Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

The Maroni mob family was also located in Gotham's East District, where the gangs were much more rampant compared to the West District, where Gotham University was located.

Simply put, it was because that region was the least economically developed in Gotham. Compared with the slums of the West District, it was a veritable haven of simplicity and honesty.

The internal competition within the local gangs was intense. For the tiny Gutter Gang, comprised of only around a hundred members, their ambition to take control over a nightclub seemed virtually impossible.

The Maroni mob family owned a restaurant, two bars, a dance hall, and a strip club – practically making it the largest gang in the region.

The Maroni Family and the Red Crow Gang had a long history of beef. Their territories intersected in places, and scuffles often broke out at a local bar situated on their cross-border. Turns out, both of them wanted to seize control of this crucial transport hub, but neither succeeded in the end.

That bar, consequently, became a no-man's-land in the East District, also the place where information traveled fastest.

Sal had his chops in order to establish a foothold in Gotham, especially in the dangerous and chaotic East District.

The Red Crow Gang's plot to steal production lines couldn't escape his notice. In the underground of a Maroni-controlled bar closest to the no-man's-land, Maroni lit a cigar and told his henchmen, "I learned from our old friend, Police Chief Victor. It seems like that Redhead kid is gearing up for something."

His underling replied, "Indeed, they've apparently stolen a lot of heavy machines from the south or the southwest. I heard from a kid who lost a bet that their Boss intends to manufacture some sort of chemical substance, said to have mind control capabilities."

Squinting his eyes, Sal said, "I dined with Victor the other day. He mentioned a case involving a chemical PhD, who was supposedly a high-profile professor at Gotham University. Could this be related?"

His henchman said, "The Redhead has two bodyguard informants in his mistress's vicinity. Lately, he's been hot and heavy with her. We can dig out some leads via her."

Sal, fiddling with his lighter, said, "For every piece of meat they devour, we lose one. But now it seems like they not only want to split the meat, but also swallow us in one gulps. Let's see who's got the upper hand."

Maroni's suspicion couldn't have been more accurate. He effortlessly got his hands on the entire operation plan of the Red Crow Gang. While the leader of the Red Crow Gang was cunning, he was relatively young, and Maroni had figured him out.

Meanwhile, Shiller's role was instrumental. He performed the most crucial task, obtaining the formula for the fear gas from the Red Crow Gang and inadvertently letting one of Maroni's informants find it.

Maroni's connection with the Police Chief suggested that he was much more sophisticated than the leader of the Red Crow Gang, with a wider network too. Shortly, he found a reliable chemist to analyze this formula, the conclusion being that a large-scale biochemical weapon with potent effects could be created.

After obtaining such conclusion, Maroni, of course, would not let the Red Crow Gang's plan succeed. Otherwise, once they obtained this crucial weapon, there would be no hope for the Maroni Family.

The primary step was to resolutely prevent the Red Crow Gang's informant from bailing out Jonathan through the police station.

On another dark night, Gordon was leaving work as usual. His immediate boss, Rantalos, was you seriously blind to him and would never assign him anything important. Gordon's role in the police force was now somewhat of a clerical one, he was never even selected for field patrol anymore.

He was able, therefore, to finish early. His boss was ahead of him, heading for a booze-up.

As soon as Gordon stepped outside, he saw his boss cross a turning, and a speeding car rammed into him. His boss was flung a dozen meters away right at the entrance of the police station.

Gordon didn't wait, running back into the police station to shout for help, but before the ambulance could arrive, Rantalos had stopped breathing.

Rantalos was normally a cautious old cop, but recently, with the Red Crow Gang's desperate need to free Jonathan, they had offered him too many benefits. His greedy became insatiable, he even fancied marrying the boss of the Red Crew Gang's little sister, which made him too anxious and completely oblivious to the fact that he was being watched by the gang's nemesis.

Everything happened in an instant. Before Gordon could react, he was automatically raised to his boss's position.

Of course, that was also due to Maroni's machinations. In order to hinder his opponents, one would naturally want to pick the least favored candidate. The rift between Gordon and Rantalos was so apparent, with almost all the cops in the station having heard about it, Maroni naturally selected Gordon as his man.

Of course, obstructing his opponent was just the first step, Maroni also intended to manufacture this crucial weapon himself.

He proved to be bolder than the Red Crow Gang by directly bribing the manager of the Wayne Chemical Plant, sneaking a nitrate production line for illicit manufacture of the gas.

He even planned to manufacture it directly at the Wayne Chemical Plant to avoid unnecessary attention.

However, the same problem persisted. Large-scale production of the fear gas required more extensive separation machines and other high-end equipment. While Maroni was richer than the Red Crow Gang, he was still unsure whether to make such a hefty investment.

So, he still sought out that chemist, asking him to manually replicate some fear gas. The person he enlisted was far more adept than those from the Red Crow Gang, and although they couldn't completely replicate the fear gas, they were already able to restore 80% of it. While they still could not condense it, its effect was nonetheless sensational.

Seeing this effectiveness, Maroni started contemplating making a significant investment. After all, if he could just spray someone with this gas and drive them insane, who in the entire East District would be his rival? Once he took over the whole East District, tens of millions of dollars in revenue would be mere chump change.

As such, Maroni hurriedly purchased a batch of necessary equipment from other states, which cost him a few million dollars and lots of favors, and hired a group of chemists at a high salary to work for him.

Due to the large-scale production, it naturally couldn't be done in the Wayne Chemical Plant anymore. Since Maroni didn't have any chemical factories on his turf, he instigated a fire and, at the cost of over thirty of his men, seized a small chemical plant from the Red Crow Gang.

At this point, Bruce finally discovered that his family's chemical plant had been stolen. He finally realized that the mob had begun to manufacture this poisonous gas.

Meanwhile, Gordon received a clue from an anonymous informant, claiming to have seen a car with the plate number ending in 676 frequently lingering near the Wayne Chemical Plant.

Gordon and Bruce quickly got on the same page; Batman and the detective were back in action. They quickly located the car and caught hold of the Red Crow Gang members.

Overnight, Batman raided the Red Crow Gang, who, though much stronger than the Gutter Gang with hundreds of members, had no criminal masterminds among them -- just ordinary gang members. Batman was fighting at the frontline, and Gordon was making arrests at the rear. Over two hundred gangsters were arrested in one night.

The leader of the Red Crow Gang was fuming. Even though they stole the production line from Wayne Chemical Plant, they hadn't yet produced a single bit of fear gas when both the production line and the chemical plant were seized by the Maroni Family.

With the Red Crow Gang leader incensed at his arrest, he pointed a finger at Sal Maroni. Batman then shifted his focus to the Maroni Gang.

However, Maroni was far more cunning and cautious than the leader of the Red Crow Gang. The entire chemical plant was heavily guarded, with all members on high alert, leaving Batman struggling to find an opportune moment to strike.

Maroni, knowing that he was being watched, started seeking help from his backup - Police Chief Victor.

Firstly, Victor internally annulled the filed theft case of Wayne Chemical Plant, hoping to sweep this matter under the rug. Under Maroni's orders, he then continued to interfere with Jonathan's court hearings, attempting to get Jonathan to work in Maroni's chemical plant by exonerating him unjustly.

Meanwhile, Shiller added fuel to the fire in this tense standoff situation.

Shiller maneuvered Police Chief Victor into acquiring a bottle of fear toxin concentrate developed by Jonathan from the evidence room. Maroni, after obtaining this concentrate, better understood Jonathan's importance and thus continuously pressurized Victor to bail Jonathan out as quickly as possible.

Before Victor could make a move, someone else approached him.

Just as Batman expected, this person was the chancellor of Gotham University.

Although Victor was the police chief, his ties with Gotham's political scene weren't strong, unlike the chancellor of Gotham University, who was acquainted with many jury members and state members.

Everyone knew that he had close ties with the Red Crow Gang and had been bought over by them. But now, the Red Crow Gang had fallen and the Chancellor of Gotham University was in desperate need of a new protective figure.

If you didn't have the shelter of a major mafia in Gotham, you could hardly move an inch.

The chancellor of Gotham University didn't mind switching his allegiance to the Maroni Family. Upon finding out that they were also interested in pursuing the production of fear gas, he confidently proposed to Victor:

"...That girl is not cautious enough, she brags about being Bruce Wayne's date everywhere. I kidnapped her when she came to me. If we can influence the heir to the Wayne Family, helping Jonathan escape from his sentence by leveraging his power will be a piece of cake."

"With just a woman?" Victor asked, "Little Wayne isn't a fool; he dallies around every day, but just a date, how can that possibly make him willingly work for us..."

"We don't need him to be willing," the chancellor said.

"Are you planning to kidnap Little Wayne? No, that risk is too large..." Victor said. "We might not be able to control him."

The entire Wayne Family held half of Gotham City's economic power. If a plan against Bruce failed, the retaliation they would face would be formidable.

The chancellor said, "Actually, I've already come up with a method. We can kidnap Little Wayne without necessarily needing to control him, we can replace him instead..."