This is love to me

Chapter nine: James Gordon

The crew all strolled into the GCPD headquarters the next morning, carrying a briefcase which contained video and audio footage of last nights rally.

The officers before them were all bustling frantically.

The return of Jerome Valeska was an all hands on deck situation, worsened heavily by his accomplices. The group were turning in circles at the hectic nature of the precinct. Holding cells were packed with rowdy public enemies. People were either taking calls, filing papers, or reading reports as far as the eye could see. In the air, the smell of caffeine and adrenaline hung heavily, along with a feeling of stress and anxiety that only comes from being a Gotham city cop.

"Good morning!" Spencer greeted the receptionist, "May I ask who is in charge of the Jerome Valeska situation."

"Who's asking?" A gruff voice behind them called out.

The group almost simultaneously spun around to see a handsome man in a navy blue overcoat. He also wore a white button up shirt, and black tie. He hadn't had the chance to shave for the past few days, so his appearance was scruffy and sleep deprived. The man also had long, well groomed, but neglected hair. He approached Spencer and stuck out his hand.

"Gordon, Captain James Gordon." The man greeted, shaking Spencer's hand as he approached. James was tall, but he was still only slightly shorter than Spencer and T-Bo. "I have been blessed with the unfortunate task of apprehending Jerome Valeska. What can I do for you?"

"Captain Gordon, Sir, my name is Spencer Shay." Spencer replied

"I know that name," Gordon said. "Shay, I think I've met your father. He's in the navy right?"

"Yes sir," Spencer said "Anyway, my friends and I here drove all the way from Seattle to Gotham city during this time of crisis and..."

"Are you entirely out of your minds?" Gordon cut him off "Why the hell would anybody come here at a time like this?"

"Well, you see Sir," Freddie said "My friends and I have access to state of the art audio and video surveillance technology. Spencer here lost a family friend, Richard Falcone, when Jerome took over the station two years back, so we took it upon ourselves to do something that could help bring him to justice. Last night we located a meeting of his cult. We infiltrated that meeting, and we now have Jerome revealing some potentially important information to his followers on camera."

After reviewing the footage on the GCPDs sepia television set, James sat down with the ICarly group to clear things up.

"While I personally appreciate your contribution to the apprehension of Jerome Valeska," Gordon said to them "I am obligated to warn you against further involvement or meddling in our apprehension of him.

"You may think that you understand just how dangerous Jerome Valeska is, but you don't. His takeover of the precinct? The one that killed our mutual friend Richard?" Gordon said to Spencer in particular "That was the single greatest assault against this house in Gotham history, maybe American history, and that's not even his worst offence.

"About a year ago, Jerome and his cult destroyed our main power plant. The city was plunged into darkness, illuminated only by the fires he and his zealots lit. During the chaos, he went to the Wayne manor and captured a friend of mine, a young man by the name of Bruce Wayne. Jerome took Bruce to the old boardwalk circus, cuffed him to a pole, and fired a cannon full of scrap metal at him from point blank range in front of an audience of his minions. All because he knew that he wanted to end the night with, as he said "a bang, or better yet, a boom."

Pam, who was seated behind the rest of the group recognised the phrase, and she became a bit uneasy after hearing it.

"I don't know how, but Bruce escaped death by the skin of his teeth. Jerome Valeska went down that night. Bruce lured him into the hall of mirrors to make him waste his bullets. Valeska eventually navigated his way out of that maze, armed with a large piece of broken glass and we came to blows. His facial scars ripped and I... punched, his face off, quite literally.

"We're still feeling the aftershock of that night of chaos, here at the GCPD. Jerome instructed all Gotham citizens to do as they pleased, because in that darkness, there was no law. Occasionally, some random will stumble through the door repenting and turn themselves in for some horrible crime that they committed under his influence.

"Jerome is back now, as you know, and from the looks of things worse than ever. The footage indicates to me that he plans on meeting with Erasmus Rayne, a fellow cult leader whose beliefs paint Jerome as some kind of Devil like figure. If the cult of Batrocitus was to merge with the cult of Jerome, we'd be dealing with a literal army. An army that follows their own Devil."

Gordon probably had more to say to them, but just at that moment, the door behind him was thrown open. The entire assembly, Gordon included, all turned to face towards an overweight, older gentleman dressed in a fedora style hat, leather overcoat, blue collared shirt, and a full thick beard.

"Jim!" The man called out "Come quick!"

"This is Detective Harvey Bullock," Gordon introduced "He's working the case with me. What is it Harvey?"

"A uni just spotted Jerome!" Harvey replied "he was leaving the Alva Graciano Tailors shop on Clark Street with Scarecrow. He was in a new coat to make up for the one that got burned up in that video. He's now wearing a bluish-purple tailcoat, he changed out his white ankle boots for black dress shoes with navy spats, and apparently, during all the craziness he had time to go and get his hair dyed green of all things."

"All right, let's go." Gordon said, standing to follow Harvey out of the room. Before leaving, he turned back to face the group. "Again, on behalf of the GCPD, thank you all for your help. Now I'd advise you to go back home, and please, leave Jerome Valeska to the professionals."

"We can't go home yet." Freddie said once they had walked a ways away from the hectic precinct "They're looking into the wrong man."

"How can you tell?" Spencer asked "and why didn't you tell Gordon?"

"He left too fast." Freddie responded. "Anyways, Erasmus Rayne's cult would never side with Jerome Valeska. They view him as the equivalent of Satan and they have a deity of their own who opposes him. Besides, Jerome said that he wanted to discuss business, and Rayne is no businessman. No friend of Jeromes either, for that matter. According to Arkham records, which I hacked into, last night, Rayne and Valeska never interacted. However, towards the end of his tenure, Jerome did have cellmate who was released before him, one Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot..."

"Ozzie what?" Carly asked "Who the hell is that?"

"He's a crime lord that goes by the name of  The Penguin." Freddie began. He's maintained a tight grip of the criminal underworld for about four years. Rayne is a maniac, Cobblepot is Very much a business man. I've just had an idea. Cobblepot has a cleaning and cooking staff around his household. If we can somehow get hired before Jerome meets with him, we can get more video of Jerome, and learn more details of his plan."

"It's crazy." Spencer said "But then again, its in no way riskier than what happened last night. Screw it, I guess we're going to do some housework for a mob boss. Sounds fun."

"That's the spirit!" T-Bo said "We should probably downsize the group though, he might not have many open positions in his house hold. I propose that Carly, Gibby, Pam, and myself stay behind at the hotel, that way if you don't return after some time has elapsed, one of us can go pick you up. If they don't return, I'll call the police. I suggest, that you go out tomorrow."

The group was, in this fashion, divided in two. The first would stay at the hotel and hold down the fort, and the second would go to acquire more information on Jerome. If the latter group, however, what the future had in store for them at the house of Oswald Cobblepot, they would have given anything to be counted amongst the former.