NOTES: No, there is not supposed to be anything "going on" between Kaiba and Tea! ^_~ LOL . . . I just like to put them in cute scenes together ;) Also, I don't know where Mai lives, but I wanted to finally get her into my fanfics, so if something is a bit off from what it is on the show, deal with it! ^_~
"Aliens?!" Joey exclaimed. "Alien burglars?! What next?!"
Yugi blinked. "That does sound kind of odd," he admitted.
"Aliens," the news anchor mused, also looking befuddled. "Tell us, Kim—did they get away with anything?"
Kim shook her head. "Not that we know of, Janet. Nothing has been reported stolen, but the burglars did break into five different houses before disappearing."
"Man, this is too weird," Joey muttered.
"The police have decided that the intruders were most likely criminals simply dressed up to look like aliens," Kim continued.
"That sounds logical," Yugi mused. "But why didn't they take anything?"
Joey groaned. "Man, this mystery is freaky. We shouldn't have stayed up all night lookin' through that cornfield," he sighed, stifling a yawn. "I think I'll go home and go to bed, Yug."
"That's a good idea, Joey," Yugi agreed. "You know, I'm sure Kaiba wasn't any too pleased about being disturbed at this hour," he laughed.
Joey laughed too. "Heh, I'm sure you're right, Yug." He got up to leave. "I'll see you later, man."
"Bye, Joey," Yugi said, watching him go out the door. It had been some day. We'll have to visit Summit Hills later, he decided as he climbed into bed.
****
Seto opened his eyes slowly and ran a hand through his long bangs. After several more nightmarish recollections in his dreams, he had finally slipped into a more peaceful sleep shortly after Yugi and Joey had called at five-thirty in the morning.
He glanced around the room and started when he saw the clock announcing the arrival of noon. He had slept much longer than he had meant to.
The door opened and Mokuba peeked in. "Big brother! You're awake!" he exclaimed happily, running in to embrace his brother. "How're you feeling, Seto?" he asked, looking up at the older boy with his wide gray eyes.
Seto smiled. "Better than last night, Mokuba," he said wryly. He paused. "Speaking of which . . . Mokuba, did you tell Yugi and his friends that I passed out?" he demanded.
Mokuba looked guilty. "I'm sorry, Seto. . . . But I was just so worried about you. . . . I mean, you usually always try to say that you're okay and everything, even when you're really not, but last night you were kinda admitting that you didn't feel well, and then you fainted like that. . . . I was so scared, Seto . . . I don't wanna lose you, big brother!" A tear slipped down the little boy's cheek.
Seto's expression softened. "Don't worry, Mokuba. It's alright. I'm not going to leave you." Not if I can help it, anyway, he added silently. One of his biggest fears was that one day he would die and that Mokuba would be left all alone. He couldn't let that happen—not ever.
"Are you mad at me for telling them?" Mokuba asked.
Seto shook his head and ruffled Mokuba's hair. "No," he said softly. "I'm not mad." He held his brother close.
****
In the afternoon, Yugi, Joey, Tristan, Tea, and Bakura met outside the game shop to decide what to do next.
"I think we should go to Summit Hills and see what we can find out about those alien burglars," Yugi announced.
"That sounds like a good enough plan to me," Tea said, and they started walking. "Does anyone know how Kaiba is doing?" she asked suddenly.
"Are you sweet on him, Tea?" Tristan grinned obnoxiously.
"Of course not, Tristan!" Tea yelled. "I'm just worried about him!"
"If you say so," Tristan smirked.
"Mokuba called Yugi early this morning," Joey told Tea. "He was really worried 'cause he said Kaiba came home and promptly passed out on the couch."
"I knew he should've gone to the doctor!" Tea exclaimed, shaking her head.
Joey shrugged. "Yeah, well . . . Anyway, so then me and Yugi called him up on the phone, but he just said he was fine and hung up."
"That's right," Yugi nodded with a sigh as they climbed on the bus to Summit Hills. "So we don't know how he actually is doing."
"Typical Kaiba," Tristan remarked.
"You said it, man," Joey laughed, shaking his head.
****
When they reached Summit Hills, Joey looked around goggle-eyed at all the immense mansions surrounding them. "Whoa, check it out!" he exclaimed, gesturing wildly. "Look at these places!"
"I wonder which five were broken into," Bakura mused.
"Let's ask that lady over there," Yugi suggested, indicating an elderly woman who was tending to her garden.
The five teens walked over and the woman turned to greet them. "Why, hello," she said with a smile.
"Hello, ma'am," Yugi smiled back. "I'm Yugi Muto, and these are my friends." The other four teens introduced themselves.
"Well, I'm very happy to meet all of you!" the woman declared. "I'm Ruth. Now, what can I do for you today?"
"Actually, Ruth, we heard about the break-ins on the news," Tea explained, "and we're kind of like amateur detectives, so we thought we'd come investigate."
"Oh, is that right?" Ruth smiled. "Detectives are getting younger every day. Well, what is it you want to know?" she asked.
"Well, we were wondering which houses were broken into," Yugi said.
"Mine was one of them," Ruth sighed. "The other four are those two on either side of mine, and those two across the street." She pointed to two Victorian-era mansions.
"Is it true that nothing was stolen, Ruth?" Tea asked.
Ruth shrugged. "They didn't take any of my things, but they could've stolen from one of the other houses, I suppose. That one there is vacant." She pointed to the one across the street on the left.
"Did you see the freaky alien things, Ruth?" Joey wondered.
Ruth laughed at Joey's choice of words. "I certainly did!" she declared.
"Did they really look like aliens?" Tristan asked.
"Well, they certainly didn't look like something from this world," Ruth replied.
"Hmm . . . well, what do we have here?" a new, familiar voice said from behind the teens. "I didn't know you boys and girls were into aliens now."
Everyone whirled around. "Mai!" Yugi exclaimed in surprise.
Mai Valentine smiled, crossing her arms. "That's right, Yugi. It's me, in the flesh. So, would someone like to explain what's going on?"
Joey grinned broadly. "Well, see, Mai, it's like this—we've been solvin' mysteries lately, and we heard about the alien burglaries, and . . ."
"And you decided it was the perfect new mystery," Mai finished.
"Well . . . yeah," Joey said.
"I think I read about your last mystery in the newspaper," Mai mused. "You defeated those bizarre vampyres, right?"
Joey nodded. "That's right! Hey, with my brilliant mind on the case, we got it wrapped up in a week!"
Mai raised an eyebrow. "Really," she said, sounding as though she didn't quite believe Joey's version.
"Your 'brilliant mind' nearly got you and Kaiba both killed," Tristan said to Joey loudly.
"Now that I can believe," Mai smirked.
"Heeeeey!" Joey protested.
"Well, it sounds as if you kids have a lot to talk about," Ruth said suddenly.
Everyone stopped talking. They had completely forgotten that Ruth was there.
"So these kids are friends of yours, Mai?" the elderly woman asked, smiling at the blonde girl.
"That's right, Ruth, they're my friends—even Joey," Mai smiled. She turned back to Yugi and the others. "Ruth is my next-door neighbor."
"Next-door neighbor!" Yugi exclaimed.
"That's right," Ruth said. "Mai's house was broken into as well!"
"That's awful," Yugi declared.
"What did you do, Mai?" Tea asked, her eyes wide. "I would be so terrified to find burglars in my house!"
Mai shrugged. "They obviously hadn't been expecting anyone to be home. They turned and ran as soon as they saw me and I threatened to use my knowledge of karate on them."
"You know karate, Mai?" Joey asked, looking surprised. "I never knew that about you."
"There's a lot of things you don't know about me, Joey," Mai replied, tossing her head. "Anyway, after they came to my place, they went to Ruth's, then the O'Connells'. Then they went across the street and broke into the Hendersons' and the abandoned house before disappearing into thin air."
"Oh my," Bakura exclaimed.
"Mai, do you know where the burglars were when they disappeared?" Yugi asked.
"Everyone saw them," Mai replied. "They were standing on the balcony at the vacant place over there and they just suddenly disappeared in a cloud of smoke."
"A smokescreen trick?" Yugi wondered.
"Well, that's what the police thought at first, but there's really no place the burglars could have gone from the balcony, unless they went back into the house and downstairs, but by then the police would have already been inside," Mai told them.
"This is gettin' freaky!" Joey declared.
"We should have a look at that balcony," Yugi mused.
"Be my guests," Mai shrugged.
Everyone said goodbye to Ruth and then they walked across the street to the vacated mansion.
"Just curious, Mai—who used to live here and why did they move?" Joey asked.
"It was a young, obnoxious couple," Mai told him. "They always had something to complain about, and eventually they moved away. I can't say I was sorry to see them go." She paused. "So what's Kaiba been up to? I heard he was helping you guys solve your mysteries." They reached the house and Mai pointed up to the very top. "That's where the aliens were standing," she announced.
"Whoa, man, no wonder everyone's baffled," Joey remarked. "There's nowhere to run up there!"
"Exactly." Mai nodded.
"Hey, what if they went up that tree there?" Joey suggested, pointing to a majestic old oak next to the house.
"Well, it's possible, I guess," Yugi said slowly.
"Tell you what—I'll go scale that tree and see if I can get over into it before the smokescreen would've faded away," Joey announced, and before anyone could stop him, he was leaping up into the tree's strong branches.
"Joey! Be careful!" Tea called.
"Don't worry about me," Joey called back. "I used to be pretty good at this."
Knowing there wasn't any way to stop him, the five teens watched him climb the large tree, and Yugi suddenly remembered Mai's question. "Kaiba has been helping us on the mysteries," he told her.
"Has he changed any?" Mai asked, remembering when she'd met him in the Virtual Reality game.
"Some," Yugi said slowly.
"Yeah, but he's still got that independent attitude," Tea grumbled.
Mai laughed. "I doubt he'd ever drop that," she remarked.
"Hey!" Joey yelled, and everyone looked up. "Alright, I'm on the balcony," he announced, leaning over the edge. "Mai, how long was it before the smokescreen disappeared?" he asked.
"Probably just five or ten seconds," she called back.
"Joey, you can't try to jump over to the tree so fast," Bakura objected.
"None of the branches are even touching the balcony!" Yugi exclaimed.
"Hey, I can do it, no problem!" Joey grinned. "Okay, now let's say I've activated the smokescreen now. Time me, Tristan!" With that, Joey backed up, took a running leap, and barely managed to grab on to the end of a branch. Looking a bit panicked, he struggled to scramble up on the branch and finally succeeded. "How long did that take, Tristan?" he called down.
Tristan looked at his watch. "About thirty seconds. Not bad, but not fast enough."
"Somehow, I don't think this is going to work," Mai muttered.
That's when a disembodied voice intoned eerily, "Be assured it won't! Your friend may have survived this time, but next time he will meet his doom! Get out while you still can!" A clap of thunder boomed, almost in emphasis.
"Whoa, what was that?!" Joey exclaimed.
"I don't know, Joey, but you'd better come down from there now," Yugi warned. "It sounds like there's a thunderstorm on the way!"
"Aliens?!" Joey exclaimed. "Alien burglars?! What next?!"
Yugi blinked. "That does sound kind of odd," he admitted.
"Aliens," the news anchor mused, also looking befuddled. "Tell us, Kim—did they get away with anything?"
Kim shook her head. "Not that we know of, Janet. Nothing has been reported stolen, but the burglars did break into five different houses before disappearing."
"Man, this is too weird," Joey muttered.
"The police have decided that the intruders were most likely criminals simply dressed up to look like aliens," Kim continued.
"That sounds logical," Yugi mused. "But why didn't they take anything?"
Joey groaned. "Man, this mystery is freaky. We shouldn't have stayed up all night lookin' through that cornfield," he sighed, stifling a yawn. "I think I'll go home and go to bed, Yug."
"That's a good idea, Joey," Yugi agreed. "You know, I'm sure Kaiba wasn't any too pleased about being disturbed at this hour," he laughed.
Joey laughed too. "Heh, I'm sure you're right, Yug." He got up to leave. "I'll see you later, man."
"Bye, Joey," Yugi said, watching him go out the door. It had been some day. We'll have to visit Summit Hills later, he decided as he climbed into bed.
****
Seto opened his eyes slowly and ran a hand through his long bangs. After several more nightmarish recollections in his dreams, he had finally slipped into a more peaceful sleep shortly after Yugi and Joey had called at five-thirty in the morning.
He glanced around the room and started when he saw the clock announcing the arrival of noon. He had slept much longer than he had meant to.
The door opened and Mokuba peeked in. "Big brother! You're awake!" he exclaimed happily, running in to embrace his brother. "How're you feeling, Seto?" he asked, looking up at the older boy with his wide gray eyes.
Seto smiled. "Better than last night, Mokuba," he said wryly. He paused. "Speaking of which . . . Mokuba, did you tell Yugi and his friends that I passed out?" he demanded.
Mokuba looked guilty. "I'm sorry, Seto. . . . But I was just so worried about you. . . . I mean, you usually always try to say that you're okay and everything, even when you're really not, but last night you were kinda admitting that you didn't feel well, and then you fainted like that. . . . I was so scared, Seto . . . I don't wanna lose you, big brother!" A tear slipped down the little boy's cheek.
Seto's expression softened. "Don't worry, Mokuba. It's alright. I'm not going to leave you." Not if I can help it, anyway, he added silently. One of his biggest fears was that one day he would die and that Mokuba would be left all alone. He couldn't let that happen—not ever.
"Are you mad at me for telling them?" Mokuba asked.
Seto shook his head and ruffled Mokuba's hair. "No," he said softly. "I'm not mad." He held his brother close.
****
In the afternoon, Yugi, Joey, Tristan, Tea, and Bakura met outside the game shop to decide what to do next.
"I think we should go to Summit Hills and see what we can find out about those alien burglars," Yugi announced.
"That sounds like a good enough plan to me," Tea said, and they started walking. "Does anyone know how Kaiba is doing?" she asked suddenly.
"Are you sweet on him, Tea?" Tristan grinned obnoxiously.
"Of course not, Tristan!" Tea yelled. "I'm just worried about him!"
"If you say so," Tristan smirked.
"Mokuba called Yugi early this morning," Joey told Tea. "He was really worried 'cause he said Kaiba came home and promptly passed out on the couch."
"I knew he should've gone to the doctor!" Tea exclaimed, shaking her head.
Joey shrugged. "Yeah, well . . . Anyway, so then me and Yugi called him up on the phone, but he just said he was fine and hung up."
"That's right," Yugi nodded with a sigh as they climbed on the bus to Summit Hills. "So we don't know how he actually is doing."
"Typical Kaiba," Tristan remarked.
"You said it, man," Joey laughed, shaking his head.
****
When they reached Summit Hills, Joey looked around goggle-eyed at all the immense mansions surrounding them. "Whoa, check it out!" he exclaimed, gesturing wildly. "Look at these places!"
"I wonder which five were broken into," Bakura mused.
"Let's ask that lady over there," Yugi suggested, indicating an elderly woman who was tending to her garden.
The five teens walked over and the woman turned to greet them. "Why, hello," she said with a smile.
"Hello, ma'am," Yugi smiled back. "I'm Yugi Muto, and these are my friends." The other four teens introduced themselves.
"Well, I'm very happy to meet all of you!" the woman declared. "I'm Ruth. Now, what can I do for you today?"
"Actually, Ruth, we heard about the break-ins on the news," Tea explained, "and we're kind of like amateur detectives, so we thought we'd come investigate."
"Oh, is that right?" Ruth smiled. "Detectives are getting younger every day. Well, what is it you want to know?" she asked.
"Well, we were wondering which houses were broken into," Yugi said.
"Mine was one of them," Ruth sighed. "The other four are those two on either side of mine, and those two across the street." She pointed to two Victorian-era mansions.
"Is it true that nothing was stolen, Ruth?" Tea asked.
Ruth shrugged. "They didn't take any of my things, but they could've stolen from one of the other houses, I suppose. That one there is vacant." She pointed to the one across the street on the left.
"Did you see the freaky alien things, Ruth?" Joey wondered.
Ruth laughed at Joey's choice of words. "I certainly did!" she declared.
"Did they really look like aliens?" Tristan asked.
"Well, they certainly didn't look like something from this world," Ruth replied.
"Hmm . . . well, what do we have here?" a new, familiar voice said from behind the teens. "I didn't know you boys and girls were into aliens now."
Everyone whirled around. "Mai!" Yugi exclaimed in surprise.
Mai Valentine smiled, crossing her arms. "That's right, Yugi. It's me, in the flesh. So, would someone like to explain what's going on?"
Joey grinned broadly. "Well, see, Mai, it's like this—we've been solvin' mysteries lately, and we heard about the alien burglaries, and . . ."
"And you decided it was the perfect new mystery," Mai finished.
"Well . . . yeah," Joey said.
"I think I read about your last mystery in the newspaper," Mai mused. "You defeated those bizarre vampyres, right?"
Joey nodded. "That's right! Hey, with my brilliant mind on the case, we got it wrapped up in a week!"
Mai raised an eyebrow. "Really," she said, sounding as though she didn't quite believe Joey's version.
"Your 'brilliant mind' nearly got you and Kaiba both killed," Tristan said to Joey loudly.
"Now that I can believe," Mai smirked.
"Heeeeey!" Joey protested.
"Well, it sounds as if you kids have a lot to talk about," Ruth said suddenly.
Everyone stopped talking. They had completely forgotten that Ruth was there.
"So these kids are friends of yours, Mai?" the elderly woman asked, smiling at the blonde girl.
"That's right, Ruth, they're my friends—even Joey," Mai smiled. She turned back to Yugi and the others. "Ruth is my next-door neighbor."
"Next-door neighbor!" Yugi exclaimed.
"That's right," Ruth said. "Mai's house was broken into as well!"
"That's awful," Yugi declared.
"What did you do, Mai?" Tea asked, her eyes wide. "I would be so terrified to find burglars in my house!"
Mai shrugged. "They obviously hadn't been expecting anyone to be home. They turned and ran as soon as they saw me and I threatened to use my knowledge of karate on them."
"You know karate, Mai?" Joey asked, looking surprised. "I never knew that about you."
"There's a lot of things you don't know about me, Joey," Mai replied, tossing her head. "Anyway, after they came to my place, they went to Ruth's, then the O'Connells'. Then they went across the street and broke into the Hendersons' and the abandoned house before disappearing into thin air."
"Oh my," Bakura exclaimed.
"Mai, do you know where the burglars were when they disappeared?" Yugi asked.
"Everyone saw them," Mai replied. "They were standing on the balcony at the vacant place over there and they just suddenly disappeared in a cloud of smoke."
"A smokescreen trick?" Yugi wondered.
"Well, that's what the police thought at first, but there's really no place the burglars could have gone from the balcony, unless they went back into the house and downstairs, but by then the police would have already been inside," Mai told them.
"This is gettin' freaky!" Joey declared.
"We should have a look at that balcony," Yugi mused.
"Be my guests," Mai shrugged.
Everyone said goodbye to Ruth and then they walked across the street to the vacated mansion.
"Just curious, Mai—who used to live here and why did they move?" Joey asked.
"It was a young, obnoxious couple," Mai told him. "They always had something to complain about, and eventually they moved away. I can't say I was sorry to see them go." She paused. "So what's Kaiba been up to? I heard he was helping you guys solve your mysteries." They reached the house and Mai pointed up to the very top. "That's where the aliens were standing," she announced.
"Whoa, man, no wonder everyone's baffled," Joey remarked. "There's nowhere to run up there!"
"Exactly." Mai nodded.
"Hey, what if they went up that tree there?" Joey suggested, pointing to a majestic old oak next to the house.
"Well, it's possible, I guess," Yugi said slowly.
"Tell you what—I'll go scale that tree and see if I can get over into it before the smokescreen would've faded away," Joey announced, and before anyone could stop him, he was leaping up into the tree's strong branches.
"Joey! Be careful!" Tea called.
"Don't worry about me," Joey called back. "I used to be pretty good at this."
Knowing there wasn't any way to stop him, the five teens watched him climb the large tree, and Yugi suddenly remembered Mai's question. "Kaiba has been helping us on the mysteries," he told her.
"Has he changed any?" Mai asked, remembering when she'd met him in the Virtual Reality game.
"Some," Yugi said slowly.
"Yeah, but he's still got that independent attitude," Tea grumbled.
Mai laughed. "I doubt he'd ever drop that," she remarked.
"Hey!" Joey yelled, and everyone looked up. "Alright, I'm on the balcony," he announced, leaning over the edge. "Mai, how long was it before the smokescreen disappeared?" he asked.
"Probably just five or ten seconds," she called back.
"Joey, you can't try to jump over to the tree so fast," Bakura objected.
"None of the branches are even touching the balcony!" Yugi exclaimed.
"Hey, I can do it, no problem!" Joey grinned. "Okay, now let's say I've activated the smokescreen now. Time me, Tristan!" With that, Joey backed up, took a running leap, and barely managed to grab on to the end of a branch. Looking a bit panicked, he struggled to scramble up on the branch and finally succeeded. "How long did that take, Tristan?" he called down.
Tristan looked at his watch. "About thirty seconds. Not bad, but not fast enough."
"Somehow, I don't think this is going to work," Mai muttered.
That's when a disembodied voice intoned eerily, "Be assured it won't! Your friend may have survived this time, but next time he will meet his doom! Get out while you still can!" A clap of thunder boomed, almost in emphasis.
"Whoa, what was that?!" Joey exclaimed.
"I don't know, Joey, but you'd better come down from there now," Yugi warned. "It sounds like there's a thunderstorm on the way!"