Chapter Twenty-Eight - The Lucky Boy

He had to keep reminding himself that his name, at least for the moment, was Alea Iacta. It was so easy to slip up. Honestly, he wasn’t sure how people living double lives did it.

Alea Iacta was sitting in a booth at one of his favourite coffee places, fiddling with a paper cup that was empty a while ago, and contemplating the terrible turn his life had taken on Power Day.

Having powers was cool, no doubt about it. Luck powers were even cooler. Tipping the board in his favour whenever he wanted it was just so overpowered.

Being chased down by the good guys, and then maybe by shadowy organisations that wanted to do who-knows-what to him? Way, way less cool. In fact, he was outright not a fan of any of that. And now he was relying on some girl who looked like she was two years his junior to save his bacon... again.

He was stirred out of his thoughts when someone sat on the seat nearest his booth. For a moment he was worried, but then it turned out to just be a girl in a baseball cap. He considered stealing some of her luck but... well, she was a kid. He wasn’t the nicest guy around, but he wasn’t a bastard.

“Hey,” the girl said.

“Hey,” he replied. He wasn’t sure what to say past that. The last thing he needed was for someone to think he was a creep for bothering a kid.

“The boss said that I have to tell you stuff,” the girl said.

Alea Iacta’s breath caught. He swallowed, then looked at the girl again. She was... definitely not one of the two that he’d seen with the Boss. “Are you serious?” he asked.

She nodded. “Yeah, of course. Don’t mess this up for me, okay, luck boy, there’s doughnuts riding on this.”

“Uh, okay,” he said. “Where is the Boss?”

“You’re going to meet me and the other mes and my sisters and the Boss about two roads that way.” She pointed across the street, which really didn’t help narrow down which direction she was talking about. “See you there,” she said.

He watched her hop off her chair and run off, but lost sight of her as she went around a wall that cut off the booths from the shop’s counters.

Alea Iacta looked around, saw nothing, then he leaned into his luck, just a little bit.

Still nothing.

Sighing, he pushed himself up, then walked over to the washroom. If he was going to meet the Boss, he wanted to do it without needing to use the bathroom, and washing his face off might help him feel awake too. He really needed that.

He grabbed another coffee on the way out. Coffee accounted for half his diet, which was... actually probably pretty common, what with the number of students living in Eauclaire.

Once outside, he pulled up the hood of his coat and eyed every car on the street. His luck-sense pulled his eyes to a soccer-mom van parked just across the street. He brought his cup up close to his face and started walking. He found a spot to cross the road, then slipped into a part of the crowd that was a bit thicker. As he walked, he brushed against people, stealing little bits and pieces of luck whenever he made contact with them.

All he needed was to be close. Touching someone through their clothes was enough, but being a hair away from touching gave him nothing.

He’d tried tapping people with a length of ribbon to see if that worked, but he needed direct, physical contact. His powers were a little strange about it.

The people he touched often spun around, or exclaimed in surprise, but he was past long before they could point a finger at him. And if they did... what would they say? That he made them feel squeamish inside?

Following the girl’s rough directions, and his own luck-sense, he started down one of the roads opposite the coffee shop. He only paused along the way to pick a large scarf out from where it had dropped. He draped it over his shoulders. Bright pink wasn’t his colour, but maybe it would distract from the outfit he was wearing.

Alea Iacta’s life wasn’t ideal at the moment, but his power did make it somewhat more bearable.

He reached an intersection, sang eenie-meenie-miney-mo, then took off to his right for a little ways.

The Boss, along with a gaggle of children and one other woman, were waiting for him halfway down the road.

“Hey,” he said as he came closer.

He recognized the girl that had met him at the shop... and also the same girl twice again. Triplets? The other two were the scary bear-girl and the other scary girl whose powers he couldn’t guess at.

Was the tall black woman with the Boss also powered?

Just how many people did she have working for her? How strong could someone be? Maybe that was the difference between himself and a proper Villain.

“Hello, Alea Iacta,” the Boss said. “We shouldn’t linger out here. Did you want to talk somewhere more private?”

“Yeah, that’d be nice,” he said.

She sounded, as she always did, caught between nervous and angry. He really didn’t want to push her more towards the angry side.

“Now all the minions are here,” the bear girl said. “Hello, comrade Iacta.”

“Uh, it’s Alea Iacta, it doesn’t really make sense to just cut part of it out.”

The girl crossed her arms. “Sure, if you say so.”

“Yeah,” he said, uncertainly. “So, uh, we have a place we can talk? In private?”

The Boss nodded, then turned towards the young woman next to her. “Did you find a way to get the door open?”

“Can’t exactly pick it out in the open, like you said. I looked around for some way to pry it, but I didn’t exactly bring a crowbar with me this time.”

“What door?” he asked.

The Boss glanced his way, then gestured to a small maintenance building behind their group. “We need to get into there.”

“Oh,” Alea Iacta said. He walked over to the door, and was promptly ignored. It... actually hurt a little, somehow. He had admitted to himself already that he perhaps craved attention a little too much, but to be dismissed so easily...

He reached the door. It was a solid metal thing, with a keyhole and a handle. Reaching down, he jiggled the handle, paused, then turned it. The door opened.

“Um... guys?”

Only the girl that had greeted him at the coffee shop turned.

“Girls?” he tried. Then, a little louder. “Boss!”

The Boss turned, saw the open door, then stared between it and him. “How?” she asked.

“It wasn’t locked,” he said with a shrug. “Just lucky, I guess?”

The Boss worked her jaw. “Okay then. Trinity, Athena, at the front.”

Two of the girls shot off into the little building, the others following after.

“Family Menagerie: Athena,” the Boss muttered. He wasn’t sure if he was just seeing things, but he had the impression her eyes actually grew bigger. Likely just a trick of the light, he decided as he followed the group in.

The maintenance building had tools on racks and a few tanks off to the side. It stank of oil and grease and rotting lawn stuff. He didn’t know what to expect. Was this where they wanted him to stay? It wasn’t the worst possible option, but he had been hoping for better. Much better, even.

“There,” the Boss said. She pointed to a doorway at the end of the room.

They had to move some things aside to be able to access the door. On the other side was a stairwell leading down what looked like a shaft.

Alea Iacta followed the others, but his insides were twisting up with nervous energy. Where were they heading to?

Where, it turned out, was to a doorway that opened up onto a small tunnel, which then opened up into a massive cement tunnel deep underground.

“Ah, Sam, which way?” the Boss asked. “I’m not great with directions.”

Sam--so that was her name--glanced at something on her phone, then pointed. “Base is that way, Boss.”

A base?

The Boss had an underground base? And some sort of massive tunnel system under the city?

“Hey, you okay?” the girl that had talked to him in the shop said. She had removed her hat, revealing two round ears atop her head.

“I’m fine,” he said. He stuffed his hands in his pockets.

The Boss, who had to be a few years younger than him, had built all of this in... what, a couple of weeks?

Villains truly were terrifying.

***