Note: This is not yaoi!!! ^_~
Seto gasped and knelt down next to the man, who was awake but in shock. The man stared at Seto, bleary-eyed. "You . . ." he rasped. "They were carrying you . . . they said . . . you were dead."
Seto stared at him. "What?!"
The man fell unconscious.
Quickly Seto pulled out his cell phone and dialed 911.
"Kaiba! What's wrong? What happened?!"
Seto looked up at the sound of Tea's voice. She and most of the others were running out of the building, and Tea and Yugi looked especially horrified at the scene before them.
"Who's this?" Yugi gasped.
"I don't know," Seto said, shaking his head.
"What was he saying?" Tea exclaimed.
"Yeah, man, it sounded like he said something about you bein' dead," Joey exclaimed.
"Well, I'm not dead," Seto grumbled.
That's when the ambulance pulled up. The paramedics got out and began examining the man.
"Is he hurt badly?" Tea asked worriedly.
"He probably has a bad concussion," one of the paramedics replied. "We'd better get him to the hospital."
"Do you have any idea what happened to him?" a second paramedic asked as they loaded the man onto a stretcher.
"Someone attacked him," Seto said grimly. "I came out here when I heard him scream."
The other paramedic sighed. "There's too many strange things going on around here to suit me," he remarked as he and the second paramedic climbed into the ambulance and drove off with sirens wailing.
"What did he say, Kaiba?" Yugi asked.
"Yeah, man, can't you tell us?" Joey sighed.
Seto sighed too.
Before he could answer, Bakura exclaimed, "Wait! Where's Mai?!"
Everyone stopped and looked around. Where *was* Mai?!
"Maybe she's still chasing that . . . whatever it was," Tea suggested. "We'd better go back inside and look for her!"
****
Mai, in the meantime, *had* still been chasing that shadow she'd seen—or trying to, anyway. She never had been able to catch it. In desperation she had finally given up and headed back to check on Tea. She was horrified to discover that it had been over an hour since she had left Tea in that closet.
When Mai arrived back at the office, she stopped short in amazement. The closet was empty and Tea's dress was gone. Mai was certain that Tea wouldn't have dared to venture out of the closet to retrieve her dress herself, so what in the world had gone on?!
"Mai!"
Mai whirled around to see the others approaching the door. "Tea! What happened to you?!" Mai demanded.
"I'll tell you later," Tea replied. "What happened to *you*?! I was stranded in that closet for ages!"
"I'm sorry about that, kiddo. I was chasing a weird shadow I'd seen," Mai told her, "but it kept eluding me." She paused. "So, what do we do now?"
The others exchanged their stories, except for Seto, who didn't particularly want to share his experience. Yugi concluded that Tristan and Bakura had had the most luck and the best clue.
"Why don't we all go home and change out of these formal clothes and then meet again and go up to the canyons?" Yugi suggested, and the others agreed.
****
Forty-five minutes later, everyone met outside the Game Shop and Seto took them to the canyons in his limo. He wanted to find the answers to his own mystery, which was hopelessly tangled up with the mystery Yugi and his friends were trying to solve, as Joey had pointed out earlier.
"Just how many steep inclines does this place have, anyway?!" Joey wondered now, staring out the limo's tinted window.
"I'm not sure," Yugi admitted. "I think there's at least two or three different ones."
They climbed out of the limo and stood in front of a map near the closed ranger station.
"Here's one, and here's another one," Tristan said, pointing to different places on the map.
"We'll need to split up," Yugi said, "but there's seven of us this time, so we can't divide up evenly," he realized.
That's when Yami Yugi came out of the Puzzle, making the total eight. Yugi went with his Yami, Joey went with Tristan, Bakura and Mai went together, and that left Tea to go with Seto.
"It seems like I'm always winding up with you," Tea remarked.
Seto grunted in reply.
****
"So, where are we trying to go, kiddo?" Mai asked, picking her way over the fallen tree branches and rocks.
"Well, according to that map we found, there should be one of those inclines we're looking for right around here somewhere," Bakura replied, looking around.
A weird laugh sounded through the trees.
"What was that?!" Mai gasped.
"Whatever it is, I'm afraid it doesn't sound friendly," Bakura replied grimly.
****
"Man, I hope you know where we're goin'," Tristan said to Joey as they wandered through the dense woods.
"Of course I do," Joey insisted. "Hey, what in the heck is this?!" he exclaimed, bending down to pick up a shiny piece of metal.
"Weird," Tristan commented. "Maybe this is like the metal Bakura found in his yard," he mused.
Joey slipped it into his pocket for safe-keeping.
****
"Boy, it seems like we've been walking for ages," Yugi remarked.
Yami Yugi nodded, then paused. "I hear running water," he announced. "There must be a waterfall nearby."
At that moment, a bright green light shone through the trees.
Yugi shielded himself from the glow. "Yami, what's happening?!" he gasped.
"I'm not sure," Yami Yugi responded, putting his hands on Yugi's shoulders protectively. "Stay close, Yugi. This could be dangerous."
****
"Kaiba, is something following us?" Tea asked, looking nervous.
Seto glanced around, his eyes narrowing. "I think so," he said grimly. "Stay close to me."
He didn't have to tell her twice. Tea shuddered fearfully, not wanting to stray even a step behind Seto.
Suddenly a little green alien-like creature leaped out at them, chattering in an odd language and raising a laser gun at them.
Tea gasped. "What do we do now?" she cried.
Seto watched the alien stonily and suddenly kicked out at it, knocking the gun out of its hand. "What do you want?" he demanded.
The creature, unabashed, stepped up and leaped on Seto's chest, bringing the boy to the ground.
"Kaiba, I think it wants you!" Tea shrieked.
****
"That weird laughter is getting louder," Mai exclaimed. By now she and Bakura had wandered through more trees and brush and had wound up near one of the inclines.
Bakura looked around worriedly. "Perhaps if we ignore it, it will go away," he hoped.
Suddenly the headless phantom materialized in front of them, cackling evilly. It picked up a huge rock from the ground and threw it at them, trying to make them both fall down the slope.
Mai gasped, ducking down just in time and pulling Bakura with her.
"Oh my!" Bakura burst out, horrified.
"Prepare to meet your doom," the phantom hissed.
At that moment, the Millennium Ring glowed brightly and Yami Bakura stepped out, glaring at the monstrosity. "Go!" the thief growled at Bakura and Mai. "Get out of here, you fools! I will handle this myself!" He didn't care what happened to the girl one way or the other, but he didn't want anything to happen to Bakura.
Bakura's eyes went wide as he and Mai stood up. "But Yami . . ."
"Just get yourself out of here, you dolt!!" Yami Bakura interrupted harshly, pushing him forward.
"Hey, if he wants to handle this himself, then let's let him!" Mai exclaimed, turning to go and pulling on Bakura's arm to get him to follow her. Reluctantly the boy did, glancing back at his Yami worriedly.
"Go!! GO!!" Yami Bakura screamed, pushing Bakura again just as the phantom threw another miniature boulder, which narrowly missed hitting the frightened boy. Bakura quickly got his bearings and he and Mai fled into the nearby trees.
****
Tea screamed as a second alien dropped out of a tree and landed on her back. "Get off of me!!" she yelled.
Seto, meanwhile, wrestled with the alien on his chest, trying to pry it off as its sharp claws dug painfully into his flesh. Finally he loosened the creature's viselike grip and threw it to the ground. He looked up and saw Tea fighting with the other alien. His eyes narrowed and he grabbed the creature from behind, pulling at it. "Let her go!" he ordered.
The alien turned around and tried to claw at Seto, who backed away just in time.
"Kaiba! What are we going to do?" Tea gasped.
"We're going to win this," Seto grumbled, shoving a third alien aside.
A fourth alien grabbed Seto's legs and pulled, bringing him to the ground. It was about to strike him with a rock when Tea seized it angrily. "Get away from him!!" she screamed, and the creature hissed viciously. Tea had a sinking feeling that this experience was far from over.
****
Meanwhile, Yami Bakura and the headless phantom grappled on the ground, exchanging punches and throwing each other back and forth, each trying to send their opponent over the edge of the incline. Yami Bakura stood up, placing his foot on the phantom's back. He had the upper hand now, and he knew just what would finish this once and for all.
With a sneer, the tomb raider pulled out his card deck. This should be a snap, he thought to himself. "You pathetic creature. Now you will suffer my wrath!" he yelled. "Man-Eater Bug! Attack!"
The phantom didn't seem fazed. With an evil laugh from deep in its headless body, it whipped out a card of its own. "Brain-control!"
Yami Bakura's Man-Eater Bug froze and turned to face the tomb raider, raising its pincers threateningly.
"What! This is impossible!" Yami Bakura cried, caught completely off guard. "You can't possibly possess these kind of powers!!"
The phantom ignored that. "Attack the fool!" it ordered.
"No! Wait!!" Yami Bakura protested in vain as the huge bug lunged at him, grabbing him in its huge claws. "Don't attack me, you fool!! Attack him!!"
The bug paid him no heed, wounding him deeply in the shoulder. Yami Bakura screamed in pain, trying to fight the bug, but knowing how futile it was. With a evil hiss, the bug threw the thief over the incline.
****
Bakura, still fleeing, suddenly stopped and gasped, hearing a horrible, heart-wrenching scream. "Yami!" he cried, turning and running back the way they'd come, Mai hot on his heels. "I knew we shouldn't have left him!"
When Bakura emerged from the trees several minutes later, he looked around frantically. The phantom was gone, but there were Duel Monsters cards scattered amongst the autumn leaves. "Yami! Where are you?!" Bakura called, looking around. He happened to glance over the edge of the slope and gasped. "No . . . no . . . it can't be . . ."
Mai finally caught up to the silver-haired boy. "Bakura, what . . ." She trailed off, seeing the innocent boy's Yami laying down in the water far below, lifeless and still, his blood turning the river a deep red.
Bakura was already running down the steep incline, tears falling from his soft brown eyes. He collapsed on his knees in the shallow—yet still deadly—water, trying desperately to pull his Yami's body into his arms. "Yami, speak to me! Please . . . say something!" the boy sobbed, brushing the tomb robber's damp bangs away from his closed eyes.
Quickly Bakura laid his Yami on the ground and pushed on his chest, trying to get him to cough up the water he must have swallowed. "Oh, please, Yami . . . please!" Bakura wailed.
At first there was no response, but then the thief choked and water poured from his mouth. Bakura drew back, breathing a sigh of relief. "Yami?" he whispered.
Yami Bakura's eyes opened halfway and he seemed to look right through Bakura as if he wasn't there. "I . . . I . . . couldn't stop it . . ."
"What, Yami?" Bakura gasped, again taking the thief's body into his arms. "What couldn't you stop?"
Yami Bakura shuddered. "The Man-Eater Bug. . . . The . . . the . . . headless phantom . . . great and terrible powers. . . . Be . . . be careful . . . Bakura. . . ." His eyes closed again.
Bakura was aghast. "No! No, you can't die, Yami!! Please . . ." he begged in vain. His Yami had once told him that he couldn't die, but . . . what if he was wrong?
Seto gasped and knelt down next to the man, who was awake but in shock. The man stared at Seto, bleary-eyed. "You . . ." he rasped. "They were carrying you . . . they said . . . you were dead."
Seto stared at him. "What?!"
The man fell unconscious.
Quickly Seto pulled out his cell phone and dialed 911.
"Kaiba! What's wrong? What happened?!"
Seto looked up at the sound of Tea's voice. She and most of the others were running out of the building, and Tea and Yugi looked especially horrified at the scene before them.
"Who's this?" Yugi gasped.
"I don't know," Seto said, shaking his head.
"What was he saying?" Tea exclaimed.
"Yeah, man, it sounded like he said something about you bein' dead," Joey exclaimed.
"Well, I'm not dead," Seto grumbled.
That's when the ambulance pulled up. The paramedics got out and began examining the man.
"Is he hurt badly?" Tea asked worriedly.
"He probably has a bad concussion," one of the paramedics replied. "We'd better get him to the hospital."
"Do you have any idea what happened to him?" a second paramedic asked as they loaded the man onto a stretcher.
"Someone attacked him," Seto said grimly. "I came out here when I heard him scream."
The other paramedic sighed. "There's too many strange things going on around here to suit me," he remarked as he and the second paramedic climbed into the ambulance and drove off with sirens wailing.
"What did he say, Kaiba?" Yugi asked.
"Yeah, man, can't you tell us?" Joey sighed.
Seto sighed too.
Before he could answer, Bakura exclaimed, "Wait! Where's Mai?!"
Everyone stopped and looked around. Where *was* Mai?!
"Maybe she's still chasing that . . . whatever it was," Tea suggested. "We'd better go back inside and look for her!"
****
Mai, in the meantime, *had* still been chasing that shadow she'd seen—or trying to, anyway. She never had been able to catch it. In desperation she had finally given up and headed back to check on Tea. She was horrified to discover that it had been over an hour since she had left Tea in that closet.
When Mai arrived back at the office, she stopped short in amazement. The closet was empty and Tea's dress was gone. Mai was certain that Tea wouldn't have dared to venture out of the closet to retrieve her dress herself, so what in the world had gone on?!
"Mai!"
Mai whirled around to see the others approaching the door. "Tea! What happened to you?!" Mai demanded.
"I'll tell you later," Tea replied. "What happened to *you*?! I was stranded in that closet for ages!"
"I'm sorry about that, kiddo. I was chasing a weird shadow I'd seen," Mai told her, "but it kept eluding me." She paused. "So, what do we do now?"
The others exchanged their stories, except for Seto, who didn't particularly want to share his experience. Yugi concluded that Tristan and Bakura had had the most luck and the best clue.
"Why don't we all go home and change out of these formal clothes and then meet again and go up to the canyons?" Yugi suggested, and the others agreed.
****
Forty-five minutes later, everyone met outside the Game Shop and Seto took them to the canyons in his limo. He wanted to find the answers to his own mystery, which was hopelessly tangled up with the mystery Yugi and his friends were trying to solve, as Joey had pointed out earlier.
"Just how many steep inclines does this place have, anyway?!" Joey wondered now, staring out the limo's tinted window.
"I'm not sure," Yugi admitted. "I think there's at least two or three different ones."
They climbed out of the limo and stood in front of a map near the closed ranger station.
"Here's one, and here's another one," Tristan said, pointing to different places on the map.
"We'll need to split up," Yugi said, "but there's seven of us this time, so we can't divide up evenly," he realized.
That's when Yami Yugi came out of the Puzzle, making the total eight. Yugi went with his Yami, Joey went with Tristan, Bakura and Mai went together, and that left Tea to go with Seto.
"It seems like I'm always winding up with you," Tea remarked.
Seto grunted in reply.
****
"So, where are we trying to go, kiddo?" Mai asked, picking her way over the fallen tree branches and rocks.
"Well, according to that map we found, there should be one of those inclines we're looking for right around here somewhere," Bakura replied, looking around.
A weird laugh sounded through the trees.
"What was that?!" Mai gasped.
"Whatever it is, I'm afraid it doesn't sound friendly," Bakura replied grimly.
****
"Man, I hope you know where we're goin'," Tristan said to Joey as they wandered through the dense woods.
"Of course I do," Joey insisted. "Hey, what in the heck is this?!" he exclaimed, bending down to pick up a shiny piece of metal.
"Weird," Tristan commented. "Maybe this is like the metal Bakura found in his yard," he mused.
Joey slipped it into his pocket for safe-keeping.
****
"Boy, it seems like we've been walking for ages," Yugi remarked.
Yami Yugi nodded, then paused. "I hear running water," he announced. "There must be a waterfall nearby."
At that moment, a bright green light shone through the trees.
Yugi shielded himself from the glow. "Yami, what's happening?!" he gasped.
"I'm not sure," Yami Yugi responded, putting his hands on Yugi's shoulders protectively. "Stay close, Yugi. This could be dangerous."
****
"Kaiba, is something following us?" Tea asked, looking nervous.
Seto glanced around, his eyes narrowing. "I think so," he said grimly. "Stay close to me."
He didn't have to tell her twice. Tea shuddered fearfully, not wanting to stray even a step behind Seto.
Suddenly a little green alien-like creature leaped out at them, chattering in an odd language and raising a laser gun at them.
Tea gasped. "What do we do now?" she cried.
Seto watched the alien stonily and suddenly kicked out at it, knocking the gun out of its hand. "What do you want?" he demanded.
The creature, unabashed, stepped up and leaped on Seto's chest, bringing the boy to the ground.
"Kaiba, I think it wants you!" Tea shrieked.
****
"That weird laughter is getting louder," Mai exclaimed. By now she and Bakura had wandered through more trees and brush and had wound up near one of the inclines.
Bakura looked around worriedly. "Perhaps if we ignore it, it will go away," he hoped.
Suddenly the headless phantom materialized in front of them, cackling evilly. It picked up a huge rock from the ground and threw it at them, trying to make them both fall down the slope.
Mai gasped, ducking down just in time and pulling Bakura with her.
"Oh my!" Bakura burst out, horrified.
"Prepare to meet your doom," the phantom hissed.
At that moment, the Millennium Ring glowed brightly and Yami Bakura stepped out, glaring at the monstrosity. "Go!" the thief growled at Bakura and Mai. "Get out of here, you fools! I will handle this myself!" He didn't care what happened to the girl one way or the other, but he didn't want anything to happen to Bakura.
Bakura's eyes went wide as he and Mai stood up. "But Yami . . ."
"Just get yourself out of here, you dolt!!" Yami Bakura interrupted harshly, pushing him forward.
"Hey, if he wants to handle this himself, then let's let him!" Mai exclaimed, turning to go and pulling on Bakura's arm to get him to follow her. Reluctantly the boy did, glancing back at his Yami worriedly.
"Go!! GO!!" Yami Bakura screamed, pushing Bakura again just as the phantom threw another miniature boulder, which narrowly missed hitting the frightened boy. Bakura quickly got his bearings and he and Mai fled into the nearby trees.
****
Tea screamed as a second alien dropped out of a tree and landed on her back. "Get off of me!!" she yelled.
Seto, meanwhile, wrestled with the alien on his chest, trying to pry it off as its sharp claws dug painfully into his flesh. Finally he loosened the creature's viselike grip and threw it to the ground. He looked up and saw Tea fighting with the other alien. His eyes narrowed and he grabbed the creature from behind, pulling at it. "Let her go!" he ordered.
The alien turned around and tried to claw at Seto, who backed away just in time.
"Kaiba! What are we going to do?" Tea gasped.
"We're going to win this," Seto grumbled, shoving a third alien aside.
A fourth alien grabbed Seto's legs and pulled, bringing him to the ground. It was about to strike him with a rock when Tea seized it angrily. "Get away from him!!" she screamed, and the creature hissed viciously. Tea had a sinking feeling that this experience was far from over.
****
Meanwhile, Yami Bakura and the headless phantom grappled on the ground, exchanging punches and throwing each other back and forth, each trying to send their opponent over the edge of the incline. Yami Bakura stood up, placing his foot on the phantom's back. He had the upper hand now, and he knew just what would finish this once and for all.
With a sneer, the tomb raider pulled out his card deck. This should be a snap, he thought to himself. "You pathetic creature. Now you will suffer my wrath!" he yelled. "Man-Eater Bug! Attack!"
The phantom didn't seem fazed. With an evil laugh from deep in its headless body, it whipped out a card of its own. "Brain-control!"
Yami Bakura's Man-Eater Bug froze and turned to face the tomb raider, raising its pincers threateningly.
"What! This is impossible!" Yami Bakura cried, caught completely off guard. "You can't possibly possess these kind of powers!!"
The phantom ignored that. "Attack the fool!" it ordered.
"No! Wait!!" Yami Bakura protested in vain as the huge bug lunged at him, grabbing him in its huge claws. "Don't attack me, you fool!! Attack him!!"
The bug paid him no heed, wounding him deeply in the shoulder. Yami Bakura screamed in pain, trying to fight the bug, but knowing how futile it was. With a evil hiss, the bug threw the thief over the incline.
****
Bakura, still fleeing, suddenly stopped and gasped, hearing a horrible, heart-wrenching scream. "Yami!" he cried, turning and running back the way they'd come, Mai hot on his heels. "I knew we shouldn't have left him!"
When Bakura emerged from the trees several minutes later, he looked around frantically. The phantom was gone, but there were Duel Monsters cards scattered amongst the autumn leaves. "Yami! Where are you?!" Bakura called, looking around. He happened to glance over the edge of the slope and gasped. "No . . . no . . . it can't be . . ."
Mai finally caught up to the silver-haired boy. "Bakura, what . . ." She trailed off, seeing the innocent boy's Yami laying down in the water far below, lifeless and still, his blood turning the river a deep red.
Bakura was already running down the steep incline, tears falling from his soft brown eyes. He collapsed on his knees in the shallow—yet still deadly—water, trying desperately to pull his Yami's body into his arms. "Yami, speak to me! Please . . . say something!" the boy sobbed, brushing the tomb robber's damp bangs away from his closed eyes.
Quickly Bakura laid his Yami on the ground and pushed on his chest, trying to get him to cough up the water he must have swallowed. "Oh, please, Yami . . . please!" Bakura wailed.
At first there was no response, but then the thief choked and water poured from his mouth. Bakura drew back, breathing a sigh of relief. "Yami?" he whispered.
Yami Bakura's eyes opened halfway and he seemed to look right through Bakura as if he wasn't there. "I . . . I . . . couldn't stop it . . ."
"What, Yami?" Bakura gasped, again taking the thief's body into his arms. "What couldn't you stop?"
Yami Bakura shuddered. "The Man-Eater Bug. . . . The . . . the . . . headless phantom . . . great and terrible powers. . . . Be . . . be careful . . . Bakura. . . ." His eyes closed again.
Bakura was aghast. "No! No, you can't die, Yami!! Please . . ." he begged in vain. His Yami had once told him that he couldn't die, but . . . what if he was wrong?