The Bat and The Clown

Chapter 5

"Bruce, w-w-what the hell are you doing?" said the surprised quarterback, though he was more surprised as to how a "sheltered rich kid" like Bruce Wayne perfectly blocked his punch.

"Harvey, stop this now, you're better than this." said Bruce, while shaking his head, clearly disappointed and slightly embarassed at how his childhood friend was acting. But based on the rest of the cafeteria's reaction, Harvey Dent apparently started a lot of fights. There wasn't even a single teacher in sight.

"B-Bruce. Let go of my hand. I got this." replied Harvey as Bruce let go of his fist.

Then, Harvey faced Jack.

"YOU. CLOWN. FIGHT. NOW."

"No Harvey!"

"Bruce, Bruce, Bruce, you clearly didn't read up on Charles Darwin's survival of the fittest."

Bruce was surprised that Harvey could act like an angered gorilla one second, then suddenly like a sophisticated individual the next. Again, quite the two face.

"I did, Harvey. But this is high school, not nature. And we're not animals."

"Really Bruce? Because survival of the fittest is the basic way of life for me man, and it states that big dogs like me, Rocco, and Vlad here, can put wimps like Scarecrow and Clown over there in their place."

Harvey shook his head, facing his old friend and cracking his knuckles once more.

"You can be one of us Bruce. Come on, the two of us, we were meant to be the alpha males, the big dogs. Whaddaya say?" said Harvey, putting on a smile and holding out his hand for his childhood friend.

And that childhood friend didn't take it.

"I'm sorry Harvey, but the way you treat these two, the way you treat all the others whom you perceive to be lower than you, that's not survival of the fittest. That's called bullying, Harv."

Bruce then put on a fighting stance, that most martial artists would see as a mix of various fighting stances, mainly Aikido, Karate, and Boxing.

"Bruce, really? Do you really think a rich kid like you could take on me and my boys here."

"It's the only way to stop you Harvey. When the alpha male abuses his power, and doesn't listen to reason, he must be taken down by force."

Harvey laughed. "So you think that you've got the skills to take ME down? ME? Bruce, be smart, consider the odds. I'm 5'11, 199 pounds, I bench press more than 40 every day. I keep myself in fit physical condition. So do these guys. Rocco grew up in a ghetto, he got into more than 50 fights a day, he even won money from some of those fights and used it to support his family."

Jack was surprised and looked at Rocco. There was more to this big oaf than meets the eye. Even Rocco himself could see that, sensing that this Jack kid probably came from a similar background.

Harvey gestured to Vlad. "Vlad and his brother Sammael were criminals for a time, they participated in a lot of Russian street brawls." He patted Vlad's muscular right arm. "There's a reason they call him "Mr. Hammer" you know."

He faced Bruce, still keeping up the fighting stance.

"No offense, man, but you've probably never even been in a fight. You've been living the rich life for so long, the only actual pain you ever experienced was when----"

Harvey stopped himself before he could go on though. He still respected his childhood friend, and didn't want to mention his 5 year old tragedy in front of the entire school. Even if he was sure most of them knew.