa Families' destruction."

Though the Casa Nostra were originally formed from the five Families, the Panessa, Beretti, Cassamento, Galante and Inzerillo Families, they had joined hands with a sixth, the Bertinelli Families a few decades ago. It was around the time that Gotham was split in two between the Falcone and Maroni Families. In order to try and stop themselves from submitting to one of the two powers, they had joined with a sixth family, the Bertinelli's.

But the Bertinelli's had always been the outliers of the syndicate.

It wouldn't surprise Esau if they were behind this.

"Do you know where they're meeting and when?" Esau wondered, more concerned with this meeting than anything else. This was the perfect opportunity to take out the Casa Nostra in one fell swoop, one of the families was dead, another four were meeting and that would just leave one left standing. If he could take out the four now, then he could cripple the Casa Nostra for good and send a bigger message to all of Gotham.

"I wouldn't suggest going."

"Why not?"

"The Hammer will more than likely be going as well and the meeting hasn't exactly been kept quiet. It's more than likely a trap."

Esau didn't care though. "A trap for the Hammer and Bertinelli Family, not a trap for me."