robin; a different fate [Discontinued]

Chapter 02: The Team

[Third Person]
[Location: Mount Justice]
[10:11 AM]

"Arriving, 001, Batman." The zeta tubes announced to the young justice league. It hadn't been a long time since their last mission so they were fairly confused as to why Batman was here now, presumably with a new mission for them.

Wally, of course, was the first to get to the briefing room, excited for any mission he might get as long as it was with his friends and team. Robin was second, popping out of the vents like a whack a mole gone wrong. Next were Superboy and Megan with Artemis and Roy following right behind them. The two archers were promptly ignoring each other, still peeved about working on the same team after Roy's outburst.

Aqualad was the last to arrive, having been down in the pool area in the very bottom floors of the cave. Once the entire team assembled Batman began to brief them on a very particular mission.

"I'm sending you after this assassin, The Talon." Batman states as he pulls up a file of a kid in a mask and a hood. The only notable traits about him were his beautiful cold blue eyes and coal black hair.

"The Talon? You make it seem like some sort of title." Roy states as he looks at the picture before him.

"Yeah, he can't be more than 12 right? How bad could a kid like that be?" Questioned Wally. It was a valid question but the way the speedster said it was almost condescending. As if he couldn't believe that they were going after a little kid.

Robin stayed quiet, already having heard his fathers frustrations about The Talon.

"That's because it is a title. A Talon is a title given to only the best assassins of the Court of Owls. The Talon however, is the heir to the Court of Owls and the next leader. He is possibly the most dangerous assassin you will ever come across."

Batman then played back footage from his batcam, something that he had on his suit at all times when he was fighting so that he could playback and learn villains and would be villain's fighting styles.

An eerie cackle rose through the air as Batman whirled his head around to find the source. Tim, the current Robin was no where to be found, off doing missions with the team. Finally locating the source, the camera zoomed in on their face trying to find any facial recognition whatsoever.

Despite some very obvious facial features being present the system did not recognize the child up above him dancing across the rooftops. That automatically made him dangerous in his books.

The blue eyed kid gave that eerie cackle again as he launched himself downward, swords in hands.

"So Batsy, what brings you to this part of Gotham?" The young voice snickers. "No no, wait don't answer that the Court will know I didn't follow their stupid rules again shhhhhh." The childish complexity to the assassin threw Batman off.

"Who are you." Batman demands as he dodges a fluid movement, a slice from the swords while trying to look for a weak spot to take this kid down. He didn't have many, Batman had to give him that.

"Oo ooo I have a riddle! Man I've been hanging around Jokes too much."

"Who are you." Batman repeats with a deep voice that said 'I am batman'

"What am I? Beware The Court of Owls, that watches all the time, ruling Gotham from a shadowed perch, behind granite and lime. They watch you at your hearth, they watch you in your bed speak not a whispered word of them or they'll send the Talon for your head. What am I?" The Talon states as he repeatedly dodges Batman's blows.

"The Court is nothing more than a myth."

"Oh is that what they tell you in superhero school. Huh, no wonder the Court has that stupid rule in place." Talon says without elaborating on his statement.

"Oh well!" The assassin lets out a cheery laugh that would almost be cute if not for the creepy undertones to it.

And that's when the feed fell out and static took over the cam like a madman's cackle.

"And then he hacked and disabled my cameras." Batman finished with a scowl, clearly upset that his footage of the assassin had been tampered with.

Clearly.

The team stayed quiet for a solid minute, processing this new information.

"So what you're saying is that this Talon guy is an expert assassin who can hack and is very dangerous might I add and you want us, a group of teenagers to go after him? Cool." Wally

"Wally it is so not cool! I've run into him before and-" Artemis shivers. "He's one strong kid no matter how creepy he is. He took Sportsmaster and Cheshire out in five minutes and oh god his cackle...." The team, including Batman was shocked at this new information. Batman particularly since he hadn't known about this for whatever reason.

"Even so, he is a menace who must be brought to justice." Batman narrowed his metaphorical eyes into white slits. There was an ever present scowl on his face that had lessened considerably after he had made a family of his own with his biological and adopted sons.

"Batman is right, we must complete the mission." Kaldur states calmly as if he wasn't just told to go after an assassin. He was the team leader after all, it was his job to keep calm and levelheaded.

"The Court of Owls sounds familiar..." Conner says as he rubs his chin with his hand. "I heard of them when I was in Cadmus but I didn't think that they were actually real. Even the Ginomes were uncertain." He trails off with a small shrug.

"Until recently I too thought that they were only a myth used to scare children into obeying." Batman says as he brings up a tracker on the screen for them all to see. "Luckily during my last encounter with the Talon I marked him with a tracker. It's your job, along with Blackwing and Red Hood to track him down but do not engage." Batman warns sternly, the point going home to the team.

They were not to engage. This was different than any other mission they had gotten so far, it was a mission worthy of the league.

[1073 words] 

i lied it got shorter lmao