Gotham's Unknown 3 Predator and Prey

Chapter 7: New Dawn

It was early in the morning, the sun just peaked over the rooftops of Gotham City and crime was already in the air. A group of criminals had broken into a bank just before it opened. As the sirens echo inside the building and the men are stuffing wads of cash in their duffle bags but little did they know they were being watched. One by one each man was taken out but as the numbers lessened a man noticed one of their fallen men and gripped his gun tighter. "Guys, we need to get outta here quick!" Said the man as he ran back to his buddies inside the vault who also had the hostages.
"What?" Asked the man with his gun pointed at the hostages.
"I think the Bat is here!" Said the panicked man.
"What?! He doesn't work during the day." Said the man stuffing cash from the vault in the duffle bag.
"Well he's here! We need to get out of here!" Said the panicked man as the man holding his gun at the hostages glared at his buddy.
"Hey you may be scared of the Bat, but I'm more scared of the boss! Boss said if we don't come back with 12 grand then we'll end up like the last guy that failed him, on the mantle in an urn. I don't know about you but I'd rather not become instant ashes." Said the man as his buddy nodded. The men went back to robbing the bank but as the men went to escape, he blocked the door. The White Stagg of Gotham.
"Let's do this the easy way gentlemen. Drop the money, let the hostages go, and you don't get hurt." Said the deep almost electronic voice that came from behind the skull.
"Yeah and what if we don't?" Asked one of the men.
"You get the hard way." Stated Stagg coldly but the men just laughed.
"There's three of us and one of you plus we got guns! I think you better run while you can." Said the man as Stagg sighed.
"The hard way it is then." Said Stagg as he pulled two white batons from the holsters on his back.
"Boys, let's show this freak that you don't mess with the Black Dog and his boys!" Said the man as he and the other men aimed their guns and started firing. A few bullets went into Stagg's chest but he allowed that to happen then he jumped up and off of the pillar next to him and smacked the first man with his baton knocking him to the ground then Stagg cracked his baton into the second man's leg breaking it and causing him to fall then the third tried to run but Stagg threw his baton and pegged him right in the back of his head knocking him unconscious. Suddenly the police flooded into the bank and aimed their guns at Stagg.
"Hold your fire!" Said the voice of Jim Gordon as he walked through the sea of armed policemen ready to shoot down this masked vigilante. "Are you with Batman?" Asked Jim as he walked up to Stagg.
"I work on my own but he approves of my services as I hope you will as well, Commissioner." Said Stagg as Jim looked him up and down and noticed he had four bullet wounds in the direct center of his chest.
"Oh my god, you've been shot!" Said Jim as Stagg looked down noticing the bullet wounds in his chest. As Jim started calling in an ambulance Stagg dug his finger into one of the bullet wounds and pulled out an individual bullet. Jim stopped mid sentence as he and the other officers watched Stagg pull individual bullets from his chest like he was plucking them from a bulletproof vest but instead he was pulling them from his own flesh. Stagg then held the four bullets in his palm and held them out for Jim.
"I assume you would need these for ballistic evidence." Said Stagg as Jim stared at him and nodded.
"Yeah... Thanks." Said Jim as he grabbed an evidence bag from one of the other officers and had Stagg put them in there. Jim turned to the officers and then turned back seeing one of the skylights left open. Jim smirked. "Kid's a little dense but he'll do nicely." Said Jim with a smirk.

While Stagg was foiling a bank heist, Oswald Cobblepot had gone into Arkham early that morning to visit Edward. The two sat talking for a moment about how much they missed each other when suddenly the locked door to the visitation room opened and Sarah walked through. "NO! GET OUT!" Edward shouted as he slammed his hands against the table. "I told you that I can't now leave it at that!" He barked as Sarah marched over.
"You are being completely callous to your own husband!" She shouted as Edward looked at her.
"What's so callous about sparing him the heart break!?" Shouted Edward as Sarah looked highly offended.
"Because you're setting him up for an even worse heart break when the day comes that you're gone and he has to live without you!" She shouted as Oswald had enough of this.
"Enough! Ed what's going on?" He asked sternly as Edward stood there with his mouth open trying to say the words but all he could think was how much it would hurt to say it because that means it's true and Edward does want it to be true. Edward just hung his head showing he couldn't tell him so Sarah stepped in.
"Edward's dying, Oswald." Said Sarah as Oswald sat back down shaking his head.
"No! No, no, no! That cannot be true! Ed telling me you're not leaving me." Oswald begged him but Sarah sighed.
"I wish it wasn't the truth but it is, I brought evidence." Said Sarah as she pulled out a piece of paper and laid it on the table. "I had Gotham General fax over the images from a CAT scan they performed on Edward last month." Said Sarah as Oswald picked up the image and showed a small black dot in Edward's skull.
"What is that?" Asked Oswald in a terrified tone as Sarah sighed.
"It's a cancerous tumor, it's eating away at Edward's brain but that's not even the worst of it." Said Sarah as she almost started to cry which caught Edward's attention because this was all he knew about his situation so if it had gotten worse since he ran out of the hospital after finding this out he was scared.
"How could this possibly be any worse?!" Demanded Oswald as he was already in tears.
"After Edward escaped the hospital after finding out about his condition I started trying to make sure that he could at least receive treatment for the cancer but Gotham General is refusing to treat him because of his reputation as a villain." Said Sarah as she clenched her fists.
"Oh..." Said Edward as he lowered his head.
"Gotham is literally just going to let Edward die for something this goddamn city forced him into!" Sarah screamed as she threw Edward's file across the room.
"Screw the damn hospital! What about your ability? Can you do anything for him?!" Asked Oswald as Sarah shook her head.
"I'm sorry, Oswald. Edward and I already tried, it helps the side effects but not the actual problem." Said Sarah as Oswald looked at her confused.
"What the hell does that mean?!" Demanded Oswald as Edward reached over and held his hand.
"My blood only heals damaged tissue so it'll restore what damaged brain cells Edward has but that's only temporary because it doesn't get rid of the tumor. Tumors aren't damaged tissue it's tissue that has formed in a place where it just shouldn't be." Said Sarah as Oswald looked over Ed.
"There has to be something! Please I can't lose you Edward Nygma!" Said Oswald as Edward shook his head.
"I'm sorry Oswald but there's nothing that can be done, I'm going to die a slow agonizing death..." Said Edward as he held Oswald's hand.
"I'm gonna keep trying to find a way to help Edward but until then all we can do is keep an eye on him." Said Sarah as Oswald looked at Edward and then back at Sarah.
"Why? Why do we need to keep an eye on him?" Asked Oswald as Sarah sighed.
"The tumor is in a very specific part of Edward's brain, it's eating away at his ability to remember things. Some days he won't seem any different other days like the day he got arrested, he'll deal with a lack of short term memory, bouts of confusion where he may not know where he is or who anyone else is, or he'll completely revert to a past version of himself where he may only remember certain things while all the memories after whatever event he last remembers is foggy and hard for him to focus on so trying to get him to remember could only lead to violent and aggressive behavior." Said Sarah as Oswald closed his eyes hoping this just wasn't real! He hoped that he was just having a nightmare and he was gonna wake up soon. Oswald sniffed and shook his head.
"If Edward is gonna die, I'm not going to let it be here." Said Oswald as Sarah nodded.
"I'll talk to Malcolm and even Bruce, honestly I agree that Edward should be somewhere where he's comfortable that'll hopefully lessen the violent outbursts." Said Sarah as suddenly there was the sound of a patient becoming rowdy down the hall and Sarah sighed. "Excuse me, I have to deal with that." Said Sarah as she exited the room. As soon as it was just Oswald and Edward alone together, Edward took off his glasses and started to sob. Oswald rarely ever saw Edward cry like this and that proved that Edward really was scared  of all this.
"I'm so sorry, Oswald... I couldn't tell you when I found out because I didn't want to believe it.... I know how much you've lost and I couldn't face the thought of breaking your heart. My life has never been the same since I met you and I hate the thought of leaving you! I hate it!" Said Edward as he sobbed.
"I am not going to let that happen to you Ed! I am going to sit by and watch you suffer! I don't care what it takes I'm gonna help you! I love you Edward Nygma and I need you." Said Oswald as he stood and kissed Edward's forehead.

After that Oswald was determined to stop this from happening to the man he loved no matter the cost. To do that Oswald needed the only person who knew who could defy death, Professor Hugo Strange who currently was hiding out of the city with his niece.

Hugo brought in logs from outside and stomped the snow off his boots. "I got more firewood, Astris. Have you finished that virus culture yet?" Asked Hugo as he threw off his coat and turned the corner seeing Oswald holding Astris at gunpoint. "Mr Cobblepot, what are you doing here?!" Asked Hugo as he backed up. "Is this about your son? I can't fix him, I'm sorry! Please just don't hurt her!" Hugo begged him as Oswald pressed the barrel of the gun into Astris's side.
"I'm not here about Daniel, I'm here about Ed, he's dying and you're going to fix him or else your niece is going to be shot full of holes and left in Gotham River." Said Oswald very sternly.
"It's brain cancer, right?" Asked Hugo as Oswald looked at him.
"How could you possibly know that!?" He barked as Hugo held up his hands.
"Please, let her go and I will tell you everything I know about your husband's condition." Said Hugo as Oswald huffed and lifted the gun.
"Fine now talk!" Barked Oswald as Hugo took a shaky breath.
"Mr. Nygma's type of cancer is genetic. When I implanted that chip in his mind, I also ran a few genetic tests out of my own personal interest in his exceptional  intelligence but I found a genetic marker from his father's side that indicated a high likelihood that he could develop this disease." Said Hugo as Oswald was resisting the urge to shoot him.
"So if you've known it was there then did you try to do anything about it in the last 30 years?" Asked Oswald firmly as Hugo nodded.
"All I could do at the time I knew was delay the disease, if not for my tampering with him Mr. Nygma would've died when your son was still a child but that is all that I am capable of doing even now, you need someone with powerful equipment and easy access to an extremely powerful cellular reproductive accelerant." Said Hugo as Oswald looked very hopeless.
"Mr. Cobblepot, your son is Daniel Van Dahl, correct?" Asked Astris as she adjusted her sunglasses.
"Yes, why?" Asked Oswald in an aggressive tone as he was not in the mood for her to mentally mess with him.
"I can give you the address of someone who can help you find the girl has a thousand different drugs that could help Edward." She said as she looked at him.
"Drugs?" Asked Oswald as he wanted clarification of what kind of drugs she was talking about.
"Different types of miracle cures all developed from the same source, you take that source and her successful failure to her and demand her assistance, I'm certain she'll fold beautifully." Said Astris as Oswald actually put together what the hell she was being so vague about. Sarah was that source and Daniel was quite the successful failure of one Dr. Anita Halestrum.