The Court of Owls – Family of The Cowl – Silent Night

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Chapter 9: Deserters of the Clan

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He skidded across rooftops and finally found a manhole cover below that screamed "here I am." The flashing eyes of the masked beast below them, gleamed. He dove for the heat of the fight, into absolute filth as his boots knocked the covering to shatter and fall back into place once he had well adjusted it to remain.

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More boots and zip line cables had the man in a mask fleeing deeper below ground. They'd returned. His uncle would not be pleased. He had his fiancé to finally court and the Court themselves had given no known thought to a disagreement in the proposal of this odd and arrangement. It was prior knowledge that Dick had found who Cobb really was. What he too would become with enough tweaking of his internal organs and a couple of shots of something extraordinary blasted into his skull by science's jaws of life. Crushing his windpipe as Cobb congratulated his people, his clan of their newest member.

The "Gray Son of Gotham."

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Tim's eyes scanned the image of that figure in the background of the news broadcasting set. Riddler had been incarcerated as the days flew by, but Jason and his new pals had been on their midnight hunts off of those days, not even dishing out their good fortune. If they even had any…

"Barbie." Tim slouched in his chair and looked at his feet, speaking through a device in his ear. Red Robin suit on and ready to rock the streets at a moment's notice.

"Why is Jay playing hooky? Why is Bruce even allowing Wilson on our team? I think he's got something to hide, maybe a cover for Cobb's brothers." The teen flipped over another image of Slade eyeing the character. A lion to a rhino. Slade just minded the creature as it waited, the cub not ready to join in on the hunt. A NEW recruit.

"He's got to be –

~ We can't trace the signature yet. ~ Barb shook her head and leaned over the keys on her end. She had Dick on her arm once, until Kori swept him away – but that was normal. It was puppy love between the two bat – brats.

"I could do it faster, you know that. Bruce knows it, but…" Tim looked up at the screen and squinted. Just as it was to him, Slade was on the same page as Bats. Damn. He had the man wrapped around his finger like a stinking snake that he was. "I still don't want to trust that Jay's NOT walking into being torn apart by that man. He knows everything –

~ Which is WHY Bruce is using baseless threats and promises to keep DS from leaking info that isn't his to have. ~ Babs countered, rolling her eyes, fingers still at the keys. Not even out of breath at her age.

"Yeah, but Jason is vulnerable. He could try to kill Slade and pin the man to the ceiling. I think he should, honestly –

~ Watch it. Anger is a weapon; Bruce always tells us. ~ Babs reprimanded the younger hero. ~ You're not old enough to make that decision. Just stick to the brain – work and I'll show you how to work… ~

She punched a key and with a grin, chuckled as a few locations popped up in red. Tim gasped.

~How we do things in the bat – clan. ~ She finished with a triumphant hum and a smile. With a single pound of the last key below her pointer finger, Dick was as good as saved.

/

A few keys clicking elsewhere, and the lights turn on. The unmasked rogue known as Slade Wilson has found a way into the Owl's database. He didn't tell them and for good reason as a comm in his belt makes a sound. Plucking it up, Cobb's obnoxious voice sounds out through the glass.

~ Many happy days to you, and the new year looks certainly as bright. ~

Cobb has to be so full of himself. Not while Slade went doing all of the work.

"Happy Aude Lang to you, and your Owlet." Slade snarkily replied. "Has the coronation started?"

~ No one is to be a king, Deathstroke. ~ Chuckled the somewhat immortal idiot. Slade pictured the man with white hair or something. He was brunette the last time they'd come across each other in Blud, waiting for Dick to set off to bed and brush his teeth.

"We've planned to have you leading your merry band of killing machines." Slade huffed. "What's the matter? Getting cold feet?"

~It. Is the Batman. ~ Cobb pursed his lips. ~ I'm seeing that he's still searching and it bothers the Grand leader. I want him eliminated.~

"How much will you offer me for my services."

Cobb must be spilling forth full of countless smile after smile. It makes him seem like he belongs in Arkham. Or should Slade try to drag the reason from behind those walls? Expose where his clan was keeping the Bat's pride and joy poster boy? He didn't like to take sides, and besides. He was getting dirt for both clients while Roku had Dick in a sleeper mode of his own. Should Cobb try to stake his claim without the dragon's full consent.

~ We can keep you happier than you've been all winter. ~

"That, sounds vague to me. How, happy….are we talking?"

Slade leaned into his seat in one of his precarious safe houses. And Wayne thought he should bring the man down with a butler to scold and chastise him…well done, Wayne. Alfred was not a Lt Paine. No sir.

"Question; why can't your little Owlet kill the bad bat?"

~ He won't be ready. ~

"Oh, I see…" Slade leaned back now, hands interlocked as Cobb's face beneath the mask must have been bashful. Why was he so…like Grayson. Huh. An underling for life. Slade's lips curved up in the shadows where Cobb could not even grasp the man's outline. Just as the Bat of Gotham City.

"Any way that I could help speed up the process?"

Cobb's head cocked to the side. ~ You have a history, you took him from his team in an attempt to train him. If I'm correct, he'd just found his nest with other heroes his age. Cute, but he's old enough to lose touch with his reality.~

"You think so?"

~ I am his blood, and he is of mine. My lineage, everything his father and mother could not instill in the child that I gladly would have arranged away from their dying eyes. ~

"You hold too much faith in that one." Slade shrugged. "He's only useful if you give him something. Motivate him a little, make the man who took him in nothing but a bogey man. A construct of his fears come to life. Scarecrow logic, I thought you knew how to torture –

~ He's very different. Odd…As if his voice is of more than once, an echo. ~

"Ah, you did notice that. Just a bit of…conditioning." Slade smiled so toothily; as a devious croc in the water, waiting for a stray bird to fly by. To gut it senseless. To devour it.

"Well, there is a catch. He's not himself. Not unless I'm in that room, barking the orders. Why don't you let me try my hand? He might come to."

~ Why? ~

Cobb was pushing it.

"Because, he still respects me. He still thinks I can save him." Lied the criminal, though…not entirely. He had leverage. He could force Roku's doll to move on thin strings, then cut all ties and be left with a devoted follower. Cobb would come after them, sure. But not BEFORE the owls came after him. Slade could gather immunity and the bat's home would go up in smoke. They'd be free of rodents and birds. Nightwing would vanish and Slade would toast to the new year, though belated.

~ That, won't be necessary, and truthfully, we know you aren't to be trusted. The Court handles matters between its kindred. You; however you believe you have been to us, we still have to test if you are loyal enough to join our ranks. If you are willing to give us the Bat. ~

Slade grew quiet, knowing Cobb was being given the eyes to the city if he kept the Grayson – on the other hand, Roku was really calling the shots. He wanted to see how far the talon leader would go before his utter collapse. The dragon wanted to see how this played out. It was, entertaining. Twisted, but Slade at least would come out the victor.

Unless…

"I accept. Bruce Wayne will rue the day as you say…and I'll be free to see to your boy's fits as a nanny if you will it."

~ Once you've been accepted by the Court. ~ Cult underling number one, recited. Then, he readily bowed in thanks to the merc. Clean hands? No. The immortal experiment was going to be coated by the time the Bat caught wind of this little trade agreement. Political as it was becoming, Slade would ride it out. Talk Bruce into following his lead as he had Jay and Night.

~ I'd be honored that you'd teach my great grandchild your killing art. He'd be unstoppable. Once he is wed to the Court Leader's daughter in a matter of days, there will be room for my talons to pull a few strings. ~

"I admit, I thought you had a back seat in all this, Cobb." Slade seemed to get a kick out of belittling this Grayson copy – cat. "Now I see you run the whole damned show behind the scenes…like a circus."

/

Walking out with no M.O but a coat to hide his weapons, Slade slipped down a back alley until his trail had ended with a gun to the side of his skull.

"Wilson. You pig. I got every damned word."

The city soon was pattered full with rain and a wince as the red hooded kook was smarter than he seemed. The rain fell a might harder, giving Slade the impression of a heavy hooved bull. Was Jay the slobbering mutt? Corralling a beast twice his size? ]\

The double barreled pistol didn't fire. Jay's gloves were drenched as the rain only protected very little of his dignity.

He unclasped the helmet, letting it hit the ground as he pummeled the army bastard. Shouting, yelling. Calling the man so many names as his mask was cracked in two by the butt of the gun.

"You! Sold! Out! My….Brother! My damned Dad! Pig! Shitface! Did you even care??? No! No, you gave him up!"

Slade halted the next smack, dragging Jay's shoulder back as his gun was lost to the dirty earth of these city streets. His white hair and goatee clung to his matted skull as the man didn't bother with a blade or shot in the rain. Jay wasn't going to get very far as he got up from his knees. Panting, exasperated. Yet he sizzled below his damaged skin. The Red Hood helmet in and as he reached at his belt, but a metal star stopped him from up on some rooftops. A set of yellow eyes, four owls as lightening struck, illuminating their crouching bodies. Jay stood, looking up, not seeing that they had him from behind -clawed hands over his mouth as he was dragged down in to the darkness. Slade only watched as a dutiful Talon injected the reanimated kid to lie still, as they scooped him up.

One crisis averted, yet Slade saw Jay's unit on the ground and his eyes grew wide at the screen, flashing back. A warning of his interventions. Machinations in need of a recounting.

A BAT signal.

Shutting it off, he crushed the thing violently below his boot and kicked the remains to mix with some trash on the street, knowing Babs would spit venom for Deathstroke stabbing her family in the back. It sparked till nothing remained, the last trace of any owls thus far. Of Jay and Richard's abductions, at least he could get away long enough to go after one more loose thread.

A cowled one; heavy and damp as his hair had gotten, now completely soaked in the process.