Jester

Lost.

[AN: Posting schedule will be slightly off, but I figured you'd like at least something, and maybe it'd motivate me to write a little more. ^.^ Thank you all for reading. Also note from here on will have spoilers for season 3, am still in the process of watching it myself but I am enjoying it so far. ^.^]

~One year after the Reach nearly ended the planet.~

What sounded like a boom tube alerted a group of semi built men to the beach. They had been patrolling as per orders and they had to make sure this wasn't a threat. Being cautious they readied their weapons and went to investigate.

On the shore, halfway in the water, was what looked like a child. The men were rightly confused, but lowered their guard. A child with fair skin and decently long auburn hair, definitely not dressed for a swim in the ocean.

"Think we should take them to Bedlam?"

"Might as well. If they washed ashore I'm sure no one's looking for them. You two. Get the kid. We're taking them to the doc. I'm sure he'd be interested in another test subject."

The small group of men carried the child to the morgue of the hospital. The doctor there looked rather unimpressed.

"What is this?" He asked motioning to the soggy child they brought in.

"Found them on the beach."

"And?"

"We were alerted to them because of a boom tube."

"How interesting." The doctor was taking an interest now. Not many people had access to boom tubes. "Get them on the table. I'll run some tests."

The men did as asked and the doctor set up a recording device. Then ordered the men to go back to their patrol.

"An unusual find today." He moved some of her hair out of her face. "Female Caucasian. Late teens or early twenties if I had to make a rough estimate." He pulled out a syringe to get a blood sample. "Taking a blood sample to run for the meta gene."

Just before he pricked her arm Count Vertigo walked in.

"What are you doing?" He asked looking at the table that the doctor was currently obstructing.

"Running tests. The men found a new subject washed ashore." The doctor stepped to the side and watched Vertigo's face change from annoyance to confusion.

"What are you doing here?" He asked quietly as he approached the table. She looked a little different than he remembered, but it had been a while. The hair color was darker and it was a quite a bit longer, and the skin wasn't so pale or scarred, rather it was covered in freckles.

"I was about to run the test for the meta gene."

"No need. This brat has an ability."

"You know her?"

"From a long while ago. She was Jokers brat. Although she had a scar on her cheek from what I remember and no freckles."

"A twin perhaps?"

"No. She's an only child, an orphan if I recall." He studied her a bit more with skepticism. Perhaps she went into the same chemicals before with joker and that's why she was so pale. "Run the test. We'll check her genetic markers against Jokers brat's and see if it's a match."

"Yes sir."

The doctor ran the test. And the results came back positive but not without raising a few more questions.

"Her dna is linked to a death certificate." The doctor decided to leave out the anomaly that was flagged when he checked. It wasn't important and probably just a glitch.

"I knew that. Joker was said to have killed her when he killed the bat brat."

"She also tested positive for the meta gene only it's dormant."

"Dormant?"

"Yes sir. Whatever happened to her altered her genetic makeup. She is an ordinary human with the capacity to become meta." Vertigo thought this over for a moment.

"Let's activate the gene again. If she still has her original ability she'll be incredibly useful in getting more test subjects." The doctor nodded.

The process went smoothly, having her get tarred and out of the pod. Somehow she didn't wake during the process. Her meta gene was now active and Vertigo was starting to get impatient with her not waking up.

"Get her up. I don't care how." Vertigo said in a huff. The doctor nodded and prepped a syringe of adrenaline. Just as he was about to administer it, her hand shot up and caught his wrist. Her eyes opened but didn't seem to recognize anything.

She looked around the room before looking between the doctor and Vertigo.

"Do you recognize me?" Vertigo asked. She carefully looked him over and shook her head, she got a bad feeling in her gut though but decided against telling him.

"Do you know your name?" The doctor asked as Vertigo went quiet, contemplating something. She turned her head and looked confused for a minute before shaking her head no again. He pulled away. "Give me a moment, we'll be right back." The doctor pulled Vertigo out of the room. "Could this be a clone of Joker's brat?"

"Possibly. I'm not sure when the light would have cloned her though. Joker kept her on a short leash." Vertigo contemplated as he looked at the door. "But with her lack of knowledge we might be able to mold her into the perfect chess piece."

"You think that's wise? If this is the original then memories might surface."

"A risk I'm willing to make. I have a score to settle anyways."

The two renter the room.

"I'm sorry. I just needed a minute." Vertigo stated earning a head tilt from the girl. "I was a friend of your fathers. He tried looking for you but ended up passing during his search." She looked down and appeared sad. "Jessi-bell, I will do everything that I can to take care of you. Your father would have wanted it that way." She looked up when he touched her arm. Her eyes were glassy with tears, and she nodded. The doctor stepped closer and checked over some vitals.

"Can you talk for me?" She opened her mouth but nothing came out. "That's alright. Don't force yourself. Trauma can cause set backs, it'll be okay." She nodded again and let the doctor continue his work.

For the next year she went through training. Her body knew the moves but her mind did not. Something Vertigo found interesting. He also noticed that her ability was slightly altered. Instead of opening pockets wherever and whenever she wanted there was an activator this time. It seems that she can only open pockets to places she'd seen before (television and cell phones made it much easier to get different locations) and she had to have a sharp object of some kind to basically cut the pocket opening in the air. Anything sharp worked, a knife, broken glass, a needle. They didn't test it with everything but that seems to be the trigger.

She still hasn't spoken, but they could see the intelligence behind her eyes. She knew of a lot of things from what they gathered but since she couldn't talk it was hard for her to convey at times.

They also gave her some enhancements, so to speak. She has semi permanent contact lenses that not only change her green eyes to blue, they also function as a security camera. To further disguise her look they dyed her auburn hair black to help her blend into the shadows. One enhancement she didn't know about, since it was given while she was put under, was a small device at the back of her neck. The device worked as a form of complete control, only when activated though. She would follow orders without question with this.

"There's a party tonight. I'll need you to stay here with the pods, is that okay?" Vertigo asked. She nodded and grabbed her staff with a hidden blade in either end, the staff itself could disconnect in the middle. "I'll keep an eye out for trouble but someone might get through."