Or They Will Send A Talon For Your Head

A week has passed since Jordan and Bruce first entered the tunnels. A week has gone by without a message or notification. Since their disappearance, the Batfamily has been working overtime to find them and save them, except for Tim. Tim has his mission. Let's cut to his perspective right now. In a mob-owned Italian restaurant, chefs cook food in the kitchen. One of the waiters picks up a platter of food and brings it to the table in the dining room. He quickly places it on the table and jogs back to the kitchen.

"Lil Frankie was getting a little reckless and I had to put him in his place. Four bullets in the back of his head helped humble him," said the mob boss.

"Four bullets, boss? Isn't that a little radical?" asked the underling.

"What did you say?" asked the mob boss.

"Well, Frankie was still young and he could have been a good asset," said the underling.

"Do you believe I made a stupid mistake?" asked the mob boss.

"I would have made a different choice. That's all I'm trying to say," said the underling.

"Ok. I understand. Can you see what's taking the chefs so long? I'm starving," said the mob boss.

"Yes, sir," said the underling.

The underling makes his way towards the kitchen but doesn't make it far before being shot in the head by his boss. His dead body falls to the ground as blood pours out of the bullet hole on the cement floor.

"I guess I just lost another Consigliere. Oh well. I'll just find another one," said the mob boss.

"Good right-hand men are rare these days. You shouldn't kill them, you know?" said Talon.

"You're right, but I don't care. I, wait. Who said that?" said the mob boss.

"Me," said Talon.

Talon walks out of the shadows and scares the mobsters sitting at the table. He pulls out two throwing knives as he stares at the mobsters.

"Hello, mobsters. I will be your evening entertainment tonight. Who wants to come up and be my little volunteer," said Talon.

"Eat steel, freak! Fire!" exclaimed the mob boss.

The mobsters fire on the assassin as he dodges the bullets. Talon throws a few smoke bombs and the smoke is dispensed, allowing Tim to track the mobsters from behind. Tim leaps over the mobsters and kicks a couple in the face. The other mobsters are easily dealt with with a few throwing knives and a few strikes and punches from the duo. The only one left is the mob boss and he slowly backs into a corner.

"Don't hurt me. I can pay you a lot of money," said the mob boss.

"Do you think we care about money?" asked Talon.

"Foolish criminal. We didn't come to take your money," said Tim.

"But, we are willing to take your pathetic, evil life," said Talon.

"You have killed many innocent people with your drugs and goons. Money won't make me turn the other way. Not today. Not ever," said Tim.

"I will stop. Just let me go," said the mob boss.

"I don't think that begging will work. Let's teach him a lesson," said Talon.

Talon and Tim proceed to beat down the overweight mob boss. They punch. Kick, and knee the bastard for a few minutes until laying him out on the ground. Tim slams his foot on his head to show dominance.

"Please stop," said the mob boss.

"Never," said Tim.

"Finish him. His reign of terror on the East End ends tonight," said Talon as he hands Tim a knife.

"Fine. Any last words?" said Tim.

"You won't kill me, kid. Your balls are too small and shriveled up," said the mob boss.

"Well, you should have said something worthwhile. This will be the last moments of your garbage life after all," said Tim.

Tim raises the knife high in the air and plunges it into the mob boss's chest, right under his heart. The mob boss screams in pain after being stabbed by the golden knife.

"You missed his heart," said Talon.

"Internal bleeding will end him. He will be gone by the morning. Let's go," said Tim.

"You're going to make him suffer. Nice," said Talon.

"He was scum. He deserves to suffer," said Tim.

"You're learning. Good," said Talon.

As the two "heroes" walk out, the mob boss lifts his head and looks at them as they walk into the darkness. He tries to pull out the knife, but he is too weak.

"Come back and finish me off, you cowards! Aren't you supposed to be the Bat's brat! Why are you doing this!" exclaimed the mob boss.

"I'm no longer Batman's brat. I'm going my own way. Now, stay quiet and die. It will go faster if you stop talking," said Tim.

The two vigilantes walk out of the restaurant and scale the building by jumping and proceed to run across the rooftops. They look at each other as they run.

"So, you're no longer a Robin?" asked Talon.

"Maybe. I'm enjoying what we're doing. We're doing things that make Gotham safer. Batman would never do this," said Tim.

"Great. You should go home now. I don't think Batman or his allies would like my influence on you," said Talon.

"They will understand. I'll explain it to them," said Tim.

"They seem stubborn about not killing," said Talon.

"They can change. We can change. If they care about Gotham, they won't interfere," said Tim.

"Hopefully, they will. I don't want to make enemies with my heroes," said Talon.

"You already have!" exclaimed Dick.

Dick throws an explosive Birdarang at the rooftop and it explodes, sending Talon and Tim flying in different directions. Tim and Talon quickly get back up as Dick lands on the rooftop.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Dick!" exclaimed Tim.

"I don't think that you know this, but that Talon guy isn't a vigilante looking to protect Gotham. He's a member of the Court," said Dick.

"Impossible. He's different. It's just a coincidence," said Tim.

"You're smart, Tim. Don't ignore the reality of the situation," said Dick.

"I'm not denying reality. You just have the wrong information. Why would Talon want us dead? He's a hero," said Tim.

"He's a killer and he wants to take you from us," said Dick.

"I'm not a piece of property for you bastards. I make my own decisions. You will not get in my way. Let's go, Talon," said Tim.

"No. I won't let you leave," said Dick.

"You will. I don't want to fight you and you don't want to fight me. Just let us go and we will be fine," said Tim.

"I would rather kill you than allow you to fall into the hands of the Court," said Dick.

"Ok then. If that is your choice, then come kill me," said Tim.

Tim grabs the R on his suit and rips it off. He then throws it off the roof and pulls out his bo staff. Talon turns around and walks towards the edge of the roof.

"Where are you going?" asked Tim.

"If you want to work with me, you have to deal with your issues. Take him down and then come find me. Prove to me that you want to be trained by me," said Talon.

"Fine," said Tim.

Talon hops off the roof and Dick walks up to Tim. He places his hand on Tim's head and gives him a noogie.

"You're a good actor. Throwing off the Robin symbol helped improve your performance," said Dick.

"Well, I have to act like I'm leaving the Robin position. If he knew our plan, I wouldn't be able to get this much information," said Tim.

"What information?" asked Dick.

"This," said Tim.

Tim pulls out a USB drive and gives it to Dick. Dick examines the drive and sees nothing special. Just a regular drive.

"What's on it?" asked Dick.

"Names of people the Court is going after. Weaknesses. The members of the Court. Old and future Talons. Everything that we need to know about them is on that drive. The Night is coming or it may already be here," said Tim.

"Good job, Tim. you were a good pick to join the family," said Dick.

"Don't thank me yet. I need a favor," said Tim.

"What do you need?" asked Dick.

"I need to be injured. If I just returned to him now, I wouldn't be able to trick him into believing we fought. So, hit me a few times," said Tim.

"Really?" asked Dick.

"Yeah. Do it," said Tim.

"Ok. You asked for this," said Dick.

Dick big boots Tim in the face quickly and then knees him in the stomach. Dick then punches him in the face a couple times and headbutts him. He grabs the Robin's bo staff and snaps it in half with his knee. Dick lands one more hit, a slap, across Tim's face and spills more blood. Tim grabs his nearly broken nose and gives Dick a thumbs up.

"Thanks, man," said Tim.

"No problem," said Dick.

Tim hops off the roof and grapples away to another rooftop. He runs across the rooftops until he sees Talon leaning on a wall. He throws a knife into the air and catches it multiple times. Tim walks up to him and he puts the knife away.

"So, you dealt with him?" asked Talon.

"Yes. he won't be bothering us anymore," said Tim.

"Nice, kid, but I haven't been honest with you. Nightwing was right. I'm not a good guy as you may think. I am a Talon for the Court, but I no longer want to be. I want to take them down. They have lost their vision and have become power-hungry. I've been using you, so I can have an ally to deal with them. You have pledged your loyalty to me, so wanna help?" said Talon.

"Sure. I'm not the biggest fan of secret societies anyway," said Tim.

"Good. Let's go now before the night begins. The reign of the Court ends tonight," said Talon.

Thirty minutes pass. In the Batcave, Jordan lays in a bed, still unconscious from the serum still pumping in his veins. He grips onto the bed and starts to breathe hard as he wakes up. Once he does, he screams, believing that he is still in the labyrinth, but he is now safe.

"Where am I?" asked Jordan.

"The cave," said Bruce.

"The Batcave?" asked Jordan.

"Yes," said Bruce.

"How did we escape?" asked Jordan.

"They let us. We would have died if they didn't let us escape. There were hundreds, maybe even thousands of those Talons. I didn't believe that they had that man Talons. Now that we know, we can prepare," said Bruce.

"What if we don't have time to prepare?" asked Jordan.

"Have faith, Jordan. We can deal with them. We survived multiple alien invasions. This one will be no different," said Bruce.

"If they attack tonight, we won't be ready. I just woke up and I can still feel a lot of pain. If I move, my stitches can rip and fall off and I'll start bleeding again," said Jordan.

"We'll find a way. I've been planning for something like this to happen. We will be fine," said Bruce.

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"Fine? We thought that we would be fine once we went into those tunnels and look what happened. How long were we there?" said Jordan.

"A week," said Bruce.

"A week!" exclaimed Jordan.

"Time flies when you're being hunted down by zombie assassins," said Bruce.

"It's no time for jokes, Bruce. We have to get ready to save Gotham from Gotham," said Jordan.

"Already ahead of you. I called Yin, Dick, and Jason. They will be here. Barbara will help us from a secure location because she can't be Batgirl in a wheelchair, but she can be Oracle. We won't lose. We can't" said Bruce.

"Ok. Maybe we won't lose," said Jordan.

"There's no maybe. Let's get started. There's no time to lose," said Bruce.

Twenty minutes pass. After slowly putting a new suit on, Red Hood, Nightwing, Batwoman, Batman, and Dark Phoenix now stand in front of the Batcomputer. The pictures and list of names on the USB drive appear on the screen.

"So, what is this?" asked Jason.

"The targets for the Court of Owls on the night that they return," said Bruce.

"They have this many targets. They don't like many people," said Yin.

"These are all the people that we have to protect. This won't be easy," said Dick.

"It won't be at all. A lot of these targets will die, but the most important goal is to defend Gotham. We can't allow this city to be controlled by these bastards," said Jordan.

"We will try to save as many as possible, but those that we can't, I will cover their funerals. That's the best that I can do," said Bruce.

"Tim is still out there and he is probably with the Court right now. We have to save him," said Dick.

"He will be fine. Talon won't hurt him. At least that's what I hope," said Bruce.

"We'll go get him once the night ends. Now, we have to deal with the Court," said Jordan.

"Because there are so many people, everyone will get a set of names of people that they will have to protect. You won't be able to save them all, but we have to try. Tonight, the Court falls," said Bruce.

Under the city, Talon and Tims slowly walk through the dark tunnels towards the Court. A flashlight is held by Tim, but not Talon. He knows his way through these. The "allies" see the light in the dark and walk towards it. They enter the light and walk into the court. The elites stand above them, looking at them. The Grandmaster is the one that Talon and Tim look at.

"Talon, present your student to the court," said the grandmaster.

"I gladly present this boy to the court. He may have been one of the Batman's allies, but he has dropped that mantle and has pledged his loyalty to me. This boy has great potential and I want him to be trained to become the Talon after me," said Talon.

"That's great to hear, but we need him to prove that he will be loyal to the Court," said Tim.

"He fought and defeated one of his closest allies. Isn't that good enough?" said Talon.

"We didn't see it. You could be lying to us. The mask. Make him remove it," said the grandmaster.

"Fine. Tim, do it," said Talon.

"I don't know why, but ok. I'm a nobody anyway," said Tim.

Tim pulls off his mask and reveals his young face to the Court. The Court isn't surprised by this revelation and applauds.

"You have proved your loyalty to the Court, young Tim. We will train you to become our next guardian. Our next Talon" said the grandmaster.

"Great. Now that he is officially a member of the Court, I want to give you guys a gift," said Talon.

"A gift for us? What is it?" asked the grandmaster.

"My resignation. In blood," said Talon.

"Huh?" asked the grandmaster.

Talon leaps into the air and pulls out a few throwing knives. He throws them at some of the elites and kills them. He then lands in front of the Grandmaster and stares into his eyes through his owl mask.

"Run," said Talon.

"How could you do this? We raised you after your father was killed," said the grandmaster.

"I said run!" exclaimed Talon.

The grandmaster runs with his fellow elites as the massacre begins. All around the grandmaster. His elites fall one by one. Either stabbed by the throwing knives, Talon himself, or their throats slit by his blade. The grandmaster runs into a room and quickly places a chair under the knob. This won't stop Talon though. He just kicks down the door with his raw strength and slowly walks towards the grandmaster.

"What have you done?" asked the grandmaster.

Talon pulls off his owl mask and throws it to the ground. He then destroys one of the eyes with his blade.

"I was never one of you and I never will be. I and that boy came out of the same gutter because of trash like you. I've been waiting for this day for a very long time. You no longer rule Gotham. I do," said Talon.

"Think about what you're doing. You can't just make rash decisions like this. Deathstroke said that Trigon would leave Gotham alone and we could rule together," said the grandmaster.

"Has your old age made you naive, old man? Never make a deal with a demon or a mercenary. He was probably lying to us anyway," said Talon.

"I'll leave the city. You don't have to do this," said grandmaster.

"But, I have to, sir. Can't do an incomplete job. Once you reach Hell, tell Trigon to go eat a dick," said Talon.

With one quick slice, the grandmaster is decapitated and his old head falls to the ground. The Court is truly no more. The former Talon walks out of the room and hops off the ledge. He walks up to his protege and looks at him.

"You killed them all? That was quick," said Tim.

"There aren't many elites in the city," said Talon.

"So, what do we do now?" asked Tim.

"Well, we can only do one thing. Take over this city," said Talon.

"What?" asked Tim.

"Now that the Court is dead, we can protect this city efficiently by taking it over. There's no need for Batman or his allies now. We can do it together with the help of all of these Talons," said Talon.

"What are you going to do to them?" asked Tim.

"Get rid of them, of course. I don't want to have to deal with them later," said Talon.

"You can't. They're innocent," said Tim.

"I thought that you didn't care about them," said Talon.

"I don't, but they're still people," said Tim.

"You're my sidekick now. You do what I say and follow my methods. Let's go deal with your old friends," said Talon.

"I can't," said Tim.

"What?" asked Talon.

"I only signed up to defeat the Court. I didn't sign up to kill innocent heroes," said Tim.

"Oh. I understand. You're still soft. Fine, we won't kill Batman and his Batfamiliy," said Talon.

Talon places his right hand on Tim's shoulder and chops him on the back of his neck, knocking him out. He then grabs his unconscious protege and walks towards the chamber of Talons. He enters the large room and walks towards a canister. He opens it and places the unconscious Robin into it. He presses a button and the canister closes and water fills it.

"Don't worry, my friend. I will kill your old friends for you. You won't have to betray them anymore," said Talon.

Talon walks towards a panel and presses a few buttons and moves a few levers. Hundreds of canisters open and the zombie assassins slowly get out of the water and rise around their commander.

"My fellow Talons, the Court is dead, but do not fear! We will rise and take over Gotham! You know who you have to kill! Some of you will still do that, but I will need more assistance! Batman and his allies will need to be taken down tonight and we will outnumber and destroy them! The Talons will rule the night and no one will stop us!" exclaimed Talon.