Luck of Seven: Chapter One
"Life is like a poker game...It's not what your given it's how you use it."
-Unknown
~~~
The heavy scent of cherry tobacco lingers in the air mixed with loud thumping jazz music and bubbly champagne. The club is dark with several fine dressed men gathered at felt poker tables and fancy women parading around the room on their mens arms.
One woman stands out among all of them there. Her wavy brown hair is cut just above her shoulders with a dark purple Fedora cocked jauntily on her head. She's wearing a simple white shirt with a dark purple waistcoat over the top and a brown leather trench coat that hits just above her knees. A walking cane with a small glass orb on top, rests beside her. She's leaned back lazily on her chair as she shuffles the deck, splits it, and deals to the group of men at her table. She's easily winning with more chips than anyone at the table and even some cash from those who still want to play even though they are digging their grave more and more.
Her name is Charlotte Dubois.
"Alrigh' mes amies, dis is my last play for da night." Charlotte states as she lazily knuckle rolls one of her chips before tossing it into the growing pile of bets.
Two of the men at the table decide to fold and keep what money they still can. It's a known fact that when it's Charlotte Dubois's last round, she cleans everybody out. One of the men, a small young guy looks at his cards for a few seconds before throwing in more money to the pot.
Charlotte raises an eyebrow but meets his bet as well as the only other man still in the game. The inexperienced whale grins lightly as he places his cards down calling out, "Flush of spades baby!"
The other man rolls his eyes placing his cards down and looks over at the kid pointedly, "Four of a kind punk. You really need to learn when to step down kid."
The kid glares at the older man before his attention is stolen by Charlotte as she chuckles softly. She shakes her head laying her cards out and tsks at both men, "Honestly Jimmie, ye 'ave non chance either so donna give da kid so hard a time oui?"
Both men scowl as they see her Royal Flush of hearts and the large amount of money she just won. Jimmie storms away from the table, making Charlotte's grin grow as she collects all of her money. The kid whistles low looking at her in a new light as he says, "You really are a shark like they claim."
Charlotte smiles brightly sending him a wink at she stands and says, "Charlotte is non a shark jeune, just a woman paying da bills."
The kid grins as she flicks him a chip before leaving the table with her cane and her money. Charlotte easily moves through the crowd and to the cashiers booth to check in her chips for real cash. Grabbing a drink on the way out, Charlotte leisurely walk down the still busy Bourbon Street and towards her apartment.
The night air is a cool caress against her always warm skin and the faded stars fighting against the bright lights of New Orléans. Soft jazz music floats down the street combining with the spice of Cajun boiled peanuts and plenty of alcohol. Navigating the streets, Charlotte finally reaches her small faded teal apartment with dusty glass windows and iron bars. Inserting her key, she swings the door open embracing the feeling of being home.
Only it feels different. Off. Carefully she closes the door setting her keys on the dresser beside the door. Feeling the always tug of war in her stomach, she embraces it, swinging her cane and letting her power flow. Charlotte hesitantly checks throughout the house for whatever had been disturbed. The pot of gumbo is still simmering as when she left it in the kitchen and the radio is still on, lightly playing 'Baby I'm Broken.'
As soon as she steps in the living room, she knows what it is. A man is sitting in her arm-chair in the dark. Snarling, Charlotte flicks the lights on and points her staff at the man exclaiming, "Who da fuck ya think ye are!? Git on outta ma house!"
The man uncrosses his legs slowly and leans forwards slightly. His hair is a dark brown that's slightly unkempt and a shadow of a beard on his chin. He's dressed in a sharp suit and wears a smirk that screams "Billionaire Bitch".
"You are Ms. Dubois I presume?"
Charlotte scowls and says heatedly, "Look 'ere monsieur, yah got five seconds tah git outta ma house."
Bruce ignores the threat as he stands and holds his hand out saying, "My name is Bruce Wayne."
Charlotte doesn't even glance at his hand as she states firmly, "Five."
Bruce smiles amused and retracts his hand. He opens his mouth to begin telling her why he's here but Charlotte keeps counting, reaching one before he can speak.
Immediately, Bruce feels the air charge as Charlotte's eyes meet his for the first time. They go from green to a purple in seconds, like lighting a fire. Her fingertips crackle with purple energy that travel to her staff.
She lunges swinging her staff hard at his head. Bruce ducks the swing and kicks out at her knee. She spins to the side avoiding it and twirls her staff with her, using every opportunity to aim for him. Just as Charlotte swings down towards his head, Bruce crosses his arms to deflect the hit. As soon as contact is met, all the kinetic energy Charlotte had built, explodes sending Bruce flying barely conscious and Charlotte away from him losing her grip on her staff.
Dazed Bruce lays there for a few moments trying to shake the ringing from his ears. Slowly his hearing comes back and the pain does as well. He groans rolling over and slowly crawls to his feet.
Charlotte has already regained her footing and is staring at something in her hands. It's one of Bruce's batarangs that had come flying from his coat pocket during the explosion. She flips it over in her hands before asking, "Who is yah really?"
Bruce looks confused and picks at his ear before shouting, "What?"
Charlotte rolls her eyes but marches closer to him and asks, "Why does yah 'ave dis monsieur?"
Bruce notices the batarang in her hand and sighs softly. He rubs a hand over his face wearily before saying, "I came here to talk to you because I found a file of yours. It was property of Lex Luthor that I managed to acquire. It showed video surveillance of a woman in New Orléans who fought a group of men with extraordinary speed and something else."
Bruce pauses fiddling with his hands before raising his head and meeting Charlotte's now green eyes. He continues serious, "The world has recently lost a great man who was our only real protection. I'm gathering a team of people like you who can help protect the world now that Superman is gone."
Stunned Charlotte sits back and glances out the destroyed window of her balcony before asking quietly, "Why now? Who are yah in all dis?"
Bruce stands slowly and says, "There is something coming, something we need to be ready for and I'm the only one willing to take it on."
Charlotte ponders over his words, trying to make a decision. She's always been outcast for her powers, either having to hide them or only being able to use them during gambling. She's never really done anything and living a life of hustling forever is not all that appealing.
With her decision made, Charlotte smiles holding her hand out and says, "Ye are non da only one mon amie. I will join ya and yer koo koo kachoo idea."
Bruce smiles relieved and shakes my hand stating, "Thank you Ms. Dubois."
Charlotte turns away from him heading to the kitchen and calls out, "If we gonna do dis then ya best be callin' me Charlie!"
~~~
"So what is da game plan?" Charlotte asks curiously while she roams Bruce's jet.
It's large and not in the sense of big plane but it's spacious on the inside. There are nice leather couches and seats as well as a big TV. He even has a mini bar area with a fridge that just past it leads to the bedrooms where there are bunk beds. The bathroom is pretty big too, big enough to take a shower in. On the other side of the jet is like a control room. There are computer monitors all over, with several technological devices attached. Bruce has a bulletin board up with tags of things and a whole detective vibe going.
Bruce calls out from the control center, "Come over here Ms. Du-I mean Charlie. It'll be easier to explain."
Charlotte shrugs kicking her shoes off and her coat on the couch before waltzing over to Bruce and Alfred. Alfred is leaned over one of the computers typing while Bruce is messing with the bulletin and theorizing out loud to Alfred.
"It was a siren like from an ambulance but it made it hard for it too focus at all." Bruce says offhandedly while rubbing his chin.
Charlotte leans against the doorway and pipes up curious, "What da hell you talkin' bout Bruce?"
Alfred glances up over his glasses before returning to the computer as Bruce steps back to talk to Charlie. He runs a hand through his hair and motions to the bulletin. There are pictures of these creature like things as well as pictures of me and other people with a symbol beside each one. There's numerous documents and snapshots of places as well as drawings.
Bruce taps his knuckle on the bigger blown up picture of a bug like creature saying, "These are the creatures that have attacked people all over Gotham and other places."
He drags his finger to other documents saying, "This is documents from Lex Luthor's research but I think what he talks about in here, some other worldly demons and the three boxes, are all connected. They appear in his research over and over."
Charlie takes in everything he says, nodding along to each claim before asking, "So what we gon do? What is da next step?"
Bruce glances over to Alfred and back to the bulletin before saying, "Well the next step now is gathering a team. We're heading North to recruit a man by the name of Arthur Curry. We should be there in a few hours then we'll have to travel by foot."
Charlie nods pushing herself up from the wall, "Alrigh' den. Imma catch a few winks befoe we git goin'."
Bruce nods nonchalantly, going back to his work. Charlotte grabs her bag, coat, and staff from the couch before heading back to the bunk beds. There is four of them built into the sides of the walls but they are about the size of a full bed.
Shrugging her things off she throws them on the other side of the bed and crawls in. As soon as her head hits the pillow, Charlotte is out like a light.
"Maman, non! Stay back!" Young Charlotte screams, her hands flung up in warning. Purple energy crackles along Charlotte's hands and arms, slowly traveling across her body.
Her mother ignores her cries, hesitantly stepping forwards and reaching out for her daughter. Charlotte shies away as far as she can, as the energy travels over her, becoming stronger and brighter.
"Lil' Lottie, you need to relax baby. Just breathe okay?" Charlotte's mother whispers gently as she slowly reaches out to touch her. As soon as her mother makes contact, the purple energy flares and explodes traveling to her mother. Screaming, Charlotte stares in disbelief as her mother is flung away from her, twitching once before stilling.
"Charlie, we're here." Bruce gently shakes her awake.
Charlotte springs up from the bed with a gasp, her eyes flitting to Bruce's. He frowns concerned but brushes it off as she gathers her breath and waves offhandedly saying, "Alrigh' den. Lemme git dressed."
Shaking the dream off, Charlie grabs her bag and goes into the bathroom, quickly changing. She grabs her dark wash skinny jeans slipping them on and throwing her dark purple sweater on over a tank top. She grabs some of her warm fuzzy socks from her bag before pulling on her combat boots and leather trench coat.
Throwing the rest of her things on her bunk, Charlie sighs heavily in anticipation of what's to come. Just before she leaves, Charlotte grabs her cane and meets Bruce down the jets stairs into the wide, cold land of Scandinavia.
The home of Arthur Curry.
~~~
Right so this is edited. I am adding more depth and stretching the timeline out, so y'all can have a little more Arthur action. The next chapter will not make sense until I have edited that one as well. Sorry about that! Hope you enjoy! Happy New Years y'all!!!
-SugarRed