Unexpected Arrival

The euphoria he felt as his victory was all but assured was an impossible feeling to describe.

Talon smirked as he looked at the mask of Batman he held in one hand, completely forgetting about the other three heroes. 'I've done it.' He thought triumphantly as he stood there. 'I've won, Gotham is mine!' A smile formed beneath his mask as he closed his eyes, Talon taking a deep breath before chuckling.

He then turned and looked around over the burning Batcave, eyes panning over the fallen monuments of Batman's victories in the earlier parts of his career. Then his ears picked up on the sound of pounding and looked towards the large that had once been opened, the metal frame of the mech suit broken apart and further trapping the Undead Talons inside.

Realisation filled him and quickly, they scanned the area for any sign of the three heroes but found nothing.

Knowing they could either be unconscious, killed in the blast or hiding in wait, he moved forward cautiously and scanned his surroundings carefully. He was very conscious of the latter possibility, waiting for him to lower his guard before ambushing him. The fact that they hadn't done so earlier told Talon they were either unconscious, dead or had survived the explosion and sustained some injuries that prevented them from attacking straightaway.

Moving forwards cautiously, Talon kept analysing the area for any sign of the three.

That's when his ears picked up the sound of whistling and looked to see three Batarangs flying towards him, his eyes picked up on their trajectory of them. He jumped into the air and it proved to be a wise decision because as soon as they pierced the ground, they exploded catching Talon in the aftershock.

At the same time, Esau burst out from behind his hiding spot and as soon as Talon landed on the ground stumbling slightly, he was already swinging his fist around. It was time perfectly, coming in with too much speed for Talon who was not only unsteady on his feet and blinded by arrogance but was unprepared for an assault despite expecting one.

The attack slipped through the hasty guard Talon put up and Esau's fist dug into the assassin's stomach, following this up with two fast and powerful punches to the man's side and then an uppercut that snapped his head back. To finish it all off, Esau landed a spinning back kick to the man's stomach sending him rolling across the ground.

Getting to his feet, Talon recovered and parried Esau's next attack and while Esau stumbled forwards having been put off-balance, Talon was already following it up with a roundhouse kick.

Gasping, spittle burst from Esau's mouth as he stumbled back, completely exposed.

However, Talon did not capitalise and instead stood by to allow Esau to recover. "I'm surprised at you, Esau. Surprised and disappointed." Talon stated as Esau released a final cough before raising his guard, his stomach protested due to how much power was in the kick.

"Oh yeah," Esau replied. "What makes you think I care?"

"Oh, I doubt you do," Talon said and Esau could tell he was smiling beneath his mask. "But I must say I didn't expect you to be so rash and attack me head-on, surely you don't think you can win this fight. Or is it a matter of you not winning and simply distracting me?" Esau's eyes flickered slightly to where Batgirl had peeked her head out.

Talon noticed this and looked only for him to see nothing; Batgirl had quickly hidden behind the debris once more.

"I see, so that's your plan. You and Batgirl or Robin are simply the distraction while the other comes up and takes the detonator from me." Chuckling, Talon pulled out the detonator from one of the hidden pockets on his suit. "This is your target, very well." Waving it slightly as if to mock Esau, the assassin then clipped the detonator to his waist. "Let's see if you have what it takes to take it."

Esau didn't move however and remained standing where he was. 'What's he playing at?' Esau questioned internally, wondering why the Talon was being so arrogant. He always was, but it served the purpose of making his opponents angry and giving him the advantage when they inevitably made mistakes. 'But this, he's being different. It's not like him to be arrogant like this, it's different to his usual arrogance.'

Cautiously, Esau moved forwards.

Another handful of Batarangs cut through the air thanks to Robin and Talon quickly had to dive to one side, Esau using this as an opening, rushing forwards to engage Talon in close quarters. It was a quick and brutal exchange that resulted in Robin having to use a few Batarangs to stop Talon from continuing his assault on Esau's exposed body.

Putting some distance between them, Esau panted heavily as he coughed, a few cuts across his body bleeding slowly.

Again, Esau circled Talon in a similar fashion to Batman, wary of getting close where he knew he would have no chance of winning. But at the same time, Esau knew that the only way he would be able to distract Talon would be by getting up close and personal.

Sighing, Esau tensed his shoulders before charging in once more.

Much like before, Esau threw the first strike only for Talon to easily counter the attack.

Ducking under the kick and going for a slash, however, unlike before Esau leaned his head back so that the claws were within a hairsbreadth of cutting him. Using this, Esau followed up with a strike like before only for it to be blocked and then to receive a backhand that whipped Esau's head to one side. But, much like Talon had taught him, Esau spun with the strike using the momentum to follow up with a punch that Talon easily avoided. The blonde vigilante then crouched down using his right hand to continue his attack, except this time he went lower and tried to cut at the detonator and free it from its hold on Talon's waist.

Yet, all he managed to do was lightly scratch the edge of the detonator as Talon jumped backwards.

Moving backwards, Talon lashed out with a kick that Esau blocked and went to follow up with a straight jab.

Catching it, Talon used Esau's momentum to throw Esau away in order to put some distance between the two of them.

Esau got to his knees and looked at Talon with narrowed eyes, something Talon did in turn, no longer underestimating his former student. "Almost had you there," Esau said. "Must be getting slow."

Clenching his fists, Talon tensed his body in anger but took a deep breath to calm himself down so as to not let his anger get the better of him. Normally he was in control of his emotions, but with victory so close and it nearly being stripped from his grasp had caused him to be a little more emotional than normal.

Not saying anything, Talon decided to stop playing with Esau and charged forwards intent on ending this as soon as possible.

Again, another few Batarangs were launched at him from his left, but Talon just dodged them with ease and continued his charge to Esau who had lowered into a defensive stance in preparation.

Thanks to his own training, the holes that once were in Esau's guard had lessened but had not completely disappeared.

Esau also lacked the experience to tell faints from actual strikes and as a result, fell quite easily for Talon's numerous tricks. Raising one hand in order to block a punch from the assassin, Esau left his stomach exposed to a roundhouse kick that slammed into his side. The force behind it picked Esau off his feet as he felt his ribs shift and crack in places.

Still, Esau made sure to stand his ground, thanking Robin for the long-distance support as the Batarangs halted Talon's follow-up strike.

It didn't give Esau much time, but it gave him enough in order to regain his footing.

Even then, Talon was on him once more.

Blow after blow struck Esau's guard which was firm and strong, managing to block most of Talon's strikes though due to his clawed gloves, Esau became covered in cuts more appearing as time went by. 'Shit!' Esau cursed mentally as Talon started going for some slashes to Esau's legs but thanks to Batman's suit, Esau only received a few smaller cuts instead of deeper ones. 'This isn't looking good. Come on, Barbara. I need you to save my ass.'

Again, and again, Talon kept on attacking Esau who tried his best to block as many as he could, but no matter how hard he tried more and more of Talon's attacks kept slipping through his guard.

Then, he saw her.

Having seen that Talon was solely focused on Esau and spending another few seconds to ensure that wouldn't change, Barbara then burst out from behind her hiding place. She had nearly been seen by Talon previously, Barbara had been cautious and moved to a different location, then it was a matter of waiting for Talon's back to become exposed to her.

It killed her to watch Esau be unable to do anything but defend against Talon's never-ending assault.

The trained assassin just kept coming and her friend was barely managing to block the strikes coming his way.

But she had to wait, wait until the correct moment presented itself before she could strike.

Then it came.

With no time to waste and throwing all stealth out of the window, Barbara ran as fast as she could, stumbling slightly in the beginning due to her concussion, but Barbara pushed on.

Esau was being attacked and would be killed if she didn't do something.

Without hesitation, Barbara rushed forwards and she saw Esau's eyes flicker to her.

Talon must have seen it as well as he turned to look, lashing out with a sidekick to Esau's stomach and went to turn around. Or would have had Esau not dug his claws into Talon's leg and held it firmly in place, the claws of his gloves digging through muscle and latching onto bone.

The sudden resistance to his movement left Talon off balance allowing Barbara to rip the detonator from his waistline and moved away.

With a roar of anger, Talon went to swipe at Esau only for the blonde to move his head back, even then it was not fully out of the way. Some shallow cuts opened up on his face and blood spilt out, blinding him slightly yet he did nothing except keep his iron-tight grip on Talon's leg, digging the claws of his gloves in deeper.

That's when he felt Talon's other foot collide with the side of his temple and it took all Esau had in order to just stay conscious. Yet somehow, he not only did that but also managed to keep his grip on Talon's leg, his right foot only shifting slightly in order to keep his stance firm.

Knowing that staying in close any longer would be suicide, Esau dragged his claws down Talon's leg leaving deep cuts and tearing through all the man's muscles on his lower leg and put some distance between them where he dropped to his knees with a groan. Esau then wiped away the blood clouding his vision as best as he could, his head pounding viciously making him feel nauseous. Even with some of the blood wiped away, there were still blotches of red and his vision was fuzzy, Talon's figure switching between two, three and four copies of him

"Esau, are you alright?" Barbara asked, coming to crouch down beside him and Esau nodded his head, unable to talk as he focused on recovering his breath.

Both of them then looked at Talon, seeing him taking in deep breaths as he tried to ignore the pain he felt, blood pooled from his legs where it seeped out of ten deep lines in his leg that had shredded muscle, tendons and even ligaments.

It would be a physical impossibility for him to be even capable of standing on it, let alone continuing this fight.

Yet even like that, neither Esau, Barbara or Robin dared get close.

"I'll kill you!" Talon snarled angrily. "You've ruined everything! Everything I've worked so hard for and you've ruined it all!" Getting to his knees Talon revealed that he had a few Batarangs held in between the fingers of his right hand, no doubt being the ones thrown by Robin throughout the course of the fight. "I'll kill you!"

He threw the Batarangs with as much strength as he could muster and the aim would be true.

The three were nearby one another and in various states of injury that would make avoiding the Batarangs all but impossible.

However, they were saved by a wall made entirely up of green light that sprung to life in front of them, the Batarangs exploding against it, not even leaving a scratch upon its pristine surface.

All of them then looked up to see a figure clad in green floating in the air, his right hand extended as a ring glowed, brighter than the suit he wore.

"Well, this is certainly something I didn't expect." The figure said, slowly floating to the ground and revealing himself to Hal Jordan.

The Green Lantern.