Batman Story:
"Vendetta"
The G.C.P.D were on the scene within an hour of a call placed to them by a neighbour in Grayson's apartment building. They took photographic evidence with witness testimony from Dick Grayson himself, after a perpetrator shot a hole through his door. The attacker then kicked it in and gained access, assaulting Grayson.
Cameras on the outside of the building caught little, the perp knew how to avoid them. A weapon was left on scene and was bagged for forensics.
Dick Grayson said had fought his attacker off, but the man had gotten away.
In his official statement he said that it had happened to fast that he didn't get a good look at he man's face, wearing a mask, but it was not what he told Commissioner Jim Gordon off record, who knew the chronicles and individuals of the Batfamily.
An officer held the weapon, a semi-automatic, as he stood out in the hallway with others.
Jim Gordon gave Dick a nod, and then departed. The police dispersed. Jim Gordon wanted to station a police officer in the hallway for Grayson's safety, for optics sake. But Grayson told him it wasn't necessary. Left to himself, Dick then spent the next couple of minutes screwing a board to the front of his apartment door. The minute it was done, he paused, and looked down the hallway, hearing something. Then he went back inside to find Batman in his apartment.
Batman slipped back his cowl. Bruce Wayne had come in from the window.
"You okay, Dick? Did you get a look at the perp?" Bruce asked.
"If I told you, Bruce, you'd think I was lying," Dick said.
On the surface it was a domestic issue and one for the G.C.P.D. Secretly, with the information passed on, it was, indeed, one for the Batfamily, and an internal issue that needed clarification.
"I swear, Bruce, it was Red Hood," Dick said disconcertingly, "or someone dressed exactly like him with a perfect helmet. If it was Jason, I don't know why he attacked me in broad daylight."
Bruce was immediately on the phone. He shook his head after a few moments. "It's going straight to voicemail," he said. "Jason waits, and then answers his phone after four rings." Bruce frowned. "We need to get to the bottom of this."
"That's the understatement of the year," Dick said.
"I'll have Tim check Jason's haunts, but he's been quiet for the last little while."
"Good call," Dick said. "I'll have a look around myself, too."
The next morning, after hunting around for Red Hood close for close to the entire day after the attack, Dick found a note taped to the outside of his apartment door.
I know EVERYTHING!
Come alone, or else!
-RH
And an address was provided.
Why, Jay? What have I done to piss you off? I hope this is just a misunderstanding?
Dick told no one about the note. The latter half of the note was problematic.
He donned his Nightwing disguise and made his way by his own means down to the Gotham wharfs and to a warehouse, empty and barren. It was dusty and some places were still damp from recent rainfall, where water dripped from holes in the ceiling. There were some signs of habitation if only by the homeless. Windows were broken and crates were broken into.
He saw all this from the rafters.
He crouched and glanced around as the sun began to rise to midday. He carried his escrima sticks and his wits, they were the only tools he needed.
He waited fifteen minutes before annoyance set in. Had he been stood up? He had been targeted, dragged down here by who-knows?
I know…everything. Nightwing wondered. Jay, what's going on?
He heard a voice. The perpetrator that had tried to kill him and who left the note entered into view and immediately Nightwing tensed up. The man wore a Talon costume, the known moniker of the Court of the Owls. They had not only tried to court Nightwing, but also kill him.
He also saw someone else with the Talon. A stripped down Jason Todd, in his boxers, partially beaten. His arms were roped and he was being lead like a dog on a leash.
Now how the heck did this happen? But it would explain the pseudo-Red Hood attacker.
Nightwing jumped down and landed with the ease of a gymnast.
The Talon had a thin frame and moderate build and stood just over six feet tall. He wore all black from head to toe with a pair of dark goggles over his eyes. He banished a pair of talons on one hand, that he held the rope with, and semi-automatic in other.
For some reason, Nightwing got the idea that this wasn't an atypical Talon. He seemed different, and less refined.
"Throw away your weapons, Nightwing, and take off your mask," the Talon ordered. "I know who you are, Richard Grayson. You're a wanted man, by many."
Nightwing smiled. "You must be mistaken, mysterious stranger," he replied.
"Don't be smart."
"Thanks, sometimes I can be dumb," Nightwing said, "but mostly I'm told this from a pint-sized turp." He meant Damian, who often call Nightwing foolish and stupid, for playing about while beating up villains. Damian is always so serious, he thought. "Hey," he then said to Jason. "So, care to tell me how this happened?"
Jason shrugged. "Even I have my off days," he said. "He jumped me."
Nightwing turned to the Talon. "Who are you?" Nightwing asked. A single shot stuck the ground close to Nightwing's feet, the sound echoed the empty warehouse. "Okay, now we're serious."
"Shut up! I'm here to collect what's mine!"
"Oh, is that right?"
The Talon ripped off his mask to reveal a blonde haired kid with a youthful face. He couldn't have been more than twenty. "You know exactly what you did, Grayson! Don't fake ignorance! You murdered my father, he was a Talon enforcer. I'll collect the bounty on your head, dead or alive, and I'll even take my vengeance for his murder."
Nightwing frowned. "Your father, whoever he was, was a member of a sadistic organization. I'm sorry if you father was killed. I'm not a killer, but I will defend myself when need be."
"Liar! I reviewed the interaction between you and my father as you tried to escape the Court lair, and your are clearly responsible for my father's demise after the ceiling fell on top on him."
Nightwing shook his head. He didn't remember it. If it did happen, he was more concerned with fleeing a more dangerous situation than worrying about what was happening behind him. But when it came to the Court of the Owls, none were innocent of evil.
"Look," Nightwing said, "your beef is with me. Let him go."
The blonde Talon laughed. "How pompous in thinking you have the upper hand," he said. "I know who you are and I'll destroy you, Grayson, and the moment your identity is exposed, you're history. You might as well be dead. I'll kill you myself!"
Suddenly Dick and Jason laughed.
The blond haired Talon brow rose. "What's so funny?"
"You're a little late to party, kid," Jason said. "You obviously don't know how many times that has happened to us, and we're still here. The Court of the Owls know exactly who we are, so do a lot of other people. Our secret is safe, trust me, kid. You're not the first to threaten us like this."
"Let's talk about this, kid," Nightwing said.
Suddenly, Nightwing felt a burning surge of electricity throughout his body. His teeth clenched. He dropped to his knees and convulsed in pain. The Talon fired a charge from his glove.
"Bastard!" Jason said.
Nightwing's eyes teared up.
"You must pay for your crimes!" the Talon said stringently.
"You've made a terrible mistake, kid," Nightwing said, and got to his feet. He reached behind and pulled out his escrima sticks and twirled them in his gloved hands.
"Looks like you pissed him off, kid" Jason said, standing aside. "I wouldn't want to be you."
"Shut up!"
Jason was gun whipped and fell back.
"Bad choice, kid," Nightwing said.
"I'm going to kill you, Nightwing! Time to get what's coming to you! I'll show you that you can't kill people for your own sense of justice! My father was a good man and you murdered him! There is always more than one victim when one kills."
"Truer words were never spoken," Nightwing replied.
Instinct took over and adrenaline filled Nightwing. He rushed the kid.
The Talon went to fire his semi-automatic, but Nightwing delivered a swinging spinning kick and knocked it out of his hand. Then he levelled an escrima stick directly under the kid's throat. The Talon grabbed the escrima stick with his taloned glove and went to pull it away. But Nightwing let him have it. The kid screamed, electrocuted, and then dropped.
The fight seemed to have been finished, too quickly.
Nightwing went over to Jason and untied him. "You okay?"
Jason rubbed his mouth. "Been better. You better not tell the brat I was ambushed by this guy, or I'll never live it down." He meant Damian.
Nightwing laughed, as he extended a hand, and helped Jason to his feet.
Suddenly, Nightwing was scissor kicked, and dropped to his back. The Talon then flipped onto his hands, and performed a rotating air kick, hitting Jason, and knocking him down. "You think you've defeated me? I'm my father's son! Screw the bounty! I'll going to kill you both!"
The Talon lunged at Nightwing, his glove poised to knife Nightwing in the chest.
Nightwing moved, and rolled to his left, just missing the attack—the glove's talons sinking deep into the ground. The kid pulled back, but the glove was stuck. The kid yanked to no avail.
Nightwing pushed back on his shoulders and jumped to his feet. "I need to warn you, kid. You've crossed the line of any mercy from me," he said.
"Good," the Talon said. "Now fight me!"
The kid stepped back and got into a defensive, martial arts position.
The fight lasted a good thirty-seconds.
Nightwing knew from the start this Talon didn't have the skills to take him.
And as the Talon lay on the ground, Nightwing breathed a little heavier than normal. Nightwing had been taught by the best street fighter in the world.
Nightwing didn't kill the Talon. The kid looked up at Nightwing, wiping blood from his nose.
With his escrima sticks on full voltage, Nightwing said, "Go back to the Court. Tell them I'll be ready for more. As for your father, he made his choice. And revenge is never the answer, kid. I great man taught me that. I fight crime against the darkness the Court embodies."
The Talon looked up. "You killed my father," he said. "I'll never forgive you."
"I can live with that. But can you forgive yourself? Get out of here! NOW!"
The Talon looked at Nightwing one last time, then scurried away like a rat in the night.
"Do you think he'll try again?" Jason wondered.
"Probably," Nightwing said. "But he has some serious thinking to do. The Court may have a bounty on my head, but they should know it won't be collected that easily, especially by some inexperienced kid." Nightwing holstered his escrima sticks on his back, shutting them off. "Shame his father died, but…" He then looked Jason up and down. "Now, as for you…"
"The kid had some moves," he said. "He stored my clothes close by. So tell me…everything."
Two days later, the G.C.P.D reported locating the body of an unidentified male floating in Gotham Harbour, drowned by an apparent suicide.
Dick and Jason watched the news, but knew from the moment they saw the face of the victim, the Court had punished and killed the young blond haired kid for his attempt on Nightwing. The Court had their laws, and the kid had broken them.
It was tragic.
Neither Dick nor Jason even had known the kid's name.
END