A/N: Thank you pallysAramisRios for reviewing! Welcome back!


Chapter 28: Fortune Down

Rios followed the dull sounds of clanking through the Warehouse aisles until he found Elnor and one of the holograms sparring with wooden sticks.

"I'm surprised you could be bothered to get off your lazy ass," he told Emmett.

The shaggy-haired holo responded with something unflattering in Spanish without skipping a beat as he exchanged blows with the ninja kid. Elnor landed a blow, but Emmett modulated his photons so the stick passed right through him.

"That's cheating," Elnor said with a frown.

Emmett just shrugged blithely.

Rios didn't know whether to be amused or embarrassed since each of these holos possessed a piece of his personality. He wasn't anything like them, but they were in part like him, and it felt like having nerves exposed sometimes.

"Come on," he told Elnor, breaking up the session. "We have a case."

They went up to the office where Soji and Raffi had already examined the information from the computer's ping.

"What are we looking at?" Rios asked.

"Apparently there's a supernaturally large amount of bad luck happening at the Fortune Downs casino and racetrack in Louisiana," Soji replied.

"Define bad luck."

"Someone got stung by a bee, which just so happened to mix with chemicals in his shampoo, causing a life-threatening allergic reaction," Raffi answered. "Another patron of the racetrack was cleaning out his gutters when he slipped and somehow managed to impale himself on the weather vane. And before all that, each of them lost big at the casino."

"What artifact are we after?" Elnor asked.

"No idea yet," Soji said.

A case to stretch their investigative skills, then. Rios appreciated those.

The four of them headed out for Louisiana to visit the Fortune Downs casino and racetrack. Soji brought her portable artifact tracker and attempted to covertly use it as they entered the casino floor. If anyone tried to ask what they were doing, their best cover story was checking for electromagnetic radiation, but that ran the risk of drawing even more attention. But that's what their badges were for.

Soji slowly angled her tracker around, narrowing in on a target. She cleared her throat to get their attention and nodded to a guy at the craps table ahead who was winning big. It was possible he was just having a lucky day, or he could be using an artifact.

Yet before the agents could cross the floor to question him, the pit boss and two thugs reached the player first to escort him away from the table. Rios had a good idea where this was going, so the Warehouse agents moved to intercept them before they could disappear behind a locked employees only door. But suddenly a large cart of food came out of nowhere and the casino goons crashed into it, knocking plates of dessert over and crashing to the floor. In the ruckus, the gambler leaped over the overturned cart and escaped.

"Someone's got good luck," Soji commented as they gave chase. But around the next corner, there was no sign of him. He'd disappeared.

"Is that luck or he turned invisible?" Raffi scowled.

Soji pocketed her artifact tracker and pulled out her tablet instead. "Hacking into the casino's security cameras."

They waited as she swiped through the various feeds.

"Got him," she declared a few moments later. "He's heading for the stables."

The agents found an exit and made their way down to the racetrack. The stables were bustling with activity as horses were brought in and out. It'd be easy for someone to slip through the massive barn with its numerous aisles of stables.

"There!" Raffi said, pointing ahead.

They quickened their pace and managed to come up on their suspect before he noticed.

"Hey," Rios announced their presence, FBI creds ready to show him. "FBI. We need to speak with you."

The guy jolted, and really he didn't look much older than Soji or Elnor. He darted his gaze around like a trapped rabbit. "Why? I haven't done anything wrong."

"You're using an artifact to give you luck at the casino tables," Raffi said bluntly.

The kid blinked incredulously. "Wha…so what if I am? It's not cheating. The house is rigged, you know."

"We're not here about ethical gambling practices," Rios said. "You're hurting people. The artifact is giving you luck by stealing it from other people."

The kid furrowed his brows.

"So you need to stop," Raffi picked up and held her hand out. "Hand it over."

The kid's expression firmed and he drew his shoulders back. "Why should I? It's mine."

"Did you miss the part where you're hurting people?" Soji said. "They're ending up in the hospital."

The guy shook his head. "Luck of the draw, then."

"Luck you're manipulating," Raffi emphasized. She glanced covertly at Rios, who gave a subtle nod. They might have to take it by force.

Rios inched his hand toward his Tesla as Raffi tensed to grab the kid, but suddenly a horse broke free from its stable and came charging at them.

"Look out!" Elnor yelled.

They all scrambled out of the way to avoid getting trampled as the horse pounded past. Elnor got clipped by the animal's broad shoulder and went sprawling in hay. Raffi slipped in manure and went down with a cry. Stable hands went running and shouting after the horse. It was over within seconds, but the kid had made his escape during the ruckus.

"Ugh, yuck!" Raffi exclaimed, nose wrinkling at the manure smeared on her pant leg. She tried to get up, only to fall back down with a yelp. "Ow ow ow."

Rios hurried over to drop down beside her, careful to avoid the manure.

Raffi sucked air through her teeth. "I twisted it," she said, clutching her ankle.

"Okay, on three," he said, pulling her arm up over his shoulder and pushing his shoulder into her side to brace her. "One, two, three." He pulled her up in one smooth motion and held most of her weight as she hobbled on one leg.

Elnor came over, rubbing his shoulder.

"You okay?" Soji asked him.

"I'm fine," he nodded, worried gaze fixed on Raffi.

"We need to find you a hospital," Rios said to her.

Raffi shook her head. "It's just a sprain. There's probably a medic on the grounds. Elnor can take me. You and Soji need to find that kid before he gets away."

Rios reluctantly passed Raffi over to Elnor's supportive hold and watched him help her hobble away.

"Now what?" Soji asked as she looked at her tablet. "I'm not finding him on the casino feeds."

"Try the artifact tracker again."

Soji swapped out the devices, and the artifact tracker led them out to the parking lot. But there was no one there. She frowned as she scanned the lot. "I don't get it; I shouldn't be getting a signal if he drove off." She gave the tracker a light smack, and one of the components went flying off, ricocheting off a light pole and into a dumpster.

Soji's jaw dropped. "You've got to be kidding me!"

"Now we're the ones having extremely bad luck," Rios muttered.

Scowling, Soji went over and climbed into the dumpster to retrieve the piece of the artifact tracker.

Rios pulled out his Farnsworth to enlist the help of the holos, but before he could call the Warehouse, he turned to suddenly find the pit boss's goons striding straight toward him.

"Uh, something I can do for you gentlemen?" he asked.

"We don't take kindly to thieves," one of them replied.

"Neither do I…"

The second thug grabbed his jacket and upended the inside pocket. Rios stared in bewilderment as a bunch of casino chips fell out.

"Whoa, this isn't—"

A heavy-handed fist punched him in the stomach, driving the oxygen from him. Rios doubled over with a gasp and dry heave. His Farnsworth, cell phone, and Tesla were snatched away, and then the goons seized his arms to drag him away.

"Wait—" he struggled to get out between breathless gasps.

Behind him, the lid of the dumpster abruptly fell closed, and the beeping of a garbage truck filled the air as it backed up to empty the dumpster.

"Soji! No, my friend is in there!" Rios tried to tell the casino thugs, but they ignored him. He struggled futilely against them, which only earned him another debilitating punch to the gut. They hauled him back toward the casino, and the garbage truck lifted the dumpster high into the air to dump its contents into the back.

"Soji!"


"Hey!" Soji yelled, pounding against the lid that had slammed down on top of her. She could hear the dreaded beeping of a large truck backing up. "Rios!" The lid wouldn't budge, and she didn't know why Rios wasn't getting her out.

The dumpster shook as the arms latched into place, then it lifted off the ground.

"No, stop!" Soji screamed.

The dumpster tilted and the lid fell open. Soji shrieked as she and the trash went tumbling down into the back compartment of the garbage truck. She flailed to get free before the mounds of trash buried her, then frantically fumbled for her Farnsworth.

"Did you find him?" Raffi asked upon answering.

"Help!" Soji yelled. "I'm trapped in a garbage truck!"

"You're what?" Raffi exclaimed. "Where—"

"In the casino parking lot. Hurry!"

"I'm coming," Elnor said, followed by the sound of a car door opening.

Raffi cursed under her breath. "Where's Rios?"

"I don't know!" Soji was trying not to freak out, but then came the sound of gears grinding, and she realized the truck's compactor was starting to crush the garbage—and her with it. "Oh my god, stop!" she screamed, though there was no way for the driver to hear her, and she had no idea how far away Elnor and Raffi were.

"Soji!" Raffi's voice rang from the Farnsworth.

Soji was too busy trying to wade through the rising heap to stay on top of it. Just when she thought she was about to be crushed to death, there was a horrible screeching sound. Sparks flew, and the compactor came to a grinding halt. Elnor appeared at the opening above and reached down to grab her hand. Heart pounding erratically, Soji scrambled to take hold, and he pulled her out onto the top of the truck. She saw his sword jammed into the compactor's mechanism from the outside.

"Thanks," she said breathlessly.

He nodded and helped her climb down, then yanked his katana free. The SUV came squealing up behind the truck just as the driver was getting out to investigate the ruckus. Soji and Elnor sprinted to the vehicle and hopped in. Raffi rammed the gas and cranked the wheel, veering them away from a very irate garbage man.

"What the hell happened?" Raffi asked, struggling to drive with the wrong foot since her other was sprained.

"Bad luck," Soji answered bitterly.

"What happened to Rios?" Raffi repeated.

"I don't know. He was in the parking lot with me, but then I got trapped in the dumpster and he didn't try to get me out…" Soji forced herself to take a steadying breath and pulled out her tablet to tap into the casino security cameras again. She pulled up the closest camera to the parking lot and rewound it to the timestamp of her fiasco. "Crap, this is bad."

"What?" Raffi demanded.

"Those casino thugs grabbed him."

Elnor frowned. "Why?"

"With our current luck?" Soji rejoined.

Raffi pulled up in front of the casino entrance, and Soji and Elnor sprang from the vehicle to rush inside. They made their way to an employee entrance where they waited anxiously for someone to come out. Two minutes felt much longer, but eventually a dealer came out, and Soji and Elnor surreptitiously slipped through the door before it closed and locked. Soji knew from following the security camera feeds where Rios had been taken, and she led the way down the halls to the back room that did not have any cameras in it. But Soji could hear the beating happening through the door.

Elnor drew his sword and prepared to kick the door in.

"Don't kill anyone!" Soji hissed.

Elnor huffed and burst in.

Rios was on his hands and knees on the floor, one arm clutching his stomach as the two casino thugs pummeled him. They jolted in surprise, and Elnor surged forward, delivering a roundhouse kick to one and spinning to ram the other in the head with the hilt of his katana. Soji hurried to Rios.

"Oh my god, are you okay?"

He spat out some blood on the concrete floor. "Been…better."

Elnor bent down to help him to his feet.

Rios waved vaguely at a table. "Tesla."

Soji went over and retrieved his personal items the thugs had divested him of, then they quickly vacated the casino, pushing past numerous patrons on their way out to the SUV. Once they were piled inside, Raffi took off with a screech of tires.

"What the hell?" Raffi exclaimed, glancing over her shoulder repeatedly at Rios, who was sporting multiple facial bruises and contusions.

Rios groaned and shifted in the backseat, clutching his torso.

"How are we going to get to the artifact if bad luck is just going to keep getting in our way?" Soji asked.

Silence filled the car for several moments.

"We have to outsmart it," Raffi finally said.

"How?" Elnor asked.

"We're stuck with bad luck, right? Which is going to thwart our intentions every step of the way. So we just have to…act as though we want the complete opposite."

"Come again?" Rios grunted with a dubious look.

"I get it," Soji said. "Take us back."

Raffi pulled a u-turn to head back to the casino.

"Is the guy even still there?" Elnor asked skeptically. "Wouldn't he have gone to ground by now?"

"Not if he thinks he's untouchable with his luck," Soji replied. "He's a gambler; he won't just walk away."

Rios caught her eye and gave a small nod in agreement.

They pulled up outside the casino again and Soji opened the back door to jump out. "Stay here," she turned to tell Rios. "In case those goons have woken up."

Rios grimaced unhappily but didn't protest. He had taken a pretty bad beating, and Raffi couldn't walk, which left this up to Soji and Elnor.

The two of them made their way into the casino.

"Okay, we need to look for anyone other than the guy with the artifact," Soji said.

Elnor arched a dubious brow. "I don't think this will work."

They didn't have any other ideas, though, so Soji focused on meandering through the casino floor with the intention of finding anyone else in the world she'd recognize. And she most certainly tried not to think about the artifact they wanted. They went up and down the rows of slot machines and near the tables, and just when Soji was feeling this wouldn't work after all, there was the guy. He locked eyes with them for a split second before turning to bolt.

Soji and Elnor gave chase. The guy barreled through a locked door without problem, and Soji and Elnor reached it before it could shut and lock them out. They cornered their quarry in a back storage room.

"Stop!" Elnor yelled, making a run for him. But he tripped on a small crate, his foot breaking through the slats and almost tripping him.

The kid laughed and sauntered back over. "When are you going to get it? Luck is on my side."

"Punch the wall!" Soji yelled.

Elnor shot her an incredulous look.

"Do it!"

The kid frowned, and Elnor straightened to throw a punch, aiming for the wall. And just like that, bad luck redirected his fist from the wall to the guy's face, knocking him out with one hit.

Elnor blinked in amazement. "I can't believe that worked."

Soji ran over and dropped to the floor, hastily pulling on purple gloves before searching the kid's pockets while Elnor extricated himself from the crate. She pulled out a lucky rabbit's foot and raised her eyebrows. "Hello."

Elnor quickly got out a neutralizing baggie and snapped it open, and Soji dropped the rabbit's foot inside. Sparks flew as the artifact was neutralized, and Soji breathed a sigh of relief that their bad luck was finally over.

They left the guy in the storage room to be found by the pit boss's goons. Soji felt only a sliver of guilt for the treatment he was going to get. They climbed back into the SUV and headed home. Once outside the city, Soji switched with Raffi so she wouldn't get them into an accident even without the curse of bad luck hovering over them. The drive looked rough on Rios, who insisted he did not need a doctor and just an ice pack once they made it home.

"You guys look like hell," Dahj said when they all came trudging into the Warehouse.

Soji handed over the artifact. "This one was hell."

"William Tell's Rabbit Foot," Dahj said. "Alters probability to grant the user impossible luck."

"Yeah, by stealing everyone else's." Soji looked down and wrinkled her nose at her clothes. "I need a shower."

"Me too," Raffi echoed. "Come on, tough guy," she said to Rios.

"Perhaps when you've recovered, Emmett and I can teach you some advanced fighting moves," Elnor suggested.

Rios just groaned and let Raffi lead him back out.

Soji pursed her mouth thoughtfully. "You know what, I might want some lessons too."