Author's Note: Retooled, v. 2.21.

Many thanks to TAFKAE for the promo!!!!!! Read taffy's stuff, ppl! And thank you to all who have reviewed.
JessIchi: YES, Malik and Isis and SHADI (love him) will make appearances, but not any time soon *sniff*.
Wanderer: good guess, you're right. =D
To anyone following this story, the next chapter has been very hard for me to write, mainly because I did a bit of travelling after the grad ceremony, and my sis Puar is not leaving me the hell alone. I hope to get up to 20 reviews before I post it. That way, I will know that my efforts aren't for nothing.
That's all out of me--enjoy the story!

Chapter Nine - Loon Song

"MAI!" Jou shouted, while the stewardesses ducked for cover.
The lunatic had pulled her onto his lap, where she was thrashing about madly. Jounouchi clenched his fists at the sight, unsure of what to do, and hoping for the first time in his life that this other man would get a high heel to the groin.
"Hold still!" barked the man. "You, get my chair!"
The flight attendant nodded slowly, shaking hands unfolding the wheelchair. Jou looked from the chair to the man, then to Mai, then back to the chair.
"What is dis? Equal opportunity terrorism?" he demanded.
"What the hell are you doing?" one of the other handicapped men barked.
The would-be hijacker looked confused as he lifted himself from his seat. His eyes scanned the group in first class, all large, muscular men like himself.
"Has the world gone insane?" Jou muttered, slowly walking backward toward the curtain to coach. He saw, out of the corner of his eye, one of the men put his hand on another's shoulder, as if to hold him back.
"What the hell is Stein doing?" the second man hissed.
"I don't know, but we can't do anything so long as he has the girl," the first hissed back.
'Mai...' thought Jou, staring at her frightened violet eyes. 'I have to do something!'
The man--Stein--was wheeling the chair back toward the cockpit door.
"You all think I'm crazy," he said. "I'll show you crazy. I'm not going on any more missions!"
"You're mad, Stein!"
"What did I just say?! I'm through with you and your crazy plots. I'm through with the commander, and I'm through with Special Ops. This is just to prove I'm serious."
"Is this real?" the red haired stewardess asked, holding on to the arm of her best friend.
"You bet it's real," said one of the men.
"Don't even try to stop me, McShane. This is the end of the line for all of you. I'm bringing this plane down over headquarters, and if you so much as make a move for me--the girl dies." He gave Mai a 'friendly' choke just to illustrate, and she pulled at his arm to try to free herself.
"Jou!" she coughed, finding that calling for help and breathing were conflicting interests.
'She called for me!' he thought, jumping forward only to have one of the men clamp a hand on his arm. His bandaged arm.
"OW!"
"Careful, kid. That man is dangerous."
"Stein! This is madness! Give it up, now, and we'll forget it ever happened!"
"Speak for yourself," said Debra.
"One more word, and I'll snap her neck!" Stein growled.

Attention passengers, this is your captain speaking. We're entering some turbulence, so please return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts.

"Who didn't pull the alarm?!" demanded the redhead.
"SILENCE!"
"AAH!"
"MAAAAAI!!"
Abandoning all caution, Jou leapt forward, leaving the seated man with a handful of dirty bandages. What happened next was a blur of limbs and blond hair. The wheelchair toppled over backwards, and Mai, Jou, and Stein rolled back toward the cabin door, their feet flailing in the air. Jou landed with his arms around Mai, somersaulting three times until his head smacked into the drink cart.
"Oh, God, kid, are you okay?!" demanded one of the men.
"Jounouchi..." Mai exclaimed, then realized where his hands were. With an indignant huff, she shoved him back into the cart.
"Oof..." Jou blinked, looking around for Stein. He was on his back, looking stunned. "...I did it! Ha!" He leapt to his feet, walking over to Stein's prone form.
"Oo, I've fallen, and I can't get up!" he said in falsetto, fluttering his eyelashes.
Stein grunted, lifting himself up onto his forearms.
"Get back, kid!"
But Jou was not done taunting yet. "Heh...ya said ya were gonna blow up headquarters? Wha's that, da March of Dimes building?"
Something clicked in Mai's mind.
"Jou, run!" she cried.
"Too late!" Stein hollered, jumping to his feet.
Jou's jaw dropped. What...the...hell? The guy could walk?
"Our cover is blown," grumbled one of the men. "GET HIM!"
The blond teen ducked as Stein reached out to choke him, stumbling as someone pulled him out of the way. Five large men dogpiled onto the would-be-hijacker.
"They ALL can walk?"
"And I had to give one of them a sponge massage!"
The one called McShane winked at the redheaded attendant before punching the defector in the eye.
"I've got him subdued," barked one. "Someone alert the captain, we need to make an emergency landing."
"I'm on it!"

At that moment the plane lurched with turbulence, and Stein wriggled out from underneath his captors. He ran for the curtain to coach.
"Stop him!"
"Hey, what's goin' on up he--OOF!"
Stein smacked into Honda, who had gotten bored with his dead GBA and had come looking for his friend.
"Auuugh..." both moaned, falling back through the curtain and into the narrow aisle.
Two men grabbed Stein's arms and slapped handcuffs on him. They got a few quizzical looks from coach class, and a few babies cried.
"Nothing to see here, folks," said one of the men, hauling Stein away.
"Honda, are you okay?" Yugi asked, helping the taller boy to his feet.
"Yeah...where's Jou?"
"Right here," Jou replied, waving. He stopped when he saw the blank stares that Honda and Yugi were giving him, and looked down at his left hand.
Mai was holding it.
Jounouchi turned a deep shade of red, and Mai sharply withdrew her hand.
"Hello, Yugi," she said, sounding as calm and catty as ever. She gave her ponytail a toss and sat down on the edge of her seat. "Fancy meeting you here...are you the chaperone for the preschool field trip?"
"'Ey!! I resent that!" Jou sniffed.
"Looks like little baby Jounouchi needs his bottle. Go cry to Yugi, I have some preparing to do."
"Don't get your black Victoria's Secret v-string, catalog no. GA-151158 panties in a bind!" he huffed back.
Mai turned ghost-white, staring, speechless, at him.
"You saw her panties? Way to go, Jou!" Honda cheered.
'So much for the moment,' thought the stewardess with a sigh. 'And they make such a cute couple, too.'

*

"So...let me get this straight," sighed Anzu, seated next to Yugi on a bench in front of Sushi Boy in LAX. "We're here in Los Angeles because a handicapped man who wasn't really handicapped freaked out and grabbed Mai, and so all the other not-really-handicapped men told the captain we had to land?"
"Thaf waf I fed," Jou replied, mouth dripping with burger bits and half-chewed fries from the nearby McDonalds.
"See, Yugi? I told you the Boston Marathon was run in the spring."
"But it doesn't make sense," the smallest member of the group sighed, sipping at a watery coke.
"Comin' through," Honda chirped, setting down a tray of chili dogs, onion rings, and fried miscellania. "Man, I'm starved! Those little bags of peanuts just don't hold you over." He took a huge bite of one of the chili dogs, which spattered grease down onto the tray.
"I fought fou liked four fot dogs focolate fovered," Jou chuckled, ketchup trailing down his chin.
Honda elbowed him in the ribs.
"I wonder where Mai got to," Yugi wondered, staring into the crowds in the International terminal.
"Wherever she went, I don't blame her," Anzu sighed, dodging a flying tater tot.
"At least Bakura's finally getting some rest," Yugi added.

Meanwhile, outside their arrival gate at LAX:

Bakura groaned and rubbed his throbbing temples. All around him, people in throngs were chattering, all too loudly, in every living language. And that pill Jou had given him hadn't helped a bit. Now he felt irritated, and had an intense craving for chocolate.
To help his head he'd been staring out the massive windows, watching the loading crew and military inspect the plane. It was early in the morning in L.A., and the smoggy sunrise through the tinted glass was soft on the eyes. For a while the people had stood around the plane, staring at it blankly. Then they had begun their search, unloading the bags from the plane one by one and letting bomb-sniffing dogs inspect them.
Next to him, the two recognizable stewardesses from the flight were having a heated discussion, leaning on the "restricted access: authorized personnel only" door, holding it open. A muggy, heavy breeze blew in through it, perfectly complimenting the sticky feeling that coated his body. He closed his big brown eyes and sighed heavily. The luggage carts filled up, and began to roll away toward their destination planes on the branches of the U-shaped airport.
"Woo! There goes one," a man standing next to Bakura roared in a Texas accent, slapping the boy on the back. "Did ya see that, there, missy?"
"I beg your pardon?" Bakura asked, his voice squeaking in his throat. Embarrassed, he clamped his hands over his mouth, coughing. 'What's wrong with me? Did I just answer to Missy?'
"Someone lost their luggage," the Texan laughed.
Bakura looked where the man was pointing--
A white, expensive looking, unusual suitcase lay in the middle of the runway.
'THE EYE!' he realized, panicking.
Before the Texan, the stewardess, or anyone else had time to blink, he was out the door and on the ground, running madly for his bag and the powerful Millennium Item secured within.
"Wait! Wait!" he called after the baggage cart, running on the slick tarmac after it. "You forgot my suitcase!"
He ran as fast as he could, his sneaker treads somewhat worn out and slippery. The back of the cart was just ahead. He grabbed for it, and caught one of the vertical bars, pulling himself up. He tossed his bag inside, and readied to drop off. But the cart's driver slammed on the brakes!
"Wah--aaaaahh!!" he shouted, his feet slipping. His hands slid on the bar, but he held tight.
'I didn't fall!' he thought, triumphantly, sighing loudly with relief. The cart lurched to a stop.
And at that moment, a bag fell down from the top, and onto his damaged head. He toppled to the ground, and lay there, unconscious once again.
"What just happened?" demanded the redheaded attendant.
"I'm not sure," said Debra. "And I don't really care."
"That young lady just ran out by the planes!" blurted the Texan.
"That was a boy," said Debra.
"Really?" said the Texan.
"You know, what, Debbie?" said the redhead, looking into her friend's eyes.
"No, what?"
"I quit, too. Let's go to Mexico!"

*

"This situation worries me, McShane," mumbled a large, muscular man wearing sunglasses.
Hours had passed, and the elite Special Ops force assigned to the Toshira case slumped around a table. Ten of the eleven members who still had most of their sanity intact chowed down on vending machine snack cakes, most of their optimism destroyed.
"The success of this mission depended entirely on our element of surprise. Disguising ourselves as crippled athletes was the perfect cover for the infiltration of Violet Distribution Media's Boston corporate headquarters, and the perfect way to catch its secretive CEO. And it was possibly the only way for us all to be involved without arousing suspicion."
"Way to tell the world about our top-secret mission, jackass!" snapped a younger, more wiry Special Operative.
"I can hear you all the way over here," said the eleventh member of the team. "But you guys had better look at this."
All eleven crowded around the man's laptop.
"I just received these photographs from HQ. They're from surveillance cameras recovered at the Toshira Mansion."
A dark, blurry, but very distinctive still frame of Jounouchi out behind the Pegasus Playhouse met their eyes.
"That kid...!"
"Our biggest lead yet, and it slips through our fingers," cursed McShane.
"What do we do, now?"
"Gentlemen, this calls for a change of plan. I'm going it alone. Likely as not these kids are connected to Violette Des Fleurs, and they'll know if she survived the blast. And if she did, they'll lead me right to her."

*

The plane was prepped for takeoff, a direct, express flight to Logan International Airport. Yugi, Anzu, Jou, and Honda crowded into their seats. Apparently Mai had boarded a different flight--and so, they supposed, had Bakura, because no one had seen him nor could find him anywhere.
"Yugi, do you suppose something's happened to him?" asked Anzu.
"Eh, I wouldn't be worried," said Jou, flicking a remaining bit of dried chili sauce out of his hair.
"I was about to say that," said Yugi. "I'm sure he's all right, and that we'll see him when we get to the hotel tonight, if not before."
"I hope you're right," the girl replied. "Hey, can I see those cards you were looking at earlier?"
"Oh!" Yugi exclaimed. "I forgot all about them!"
He reached into his backpack and pulled out the deck. The top right corner of every card had a tiny nick in it. Yugi wondered what kind of a duelist would mark his cards in such an obvious and unhelpful manner.
"Hm...what? No one could possibly win with these!"
"Where have I heard that before," Jou said, rolling his eyes. "Sounds like someone needs a lesson from Gramps, eh?"
Yugi held up the deck for his friends to see. "The strongest monster in this deck has only one thousand attack points. Not only that, but I've never seen half these cards actually used in a duel before. The rules to use them are so complicated that the chance of their being effective is almost as slim as..."
"As drawing all five pieces of Exodia?"
"Exactly," Yugi finished. "Whoever owns these cards must have some incredible strategy, but I don't see what that could be."
It was a puzzle worthy of him, Yugi thought, and set about drawing hands to see the combinations he could get. He would figure this out.
Their second plane taxiied down the runway, lifting into the sky. It would only be a few hours now before they arrived in Boston, and their true adventures would begin.

*

Outlaws. On the lam, running from the law. Fugitives from a past that haunted them even now, days after the events that had changed their lives forever.
Hiro Toshira imagined the movie rights would sell for a small fortune.
Back in the car, which was an older, yellow Cadillac with rusted doors, Anna had fallen asleep. She had been driving all day, and they'd made it this far, all the way to this little island bridged off the northern coast. So there Hiro stood, scratching the stubble on his face, looking off into the sunset, and reflecting on the past week and his life in general.
Vio...she was something else. He couldn't stop thinking about her. The woman who had made his life so miserable, and yet--she was everything he'd ever wanted. She was his Helen of Troy, and he'd sold his soul (in the metaphorical sense) to get her, only to have her and her associates destroy his home, his everything.

At the beginning of the week, she'd locked him out of the room. She was glued to her computer, watching the results of some Duel Monsters tournament that her former boss was holding. Why she'd left his services Hiro didn't know; why she would still be interested in his activities was too puzzling to ponder. Finally, once the whole thing was over, she'd sulked about for an hour or two, and then the phone calls started coming. At this point he'd been evicted from the house, and wandered around the grounds aimlessly. He locked up the dogs in their kennel so that he'd be free to explore, and then he sat by one of the fountains, waiting to be summonned. It was as if he was her servant.
While he was out there it dawned on Hiro that some of his students had gone off to play in that very tournament that held his wife's interest. He was about to tell her when two men, dressed in suits and wearing sunglasses in the dark, approached him.
"Toshira-sama. My name is Kimo. You put out a call to our agency a week ago for security guards."
He had indeed--mainly to investigate his wife's behavior, and figure out who her mystery guest was--and he gratefully accepted Kimo's presence. With him he was able to gather up the confidence to enter his wife's inner sanctum--that plush third-floor bedroom--and confront her with his news.
He'd found her sitting on the bed, the window open and curtains flapping in the wind. She was on her phone, staring at one of her computer displays, typing madly with a manicured hand. Hiro guessed--rightly--who she was talking to. That boss of hers frightened him to the point of complete submission, and he was about to back out of the room when she whirled and stared at him.
"I'm searching as best I can," she snapped, pausing to insert a cigarette between dark lips. Her eyes told him to give her a light, and tell her what was on his mind now, before she broke his face.
"Vio...I, I mean, I just thought you should know that I just now realized that two students in my class went to that tournament, and if you need any more information about it, I could--"
"Yes, there was a diary. Yes, they found it," Vio snapped into the phone, cutting him off. She was looking at feed from Pegasus's castle's security cameras.
Hiro stared up at the panels, caught completely off guard. The kids reading the diary were...
"Vio...!" he started, but was cut off again.
"Why the hell don't you use your fucking powers and look for yourself. I don't see why I have to do this bullshit--"
A roar of crackly speech from the phone cut her off.
"Only one of them can read it, it seems," Vio sighed. "I'm trying to get a match on her face now. Just give me a minute, would you!"
"Vio, I know that girl..." her husband whispered.
"Got it," said Violette, tapping her keyboard.
"Anzu Mazaki!" they said in unison.
Vio nearly dropped the phone. "You may not be useless after all!" she exclaimed, then hastily added, "No, boss, I was talking to Hiro. I'll call you back--I'm losing the signal."
Vio clicked the phone shut. "About the girl," she began. "It seems I'm going to need your cooperation, ...darling."

Hiro sighed, recalling the moments with photographic clarity. It was only to please his wife that he'd gone this far. And now, he'd betrayed her by running off with Anna. Anna, who slept in the car, hanging on her shoulder belt, her auburn hair looking a little stringy where it had come out of the chignon. Anna, his wife's long time friend--the maid of honor at their wedding, even. Her top henchwoman in her "dealings."
Yes, there could be no question in his mind. When it all came down to it, there was no trusting Anna any more than there was trusting Violette. When he thought about it, why would Anna want to help him, anyway? They'd never been close; he hardly knew her.
His head was spinning. The other morning they'd gotten a newspaper at one of the gas stations where they'd stopped along the way. The headlines told the sickening truth: the house had exploded, and foul play was suspected. Who had died because of his plot? Bakura? Anzu? Two sweet, innocent kids! And his dream had always been to help children, not hurt them. Not leave them to die in a closet or a wooden box.
He'd only done it for the love of his wife. Hiro Toshira knew what he had to do. Hastily he took a pen and a coffee receipt from his pocket, and scribbled a note to Anna.
It read:
Gone to find my wife. A man must do what a man must do. Love, Hiro.
He was no Shakespeare, but it would do. It beat the alternative: "I came, I saw, I left." He tucked it into her hand--the motion didn't wake her--and ran off into the night.

*

4 p.m., Eastern standard time. The four friends arrived--two hours behind schedule--in Boston, Massachusetts.
"Look, Yugi!" Anzu cheered, shaking her sleeping friend awake and pointing out the window. "The city!"
"Huh--oh! We made it!"
"Ha! Nothing can go wrong, now!" Jou crowed.
"Nope, nothing at all," put in Honda.
The plane touched down on the runway, rolling slowly to the gate. Four hyper teenagers grabbed their belongings and bounced off the plane, right into the spot where the enemy wanted them.
"Welcome to Boston, Yugi Mutou..."

*

END of chapter nine, and END of adventure two!! Threw you for a loop there, didn't I? But we're right back where we started--a villain whose motives make no sense, and our heroes separated, pursued by the unknown. What has fate handed Bakura this time? And, more interestingly, what will happen in the NEXT (that's the, ah, tournament, ya know.)??? Are you excited? I sure hope so, because I don't write this to bore people. Keep watching this story for more...and more...and more. Chapter Ten starts the real action so leave me a review and tell me you want it! =D