Lady Luck Ch. 1

The Bat signal shone in the night sky, The Riddler, and his accomplice had just made off with several thousands of dollars from the Gotham Bank. The two ran through alleys, and streets, trying to avoid the cops and the Dark Knight. "Could you slow down?" "How about you keep up?" She called back to him. She kept far ahead leaning back on the wheels built into the back of her boots.

"Now… Who's this Batman guy you told me about?" She slowed down a bit a looked back at him. "You're new to Gotham, aren't you?" He asked, lifting an eyebrow. "Ya…" She looked ahead. "He's a lunitic," The Riddler explained. "He claims he's fighting to protect Gotham, but I think-" She put her hand up to silence him, she poked her head out of the alley, "Looks clear," Lady Luck said.

"Where are we going?" The Riddler asked. Lady Luck shrugged, "I'm going to my hideout, you can go wherever you like." "Now hold on, I want to split that third suitcase up." He complained. "You could have carried 2 suit cases like me, but you had to carry a cane like a dumass. Why did you bring a cane to a robbery?" "It operates my devices, also don't call me that. I'm far more intelligent than you." "And, yet I'm currently in charge of twice as much money as you, and seeing the way things are going, I could easily just outrun you. You'd never see me again." "I could hunt you down," The Riddler threatened. "You could go crawl in a hole and die, but I guess I'm not that lucky, am I?" "Why do you call yourself, 'Lady Luck', anyway?"

Lady Luck smiled to herself, "You figure it out, you're supposed to be a genius, according to your introduction back at the bank." "Is it a childhood nick name, perhaps?" He asked. "Nope," She shook her head. "Is it-" "Freeze!" The pair had been too distracted to notice the police officers that had quickly closed in on them. "Drop everything, and put your hands in the air!" The police demanded. The Riddler froze."Don't worry," Lady Luck reassured him, "I have a plan, just get behind me, and stay as close as you can." "What?" "Just do it, trust me." Lady Luck said, annoyed. "I won't tell you again, drop everything, and put your hands up, or we will open fire!"

"Get behind me; I swear it'll be fine. Just trust me, please." Lady Luck begged. He gave in, and walked behind her. "Now, how close-" "As close as you can… Without… touching me." He inched a bit closer, "This is your last warning, we will-" "Oh, just hurry up and shoot me you pig!" Lady Luck screamed. Bullock didn't hesitate, "Fire!" An eruption of gunfire exploded, and The Riddler winced, but Lady Luck was unaffected. Hundreds of bullets sprayed by her, but not one of them hit her. "What… How?" The Riddler wondered out loud.

After a few minutes, the guns stopped. They had run out of bullets. "That's why I'm called, "Lady Luck", now let's go!" Lady Luck took off, and jumped onto and ran right over one of the cop cars. The Riddler followed behind her. They ran into another alley, and climbed over a fence. They darted across another street, and into an abandoned hospital. The two stopped to catch their breath, Lady Luck collapsed onto one of the chairs that were left behind. This had actually been her hideout for some time, there was no demolition scheduled, so she was in no rush to leave.

"Care to explain what THAT was?" The Riddler asked. "A shoot out," Lady Luck answered blankly. "You know what I mean! How did you not get shot!" "Or you. You're welcome, by the way." Jasmine added. The Riddler just stared at her, expecting answers. Lady Luck sighed, "I'm not sure what it is, exactly. I'm not sure if they always just miss, or maybe the bullets curve…" "How though? That's what I want to know." "No idea, I guess I'm just really lucky. I was born that way. Really weird stuff happens in my favor. I have no idea how to explain it." "And you put so much faith in it?" Jasmine just shrugged.

Lady Luck was indeed, extremely lucky, the odds were almost always in her favor. She survived being born two months early; she survived a terrible school bus crash with no injury. She's never even lost a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, or lost a coin toss.

"Now, let's split up the money, shall we?" Lady Luck asked. They counted out the money in the third suitcase; individually they each had $13,000. Lady Luck stuffed the money from the third suit case in her coat; The Riddler kept his share in the suit cases. Lady Luck put her suitcase under her matress, which was an old hospital bed. She also placed her only weapon, her lucky revolver, beside the briefcase.

"If you don't mind me asking, just how old are you?" The Riddler asked, the two had sat down and started talking. The Riddler wasn't too keen on leaving since the cops were still sniffing around the area. They had moved to the second floor, it was mostly still intact. "Eighteen, why?" The Riddler shrugged, "I just found it odd, for someone that looks like she should be in high school to be robbing a bank." Lady Luck shrugged, "I need the money."

Just then, The Riddler's gaze shot up towards the floors that had fallen in. "I just saw something move up there…" Lady Luck looked up, then felt the wind of something flying by her head; she looked behind her; a batarange. Batman landed before them, and Lady Luck darted to a broken window, completly ditching The Riddler, and ran across the roof. She jumped to the next roof and then to a fire escape that led up to the top of the next, taller building. She slipped inside the building through an open skylight, and onto a catwalk. She looked down and saw it was just one large room. There were random arrangements of boxes to the side, along with canisters that looked a lot like oxygen tanks. She saw there was a table, with a small desk next to it, in the center of the room.

Lady Luck climbed down the ladder, she figured she was safe and hidden there, and walked over. She saw the longer table had straps on each end, complete with cuffs. The small desk had a tape recorder, which Lady Luck picked up, rewound, and played.

"Mr. Hues' mental state has completely dilapidated after a few hours under this new formula. This mixture is obviously much stronger than the last." There was screaming in the background. "He seems to have severe Coulrophobia." "Coulrophobia?" She wondered out loud. She stopped the recorder, and put it down. There was also a notebook on the desk, with the name, Jonathan Crane on the front. "Crane… Professor Crane?" She had heard of him, she had do research for a class, and she found a news article about him. He had brought a gun to a class he was teaching, and he was fired for it. She did more research into him and found out he became the infamous Scarecrow; Jasmine realized this was his hideout.

She broke into a run for the ladder, but she froze and turned when she heard a loud, metal, grating sound. It was a large metal door opening, and Scarecrow stepped through. Before he saw her, Lady Luck hid behind a stack of boxes. Scarecrow closed the door, and made his way to the table. He pulled off his hat and mask, revealing his face, Lady Luck recognized him from a picture she saw of him. Lady Luck suddenly started to wonder what happened to Mr. Hues… The hairs on the back of her neck stood up when she the thought about it. She started back towards the ladder when she saw he had his back to her, trying her best to be quiet about it.

She kept her eyes on him, hoping her luck would hold out, and he wouldn't turn around. She didn't notice the large stack of boxes, which had a glass container of cockroaches at the top, until it was too late. She ran into it, causing the glass container of roaches to hit the floor, and shatter, causing Crane to turn around. Lady Luck froze, a deer caught in headlights. "Care to explain what you're doing here?" Crane asked, after getting over his own shock. "I… Was hiding from a guy... Dressed as a bat." "Ah," Crane understood, he took a few steps towards her. "Um, sorry about the cockroaches…" Lady Luck apologized. "I'll just be going now…" She turned back toward the ladder, but stopped. "What's Coulrophobia?" She asked. Crane eyebrow rose, "I see you've been doing more than just hiding." He said, looking at his tape recorder. He took a few more steps towards her, "It's a fear of clowns." He was now close enough to reach out and touch her. "Oh, thanks." She said, and turned to finally go, but she felt something slam into the back of her head. She stumbled, and collapsed.

She awoke strapped to the table she was earlier, Scarecrow was staring down at her, he had put his burlap sack mask and hat back on. "Good, you're awake. Are you comfortable?" "Oh, yes. These straps are very fitting." Lady Luck said sardonically, jerking at the strap holding her left arm. Without saying anything, Scarecrow lifted an oxygen mask that was connected to one of the tanks that had been moved over to the desk. "What's that?" She asked, looking at the tank. "Fear toxin," He answered, pressing the mask over her mouth and nose. His calmness and… Professionalism disturbed her to no end, but she stayed still, hoping to somehow ride the ordeal out.

He turned the valve, but nothing seemed to come out, it was empty. Crane got up, and went to get another tank. Lady Luck started to jerk and pull at the straps, and her right hand came right out of the cuff. By the time Scarecrow turned back around, she was pulling her last foot free. She ran for the ladder, praying that he wouldn't catch her. She managed to get up to the catwalk, and slip out the skylight she entered through.

She ran across the roof, but felt someone grab her arm, she turned saw it was Batman, who had apperatly been waiting for her. She didn't put up a fight as she was taken to the cops waiting on the street below. Batman took her mask off, and Commissioner Gordon looked closely at her. "Jasmine... She was one of the prisoners that got away during the prison transport. She was headed to Arkum." Lady Luck glared at him, but didn't say anything. She was to be dragged back to prison, it was technically a mental hospital, but to Lady Luck, it was just a prison with doctors.

They put her into a cop car, where she noticed someone sitting beside her, The Riddler. His Mask had been taken off, and he looked liked he's been ruffed up. "Hey," Lady Luck said, not sure what else to say. "Where'd you go?" He asked her. She shrugged, "I ran into Scarecrow, but I managed to get away." "I thought you said you had good luck," "I do, I got away, didn't I?" The car started up, and went down the highway. "What is real name, anyway?" The Riddler asked. "Jasmine," She said, without her black masqaurade mask hiding her face, hiding her real name seemed pointless. "And yours?" She asked. "Edward Nigma," He answered with a smile.

Jasmine was quite happy when she found out that Edward's cell would be right in front of hers. It seemed the place didn't mind having males and females on the same hall. She sat on her bed, and started to think of what to do next. The first time she escaped, she wasn't even trying to get away. The other prisoner in the truck had caused the driver to wreck, and she took the opportunity to run. She didn't talk to him during the transport, but she found out from listening to one of the guards his name was Victor Zsasz. She didn't dare ask what the tally marks on his skin were.

She kept quiet and listened, while Edward talked. She didn't dare tell him to shut up, even though she wanted to, he was her only friend at the time. He did seem very intelligent, completely full of himself, but intelligent. It was a breath of fresh air, compared to the idiots at her school she was used to. She wasn't a very social person, but she found eccentric personalities to be quite… Endearing.

"If you drop me off a building, I will not break. If you drop me in the ocean, I will. What am I?" Jasmine sat and pondered the riddle. After a minute or two, she answered, "A tissue." "Correct," Edward sighed. "Jeez, Ed. Do you ever shut up?" The man was standing in front of the glass wall, looking at Edward like he could see through the stone wall. Jasmine blinked a few times, his skin was chalk white. "Excuse me?" The Riddler shot back. "Who are you?" Jasmine asked him before he could respond. "Call me Joker." "I'm Lady Luck, or Jasmine." "A pleasure to meet ya! Now what brings you to the madhouse?" Jasmine shrugged, "I heard the food here was amazing, I just had to get a room here." The Joker busted out in manic laughter, Edward just raised an eyebrow.

Days past in the asylum, and they all discovered they all had the same sadistic humor. "Wow, really Edward? A dead baby joke?" Jasmine smiled. "Well, it's not technically dead…" He said. Jasmine chuckled, and the Joker just kept on laughing. "What are you laughing about?" A voice said, coming from the cell next to Jasmine's. Joker stopped long enough to say, "Oh, none of your business, Hatter." "Ohhh..." He whined in disappointment. "Who is that?" Jasmine asked. "That would be Jervis," Edward explained. "He's wrapped up in his own little-" "I am the Mad Hatter!" He said, causing Jasmine to jump. "The Mad Hatter? From Alice in Wonderland?" She whispered to herself, "I love that book." Not as much as Jervis of course, but was in her top ten. "Are... Are you Alice?" He asked. "No, no I'm not, I'm Jasmine." "Oh... Have you seen her?" "No, I haven't. I'm sorry." Jervis didn't respond.

"Is he always like this?" Jasmine asked. "Almost," A voice told her, from the other side of the left wall of her cell. "Oh… Who are you?" "Ivey, Poison Ivey." Her voice almost purred the name. "Your name is?" "Lady Luck, or Jasmine, whichever." "What brings you to this prison?" Jasmine pondered, thinking over her words. "I… Killed a few people." "Why?" The way Ivey talked sounded like they were talking about the news, or the weather. Lady Luck bit her lip, not wanting to tell. "Alright, you don't need to tell me," Ivey told her. Jasmine looked back at Edward, who had a puzzled expression.

"It's nice to meet you, Jasmine." Dr. Cassidy smiled at her newest patient. Jasmine smirked in return. "Jasmine, I'd like to begin out session with some tests. Are you familiar with ink blots?" Jasmine nodded. Dr. Cassidy reached into her desk and pulled a stack of papers. She held up the first one, "A dancer," Jasmine said. She held up the next, "A drooping flower." She held up another card, "War."

"A demon," She said to the final blot. Cassidy put them away, and wrote down some notes. "Jasmine, can you tell me what happened the night before you were arrested?" Jasmine was silent; she went over in her mind the events that took place. "Jasmine, you need to talk about it." Dr. Cassidy urged. "You need to understand what you did wasn't normal, nor were the times before-""I know." Jasmine cut her doctor off. "I've never been normal, I've been told that almost every day of my life." She wasn't looking at her doctor, but at the floor. "Can you tell me why you did it?" She said, after waiting for Jasmine to relax again. "Why I killed those pigs? Or…?" "To start out with, yes." Jasmine took a deep breath, and let it out again. "They were murders," She said, after thinking about it. "Why do you think that?" "I know that. They killed my dad; they took away my entire life… They should have just killed me." Dr. Cassidy was silent a few seconds, but then said, "We can help you, if you let us." Jasmine shook her head, "It's too late now… My friends, family… They all called me a monster…" Dr. Cassidy bit her lip, "It's not too late to restart, to rebuild your life." Jasmine did not respond.