I do not own Batman but this story is mine!
In Comes the Bat
A well built man stood in front of a large window in a very expensive looking mansion, from there he got a good look of the city from afar. Gotham City, filled to the brink of scum and villainy and this man staring at the crime ridden city should know, his name is Bruce Wayne. The billionaire playboy and owner of Wayne Industries might seem to be the last one to have such a difficult past to the untrained eye but he was far worse than you think.
As the son of the original owners of Wayne Industries he got everything he ever wanted, he loved his parents and they loved him back, always trying to spend time with him even if the demands of work said otherwise. But one fateful day everything went down hill, walking down an alleyway back to their car they were stopped by a mugger. Even after giving all their valuables to the man he still pulled the trigger ending the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Wayne. With no guardians Bruce was taken in by their butler Alfred, who looked after Bruce like he was his own child. After the years went by Bruce's need for justice kicked in, throughout his young adulthood he trained himself to acquire such vengeance. Spending time in the mountains training with monks he trained his body and mind to prepare himself for the act of vengeance. When his training was complete he returned to Gotham to act out his revenge, using his newly acquired skills Bruce hunted down the murderer of his parents and easily subdued him. There was one problem, after all that he went through Bruce could not go through with it, all the torment he went through and he could not kill this man. Instead he just turned him in and let the police take care of the rest. Although, he got his justice he was still not happy.
He looked around and realized that his parents' killer may finally be behind bars but what about all the others? Gotham City was still and most likely forever, crime ridden, and the police were not enough to contain it all. Gotham needed a hero and lucky for them he was perfectly willing to fulfill that role. Donning all black clothing Bruce headed out into night and became a vigilante, he stopped several crimes before anyone could see who did it. Everything was so simple, those petty crooks were so easy to capture, until they became smarter. Bruce at one point had finally started to receive more challenging opponents, when in one skirmish he was shot. He was lucky it wasn't serious but he realized he needed more of an edge. After finding out what Bruce had been doing this whole time Alfred patched him up.
Bruce now had a problem, and his only way to solve it was to pass his final test of the mind. On the property of his mansion was an old well that was closed off years ago, after the murder of his parents Bruce was playing around there and fell into the well. After landing on the bottom luckily unscathed he was surrounded by bats, the bats were relentless and their numbers kept increasing. Alfred managed to find Bruce and save him but that experience along with the death of his parents was forever burned into his mind. Entering the chasm of his torment he found a large cave, light glistening off water on the stalagmites making the dark cave look beautiful and peaceful. Then the bats awoke, over the years their numbers hadn't seem to have diminished, but seemed to increase. Bruce was surrounded by a tornado of bats he took great solace from it. This was his final test was complete. Then he had an idea.
Using the resources and a couple large sums of cash Bruce excavated inside the cave and under his mansion to connect the two. Buying the most advanced super computer that money could buy he placed it in the cave to monitor criminal activity and the pulse of Gotham City. Creating a black latex armor complete with a cape and mask, using the symbol of his previous torment, Bruce became 'Batman'. Bruce successfully created his own getaway car he dubbed the 'Batmobile' which he stored safely in the 'Batcave'.
Now in a new get up he was ready to fight crime in style, some people didn't take him as seriously because of the new getup but they soon learned to fear the caped crusader. Soon all the petty thieves and thugs of Gotham got the message and know it is a futile effort to try and take on the Batman.
Now as Bruce stares out his window looking at the city lights of Gotham he is filled with an ever expanding emptiness. All that he worked for was short lived. Dishing out justice for his parents and the good people of Gotham was all he had, but to know that thugs and crime lords have become too scared at night to come out he had nothing left. The pain and emptiness for not being able to take vengeance for his parents' death was beginning to return, being the hero of Gotham was his only way to ignore it. If he can't save others than he won't be able to save himself, he always told himself that no one should have to go through what he did. But now that the streets are safe why does he still feel empty.
"Sir there is a problem", Bruce turned around and was greeted by Alfred.
Alfred at first wasn't too keen about having Bruce parade around in tights at night and get into danger but he soon realized he couldn't stop him even if he tried. On that note Bruce ran for his personal studies, he entered and tilted the head of a Shakespeare bust and pressed a red button. His book case slid away and revealed a fireman's pole, sliding down Bruce entered the Batcave. Putting on his bat suit he entered the Batmobile and drove down a long corridor, Alfred watched as he left.
A mile down the road from Wayne Manner the Batmobile appeared coming out of a large mountain range.
"Set the navigation systems for the nuclear power plant, factory district," Batman said to the computer system in the Batmobile.
The whole drive there was paved with silence, when he got there the whole building was surrounded with the police. Unfortunately, Batman was not a good friend with the police commissioner, Lyle Bolton, he hated Batman and everything he 'stands' for. Forced to take the indirect approach, Batman entered the factory through an already broken window on the second floor. Inside he looked down onto the first floor and saw a couple of men holding guns guarding the tied up factory workers.
"Boss we're surrounded what do we do now?", one of the armed thugs asked.
"Well we may be surrounded but we have hostages and the police aren't too keen on casualties," a voice says but Batman cannot find their leader.
"Of course we could also teach them a little lesson. Show them what we would do to the others if they tried to make there way inside." Batman's eyes widened as a thug grabbed a woman and prepared to end her life.
Just when he was going to pull the trigger a sharp black object came out of the shadows and knocked the gun out of his hand.
"Ow, who did that?", the thug said grasping his throbbing hand.
The other thugs look around, a figure dropped down to the floor and grabbed one of the men, there were sounds of fists making contact and men yelling out in pain. The others began to look around fear easily seen on their faces, a grappling hook juts out of the shadows and wraps around another unsuspecting guard. The guard disappeared and Batman emerged from the shadows and threw a punch at another thug , after several well aimed punches the guard collapsed unconscious. The last guard who lost his gun ran and grabbed his gun but getting back up he came face to face with Batman's fist knocking him unconscious instantly. Finished, Batman looked around for the leader until he started to hear clapping.
"Well that was quite impressive 'Batsy', now who might you be?", a voice coming from the shadows said.
"Batman, and you are?", he said.
"Quick and to the point, I like that". A figure emerged from the shadows, he was wearing a dark suit and red cape with a red cylinder covering his entire head.
"You can call me 'Red Hood'."
With that said, Red Hood took out his machine gun and began firing at Batman, he managed to dodge them and threw a batarang disarming Red Hood. Batman caught up to him and threw punches left and right, Red Hood dodged and blocked most of them and even managed to return the favor. Batman was hit in the face and the gut but he wasn't down for the count. Batman sent more barrages of punches and kicks knocking Red Hood to the ground. Getting back up Red Hood made a run for it and ran up a set of metal stairs to the second floor, he looked around and saw the large vats of acid on the first floor and behind him. Batman was coming closer. Seeing that Red Hood was getting away Batman threw a batarang that stuck threw his cape and the metal of the railing they were running on, tripping Red Hood. He fell over the edge of the railing and was aiming for one of the vats of acid, Batman caught up and tried to save him but it was too late. Red Hood fell into the vat of acid, the chance of him surviving was zero. Making his exit he made sure to catch the police's attention so they could arrest the thugs and free the factory workers.
The drive back home was silent yet again and it was eating away at Bruce, after a couple of minutes he emerged out of his car inside the Batcave.
"So how did it go?", Alfred asked. This became a regular occurrence when the vigilante thing first started.
"I failed," was Bruce's short bitter response, after taking off the suit his last word before leaving the Batcave was, "I let someone die".
'After all that work I still couldn't make the pain go away, I only made it worse.'