1 Down The Dark Alley

 When they entered the alley through the back door of the theatre, it was more of a shame than an inconvenience as the play was just getting to Thomas' favorite part. Yet his son was only ten years old, so he had to understand that not all kids his age could appreciate something as amazing and articulate as the opera. When Bruce had asked to leave early, Thomas Wayne had no choice but to relent. The young man had a bad fall just a week earlier, so both he and his wife had been babying the boy just a bit more than usual. Martha had been extra touchy, hugging and kissing the boy to the point where it was almost embarrassing. Thomas put an arm around his son's shoulders, just to save him from anther barrage of affection from his mother. Despite their early exit from the theatre, everyone was still in a rather good mood. Thomas was seriously considering taking the family out for ice-cream on the way home, but the thought was quickly dashed as a man came out of the darkness, and pointed a gun at them.

 "I don't want to hurt you," the man said, his voice shaking. "Just give me your wallet, your purse, and all your jewelry!"

 Thomas raised his hands, and took a step to the side to protect his child with his own body. "I'll give you anything you want, just please don't hurt anyone."

 "Then hurry up!" the crook called out, as he grew impatient.

 "I'm getting it now," Thomas said as he pulled out his wallet and offered it to the man with the gun.

 The man instead was looking at the pearl necklace that was hanging around Martha's neck. He reached out for it and that's when things took a turn for the worse. Thomas' rage got the best of him and he grabbed the man's arm and proceeded to crack the man in the face with a hard right punch. The punch was solid, sending the crook staggering back several feet. Once the fog was gone, the man pointed the gun at Thomas and tried to shoot him. With amazing cat like reflexes, Thomas shifted to his left the bullet missed him. Thomas charged the man and slapped the gun out of his hand, sending it flying into the wet pavement. Without hesitation or regard for his oath as a doctor, Wayne started to beat the man as if he as Mike Tyson. Attacking both the body and head, Thomas started to beat that piece of filth as if he owned him money. With each punch, Thomas' hands started to bruise and even show traces of blood as the crook's face was bleeding from his nose and lip. He had beaten the man half to death when a loud cry caught Thomas' attention. 

 It was Martha, and that caused her husband to turn back to see what had happened. Martha was on her knees but she seemed unharmed, but it was the boy lying on the ground that caused the man's heart to skip a beat. There was only one shot, and it hit the boy. Thomas dropped the man like a sack of potatoes and he came running down the alley to give his son immediate medical attention. Wayne checked the boy and it was brutal. The shot had hit him clean in the middle of his chest and he was bleeding badly. Thomas did everything he possibly could to stop the bleeding but it was out of control.

 "Martha, find someone to call an ambulance!" Thomas ordered, but there was no response from his wife. She was clearly in shock, and that was perfectly normal considering the trauma she was experiencing.

 "Martha, snap out of it!" Thomas called out again, and still no response.

 Thomas continued to work on the boy, but his heart had stopped beating. He started to give the child CPR but after doing that for what seems like an hour but was only ten minutes, it was over. Any other person in the O.R. would have been declared dead in half that time after they flat lined. Thomas stopped working on the boy and instead took the small hand beside him into his own. That was always his favorite part, holding the boy's hand and marveling at how much smaller it was in comparison to his. Now that hand was cold and dead. A tear ran down Thomas' face as he had to accept the horrible truth that his child was gone.

 Martha was on her knees on Bruce's other side, as still as a statue with her hand up to her mouth. As she pulled her hand away she was stunned to realize that her son's blood was all over it. She had placed the hand over her mouth, and now his blood was all around her mouth as well, looking like someone did a terrible paint job on her face. She continued to stay on her knees, looking at the blood on her hand and then she made a sound. At first Thomas thought she was crying, but as the sound became louder and louder with each passing second he realized she was doing something else entirely.

 She was laughing.

 Laughing like an evil villain out of the movies, dark and sinister.

 He stared at the woman who was now grinning from ear to ear... mocking the very tragedy that laid before them. Thomas looked across at her with a look of shock in his own face now as he watched the woman continue to laugh endlessly as if this entire ordeal was nothing more than a sick joke. As a doctor Thomas had no trouble diagnosing what had happened to the woman he loved: her brain had snapped like a twig. The only thing he saw in her future was a one way ticket to Arkham. In a matter of minutes and a single gunshot, Thomas had lost his entire family.

 She was still laughing when the police arrived on the scene. The crook had some how managed to flee the scene and was nowhere to be found. Bruce watched as the boy was placed into a stretcher and fully covered with the white sheet. He then watched in horror as the woman was being dragged kicking and screaming to the car, even biting one of the officers and then laughing at his blood too. Once both cars had taken off, Thomas was taken away by one of the officers so that he could make a statement at the station. The long night was only just beginning.