Rage Monster

Monday 6th September, 17:25.

Bialya,

Bialyan Desert.

"Aqualad and Maelstrom!"

The sudden rush of memories from the past six months and with it the realisation that two of their teammates were missing.

"Where are they?"

Despite the worry for their two teammates, Robin's mind was focused on something else. "What happened next?" There was still the unanswered question as to what exactly resulted in their memories being erased, but Miss Martian looked just as confused as they were.

"I don't know!" Miss Martian exclaimed quickly. "That's the last thing I-we remember."

Quickly letting go of Artemis' hand, Kid Flash brought the whole group back to the more important matter at hand. "We landed here way over twenty-four hours ago. If Kaldur's been wandering the desert that long, well; that's not good for a guy with gills."

"Now that I know to look for him." Robin was quick to get onto the task, pulling up his holographic map and searching for Kaldur's locator. "He's close. But not moving."

"And what about Esau?" Barbara exclaimed. "If you remember, Esau was being experimented on by Cadmus six months ago."

That reminder made Kid Flash and Robin wince. "Cadmus put him on ice because he nearly destroyed an entire floor."

"And would have gone on to destroy Cadmus without us being there to stop him." Kid Flash finished.

"▄▅▄▅▂▂▃▃▄▄▅!"

This was soon followed by an echoing animalistic roar.

"That's not good." Kid Flash admitted, remembering what happened the last time he encountered an out-of-control Esau. That memory had stuck with him since it had happened, replaying in his mind as a constant reminder of how helpless he had been. It was the first time Kid Flash had ever felt truly powerful and one of the reasons he avoided Esau as much as he did.

That was when they heard the distant sounds of gunfire and explosions.

"▄▅▄▅▂▂▃▃▄▄▅!" Another animalistic roar followed.

"Batgirl!" Artemis shouted out as the girl in question burst from her position and into the direction of where her map indicated Esau's location to be. Yet Barbara did not so much as look back as the remainder of the team remainder where they were, unsure of what to do next.

-X-

Sunday 6th September, 17:45.

Bialya,

Bialyan Desert.

Panting heavily, Barbara sprinted across the desert floor toward where she could hear the sound of combat originating from. She could see the flashes of light and smoke rising into the air over the large sand dune ahead over. The constant eruption of gunfire echoed around her as the Bialyan military battled against what she knew was a berserk Esau.

Reaching the dune, Barbara clambered up it as quickly as she could and as she reached the top, crawled up the last few inches to see what was happening below. There across the desert, she could see an entire platoon of soldiers moving in to try and surround a large plume of smoke and sand, officers screaming out orders. Other soldiers were moving their injured comrades to safety, leaving the bodies of their dead comrades in place. At a further distance, the lone tank not destroyed was waiting for the moment the soldiers got into position.

Then it fired.

It struck something, exploding outward and launching more sand and smoke out in all directions.

For a few moments, Barbara lay there in silence, waiting and watching for any sign of movement from whatever the tank had hit. Then the smoke moved unnaturally, a pillar rushing forward toward the tank with incredible speed. Slowly the smoke wrapped around the figure dissipated revealing Esau bounding across the floor on all fours.

Clawed hands digging into the ground, propelling him across the ground, utilising the muscles of his arms in conjunction with his legs to increase his speed tenfold. It took more than a second for Esau to close the distance between him and the tank, the bullets fired his way whizzing past unable to keep up with the speeds at which he was moving. All the while, Esay leapt into the air, landing upon the tank and swinging his arm down with such force upon the turret that it bent.

He then ripped open the hatch to the tank and jumped inside.

Screams and gunfire erupted before it went silent inside as the other Bialyan soldiers moved to close in on the tank, guns poised and ready. A clawed hand gripped hold of the edge of the tank, metal groaning as it folded under the pressure he inflicted upon it. There, Esau rose up from the hatch with his lips pulled back into a snarl as sharpened fangs peaked out.

"آتش باز! او را بکش! (Open fire! Kill him!)" One of the commanding officers of the Bialyan soldiers cried out as the soldiers behind him fired upon Esau.

"NO!" Barbara shouted as Esau standing tall was riddled with bullets, falling back to the ground behind the tank.

Her scream attracted the attention of more than a few soldiers who upon scouring the surroundings, quickly discovered her location as Batgirl ducked down to avoid the sudden hail of bullets. Remaining behind cover, Barbara thumbed numerous Batarangs and took a quick peek over the edge only to suddenly hide again as they fired on her again.

However, she did manage to get a good look at where the soldiers were positioned, many approaching her position in a semi-circle formation, guns raised toward her. Behind them, another two groups had broken off trying to flank her position while another group approached the tank cautiously, no doubt to ensure that Esau was down for good.

Taking a deep breath, Barbara prepared herself mentally before jumping up and swinging her arm around as hard and as fast as she could. The Batarangs left her fingers, arcing through the air toward the soldiers and as soon as they left her fingers, Barbara was already back behind cover, sliding down the hill. The last thing she needed to be doing was staying in the same position, especially when she had been exposed, to do so would be just suicidal considering these weren't common thugs but trained soldiers.

She needed to move toward a new, more defensible location before the two flanking forces reached her.

As she moved, Barbara could hear the sounds of Batarangs exploding.

None of the soldiers wouldn't be killed, but they would certainly be in pain and out for the count.

"او در حال بازگشت است! (He's coming back!)"

Hearing the shouting of soldiers, Barbara once again rushed up another dune to take a position to look down upon the movement of the Bialyan soldiers. Though they were still aware of her, a small squadron still approaching her, the vast majority had turned back to face the tank once more where Esau had come out from behind the tank.

Growling, Esau leapt into the air and landed with a crash in the middle of a large group of soldiers, his hands swinging around as men were thrown into the air. His claws cut through bulletproof armour with ease as the berserk Esau tore through an entire platoon of soldiers. At this point, the soldiers approaching her turned their attention back to Esau yet nothing they did worked as Esau even when being struck by bullets kept moving forward as he rapidly healed.

Eventually, the soldiers still standing decided to abandon their fruitless efforts of battling against Esau who continued to rampage without pause. Each of them turned and ran away, some dropping their weapons in fear Esau preparing to give chase.

Yet before he could give chase, a shadow descended over him as Esau reflexively turned up to see a figure coming down toward him. He was then suddenly struck with a powerful blow, the ground beneath him cratering from the force as a plume of sand rose into the air. Out from it rolled Kaldur who backpedalled a little further to put some distance between him and Esau, his Water-Bearers poised into water blades in a defensive stance.