Prince of Darkness ~ Gotham

~ Chapter Fifty: Dark Pasts ~

Sure enough, as Jim suspected, the Red Hood Gang struck again. And as he watched the footage from the next bank, he held back a sigh, watching as again, they had the same motive. Rob the registers and throw about half the money back to the people of Gotham. "And then there were four," Jim muttered, pausing the footage. "People are gonna hang out in banks waiting for handouts from these idiots," Harvey slammed the newspaper onto his desk. "We're never gonna catch a crew no one wants us to catch. Call me old-fashioned, but when crooks become more popular than cops, that's anarchy,"

"Think about it. As long as somebody's willing to put that red hood on, this gang can go on forever," Jim spoke. Harvey rolled his eyes at the thought of that happening. He'd be damned if he'd have to work a repeat case with the same gang. The Spirit of The Goat was one thing; The Red Hood Gang was another. "Hey, guys. Got somebody here you might want to meet," Alvarez stopped by the detective's desks, a short older gentleman trailing behind him. "This is Mister..." "Chaing," The older man finished Alvarez's sentence. "Chaing, right. He's an eyewitness," 

"From the bank?" Harvey asked. With everybody expecting handouts from the Red Hood gang and spending to their heart's content, it was surprising that somebody was coming forward to help them. "I work at a restaurant a block away. The Red Hood Gang parked their van there this morning. I was throwing out the trash when they ran back to it," Mr. Chaing explained to the two detectives. "Did you see their faces?" Jim asked. "Just one, the fat one with the hood. He took it off to drive," Mr. Chaing clarified.

"I'll get the sketch artist," Harvey said. "Well, wait a minute," Jim stepped in front of him. "We've got the armed robbery files already open, maybe he can look through them and see if he recognizes someone," Jim suggested. "Maybe that someone is a known associate of Gus Floyd," Harvey caught on. "But the only problem is records are kind of old; he might look different now," Jim pointed out. "We could pull a few based on Chaing's description and get ourselves a good old-fashioned line-up," As the two detectives were about to do just that, Mr. Chaing stopped them, asking what was in it for him. "I've got all these parking tickets because my ex-wife is a crazy bitch,"

"We'll see what we can do," Jim assured.

~~~~~~~~~

Bruce's face glistened with sweat as he finished his afternoon run, in preparation for his training with Alfred. He wiped his brow with the long sleeve of his sweatshirt before opening the back door into the hallway. His heart pounded a thousand miles an hour as if he had been running his whole life. It may seem like a lot of pointless training to some, but to Bruce, it was the thrill of a lifetime. "Training for a fight?" Reggie asked him, gesturing to the boxing gloves sitting next to Bruce. "Just training with Alfred," Bruce answered.

"Ah, he's a good choice," Reggie nodded in approval. "How about you show me your stance?" Upon hearing this offer, Bruce stood in front of the older man, feet shoulder-width apart. Reggie took off his blazer, hanging it off the end of the staircase railing before he too, entered his fighting stance. "Good," Reggie nodded approvingly. "Now, hit me," Not wasting another precious second, Bruce swung at him, but Reggie was quick to dodge. "Again," But this time, Bruce looked a bit hesitant.  "Don't hold back. You have a go at me, son," Reggie persisted.

As Bruce swung at him again, Reggie swung his arm back, knocking Bruce onto the ground. Bruce picked himself off the floor, his eyes widened with a mix of shock and anger. "It should take more than that to piss you off, son. Come on. Again!" Reggie advised. They got back into their stances, and the swinging of arms continued, and the more Bruce missed his target, the more agitated he became. "Now, now. Never lose your cool. It'll get you killed," Reggie said, pinning Bruce's arms behind his back. "Now, you wanna hit me, right?" Bruce struggled to break free, but Reggie's grip only tightened. "You wanna hit me, right?!"