[Comprehensive British and American] Family Matters

Dick wasn't very happy.

correct--

He was mad.

"That self-assertive bastard!" Dick yelled, he didn't care if he was wearing a bat suit or not, and he needed to help Batman maintain his image, he swore that if Jason himself was in front of him, he would definitely beat that poor kid to death His mother doesn't even know...

Uh, maybe it's better not to hit him so badly, just slap him lightly, he's tired enough just juggling two different lives, day and night, and he doesn't need a bunch of assassins behind him.

"I allow you to physically punish the Red Hood." Damian said this in a solemn tone as if he was handing over the nuclear bomb code, "I will cover it from my mother, such as telling her that the Red Hood is learning stage special effects makeup .”

"Nobody learns makeup just to paint themselves as if they've just been hanged, okay?" Tim sighed impatiently, and Dick vaguely heard him gulp down something, probably coffee. , "If you want to lie, tell a better one. For example, when he met Bane during the night watch, the two had a fierce battle, and the credibility is much higher."

Dick is almost convinced that Tim is just giving an example, and unfortunately, in the incident where Ben came to add to the mess, Dick saw Jason get hurt trying to cover Tim (minor injuries, a long way from beyond recognition A distance away), Tim’s expression at that time could feel killing intent even through the mask Dick.

That's why he didn't believe Tim was just giving an example.

"Red Robin, don't use Robin to let Thalia send someone to kill Ben." Dick rubbed his aching temple, "You're killing someone with a knife."

"Tsk, it was an effective plan a minute ago." The tone of the tone made Dick's face clearly appear in front of Dim's elongated face, "Thank you so much, Batman."

"You only have these conspiracies left to do, Drake. If it were me, I would obediently step back as a support, and stop going out to be a burden to everyone." The daily interaction between Damian and Tim Stabbing sounded more upsetting to Dick's ears now than mosquitoes on a summer night.

But Dick couldn't lose his temper with them.It doesn't help at all, and he can hear on the other end of the headset that the spat between Tim and Damian is less explosive than usual.

They just try to maintain the appearance of normality in this way.Just like what they've been doing for the past few days when Bruce disappeared.

Dick would rather they continue bickering like this than face a gloomy Batcave.They have persisted for so many days, as the eldest brother, he must not be the first one to collapse.

"Hey, don't be like this, Robin, did we agree to treat our brother kindly?" Dick lightened his tone and continued to search for the place where Jason's signal disappeared.

Damian, on the other hand, insisted that the ward was not a foster brother from a legal point of view.Tim asked sharply in turn: "So Ye Yi is not your eldest brother anymore, because he is just a 'warded person'." Is there any news from Gordon." He ran out of the range of Tim's communicator.

"Red Robin, you still can't find him? Try another channel?" Dick went around twice and had to admit that he found nothing. "I found nothing here, no signs of fighting, no wreckage... nothing! I mean, if it was like Batman did, we'd at least find his belt, hook gun and batarang, wouldn't we?"

"The Prophet still hasn't found his signal. I think his communication and locator are good. If they are disconnected due to a malfunction, the bat computer will display it here at the first time."

"So? You mean he turned off the communicator himself?" Dick frowned, and that would explain the last noise he heard. "But why would he do that?"

Tim sighed deeply. "I wish I knew, Wing. I really wish."

***

Jason bent over the wall of the maze and moved forward cautiously. Even if he would not get lost due to the winding and complicated route, it would not be easy to find another equally dark person in such a dark environment.

Fortunately, this maze is not completely dark, the middle part is bright, and there are a few sporadic rooms with lights. Jason moved towards the room closest to him as his target.

"What the hell are you doing?" As soon as you enter the room, you will see coffins all over the floor, neatly arranged like a well-planned cemetery. The difference is that there are no tombstones here, only photos.What is painted on the wall is not a cross but a symbol of claws.

Every photo is a child, roughly looking at it, the youngest is only about five or six years old, and the oldest is only a teenager in his teens.

One of the coffins was open, but there was no body inside.

Jason couldn't help but think of the Talon he had killed.If every coffin here is a killer (you can't feel pain, you won't die even if you fall from more than [-] floors), then how many people have been "disposed" by the court with these sharp claws?

"I don't know how many of you chose to work for the court..." Jason walked past one after another young faces locked in photo frames. Some of the photos were old and yellowed, and some were originally black and white photos, looking up-to-date. The photo in the photo has a history of at least ten years.

He hesitated for a while, grabbed a bat dart in his hand, and then bent down to lift the lid of the coffin.

No corpse hissing to gnaw at his brains, no stench of decay.There was only one man lying naked inside, with a fig leaf wrapped around his lower body, as if he was asleep.

"It seems that although the court has money, they are very stingy with their subordinates." Jason looked at the shirtless man, and then at the coffin without any lining, which was the same as the one he wore when he was buried. The one that is not comparable.

Having said that, Jason still felt that the day he needed to use the coffin again, he still had to choose a thinner one.

—At least it's easier to dig through.

Shaking his head away from the questions about mourning clothes and coffin boards, Jason noticed that the Talon had burns all over his body, which seemed to be inconsistent with the physiology of the Talon, which they knew could recover quickly, unless this It was a scar he had before he received physical enhancement.

The conversation with Dick in the sewers at this point puts all the pieces together:

The unnamed deceased warned Dick about the Court of Owls.

The nameless deceased was tortured to death by flying knives,

Dick saw something tricky and felt that the circus had something to do with it all,

Dick brought a mystery book from the circus,

The last name on the roster was Dick Grayson,

The name written on the front of Dick, Alton Carver, who Dick said had been a member of Harry's Circus, had died in a burning car accident.

"I knew nothing good had to do with the concept of clowns." Jason smashed the photo frame on the coffin lid, took out the photo inside, folded it up and put it in his belt (an extra piece of evidence is always good), and walked along the coffin The order of placement removed three other relatively recent, "I'm going to have a permanent shadow on the circus."

That's why he didn't want Dick to come with him.Since Dick felt that there was a problem with the circus, Jason didn't intend to let him go further into the case.He knew how much Harry's Circus meant to Dick, and no matter how long he'd been in Gotham, no matter what he said about Bloohaven as his city, Dick Grayson would always be a little boy at Harry's Circus. trapeze.

But these -- Court of Owls, Talon -- have a bunch of lunatics trying to make Gotham their house wine castle in this way, and Harry's Circus has been helping these demented scum all along.

It would destroy what little remains of childhood in Dick's mind.Jason remembered that when Dick and he weren't fighting, he would occasionally tell stories about the circus, where the circus was like Avalon or the Garden of Eden, everything with nice pink bubbles.

How could he tell Dick that his dear Mr. Harry had actually ordered a coffin here for him?

And Dick has long passed the age of obediently obeying orders. If he knows that he is running to find Batman alone without taking him, especially when he has already preconceived that he is the target of the court of owls, that stupid blue bird He would only rush over with two electric batons and throw himself into the net.

From the standpoint of the owl court, Jason would like to raise his hands to welcome a graduate with many years of combat experience and excellent bat training to become Talon.He will never let this happen.Dick was to stay away from the owls, and the crocodile's wanderers had promised to cause some commotion to distract him if "Batman" got too close to the sensitive area.

The girls are so active, they don't even want to be paid.Jason didn't know what fantasies they had about the cloaked vigilante, but he was very thankful that there was no cloak or tights in his equipment, and his entire face was airtight and safe.

Besides these sharp claws, the safest way is to burn every coffin, but Jason doesn't have so many tools to burn all the coffins, let alone dozens of them!

"Blow them up? No... the risk is too high, if not, the way out will be blocked." It's not like Jason didn't want to use the big caste blade to behead them all, but the big caste blade can only It can only be unsheathed when facing evil, and the sharp claws in this state are just corpses.

A corpse is an object without distinction between good and evil.

"Well, I guess we can only temporarily place you, Mr. Carver and his...unhappy companions." Jason patted Alton Carver's coffin and stayed behind before closing the coffin. There is a tracker on the inside of the coffin lid.

He could come back to pile wood another day for the Walk of the Dead problem, and he still had a bat to find.

***

Batman stumbles into another room, a room full of pictures.

He has been here once before, and he has to find another way out... Thinking this way in his chaotic mind, he struggled to let his legs rub against the ground to take one step, and another step, until the new objects on the wall attracted his attention attention.

Years of detective career have made him pay attention to his surroundings all the time. What is more and what is missing, the devil is hidden in the details.

There are more photos of Batman (his photo) on the wall, from the time he just entered the maze to his current appearance, from calm and rational to now anxious and manic, just like other men and women on the wall.

It was the Court of Owls mocking him, that he was just another prey for the Court, and they were the hunters.It's their way of asserting Gotham's sovereignty - it's the city of the Court of Owls, not Batman's.

"No!" Batman roared, his voice was hoarse and broken, with every breath of air, his dry throat seemed to be scratched by a needle point, "No! I refuse to accept the nonsense you wrote! Come out and face me! I am here!"

It wasn't members of the court who answered Batman, but bright red blades protruding from his belly.

"Batman, the Court of Owls sentences you to death."

Ah, red because of his own blood.

Too careless to notice Talon approaching him from behind.

Kneeling on the ground clutching his wound, Batman could barely tell whether the dizziness he felt was due to blood loss or because of his physical strength and mental state that had reached the limit.

"Any last words to say?"

Kneeling on the ground, Batman struggled to look up at Talon, ah, yes, it was him.It was this claw that attacked Bruce Wayne in the Wayne Tower and attacked Batman in the sewers.

But something is wrong, the posture of the sharp claw is standing upright, but there are a few gunshot damage on his armor, who is it?

Who would shoot Talon on the grounds of the Court of Owls?

Or did Talon kill other people in Gotham during this time?who is it?

There were too many questions, but Batman's attention was all on Talon, or to be more precise, on the black "Batman" behind Talon.

"Claw, the Gotham Bat-Family sentences you to death."

The red-gold energy sword pierced through Talon's belly, piercing at exactly the same angle that Talon had just done to Batman.

"Batman" held a sword in one hand and a gun in the other, looked up at the men and women wearing white owl masks gathered above, and the corners of his mouth taunted: "And each of you - the death penalty!"