Though he lacked both the physique, intelligence, and more importantly superhuman powers that many people had come to associate with the definition of a hero, John Dustin had nevertheless been content with the life style that came from being an average human being.

He had a steady job that was sufficient in maintaining his middle class lifestyle in the suburbs.

He and his high school sweet heart had enjoyed 15 years of a marriage that had, while lacking in excitement, was nevertheless filled with love.

And perhaps most importantly, his 10 year old daughter and 8 year old son had yet to enter that heartbreaking stage of adolescence when they believed that saying 'I love you' regularly and vocally was embarrassing.

Yes, it had been a perfectly acceptable life, and apart from the inevitable teenage rebellious stage, would have remained perfect for the rest of his days.

At least until he lost it all because of the machinations of a madman and vigilante.

When he first started to gain publicity, there had been some initial debate whether or not Batman was a positive influence on the citizens of Gotham. Yes he operated outside the law, but in doing so he managed to remove some of the more entrenched elements of the criminal underworld that had ruled the city for decades.

He still remembered the debates he had had with both his coworkers and his wife.

Having been raised within the city itself, though thankfully not in the more run down areas where the GPD rarely went into unless they had SWAT teams on standby, John had argued in favor of Batman's actions, stating that he had accomplished more in 6 weeks than the police force had accomplished in 3 years.

His wife Jean however, while agreeing with him on this point, had nevertheless expressed the concern that the actions of this well meaning vigilante would inevitably summon criminals who, like the Batman, operated on a set of rules that was entirely different from those that had preceded them.

And she was right.

Mad scientists with ice themed weapons or animal turning potions, delusional and violent psychopaths that used formerly comforting themes to inspire terror, these and more were what crawled out of the dark corners of society to challenge the man who dressed like a bat.

Of course he would always defeat them in the end, whether if it was by himself or with his every expanding list of allies, but sadly, such victories always proved to be temporary.

He was not a violent man by nature, but after hearing that these criminals were being sent for psychiatric help rather than facing the justice they deserved, he had started to wish that the Batman would visit the same fate on his enemies as they had visited on countless innocents.

But up until that day, he nevertheless acknowledged that the caped crusader was the only one capable of fighting those who lacked the moral decency to feel regret for their crimes.

That had all quickly changed however.

At the time, all of the major enemies of Batman had been locked up in that accursed asylum, so his wife had suggested that they and the kids spend the day exploring the safer elements of the city.

Since he had been swamped with work at the time, he had said that he would join them for dinner. And that had been the last time he had seen them alive.

He still remembered with bitter clarity that feeling of numbness when the news started reporting the latest escape of one of the more violent criminals of Arkham, which was soon followed by a phone call that instructed him to come down to the morgue to identify the bodies.

The ride down had been tough enough, but seeing the faces of his loved ones was worse. He had heard somewhere that a person is supposed to be wearing an expression of peace after death claimed them.

But like everything else he touched, the Joker had managed to make a mockery of tragedy.

After emptying the contents of his stomach at seeing the twisted frozen smiles of his family, the next few weeks passed in a blur until he had looked at the month's expenses.

While he had no problem paying for the funeral costs for his family, he had been surprised to see that every last penny had been returned to him by the funeral home.

It was only after he called to confirm the refund that everything seemed to snap into focus for him.

For he had been told that he, along with every other family that had lost a loved one that dreadful day, had their funeral arrangements paid by a mysterious benefactor.

And despite the fact that he had no way of confirming the identity of the individual who had covered the cost of laying his beloved wife and children in the ground, John knew that it had been the Batman.

Was this how the hero dealt with the guilt of constantly putting innocent lives in danger? By paying off the loved ones of those who lost their lives because he didn't have the balls to permanently finish off his enemies?

It was at that moment that he decided that if a superhero could not protect those who had no chance of fighting back against the villains of the world, then he as an average citizen would do so.

Of course he would have to be careful in preparing for the day of reckoning since he intended to deal justice to more than one deserving soul, but in this his averageness would prove to be the perfect cover.

No super powers.

No gadgets of any kind.

And since he had developed a bit of a gut since he turned 40, no tights.

All he would need would to accomplish his goal was time, a gun, and the right education.

Somethings which were frighteningly easy to obtain in this day and age.

….

Hello all.

The idea for this story came to me after reacquainting myself with not only the ongoing debate about Batman's no killing rule, and the plot line of Injustice where we see what happens if superheroes break this rule (Though I point out, and DON'T READ IF YOU HAVENT READ INJUSTICE YEAR 3, Batman does this in a dream sequence and actually shows how moral he is) but also the ending scene of Batman Begins.

Batman is my favorite superhero, but we all admit that his no killing rule sort of gets in the way of making sure that the world..or at least Gotham no longer NEEDS Batman.

So why can't he just simply let his villains die through inaction? Nolan verse Ra's Al'Ghul is a perfect example of him doing this. Or simply do what he did in the Dark Knight returns (i.e. permanently paralyze his enemies)

He doesn't have to prevent the Joker from falling into molten metal/lava (though falling from a great height into the ocean or into chemical vats doesn't seem to work XD). He doesn't have to save the Mad Hatter (who had just killed his Ukrainian girlfriend who had been told his 'secret identity') from drowning, and so on and so forth.

The White Knight arc touched on the fact that Batman has a fund to repair damage for his actions, so figured that a funeral fund was also in place.

Thus the concept for this story was born.

An average man with an average life, gets it all taken from him and decides enough is enough. No chemicals to turn him insane. And no superpowers

Will try to get back to this as soon as I can. Already have an idea of how to continue.

But until then, hope you all enjoyed this.

Plz Review. No flames.