Note: Do I really need to say it again? This isn't yaoi ^_~
"What are you doing?!" Tea screamed.
The woman looked up and smiled. "I'm just practicing for my big scene in the alien movie." She lowered the knife to her side.
Seto went over to Joey and pulled the knives out of the other boy's jacket, releasing him from the wall. Joey turned to the woman, glaring daggers at her.
"I never gave you permission to use me as a pincushion!" he yelled.
"I wasn't going to hurt you," the woman said, touching the knife's tip to Joey's chest gently.
"You coulda fooled me!" Joey grumbled.
"Well, no real harm was done," Cindy said, putting her arm around Joey comfortingly.
"Did you see anyone else around?" Tea asked the woman now. "Someone threw a trunk at us when we came in."
"I saw no one," the woman replied. "But feel free to look around all you wish." With that she walked out through a back exit.
"Oh man, is everyone around here a weirdo?!" Joey said in frustration, messing up his hair.
"Joey, how was she able to pin you to the wall?" Tea asked, her eyes twinkling. "Did she catch you off your guard?"
"Of course not!" Joey replied, a bit too quickly. Seto smirked at him.
****
Bakura closed the book he was trying to read and sighed.
Yami Bakura stirred, groaning softly.
"Yami?" Bakura perked up, looking hopeful. "Are you awake?"
Yami Bakura threw the quilt off of him again—sending it flying right over Bakura, who quickly pulled it off and set it back on the bed—and then lay in silence for several long minutes before his eyes fluttered open. "Bakura?"
Bakura brightened. "Oh Yami! I . . . I was so worried!" He embraced the thief, feeling as though an immense weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
Yami Bakura blinked, looking confused. "What happened to me?" He pushed Bakura away. "And why am I not wearing a shirt?!" he demanded.
"You were hurt, Yami," Bakura said softly. "That horrible thing you fought with in the canyons poisoned you." He looked into the tomb robber's eyes. "Yami, you almost died!"
"That's ridiculous," Yami Bakura retorted. "Nothing can destroy me, except for . . ." He trailed off, looking at Bakura suspiciously. "The Shadow Poison . . ." he muttered.
"Yes," Bakura said with a nod and a shudder. "It was the Shadow Poison."
"To be injected with the Shadow Poison is to be handed death, even for non-mortals," Yami Bakura stated, touching the bandage on his shoulder with a grimace. "Why am I still alive?"
Bakura paused. "It was a miracle, Yami," he whispered finally.
****
"Look out!" Tristan yelled. "That weird guy's coming right at us!"
Everyone scattered just as the ninja landed on the ground, unharmed. He leaped up, wielding a deadly-looking weapon.
"Stop!" Yami Yugi ordered in a commanding voice.
The ninja didn't pause and instead swung the weapon right at the pharaoh, who retaliated by grabbing it forcefully while the others watched, wide-eyed. The ninja stared at Yami Yugi, looking scared.
"Now . . ." Yami Yugi looked into the ninja's eyes. "Are you going to stop terrorizing us?"
The ninja gulped. "I sure will, mister," he said in a much milder voice than before. "I . . . I'm not a real ninja—someone hired me to come up here and jump out at you guys. I thought it was part of the movie—honest I did!" He removed his hood and Mai, Yugi, and Tristan stepped back, shocked. Yami Yugi looked unfazed.
"You're . . . you're just a kid!" Tristan exclaimed.
"But . . . you sounded so much different when you were up on the roof," Yugi said, blinking.
"Yeah, well . . . I'm a pretty good voice actor, if I do say so myself," the boy said proudly. He had wild red hair and freckles and looked about twelve or thirteen. He reminded Yugi of a kid they'd met up with on their last case.
"Can you tell us who hired you?" Yami Yugi asked.
"Sorry, I have no idea, mister," the boy replied, shaking his head. "Some guy delivered the message to me—said it was from his boss—and when I agreed to do the job, the same guy gave me the money—in cash!"
Yami Yugi nodded. "What did the man look like?"
The boy paused. "Well, he was a real stern type. He had these real cold gray eyes and whitish hair, and he was built like Arnold Schwartzenegger!" He gestured wildly.
"He doesn't sound familiar," Mai sighed, shaking her head.
"Another weird person to add to the case," Tristan agreed with a sigh of his own.
"Can you tell us your name?" Yami Yugi asked now.
The boy grinned. "Sure can! I'm Hank Johnson, aspiring actor!"
The others introduced themselves and then Yami Yugi requested Hank to call them if he remembered anything else or if he had any more contact with the mysterious man. Hank whole-heartedly agreed before hurrying off.
"So what do we do now?" Mai asked.
"Now, we resume our quest of searching for Kim Bates," Yami Yugi replied.
"It sure is getting foggy all of a sudden!" Yugi exclaimed, looking around.
"Man, you said it, Yugi," Tristan agreed.
"I wonder how the others are doing?" Mai mused.
****
As a matter of fact, the others were continuing to have their own odd adventures. After the mysterious woman had left, the teens had began to examine the prop building and were not having any luck finding useful clues.
"Man, this mystery is just too weird!" Joey cried in frustration after about an hour of this. "How the heck are we ever gonna get to the bottom of it?!"
"Maybe we should try following some of the suspects, you know, like the detectives in books do," Cindy suggested.
"We should find this Oliver Brown and talk to him," Tea mused.
Suddenly Seto stopped, looking around suspiciously. Joey, caught off guard, clanged into him abruptly and nearly sent them both to the floor. "Hey, man, what's up?!" the Brooklyn boy demanded.
"I heard a moan," Seto declared.
"A moan?!" the others repeated.
"I didn't hear anything," Cindy said, wide-eyed.
Seto grunted in reply and went over to the wall, listening carefully. "I heard it again," he announced.
"I think I heard it this time too," Tea said, looking worried.
"Man, is someone in the wall?!" Joey exclaimed incredulously.
Seto didn't answer. Instead he pushed hard on the wood, trying to get it to open. Without warning, it suddenly did, swinging outward and sending Seto flying backward onto the floor.
"Whoa, man, are you okay?" Joey asked, looking down at him.
Seto picked himself up, rubbing at his head. "I'm fine," he replied.
The four teens gathered around the yawning hole in the wall and stared into it. A young man in his early twenties was laying on the floor, groaning and mumbling unintelligibly. Tea and Cindy gasped.
Quickly Seto and Joey knelt on the floor next to him. "Hey, man, what's wrong?" Joey asked, shaking him gently.
"He can't answer you," Seto told him grimly. "It appears as though he's been drugged." Quickly he pulled out his cell phone and called 911.
"Man, this is freaky," Joey said, shaking his head. "Hey, what happened to that guy from the convention who got conked on the head?" he asked.
"He has a severe concussion," Seto told him. "He hasn't regained consciousness yet."
"What could all this mean?" Tea wondered.
"It means that things are dangerous!" Cindy declared with a shudder. "You guys should get out of the mystery-solving business!"
"Hey, no way!" Joey protested. "We've gotta solve this!" He grinned at Cindy lopsidedly. "Ol' Joey won't let anything bad happen to anyone!"
Seto raised an eyebrow at him. "And just how do you propose to pull that off?"
Before Joey could answer, the door was flung open and a frazzled-looking young woman stepped in. "What's happening in here?!" she demanded. "I just saw an ambulance pull up in front!"
"We found someone hurt in here," Tea told her.
The woman came over, took one look at the man laying on the floor, and turned pale. "Frank! Oh no . . . oh no. . . . That awful man . . . he actually went through with his plot! . . ."
"You know this guy?" Joey said, looking surprised.
The woman nodded. "Yes . . . oh yes, I most certainly do! Frank is my fiancé." She looked as though she were about to say more, but then the paramedics came in and she watched fearfully as they loaded Frank onto a stretcher.
"Will he be alright?" she asked.
"Hard to say," the paramedic replied grimly. The woman climbed into the ambulance worriedly and they drove off.
"Man, things are happenin' too fast," Joey said, shaking his head.
"I wonder what she meant by 'that awful man . . . he actually went through with his plot'?" Tea mused. "Who was she talking about? Was someone threatening Frank and she knew about it?"
Seto bent down and picked something up from the ground.
"What's that?" Tea asked, trying to see.
Seto handed it to her. Tea stared at it and gasped.
"Man, Tea, what *is* it?" Joey demanded.
"It's a business card," she told him, "for Kim Bates, the actress who was almost killed earlier! That woman who was just here must have been Kim!"
"Oh great!" Joey groaned. "More complications! Nothin's making sense!"
"Hey, is that Yugi and the others over there?" Cindy said suddenly, pointing. The fog had cleared somewhat by this time and they could see Yugi's unmistakable multi-colored hair just up ahead.
"It sure is, and boy, am I glad to see them!" Joey exclaimed. "Yug! Hey, Yug!" he called, waving. Yugi and the others in his group turned to look.
"Joey!" Yugi called back with a wave of his own, and he, his Yami, Tristan, and Mai all came over.
"How are you guys?" Mai asked. "You all look awfully shaken up!"
Quickly Tea, Cindy, and Joey related their recent escapades while Seto stood by silently, his arms crossed. By the time they finished, Yugi and the others were wide-eyed.
"So, to put it simply—you met Carmichael, nearly got hit with a flying trunk, encountered some woman who pinned Joey to the wall with knives, found a drugged man in the wall, and then met Kim Bates?" Mai said slowly.
"We sure did!" Cindy exclaimed as they started to walk towards the exit.
"And you say that Carmichael told you the real estate agent's name was Oliver Brown?" Yami Yugi asked.
"That's right," Joey said, looking vaguely confused.
"I met Oliver Brown at the convention," Yugi declared. "We should go see what he has to say."
Seto checked his watch. "It's nearly seven o'clock. I doubt highly that he would still be in his office."
"Perhaps we could visit him at his residence," Yami Yugi suggested.
They passed by a phone booth just outside the gate and Joey went in to look in the telephone directory. "Alright, I've found his address," the boy announced presently. "He lives over near Tea's place."
"Alright then, let's head over there and see what kind of luck we have," Yami Yugi said, and they all climbed into Seto's limo.
It wasn't long before they found the house. "Hey, isn't that Art Carmichael comin' out the door?!" Joey exclaimed suddenly.
Everyone turned to look. "You're right, Joey, it is!" Cindy declared.
"Man, he looks mad," Tristan commented as Carmichael got into his car and slammed the door hard. When he had driven out of sight, the teens got out of the limo and went up to the porch. Yugi knocked on the door and soon it was opened by a frazzled-looking Oliver Brown. He took one look at Yugi and he nearly fell over in apparent shock.
"You shouldn't be here!" he exclaimed, looking almost frantic. "It's not safe!"
"What are you doing?!" Tea screamed.
The woman looked up and smiled. "I'm just practicing for my big scene in the alien movie." She lowered the knife to her side.
Seto went over to Joey and pulled the knives out of the other boy's jacket, releasing him from the wall. Joey turned to the woman, glaring daggers at her.
"I never gave you permission to use me as a pincushion!" he yelled.
"I wasn't going to hurt you," the woman said, touching the knife's tip to Joey's chest gently.
"You coulda fooled me!" Joey grumbled.
"Well, no real harm was done," Cindy said, putting her arm around Joey comfortingly.
"Did you see anyone else around?" Tea asked the woman now. "Someone threw a trunk at us when we came in."
"I saw no one," the woman replied. "But feel free to look around all you wish." With that she walked out through a back exit.
"Oh man, is everyone around here a weirdo?!" Joey said in frustration, messing up his hair.
"Joey, how was she able to pin you to the wall?" Tea asked, her eyes twinkling. "Did she catch you off your guard?"
"Of course not!" Joey replied, a bit too quickly. Seto smirked at him.
****
Bakura closed the book he was trying to read and sighed.
Yami Bakura stirred, groaning softly.
"Yami?" Bakura perked up, looking hopeful. "Are you awake?"
Yami Bakura threw the quilt off of him again—sending it flying right over Bakura, who quickly pulled it off and set it back on the bed—and then lay in silence for several long minutes before his eyes fluttered open. "Bakura?"
Bakura brightened. "Oh Yami! I . . . I was so worried!" He embraced the thief, feeling as though an immense weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
Yami Bakura blinked, looking confused. "What happened to me?" He pushed Bakura away. "And why am I not wearing a shirt?!" he demanded.
"You were hurt, Yami," Bakura said softly. "That horrible thing you fought with in the canyons poisoned you." He looked into the tomb robber's eyes. "Yami, you almost died!"
"That's ridiculous," Yami Bakura retorted. "Nothing can destroy me, except for . . ." He trailed off, looking at Bakura suspiciously. "The Shadow Poison . . ." he muttered.
"Yes," Bakura said with a nod and a shudder. "It was the Shadow Poison."
"To be injected with the Shadow Poison is to be handed death, even for non-mortals," Yami Bakura stated, touching the bandage on his shoulder with a grimace. "Why am I still alive?"
Bakura paused. "It was a miracle, Yami," he whispered finally.
****
"Look out!" Tristan yelled. "That weird guy's coming right at us!"
Everyone scattered just as the ninja landed on the ground, unharmed. He leaped up, wielding a deadly-looking weapon.
"Stop!" Yami Yugi ordered in a commanding voice.
The ninja didn't pause and instead swung the weapon right at the pharaoh, who retaliated by grabbing it forcefully while the others watched, wide-eyed. The ninja stared at Yami Yugi, looking scared.
"Now . . ." Yami Yugi looked into the ninja's eyes. "Are you going to stop terrorizing us?"
The ninja gulped. "I sure will, mister," he said in a much milder voice than before. "I . . . I'm not a real ninja—someone hired me to come up here and jump out at you guys. I thought it was part of the movie—honest I did!" He removed his hood and Mai, Yugi, and Tristan stepped back, shocked. Yami Yugi looked unfazed.
"You're . . . you're just a kid!" Tristan exclaimed.
"But . . . you sounded so much different when you were up on the roof," Yugi said, blinking.
"Yeah, well . . . I'm a pretty good voice actor, if I do say so myself," the boy said proudly. He had wild red hair and freckles and looked about twelve or thirteen. He reminded Yugi of a kid they'd met up with on their last case.
"Can you tell us who hired you?" Yami Yugi asked.
"Sorry, I have no idea, mister," the boy replied, shaking his head. "Some guy delivered the message to me—said it was from his boss—and when I agreed to do the job, the same guy gave me the money—in cash!"
Yami Yugi nodded. "What did the man look like?"
The boy paused. "Well, he was a real stern type. He had these real cold gray eyes and whitish hair, and he was built like Arnold Schwartzenegger!" He gestured wildly.
"He doesn't sound familiar," Mai sighed, shaking her head.
"Another weird person to add to the case," Tristan agreed with a sigh of his own.
"Can you tell us your name?" Yami Yugi asked now.
The boy grinned. "Sure can! I'm Hank Johnson, aspiring actor!"
The others introduced themselves and then Yami Yugi requested Hank to call them if he remembered anything else or if he had any more contact with the mysterious man. Hank whole-heartedly agreed before hurrying off.
"So what do we do now?" Mai asked.
"Now, we resume our quest of searching for Kim Bates," Yami Yugi replied.
"It sure is getting foggy all of a sudden!" Yugi exclaimed, looking around.
"Man, you said it, Yugi," Tristan agreed.
"I wonder how the others are doing?" Mai mused.
****
As a matter of fact, the others were continuing to have their own odd adventures. After the mysterious woman had left, the teens had began to examine the prop building and were not having any luck finding useful clues.
"Man, this mystery is just too weird!" Joey cried in frustration after about an hour of this. "How the heck are we ever gonna get to the bottom of it?!"
"Maybe we should try following some of the suspects, you know, like the detectives in books do," Cindy suggested.
"We should find this Oliver Brown and talk to him," Tea mused.
Suddenly Seto stopped, looking around suspiciously. Joey, caught off guard, clanged into him abruptly and nearly sent them both to the floor. "Hey, man, what's up?!" the Brooklyn boy demanded.
"I heard a moan," Seto declared.
"A moan?!" the others repeated.
"I didn't hear anything," Cindy said, wide-eyed.
Seto grunted in reply and went over to the wall, listening carefully. "I heard it again," he announced.
"I think I heard it this time too," Tea said, looking worried.
"Man, is someone in the wall?!" Joey exclaimed incredulously.
Seto didn't answer. Instead he pushed hard on the wood, trying to get it to open. Without warning, it suddenly did, swinging outward and sending Seto flying backward onto the floor.
"Whoa, man, are you okay?" Joey asked, looking down at him.
Seto picked himself up, rubbing at his head. "I'm fine," he replied.
The four teens gathered around the yawning hole in the wall and stared into it. A young man in his early twenties was laying on the floor, groaning and mumbling unintelligibly. Tea and Cindy gasped.
Quickly Seto and Joey knelt on the floor next to him. "Hey, man, what's wrong?" Joey asked, shaking him gently.
"He can't answer you," Seto told him grimly. "It appears as though he's been drugged." Quickly he pulled out his cell phone and called 911.
"Man, this is freaky," Joey said, shaking his head. "Hey, what happened to that guy from the convention who got conked on the head?" he asked.
"He has a severe concussion," Seto told him. "He hasn't regained consciousness yet."
"What could all this mean?" Tea wondered.
"It means that things are dangerous!" Cindy declared with a shudder. "You guys should get out of the mystery-solving business!"
"Hey, no way!" Joey protested. "We've gotta solve this!" He grinned at Cindy lopsidedly. "Ol' Joey won't let anything bad happen to anyone!"
Seto raised an eyebrow at him. "And just how do you propose to pull that off?"
Before Joey could answer, the door was flung open and a frazzled-looking young woman stepped in. "What's happening in here?!" she demanded. "I just saw an ambulance pull up in front!"
"We found someone hurt in here," Tea told her.
The woman came over, took one look at the man laying on the floor, and turned pale. "Frank! Oh no . . . oh no. . . . That awful man . . . he actually went through with his plot! . . ."
"You know this guy?" Joey said, looking surprised.
The woman nodded. "Yes . . . oh yes, I most certainly do! Frank is my fiancé." She looked as though she were about to say more, but then the paramedics came in and she watched fearfully as they loaded Frank onto a stretcher.
"Will he be alright?" she asked.
"Hard to say," the paramedic replied grimly. The woman climbed into the ambulance worriedly and they drove off.
"Man, things are happenin' too fast," Joey said, shaking his head.
"I wonder what she meant by 'that awful man . . . he actually went through with his plot'?" Tea mused. "Who was she talking about? Was someone threatening Frank and she knew about it?"
Seto bent down and picked something up from the ground.
"What's that?" Tea asked, trying to see.
Seto handed it to her. Tea stared at it and gasped.
"Man, Tea, what *is* it?" Joey demanded.
"It's a business card," she told him, "for Kim Bates, the actress who was almost killed earlier! That woman who was just here must have been Kim!"
"Oh great!" Joey groaned. "More complications! Nothin's making sense!"
"Hey, is that Yugi and the others over there?" Cindy said suddenly, pointing. The fog had cleared somewhat by this time and they could see Yugi's unmistakable multi-colored hair just up ahead.
"It sure is, and boy, am I glad to see them!" Joey exclaimed. "Yug! Hey, Yug!" he called, waving. Yugi and the others in his group turned to look.
"Joey!" Yugi called back with a wave of his own, and he, his Yami, Tristan, and Mai all came over.
"How are you guys?" Mai asked. "You all look awfully shaken up!"
Quickly Tea, Cindy, and Joey related their recent escapades while Seto stood by silently, his arms crossed. By the time they finished, Yugi and the others were wide-eyed.
"So, to put it simply—you met Carmichael, nearly got hit with a flying trunk, encountered some woman who pinned Joey to the wall with knives, found a drugged man in the wall, and then met Kim Bates?" Mai said slowly.
"We sure did!" Cindy exclaimed as they started to walk towards the exit.
"And you say that Carmichael told you the real estate agent's name was Oliver Brown?" Yami Yugi asked.
"That's right," Joey said, looking vaguely confused.
"I met Oliver Brown at the convention," Yugi declared. "We should go see what he has to say."
Seto checked his watch. "It's nearly seven o'clock. I doubt highly that he would still be in his office."
"Perhaps we could visit him at his residence," Yami Yugi suggested.
They passed by a phone booth just outside the gate and Joey went in to look in the telephone directory. "Alright, I've found his address," the boy announced presently. "He lives over near Tea's place."
"Alright then, let's head over there and see what kind of luck we have," Yami Yugi said, and they all climbed into Seto's limo.
It wasn't long before they found the house. "Hey, isn't that Art Carmichael comin' out the door?!" Joey exclaimed suddenly.
Everyone turned to look. "You're right, Joey, it is!" Cindy declared.
"Man, he looks mad," Tristan commented as Carmichael got into his car and slammed the door hard. When he had driven out of sight, the teens got out of the limo and went up to the porch. Yugi knocked on the door and soon it was opened by a frazzled-looking Oliver Brown. He took one look at Yugi and he nearly fell over in apparent shock.
"You shouldn't be here!" he exclaimed, looking almost frantic. "It's not safe!"