Ante Up (open)

[Cass]

Cassandra Darcy did not hurt for money. She was, in fact, a very successful D.A. who had defended quite a few criminally insane members of the population in her time. And, of course, some that weren't insane but she absolutely needed to see in Arkham for...curiousity reasons. But something she also considered somewhat criminally insane was how most of the casino tables in Gotham were rigged so the crime bosses that played won every time, no matter what. There was always a steady stream of people trying their luck against the bosses in the big chairs, a bunch of little ones all prepared to take out the big daddy for bragging rights. And if any of them got mouthy, they were taken outside and never heard from again.

Cass didn't get mouthy, but she had picked up on the bias, and was now doing her best to casually tip the table in her favour. She was no mechanic, but she was pretty sure rigging tables was quite simple. The number of cards, the way things were shuffled, even the tilt of the table, (for roulette). Her current goal was craps. The dice was loaded, but she was using the confusion of the latest win to switch the dice. She hadn't activated her powers - there was too much noise for it to be a problem - and she was slick and quick. A few rolls later she'd actually achieved her goal and won quite an interesting sum of money. Enough, in fact, to gain the eyes of the security force. But she was a nobody, a DA. So they weren't watching too closely.

But of course, poor Cass made the idiotic mistake of liking the power she held over this particular casino too much. And she did the exact same trick at the next table, swiping the dice. This time, the security watching still didn't see her do it. But when she doubled her first winnings - something they had been promised was mathematically impossible by the man who had rigged the table, she drew suspicions.

So as she headed up to collect her winnings, security began to slowly converge on her.

[Harley Quinn]

The security were moved away from petty casino tricks by a sudden voice blaring out of the speakers on the corners of the casino room. "Hello everyone!" the voice said, everyone looking around in confusion before looking to a woman dressed up as a harlequin. This woman was on the stage where the live band sometimes was, and had a microphone in her right hand. She was wearing a pink and red heart purse that strangely went a long with her harlequin costume. "Glad to see that everyone's having a good time!" she said with a smile, pulling out a heart grenade, adding, "But I'm afraid the only one that is getting anything tonight is little silly me."

Winking, she smiled insanely and pulled out a bag, throwing it to the ground in front of her. "Please insert all of your jewelry, money, and general valuables. Oh! and don't play anything sneaky or else you'll all be laughing until you die!" Harley Quinn did hand gestures to emphasize her point, knowing she had some Joker poison grenades. "Chop, Chop!" she added in the end, clapping her hands twice with the two words.

[Poison Ivy]

As Harley's loud voice erupted over the speakers, Poison Ivy winced, but kept the grimace on her face. Look pretty, look pretty. She told herself as the crowd grew to watch her best friend on the stage. Once the bag fell to the floor, Ivy grinned upwards and with a laugh, said, "You could have thrown it to me, Harl." Ivy flipped her hair behind her, picked up the purse and showed it around with her left hand as she straightened her right arm out to emphasize the point. Her long legs continued to strut around the many in the casino while many of the rich men and women dropped cash, watches, necklaces, and many other things. The bag was getting particularly full, and Pamela would stop in front of every person and shake it, letting everyone ear the ricocheting gold-on-silver jewelry.

"No. You can skip me." One man said defiantly as he slipped his hands into his pockets which were endowed with a delightfully brilliant watch around his right wrist and several rings around a few of his fingers.

Ivy nodded, still straining the bright, glowing smile to the man. She shifted her weight as if she were moving on the next victim, only to fly right back at the man, grabbing his collar and twisting it tightly, causing the seam to rip every so often and cut off his circulation. "Now, you can either drop those pretty little things into the purse or face the very, very ugly consequences." Pamela whispered harshly to the man through gritted teeth threateningly. Frightened out of his mind, the man immediately dropped his jewelry into the purse, and Ivy continued.

Pamela felt so alive.

[The Scarecrow]

Jonathan Crane entered the room. In his normal suit attire, with a added flair of the Scarecrow mask on his face. Its a bit more Formal Looking, but still the Scarecrow.
"Oh, I see the girls beat me to it this time?" He huffed with a small grin under his mask.

He Held his right-gloved hand out to a handful of people that stood in the room, thinking they could avoid being robbed. They were wrong.
"I would suggest you place all your valuables in this bag, lest you may have one heck of a nightmare." He hissed, the women quickly agreed and placed everything in the bag that Crane had set before them. The men however, were not so kind in the stand off.
One quickly dashed to him from behind, two others followed suit from the front. Crane sent three quick sprays to their faces, causing them to cough and fall to the ground. Within a few moments, they began to fall silent, yet their eyes showed they were not dreaming of ponies or rainbows. Crane grinned and took the bag of new found goodies and began making his way into the room. He found Ivy and gave a small wave with his free hand.
"A great night for a robbery, isint it ladies?" He chuckled as he stopped by another group of people.

[Cass]

Cass whirled around at the shouts, and watched as the costumed women began effectively depriving the room of its valuables. She couldn't help but find it comical that the ladies were taking wallets and jewelry when they had the full chip tables at their disposal, not to mention the money stalls where chips turned into coins. Perhaps they were starting small. After all, if the casino lost its money it would shut down, and what was the fun of that?

A man in a strange and rather ugly mask pushed by her and she tried to trip him, noticing his gangly figure. She missed and he seemed to pass her without incident, until a group of men tried to stop him and he sprayed something in their faces. Cass jumped as the men fell to the ground twitching in what she thought was pain until she saw their eyes. Fear and panic, then. Her attention went back to the man. Liquid fear? How did one come by that?

The man spoke to the two women and something about his voice sparked in Cass. She blinked and tried to refocus on him. There was something - some melodic undertone, some ease of silk, some slither of a whisper - something she knew. But she would have to hear him speak to know.

She looked up at the two women again and this time recognized who they were. Poison Ivy, a woman fused with plants, and Harley Quinn - the insane girlfriend to the famous Joker. Well, the people of this casino should be honoured to be robbed by such high-level names! Now if only she could speak to the man in the mask about his liquid fear, she would consider tonight a success and even give up her money.

Unless she tried to stand beside them...

Oh no, she was being ridiculous! She didn't need the money and she was a well-known DA!

A well-known DA who was well-known for doing the intelligent and smart thing.

So what she did next was pretty stupid.

"You know," she said out loud to the room at large, "I'm sure most people in this room are not too happy with giving up their wallets. Something about identity theft tends to turn people off. So why don't you give them their wallets back - maybe not the jewelry because let's face it: anyone who wears jewelry to a casino is asking for it. But you give them their wallets with their money intact, and I'll give you all my winnings." She held up her sizable amount of chips. "It's over six million, probably easily split three ways."

The security guards reacted to this by taking out their backup guns and pointing them at her. She looked at them and shook her head. "These tables are rigged. Everyone knows that. And once you get the secret, you get a lot of money very quickly."

"Why don't you put those chips down, little girl," said one of the guards, and Cass rolled her eyes.

"You're going to threaten me when you've got Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and Mr. Aerosol Fear up there? Please."

She returned her attention to the three. "So? What's it gonna be?"

A shot in the dark. They had the whole casino for the taking and everyone knew it. But Cass figured she could take a shot at it.

[The Scarecrow]

"Hmmm? What?" The woman spoke up above the crows and cowering of the people in the room. It was odd, for Jonathan seemed to daze at this young woman. "So, Miss, your willing to give up your winnings, for everyones wallets?" Crane figured outloud. "In fact, I got a better idea." He hissed as he took his bag and began making his way to the woman. "What about you give us your winnings and we'll be on our way?" He figured as he stopped a near 3 feet from the woman. What was she trying to pull? A fast one? Heh! Her loss then. He would always win, unless that Stupid bat would stop him first.

As he was close to the woman, he began to fall for another daze at her. Her image was clawing at his mind. WHY did she seem so familiar.

[Cass]

"The only difference being I give you my winnings and you leave with the wallets." Cass shook her head. "This is not a good bargain you're driving Mr....." She had called him Aerosol Fear to the security guards but that seemed silly. She regarded his mask for a moment, then shrugged. "Mr. Scarecrow?"

A small, insignificant twitch of her hand dropped a shuriken into her palm and she closed her fist around it as he came within three feet of her. His voice drummed on her ears, and it was the only reason she didn't throw the star in her hand. There was just something about that voice that didn't frighten or intimidate her. Something deeply and long-forgotten familiar. Which irritated her more than anything else. She glared at the mask, almost willing it to come off...and then suddenly she realized she was looking at two chips of rock-hard ice. Pale blue, frozen and cold, two eyes looked out at her from the mask. She had only known one person to have eyes like that.

All right. Tonight was getting far too strange. "Ante up, Mr. Scarecrow!" she shouted. "And you too, Harley and Ivy. Give these people back their wallets and I'll win the house for you."

[Harley Quinn]

Harley Quinn laughed at what Red said to her, and replied back with a smile, saying, "Sorry, Red." She watched as Red successfully collected the money. Harley was more of a person to keep people afraid. Having a reputation of being with the JOker was good for that sort of thing. Harley looked at the new man who was robbing the people who were trying to get away without being robbed. She remembered him from somewhere- Oh! that's where she had remembered him from. Harley had seen him on some wanted posters, the "Scarecrow" they called him. He was pretty good looking in that outfit, she decided, just not up to her standards though, only the Joker was up to her standards.

Harley Quinn listened immediately when a woman offered her winnings in place of the wallets that they'd collected so far. She weighed the amount of money with the possible money from the wallets and looked at Red, asking with her face upturned in though, "What'd you think Red?" Harley took a heart grenade out of her own purse and threw it up into the air, catching it with her hand several times. The people nearest to her shook in fear, mainly because she was crazy and the fact that she had a grenade in her hand. Harley watched, noticing that it was evident the Scarecrow intended to get his cake and eat it too, something that rarely actually happened.

[Poison Ivy]

Ivy sent a smile to Crane as he joined in on Harley and Ivy's fun. As the men fell to the ground, writhing in extreme fear due to what Scarecrow had attacked with, Pamela Isley's pale green eyes turned back to Harley Quinn. She continued to take the personal items of others with a small grin on her face-- no one stood up to her since the man's brutal example of his power. The bag was swiftly reaching its filling limit, and fortunately there were only a few left.

Suddenly, when a voice loudly assumed the attention of the crowd, Pamela was one of the many that turned to it. Six million bucks worth of chips for the wallets? Gazing into the purse that bulged in wealth, Ivy could only raise a brow in question. "That'd make two million for each of us." She thought aloud, as if she were straightening things out in her mind. But stealing was so much more interesting. But this curious woman was allowing the two to keep the jewelry as well. Ivy shrugged her shoulders and replied, "Sounds like a pretty good deal to me, Harl."

[Cass]

Mr. Scarecrow may not have agreed, but both women apparently liked to live on the wild side. They were both in apparent agreement about Cass, and so Cass turned and began to saunter slightly towards one of the roulette tables. The security guards followed her, half their guns on the three robbers, and half on Cass. Cass, for her part, was trying to figure out if the cops would let her rerig the table to win, or force her to try to play fairly, which would result in her losing. And she didn't want to think about what would happen if she lost this. It was a good thing she wasn't playing poker, because while she had a good bluff, she was holding a pair while everyone else had flushes. But she knew from what little she knew that the right pair could knock things out of the park.

She looked back at Mr. Scarecrow, drawn to those icy blue eyes. They were so like someone she knew, someone who twinged at the back of her mind and tasted like a memory from long long long ago. But she didn't often think of her past, because the past consisted of things learned. The future - things to learn - was more important. And her future right now was most important because she didn't know how much of it she had left. A lot of things hinged on this roulette game.

She sat down and one of the security guards said: "Now miss, you're going to play fair."

Exactly what she'd feared. She looked at him and said: "Here's what I'm thinking. You un-rig this table so I have a fair chance at winning. Otherwise when the ball doesn't land where I want it to, the first person these three people are going to kill is you - because you didn't un-rig the table. Un-rig the table. Live a few more seconds."

"To think you're a D.A.," the security guard said, and he set to unrigging the table. Cass watched him do it - she was going to re-rig it anyway, but at least she would be rigging a neutral table.

She did glance back at Harley, Ivy, and Mr. Scarecrow. People were falling back now, watching curiously but preparing to run when - if things went wrong.

[The Scarecrow]

Jonathan was unsure what on earth this woman had in mind. Why? He growled as he saw the two women agree to her terms. It was always fun to have other peoples identities. He could get whatever he wanted, and not spend a dime of his own. Seeing Harley and Ivy follow the Woman, Crane figured to do the same. He found the nine wallets he was able to snatch and threw them back to the people he first robbed.

"Fine, we'll play by your rules if thats what its going to take." Although, 2million was not a bad amount at all. He stood near by, watching the woman do her thing. He was still wondering as to why the woman would do these random stares to him every now and then. He began to do the same to her as well. Why?

[Poison Ivy]

Crossing her arms over her chest, Pamela Isley continued to follow the gambler up to the table and stared down to it curiously. This woman better know what she's doing. Ivy's eyes caught the woman's when she exchanged a few glances, and she narrowed her brow threateningly, raising her chin as if to look down on the woman. It was definitely not a time to let someone think they're getting off easy-- Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy were going to get what they came for, be it larger than the original sum. Preferably larger than the original sum. This feeling of indecisiveness is exactly why Ivy never gambled; but hey, it wasn't her money.

As Pamela observed the table, the woman gambler, and Crane, Ivy couldn't help to notice some spark between to two people. Her eyes shot to Harley as she leaned over and whispering, "Looks like these two know each other." Her voice had an odd quirk to it, and the green goddess allowed a wry grin to stretch across her face. Things were getting interesting. Hopefully this woman would indeed win the house out-- and boy, would it be a lucky night. Ivy looked down to the purse and began to dig through it, finding the wallets she had taken. Of course, she didn't begin to take them out. If this woman lost, Ivy and Harley would deck it out of there, wallets and all.

[Harley Quinn]

Harley continued to bounce the grenade in her hand up and down, catching it each time with great ease. "If it sounds good to Red, then it sounds good to me too!" Harley decided out loud. She watched as the people still squirmed in fear, moving to make themselves a better chance to escape if things went wrong in the deal. Harley was not exactly paying attention to these people though, too interested in what she could do with 2 million dollars.

That'd teach her puddin' that she deserved more love than he gave her, and if that didn't- nothing would! Well, except killing all of Gotham...that'd probably do it. Harley was struck out of her thoughts when Red whispered over to her about how the two seemed like they knew each other. She whispered back, "Yea, they do look like they know each other, Red." Harley started to pay attention to the two's attention to each other with interest, wondering, like a psychiatrist, what little wheels were turning in their heads.

[Cass]

[don't try this at home, kids - I don't know how to rig a table, I'm just making up a magnetic pull on a surface level]

"Yes, I am a DA, she said, her voice firm and cool, "and trust me when I say I have no less than four defenses for why what I'm doing what I'm doing. So if you take me in, I'll just get free."

"Not with the laws of Gotham against you."

"Shut your mouth and fix the table neutral," Cass said fiercely, looking around at all the people overhearing this conversation, including the three robbers who had moved in closer. She slipped her feet into the darkness under the table, feeling around with her shoes. The man emerged from under the table and looked at her. Cass spread her hands and then slowly began to split her legs. The security guard's face reddened and he said: "That's enough, that's enough."

Cass faced the roulette table. She dug into her pocket and withdrew a small coin, which she slipped inbetween two of her fingers. As the ball dropped into the chute, Cass moved to pick it up and inspect it. She felt the ball pull towards her as she did so and her lips pursed. A magnet in the ball, just as she'd suspected. She drew her hands back to herself, feeling for the adjoining magnet that would be attached to a part of the table.

She didn't feel it.

Oh shit.

She had half of the table for sure didn't have the magnet and one half did...and one of the slots for sure. Her plan went out the window and her heart shuddered in her chest. And then she said: "Seven, red."

The wheel spun.

Cass looked up at Mr. Scarecrow's icy blue eyes. "You better be wishing me luck," she said in a voice much softer than she expected. "Or else I'm about to up your body count."

Frightened cries exploded around her and someone nearby shouted: "You said you could win!" A vision shot by her eye - a fist, deflected by the same security guard who had been mouthing off to her.

"Leave her alone," the guard said. Cass, however, hadn't blinked. She continued to stare at Mr. Scarecrow, holding her breath. She heard the wheel slow, the ball rattling, a collective gasp from the crowd...and then silence.

She looked down at the roulette table to see the ball sitting on seven red.

The crowd erupted into short lived screams - torn between tension to see what would happen next and relief that this ballsy DA had made good on her word. A massive amount of chips sat themselves on the table, and Cass gestured to them, then rested her measly six million next to them.

"House pot," she said. "Now give them their wallets back."

She rose from the table and had almost a full second to register the security guard coming at her before she was knocked off her feet.

"Now, you are under arrest for rigging of a house table," the security guard said.

"I just saved your life!" Cass shot back. "And you unrigged the table yourself, how could I have rigged it that fast?"

"I'm talking about the two tables you rigged before these suckerheads came in here. You're lucky you're a D.A., Miss Darcy, because you're going to need a serious explanation as to why you were cheating in a casino."

Miss Darcy? Cass's head whipped around and the security guard grinned as he pulled her to her feet.

"There's not a citizen of Gotham who hasn't heard of you, Miss Darcy. At least, not one who's in the...right...places."

Figures she would be arrested by a damned rat cop! In a sick twist of irony, Cass could barely believe her luck.

[you guys figure out how much money house pot is]

[Poison Ivy]

Dr. Pamela Isley could see the slight insecurity that only barely layered over the woman's features before she called the slot. She raised a brow. Either she's very gutsy or very skilled. Ivy thought through her narrowed brow and curved lips. The ball quickly swerved around and around; Ivy, along with many others, watched it intently, as if any more concentration went into it that the ball would explode. Soon, it slowed, and eventually it stopped-- Right on seven red. Pamela raised her brows and couldn't fight the gleeful smirk that appeared on her lips, even showing off her teeth. What a win! Her voice echoed within her mind. She had to get a hold of herself. This cheering thing is what Harley Quinn does, not Poison Ivy.

But it was a time to be cheering. House pot? "Ten-- million-- dollars." Her voice was quiet, and her paling green eyes turned to Harley's bright blue ones. They'd be rich. All of them, completely rich. Taking a few deep breaths to keep her emotions under wraps, her gaze darted to the winner, and Ivy strutted up to the security guard. "I don't know about you, but if I valued my life, I would be walking out of this place," Ivy began, her lips dangerously close to the man's-- he could feel her hot breath ricochet off of them. "Right now." Expression was extremely threatening, and there was no way that this D.A. would be getting locked up for offering them free cash. Ivy bit onto her index finger for a moment and lightly brought her hand up to the crown of his head. "Now," Pamela's fingernail was deeply infected with her poison, and it nearly made contact to the man's skin. It wouldn't kill him, but it would put him in one hell of a pain trip. "Leave this woman alone, you hypocrite." The tender touch that would usually be alluring nearly made the man piss his pants. There would be murder if he didn't wise up. No way did a chance exist that this man would take the money or arrest the genius that won it. Not a chance.