Malik fisted his hands in his hair, blowing out the breath he'd been holding.
"So you're telling me that your yami got ahold of your stash of Halloween candy, ate half of it, then called up the other yamis and convinced them to meet him somewhere to finish it?" He groaned as Yugi nodded.
"And I have no idea where to start looking for them. They could be anywhere." Ryou was about to respond when the phone rang. Yugi apologized and ran to answer it.
"Hello. Gameshop."
"Oh, Yuuuuugiiiiiii!!!"A voice taunted on the other side of the line. Yugi's eyes widened.
"Yami!! Where are you?!" The other two hikaris glanced at each other nervously, holding their breath.
"Oh! You want to know where I am? Hey guys!! He wants to know where I am!!!" Yugi could hear laughter in the backround. "Sorry, Yugi, but I don't like giving out information over a line that's not secure."
"Since when? This is the first time you've used a phone!" He heard rustling, then a deeper voice took Yami's place.
"Listen, runt. You want to find us, go talk to the billionaire. He was kind enough to let us borrow his house for a while." More sugar-high envoked laughter was heard, and Yugi picked up the sound of muffled yelling. Then the line went dead.
"Bakura!! Yami?!" Sighing, he hung up the phone and turned to the others. "They've taken over Kaiba's house."
"Oh, no." Ryou sighed, shaking his head. "What are we going to do?"
"We need to get our yamis back. And we'll need back up. Remember what happened when they got ahold of the chocolate bars our school was selling?" Malik reminded. The other two shuddered at the memory.
20 minutes later, Yugi, Malik, Ryou, Joey, Tristen and Téa were standing outside the Kaiba mansion.
"Alright.Tristen, Téa and Malik, you guys try the back. We'll go through the front." Nodding, the group split up, and Joey stepped up to the door, grabbing the door knob.
Ryou and Yugi jumped as he yelled in pain and ran over to a snow bank, shoving his hand in with a sigh of relief. "Joey! What's wrong?" Joey looked up at the small boy, pulling his hand out to show them the "K" that was now branded into his palm.
"The door handle is rigged. It's scalding hot."
"Great." Yugi turned to Ryou. "They've got the house booby trapped."
Tristen, Téa and Malik were halfway around the house when they met a gate. Tristen tried to push it open, but it was locked. He sighed and swung his hand over it to pull the latch, and his hand landed in a bucket of glue.
"Aw, perfect." He muttered, trying to pull his hand out. With the help of the others, he ripped his hand out of the quickly hardening glue, and Malik reached over, pulling the bucket off and unlocking the door. The small group stepped forward, walking across the patio. However, when they stepped onto the snow covered lawn, they sunk down two feet in thick mud that had been hidden by the snow. Téa lost her balance and fell butt first into the mess.
"Oh, this is so gross." She whined. Tristen held out his clean hand and helped her up, and the group waded their way back to the patio, deciding to stick to the sidewalk.
When they finally reached the door, Tristen turned the knob, but it was locked. Grumblng, he got to his knees and flipped up the mail slot.
"Mokuba! Kaiba?" He jumped as chocolate brown eyes came into view.
"Hey Tristen!" Bakura cried, griggling insanely, which was very unlike the spirit. "You know, I've always LOVED your hair. Can I tell you a little secret? Black eyes would go SO well with that look!!" Then he lifted a can and sprayed black paint into Tristen's eyes. The brunette yelped and stumbled back, tripping and landing in the mud.
"Tristen! Are you alright?" He blinked a couple of times and looked up at the others, a black ring around his eyes like a mask. They were hard pressed to hold back their laughs as Tristen got up, his butt and back covered in mud, much like Téa's.
Yugi and Ryou looked around for an open window, Joey holding back and fanning his burned hand.
"What are we going to, Yugi? They have very many things at their disposal in there to use for a trap, and we have no way of predicting any of it." Ryou said, studying the top floor.
"Hey guys! This window is open, so we can get in!" Joey called.
"Joey, don't you think that's a little too easy? What if it's a trap?" Joey laughed as he swung his feet over the sill.
"Aww, c'mon, Yuug. They're high on sugar; they couldn't possibly think to put traps everywhere." He laughed again and put his feet down, only to step into two buckets of glue. "Hey!! Uh, Yuug? Little help?" The blonde stood, only to realize they'd screwed wheels onto the buckets and he went rolling back. Yugi and Ryou looked inside in time to see him go sliding down the hall. Shaking their heads, the stepped in and looked around. The entire mansion was decorated for Christmas.
"How are we going to tell if the rooms are booby trapped?" Yugi asked.
"The only way: Let Joey check them out first." Ryou muttered, walking across the floor carefully.
Joey slowly came to a stop, holding out his arms to keep his balance. He blew out a sigh of relief, then froze as his legs slid apart slightly. They slid back together, then apart the other way. Joey slowly skated around the hall in a jerky fashion, just barely keeping his balance. He stilled again, then lowered his arms with a sigh.
"Finally." He looked around the room, then yelled as his feet flew out from under him and he crashed to the floor.
Wincing as they heard a crash in the next room, they ran through the door to see Joey sprawled over the floor, buckets still attached to his feet. Sighing, the two hikaris pulled the buckets
off and helped up their fallen comrade.
"Now will you believe us?" Yugi asked. Joey only nodded, still dizzy.
"Now how are we supposed to get in?" Téa demanded, folding her arms. The others didn't answer her, just as lost. Then Tristen spotted a rope hanging over the edge of the building.
"There, me and Malik can climb up that, and come down to unlock the door for Téa." He concluded, walking over to the rope.
"Tristen, I don't know. This seems like a set-up." Malik said, walking behind the brunette. Tristen ignored him and started climbing. Malik gave up and followed him.
"Hurry up, guys." Téa called. "I'll see if I can find another way in just in case." She then left the two behind.
Malik sniffed the air.
"Do you smell that?"
"Wasn't me!" Tristen called. Malik rolled his eyes.
"It's kerosene. The rope's soaked in it." Tristen paused.
"Why would someone soak a rope in kerosene?" Malik was about to answer when he heard a very familiar snicker. Looking down, he paled as he saw Ishtar with a match in his hand.
"Oh, no." He hissed. His violet eyes widened when his yami lit the match and held it under the rope. "Move, MOVE!!" He yelled to Tristen.
"What? What's going- Oh man!!" Both of them climbed as quickly as they could, Malik glancing down every now and then to check on the rope. The fire was only a few feet away from them and closing in fast. The two of them were only inches away from the top when Bakura leaned over the edge.
"You guys should be more careful. It's not safe to play with fire." He called in a giddy voice as he pulled out some garden shears and cut the rope. Malik and Tristen both fell in the mud, Tristen face first, and Malik landing right on top of Tristen, pushing him even deeper. Malik sat up as he saw Téa coming back.
"What happened? You guys slip?" Malik groaned at the girl's naïveness and flopped back down into the mud.
Yugi, Ryou and Joey were standing outside the door.
"C'mon, Joey. Just open it." Yugi hissed. Joey shook his head.
"No way. I've had my share of pranks, thank you." The other two sighed, then Ryou got an idea.
"It's alright Joey. I understand." Joey looked over in surprise.
"Y-you do?"
"Yes. I understand how scared you must be at the moment, having been scalded and rolled across the room like a toy." Joey bristled.
"Scared?!"
"Oh, it's alright, Joey, there isn't anything wrong with being afraid."
"I'll show you who's afraid." He snapped, shoving open the door and storming in. "Hah!! Those yamis forgot this room. There's-" *BANG*...............*THUD* Ryou bit his lip.
"You don't suppose he's-"
"No. As hyper as they are, not even Ishtar and Bakura could come up with something deadly in their condition. Just majorly embarassing." The two opened the door to reveal Joey covered in glue and feathers. Yugi laughed. "See?"
Joey looked over at the two, spitting feathers.
"Next time, Ryou's going in first." He muttered. Ryou nodded, his hand clamped over his mouth. The British boy walked over to the next door when he didn't see anyone in the room, and pushed the door open. The other two listened closely.
"Guys! This trap's already been set off!" He called suddenly.
Joey and Yugi pushed the door open, and saw he was right. Seto Kaiba was hanging upside down by his feet, covered in red paint, a very ticked look on his face. Joey blinked, then started laughing.
"Kaiba!! Red's a great look for you!!" Kaiba glared, then smirked.
"Joey! Going for a new look yourself I see. Did you get sick of being a dog, and decide to try becoming a chicken?" Joey blushed, a furious look on his face. "Well, that won't be much of a change. Chicken fits you much better anyway. At least dogs have some dignaty." The billionare turned to Yugi. "What are you doing here?"
"Yami called and said that he'd taken over your house-"
"I've discovered that."
"And I came here to try and get all the yami's back home. Tristen, Téa and Malik are around back, trying to find another way in."
Tristen looked down the steps that led to the basement, checking warily for any traps. When none were spotted, he relaxed and started down the stairs. Téa and Malik watched in amazement as Tristen slipped all the way down the ice-covered steps to land at the bottom with a groan.
"Wow. The yamis have really thought this through." Malik muttered, watching Tristen try to stand on the slick floor. When he finally stood, he looked up at the others.
"I'm almost afraid to open the door." He then grabbed the knob and turned it, sighing when it opened. "Go to the back door, I'll open it." The two nodded and disappeared, and Tristen pushed the door open, leaning in and looking around. He didn't see anything suspicious, so he pushed the door open all the way. This instantly pulled the trigger on a homemade flamethrower, and his hair caught on fire. He let out a scream and tried to beat it out. Spotting a water cooler, he broke it open and dumped it over his head.
Sighing with relief, he lifted a hand to check the damage. Tristen's face paled when he felt his point gone and half his head bald.
"YAMI!!" He yelled, storming over to the stairs. In his rage, he didnt' notice the black tar coating the stairs until his shoe got stuck in it. But he merely pulled his shoe off and kept going.
Eventually, he was down to barefeet, and halfway up the stairs. Pulling his foot out of the sticky black gunk again, he placed his foot on the next step, and screamed in pain as a nail was shoved into his foot. Gripping his injured foot, he lost his balance and fell back, landing hard on the cement floor.
Wincing in pain, he got up and walked back to the door, slamming it behind him............and slipping again on the ice.
Ryou, Yugi, Kaiba and Joey had split up, Yugi with Kaiba and Ryou with Joey.
Ryou glanced over his shoulder at Joey, bit his lip, then opened a door they'd come to, glancing in.
"It's a kitchen." He said to the blonde, looking around. Actually, more like a gourmet resturaunt's kitchen, considering the size. But Ryou wasn't worried about the size. Actually, he was more occupied with the 200 knives floating in the air, probably an effect from one of the yami's Shadow Magic, and all of them were aimed at him. Instantly, they all flew in his direction, and he slammed the door just as they embedded into the wood. One hit the door just above his head, and he 'eep'ed as he saw a few tufts of snowy white hair float down to the floor.
The British boy looked over at Joey, his chocolate eyes wide. "Next room, please."
"So you're telling me that your yami got ahold of your stash of Halloween candy, ate half of it, then called up the other yamis and convinced them to meet him somewhere to finish it?" He groaned as Yugi nodded.
"And I have no idea where to start looking for them. They could be anywhere." Ryou was about to respond when the phone rang. Yugi apologized and ran to answer it.
"Hello. Gameshop."
"Oh, Yuuuuugiiiiiii!!!"A voice taunted on the other side of the line. Yugi's eyes widened.
"Yami!! Where are you?!" The other two hikaris glanced at each other nervously, holding their breath.
"Oh! You want to know where I am? Hey guys!! He wants to know where I am!!!" Yugi could hear laughter in the backround. "Sorry, Yugi, but I don't like giving out information over a line that's not secure."
"Since when? This is the first time you've used a phone!" He heard rustling, then a deeper voice took Yami's place.
"Listen, runt. You want to find us, go talk to the billionaire. He was kind enough to let us borrow his house for a while." More sugar-high envoked laughter was heard, and Yugi picked up the sound of muffled yelling. Then the line went dead.
"Bakura!! Yami?!" Sighing, he hung up the phone and turned to the others. "They've taken over Kaiba's house."
"Oh, no." Ryou sighed, shaking his head. "What are we going to do?"
"We need to get our yamis back. And we'll need back up. Remember what happened when they got ahold of the chocolate bars our school was selling?" Malik reminded. The other two shuddered at the memory.
20 minutes later, Yugi, Malik, Ryou, Joey, Tristen and Téa were standing outside the Kaiba mansion.
"Alright.Tristen, Téa and Malik, you guys try the back. We'll go through the front." Nodding, the group split up, and Joey stepped up to the door, grabbing the door knob.
Ryou and Yugi jumped as he yelled in pain and ran over to a snow bank, shoving his hand in with a sigh of relief. "Joey! What's wrong?" Joey looked up at the small boy, pulling his hand out to show them the "K" that was now branded into his palm.
"The door handle is rigged. It's scalding hot."
"Great." Yugi turned to Ryou. "They've got the house booby trapped."
Tristen, Téa and Malik were halfway around the house when they met a gate. Tristen tried to push it open, but it was locked. He sighed and swung his hand over it to pull the latch, and his hand landed in a bucket of glue.
"Aw, perfect." He muttered, trying to pull his hand out. With the help of the others, he ripped his hand out of the quickly hardening glue, and Malik reached over, pulling the bucket off and unlocking the door. The small group stepped forward, walking across the patio. However, when they stepped onto the snow covered lawn, they sunk down two feet in thick mud that had been hidden by the snow. Téa lost her balance and fell butt first into the mess.
"Oh, this is so gross." She whined. Tristen held out his clean hand and helped her up, and the group waded their way back to the patio, deciding to stick to the sidewalk.
When they finally reached the door, Tristen turned the knob, but it was locked. Grumblng, he got to his knees and flipped up the mail slot.
"Mokuba! Kaiba?" He jumped as chocolate brown eyes came into view.
"Hey Tristen!" Bakura cried, griggling insanely, which was very unlike the spirit. "You know, I've always LOVED your hair. Can I tell you a little secret? Black eyes would go SO well with that look!!" Then he lifted a can and sprayed black paint into Tristen's eyes. The brunette yelped and stumbled back, tripping and landing in the mud.
"Tristen! Are you alright?" He blinked a couple of times and looked up at the others, a black ring around his eyes like a mask. They were hard pressed to hold back their laughs as Tristen got up, his butt and back covered in mud, much like Téa's.
Yugi and Ryou looked around for an open window, Joey holding back and fanning his burned hand.
"What are we going to, Yugi? They have very many things at their disposal in there to use for a trap, and we have no way of predicting any of it." Ryou said, studying the top floor.
"Hey guys! This window is open, so we can get in!" Joey called.
"Joey, don't you think that's a little too easy? What if it's a trap?" Joey laughed as he swung his feet over the sill.
"Aww, c'mon, Yuug. They're high on sugar; they couldn't possibly think to put traps everywhere." He laughed again and put his feet down, only to step into two buckets of glue. "Hey!! Uh, Yuug? Little help?" The blonde stood, only to realize they'd screwed wheels onto the buckets and he went rolling back. Yugi and Ryou looked inside in time to see him go sliding down the hall. Shaking their heads, the stepped in and looked around. The entire mansion was decorated for Christmas.
"How are we going to tell if the rooms are booby trapped?" Yugi asked.
"The only way: Let Joey check them out first." Ryou muttered, walking across the floor carefully.
Joey slowly came to a stop, holding out his arms to keep his balance. He blew out a sigh of relief, then froze as his legs slid apart slightly. They slid back together, then apart the other way. Joey slowly skated around the hall in a jerky fashion, just barely keeping his balance. He stilled again, then lowered his arms with a sigh.
"Finally." He looked around the room, then yelled as his feet flew out from under him and he crashed to the floor.
Wincing as they heard a crash in the next room, they ran through the door to see Joey sprawled over the floor, buckets still attached to his feet. Sighing, the two hikaris pulled the buckets
off and helped up their fallen comrade.
"Now will you believe us?" Yugi asked. Joey only nodded, still dizzy.
"Now how are we supposed to get in?" Téa demanded, folding her arms. The others didn't answer her, just as lost. Then Tristen spotted a rope hanging over the edge of the building.
"There, me and Malik can climb up that, and come down to unlock the door for Téa." He concluded, walking over to the rope.
"Tristen, I don't know. This seems like a set-up." Malik said, walking behind the brunette. Tristen ignored him and started climbing. Malik gave up and followed him.
"Hurry up, guys." Téa called. "I'll see if I can find another way in just in case." She then left the two behind.
Malik sniffed the air.
"Do you smell that?"
"Wasn't me!" Tristen called. Malik rolled his eyes.
"It's kerosene. The rope's soaked in it." Tristen paused.
"Why would someone soak a rope in kerosene?" Malik was about to answer when he heard a very familiar snicker. Looking down, he paled as he saw Ishtar with a match in his hand.
"Oh, no." He hissed. His violet eyes widened when his yami lit the match and held it under the rope. "Move, MOVE!!" He yelled to Tristen.
"What? What's going- Oh man!!" Both of them climbed as quickly as they could, Malik glancing down every now and then to check on the rope. The fire was only a few feet away from them and closing in fast. The two of them were only inches away from the top when Bakura leaned over the edge.
"You guys should be more careful. It's not safe to play with fire." He called in a giddy voice as he pulled out some garden shears and cut the rope. Malik and Tristen both fell in the mud, Tristen face first, and Malik landing right on top of Tristen, pushing him even deeper. Malik sat up as he saw Téa coming back.
"What happened? You guys slip?" Malik groaned at the girl's naïveness and flopped back down into the mud.
Yugi, Ryou and Joey were standing outside the door.
"C'mon, Joey. Just open it." Yugi hissed. Joey shook his head.
"No way. I've had my share of pranks, thank you." The other two sighed, then Ryou got an idea.
"It's alright Joey. I understand." Joey looked over in surprise.
"Y-you do?"
"Yes. I understand how scared you must be at the moment, having been scalded and rolled across the room like a toy." Joey bristled.
"Scared?!"
"Oh, it's alright, Joey, there isn't anything wrong with being afraid."
"I'll show you who's afraid." He snapped, shoving open the door and storming in. "Hah!! Those yamis forgot this room. There's-" *BANG*...............*THUD* Ryou bit his lip.
"You don't suppose he's-"
"No. As hyper as they are, not even Ishtar and Bakura could come up with something deadly in their condition. Just majorly embarassing." The two opened the door to reveal Joey covered in glue and feathers. Yugi laughed. "See?"
Joey looked over at the two, spitting feathers.
"Next time, Ryou's going in first." He muttered. Ryou nodded, his hand clamped over his mouth. The British boy walked over to the next door when he didn't see anyone in the room, and pushed the door open. The other two listened closely.
"Guys! This trap's already been set off!" He called suddenly.
Joey and Yugi pushed the door open, and saw he was right. Seto Kaiba was hanging upside down by his feet, covered in red paint, a very ticked look on his face. Joey blinked, then started laughing.
"Kaiba!! Red's a great look for you!!" Kaiba glared, then smirked.
"Joey! Going for a new look yourself I see. Did you get sick of being a dog, and decide to try becoming a chicken?" Joey blushed, a furious look on his face. "Well, that won't be much of a change. Chicken fits you much better anyway. At least dogs have some dignaty." The billionare turned to Yugi. "What are you doing here?"
"Yami called and said that he'd taken over your house-"
"I've discovered that."
"And I came here to try and get all the yami's back home. Tristen, Téa and Malik are around back, trying to find another way in."
Tristen looked down the steps that led to the basement, checking warily for any traps. When none were spotted, he relaxed and started down the stairs. Téa and Malik watched in amazement as Tristen slipped all the way down the ice-covered steps to land at the bottom with a groan.
"Wow. The yamis have really thought this through." Malik muttered, watching Tristen try to stand on the slick floor. When he finally stood, he looked up at the others.
"I'm almost afraid to open the door." He then grabbed the knob and turned it, sighing when it opened. "Go to the back door, I'll open it." The two nodded and disappeared, and Tristen pushed the door open, leaning in and looking around. He didn't see anything suspicious, so he pushed the door open all the way. This instantly pulled the trigger on a homemade flamethrower, and his hair caught on fire. He let out a scream and tried to beat it out. Spotting a water cooler, he broke it open and dumped it over his head.
Sighing with relief, he lifted a hand to check the damage. Tristen's face paled when he felt his point gone and half his head bald.
"YAMI!!" He yelled, storming over to the stairs. In his rage, he didnt' notice the black tar coating the stairs until his shoe got stuck in it. But he merely pulled his shoe off and kept going.
Eventually, he was down to barefeet, and halfway up the stairs. Pulling his foot out of the sticky black gunk again, he placed his foot on the next step, and screamed in pain as a nail was shoved into his foot. Gripping his injured foot, he lost his balance and fell back, landing hard on the cement floor.
Wincing in pain, he got up and walked back to the door, slamming it behind him............and slipping again on the ice.
Ryou, Yugi, Kaiba and Joey had split up, Yugi with Kaiba and Ryou with Joey.
Ryou glanced over his shoulder at Joey, bit his lip, then opened a door they'd come to, glancing in.
"It's a kitchen." He said to the blonde, looking around. Actually, more like a gourmet resturaunt's kitchen, considering the size. But Ryou wasn't worried about the size. Actually, he was more occupied with the 200 knives floating in the air, probably an effect from one of the yami's Shadow Magic, and all of them were aimed at him. Instantly, they all flew in his direction, and he slammed the door just as they embedded into the wood. One hit the door just above his head, and he 'eep'ed as he saw a few tufts of snowy white hair float down to the floor.
The British boy looked over at Joey, his chocolate eyes wide. "Next room, please."