"Richard has completed his task successfully and not only that he also took down his old teammates and even leave the kryptonian one to die…"
William Cobb was presenting his case to the Court. Dick, even after following orders, was chained to the ground. The duo were in the center of a large court house; the witnesses, the jury, the judge, all of them were members of the Owls.
"We hear the case from our greatest assassin as he presents his grandson, his blood, Blüdhaven's hero, the one that was trained under the Bat. The Court deems Richard Grayson worthy of our clan and he's now reborn as the Gray-son, our new Talon and his training shall begin!"
All the people present starts celebrating while Dick was starting to feel way over his head after stealing that Wayne Tech and not understanding what for, and feeling awful about beating his friends.
"I'm sorry, Zatanna. It was my fault, it was my mission, my team…I should've called for backup the moment we saw that this was the Court"
Wonder Girl rubs her arm in shame, feeling beat up and like a rookie all over again. Zatanna brings Cassie into a tight hug.
"It's not your fault. You were amazing…I know that you miss Dick as well but we have to remember that he's way to stubborn to die and he will find a way to get back"
Cassie returns the hug. Her whole Team was taken down, Bart was fine after waking up but Tim was in the infirmary and Conner in one solar pod to heal.
"Zatanna is right, Cassie. Chin up! Go and get some rest"
Donna tells her younger sister who nodded and left the room.
"And how are you holding up?"
Troy turns her gaze towards the magician.
"Hanging in there. We've never been apart from the other for so long…it was always a week tops between League Missions, Circus and my shows but we talk every night before sleep and I could feel where he was with our bond but right now all I know is that he's alive"
The Amazon hugs the Homo-Magi.
"He's going to do the impossible to get back to us, y'know? To you…so stay whelmed"
The girls wipe some tears and chuckle at Dick's unwords.
"The next part of your training starts now"
Dick and William enters to another training room with several weapons and training equipment.
"This place is only for the Talon enforcer, the others, as you know already, are zombies. The current Talon hones his skills in this room and we pass all the techniques to the next in line"
Grayson follows his trainer to the middle of the room.
"I'm going to teach you those techniques but for that…you are going to let yourself go. Break the chains that the Bat put around you. It's going to be hard but we have the perfect training partner"
Cobb signals a Talon to come to the center.
"You need to learn the art to kill and the best way to start is with the undead"
The Talon hits his assistant three times on the torso with different hand positions and the target falls to the ground.
"Use this attack in a living person and they will die from internal bleeding from their lungs and stomach…now is your turn"
The teacher calls for another target for Dick to practice.
"We've been training for 2 weeks and the Court hasn't sent me on a mission nor I know in what are we working for. Should I expect another test?"
Dick needed to learn what's going on with the Court's scheme and to see Zatanna. She must be worry sick and he misses her like hell.
"I must say that you surpassed our expectations. The techniques that you learned in this past few days are not easy to master and take years of practice to get them…"
Dick wipes the sweat off his forehead.
"Rest. We will tell you everything tomorrow as we set our plan in motion"
Dick eats, showers and then makes his way towards his quarters. Lying on his bed, he starts playing with his wedding ring and his magic ring, thanks to Zee's magic enhancement, during the mission, he was the only one able to see it. He sets his mind on that smile that shines brighter than any star, that angelical voice that send shivers down his spine, the softness of her skin, those big blue eyes that harbors everything that is good in this or any world.
"I love you, Zee"
Dick mutters before falling sleep.
"I love you, Zee"
Zatanna hears that voice that she loves so much. It was so clear and felt so close. She starts looking everywhere like she was crazy in an attempt to find him.
"Zatanna? Are you alright?"
Khalid ask his cousin like.
"Huh? Yeah, let's keep the lesson going"
"Zatanna. We don't have to do this…"
Trace was worry for her mentor.
"Don't worry, Trace. This helps me and I love to teach you"
She smiles at her protégées before they keep walking.
"I evol uoy oot, Kcid"
She puts her hands on top of her chest.
"Today is the day. The day that you fully become a member of the Court of Owls, the day that you become the edge of our sword…follow me"
One of the members of the Court signals Dick to follow her. He couldn't shake the feeling of recognizing that voice of her, he was sure that he knew her from one of Bruce's galas.
"Here, we store our Talons. Our greatest warrior that fought until their last breath for the cause of a better Gotham"
Grayson was taken by surprise with how many of them were. It was a whole army that would cause trouble if he doesn't stop their plan.
"Thanks to your efforts we will manage to take our Talons to the next level and the Court will step from the shadows…we are bringing Gotham to its glory away from the freaks and our next target is Blüdhaven"
Dick couldn't help but to notice that no every person on the pods were Talons but normal people wearing suits.
"Who are they?"
"Our founders. We keep the best of the best of each generation with the hopes of one day bring them back to life"
"And why didn't you already? You have the Lazarus Pit"
"As you know if someone is fully death and brought back to life, they lose their essence and turn into loose cannons"
Dick knew first hand how the pits messes someone's head after what happened to Jason.
"But thanks to you, we might have a solution. Our best minds have come with a solution to our current problem"
"Which is?"
Dick was told to dress his new Talon suit. It was a black suit with golden details, utility belt, quills, and other gadgets.
"Mortality and you are going to be the first generation. You are going to turn into the Vessel"
Dick wasn't liking the sound of that.
"Thanks to the new technology of Wayne's enterprises and their neural tech…we are going to pass to you the fighting skills of all your predecessors. Cobb was our prime candidate to be the one but after we saw your exploits as Robin and Nightwing, we decide that you are the best option"
"How so?"
"Your training under the Bat, Deathstroke and among other people, your connection to the heroes. You are very well connected in the hero community even with the league of assassins if you are with us, a lot of them will fall in line…like your wife"
Dick controls himself to not react at Zee's mention. No one was touching her.
"Once we pass you all the fighting skills and pledge your loyalty to us…We are going to start to expand. And you have the class, the genes, the character to be a member of the Court not just as an enforcer but as our leader"
The duo keeps walking to another room with the scientist.
"But what about cloning? Wouldn't be easier?"
"Those are Luthor and the Light's way. So impure and unworthy of us. The Court doesn't want cheap copies"
They signal Dick to sit on a metallic table and the doctors and scientists start connecting multiple equipment to the hero.
"We are using Wayne's technology to pass down to you the skills of the other Talons to you, after that we are going to replicate your mind to another Talon's body as a test run, soon we will have the best fighters in the world, clean the world of all the filth with some magic help we are getting back to life our founders and reach immortality"
"Who's helping with the magic?"
"We have our ways and once we get the stage magician with us…no one is going to stop us"
Dick lies down and before who could do anything else, he gets strap to the table.
"What's going on?"
"You didn't thought that we will give you all this without a failsafe, right? We are going to make you loyal to us and only us"
William steps from the shadows.
"Aggghh!"
The experiment begins and Dick shrikes in pain, he feels his whole body burning.
"The process is complete. He belongs to us"
The scientist announce as they signal Dick to stand up.
"Excellent! Now let's begin phase 2, ever-"
The lights go out. The members of the scourge get trapped in their courthouse room.
"What's going on?"
The woman asks.
"Someone messed up with our circuits. Our army, our people is gone. The machines that keep their bodies intact are not longer working…"
"Grayson. You cost us our army and people, we will make you pay for the later"
The woman slaps Dick that stays still like a soldier and waiting for instructions.
"In the meanwhile fix your mistake. Help our people out and you follow me"
The member of the Court signals William to follow her.
"Agh!"
The turn around to see all the doctors and scientists out of cold.
"Gray-Son! What do you think you are doing? Stay down!"
"Sorry, lady. But I'm not letting you run the world"
Dick gets in fighting position.
"How's that possible? You should be under my thrall! Obey the Owls!"
"I pledge my loyalty to my wife along time ago"
The few Talon soldiers that were in the room engage Grayson in combat but were easily defeated by him.
"You are going to pay for that! You are a dishonor like your parents and your whole family! If it weren't for Zucco, I'd have killed them myself. That low life save me the struggle of getting my hands dirty with those failures!"
The men engage in a fight. They start exchanging blows.
"I'm going to kill you and after that I'm getting that witch to join us or maybe I'll kill her…"
Dick starts the fight using his more acrobatic fighting style, dodging, rolling, and parring. He hits the joints of the older man making him reel in pain but their fight gets interrupted by a third person.
"You are getting too slow, Cobb"
Lincoln March appears and helps his fellow Talon.
"I see that the Court was ready for this betrayal"
Cobb gets up and the two men gets in fighting stance.
"I've been looking for a way to get back at my brother. Killing you will break the Bat"
Dick was seizing his chances. Both man were physically stronger and bigger than him and on top of that they fight to kill. He knew that he needs to take March first and it wasn't a easy task with his healing capabilities for the better or the worst, his fighting experience against Deathstroke will come in handy today.
"Or you can give up…I don't want to beat old man like you guys"
The Owlman (Cobb) and the Talon (Malcolm) throw a fist at the same time. Grayson barely dodges their punch. The combined forces of the punch made a dent on the steel wall. Dick takes some distance and uses his quills and throws them at the Talon on his joints and nerve points, making him fall and unable to move for a brief moment.
"Aggh!"
Malcolm starts taking the quills out. Dick takes the opportunity to attack his great-grandfather. Grayson uses his inside kicks to hurt the knees of his enemy and when he was going down, Nightwing goes up with a elbow to his face. Malcolm starts getting back up, and the ex-Boy Wonder tries to axe kick him but the Talon catches his leg and sends him flying to the wall. Lincoln follows his attack with several punches to the faces making him bleed, Dick catches his arm before he lands on his face and breaks his enemy's elbow, knowing from experience that the Talon can take that much damage, he uses a pressure point, an attack that he learned from Slade, he hits the point on the back thus making the Talon unable to move by breaking his spine.
"It's going to take a while for you to recover from that"
"Grayson!"
Owlman gets back into the fight and pulls the blades out of his forearms. Dick evades all the attacks, the Owlman was fighting with his rage and not with his skills.
"I will hunt you down forever. There's not place for you to hide from me! I'll get that Witch and kill her too!"
The malfunction that Dick caused earlier starts to cause more problems in the building. The freezer with all the dead bodies start to collapse and the alarms grow louder. There was just Dick fighting William in a dark room with only the emergency red lights.
"Dick!"
Zatanna feels her connection with Dick and manage to pin point where he is.
"What is it, Zatanna?"
Kaldur asks; Donna, Will, Wally and Damian were with her in the room.
"I know where he is. Krow Sehtolc!"
Zatanna changes everyone's into their uniforms.
"Nepo a latrop!"
Zatanna creates a portal and the other heroes follow her.
"You have to kill me if you want to save everyone!"
Both men were bleeding and exhausted from the fight. For the Owlman's surprise Dick starts fighting with the Talon's techniques. Cobb smiles seeing that there was a killer after all inside his great-grandson. The Gray-Son hits several vital point on the man's body using the deadliest technique from the Court.
"How? This technique is supposed to kill me? What did you do?"
"You hit vitals and nerves to cause a massive failure in one's body causing them a slow and painful dead. But with the correct amount of strength and hitting from certain angles…you are just standing like a tree. I'm not a murderer and I will never be. The Court is done"
"And you will go down with us. This place is going to collapse"
Dick smiles feeling someone coming his way.
"There's always hope but first…"
Dick hits with a right straight directly to his jaw with all his might.
"No one calls my wife Witch"
From behind him; Zatanna, Red Arrow, Donna, Aquaman, Robin and Flash appears.
"There's no time. This building is collapsing. We need to get everyone out of here!"
Flash speeds and starts saving the members of the Court. Will and Kaldur carries the Talon and Owlman while Donna breaks another wall to help them out. Robin and Zatanna helps Dick to walk and the magician creates a shield around them. Once, everyone was finally out of the building, the hide out collapses but Zatanna's shield, with the support of Kaldur's magic, protects all of them from the explosion.
"Dammed, Grayson! You did this by yourself?!"
Will asks but once he turns around, he sees Zatanna hugging him tightly without sign of stopping.
"Guys? Do yo-"
Dick hugs his wife tighter as she jumps and wraps her legs around him.
"Go! We can talk later"
Donna cuts his friend and the rest nods at him.
"Let's go home, Zee"
The magician mutters a spell to take them back to their apartment, leaving the rest of the heroes with the clean up.
"Let's call the League!"
Aquaman turns his comms. He was happy to have his friend back.