Rage, it is an interesting thing. One second you can be just fine, the next. Pure rage comes down and the world becomes a battlefield, and everything is acceptable. One night you are the keeper of peace, a light in the darkness; the next night you are rage, you are now the bringer of vengeance, you are judge jury and in some cases executioner. Each day walking that line of light and dark becomes more and more blurred.
Rain, always raining in this city, I don't usually mind, but tonight it just makes things worse. It makes the people on the stress move faster, makes the cars drive slower. The people in this city are filth, they let a man get away with almost anything, this city should be destroyed, left to rot. But that is not what my father wanted, he wanted to save this city; so did I at one point. But not now. Now it deserves to burn.
On the street below, a man held a gun to a woman. The same gun that was used just last night to take the life of two. The man was grinning and demanding the woman's money; she of course handed it over but he wasn't pleased, he wanted more. The man said something softly and the woman started shaking. "NOW!" he demanded, and reluctantly she began to undress.
But the rage had seen enough, it sprang. The Batman silently dropped down behind the thug, the filth. He never saw it coming; the hand that grabbed the gun from him, or the knee that slammed into his side. The man stumbled to the ground, fear starting to overcome him. "But… but…. your dead…. I watched you die four years ago."
The batman stalked over to the thug and slammed his foot onto the man's chest. "Do you have any idea what you did?!" He demanded. The Thug shook his head then relaxed, "No but what does it matter, you're just going to break a few bones and put me in jail, I'll be out in a month tops."
"Not this time. You took the last thing in the world that meant something to me." The man's smile soon faded as he was lifted to his feet and quickly thrown to the ground. He watched in fear as the batman picked up the gun and aimed it at him. "Hey now…. You're the batman, right? This isn't you, you don't kill." Lightning struck showing the man this batman, of course the costume was the same, but he was rough, he was unshaved and angry, and if he had time, he would have sworn that he saw tears in the bat's eyes.
None of that mattered. The Batman was all that remained, the part that kept him in the light was gone, Bruce Wayne had died last night along with his wife and unborn child. This Batman had no moral. He was judge, jury, and executioner. This was the Batman unleashed. This was how it happened, this was how the Batman finally got his wish, no more rules, no more Wayne. The Batman would mourn for Bruce. But Bruce was dead, he had been hurt sixty years ago, in this very place, and the last part of him died last night. Batman was all that remained, and the Batman was rage.
This was the first time the Batman had been seen in over four years. It was not the first time he crossed a line. It was however just the start of the new Batman. The last thing Bruce Wayne ever saw was his wife, the last thing he heard, was a armored glove pulling the trigger, followed by a loud 'BANG"