Batman was flying to his son's location in Metropolis as fast as the Batwing could fly. They had sent the Batwing back to the Cave with coordinates set for Luthor's building. As the jet sliced through the air, he contacted Superman and Flash. They would need assistance as soon as metahumanly possible. It seemed they were attempting to seize the high ground. For what Batman wasn't sure, but his working theory was that their plan was to invade after they freed their allies from Earth 3. Flash answered the Watch Tower communication, the other JLA members meandering in the background in a low-key panic.

"Batman! Did you find them," he shot out the question almost too fast to understand. This gained attention and Batman almost snarled. He didn't have time for this. His sons were chasing a compromised Talon. The thought of Dick hurting his brothers made Bruce shudder.

"My allies did. Track our positions to Metropolis. A word of warning, the villains have compromised Nightwing. Flash, Superman, J'onn, and Diana, I need you here as fast as possible," Batman growled. They murmured consent before cutting the feed off. Just as well, Metropolis was rising from the horizon. The shining and safe city Superman patrolled. Dick had always wanted to visit as a civilian, to see a non-corrupt accumulation of humans. They had been planning one before this absolute shit-show.

The Batwing sliced the air like one of Damian's katanas, sharp and quick. Batman saw an ominous neon-blue glow from above Luthor's building as he approached. It pulsed and ebbed in an irregular pattern, light bleeding from the anomaly. It seemed that his theory had been correct (as per usual,) Earth-3 wanted more allies from their own world and had made a portal to do so. Lex Luthor's building was the tallest one in the West Coast, along with the added bonus of having useful gadgets Luthor had created. Luthor's employee's, along with the billionaire himself, were standing outside staring up at the light. Batman knew the bald man was intrigued, but knew better than to interfere…for now. This would have serious repercussions that Bruce didn't want to think of right now.

The Batwing slowed, stopping above the roof of the building. Batman assessed the situation as he exited the vehicle. Ultraman and Owlman stood next to a massive LexCorp control panel. The villains had forced a satellite dish (along with a plethora of other odds and ends Batman didn't have time to identify) onto the panel, from which a blue beam of light shot toward the sky, creating the pulsing portal. Owlman was tinkering with the contraption as Ultraman glared as Batman's sons. Dick was standing to the side, silent and still as a gargoyle. His eldest didn't even seem to be breathing anymore.

"Look, all we want is for you bastards to return Nightwing after you remove the mind voodoo you put him under and then fuck right on back to your own dimension," Red Hood spat. Batman's children were standing in a line together, weapons drawn. A silent intimidation tactic that Bruce remembered teaching the Robins.

"What if my little bird wishes to stay with me? Have you thought of that, children," Owlman taunted, not turning to see their reaction. Damian spat at that, lifting his katana higher in warning.

"Like Rich…Nightwing would ever return with you willingly. Why don't you release him from your hypnosis and ask him yourself," Damian retorted. His emotions were clouding his judgement if he had fumbled a name in the field like that. That made Owlman turn to face them, which is when he noticed Batman. A dark chuckle escaped the villain.

"Talon, why don't you…entertain our guests?" That was all Dick needed to slide into a defensive position in front of Owlman. His brothers didn't recognize the stance, but Bruce did. Dick was going to play with them, a deadly "owl and bat" hunt, as Dick had called what he had done to Bruce in the Court's Labyrinth. Damian was the first to instinctively cower at the dead look in his brother's eyes behind the mask. Jason was second, seeing death in the sinuous movement Dick made. Tim was the only one to see the desperate light behind Dick's eyes, behind the empty blue. He murmured to his brothers and they looked to Bruce for guidance.

Dick allowed a feral grin to crawl over his blank face. Just like when they fought in the Court's hellish labyrinth (when Bruce had encountered the assassin for the first time) and Bruce felt a terrible emotion fill his heart. Fear of his own child. He instantly slid in front of his other children in response of the feeling, ignoring their quiet question. This was a Talon, not their brother Nightwing, and they couldn't handle fighting that. They had never seen a true, trained Talon really, Dick had come so far after living at the Manor, training obsessively in non-lethal forms. Right now, Dick would rip them into shreds if they engaged. Bruce couldn't handle them getting harmed like that if they tried to assist in taking him down.

"Red Hood, lead the Robins in an attack against Owlman and Ultraman to prevent that portal from opening while I take care of Nightwing," he ordered, not turning to look at them. They tried to protest, but he raised a hand to silence them before they were voiced. "That portal cannot be allowed to open of we will most likely be overrun before the League has a chance to get here. Superman and others are on their way, but their ETA is unknown." After a slight hesitation, Batman heard them scatter. He then focused wholly on the Talon in front of him.

He was now lazily flipping a throwing knife end over end, catching it by the blade with pinpoint precision. Batman began to circle his opponent slowly as he assessed. Talon mirrored the motion with fluid grace, not once dropping the blade. The knife was tossed at his right eye without warning. As he dodged the projectile and shaving a bit from the side of his cowl, three more sheathed themselves in his left leg, one dangerously close to his patellar tendon.

Batman returned the favor with a Cryorang, a Batarang specifically made for defeating Talons that Bruce had hoped would stay decommissioned after the Court's fall. He was glad he hadn't destroyed the blueprints like he had originally planned once Clayface had slid into Gotham. Now they would fufill their original design once more. The weapon bit into Talon's left subscapularis muscle while also deeply scraping his clavicle before exploding with liquid helium. His son screeched in primal terror as he realized what Batman had done, ripping it from his body frantically with no concern to the damage the action or weapon would do to his body. He had been more focused on the freezing aspect of the projectile, Batman supposed. The wounds closed quickly, however, and Batman narrowed his eyes, cowl lenses following the movement.

Batman retrieved another Cryorang as the Talon reassessed his opponent. They were his best chance at defeating his son with the lowest risk of gaining an injury. He heard one of his other sons yell an inquiry to his health and he answered tersely that he 'was fine, focus on your own opponents'. Talon had taken advantage of his distracted opponent to attack with a spinning kick that collided with Batman's shoulder. The force of the attack dropped the black-clad man to a knee with a pained grunt. The sliver of confusion wormed deeper into his mind at that, but was shoved aside. Batman retaliated by grabbing Talon's extended leg with his left hand, bringing down his right arm's elbow down hard on the trapped appendage. The crack of a complete fracture sounded in the air as Batman slammed the young man to the ground with the rest of their combined momentum.

Talon gasped involuntarily as he collided with the earth, winded and in pain. Before Batman could pin his opponent down, strong legs wrapped around his neck in an extremely tight chokehold, giving no thought to the agony it caused his broken leg. Batman cursed breathlessly before his head was slammed into the ground with enough force to make the world flash a reddish white for a moment. He was quickly returned to clarity by the Talon drawing another knife. Batman twisted on instinct from the blade which also broke the chokehold, luckily. The blade slammed deep into the ground next to his face, sheathed to the hilt from the force of the attack, instead of his face.

Batman couldn't remember Dick this strong or agile before. Not to mention that his healing factor was obviously higher now since his leg seemed fully healed now. What had Owlman done to his son? He watched as Talon wrenched the silver blade from the ground before looking to his prey again. Talon's blank blue eyes shifted to a horrified gold for a second, body going stock still. Bruce began to rise at his opponent's hesitation, wondering at the sudden change.

The pause in the fight let Batman notice The Flash and Superman join the fight. Barry slammed into Owlman, channeling the momentum from running into a powerful sucker punch. Owlman crumpled, groaning. His helm was crumpled on one side, so Owlman had been defeated. The move seemed to coincide with Dick's hesitation, perhaps he was free of the hypnosis? Superman mirrored the same attack in mid-air to easily stun Ultraman, but the villain shook off the blow with a feral snarl. J'onn and Wonder Woman were there to support Superman, though, so Ultraman was hard-pressed to escape. Timothy ran to the control panel as Damian zip-tied Owlman's wrists (it seemed he was trying to cut off the man's circulation with how tight they were.) The concussive pounding from the supers provided a bass line to the bustle of Metropolis below. Jason was trying to sneak behind Talon as Flash went to Timothy.

Talon noticed Jason from the corner of his eye and hissed. Jason answered with a low snarl like he had as Robin. Batman had to suppress a smile at the memory. Dick threw a knife at Jason in response. As Jason dodged, Bruce threw the Cryorang.

Dick caught it by the wing and deactivated the mechanism swiftly. Jason and Bruce froze at the movement. Jason tried to fire at his brother, but Dick threw a knife into the barrel, causing it to jam. Jason threw it down as it sparked in his gloved hand.

"That won't work on me twice," Talon's voice was gentle in the reprimand as hidden eyes slid to Owlman. His next words were frigid, "Thomas Wayne Jr., Talon, the Gray Son of Gotham has sentenced you to die." Dick strode over to the bound man. Owlman was trying to slide away from the younger male, eyes barely focused. Dick crouched to his level and lifted the villain's head gently with a clawed glove under his chin. Dick's smile was beatific. Bruce began to stride forward to stop a murder. "Have I shattered your expectations? Has Talon pleased its Grandmaster?" Before Owlman could answer, a clawed hand drew a knife. Dick then lovingly slid it between the ribs into Owlman's left lung. Bruce froze, eyes widening as Dick then began to drag open the wound slowly. Bruce reached for his son. Dick only ripped the blade from his prey and darted away.

They were left with a swiftly dying man, a captured Ultraman, and an echoing sob of a laugh.