Fortune

Fortune was the codename of Helena Dolph Jackson, a leading member of Navy SEALs anti-terrorist unit Dead Cell. Her codename referred to her seemingly supernatural ability to have bullets that come into her direction pass around her and also turn explosives into duds. She was also known as "Lady Luck" and earned the title of "Queen" among her Dead Cell comrades. She was often armed with a man-portable rail gun during combat. Fortune herself claimed that her luck on the battlefield was at the cost of tragedy in her personal life.

Early life and career
Helena was the daughter of Scott Dolph, Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, and the wife of Colonel Jackson, former leader of Dead Cell. She was born in 1975 with a rare condition known as dextrocardia: her heart was located on the right side of her chest cavity, rather than the left. Helena led a largely uneventful life until the sudden death of her father during the Tanker Incident in 2007. A few months later, her husband was convicted of mishandling federal funds and was found guilty; furthermore, Helena's mother committed suicide and Jackson himself died while serving out his sentence. Helena was unable to cope with the systematic loss of each of her close relatives and miscarried her unborn child of three months, essentially losing her entire family.

Helena was informed that the man responsible for her father's death was none other than Solid Snake, the mercenary allegedly responsible for sinking the tanker. In her search for vengeance, she joined the armed forces and found out that she had an unusual amount of luck on the battlefield. It was because of this luck that she was reassigned to Dead Cell despite her not having any combat experience. Any operation she was a part of always succeeded and she never suffered any injuries. Because of this mysterious power, she was deemed "Lady Luck" by her comrades. Rumors among her comrades were also spread that she apparently gained her powers by selling her soul. She was quickly assigned to her husband's former unit, Dead Cell, and was welcomed with open arms by the team, especially Vamp, who was rumored to be her father's former lover. She and Vamp would later form a very close relationship, not lovers but extremely intimate. She was assigned the codename of Fortune and quickly gained leader status.

In late 2008, Fortune was one of the Dead Cell members who survived its liquidation. Six months later, on April 29th, 2009, Dead Cell joined the Sons of Liberty terrorist group, led by Solidus Snake, and assisted in the takeover of the offshore decontamination facility Big Shell. During the incident, Fortune confronted special forces operative Raiden, mistaking his presence for that of Solid Snake. Disappointed, she decided to fight Raiden anyway, hoping that he would be able to kill her. The two battled intensely, but the conflict ultimately reached a stalemate when Vamp arrived at the Deep Sea Dock to alert Fortune that Fatman had started acting like a stereotypical mad bomber. Fortune initially was going to take care of Fatman while Vamp was about to face Raiden, but she ended up watching over Vamp after Raiden attempted to capitalize on her distraction by firing a few rounds that resulted in Vamp apparently being killed, though he was soon revived and told her that he had died once already, and could not die twice.

Towards the end of the incident, Fortune encountered Snake onboard Arsenal Gear, and intended to fight him. He attempted to tell her that he was not the one who killed her father, but she thought he was lying. Snake then attempted to hold off Fortune while Raiden left to find Solidus. Fortune managed to restrain Solid Snake, and deliver him to Solidus, to which shortly thereafter she learned that Solidus actually did intend to give her Arsenal anyways, and in fact planted the seeds for her and her unit to steal it from him. Revolver Ocelot also revealed that Fortune's ability to deflect bullets and render grenades inert stemmed from an electromagnetic device created by the Patriots, for whom he had been secretly working. She learned that it was actually Ocelot who had killed her father, but was shot in the chest before she could attack, after Ocelot disabled her electromagnetic protection. Her dextrocardia, however, allowed her to survive the wound long enough to deal two retaliatory blows, although they missed due to Ocelot's possession of the device in question.

Before dying, Fortune miraculously deflected Metal Gear RAY's missiles, protecting Raiden, Snake and Solidus, and indicating that she did have an underlying supernatural ability, to which Snake remarked that "she is Lady Luck."

Abilities
Fortune's most famous ability was her apparently causing bullets and missiles to "miss" her completely, as well as short out grenades. This was believed to be the result of her father's ghost haunting her, although it was later revealed that it also had to do with an electromagnetic device, although her final actions indicated that at least some of her ability was indeed natural and not artificially induced by the Patriots.

Another ability of hers was to sense terror deep within a person, which she used in her first encounter with Raiden and deduced that he had "seen the fires of Hell", in reference to his past as a child soldier in the Liberian Civil War.

Trivia
Fortune's rail gun was later retrieved by Vamp, who gave it to Crying Wolf for use in battle. Despite the inherent dangers of using the rail gun (which Fortune was able to overcome with her "luck"), Wolf was capable of operating the weapon safely and effectively.

Behind the scenes
Fortune (フォーチュン) is featured in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, where she confronts Raiden once in the game; the player is unable to actually defeat her in battle and must avoid her attacks while waiting for an elevator to arrive. Fortune's theme song is a saxophone solo titled "Fortune" on the soundtrack. In Metal Gear Solid 2, Fortune was originally intended to be a saxophone player herself, and would play the sax during cutscenes throughout the game. She was also to have suffered from a blood disease, for which Vamp would regularly suck out her blood as a form of treatment, in an erotic fashion. Additionally, Fortune was to carry Chinese fortune cookies around with her, and would read them during combat, with each one saying, "You will have great fortune." Later, she would open one as she died, where it would also say, "You will have great fortune."

Though she does not play a large role, Fortune is featured in the Snake Tales story External Gazer as an alternate reality version of herself. She is an extremely cheerful stereotypical dumb blonde, saying things like "I've got, like, really good luck!" and "You betcha!"

Appearances

 * Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

Notes and references
Fortune