Great Minds Think Alike

The Heroes of Millennia were assembled at the game shop. Once they were all together, they headed to their secret headquarters. "Thanks for coming here, guys," Kaiba said. "I wouldn't ask you here if it wasn't important, but I have something to share with you."

"What is it, Kaiba?" Yugi asked.

"I just found out from my brother that he and his friends discovered a door to a new world once again," the brunette said. "He said it's a door that leads to the world of Victorian London."

Joey cocked his head to the side. "London, huh?" He had many ideas on what kind of world it would be, but he wanted to make sure he was right before he jumped to any conclusions. "Did he say anything else like where he did or if he met anyone?"

Kaiba approached the keyboard and placed his glasses over his eyes. "He said he met some detective who also had a goal of wanting to stop the Dark Masters."

Just hearing the word 'detective' was enough for Emily. "Basil of Baker Street?"

Joey looked at her. "The Great Mouse Detective?"

"Awesome," Yugi laughed.

Kaiba scowled at his friends. "You geeks," he muttered. He often wondered why he was even friends with these guys. But in situations like this, any information they had would likely be important. So he typed 'Basil of Baker Street' on the keyboard and the screen displayed an image of the detective along with his background information.

"It says that Basil lives right underneath the floor of the home of Sherlock Holmes himself," Yugi said. Of course, he already knew that from watching the film back home.

"That explains how he got his detective skills," Joey commented. "He sure learned from the best." This made him wonder if Sherlock was ever aware of his rodent counterpart living beneath him and even listening in on some of his cases.

"He learned more than from just observing Sherlock Holmes," Kaiba was saying. "It turns out Basil attended university at young age and studied criminology, forensics, and chemistry and even graduated at the age of twenty." He looked back at the screen. "I never imagined there would be a rodent of such intelligence."

"Oh, yes," Emily said. "It also says here that Basil enjoys playing the violin and he's also good at playing chess." She giggled and said, "If you ever meet him, you should challenge him to a game."

"Oh, please," Kaiba scoffed. He looked back at the screen. "So he has a reputation of solving crimes and bringing criminals to justice. But he prefers to work alone, hence why he's a private consultant."

Joey shrugged. "Guess he doesn't like being the center of attention even though he's famous."

"That explains why he would rather have the police take all of the credit for his success," Emily figured.

"But there's no information about him being after the Dark Masters," Kaiba observed.

"Maybe there's a list of criminals he's captured during his career," Yugi wondered. "Maybe that will give us a few leads."

It was worth a shot. As Kaiba narrowed down his searches, Yugi stopped him. There was one name he saw that stood out – Ratigan. Kaiba clicked on the name and the rat's information showed up. "Padraic Ratigan," the brunette said out loud. "I guess he's the Moriarty of the mouse world."

"The Napoleon of Crime, as Basil would say," said Emily. "And look, it says that he has an affiliation with the Dark Masters."

Kaiba scoffed in disbelief. It was unbelievable that the most supreme villains would have a rat in their employment. But based on what he was reading, surely Ratigan's criminal reputation must be appealing to the Dark Masters, along with the fact that he and Basil have been after each other for many years, meaning that the rat is a dangerous villain indeed.

The brunette saw a list of crimes committed by Ratigan, including the Big Ben Caper and the Tower Bridge Job, crimes in which he stole the crown jewels of London and kept them in his lair. There were also crimes of kidnapping and murdering helpless mice and rats.

"Man," Joey sighed. "I knew Ratigan was evil, but I never thought he was this evil."

Emily agreed. "No wonder the Dark Masters find his crimes so appealing that they would have him as their employee."

Yugi asked for Kaiba's opinion. "What do you think, Kaiba?"

The brunette looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I know Ratigan is just a lackey, but do you think we should face him?" Yugi wondered.

He was actually thinking about that. Ideally, fighting a lackey wasn't worthwhile, in Kaiba's opinion, but he has dealt with that before in dueling Rare Hunters, the Big Five, and Dartz's minions. And he also knew that sometimes you have to take on the lackeys before you can take on the boss. Maybe facing Ratigan would help Kaiba and his friends gather more information about the Dark Masters and what they were planning and how to stop them.

In addition, there has to be a reason why a door to Victorian London would appear and why the Great Goddess would want Mokuba and his friends to discover it just like they discovered the door to Medieval Paris. As such, Kaiba was curious to find out what that reason was.

He voiced his thoughts to his friends and figured, "Maybe it would be in our best interest to go to London and face Ratigan. We could help Basil capture him and we could question him about his bosses."

Emily shrugged and said, "I guess so. I mean, it sounds exciting."

Joey agreed. "Better Ratigan than Frollo, in my opinion."

"Well, I guess that's that," said Yugi. "We're going to London." And his friends cheered. "But the question is: how do we get there?"

Kaiba got an idea. He accessed the surveillance system and got the layout of the whole Valley on the screen, thinking he could use it to figure out where the door to Victorian London was located. It showed where the doors to all of the worlds were located, including the hidden door behind Celestic Falls. Looking at the screen, Kaiba saw a red light flashing. He clicked on it and it showed a door hidden in a thicket.

"I wonder if that's the door to London," Emily asked.

"Look," Yugi said, and everyone fixed their gaze on the screen. They saw Leon and Labramon approaching the door. "It's Leon and Labramon."

Joey noticed Leon holding something. "What's Leon got in his hand?"

They watch as he bends down and sets a mouse down on the grass. "It's a mouse," Yugi said, "but it's not Basil."

"I'll see if I can adjust the image so we can get a closer look," Kaiba said. He expanded the screen and the mouse was revealed to be Olivia Flaversham."

"That's Olivia Flaversham," Emily observed.

"The toymaker's daughter," Yugi clarified.

"Wow," Joey said. "I didn't think Leon would find a friend in her. Then again, I didn't think he or Mokuba or Rebecca would find a friend in the hunchback." They watch as Leon opens the door for Olivia and the mouse girl passes through.

"I guess Leon was just escorting her home," Emily figured.

Now Kaiba had even more questions for his brother and his own friends. He wondered what more the children were hiding regarding their adventures in London. He got back on his feet and faced his friends. "All right, guys. Pack everything you think you'll need like clothes and hygiene products and money and whatever else you think might come in handy. And get a good night's sleep. I want us to be fully refreshed for when we go to London."

"Are we going tomorrow?" Joey asked.

"The sooner the better, in my opinion," the brunette said. "We'll meet up at the game shop like we always do. Then we'll head to the thicket."

"But we have school tomorrow," Emily reminded him.

"I'm aware of that," Kaiba said, sounding annoyed. "We'll go once you're finished with school. And we'll be back in time for you to get your homework done."

There was no point in arguing. Once Kaiba made a plan, there was no way to change it. So they agreed to get together tomorrow afternoon. With that being settled, they returned to their homes to pack up and rest.