Talon supposed that a maximum of two weeks had passed since its escape from the Court of Owls. It wandered the cold streets of Gotham with no specific purpose and no real destination.
It was just walking. It did not matter much where it went.
Often, especially during the night, some people approached it with intentions that were clearly not good.
Talon did not hesitate to kill them. It might not have any weapon on it at that time, but it did not need one.
Because it was the most dangerous weapon on Earth.
In some moments Talon felt as if it was catapulted into another world, fragments of memories Talon did not remember running through its mind.
Low, soft laughter.
A hand gently tousled its hair.
Talon did not know who were the two figures, a man and a woman, that it often saw but it was quite sure that they were important to it.
Every minute Talon spent on the streets of Gotham, in complete freedom, it had to make an enormous effort not to turn back from the Court. Gray Son knew that it belonged exclusively to the Court, but it was too cowardly, terrified and frightened at the mere thought of being frozen in its own coffin, of being aware of the ticking clock but not knowing with utmost certainty the exact amount of time that has passed.
The very thought sent a chill down its spine.
Talon knew that it would have to accept the punishment it deserved, but in the end it was too much for even Gotham's Gray Son to accept.
So here it was, wandering the streets of Gotham City aimlessly and on the run from the Court of Owls with stolen clothes, Court of Owls gloves containing claws and Talon goggles that hid its real eye color and protected them from the sun in case the sunlight was too much for it to handle.
Talon might not be very smart, but after some unpleasantness, which was eventually resolved by killings on its part, it understood that its golden eyes, for a reason still unknown to it, frightened everyone.
Be that as it may, in the last period Talon felt lost, confused and useless without the Court of Owls to give it orders and killings to carry out. It supposed that this was a fair punishment to suffer and certainly better than what its Master would have planned for it.
Night had fallen.
Gray Son felt that it had mixed feelings, or at least it thought it could feel mixed feelings: it could not tell if the feeling was exactly that.
On the one hand, the night brought a kind of inner calmness to it despite all the crime in the city. Moreover, its eyes did not hurt when it took off its goggles.
On the other hand, Talon had to be alert and even more vigilant than already than it was of everything around it. Because the night was the perfect time for the Court of Owls to take back its Gray Son.
And Talon not only had to escape from the Court of Owls but also from The Batman. It had already happened a few times that Batman spotted it and tried to catch it, and it was only because of its superhuman abilities that Talon had each time managed to escape from the masked vigilante.
Talon saw in front of it three men heading toward it with strange smiles. It quickly examined them and came to the conclusion that they had neither weapons nor were skilled in combat, and so Talon categorized them as non-threats.
The 10-year-old boy tried to pass them without attracting their attention, but apparently they thought otherwise. One of them roughly grabbed it by the arm. "Hey kid-"
The man never had a chance to finish the sentence as, acting on instinct, Talon easily broke his neck with a single kick. The man fell lifeless to the ground and his two friends stepped back.
"Wait a minute-" the second man abruptly interrupted and his eyes went wide in shock as Talon snapped its claws from its gloves and slashed his carotid artery with a clean cut. The man choked on his own blood and fell dead to the ground.
The third man could not even make frightened noises as the second after Talon had already killed him by smashing his skull against the wall of the alley next to them.
Gray Son ignored the sounds of panic from the crowd around it and continued walking aimlessly. A few minutes after the three kills it made, Talon abruptly looked up just in time to see The Batman gliding menacingly toward it from above. It dodged the hero's attack by performing a backflip and landed in a crouch, observing with a scrupulous, analytical gaze the vigilante who impassively returned the gaze.
His gaze softened minutely from behind the cowl. "Killing is never the right answer. Come with me. I can help you." he stated softly, slowly extending a hand as if he were dealing with a wild, wounded beast.
Talon stared first at Batman's gloved hand, then at his body language that conveyed calmness and composure, and finally at his masked face.
Talon already knew what it was going to do.
It turned and ran.
This time it took Talon well over ten minutes to escape from the Dark Knight and another fifteen minutes to find itself in the completely opposite and desolate side of the city. Nevertheless, it was sure that for the last four minutes someone was watching it.
Suddenly Talon turned sharply and grabbed the knife directed at its neck on the fly. It quickly examined the weapon and saw the golden handle with the owl symbol.
Talon's most hidden part, the part in which its former self was completely buried, thought briefly that if he still had a heartbeat it would probably now be greatly increased.
Without ever wavering The Talon placed the knife back in its clothes, impassively aimed its gaze and stared coldly at the other Talon hidden by the shadows of the city. It took a step forward, partially revealing itself.
"Gray Son. The Court of Owls wants you to return to them. If you come without a fight, they promise that your punishment for treason will be tolerant for you to handle." it spoke in an emotionless voice.
Gray Son stared around and noticed nine more Talons hiding. Knowing that this would be a fight in which it would risk being sent back, it backed away slowly and turned sharply to the left and began to run.
The Talon looked back and saw all ten Talons chasing after it. Gray Son climbed up a fire escape of an abandoned house and through its acrobatic moves reached the roof of that building in seconds.
Gray Son began jumping from rooftop to rooftop and looking back it noticed that it had put a fair distance between itself and the others, even though they were still following it. Suddenly Talon turned its gaze back in front of it and stopped abruptly, dodging just in time a knife thrown in its direction.
On a rooftop not far in front of it were five other Talons.
Gray Son felt a sting in its side and noticed two knives stuck in its right side. It ignored the black blood that began to flow from its wound and ran in another direction.
Just as it was about to jump, something swept over it and caused it to fall backwards with its back on the roof. Before the Talon could even injure it, Gray Son was quicker and acting on pure instinct it encircled its neck with its legs and increased the pressure until it snapped it's windpipe in seconds. Its enemy fell dead weight to the ground and Gray Son got to its feet only to be overwhelmed by another Talon, this time knocking it off the four-story building on which it was standing.
Gray Son's hand snapped forward barely grasping the window sill of the building. Gray Son thus found itself dangling from the windowsill with the Talon firmly wrapping its legs around it in an attempt to bring it down. Gray Son braced itself on the sill with one hand and with the other punched the Talon violently in the face, shattering its goggles, the glass of which ended up in its eyes.
Despite the glass penetrating into its golden eyes, the Talon still did not let go of Gray Son who had to throw two more punches at it before it felt the Talon's grip loosen in the slightest. Gray Son took advantage of this and after a few seconds managed to bring down the Talon which crashed violently on the sidewalk, creating a puddle of black blood around it.
Those few civilians who happened to pass by started screaming in fright but The Talon ignored them.
Next Gray Son entered the abandoned residence through the window, went all the way through it and then exited through another window that was on the opposite side of the building. With a huge leap it managed to reach a ladder leaning against the neighboring residence and it climbed it, easily reaching the roof.
For the next twenty-five minutes Gray Son ran, changing direction very often without ever looking back. Only at the end The Talon looked around several times to observe whether any Talons were following it.
At first glance the answer would seem to be no but Talon knew better that it did not have the luxury of relaxing.
Not that it actually knew what it meant to be relaxed but that was another matter.
Within minutes Gray Son found itself wandering down and no longer on the rooftops. Throughout the casual journey it was taking, The Talon constantly looked around and in a special way pointed its gaze at the shadows that fortunately were not hiding any Talons.
After another ten minutes Gray Son's attention shifted to an abandoned-looking building that was certainly isolated from the city. Talon stopped and resisted against its whole being that was screaming at it to be caught by the other Talons to be thus brought back to the Court of Owls, suffer the punishment it deserved to rehabilitate itself before the eyes of its Master to thus receive orders, missions and targets to kill.
Because that was its destiny as a weapon: to carry out all the orders they gave it without making trouble. It was the property of the Court of Owls and would be so forever. It had no free will and depended solely on its Master and Owls.
The Talon managed with much difficulty not to be overwhelmed by all these impulses it felt and instead headed toward that building. It stared blankly at the door for a few seconds before turning the handle, only to find that the door was closed.
Talon stared blankly ahead and just as it was about to break down the door with its superhuman strength it opened, revealing a tall, sturdy man towering menacingly in half-black and half-orange armor smeared with blood, a mask of the same colors as the armor covering his face and carrying many weapons.
The menacing man and the ten-year-old boy stared at each other with impassive gazes for whole seconds.
Then.
Gray Son attacked the menacing man.