Jason had warned them. Extensively. Telling them that if they didn't want to go inside and see, that if they didn't want to help, they didn't have to.

They should've have listened to him.


Cissie dry-heaved as she retched the rest of her dinner — and it had been such a good dinner too! — into the bag Jason had provided her. The moment she was done, she tied it up and handed it to the man in question. Jason gave her a comforting squeeze on the shoulder before walking away to burn it, along with Tim and Cass' bags as well. They couldn't afford to leave their own DNA evidence at the crime scene, after all.

God.

"When my dad died, I was pissed," Tim said conversationally as he stood next to her, staring off into the street with a far-off gaze. He wasn't really talk to her, really. He was just…talking. "I was sad, of course. But I was pissed. Because he was murdered, by one of the worst human beings on the planet. When that hit me, when that finally hit me, I was the angriest I had ever been. And I did something stupid and nearly got myself killed."

Cissie bit her lip, and stood up. Her eyes were still on the ground.

"I didn't realize how lucky he was," Tim continued, his tone blunt. "I've seen all sorts of crimes, reviewed even more when I first started training to be Robin, but that? What's inside that warehouse? That was just…God, that was just sick. At least my dad died quick. From the looks of those bodies, nobody who died in there got that privilege."

Next to him, Cass let out a small whimper. From what Cissie knew of her background, it was no wonder she was taking this the hardest. Death had never been kind to her. Not when it came to this.

"…I don't want to do this, T-Robin, Batgirl," Cissie finally said. "I don't want to go back in there and see those bodies or do anything of that. I…I don't want to do this anymore."

"Arrowette—"

"Your brother…your brother and K-Superboy, they revealed to me that I was originally suppose to retire on my own a couple of months ago. An incident with a counselor my school. But they prevented the incident, so I'm still here. But…I'll be honest, I haven't really been feeling the superhero thing for a while, if I really ever did. You guys are great, I love you all, but becoming Arrowette — that was always my mom's decision. Not mine. And now…" Cissie's head fell, and landed in the palm of her hand.

Tim swallowed. "It's like he said. You don't have to go in. You can just stay out here. Keep watch. Both of you."

"And you?" Cass asked before Cissie could.

The sole male of their group swallowed. "…I can handle it. I'm a detective too. And I don't want us to stay any longer than we have to."


Once all the barf bags were burned, Arrowette and Batgirl went to the roof to keep lookout while the men went inside and started investigating the crime scene. The lights were on, but dim, and Jason quickly increased the brightness so they had a better idea of what they were dealing with. Now that they had prepared themselves, the massacre didn't nauseate them too much.

In fact, the moment Dick finally got a good look of the bodies that had been nailed to the walls, he began frowning. Heavily. "Shit," he cursed.

"N?" Jason asked, glancing at him questioningly.

"Everyone on the wall, I recognize. They're all major enforcers of Blockbuster's organization," Dick explained, examining one of the bodies more closely. "Shakers and movers, trustworthy underlings, informants — the people that make up the infrastructure of his crumbling empire."

"And cops too." The two men turned around to see Tim staring at the wall of bodies on the other side. Bodies, they were beginning to realize, were wearing BPD uniforms. "Judging by that wall, I assume these guys were all on the take. Specifically, Blockbuster's take."

Dick approached the wall slowly, careful not to disrupt any of the bodies on the ground. He didn't recognize any of those, they were probably just the grunts, but the ones on the wall, however… "Yeah, they are. One of these guys works—worked, at my precinct. I knew he was dirty, so I tried to avoid talking to him when I could."

"Right," Jason said, stretching his arms and taking out one of his collection kits. "Well, we better start collecting…" He absentmindedly glanced to the side, and froze.

His brothers noticed immediately. "K?" Nightwing hedged hesitantly.

Jason immediately sat up, collection kit still in one hand, and start stepping through the bodies carefully, but quickly. Both Dick and Tim's gazes followed him to the back of the warehouse, where a stack of boxes were obscuring the back wall. Jason parted them quickly, and stepped through the opening.

"Nightwing! Robin!" He shouted about a minute later. "You need to see this!"

The brothers exchanged grim looks. What is it now?

Then they got there, and, well… "Fuck," Tim summed it up succinctly.

The back wall only had one body mounted on it. A very, very large, muscular man with long hair, wearing a high-quality suit. Said suit had its sleeves nailed to the wall, causing the man wearing it to hang there like a broken marionette doll. His eyes were mutilated, his stomach cut open, and there was a message painted on his body with his blood: 'WATCH OUT NW'.

Roland Desmond. Blockbuster.

"K…" Dick said slowly, eyes never leaving the body.

"Biometrics indicate that he's been dead for hours. Approximately eight to ten hours to be exact. Before Arrowette, Batgirl, Robin and I even arrived to the city," Jason answered, similarly entranced.

"That's not a coincidence," Tim claimed. "Not with that message. Someone knew Nightwing was going to hit this warehouse tonight."

"What the hell is going on?" Dick breathed out.

"N," Jason said, tone disturbingly neutral. "What do you want us to do?"

Dick inhaled, and then sighed deeply. "Collect all the samples you can, as quickly and as carefully as possible. I want to get out of here as fast as possible, every bit as you all do, but we can't afford to leave a single stone unturned." He continued to stare at Desmond's body. "Not for this."


Cissie scanned the perimeter. After being charged with lookout, Cass and her decided to take a two-pronged approached. Cissie, with her eagle archer eyes, would handle the roof and the rooftops. Cass would be on the ground, patrolling the perimeter directly. It would allow Cissie to provide long-range support in case someone did decide to start sniffing around.

As she was continuing to circle the roof, her comm came to life. "Arrowette, Batgirl?" Tim's voice came through. "Do you read me?"

"I read you, Robin," Cissie replied.

"Same," Cass added.

"Good, good. We're just about done with collecting all the samples." There was a sigh. "Thank God for that."

Cissie didn't like the sound of that. "How bad is it?"

"Bad. We've identified most of the bodies on the walls. They're all prominent members of Blockbuster's organization. Drug dealers, crime lords, corrupt cops, even city officials. But that's not the worst part." Tim blew out a breath. "Whoever did this killed Blockbuster himself too."

Cass let out a small gasp. Cissie paled. "You're kidding, right?"

"No. His mutilated body is currently mounted on the farthest wall of the warehouse, like some parody of the crucifixion. There's a message on it too, painted in his blood, telling Nightwing to 'watch out'."

"So this was all to send a message to Nightwing?"

"We think so. K did a biometric analysis of the body, scanned its temperature. He's been dead since before we even arrived to the city. Whoever did this, they knew N was going to hit this warehouse tonight. Seeing as he's been casing the place for weeks for this bust…"

"They were watching him," Cissie instantly deduced.

"Yeah. Moment we get back to base, we're gonna have to turn the entire place upside down for bugs." Tim sighed. "What a disaster."

"Well, at least it isn't boring, right?"

"I'd prefer boring to this. K has already asked N if he needs any backup for the next couple of days, and has already offered himself. I'm going to do the same and probably have to apologize to Spoiler for nuking our Spring Break plans like this."

Cissie made a sound of sympathy. "She'll understand, Robin."

"I hope so."

"I do not get it," Cass cut in. "Why do Nightwing need help? While I do not like…Block-Buster dead, is his being gone not good thing?"

The archer cringed. "Yes and no," Tim answered with another sigh. "It's not that simple, Batgirl. You know that lecture we had the other day with Flash? The one about villain dynamics? Why they're more organizations than there are teams?"

"Yes," Cass answered, sounding confused.

"Do you remember the reason he gave?"

"Self-interest," Cissie replied before Cass could.

"Exactly. Teams are usually made of equals, all working towards a common goal. While yes, there's usually a leader and maybe a second-in-command, everyone gets a say. Those two just have the final ones. Organizations, meanwhile, are power structures. Hierarchies. There's one overarching goal, a bunch of other goals beneath that, and then everyone else's own personal goals, which usually involve money, or power, or both. And many of those goals tend to conflict, but they're put aside because in the end, everyone on the bottom has a specific role to play and very little say in how to play it. They only get that leg room the higher up they are in the hierarchy, and only those the top have the luxury of genuine choice."

"Because of that, eliminating the head of an organization doesn't immediately cause that organization to collapse. There are alway lieutenants, and those lieutenants have their own lieutenants, and so on and so forth. And when you clear out space on the top, that means there's room for you to move up and finally achieve your own goals — as long as you can elbow out your competition. That's the real cause of any organization's disintegration: the in-fighting. And when there's in-fighting, there's always casualties. Innocent casualties."

"...Oh."

"Yeah. We only imagined to avoid that with the League of Assassins because K technically 'filled' the top of the hierarchy by killing Ra's and terrifying all the major shakers and movers of the organization into disbanding it, more-or-less. It helped that Talia and D, Ra's' presumptive heirs, had washed their hands of the League." Tim clicked his teeth. "That's not the case here. While Blockbuster and his major lieutenants are dead, that still leaves all the grunts — the petty, minor criminals and gangs that were under his umbrella, who probably had delusions of grandeur they never tried to reach for because they didn't think there was any space at the top with a man like Blockbuster there. And now, with all that power up for grabs, we're looking at a bloodbath that could very well consume the rest of the city. There is no way Nightwing can handle that on his own."

"Is Nightwing considering bringing in the Titans?" Cissie asked, biting her lip.

"Maybe. He doesn't want to set a precedent, but this is an unusual situation and, well, he really can't handle it on his own. On the bright side, with Blockbuster and his entire organization gutted, there shouldn't be any players left with the resources to escalate things." She heard her friend shrug. "I guess it depends on what save the most lives in the long run. That's always the most important thing, in the end."


"Any signs of our presence has been eliminated. No DNA, no boot prints, everything is back where it used to be, down to the exact centimeter," Jason announced as everyone gathered in front of the warehouse. "It's like we were never here. As far as the police will be concerned, the crime scene is completely uncontaminated."

"Good," Dick let out a sigh of relief as they began walking back towards the other side of the street, to their original rooftop. "Thanks for that, K."

"Your city, N. I was just—" Jason stopped, and stilled, his head sharply looking upwards towards the sky.

Robin frowned and turned around. "Knight?"

"GET DOWN!"

Startled, everyone dropped to the ground. Jason dropped down with them, ejecting a small disk from his gauntlet and slamming onto the cold concrete. It buried itself deep inside, before expanding into a standing cylinder, which then beamed a light into the sky, forming a medium-sized forcefield to surround all five vigilantes.

Seconds later, Dick spotted a missile firing from what looked like to be the sky. It was a fast projectile, and it was heading directly for the warehouse behind them. He only had just enough time to cover his ears and warn the others to do the same before the building behind him was blown straight to hell.

BOOM!

Everyone flinched as the forcefield's integrity was tested against the splaying debris of what had once been one of the worst crime scenes any of them had ever seen. Cynically, Jason couldn't help but note that all his hard work to keep their presence there concealed had been rendered completely moot, and comforted himself with the fact that they had managed to gather all the samples and scanned the crime scene into his database. They still had plenty of evidence to investigate — provided they got to investigate it at all.

It was several minutes before Jason released the forcefield. As one, everyone turned around to stare at the flaming heap, a dawning realization of just how close to death they had been.

"Okay, no offense K, but this is the worst field trip I've ever been on," Cissie loudly proclaimed.

"Yeah, I can't fight you on that. I…" Jason sighed and shook his head. "I think we're going to suspend field trips for a while. But first…" He steeled his back before whipping his head around to stare at a specific spot in the sky. Everyone followed his lead, but found themselves confused. There was nothing there.

"Uh, Knight—?"

"There's a flying vehicle up there," Jason answered the unfinished question. "You aren't seeing it because it's under an advanced cloaking device. I can because of my helmet. So…" He flicked his gauntlet and released a batarang. A very large, glowing batarang. He aimed, and threw.

The batarang sailed through the air, rotating rapidly as it ascended higher and higher before slamming into something. That something started flickering and smoking, until it revealed itself to be exactly what Jason said it was: a flying vehicle. One with a white and orange color scheme. It started spiraling downards, careening towards a nearby rooftop before crashing and burning, bouncing up and down before landing in its own smaller, flaming heap. Luckily, all the buildings were abandoned, so there wasn't a living soul besides the vigilantes and the pilot in the district.

Jason stared at little harder at the vehicle, and then at the pilot — a dark-skinned man in a white and orange getup — and cursed. Shit.

The pilot dusted himself off, before approaching the ledge of the rooftop to smirk down at them. The vigilantes readied themselves for combat, drawing weapons and taking stances. Jason himself drew one of his sticks and morphed it into a sword, activating the laser edge, as he stepped forward in front of the group to confront their newest adversary.

"I take it you're the one who left the message, Raptor!?" Jason shouted at the man. The rest of the vigilantes briefly exchanged a look. Raptor?

'Raptor' smirked, before using some truly dazzling acrobatics to climb down the fire escape of the building he was standing on. Even Dick couldn't help but be impressed. He landed on the street, and approached them, arms spread. The more astute couldn't help but notice the strange golden gauntlet he had on his left hand.

"I take it I'm well-known in your future, Jason Todd?" Raptor asked, still smug.

The vigilantes tried not to react. It was easy for the Bats, but Cissie betrayed herself by adjusting the grip on her bow just so. Raptor's smirk grew wider.

"Jason Todd. Cassandra Cain. Suzanne King-Jones. Tim Drake." He stared at Dick the longest, his eyes narrowed. "Dick Grayson. It's nice to finally meet you all. I've been looking forward to this for a long time. As your brother said, my name is Raptor."

"And his real name is Richard," Jason corrected, still tense. "Last name still pending, but I guess it doesn't really matter in the end, does it?"

Raptor stared at him, before smirking again. He chuckled darkly. "The rumors about you really are true, aren't they? I know I haven't been making a lot of waves, but considering your family it wasn't surprising that you knew about me. But that? That's something I never told anyone. I bet you even know what it means, don't you?"

"What do you want, Raptor?" Jason demanded instead of answering. "Was it you who killed Blockbuster and all his cronies? Do you have any idea what you've just done?"

"I killed scum. I did you all a favor."

"You're going to plunge my city into a gang war!" Dick burst out furiously.

The villain gave a derisive scoff. "I'm doing you a favor, Dick. This place, this shining beacon of capitalist decadence? You're too good for it. You've always been too good for it. You shouldn't be trying to help trash like them, you should be trying to help your people! The poor and disenfranchised that are beaten down by rich oligarchs like Bruce Wayne!"

"Bruce Wayne donates millions of dollars of year to help the 'poor and disenfranchised'," Tim pointed out dryly. "He literally has an entire foundation, named after his mother, devoted to bettering the lives of the impoverished of Gotham and beyond. He probably spends more time doing philanthropy than he does running his own company."

Raptor made a disdainful gesture with his hand. "All smokescreen. He's no better than scum like Blockbuster. You're all just too blinded by him being the great hero Batman to see it." He was stunned at the startled looks he received. "Please. Don't be so surprised. I know all of your identities, of course I know his. Once you know one piece of the puzzle, you know all of it."

"Enough of the commentary," Jason announced before he could continue. "Stand down, Raptor, or you'll find out just how out of your depth you are."

"Oh no, third Batman or whatever the hell you call yourself these days. It's all of you that are out of your depth." Raptor grinned nastily. "Tell me, did you honestly think I was able to kill all these people by myself in a couple of hours?"

Everyone froze.

The shadows moved.

Jason's HUD lit up like a firework show.

"I'm good, but I'm not that good."

All five vigilantes stared in horror as several men and women, all dressed in strange dark jump suits that covered them from head-to-toe. They all wore goggles that glowed ominously, and each carried a sharp weapon. Almost on instinct, all five fell into a circular formation, back-to-back.

Beneath his helmet, Jason paled. Talons.

"I guess I'll leave you all to it," Raptor told them mockingly, before climbing back up the fire escape. The Talons began converging on them at his silent command, drawing their weapons.

And then, they pounced.


Dick turned on the electrifying component of his escrima sticks as he readied himself to engage his nearest opponent. He didn't know who this people are, but if they were with Raptor, if they helped kill Blockbuster, then they definitely weren't friends. And while he would love nothing more to chase down the bastard who had just made his next couple of months a living hell, there was no way he could make it through this entire army and catch up to him. Raptor was slippery, he'd give him that.

A dark figure darted forward, cutting Dick off at the pass. The first Robin watched in horror as the large form of his little brother grabbed the assailant by the neck and stabbed his sword directly through his chest. "Batman!" Dick yelled, instinctively using Jason's alternate name. "What are you doing! We don't kill!" Ra's al Ghul being the sole, sole exception.

Tim and Cissie were also shocked and shouting their protests. Jason didn't bother to acknowledge them, instead pinning the corpse down and slitting the throat for good measure. Just as Dick was about to pull him off the man, Cass jumped over him, using his shoulders as a pivot, and kicked the head of another assailant, a woman by the looks of it, and breaking her neck.

Dick stared at her. Cass pointed at the woman she just attacked. "Not dead."

Behind him, Tim let out a gasp, as did Cissie. The woman's warped neck was slowly churning back into place, and soon she was back on her feet, only to be engaged by Cass once again.

Boom!

Over on the other side of the group, Jason just had just thrown and detonated a flash bang, briefly stunning the assailants on that side. The man he had stabbed and slashed the throat of was already healing and getting up. "They're called Talons," Jason explained grimly. "They're undead assassins with powerful regenerative abilities. Nothing short of decapitation or complete destruction of their bodies will kill them."

"Are you serious?" Cissie demanded as she shot one of these… 'Talons' with an arrow in the eye. The man stumbled back, before ripping it out without a care in the world.

"I am," Jason replied as he tackled the Talon before it could attack the shocked Cissie. "We need to make a path, get out of here. Right now, being completely encircled like this, we're sitting ducks and they can just chip away at us."

"Well, I'm spoiled for ideas!" Tim yelped as he slammed his staff into the stomach of one Talon as hard as he could, shattering her ribs.

"K?" Dick asked, grunting as he jammed both ends of his sticks into the neck of another Talon, turning up the voltage as high as it could go. "Your villain, your lead."

"Right." Jason clicked a button on his utility belt, and a high pitched sound suddenly echoed from the speakers of his helmet. The action briefly stopped as everyone winced at the frequency.

Then, a huge mass of bats flew in from every direction and started attacking the Talons. Quickly realizing this was the opportunity they needed, the entire group followed Jason down the street, running and running and not stopping. Suddenly, all three teenagers were very grateful for the stamina exercises Donna had forced them to go through on Saturday.

"That's not going to stop them for long," Jason noted grimly as they continued their escape. "We need an alternate plan of attack."

Cissie shivered. "How are we supposed to stop a legion of invincible assassins!"

"They're not invincible," Jason corrected her.

"Are you suggesting—?" Tim started, only to be cut off by a throwing knife that he just barely managed to dodge. Cass caught the knife mid-air and tossed it back, catching one of the Talons in the leg.

"No," Jason refuted. "They have another weakness. Extremely cold temperatures. Like, below freezing. Once they're hit with a blast of that, they'll be rendered completely inert, like puppets with cut strings."

Dick activated his comm, changing the frequency to Oracle's private one. "O, this is Nightwing. I need you to find the nearest building with building-wide refrigeration capabilities."

"Hunk Wonder, this isn't really the best time—"

"O, we're currently being chased down by an army of undead assassins. I need an address yesterday."

There was a beat. Then…

"...Three blocks down to the right. Tolero Street. There's an abandoned meat-packing facility. It should still have working air conditioner units."

"Thanks, O." Dick turned the comm off, and glanced at the elder of his two younger brothers. "You heard her?"

"I did. Where's Tolero Street?"


"Okay," Jason said as they finished barricading the doors and windows. "This is what we're going to do." He flicked open another compartment of his utility belt and brought out three canisters and slip of paper, before taking his younger brother's hand and clasping it around them. "These contain a variation of Mr. Freeze's Freeze Gas. You're going to rewire each of those air-conditioning units to release this into the building when the Talons are inside. The paper has instructions on how to rewire the units."

"What?" Tim looked terrified. "But—But—I can't do that! I'm not an air conditioner repairman!"

"I would do it myself, but I would better serve keeping the Talons off your back. Nobody here knows how to fight them better than me. Meanwhile, you have the best technical expertise of anyone here, Robin," Jason told him seriously, clasping his shoulders. "If anyone can get those things working, it's you."

He glanced at the girls. "Arrowette, Batgirl, you're going to guard him. Keep the heat off him and the units, throw any Talons you fight back into the building. Nightwing and I are going to stay in here and make a stand, and hopefully, keep most of them here."

"What makes you think the bulk of them will come after you?" Cissie asked, stepping forward.

Jason stared at her, before looking back at Dick. His oldest brother had his arms crossed, and he was bouncing off his heels. "It's not me they're after," he said instead.

Everyone followed his line of sight. Dick blinked, and pointed to himself. "Me? But…why?"

Jason swallowed. "I'll explain after I'm sure we'll live to see the morning. But right now, we need to work fast." He turned back to the teenagers. "You three go to the back of the facility. The very moment the Talons break down those doors, you escape through the back and scale to the roof. Find the units, repair them, funnel the gas through them. Understand?"

The teens nodded furiously.

"Good. Go."

As they fled towards the back doors, Jason stepped back so he was side-by-side with Dick and drew his other stick, configuring that one into a sword as well. "You and I, we stand our ground here. They should focus on us, but if not, then none of the ones that come in here are allowed to get past us."

"Right," Dick exhaled. "Right." He looked at his brother gratefully. "I know it sent your field trip to hell and all, but I'm glad you're here. There's no way I would've been able to handle, well—any of this. At least not as well as you are right now. Not without help."

"It's fine, N. Better to have a ruined field trip than a dead or kidnapped brother."

Before they could continue the conversation, there was a loud slam! and the sound of the doors rattling. Both brothers immediately snapped to attention, and readied themselves for battle. The rattling grew worse and worse and then…

All hell was unleashed.


"That's the signal!" Cissie hissed, spotting the doors opening and the pouring in of dozens of Talons. "Go, go!"

Tim didn't need to be told twice. He immediately burst through the back doors, Cissie and Cass both flanking him. Together, the three immediately drew out their grappling hooks and zipped up to the roof. The moment they landed, Tim darted towards the nearest air conditioning immediately, while the girls covered his back.

He took out one of the tools in his utility belt, a kind of skeleton key-screwdriver hybrid, and removed the back panel. Tim stared at the mass of wires and components, both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time, and then took a deep breath. Focus, Tim. Focus. You're family is counting on you.

With that resolve, he got to work. He already memorized the instructions Jason had given him before the Talons arrived. Nonetheless, he gave them another quick read through before he started the rewiring. Once he was done, he got to work.

While Tim was in the zone, Cass and Cissie were keeping a watch out. There had been no Talons so far, but that didn't mean anything. They had managed to hide from Jason's sensors, so hiding from two girls who had no access to such advanced technology would be easy.

Five minutes passed, and still no Talons appeared. Still, they remained on edge.

"Done," Tim suddenly said, finishing putting the panel back on. "Let's move on to the next one."


"Nightwing, down!"

Dick ducked and watched as his brother bull-rushed a Talon that had just been about to stab him in the back. As he did so, he took the opportunity to sweep the legs of another Talon and electrocute him with his remaining stick. The other one had been forcibly lodged into the chest of a Talon Dick had long since lost sight of. It was still better than Jason, who had lost both his weapons and had run through all his projectiles and had thus been reduced to pure hand-to-hand.

Jason tossed the Talon into a nearby piece of machinery before kneeing him into it. As the Talon was sparking, his HUD lit up and he whipped around, swiping at another Talon and sending her spiraling into a powerful kick to the jaw by Dick. Dick used the leverage to flip over and toss two Wing-a-Ding's into the eyes of another two Talons. He then landed on the shoulders of another Talon, and promptly twisted his neck.

You won't kill them. Jason's voice echoed his mind. Dick banished it away, and focused back on the fight.


"Okay, last one. Now that I know what I'm doing I'm going to try and go as quickly as possible," Tim said as he removed the panel from the last air conditioning unit.

"Just do it right, Tim," Cissie told him, bow still taut and ready to fire at the slightest movement. "It doesn't matter how quickly you go if you don't do it right. I'm sure they can hold out until then."

Cass nodded in agreement, only for her head to snap to the right. Cissie noticed immediately and she pulled her arrow back just a little more. When the Talon darted out of the shadows, she quickly shot three arrows at three different vital areas. It wouldn't kill them like it would a normal person, but it would certainly immobilize them, especially with her impromptu partner rushing forward and pushing them further in like a pincushion.

The back of Cissie's neck pricked. She turned around and spotted another Talon towards a still-working Tim. Before she could shoot, Cass charged over with a silent scream and tackled the Talon, wrestling him to the ground. Cissie looked back at the other Talon, the one she had shot, and saw in horror he was already removing the arrows from his body. She reached back to shoot him with some more, only to reach air.

Making a split-second decision, she ran and swung her bow, cracking it against the head of the Talon. Cissie then took one of the discarded arrows and started stabbing his eyes. Then the chest. Then the legs. The wounds were healing, but with her entire weight bearing down on him combined with the constant wounds, he was subdued for now.

"Gah!"

Both girls turned in horror to see that another Talon, one that had probably been waiting in the wings, had managed to grab Tim from behind and was now choking the life out of him. Cissie moved to help but a clawed hand roughly grabbed her forearm. She looked back to see it was the Talon she had been trying to restrain.

She tried to kick him off, but his grip was strong. Cissie glanced back again, and saw both Cass and Tim struggling with their respective Talons. In particular, one looked ready to slit the third Robin's throat.

Then, in a move that Cissie could almost swear was superhuman, Tim hitched himself forward, striking the kneecaps of the Talon with both his feet and tossing him ass-over-teakettle. He landed on top of the air conditioner unit, but before he could retaliate Tim took one of the canisters Jason had given him and sprayed the Talon with it. The Freeze Gas cooled the Talon's body temperature instantly, causing him to fall to the surface of the rooftop, limp.

The other Talons stilled upon seeing this, clearly not expecting one of their to be taken down like that. Their opponents were not, and quickly took advantage: Cissie twisted her arm out of her Talon's group and threw him over to Tim with all her deceptive might, and he sprayed him as well. As that Talon collapsed, Cass had wrestled her own Talon away, giving one last powerful kick that left him stumbling into the waiting arctic embrace.

The moment that last Talon was done, Tim rushed back to the air conditioner unit, connecting the canister and all the necessary wires. Then, "Done. Let's hope to God and whatever divine power out there that this works." He thrust his fist forward, and two wires shot from beneath a hidden compartment in his gloves and attached themselves to the unit.

Tim inhaled one last breath, and turned on the power.


"Okay, okay, this is…not good," Dick huffed as he and Jason stood back-to-back, facing off against the surrounding army of Talons. Many of them were already fully-regenerated from the injuries that had been incurred to them throughout the brawl. Meanwhile, Jason and Dick were not so lucky.

"Okay, I've got an idea. It's not a really good one, but we're running out of options that don't involve murder. I can remove my helmet, rig it to explode—"

"Wait," Dick cut in, looking parts horrified and fascinated as he glanced back at his brother. "Your helmet can explode?"

"Only if I arm it!" Jason quickly defended himself.

"That's not the issu—!"

"We're about to be kill—!"

BUMP!

Everyone stared at the now-prone Talon lying on the floor.

Then another Talon dropped. And another. After the fifth, Jason relaxed his shoulders. "Okay. No exploding helmet after all."

Dick glared at him. "This is not over. I'm telling B next time I see him."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Jason's shoulders straightened. "On a more serious note, we need to figure out what to do with these guys. There's no way Blackgate can hold them, and Arkham is not an option."

"Why?" Dick looked confused and suspicious.

"I'll explain later. Let's just say that if these guys are imprisoned in Arkham, we'll literally be handing them back to their handlers and it'll solve nothing." The lens of Jason's helmet lit up. "If it's fine with you, I can make another call. Someone who can make sure these guys can't get out until we can figure out a more permanent solution."

Dick sighed and made a defeated motion, idly stepping to the side to dodge another falling Talon. "Call whoever you want. After tonight, I'm done."

Jason shrugged. "Don't blame you. Arrowette was right. This really was the worst field trip ever."


Well, wasn't that a plot twist?

If you're wondering who Raptor is, he's from Tim Seeley's run on Nightwing (Rebirth). A really underrated run in my opinion. Raptor was Dick's arch-enemy during that run, and one of my favorite DC antagonists in recent years. He'll play a serious role in this story in later on.

If you're wondering why Jason didn't use the Balance to form the forcefield, it's because it was just a missile and some debris. Kyle Rayner's blasts are much stronger than that.

Next chapter: A new web to untangle.