All across The Bowery, police were moving in, but Jason and Antonio had been organizing rebellions against tyrants throughout the world for years. They had drilled and drilled their men on how to avoid the authorities. Compared to North Korea's militarized police force, which had been authorized to open fire on civilians if it had meant killing them, leading militia forces into abandoned subways and into abandoned buildings was nothing for their more experienced men.
Not that the militia needed much leading. In fact, reports were actually stating that the militia were leading his most experienced troops through the city. It was Jason's favorite thing about his second life, he'd long since decided, to see the people of a place they went to helping them purely because they believed in his cause.
What clearer sign was there, after all, that the cause was just?
The young King of Outlaws cleared his mind of these thoughts and those of the few men who had been captured or killed due to shit luck, as his HUD reminded him that Batman was still incoming. It was strange that there he stood in that alleyway, four years of familiarity with the man, a death at the hands of the most sadistic piece of trash who'd ever lived, and five years of experience in killing later, and, yet, the thought that Batman was on his way still sent a shiver down Jason Todd's spine.
Bruce was trying desperately to undo the hack of The Jackhammer's systems, but couldn't quite get it done. Every time he was close to restoring his control over the vehicle, he was locked out again.
Damnit.
After he was firmly locked out due to his fifth failed attempt, he growled in frustration, and set to work preparing for an ambush. He put on the gas mask attachment for his cowl, and was making sure he had ample batarangs and smoke bombs when he heard groaning coming from the back seat.
Turning around immediately, he found his first son listing backwards in his seat, red as Superman's cape, struggling to hold himself up at all. He quieted the struggling acrobat and pushed him down into the seat. Dick struggled to get something out of his utility belt: a small, futuristic pill bottle, from what Bruce could tell, and handed it to him before speaking, his whole body shaking with effort.
"Poison...k-kept me awake...didn't kn-know. Should've been smarter..."
"Shh, Old Chum. Enough of that. We'll talk about it later...for now, rest. I'll have you home soon."
"...okay, Bruce...don't...try to...", with that, Nightwing seemed to pass out from exhaustion the likes of which Brice had never seen him go. His face looked so tired, one might assume he'd been awake for a week.
He placed the pill bottle in a compartment on board and got his ward securely strapped in. Of course, before he had enough time to complete his equipment check, he heard the sound of drilling change from soil and rock to concrete.
They had arrived. From the cockpit, Bruce could see the spot, the very spot where his parents had been taken from him by Joe Chill all those years ago, mere yards away. There, bathed in amber due to the nearby a streetlight, stood his newest enemy, The Red Hood.
His back turned to Bruce with his head down and his arms crossed, he waited for Batman to make the first move.
He left Dick in the vehicle, locking it down, as he stepped out to meet his latest challenger. He grappled above the stranger, perching himself atop the streetlight. The man below chuckled darkly as he spoke.
"So this is it, huh? It's so weird...the rest of Gotham has changed so much...and this spot hasn't changed at all. That your doing, Wayne?"
Bruce didn't answer the much too personal question, simply glaring at the man below him.
"Ah, well...You ready?"
This question, Batman answered by dropping down onto street level. The two stood face to face on the ground where both their fates had been sealed, and the elder spoke to the younger in person for the first time in five years.
"Are you?"
The man chuckled the same way once more, a way that infuriated Bruce because of how damn familiar it was, before giving his reply.
"I was re-born ready."
Jason made the first move, trying to grab Bruce in a wide bear-hug as his emblem lit up with voltage. When Bruce shifted backward and hit his helmet with a tiny yet potent flash-smoke bomb, he immediately retaliated with a kick to Bruce's left knee. The kick connected, but The Old Man hardly felt the pain of the blow in that moment, and smashed into Jason's helmet with a right cross. The smoke around his head dissipated as Jason blocked the left the older fighter had attempted to follow up with, and quickly shoved him away using his far superior strength. He hadn't used all of his inhuman might, however, and Bruce never hit the ground.
A foot or two away from each other, the fighters began the duel in earnest.
Jason raised his arms in a boxer's stance, one to guard each side of his head, not yet reaching for his guns or his blades. Bruce just waited in a standard "ready" position, still sizing up his opponent before going for his throat.
This time, Bruce struck first by firing his batclaw straight at his opponent's left ankle. The claw was grabbed from mid-air by that opponent, and Bruce let the line go with the click of a button. In the second it took Jason to toss the line aside, Bruce launched himself forward, this time with a roundhouse kick to the side, strong enough to turn trees into splinters.
Jason grabbed his leg with one hand, his armor negating most of the force of the kick, and kicked Bruce's other leg out as he advanced a step, forcing his father onto the ground while using his free hand to block the punches said father threw his way.
With one arm keeping his head from hitting the ground and the other interlocked with one of The Red Hood's own, Batman tried to use the leg beneath him to launch back to his feet, to no avail. Finally, Jason won out and Bruce was forced onto the floor. The younger fighter then put one knee on either side of his foe's torso and, with the hand he still had free, began smashing his fist into Bruce's cowl.
Distracted by his desperation to end the fight without hurting him too much, Jason didn't notice as Bruce's free hand managed to grab an electric batarang from his belt, and sink it into the circuitry of Jason's suit through one of the separations of his armor plating.
The bigger fighter howled in rage and pain as the voltage surged, but all the attack really won Batman was a swift and hard elbow straight to the wrist, so hard it might have broken it if not for his armor. The taser went flying, and Jason corrected his mistake by now grabbing both of Bruce's hands, locking them down on either side of his head. Batman tried a few more tricks, but Jason's armor negated the knockout gas and the wrist-arangs easily.
Bruce was still trying every trick he could to get back up when Jason leaned back and, a battle cry escaping him, smashed his head down onto his father's own. The Batcowl was resistant to almost every bullet under the sun, but Jason helmet was made to be it's bigger and badder cousin. His opponent dazed, he then removed the gas mask his opponent wore, hitting the hidden button only a bat would know about so that it would come off.
He tossed it to the side and ended their first fight since his return, which he already knew wasn't going to be the last no matter what he did, by hitting Batman with knockout gas.
He then picked up the gas mask attachment in one hand and Bruce with the other, throwing him over his shoulder, and called in his car. Soon enough, Batman was unconscious in his backseat and Nightwing was in his trunk, sleeping off the effects of Excitavit.
He knew he could not drive through The Bowery now, not with Gordon's men moving in from all angles, but he was fine with that. He was already in the water by the time a patrol car came to the scene to find The Jackhammer's both entry and exit point.
And so, piloting his car through Gotham's river ways, he prepared himself to again re-enter the closest thing he'd ever had to a childhood home.
"It is an hour into the raid on The Bowery, and The GCPD Commissioner James Gordon still has given no statements as to the situation, or the recent development in several missing person cases, the subjects of whom are currently in Gotham General Hospital after being found wandering the streets in a massive crowd by a patrol. Still no word as to Batman's whereabouts, or as to those of the mysterious Red Hood. Stay tuned for any-"
The Joker threw his remote straight at Vicky Vale's head.
Why? Why, oh, WHY, JAY-JAY?! Why do you always skip foreplay and go straight to the end? Here I was thinking about all the ways I could twist and turn you against each other, all the ways I could use this whole new "Bastard of Batman" shtick of yours, and you've already gone and taken Batsy out of the equation! But that's okay. After all, I've waited this long. I can wait for a little while longer for our...family reunion.
"So what's with the big fuck-off penny?", George later asked Jason as they walked to the prison wing of the cave. It had been expanded, as had so much of the cave, to meet with the ever-rising demands the family "had" to deal with.
"Some loser named The Penny Plunderer tried to steal it. Bat arrested him, accepted the penny as a gift from those who owned it."
"Hmm...the big playing card?"
"The Clown tried this stupid stunt with an over-sized poker match, I think."
"..."The Clown" meaning The Joker? The same bloke you-"
"Yes, the same one I told you about. This was years before I ever met The Old Man, though. Almost a decade before...that."
"Hm..."
"...You wanna know about the T-Rex, don't you?"
"Of course."
"Fido there's another relic from simpler times. He tried to eat Bats just off the Gotham coast, in a little amusement park called Dinosaur Island."
"No way."
"Yes, way."
"Does it still work?"
"Not autonomously. It does have guard dog protocols, though."
"Nice! We'll have to try it out sometime."
"Maybe."
With that amused half-answer, the two continued walking in silence. Rose and Alexi were ahead of them, putting Cain and Drake into their cells. They were bringing the last two unaccounted for out of Jason's car: Bruce and Dick.
Dick was out cold on George's back, while Bruce still seemed restless on Jason's shoulder. Even totally unconscious, the man was trying get back up.
And she wonders why I'm so stubborn.
They finally stepped in, Jason nodded to Rose as she and Alexi stepped out to meet them, and set their prisoners down on the disarming bed, a table for one to, obviously, check captives for any weapons and stow them somewhere out of reach. George couldn't get his complaint about having to search Nightwing out before Jason spoke.
"Alexi, George, go make sure The Batcomputer link is secure. Rose and I will finish up here.", he ordered, setting his helmet down on the slab next to Bruce, leaving on only his domino.
"Got it, Krasnogo."
With that, the two left, and Rose came up behind him, one hand on his left shoulder and the other on his right elbow as he leaned over the table, starring down at the two crime-fighters.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, yeah...it's just...you know."
"I do. I also know that it had to happen sometime. Might as well have been tonight."
He seemed like he was about to argue, but after a second, he closed his eyes, looked down, and then turned to her, taking her hands in his own.
"Thank you."
"For what?"
"For...steadying me like you always do."
"You're welcome."
With that said and a kiss shared, the two set to work on disarming Batman and Nightwing. Rose was just thankful that they wore some clothes underneath the uniforms.
As Rose put Dick down in his cell, she realized that Jason had taken Wayne and walked out.
She got up and followed out the door after him, to see him walking towards the armory.
"Jason, what the hell-?", she asked as she ran to catch up.
"You didn't really think I was about to put The Goddamn Batman in a simple cell with the rest of them?", he asked as they walked through the massive room of armaments. Eventually they came to a door titled "contingency plans", and stepped inside, having to bypass yet another security door. Inside were shelves of kryptonite, magical weaponry, failed supervillain equipment, all of it useful for taking on rogue Justice League members, separated into sections based on intended target. Marking each of these sections and describing the friends and foes they were meant to be used against, were waist-high terminals, each of which helped bathe the largely gloomy, darker room in a faint yellow glow.
"Are you...gonna put him in the phantom zone?"
"What? No!"
"Okay, because-"
"That'd be way too easy. He'd be out in a day."
"...So where are you putting him?"
Just as she asked that question, he stopped at a section labeled "Firestorm", by its terminal. Still carrying The Dark Knight over his shoulder, he pushed a few buttons on said terminal, and the armaments display, mostly made up of older Mr. Freeze technology, folded up into the wall and the floor below it split open, revealing a human-sized silver pod, which opened up as it came to a rest at waist-height. Rose could guess exactly what it was for as she felt the air around her go from chilly to absolutely freezing.
Jason quickly squished Bruce into the pod which was clearly made for someone smaller than him, and then pressed a few more buttons, causing the machine to close. Rose looked over his shoulder as he made sure the cryo-pod was had been recently maintained and that the life-support was on.
"Won't this leave him like Nora was?"
"No. Well, it would, but Fries will be here in the morning to make the modifications necessary. The Old Man might feel a bit weird for a while, but he'll be fine."
Alexi walked in at that moment, seeing what was going on.
"So...do you want men in here, too?"
"No. Lock it down as thoroughly as they would've. Only open it for Fries, and lock it back down afterward."
"What about all this gear?"
"Leave it, we already have better stuff on the way here now. It'll get here by the time any leaguer's come into town sticking their nose where it doesn't belong."
"On the way here how? Es Securus?"
"Es Securus."
"Damn. Zach's men work faster every day."
Done with his thorough inspection of the cryo-pod and it's systems, Jason took one last glance at the sleeping Bruce through the window on the front, and pressed the option labeled "activate".
The temperature dropped even more, but leveled put as the pod the pod closed and sank back into the floor, the weapon rack from before reappearing and the terminal now displaying vital signs.
He then led the three of them back out into the main Batcave, talking as the three walked through the fourth most impressive armory on the planet, the three above it being those of The Fortress of Solitude, The JL Watchtower, and The Hall of Justice.
"Alexi, Talia's men from Leviathan should be here to relieve you any moment, sit tight until then with George, then meet us back at The Theater for drinks."
"Understood."
"Talia will have already given them instructions on how to keep this place secure, just confirm that they are who they say they are and then-"
"How do we do that?"
"Simple code phrase exchange. You say, "Stand and unfold yourself.". They'll reply with, "Long live the king."."
"And if they fail?"
"Do what you must, just don't let them reach the armory or prison sections.", Jason replied as they stopped at the start to the two stairs leading to the Zeta Beam platform.
"Got it."
"Good. See you again soon, my friend.", he said as he smiled, taking the man's hand in a Spartan hand shake.
"See you then, Krasnogo."
Alexi turned and walked towards the prison cells to check on George as Jason opened a portal straight to their headquarters in The Bowery, which he and Rose then walked through.
Jason's eternal paranoia about traveling in such a way aside, they made it through alright, and wound up back in their bedroom. A few seconds later, another portal opened and either Alexi or George tossed his helmet through, and Rose laughed as Jason caught it, and then read the small note attached aloud in a mocking Russian accent.
"Think you forgot something?"
Knights barged in, mistakenly believing that the light and sound of the Zeta Beams had signaled an explosion or some other kind of attack, only to find their glorious leaders sharing an embrace, both just happy that they both were still alive, still free, and still together.
William Cobb was a Talon, and he knew what the price of disobeying any member of parliament would be, but he wasn't going to kill himself, after all he had been through, all he had done, for the paranoia of an old pariah.
He was heading back to his own nest, the "thirteenth floor" of the Stagg Enterprises Corporate Headquarters in Otisburg, built just five years before then, with Amelia in his arms. But, as he dashed across Gotham's skyline, he realized a simple fact. There was no way, with this failure, as Parliament would surely see it, that he would not be put back to sleep. With his newest descendant's legendarily promiscuous nature and extraordinarily dangerous life, there was a distinct possibility that he would next awake in a time with no true heir or perhaps even no lineage at all to speak of.
After all his pain, all those years...to have failed even in preserving his bloodline in hopes that one day, his family could be remembered as the greatest Talons in all of The Court's existence...
No. I will not have it. I will suffer the wrath of The Devourer itself before I allow it all to have been in vain.
So he stopped his mad dash across the rooftops of Gotham Heights, and thought through his position. He recognized that he needed to address The Court himself, while they were still in session that night and as of yet knew nothing, as risky as that might have been, for he had no real allies with his charge dead. To personally convince them to not only keep him around, but to unchain him. To give him the highest position a Talon could achieve, one only two had before him. A position of enough strength to destroy the enemies of The Court, The Bats and the upstart Outlaws, and to give him freedom enough so that he might even be able to train a successor. A Grey Son.
He knew of three meeting places, but which one they met in tonight was unknown to him. He started listing them off in his mind.
There was "Harbor House", as locals called it, that massive yet quaint ancestral manor of The Akhart Family. Even now, years after they'd moved away to Bristol, old Percival Akhart still kept the place secretly tidy, as a meeting ground and private escape for the highest among The Court. At least, he kept the dining hall that way. To any common trash on the road, it seemed yet another dilapidated ruin, another piece of Gotham's history left to rot. Yet, it had been the center of their power for a generation, ever since Akhart took over as the head of Parliament.
The safest option for Parliament to meet, even if it meant that they would do so at a limited capacity.
There was also Hurt Manor, a little black mansion in lower Bristol used by the sick bastard it was named for to entertain Parliament, and to serve as their ritual grounds. It's black stone and dark wood makeup tasteless and bland as it's creator, it was little more than a meeting place large enough to hold parliament's members secretly and securely, very few actually liked going there, mainly newer members still captivated by the death and misery Simon's little shows always amounted to.
It didn't matter if my legacy is on the line or not, I will never set foot in that accursed place without a direct order from The Court.
Finally, there was The Old Parliament House. Part of Old Gotham's Cauldron and one of the first buildings ever built in the city, the building was now known to the public as The Logerquist Dining Hall, a small gesture mean to explain the rich coming and going in secret from the top floor of the building, the most luxurious of the five, often in mass. It was the most comfortable meeting place that was large enough for all of Parliament and secure enough for them to meet with having to hide.
The best option of the three.
And so, Amelia still in his arms, he made his way back across The Sprang River, through Somerset, and into The Cauldron. He left his injured companion on the roof of The Griffins Stadium, and made his way even further down the row of buildings between Wagner and Zimbalist, until he came to his target, the third building from the end.
He had to knock out two mask-less members of The Help on the roof in order to get in, but he was finally there. After descending the staircase, he stopped just behind the last obstacle in his way: a roof access door, and listened for the sound of talk. Parliament was supposed to be in session, so why was everything so damned hauntingly silent? He pressed a button on the side of his goggles, activating his "Owl-vision", a sonar-like setting which allowed him to see through most surfaces. When he did, his blood instantly froze. Eyes.
The eyes of the entire court, from the children to Percival Akhart himself, all looking straight at him.
William steadied himself, closed his eyes, and removed his mask. The visage of a Talon gone, he opened his eyes, and slowly stepped through the door. Members of The Help came up on either of his sides, but made no moves to restrain or kill him. He moved forward, to the center of the ballroom floor, The Court following him with their eyes. A few seemed to laugh, a few whispered to each other, but most, like Percival, simply observed him.
He finally came to the center of the massive room, and stood at full height, looking around at the owl-like eyes starring at him. The Help stood all around in the crowd, ready to act. As if he hadn't already more than proven his undying loyalty.
He'd been preparing his words as he'd made his way there, and all William could now do was hope that he'd chosen them well.
"I am a Talon. That is all I have been for nearly a century, and I am proud of it. I am proud to be your servant. The swift and terrible sword against the enemies of your vision for this city. However, in spite of that pride, I believe that I must speak my mind. You are afraid."
Several of those present seemed to chuckle or become offended at the remark, but he continued before any could demand an explanation.
"Not of me, no. Nor are you afraid of any one house. The Elliots, the Cobblepots, the Waynes, they all tried to rise above you, did they not? And yet, you are still here, while the former two of those houses have been demolished and the latter has amassed to very little in the grand scheme of things, thanks to your shadowed interventions. But you are afraid of something that the second son of Bruce Wayne has come to represent. Something that has now claimed the lives of two of your own: both the youngest of the Graves-", he said as he held his right hand out towards the Graves family's table, "and the oldest of House Agincourt.", he finished, holding his left out to House Agincourt's section of the room.
He paused for a moment, and when none so much as whispered, all either captivate by the words, or simply curious as to where he was going with all this, he continued.
"You are afraid of the wrath of the masses. Well, I'm here to tell you: you have no reason to fear. Not with me at your command."
At this proclamation, Agincourt's dismayed daughter yelled out, "Then why is my father dead?!"
"Sir Agincourt is dead because of his loyalty to his family, and to The Court. Not willing to even risk further secrets of our order falling into the hands of the Bats, he destroyed his documents and...ordered me to kill him, and then myself."
At this, Rachel sat back down, letting Percival spoke the question on all of their lips.
"If that is true, why do you stand before us now, Talon?"
"Because I realized what I am telling you: your thinking has become tainted by an understandable yet unwarranted fear of persecution. And, yes, it is unwarranted considering that I, the greatest and longest-serving Talon in our court's history, am here, ready to serve at your command. After all, as you would see should you go over the footage from the camera within this very mask I hold in my right hand, I defeated the Bat himself, along with his first student, as if it were nothing. And his second? That boy sent his best men after Sir Agincourt, and I, alone, could have killed them all...if not for the fact that I, your servant, am bound by service to you. And, in that bondage to you, am bound to your fear."
Again silent, the entire court seemed to drink in his words before Percival again spoke.
"Well, Talon...what would you have us do? How would you prove our fear unwarranted?"
"Simple, Lord Akhart. I would do as we Talons have always done. I would kill your enemies."
"How would you do this? This time around, your targets will have prepared for you. Do you honestly think that you alone could annihilate the House of Wayne, as it now stands?"
"No, sir. I would never presume as much. No...no Talon, not even I, could destroy this enemy alone. But that has been true before, of a Talon in a similar situation. In early January, 1777, Nigel Cobblepot, serving alongside the many ancestors of the current houses of Gotham City, from The Waynes to a few of your own, led a daring defense turned offense against invading British forces. Unknown to that victorious revolutionary army, Talon Edward Bram aided them when he led a group of our brethren behind enemy lines, and wiped out the Redcoats' entire chain of command. As they had vanished, with not a trail left behind, many on both sides marked them as simple deserters, covering up the battle-winning assassinations."
"Are you honestly comparing this new usurper to the British Army?"
"No, the forces we face today are far greater, far more of a threat to our court."
"Then explain your history lesson's meaning. Clearly."
"Its meaning was this: The Court of 1777 lived in fear, not of the common people, but of their British rulers re-establishing a grip on Gotham City. And so, they did something for Bram that was unheard of at the time, and something that has not been done again since: they gave him command of an army equal to the enemy he fought. The made him Lord of Talons."
"And that's what you need to face this enemy? Command of an army?"
"Command of the greatest army this city has ever seen, and the full approval to use it as needed."
"...We shall vote on this, Talon. You have said your peace. Put your mask back on, and go. A courier will be dispatched with our decision and your new orders when we have reached our agreement."
"Thank you, Lord Akhart.", William said as he bowed. He then put back on his mask as ordered, and left. Once he was on his way, and as the rest of the families present talked amongst themselves, one of Lord Akhart's two sons, both of whom had been sitting beside the man himself, questioned his father.
"Are we really going to entertain that shell of a man's dreams of grandeur?"
"No. We will do as we always have done: we will use the fool's drive to suit our ends for as long as we can, and then dispose of him. He did make a few decent points, however...", the old man paused, thinking, "Before we vote on this, have someone contact March. Either way the majority votes tonight, he will have many duties to attend in the coming days."