"We're finally home! Jack cried, groaning from the ache in his limbs from the plane and then their taxi ride.

Bruno climbed out next, rubbing the bags under his eyes. "How does my body simultaneously want to go back to sleep and do push ups to make up for all the sitting?"

"Planes suck," Lise stated. She stretched, her spine and knuckles cracking. "It's good to be home though."

"Forget home," Leo complained. "I'm hungry! I need food for energy!"

"Don't worry, buddy, we'll order some take out," Crow assured Leo.

"Pull yourself together, weirdo," Luna whispered.

"Okay," the cabbie added up the bill on his tablet. He was smiling like driving a ridiculously oversized vehicle that could house twelve people was finally going to pay off. "Your tab is…$250."

"I've got this," Akiza whipped out a small purse, produced a shiny credit card, and handed it over. "What?" she added when she noticed everyone was staring at her. "Being a Senator's daughter has its perks sometimes. It's all on dad."

"Sounds perfect to me," Jack grinned. "I'll grab the luggage."

"Oh no you don't!" Crow ran after him. "You're gonna help with everyone's bags! Not just your own!"

The cabbie handed Akiza her card, and bowed. "Have an excellent evening, miss."

Judging by her smirk, Akiza liked that bow. She turned back to her friends as the cabbie drove off. "So food?"

"PLEASE!" Leo screeched.

"Let's get our stuff inside and then order a pizza or something," Lise agreed. She lead the way into the garage entrance.

"LISE!" A tiny person with red, bushy hair tackled her to the ground in a big hug. "Welcome home!"

"Whoa!" Lise was so surprised she fell to the ground, and one of her shoes popped off.

It flew straight at Bruno, who surprisingly, snatched it out of midair before it could smack him in the face.

"Nice reflexes!"

Thanks," Bruno was staring at his own arms like he'd never seen them before.

"Rally!" Lise gasped and hugged Rally back. "What're you doing here?"

Rally pulled back, his eyes shining. "We were watching your place while you were gone! It's been awesome, but I'm so happy to see you! I've started school too, and Yusei said you were in Peru, and I've gotta show you- come on!" Rally kept talking as he pulled Lise back up to her feet and up the stairs into the kitchen.

"Tank, look! Look! It's Lise!" Rally announced once he'd brought her into the kitchen.

"Hi Tank, Nervin, Blitz," Lise waved at all of them as she saw them. "It's been forever!"

"Lise!"

They took turns hugging, and then when Yusei, Akiza, Jack, Crow, Leo, Luna, and Bruno walked in there was even more hugging.

"We should all sit down," Blitz finally said.

"Yeah," Nervin adjusted his glasses. "We didn't make dinner for nothing."

"And there's plenty to go around," Tank added, his mouth watering.

Rally sat at the head of the table beside Lise and Yusei, at his insistence of course. He talked about how starting fifth grade had been. That is, when he wasn't shoveling homemade riceballs into his mouth. Akiza sat on Lise's left, next to Crow. Tank was across from them, giving an update on his new job at a bakery. Jack had somehow gotten into an arm wrestling match with Blitz that Leo was gleefully refereeing. Nervin and Luna all shared a collective glance, as if they were all thinking how the hell did this happen? Our friends are weird.

It was Bruno who was hit by a sudden realization in the midst of shoveling a bite of beef into his mouth. These people were like a family. A weird, unorthodox, thrown together family of three teenage boys, two teenage girls, three kids, three middle aged men, and himself; the amnesiac. It also hit him that perhaps he hadn't had a family, but he'd certainly had people he cared about too. Nevertheless, it felt right to be a part of this family. That they'd help him find his own people soon. That and the first step in doing so was to help them find their program.

Akiza, Leo, Luna, Rally, Tank, Nervin, and Blitz all had to leave after dinner. Akiza, the twins, and Rally all had school the next day anyway.

"Time to hit the hay," Bruno yawned. "See you in the morning."

Crow and Jack yawned in response, and followed him up to the third floor.

"Hey, before we go to bed, can I ask you something?" Yusei blurted out at the bottom of the ladder.

"Me?" Lise stopped.

"Yeah," Yusei picked at his fingertips. "I was thinking of letting Bruno have my bed so he wouldn't have to keep sleeping on the couch."

"Okay," Lise nodded slowly. She wasn't quite sure where he was going with this. "And you would sleep…"

"With you?" Yusei's cheeks flushed pink when he saw Lise's eyes widening. "N-Not like that! Just being, I mean, sleeping in the same bed…"

"More than just one night where we're not trying to forget all the shit that's traumatized us?"

"Especially boring nights."

Lise's cheeks went from light pink, to fuchsia, to fire engine red. "So technically share a room."

"Yeah, I didn't want to just move in without asking you."

"We should do it," Lise nodded. "But…You can't leave grease stains anywhere but the garage."

"Oh, for a second there I thought your conditions would be harder than just showering every day," Yusei smiled and tickled Lise in the sides.

She laughed and punched his shoulder, then kissed him quickly on the lips. "Let's go to bed. I'm tired, and I think sitting on that plane for 14 hours turned my spine into a loose sack of pebbles."

"Yeah, mine too." Yusei chuckled, following Lise up to bed.

/

Next morning, Lise was the last to wake up. Her sleep schedule was the most used to Peru's since she had spent a month there, not merely four days. She dropped into the kitchen yawning.

"Sleep all right?" Jack asked after his morning cup of coffee.

"Nope," Lise grumbled. "Got two hours, maybe. Just messed around on my computer until I fell asleep."

"Ah," Jack got up and stopped Lise from pushing the regular coffee button on their espresso machine. "No, my friend. This calls for a double espresso," he said.

"Sounds good," Lise yawned again. She got to work on putting together a bagel with cream cheese for her breakfast.

"So," Bruno leaned on the table. He steepled his fingers and gazed at each of his friends in turn. "what do we do about our stolen program?"

"What?!" Lise gasped, whirling to stare at Bruno. Her eyes were almost as wide as her mouth. "You guys got robbed?"

Yusei and Bruno shared an equally shameful look.

Crow sat down at the table across from them with his own breakfast. "Are you going to tell her or should we?"

Lise and Jack took their seats too. She bit into her finished bagel. "I'm listening."

"Well," Yusei bit his lip, and picked at the dead skin on his thumb. "Good news, Bruno and I finished the program for a new engine."

"That's awesome! I knew you could do it," Lise's expression fell. "Oh wait, there's bad news."

"Yeah, bad news is it was stolen," Bruno said.

Yusei scratched at the back of his head. "By Lazar."

"And you didn't back it up, or save it?"

"No, we'd kinda been working on it nonstop for three days."

"Without sleep," Bruno added.

Lise polished off her bagel, and sighed. She put her hand to her head, and took a long sip of her coffee. "So let me get this straight. You two spent three days without sleep or human interaction making an engine program. Then you finish it, but you're too tired to remember to save the damn thing in any way shape, or form, which sucks because a clown broke into our house and stole it the night before you went to Peru to meet me?"

"We only figured out it was Lazar because he ate some of our ramen-"

"My ramen," Jack interrupted, sniffing indignantly.

Yusei rolled his eyes and kept going. "And analyzed the fingerprint he left on the cellophane by hacking into the Security Database."

Bruno nodded. "I'd say that about covers it."

"And you routed the source through a bunch of different servers, right?" Lise asked.

"Of course," Yusei crossed his arms. "I'm not an animal."

"Just checking," Lise said. She took another sip of her coffee, and stood up. "The problem now, or at least the one I can see, is it's been four days and the trail has almost definitely gone cold."

"Exactly," Crow said. "We might never get it back."

"There was a lot of adlibbing and spur of the moment stuff too, so it's not like we can just recreate it either," Yusei said.

Lise nodded, processing the information. Whether she was conscious of it or not, she began to pace back and forth. The boys watched her do this for about a minute, unsure if they should stop her or not.

"Could you hack back into the database?"

Bruno shrugged. "It might be harder this time, but together we can manage."

"What're you getting at?" Jack sat his empty coffee cup down.

"You've confirmed Lazar stole the program right?"

"And my ramen!" Jack reminded everyone.

Everyone ignored him.

"The database matched the fingerprint to him, no doubt," Crow said.

"If I'm right, then I think we can at least find out where the program might be," Lise said.

"No way."

Crow frowned. "Ya lost me. Lazar could be anywhere. It's been four days."

"Yes and no," Lise said. "Lazar is the vice director, the second highest position someone can hold in this entire city, so he has access to heavily secured buildings. Places with lots of security always have cameras."

Yusei popped up to his feet. "My god, Lise, you're an evil genius!" He kissed Lise's heavily blushing cheek and swung himself into the chair before one of their computers.

"Still lost over here," Jack said, frowning deeply.

Lise motioned for them to join Yusei at the computers. Bruno logged on to the other computer to help when he was on the same page.

"Lazar is like anyone with a job. You come and go constantly from the same place over and over again in a pattern. Stealing our program was a break in that pattern. So if we can find the other break in his pattern, where he stashed the program, we can go and get it. Lazar is the vice director, so if we can access the security cam footage of his usual comings and goings, and then of the break in the pattern in a different building, we'll find the program. Lazar isn't a total idiot, so he wouldn't bring the program into the building he works at, but as vice director he has access to other secure buildings he could stash it at."

"I sure hope you're right!" Crow grinned, but then he tapped at his chin. Something had occurred to him. "Hey, if the building Lazar hid the program in is super secure, how are we going to get in?"

"Uh…"

"I'll give Blister a call," Yusei said. "He's the best at hacking and forgery last minute."

"First, we have to sift through this footage to find out what building we need to access in the first place," Bruno pointed out. He had joined Yusei's furious typing, and they'd breached the security database even faster than last time. "Even if we're only sifting through four days worth, it's a lot of data."

"Something still doesn't make sense," Crow said. He tapped his knuckles to his lips. "Why would Lazar steal our program anyway? Did someone tell him to steal it?"

"We could ask him," Jack suggested.

Everyone stared at him.

"What? We know him. We could set up a meeting or something."

"Maybe as a last resort."

"Hmm," Bruno scratched his chin as he brought up and discarded information. "The program could be useful to anyone who steals it. If he did give it to someone else, he could sell it for a high price."

"Oh, then maybe he would be acting alone," Yusei said.

"I think we should try and contact Lazar after we get the program back," Lise spoke up.

Jack's eyes glistened, like he was trying not to cry. "You agree with me?!"

"For interrogation purposes, yes."

Bruno turned back to his computer.

"Hey," Yusei put a hand on his shoulder. "That program is something that connects the two of us, and everyone else with our dream to win the WRGP. We'll find it."

"Thanks," Bruno smiled.

"We'll definitely get it back."

/

Four days ago, Lazar had brought the jump drive containing the program to the Security Bureau. He immediately contacted the new directors.

Placido took Lazar's call.

"As you commanded, I stole their program," Lazar held up the jump drive.

"You left without a trace, didn't you?" Placido said.

Lazar slumped against his desk, smiling and giggling a little. "Of course not! I wouldn't make mistakes like that at all!"

"Fine," Placido said. "Then bring it to me. I'll send you the location."

"Me?"

Placido drew his sword. He was only a hologram message, but Lazar still stepped back in fear. His eyes crossed just to keep the sword's tip in view. "Of course, you! Bring it now!"

"U-Understood!"

Twenty minutes later, Lazar entered a building that looked like a large, metal Nike swoosh. Signs outside stated the building was closed for maintenance.

"Really now, why do I have to do this kind of labor?" Lazar complained, walking down a darkened hallway. "It was a lot better with Director Goodwin.

At the end of the hallway he came into a massive room with a control panel. It looked like something straight out of Star Trek.

Placido was at one of the many computers in the control panel. He turned to Lazar with a scowl when his lackey came in.

"Sorry for being so late. I made sure to cover my tracks, so don't worry," Lazar grinned and bowed cheerfully. "The program is right here, as you can see." He pulled the drive out of his sleeve and handed it over.

"Not bad for a clown," Placido said. "Good job."

"It was nothing," Lazar said. "I'm the vice director of the Public Security Maintenance Bureau, and without telling any of my subordinates. I infiltrated their home myself, and stole the data. In return, it really isn't much, but won't you tell me what you're using the program for?"

Placido stood. He drew his sword once more, and slashed it in a figure eight before Lazar's nose. "Don't stick that nose of yours into things that don't concern you. It's better for you not to know."

Lazar trembled pitifully. He was mere inches from the sword, but this time it would actually hurt him if Placido decided to use it.

Something beeped on the control center's dashboard. Placido turned to it, and sheathed his blade. "It seems you tripped the alarm. In case we do get some rats, good to know it works so well."

Lazar bit his lip. "Y-Yes, w-well I'll be on my way now!"

Placido didn't acknowledge Lazar leaving. He was done with the clown anyway. "Just in case, I'll leave an extra surprise." He waved his hand over the keyboard.

/

"Got it!" Bruno was saying back in present day. He paused the footage and zoomed in. Security cameras picked up Lazar going into this abandoned warehouse three days ago."

"I'll wake up Lise," Yusei grinned. He patted Bruno on the back. "I knew we could do it."

"And since it's abandoned we shouldn't need any security codes or keys to get in."

"Nice," Yusei dragged Lise off the couch she'd conked out on. "Come on, Lise, wake up. You'll be pissed if you miss this."

She groaned in protest, still half asleep. "No…"

"Jack, Crow!" Bruno called. "Get ready! We're gonna get our program back!"

"Maybe you should ride with me, just to be safe," Yusei suggested.

Lise yawned, stretched, and rubbed at her eyes. "That's probably a good idea."

/

"Doesn't really look like much," Yusei stated once the five of them had pulled up.

Jack scowled. "You sure this is the place?"

Bruno looked at the address he'd written down. "Yes, this is it."

Lise yawned and dismounted Yusei's bike. "It looks brand new. Why would it just suddenly be abandoned?" She pointed at the caution tape marking the building as off limits.

"Guess we'll find out," Crow ducked under the tape first and lead the way inside.

The hallways and rooms were dark. Ceiling panels were only half installed, and the half-assed piping was drooping down. Other than that, it was state of the art gear that had halted out of the blue. It was almost like walking through a haunted space station.

The hallway split off into two directions.

"I say we split up," Crow said immediately. "Jack and I will go to the right, and Bruno go with Lise and Yusei to the left. If we run into any trouble, call."

"And we'll back outside in an hour," Yusei added.

"Got it," Jack agreed. He and Crow raced down their hallway.

Lise, Bruno, and Yusei advanced, keeping their eyes peeled. The air grew colder the farther in they walked, until they could see their breath steam in the frigid air.

Lise shivered. "If this place is abandoned then why do they keep it so cold?"

"It's either the weirdest looking meat locker-"

"Ew!"

"Or they keep machines down here," Yusei said. "My guess is whatever was keeping them cool went a little too far, which is why it feels like an ice box."

"Oh goody," Lise grumbled.

They passed a door and a small window mounted beside it. Inside the room were dozens of conveyor belts and assembly machines. All of which were switched off.

"What kind of factory is this?" Bruno blurted. "What were they making?"

"Yeah, this is the first time I've seen machines like these," Yusei agreed.

An alarm started blaring.

"Security cameras must work too," Yusei muttered.

Metal doors started to descend from the ceiling.

"It's sealing us in!" Lise was the first to bolt for the door.

"Hurry!" Yusei ran right behind her.

Lise dove and rolled to the other side. Yusei managed to do the same a second before the door closed with a snap.

"Bruno!" Yusei got back to his feet.

"Sorry, I couldn't make it!" Bruno yelled back through the door.

"Damnit, now what?" Lise punched the wall irritably.

"Can you cut through it?"

She shook her head. "It'd be like that soda truck all over again."

"Don't worry about me," Bruno said. "I'll go back and try to find Jack and Crow."

"We'll keep going then. There's no other way to go," Yusei said.

"Be careful!"

Yusei turned to Lise. "Let's go."

Lise nodded and followed him at a jog down the darkened hallway. Eventually they reached a door that, once opened, lead into a lit garage.

/

The sound of tearing paper rippled through one of the darkened rooms. A white line of light illuminated and expanded into what looked like a small tornado. Placido stepped out of the portal, sheathing his sword. The portal immediately closed up behind him.

"Time to see if my new toys are ready."

/

"Whoa, an empty garage," Lise said sarcastically. "Honestly, I was hoping for something a bit more dramatic."

"Stay on your toes," Yusei glanced warily around. "I don't like this at all."

They surveyed the catwalk they were on and the garage floor. The giant doors were made of the same metal from the one behind them, but nothing really interesting caught their eyes, except for the stairs leading down into the main part of the garage. Even that was dull though. Lise flew out over the center to see better from a bird's eye view, and preferably find an exit.

"I think we're at a dead end," Lise sighed.

Yusei had walked down to the floor below her. "But why try to stop us from getting into an empty garage?" His next step sank to the floor as a square panel.

A panel slid open in front of him, and a massive, yellow robot rose up from the level below them. Lightbulbs flashed where eyes, ears, and hair normally would have gone. Antennae stuck up at its shoulders, and the torso grew smaller until it sprouted into enormous industrial equipment sized treads for feet.

"More like a trap," Yusei scowled deeply.

The robot's eyes fixed on the two teenagers. "Analyzing."

"Uh," Lise and Yusei glanced at each other, wondering what to make of this bot.

"Confirmed: Yusei Fudo. Confirmed: Elizabeth Kururugi. I challenge the two of you to a duel."

"And if we refuse?" Lise crossed her arms.

The robot regarded her coldly. "I am connected to the security doors behind me. They will only open if you can defeat me."

"Figures," Lise grumbled. She dropped back to the ground. "Me and my big mouth…"

"Let's duel!"

/

Bruno realized, after he'd run off, that'd he'd forgotten his phone. He cursed himself. Of all the times to forget it.

He opened a door at random, hoping for the best. "Where is this?" All that met him was pure, pitch blackness. Bruno had no doubt that if he walked in and the door shut behind him, he wouldn't even be able to see his hand in front of his face. Bruno's question was still echoing off the walls, indicating the vast size of the room.

"You're not supposed to be here," a deep voice said.

Bruno jumped, and whirled to find himself staring at Placido. "Who are you?" Pain exploded across all the nerves in Bruno's head. He clutched at it to try to get the pain to stop. Somehow he knew this person in white. "Y-You're…"

Placido didn't give Bruno time to remember. He punched Bruno, hard, in the stomach. Bruno went down faster than a dead horse.

"I won't let anyone interfere," Placido said. He stepped over Bruno's body and into the room Bruno had opened. He approached the control station. "Rise my Riding Roids, and show me the power you now all possess!"

Greenish-white light swept outward from Placido's control station. An innumerable amount of Ghost duel robots glowed with the same light. The program had just finished uploading into all their robotic brains.

/

"I'll go first," Yusei decided, drawing a card. We don't have time to mess around. The sooner we can win, the sooner that door opens, and we can get out of here.

Speedy. Lise agreed silently. We can do that.

Guess I'll see what this bot is made of. "I play the One for One spell card! By sending Speed Warrior to my graveyard, I special summon Level Eater from my deck in defense mode. Next, I normal summon Junk Synchron from my hand, and because of his ability I special summon Speed Warrior from my graveyard. I tune level two Speed Warrior with the level three Junk Synchron, and synchro summon…Junk Warrior! There's more! Junk Warrior's attack points go up equal to the attack points of all my level two or below monsters. It gains Level Eater's 600 attack points! On that note, I set one card facedown and end my turn."

"The probability of synchro summoning on the first turn…45 percent," the robot said. Its eyes flashed 45% as it spoke. "That's what the data says."

"What is this thing calculating?"

Lise made an I-don't-know sound, shrugging her shoulders.

The robot ignored them. "Therefore, the strategy that will be carried out the second turn is…sealing of high level monsters."

"What?"

"You can do that?"

The robot began its turn. "From my hand, I activate the continuous spell card Level Limit Area B. Through Level Limit Area B's effect, all level four or higher monsters on the field are switched to defense mode."

"Well, that backfired," Lise said.

"I set three cards, ending my turn."

"Okay, then it's my turn!" Lise drew a card.

I think this thing might be using a Lock Deck to buy time.

Lise nodded. But he's a robot. Who the fuck does he need to buy time for?

Beats me.

Even if it is using a Lock Deck, he doesn't have any monsters. Technically, Junk Warrior an't attack, but Level Eater could because its at a level below four.

Just be careful, Lise.