Oh, yeah. Great. Go face-to-face with one of the most dangerous militant leaders on the planet, kill him and his people. You know that will be next to impossible. 
- — Talon
Talon #9 is an issue of the series Talon (Volume 1) with a cover date of August, 2013.
Synopsis for "Uneasy"
Calvin Rose was mistaken about himself. He thought that with Casey and Sarah Washington in danger, he would be able to bend his own morality enough to kill the other rogue Talon currently known as Strix. However, when faced with someone who was so like himself - another Talon who wanted to do right - he couldn't do what the Court of Owls had asked of him.
So, he was left with just one option: to successfully lie when he is expected to lie. Allied with his cause, Strix strips off her Talon uniform and allows him to put it onto the corpse that the Court's scientists had been experimenting on in the underground lab that she and the Birds of Prey had broken into earlier. As the final touch, he removes the mask that covers her disfiguring scars, placing it over the corpse's face. At last, he uses the chemical he was given to corrode away her necrotic tissue on the body, hoping that it will be enough to hide the fact that this is not the woman he was meant to kill. As they watch the chemical do its work, he warns Strix that she can never tell her friends what they did there that night.
Looking into her eyes, Calvin knows he can trust her. He explains that regardless of the Court's attempts to control them, regardless of what has been done to them, it is what is in their hearts that should guide them, and they will never let anyone drag them through the darkness again. Searching the wall, he seeks out a secret compartment containing Talon uniforms and explains that Strix needs to keep up the fight as a rogue Talon - because one of them needs to keep fighting for good. After all this, he's not sure he can be that one anymore.
Calvin returns to the Court Grandmaster with the corpse, and Wycliffe explains that now Calvin knows what they can do to him if he does not remain in line. Acknowledging the threat, Calvin shifts focus to his real goal, Sebastian Clark and Bane. Wycliffe explains that Calvin will be air-dropped into Santa Prisca to capture Clark and find out what he has planned with Bane. After which, he should kill Clark, Bane, and anyone on the island who knows of the Court's existence. Calvin responds grumpily that he is being asked to do the impossible. Wycliffe comments that Calvin had better try very hard, then. If he completes this task, the Court will consider releasing Casey and Sarah. Should he fail, they will die.
As a last request before leaving, Calvin asks to be allowed to see Casey, who is currently about to be tortured by The Gotham Butcher. Calvin interrupts just in time, with just two minutes to be alone with her. Casey is relieved to see him alive, though Calvin admits that he is not exactly alive anymore. Calvin reports that her daughter Sarah has likely been taken away for brainwashing - and they may not value Casey's life so much, comparatively. With little time left, Calvin tells Casey where he's going, and then plants a kiss on her swollen and bruised lips, reminding her to remember everything he had taught her.
It takes five hours for Calvin to reach Santa Prisca, where Bane has set up the prison Peña Dura as the island's capital since his takeover. It now has automated turrets that can bring down anything in the island's airspace under ten-thousand feet. As a result, Calvin must dive from a significantly higher height. As he approaches, Calvin cuts himself loose from his parachute so that it takes the brunt of the turrets' attacks, falling to the surface without it.
As the residents of the island rush out with guns to kill the parachutist, Calvin sneaks inside the prison and steals a guard's outfit, so that he is less conspicuous. Soon after, his attention is caught by a scream of pain. Watching secretly, he sees Bane's minions experimenting with the effects of Venom on the body. Soon, though, Calvin is spotted by a group of soldiers who order him to accompany them to report to Bane. Their leader explains how the parachute was a decoy, and Bane is particularly disappointed that his security has failed him, and places full responsibility on the messenger, slamming his skull into the wall, and stomping his body to paste. Uncomfortably, Sebastian Clark remarks that the violence hardly seems necessary, though he does not presume to tell his partner as much. Bane has the remains of the guard troop escort Clark back to his room, and Calvin is among them. Silently, he uses blow-darts to incapacitate the other soldiers, and confronts the man who betrayed and used him.
Meanwhile, Casey struggles to remove the shackles from her arm, having got one of her arms free. With that done, she reaches into her mouth and, through tears of pain, rips out one of her own teeth - a fake tooth that, when activated, can send a covert morse signal onto any communications network she can imagine. Soon, on the other side of the world, Anya Volkova receives Casey's message in her tooth, and realizes that she has to go back to Gotham City to save her friend.
Despite Sebastian's assertion that Calvin is no killer, Calvin assures him that after his betrayal - after being hand-picked for a life of wanton killing by the man he thought was helping him - killing would be easy. Sebastian responds that it won't be so easy, given that he has the bizarre killer Wolf-Spider to protect him.
Appearing in "Uneasy"
Featured Characters:
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Supporting Characters:
- Casey Washington
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Villains:
- Sebastian Clark
- Bane
- Malicia
- Brute
- Wolf-Spider
Other Characters:
- Joey
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
See Also