He calls himself Payback.

He claims he's helping kids that get abused and neglected.

But he's too brutal for his own good and for those he claims to be helping.

I can't let this continue.

BATMAN BEYOND REVISITED

EPISODE:

PAYBACK PART 1

Inque and I were out patrolling Gotham, looking for the new guy in town.

He has been assaulting parents, teachers, and bosses of children that were too harsh, neglectful, or even downright abusive towards kids.

He usually left them completely beaten down and some dead.

We have no idea who he is behind that mask.

That was new for me.

We identified Spellbinder without any trouble. Ra's was recognizable. Didn't wear masks at all. Charlie was a ghost, but he existed, so I guess he somewhat counts. With Inque, she doesn't have any other identity. Never hid her face all that much.

But this Payback character?

Total mystery to me.

Although, Inque did assure me that he wasn't one of the Jokerz.

I guess she'd know.

"Vance, get to the airtrain station by the Livvora District right now." I heard Dick say through my earpiece.

Inque looked at me and I looked back, nodding.

I made the Batjet turn a sharp left towards east.

"The airtrains, huh? Wonder what someone would be doing there this time of night. If there's anywhere to go, the trains for those places have all been run by midnight." Inque mused.

"Maybe for some business." I shrugged.

"Business where?"

"There's still running companies in the older districts. Pinkney's Orphanage started back up under the new name of Pinkney's Fosters, despite no real bloodline of the Pinkney name are still around. Decided to keep the name, though, to honor Cyrus Pinkney. Then there's the Harvil Foundation, but that place is closed down by ten and the workers are usually all gone by that time." I explained.

"Maybe he worked as a guard there?"

"Who knows?"

Inque frowned, like there was something bothering her.

"What is it?" I asked, not liking the upset look on her face.

The idea she could go back to being bad was a terrible but very possible thought. One I'd hate to see actually play out. So whenever she gets mad, I've tried to keep her calm each time. But it's getting continuously harder to do so.

"Nothing."

Her tone made it very clear that she didn't want to talk about it, so I obliged.

When we arrived at the station, we found a body right on the tracks where the airtrain would stop to pick up passengers.

The trains can't stay airborne while they're still, so the tracks are still necessary. I'm sure the tracks will be taken down once they find a way around that.

Inque hurried over to the body to pick it up and put it on a bench next to a map of Gotham.

It was a miracle he was still alive. Countless bruises, obvious broken bones, almost all teeth were missing. It was horrifying.

I scanned over his body for any old objects and found a small rectangular object in his jacket pocket with Inque's name on the front.

I took the thing out and it turned out to be paper.

Paper.

Rare find nowadays.

"Inque. Here's a gift from me to you. I'm giving you the pleasure of finishing him off and getting revenge for yourself. - Payback" I read out.

I looked at Inque and saw the most shocked expression on her face and asked her what was bugging her.

"He's Doctor Fimmers. He's one of the only few doctors to have gotten away from Aaron Herbst when he went crazy and killed the others. Aaron lied to me my whole life and... Well... I'll tell you the story later."

I nodded, understanding.

"Let's get him to a hospital, Inque. We can ask him questions la-"

She knocked me to the ground.

"Inque! What the hell?!"

"He's not going to the hospital. He tried to have me killed. As a child, no less."

"That was long ago, Inque. People change. You're proof of that. Just a while ago, you were working with Jokerz and now you're here with me, stopping the bad guys. He moved on. You should too."

"The man who tried to have me exterminated before I could even stand on two feet should be forgiven because he moved on and forgot all about me?! That's an insult to me, Jake!"

"How many people have you killed and forgotten about?"

"NONE! I regret every murder I committed, remember every name. And I never even tried to kill a child."

"And you don't think he doesn't regret it?"

"Why would he? After all the news reports of what I done, why would he be happy he didn't kill me?"

"Why wouldn't he tell everyone about what happened in the lab? Out Aaron as a killer and reveal he had a science experiment locked up and hidden at his house? Why wouldn't he tell anyone if he didn't regret what he did?"

I watched her, ready to pull out a ice capsules, which replaced the batarangs to make up more room, just in case she attacked me.

Five very long seconds later, however, she seemed to relax herself and stood down.

"Fine. Let's get him feeling better." She spoke with a rather sad, yet angry, tone.