A/N: Thank you pallysAramisRios for reviewing! I'm glad you liked the start of it. ^_^
Chapter 2: Competition
Raffi sat glaring at the computer screen. She'd had zero success tracing the attempted hacks, and it was vexing her. Someone out there knew about the Warehouse, and she wanted to know who.
"You're in my seat," Jean-Luc said as he came out of the back room that served as his living space.
"I'm working," Raffi replied.
"Not here. The computer flagged a potential artifact that needs retrieval. That's your primary duty, not chasing phantoms."
Sighing, Raffi vacated the seat. Rios arrived then.
"Got your message. Where are we headed?"
"Maine," Jean-Luc answered. "There was an incident at Chandler Academy of a high school student violently attacking another."
"Uh, that's not cool but it's not exactly weird," Raffi commented.
"The computer wouldn't have pinged on it if there wasn't something unusual," Jean-Luc replied and pulled up a video posted on social media of the incident. Both Raffi and Rios moved closer to peer over his shoulder. The kid's arms were pulsating with black veins as he pummeled another boy on the field.
"Okay, that is weird," Raffi relented. Her search for the hacker would have to be put on hold.
So she and Rios headed off to Maine where they went straight to the headmaster's office.
"Agents Musiker and Rios, FBI," Raffi introduced them as they flashed their badges.
Before they'd been Warehouse agents, they'd both worked for the Bureau. Technically, they still did, which made their credentials still valid. They'd just been reassigned to the Warehouse after catching the eye of Seven and the other Regents. Raffi often wondered how they managed to pull that off. The best she'd ascertained was the Regents were planted in many upper government offices around the world to help maintain the integrity and secrecy of the Warehouse. Other than that, agents themselves were kept on a strictly need-to-know basis. The biggest conspiracy on the planet Raffi would have loved to uncover but couldn't because she was a player in it. The irony wasn't lost on her.
"FBI?" Headmaster Charleston said dubiously. "What can I do for you?"
"We need to speak with one of your students who was involved in an altercation," Rios replied.
Raffi pulled out her cell phone to show him the video of the fight.
"Well," he said after watching it. "I'm quite shocked. Jeremy Hogan is a diligent student and has never shown any problematic behavior in the past."
"We'd like to speak with him," Raffi reiterated.
The headmaster punched the intercom button on his desk phone and asked the secretary to send for the student in question.
"I don't understand why the FBI is interested," he went on while they waited.
"We can't discuss an ongoing investigation," Rios said.
Jeremy Hogan eventually arrived, looking nervous at being summoned to the headmaster's office.
"Jeremy, these are FBI agents," Headmaster Charleston introduced. "They wish to speak with you about the fight you got into with Brandon. I must say I am very disappointed. You know we have a zero tolerance policy."
Rios held up a hand. "Yeah, yeah. Jeremy, we know this isn't usual behavior for you. Have you come into contact with anything strange recently?"
The kid shrugged, eyes downcast.
"What kind of question is that?" Charleston asked.
Raffi held up a finger for the man to stay quiet. She then turned to Jeremy. "Roll up your sleeves."
"Don't you need a warrant?" he mumbled.
"Not when it comes to matters of national security."
"Na- national security?" the headmaster spluttered. "You can't be serious."
Raffi and Rios shared a look that said they both would have liked to stun the man.
Under their weighted gazes, Jeremy reluctantly rolled up one of his sleeves, revealing the black veins.
Headmaster Charleston sputtered in dismay. "Is this about drugs? Jeremy, what have you done?"
"Okay, please step outside, sir," Rios said, bodily herding the headmaster toward the door.
The man continued to sputter but was no match for Rios's authoritative demeanor. Once he was on the other side of the closed door, Raffi turned back to Jeremy.
"We know it's not drugs," she said. "Have you come into possession of anything recently?"
The kid fidgeted where he stood.
"You need to tell us," Rios said.
Jeremy finally reached into his pocket and pulled out a marble. "I found a bag of these. They helped me focus so I could get my essays and homework done. The competition here is fierce, and I have to get top grades if I'm going to be accepted into Harvard."
"We can understand that," Rios said as he pulled on a purple protective glove. "But it's making you sick."
Jeremy nodded glumly and handed the marble over. Raffi opened a neutralizing baggie for Rios to drop it in…but nothing happened. There were no sparks to indicate the artifact was rendered inert, and the black veins on Jeremy's arms remained.
"Uh, you said there was a bag of marbles, as in plural?" Raffi said.
Jeremy pulled off his backpack to reach in and dig out the cloth bag the marbles had come in. Raffi added it to the neutralizing container, but still nothing happened.
"What the hell?" she muttered.
Rios fixed Jeremy with a serious look. "Jeremy, did you share these with anyone?"
The kid grimaced. "I gave some to my friends. I was just trying to help them."
Raffi shared a grim look with Rios. The kid had good intentions, but his help was going to get his friends in serious trouble.
Rios ripped a piece of paper off the headmaster's desk and passed it to Jeremy. "Names."
Jeremy wrote them down, then Raffi and Rios headed out, passing an irritated headmaster just outside.
"Thank you for the use of your office," Rios told him. "We need to know where we can find these three students," he added, showing Charleston the list.
The man's face puckered unpleasantly, but he nodded to his secretary to give them what they needed. He then turned to jab a finger toward Jeremy before the boy could leave. "We're not finished, young man."
Raffi felt bad for the kid. He probably hadn't known about the negative side effects of using the marble, but now he'd have to face the consequences of it.
The secretary gave them each of the other students' itineraries, and they headed outside. Raffi pulled out her Farnsworth, the Warehouse-issued audio and video communicator, which looked more like a prop for a steampunk fest with its bronze tin case, copper wires, and small dome that served as a video phone. Despite its appearance, it was the most secure connection around, unhackable according to Jean-Luc, and it really wasn't that much more clunky than the current generation of smart phones.
A shimmering image of JL sitting in the Warehouse office filled the glass bubble. "Did you identify the artifact?" he asked without preamble.
"A marble," Raffi replied. "Or, well, a bag of them. The kid who had it shared them with his friends. He was using it to help him focus on his school work. Neutralizing one didn't work, so we still have to track down the rest."
Jean-Luc removed his spectacles. "Bobby Fischer's Bag of Marbles. The Warehouse has been after it for decades. Even one of them instills intense focus and drive to succeed, but prolonged use leads to violent tendencies and mental insanity."
"Explains the uncharacteristic fight," Raffi remarked.
"We have a list of the kids who have them," Rios put in.
"Good, the longer they're in possession of them, the worse the effects will become."
With that, JL signed off, and Raffi pocketed her Farnsworth.
"Let's split up," she suggested, looking at the list of students. "I'll take the gym."
Rios nodded and went off in the other direction.
Raffi headed to the gym where one of the boys, Todd, was supposed to be having wrestling practice. When she walked in, she found one of the students going berserk on his sparring partner. The coach was yelling at him to stop, and he and several other wrestlers were jumping in to pull him off. Guess she'd found him. The kid was seething like a feral animal as he was hauled off the other guy. Raffi could see black veins beginning to pulse under his skin.
"What the hell's gotten into you?" the coach demanded angrily, getting up in the boy's face.
Before the kid could answer, though, he abruptly collapsed.
The coach swore and shouted for the guys to get him to the infirmary. Raffi followed behind, waiting until the crowd had reluctantly left their teammate in the care of the nurse. She then stepped into the examination room and held up her badge.
"Agent Musiker. Is that Todd Harris?"
The nurse blinked in surprise. "Er, yes."
"I need to speak with him."
"He's very sick," the nurse protested.
"I know, that's why I'm here." Raffi pushed past the nurse to approach the patient table.
Todd was sweating and pale, lolling his head weakly.
"Todd? I'm Agent Musiker. I know about the marble Jeremy gave you and I need you to hand it over."
"I can't," he moaned. "I need it. The championships are- next weekend."
"At this rate, you won't be alive to compete in them."
He shook his head. "No, I can do it. I will do it. I need to get that wrestling scholarship."
Raffi leaned closer and lowered her voice. "And if I arrest you for not cooperating with the FBI, what will that do to your scholarship?"
That got Todd to hand the marble over. Raffi grimaced at how sweaty it was and dropped it into the foil-lined neutralizer baggie. She then headed out and spotted Rios across the quad. They met in the middle, and he dropped another marble into their growing collection.
"Just stopped a student from attacking his teacher for not raising his grade," he commented, shaking his head. "I know competition can be tough, but this school seems to take it to the extreme."
"Tell me about it. At least there's only one left."
Before they could set off in search of it, a masked figure all in black came out of nowhere. Neither of them had time to react before they both received roundhouse kicks that sent them in a corkscrew descent to the pavement. The assailant snatched up the neutralizing baggie with the marbles and then bolted across the quad. Without slowing down, he leaped onto the side of a building, vaulting it like some circus performer, and slipped over the high stone wall to disappear.
Raffi grunted as she pulled herself off the ground. "What the hell- was that a ninja?"
Rios wrapped an arm around his ribs as he also got to his feet. "Maybe one of the kids wanted the marbles back?"
"Since when do they teach ninja moves in high school?"
Rios shrugged. "If we don't get the marbles back soon, we'll have a homicidal ninja on our hands. I'll go after the last one; you check with the boys we already confiscated them from, make sure they didn't just try to steal them back."
Raffi nodded. If they had, she was going to show them how to unleash a can of whoop-ass of her own.