Crooks and Cartels

Crooks and Cartels is the fifth episode of Dead in Gotham. This episode is written by Valeyard6282.

Synopsis
When Jack gets caught up with the Red Hoods, he meets a former Marine who is taking down crime families from the inside.

Bank Robbery
We see Jack walking towards the doors of a bank. He is wearing a dull purple blazer (subtle reference to Joker’s colors) and has a regular mask on his face. Several large duffel bags are slung over his shoulders. We see him walking up the bank’s steps from behind, the camera panning over his feet and back. We see a shot of his fingers drumming on a shotgun. He is at the bank doors. He throws the door open as he walks through, metal detectors blaring. A security guard draws and cocks his pistol, but Jack shoots him in the chest with the shotgun. The guard collapses, dead. Jack pumps the shotgun and shoots the glass barrier between tellers and clients. The glass shatters as pellets break it apart. People scream and run for cover. He walks towards the counter and throws his duffel bags over it. He walks up to a teller and drags her over the counter and onto the floor and then holds her up, holding the shotgun to her head. He is holding her hostage. Several guards have pistols aimed at Jack. “Give me the money or she dies,” Jack spits out. The teller lifts her leg up and kicks Jack in the crotch, causing him to release her. One of the guards fires. Jack ducks down and the bullet hits the teller. She collapses. Jack shoots the guard that fired. The other one shoots and the bullet hits Jack in the shoulder. White noise consumes the audio as Jack dives behind the counter. He puts his hand over the wound. He pulls his hand away- red. Jack looks at the back of the counter. Under the booth is a small compartment for storage that has a thin fabric, slidable door. The scene cuts to the guard- holding his pistol- walk around the counter. Jack is nowhere to be seen. The guard keeps walking, however; a gunshot rings out as the fabric cover rips apart and shotgun pellets tear threw the guard. He collapses, dead. Jack comes out of the compartment. “If anyone tries to stop me, I will blow this bank off the map! I have a bomb!” Jack lies. Jack has no bomb. He slowly and cautiously opens up the door to the back. He stands behind the now open door. A guard walks through, armed, and Jack walks behind him and slams the shotgun over the guard’s head.

With the guard down, Jack walks into the back, closing and locking the heavy metal door behind him, Jack pulling the duffel bags inside. The safe is massive and built into the wall. It is made of reinforced metal and is one of the most reinforced vaults you can picture. He rigs his shotgun against a bar, holding it with one hand, the gun resting on the vault itself, the gun pointed at the door. He presses his ear to the metal and puts his free hand onto the twistable combo. He moves it around and listens for clicks and sounds relating to the tensions of the pins. After a couple minutes, he hears a whole lot of tension as the safe clicks in response of a correct combination. Jack pulls his hand and ear away, pulling the shotgun off the bar. Jack looks at his watch. “Ten minutes. That’s a record.” He pulls the heavy door open. Inside is a room full of bound cash. “Score.” He sweeps his arm over the tables of cash, piling it into open duffel bags. All his bags are full after he clears out about half of the cash. Jack sighs. “Should have brought bigger bags. Jack still pulled in a whole lot of money. He zips up his duffel bags and slings the now heavy bags over his shoulders, picks up his shotgun. He walks out of the room and out from behind the counter. He shoots the ceiling with his shotgun for good measure, causing more people to scream. He walks out of the bank and walks behind the building, throwing open the doors to a black van and throwing the duffel bags inside. He closes the doors and gets in the driver’s seat. He drives through back streets.

The Maronis
The scene cuts to a dark room, the camera panning over a man’s back. He is large and dressed in a black pinstripe suit. He has thinning black hair with hints of grey. The camera cuts to a frontal view. He has a silver tie. This is Luigi “Big Lou” Maroni. Retired ex-head of the Maroni crime family. In front of him is a pool table with several mobsters playing pool. They rest their cues on the ground and look at him. One of the mobsters at the table is wearing a black button down and a black waistcoat. He has short black hair with a stylized line cut through the side. This is Jerome Valeska. He steps forward. “Big Lou? What happened? Bored of retirement?” Lou cocks his head around. “Watch your tongue weasel. I retire for a year and everything goes to hell.” Lou has a New Jersey accent The other mobsters pay more attention at this statement. Jerome leans forward. “Sorry?” Lou shakes his head and chuckles. “None of you know do you? One of our deposits was stolen.” One of the mobsters steps forward. “You serious Maroni?” Lou nods. “Where’s Sal?” One of the mobsters jerks his head back. “Pissing.” We hear a toilet flush and a restroom door opens up as Sal Maroni- current head of the Maroni crime family walks out. Sal has slicked back greasy black hair and a thin mustache. He is wearing a navy blue three piece suit. He smiles and walks over to his father. “Well, well, well. Retirement doesn’t suit you? Or did you come to finally support me? It only took you 40 years and my daughter’s throat to get slashed.” Lou doesn’t respond to Sal. Sal shakes his head and sighs. “You didn’t even care about Bianca. You never did.” Lou still says nothing. Sal scoffs. “Spare me the silence Pop.” Lou finally speaks. “I want you out. I leave this family under your supervision and I come back to find it like this? Deposits stolen,...rats….like him...in a place like this?” When Lou says “him” he points a pudgy finger at Jerome. “Look Sal. These Hoods were our hitmen, our eyes and ears. I leave and what? They weasel their way into the inner circle? What the hell Sal? You’ve driven this family to rock bottom and I’m sick of hearing of mistake after mistake. Shootout this, cops that. We were untouchable under me and now our associates are going down like flies. Your a failure son. And I thought you could be something. Why am I surprised at how things panned out.” Sal pushes his father back in anger. Lou reaches inside his jacket and pulls out a pistol and points it at Sal. When he does this, the other mobsters reach into their coats. Sal freezes. “Get out,” Lou spits out. Sal slowly backs out of the building. “Fine. But I’m not the one who needs to watch their back,” Sal says as he leaves. Lou lowers his gun and the other mobsters relax their hands.

Lou looks at Jerome. “You too.” Jerome chuckles at Lou’s order. Jerome walks forward. “How about you show some respect old man.” Lou growls under his breath. “Keep talking. I dare you.” Jerome bites his lip. “We protect you. We serve you. We take out your enemies. And what do you do? You treat us like we’re mud on the bottom of your well-off shoes.” Jerome is nose to nose with Lou. “That’s it you insane son of a-.” Lou raises his gun in an attempt to kill Jerome, but Jerome catches his wrist and holds Lou’s hand in place, shaking to get free. Jerome laughs. “I’m insane now?” Jerome laughs like the Joker usually would. “I should kill you.” Jerome roughly pushes Lou away, releasing the gun. “But I’m not going too.” Lou puts away his gun. Jerome walks over to the wall and he grabs a cue off the rack. He breaks it over his knee and drops one half, one half jagged. He walks over to the pool table and smiles. His smile fades quickly when he grabs a mobster’s shoulder and stabs the cue into the mobster’s side over and over and over, some blood splattering onto the green felt of the pool table. The mobsters reach for their guns, but before they can fire, Jerome pulls out a revolver and points it at a mobster, still holding the bloody cue in the other hand. “I never said anything about ‘em.” Jerome tosses the cue down onto the floor and walks towards the door, his pistol still pointing at the mobsters. He walks behind Lou and rests his revolver and Lou’s shoulder, still aiming at the pool table. “You know what Luigi? I admire ya’. I was nothing until your family let me and my family under your wing. Just like we were a different breed of baby birds, raised by a different one. There always comes a time when the parent birds push the babies out of the nest. I see now that it is that time. I’m sorry to say though...that this bird fights back. Jerome twists his other hand towards the side of Lou’s head. His left hand is holding another pistol. He presses it against Lou’s head. He pulls it away slightly. Lou is breathing heavy. Jerome makes a sad face. "You gonna cry?” Jerome pulls the trigger. We see a close up of Lou’s face, his eyes full of tears as he tightens his face in preparation for death. Nothing happens. He turns his head towards Jerome. Jerome is grinning widely and out of the barrel of the pistol, is a rod with a flag on it- purple, with a green poof design with the word “BANG” written on it in orange lettering. Jerome laughs uncontrollably and walks backward out of the building.

Fueled by Rage
The scene cuts to Sal driving his black sports car down the road. In the passenger seat there is a police radio that once belonged inside a cop car. It is on and through the chatter on it Sal learns that a black van was seen driving away from the mob bank. Sal bites his lip. There is a dashboard-mounted holster for a semi-automatic shotgun in the car. The radio alerts Sal that police have spotted the van driving down Moore Street heading to the intersection to Augustyn. Sal turns his fast-moving car onto a one way street connected to Augustyn. The scene cuts to Jack driving his van down Moore. There is a police car chasing him. The scene cuts to Sal flooring his car down the wrong way of the one way street, a police car coming towards him. The cop stops the car and then puts it into reverse and backs up as Sal advances. The scene cuts to Jack drift into the intersection and floor it onto Augustyn. The police car follows and the backing up police car crashes into the floored police car chasing Jack. The two police cars overturn and Sal hops the curb and drives around them, after Jack. Jack looks into his rearview mirror and sees Sal chasing him. Sal pulls his shotgun from its holster and rolls down his window. He rests the barrel of the shotgun in between the car and the mirror and aims it at the van. He fires and the multitude of pellets pepper into one of the van’s tires. The van skids as it grinds to a chaotic halt as Sal whizzes by, before pulling into a U-turn and facing the van. Jack dives down under the dash as Sal fires the shotgun through the glass of the dashboard. Glass rains down onto Jack. Sal gets out of his car, holding the shotgun, and walks over to the van, firing at it. Sal rips open the door. He doesn’t see Jack.. A crowbar strikes Sal in the face from behind the seats of the van. Sal, stumbles back and fires the shotgun into the empty seat. Jack swings his body out of the van and strikes Sal in the chest. Sal drops the gun. Jack raises the crowbar up to strike again, but Sal catches his wrist and uses his other hand to hit Jack in the side of the head. Sal then knees Jack in the belly, causing Jack to drop his melee weapon. Jack groans in pain. Jack reaches his hand up in an attempt to strike Sal’s eye, however; Sal repels his hand on multiple gouging attempts. Sal backhands Jack in the face and audio is slowed down as Sal kicks Jack in the ribs a multitude of times.

The Red Hoods
The scene cuts to a shot from inside an abandoned-looking, run-down building in the slums. We see inside of it. Trash can fires are inside the building, sitting on the worn and filthy cement floor. Their are Red Hoods everywhere, warming their hands around the fires. There is a banging on the door, which is shut with a metal rod wedged through the door handles. A hood walks over to the banging door, reaching one hand into his jacket where his gun is. He looks at the others. A couple other hoods nod and reach into their coats and pull out pistols and point them at the door. The hood rips the rod out from under the door handles, and the door swings open. Standing outside is Sal Maroni. He is dragging a bound body. One of the hoods beckons him in. He walks in, draggings the body behind him. A slight blood trail is left behind. The hoods put away their firearms. We hear loud, echoing footsteps. We see the black, but grimey, dress shoes of Red Hood One walk down metal stair leading up to an enclosed loft office. The camera pans up and we see Red Hood One. He is wearing a black tux that is clearly worn, with some grime on it- the lapels rough around the edges. He is also wearing a faded purple bowtie. He has a classic Red Hood glass helmet on. He also had a crimson cape over his shoulders. He pulls off his cape- also worn down- and hooks it onto a coat rack at the bottom of the stairs he walks towards Sal. “Well well well. Look who it is. Its Lil’ Sallie Maroni.” “Don’t call me that. Ever,” Sal spits out as a reply to Red Hood One. “I’m here because I brought the man who robbed us. I was thinkin’ maybe your...breed...would have a better way of dealing with him.” Red Hood One chuckles. “None taken Maroni. And I appreciate you bringing this rat to us directly. He is the reason we are in...a rough state with the rest of the family. It’s nice to see such loyalty.” Another Red Hood walks up to Red Hood One. “Sorry boss, but shouldn’t we be focusing on the real problem at hand? That fool in the mask is going after our guys. And he ain’t messin’ around either. He took out Falcone’s warehouses without liftin’ much of a finger. I’m sorry, but your concerned about a little bank robber who took a little dough from the wrong crowd? If this character keeps popping up, the Maronis and Falcones will be out of the picture, and Gotham will be right for the takin’.” Red Hood One backhands the hood in the face and then turns sharply, grabbing the hood’s face with his white glove. “I admire your ambition. However, I can only deal with one issue at a time. There will come a hour where the vigilante will meet his match, but that hour will not be today. And if he picks off some of us in his conquest to annihilate Falcone, then so be it. The more pain that wretched family gets the better, even if it means sacrificing some of our own.” Red Hood One releases the hood’s face. The hood stagger back. “Your the boss.” Red Hood One nods. “Yes I am.” He turns to the other direction and clicks his fingers. “Valeska, get started. And...feel free to make a mess.” Valeska laughs and walks towards Sal. Jerome pulls Jack’s limp body away from Sal and drags it into another room, still laughing.

Torture
The scene cuts to Jack strapped to a wooden chair via zip ties at his ankles, and a cord strapping his arms behind his back, the cord stretching across Jack’s chest. He has a burlap sack over his head. We see Jerome wheel a cart into the room. We see a shot of it. On it are needle nose pliers, drills and other crude and improvised objects that would cause serious pain and agony. Jerome steps in front of Jack and rips off Jack’s improvised hood. Jerome is still wearing is crimson ski mask. Jack blinks as he wakes up, his nose still dripping blood from Sal’s handling of him. Jack groans. Jerome picks up an exacto knife and slashes it across Jack’s chest. “Name asshole.” Jack spits out some blood. “Go to hell.” Jerome tilts his head and slugs Jack hard in the ribs. Jerome gets close to Jack’s face. “Unless you want more of those ribs cracked I suggest you cooperate,” Jerome says crazily. Jack coughs. “Melvin White...my name’s Melvin White.” Jerome chuckles and nods as he picks up an electric drill.. “There we go. So...Melvin. You messed with the Maronis. Grave mistake.” Jerome turns on the drill. Jack gasps for breath. “No. No, no, no!” Jerome drills into Jack’s shoulder area. We only see a glimpse of the drilling, but we do see some blood splurt onto Jerome’s jacket. Jack is screaming in agony. Jerome powers off the drill, laughing as he does it. He slams the bloody drill onto the cart. Red Hood One walks into the room, a pool of blood around the legs of Jack’s chair. Red Hood One chuckles. “Jerome. Could you give us a little...alone time?” Jerome nods and exits the room. Red Hood one walks slowly towards Jack while cracking his knuckles. “Melvin is it? You messed with the wrong people boy. That’s something the men who run this city can not tolerate. If you thought he was bad? Get ready sonny because that was a warm up for someone like him. And I reckon I can do my fair share of brutality to a man like you.” We see some quick shots of Red Hood One smacking his hand into a palm-faced undercut onto Jack’s jaw, knocking Jack’s jaw back, blood leaking out of Jack’s mouth. Red Hood One then punches Jack in the ribs and then kicks him the shins. Red Hood One then sticks his spotless-white fingers into the hole drilled by Jerome. Jack roars in agony.

The Infiltrator
Another hood walks in. “Could I assist in….this?” Red Hood One growls and pulls his hand out of Jack’s wound, his white glove now stained red. Red Hood One begins to turn around. We see the hood pull out a suppressed pistol and fire it at Red Hood One’s skull. The bullet makes a spider-webbed dent in the ballistic glass of Red Hood One’s helmet. Red Hood One staggers as white noise concumes audio. The hood shoots him again, but the bullet only causes more cracks in the glass. Red Hood One smacks the gun upward, firing it into the ceiling before it falls to the ground. Red Hood One then headbutts the hood, who falls back- phased. The hood pulls out a KA-BAR combat knife and slashes at Red Hood One who blocks with his wrists, which are sliced by the knife. Red Hood One reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out a Taurus PT92 handgun and aims at the hood, who ducks as it is fired, and shoulder rolls out of the room, standing up straight behind a pillar. The other hoods notice the skirmish and draw their weapons. They draw their handguns and fire at the hood, who rolls behind another pillar. He waits as hoods close in on him. One approaches from his left and the hood stabs his KA-BAR into the hood’s chest, killing him, before grabbing the hood’s pistol and firing it into the chest of the approaching hood from his right. He then rests his pistol over the body of the first hood, using the hood’s body as a shield as he walks forward and shoots several hoods. The rouge hood yelps and drops the human shield as he falls onto the ground as bullets pound into his back. He falls, revealing Red Hood One standing behind him, holding his pistol. He lowers it after he shot the attacker. Red Hood One kicks the hood over- who is still alive. Red Hood One looks under his jacket and sees a bulletproof vest. “Ah jeez,” Red Hood One mutters. Red Hood One slowly pulls the red ski mask off of the hood, revealing a battle hardened face with hair shaved into a jarhead style worn by US Marines. “Shit. Shit, shit, shit!” Red Hood One aims his pistol at the head of the Marine. “Smile.” Before he can fire, the Marine grabs Red Hood One’s leg and pulls on it and the shot misses. The Marine roars and picks up Red Hood One and slams him into the ground in front of Jack. Red Hood One tries to shoot the Marine, but the Marine forces the pistol toward the ground and it is unloaded into the concrete. It clicks and is knocked out of the hands of Red Hood One. Red Hood One tries to sit up, but the Marine slams his head back and slugs him in the face, cracking the helmet even more. The Marine grabs his suppressed pistol off the ground and presses it against the helmet of Red Hood One. The barrel is against a spiderweb of cracks. The Marine is about to fire. He hears footsteps and he whips around and shoots at the incoming Hoods, to repel them. Red Hood One tries to grab the pistol but the Marine turns around and shoots him in the head. The glass helmet shatters as the bullet enters Red Hood One’s skull. The Marine rips the shattered helmet off of Red Hood One’s head, revealing his head tilted to the side with blood splatter on it. His hair is black and plastered to his pale head. The Marine looks at the corpse.

Clash of Vigilantes
A gunshot breaks the silence as a bullet pounds into his back. He yelps and turns around to see Jerome with a pistol. The Marine is blocking Jack’s body from harm. He shoots a round at Jerome, but at the same time something hits Jerome in the head as he falls over, the bullet whizzing by. We hear gunshots ringing out and muzzle flash illuminates the building as we hear hoods collapse in pain. Jerome gets up. “I’LL KILL YOU!” He says to the darkness. He fires his pistol into the other room and the muzzle flash lights up the room enough for us to see someone crouched on top of a shelf. It is Rorschach (Bruce Wayne). Jerome looks up and sees him and screams. Rorschach jumps onto Jerome and knocks the gun out of his hand. Rorschach then slugs Jerome in the face, knocking him out.

The Marine stands up. “Who the hell are you?” Rorschach walks towards him. “Perhaps you haven’t heard what I’ve done.” The Marine holds his ground. “I’m gonna say this once. Get out of my city before someone gets hurt.” Rorschach attempts to punch the Marine, but he ducks and then uppercuts Rorschach in the jaw. Rorschach staggers back and kicks the Marine’s legs and then pounds his fist into the Marine’s chest, knocking the wind out of him. Rorschach forces him into a headlock, but the Marine ducks his way out of it. Jack tilts his head up. “Switchblade! Left-hand jacket pocket!” The Marine kicks Rorschach’s shins and reaches into the ordered pocket. He rips out a switchblade and slings it open and slashes at Rorschach, only managing to slice a relatively small wound into Rorschach's arm. Rorschach disarms him, and knocks him to the ground. Rorschach is pinning the Marine to the ground. The Marine looks rather puzzled at Rorschach’s skill in combat. “Where the hell did you learn how to fight like this? To best a Marine?” Rorschach forces the knife out of the Marine’s hand and picks it up before relinquishing control over him, and standing up. “You need to walk away.” Rorschach gestures at Jack. “He’s mine.” The Marine pulls himself off the ground. “I don’t think so.” He slaps his hand into Rorschach's knocking the knife down and then uppercuts Rorschach. Rorschach collapses and the Marine rushes over to Jack. He unties his binds from the chair. Jack tries to fight, but the Marine hits his hand into the back of Jack’s head. The Marine binds his arms and legs together respectively. He puts Jack over his shoulder and rushes out of the building. He runs around and throws Jack into the back of an undercover police car. And gets in and floors it. We see Rorschach rush out and pause as he sees them drive away.

A Murder at the Cathedral
We see a shot at the police precinct. We see Harvey Bullock sitting at his desk, sipping coffee to stay awake. Jim Gordon rushes in. “Harvey. We gotta go. Shooting at Gotham City Cathedral. The scene cuts to an active crime scene- police tape, flashing sirens, etc. We pan into the large medieval-style Catholic church. We see EMTs inside, lifting a body onto a stretcher. We pan closer to the body. It is the corpse of Father Jean-Paul Valley. One of his eyes is bloody and gouged out. A body bag is zipped over him. Once the zipper goes over his head, the screen goes black and credits roll.

Cast

 * Bruce Wayne/Rorschach- Benedict Cumberbatch
 * Jack- Matt Smith
 * Jerome Valeska- Theo Rossi
 * Michael Lane- Jon Bernthal
 * James Gordon- Gary Oldman
 * Harvey Bullock- Jim Gaffigan
 * Red Hood One- Tim Curry
 * Luigi Maroni- John Travolta
 * Sal Maroni- James L. Lorenzo
 * Jean-Paul Valley Sr.- Richard Roxburgh