The cowl of the would be Batman was no match for Martha Kane's semi-armor piercing high explosive shell. Within moments the man was lying in the gutter, his eyes rolled back into his head.

Martha removed her mask, it was an experimental material developed by Tom's company, she found it hard to breathe in, he liked that, kept her at a disadvantage.

Having her regular face back for a moment and being able to see clearly again in the darkness of the street, Martha knelt down to examine the imposter's face. She didn't recognize him, not exactly, there was definitely something familiar about him but she just couldn't put her finger on it.

"You gonna cry, my love?" Tom asked with a chuckle, Martha loathed that stupid imitation accent of his "Maybe this chump would've let you wear your old purple and greens if you were his partner"

Martha rolled her eyes, she had agreed to join Tom's crusade, heh, she had little say in the matter but did he have to keep bringing up the past, she missed it so much.

"Come on Chuckles, you take his arms and I'll take his legs"

Martha did as her ex husband asked. Four dangerous criminals were off the streets, not bad for her first night as the Question, so why did Martha want to vomit? And why were her hands still shaking?

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

The old landfill was registered to Morrison, Snyder and Associates, an old shell company for Wayne Incorporated. Tom called the deserted property his pride and joy, Martha's stomach sank even further than before. She knew what this place was, the whole city spread rumors about it, the Bat's secret graveyard, but no one knew its location.

Tom must've seen how uncomfortable the place made Martha because he immediately stoked the flames by mentioning exactly who they were walking on top of, cracking jokes about which ones he pissed on and what their pitiful last words were.

Tom claimed that he buried everyone he killed out of kindness, the dead need to be buried after all, no matter who they were... Martha knew the truth though, he did it because he wanted to hurt his victim's families, he wanted to take even the most basic closure away from them, to make them suffer for their children's crimes. Tom Wayne was just a psychopath playing dress up.

Martha shook away her immediate thoughts and tried to settle her nausea, it wasn't a good idea to focus on things she couldn't change and it wasn't her place to judge, not now. He would want her to smile, he always wants her to smile and show her 'beautiful scars' to him. Personally she would rather take out her gun and unload the entire clip into him... but he was all she had left after Bruce and Patrick... So she would smile and hope he smiled back at her. Just once.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Little eight year old Bruce Wayne played alone in his room, it was an enormous space and he had so many toys. His favorite was a little plush his mom had bought him when they went to the museum together, it was green and soft and had little foam teeth. Bruce made the plush fight the Star Wars action figures his grandpa got for him, Luke and Ben fought valiantly but ultimately all fell in battle to his green friend.

Bruce wished he had real friends. He used to, his cousins Kate and Beth were his friends before his Dad got into a fight with their Dad.

"I'm not going, Tom, and neither is Bruce!" Mom yelled

"You will go and you will smile and look happy!" Dad shouted

Bruce closed his eyes and put his hands over his ears like mom taught him to do when her and Dad fought. Bruce imagined a better life, he imagined escaping the Manor with his mom. He imagined burning the whole, evil building to the ground behind them.

"Fuck you! You can't treat me like this anymore!"

"What're you gonna do, leave?!"

Bruce was going to tighten his grip on his ears when he heard a crash, a big one, like somebody fell over. He held his plush tight and ran to his parents' room.

Bruce pushed the door open and saw his Dad standing over his mom. She looked like she was knocked out.

Dad caught Bruce staring. Bruce wanted to run but he knew that would be a very bad mistake.

"Hey buddy, look your mom's sleeping right now" Dad looked down at Bruce's plush "Throw that damn thing out, you're not a baby"

"But mom gave it to me" Bruce said, before he could stop himself

Suddenly his Dad didn't look angry anymore, he looked really happy in fact, as he lifted mom's head and stuck his fingers into her mouth, using her as a puppet and making her smile.

"Son..." he said, imitating mom's voice "Give me back that horrible toy, you are too old for those things"

Bruce didn't know what to say, this was so wrong, so messed up, but at his Father's insistence he handed over the plush.

"Now get ready for the movie, you're gonna love it"