"Man, this is crazy!" Tristan gasped, wrestling with a long, rubber cobra. "This isn't exactly how I planned to spend a December Tuesday!"
"You said it, Tristan," Joey exclaimed as the tiger wrapped its paws around him and growled.
"Help!!" Bakura screamed, still pinned down by the elephant.
The Millennium Ring and the Puzzle both glowed and the Yamis appeared.
"Yami, can you get us free?" Yugi gasped, trapped by the teddy bear that had leaped out at them first.
"Of course, Yugi," Yami Yugi replied, but before he could do anything, a zebra attacked him from behind and knocked him to the floor.
"Yami!" Yugi burst out in shock.
"How are these things coming to life?!" Tea wondered as she and Mai fought with two life-size soldier dolls.
"Fools," Yami Bakura sneered, then suddenly cried out as a radio-controlled car crashed against his legs, making him fall backwards.
"Yami, are you alright?" Bakura asked worriedly, trying to look around the elephant's trunk.
Yami Bakura growled angrily from his new position on top of the car, which then started driving around the store with the thief unwillingly riding it. "Unhand me at once!!" he ordered in vain.
All the commotion had finally awakened Mr. Thorton, who'd been sleeping on the couch in his office with an ice pack on his head. He came into the store now and stared in horror at the living plushies and wild RC cars. "Oh goodness! Oh gracious!! It's the curse!!" the nervous man moaned, messing up his hair.
"Forget the curse!" Joey snapped. "Just get us outta this mess!!"
A huge St. Bernard plush bounded out of nowhere and completely bowled the short man over. "Save me!!" he shrieked as it started licking his face.
"Who's going to save us?!" Mai said in frustration.
"Why doesn't someone from out in the mall come to see what's happening?" Tea wondered, wrestling with a nutcracker.
"They probably think we're all crazy in here, fighting with stuffed animals and dolls!" Maureen replied.
Yami Bakura screamed in terror as the car sped around corners and knocked over displays. A rubber octopus dropped on his head and the long legs dangled in his eyes.
"Who knew a plush animal could be so heavy?" Bakura gasped, pushing on the elephant again. "Yami, can't you just jump off the car?" he exclaimed, hearing the tomb robber's cries of panic.
"You dolt!! If I could, don't you think I would??!" Yami Bakura yelled back. If he tried to jump off the car at the speed it was going, he could be seriously hurt.
The door opened then and Seto Kaiba came in.
"Kaiba, what're you doin' here?!" Joey asked in confusion, just as a lion sprang on him in addition to the tiger. "Oh never mind! Just give me a hand here!!!"
Seto stared at Joey and the others in disbelief. "What is this? A three-ring circus?!"
"Shut up and get these things off me!!" Joey yelled as the lion and the tiger both roared at him.
Seto's eyes narrowed and he was about to make a retort when a plush cougar cub dropped from the ceiling onto his head. "What the . . ."
Yami Yugi finally managed to overpower the zebra and stood up. "This has gone on long enough!" he said sternly, and the Millennium Puzzle glowed. "Return to your inanimate forms!" he ordered.
The plush animals and toy soldiers went limp and fell to the floor. The speeding car stopped abruptly and sent Yami Bakura flying headfirst into a display of Star Wars merchandise. Bakura, shoving the elephant aside, gasped and rushed to help him.
Mai stood up shakily, brushing her long hair out of her eyes. "I broke a nail!" she exclaimed indignantly.
Seto pulled the cougar off his head, looking annoyed. "What kind of nonsense is this?!" he demanded.
Tea, pushing the nutcracker away, went to help Yugi stand up. "I wish we knew," she said to Seto. "But why are you here anyway, Kaiba?"
"Yeah, did you decide to help us solve this thing?" Joey asked.
"I have more pressing matters at the moment," Seto replied.
"What could be more pressing than findin' out why these things came alive?!" Joey demanded, gesturing wildly and knocking a plastic candy cane display down.
Seto raised an eyebrow at him and didn't answer. He didn't specially feel the need to tell the others what he was up to. The truth was, he had realized that the first line of the odd note looked like it could be an address, and that—strangely enough—it matched the address of the mall. Naturally he had decided a trip to the mall was in order, and then he hadn't been able to help noticing the ridiculous goings-on at Toys, Etc.
Mr. Thorton struggled to get up from under the life-size St. Bernard plush, shaking nervously. "Oh, Mr. Kaiba, please don't sue me! Please!!"
"Sue you?" Seto repeated. "Why should I sue you?"
Mr. Thorton twisted his tie into a wrinkled mess and stammered incoherently. Seto stared at him, amused.
Suddenly the door opened and Mara peeked in. "Mr. Kaiba?" she said uncertainly.
Seto whirled around, shocked. "What are you doing here?!" he demanded.
Mara shifted uncomfortably. "Well . . . I heard about what you were planning to do, and . . . I kinda snuck in the trunk of your limo so I could come along," she admitted sheepishly.
"You did what?!" Seto looked angry.
Mara shrank back. "Please don't be mad at me, Mr. Kaiba," she pleaded.
"Hey Kaiba, who the heck is this kid?!" Joey wanted to know.
Seto ignored him. He looked hard at Mara, and then his expression softened. He knew that if Mokuba had been in danger, he would done everything possible to rescue him, and Mara was just like that about her parents. She didn't want to just sit back and watch things happen—she wanted to help in the search, even if it meant putting herself in danger.
"We'll talk more about this later," Seto said finally, and scooped the girl up into his arms. Mara, looking immensely relieved, wrapped her arms around the boy's neck and smiled.
"Who's the kid?!" Joey asked again.
"I'm Mara!" the girl said indignantly. "You don't havta talk around me like I'm not here!"
"Eh, of course not, kid," Joey said, ruffling her hair. "What's going on, Kaiba? Are you baby-sitting again?" The blonde boy grinned.
"No." Seto turned back to Mr. Thorton. "I want to speak with you privately," he requested.
Mr. Thorton gulped. "Mr. Kaiba, I . . . I'm so sorry about what happened yesterday!" he quavered. "I . . . I'll pay for any medical expenses, but just please, please don't sue me!!" He clasped his hands melodramatically.
"I'm not going to sue you," Seto replied with a deadpan expression.
Mr. Thorton blinked. "You're not? Oh, God bless you, Mr. Kaiba!!" he exclaimed happily. "Come right into my office!"
"Thank you," Seto nodded, following the man into the Employees Only area, still carrying Mara.
"Well, whoever that kid is, she sure seems to like Kaiba," Joey remarked.
Yugi nodded. "He seems to have that effect on a lot of kids," he agreed. "He is good with them."
"Never mind that," Maureen said grouchily. "Just explain how these things came to life." She held up a plush monkey gingerly.
"They must have been remote-controlled somehow," Tea said.
Suddenly a horrible scream came from the backroom.
"Oh man!" Joey gasped. "Not Thorton again!"
"Sure sounds like him," Tristan said as everyone ran to the door and flung it open.
Again they ran down the hall and found Mr. Thorton's office. They weren't expecting to see him standing over his desk, glaring Seto down fiercely. Man, Joey thought, if looks could kill . . .
"Out!! Out!! Get out!!" Mr. Thorton yelled.
Seto stood his ground, but Mara looked frightened. "Why does this upset you so, Mr. Thorton?" Seto demanded.
The excitable man shook his head and shoved Seto backwards towards the door. "You must leave!" he declared. "I can't talk about this!! Out!! OUT!!!"
"Man, what's the matter with you today?!" Joey wanted to know.
Mr. Thorton started and looked up at him and the others gathered around. He clenched and unclenched his fists for a while and then said, "I can't talk about this. Please, everyone, leave my office." He pointed to the door firmly.
"Mr. Thorton, are you alright?" Tea asked worriedly.
The man nodded shakily and continued to point at the door insistently. "Everyone out!!!" he ordered.
"Alright, man," Joey said, backing out of the room.
"He certainly is upset about something," Bakura remarked when they were out in the hall again.
"Kaiba really shook him up," Joey added, scratching his head.
"There's something weird about him," Tristan said, shaking his head.
"Who? Kaiba?" Joey grinned.
"No, wiseguy," Tristan shot back. "Thorton!"
"Oh yeah, he's weird too," Joey said.
****
Seto, meanwhile, had already left the store with Mara.
"Why was he so upset, Mr. Kaiba?" the girl asked. "All you did was show him that note and ask if it meant anything to him!"
"Judging from his reaction, it's obvious that it did mean something to him," Seto told her.
"Do you think he took my mommy?" Mara sobbed.
Seto stopped to think about that. It was hard for him to imagine Mr. Thorton being smart enough to pull something like that off, but he knew that appearances could be deceiving. "I don't know, kid," he said finally, "but if he's involved in any way, I'm going to find out."
Mara smiled weakly. "What are we gonna do now?" she asked.
"'We' are not doing anything," Seto replied firmly, carrying Mara outside to the limo. "You are going back to the house!"
"But I have to stay and help!!!" Mara protested. "I've gotta find Mommy and Daddy!!"
Seto gently lifted the girl inside the limo and fixed her seatbelt. "Look, kid, until we can figure out what's going on here, you're in danger. I'm responsible for you, and I can't intentionally allow you to do something stupid." He looked into her eyes. "So right now, the best thing you can do to help find them is to stay safe and go back home. Mokuba will be happy to hang out with you. Okay?"
Mara sighed, then slowly nodded in defeat. "Okay," she agreed softly.
Seto smiled and patted her on the shoulder. After instructing the chauffeur to take Mara straight home and then come back to wait for him, the boy went back into the mall.
How should he begin the search? Something obviously strange was going on, and especially at Toys, Etc. Somehow Seto had to get back inside and find out what was happening with Mr. Thorton!
As Seto walked down the crowded corridors and past the busy shoppers, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched. Someone was following him. Slowly he turned around to look and then stopped short in utter shock.
A live reindeer was standing right in the middle of the floor, its long antlers pointed directly at him!
"You said it, Tristan," Joey exclaimed as the tiger wrapped its paws around him and growled.
"Help!!" Bakura screamed, still pinned down by the elephant.
The Millennium Ring and the Puzzle both glowed and the Yamis appeared.
"Yami, can you get us free?" Yugi gasped, trapped by the teddy bear that had leaped out at them first.
"Of course, Yugi," Yami Yugi replied, but before he could do anything, a zebra attacked him from behind and knocked him to the floor.
"Yami!" Yugi burst out in shock.
"How are these things coming to life?!" Tea wondered as she and Mai fought with two life-size soldier dolls.
"Fools," Yami Bakura sneered, then suddenly cried out as a radio-controlled car crashed against his legs, making him fall backwards.
"Yami, are you alright?" Bakura asked worriedly, trying to look around the elephant's trunk.
Yami Bakura growled angrily from his new position on top of the car, which then started driving around the store with the thief unwillingly riding it. "Unhand me at once!!" he ordered in vain.
All the commotion had finally awakened Mr. Thorton, who'd been sleeping on the couch in his office with an ice pack on his head. He came into the store now and stared in horror at the living plushies and wild RC cars. "Oh goodness! Oh gracious!! It's the curse!!" the nervous man moaned, messing up his hair.
"Forget the curse!" Joey snapped. "Just get us outta this mess!!"
A huge St. Bernard plush bounded out of nowhere and completely bowled the short man over. "Save me!!" he shrieked as it started licking his face.
"Who's going to save us?!" Mai said in frustration.
"Why doesn't someone from out in the mall come to see what's happening?" Tea wondered, wrestling with a nutcracker.
"They probably think we're all crazy in here, fighting with stuffed animals and dolls!" Maureen replied.
Yami Bakura screamed in terror as the car sped around corners and knocked over displays. A rubber octopus dropped on his head and the long legs dangled in his eyes.
"Who knew a plush animal could be so heavy?" Bakura gasped, pushing on the elephant again. "Yami, can't you just jump off the car?" he exclaimed, hearing the tomb robber's cries of panic.
"You dolt!! If I could, don't you think I would??!" Yami Bakura yelled back. If he tried to jump off the car at the speed it was going, he could be seriously hurt.
The door opened then and Seto Kaiba came in.
"Kaiba, what're you doin' here?!" Joey asked in confusion, just as a lion sprang on him in addition to the tiger. "Oh never mind! Just give me a hand here!!!"
Seto stared at Joey and the others in disbelief. "What is this? A three-ring circus?!"
"Shut up and get these things off me!!" Joey yelled as the lion and the tiger both roared at him.
Seto's eyes narrowed and he was about to make a retort when a plush cougar cub dropped from the ceiling onto his head. "What the . . ."
Yami Yugi finally managed to overpower the zebra and stood up. "This has gone on long enough!" he said sternly, and the Millennium Puzzle glowed. "Return to your inanimate forms!" he ordered.
The plush animals and toy soldiers went limp and fell to the floor. The speeding car stopped abruptly and sent Yami Bakura flying headfirst into a display of Star Wars merchandise. Bakura, shoving the elephant aside, gasped and rushed to help him.
Mai stood up shakily, brushing her long hair out of her eyes. "I broke a nail!" she exclaimed indignantly.
Seto pulled the cougar off his head, looking annoyed. "What kind of nonsense is this?!" he demanded.
Tea, pushing the nutcracker away, went to help Yugi stand up. "I wish we knew," she said to Seto. "But why are you here anyway, Kaiba?"
"Yeah, did you decide to help us solve this thing?" Joey asked.
"I have more pressing matters at the moment," Seto replied.
"What could be more pressing than findin' out why these things came alive?!" Joey demanded, gesturing wildly and knocking a plastic candy cane display down.
Seto raised an eyebrow at him and didn't answer. He didn't specially feel the need to tell the others what he was up to. The truth was, he had realized that the first line of the odd note looked like it could be an address, and that—strangely enough—it matched the address of the mall. Naturally he had decided a trip to the mall was in order, and then he hadn't been able to help noticing the ridiculous goings-on at Toys, Etc.
Mr. Thorton struggled to get up from under the life-size St. Bernard plush, shaking nervously. "Oh, Mr. Kaiba, please don't sue me! Please!!"
"Sue you?" Seto repeated. "Why should I sue you?"
Mr. Thorton twisted his tie into a wrinkled mess and stammered incoherently. Seto stared at him, amused.
Suddenly the door opened and Mara peeked in. "Mr. Kaiba?" she said uncertainly.
Seto whirled around, shocked. "What are you doing here?!" he demanded.
Mara shifted uncomfortably. "Well . . . I heard about what you were planning to do, and . . . I kinda snuck in the trunk of your limo so I could come along," she admitted sheepishly.
"You did what?!" Seto looked angry.
Mara shrank back. "Please don't be mad at me, Mr. Kaiba," she pleaded.
"Hey Kaiba, who the heck is this kid?!" Joey wanted to know.
Seto ignored him. He looked hard at Mara, and then his expression softened. He knew that if Mokuba had been in danger, he would done everything possible to rescue him, and Mara was just like that about her parents. She didn't want to just sit back and watch things happen—she wanted to help in the search, even if it meant putting herself in danger.
"We'll talk more about this later," Seto said finally, and scooped the girl up into his arms. Mara, looking immensely relieved, wrapped her arms around the boy's neck and smiled.
"Who's the kid?!" Joey asked again.
"I'm Mara!" the girl said indignantly. "You don't havta talk around me like I'm not here!"
"Eh, of course not, kid," Joey said, ruffling her hair. "What's going on, Kaiba? Are you baby-sitting again?" The blonde boy grinned.
"No." Seto turned back to Mr. Thorton. "I want to speak with you privately," he requested.
Mr. Thorton gulped. "Mr. Kaiba, I . . . I'm so sorry about what happened yesterday!" he quavered. "I . . . I'll pay for any medical expenses, but just please, please don't sue me!!" He clasped his hands melodramatically.
"I'm not going to sue you," Seto replied with a deadpan expression.
Mr. Thorton blinked. "You're not? Oh, God bless you, Mr. Kaiba!!" he exclaimed happily. "Come right into my office!"
"Thank you," Seto nodded, following the man into the Employees Only area, still carrying Mara.
"Well, whoever that kid is, she sure seems to like Kaiba," Joey remarked.
Yugi nodded. "He seems to have that effect on a lot of kids," he agreed. "He is good with them."
"Never mind that," Maureen said grouchily. "Just explain how these things came to life." She held up a plush monkey gingerly.
"They must have been remote-controlled somehow," Tea said.
Suddenly a horrible scream came from the backroom.
"Oh man!" Joey gasped. "Not Thorton again!"
"Sure sounds like him," Tristan said as everyone ran to the door and flung it open.
Again they ran down the hall and found Mr. Thorton's office. They weren't expecting to see him standing over his desk, glaring Seto down fiercely. Man, Joey thought, if looks could kill . . .
"Out!! Out!! Get out!!" Mr. Thorton yelled.
Seto stood his ground, but Mara looked frightened. "Why does this upset you so, Mr. Thorton?" Seto demanded.
The excitable man shook his head and shoved Seto backwards towards the door. "You must leave!" he declared. "I can't talk about this!! Out!! OUT!!!"
"Man, what's the matter with you today?!" Joey wanted to know.
Mr. Thorton started and looked up at him and the others gathered around. He clenched and unclenched his fists for a while and then said, "I can't talk about this. Please, everyone, leave my office." He pointed to the door firmly.
"Mr. Thorton, are you alright?" Tea asked worriedly.
The man nodded shakily and continued to point at the door insistently. "Everyone out!!!" he ordered.
"Alright, man," Joey said, backing out of the room.
"He certainly is upset about something," Bakura remarked when they were out in the hall again.
"Kaiba really shook him up," Joey added, scratching his head.
"There's something weird about him," Tristan said, shaking his head.
"Who? Kaiba?" Joey grinned.
"No, wiseguy," Tristan shot back. "Thorton!"
"Oh yeah, he's weird too," Joey said.
****
Seto, meanwhile, had already left the store with Mara.
"Why was he so upset, Mr. Kaiba?" the girl asked. "All you did was show him that note and ask if it meant anything to him!"
"Judging from his reaction, it's obvious that it did mean something to him," Seto told her.
"Do you think he took my mommy?" Mara sobbed.
Seto stopped to think about that. It was hard for him to imagine Mr. Thorton being smart enough to pull something like that off, but he knew that appearances could be deceiving. "I don't know, kid," he said finally, "but if he's involved in any way, I'm going to find out."
Mara smiled weakly. "What are we gonna do now?" she asked.
"'We' are not doing anything," Seto replied firmly, carrying Mara outside to the limo. "You are going back to the house!"
"But I have to stay and help!!!" Mara protested. "I've gotta find Mommy and Daddy!!"
Seto gently lifted the girl inside the limo and fixed her seatbelt. "Look, kid, until we can figure out what's going on here, you're in danger. I'm responsible for you, and I can't intentionally allow you to do something stupid." He looked into her eyes. "So right now, the best thing you can do to help find them is to stay safe and go back home. Mokuba will be happy to hang out with you. Okay?"
Mara sighed, then slowly nodded in defeat. "Okay," she agreed softly.
Seto smiled and patted her on the shoulder. After instructing the chauffeur to take Mara straight home and then come back to wait for him, the boy went back into the mall.
How should he begin the search? Something obviously strange was going on, and especially at Toys, Etc. Somehow Seto had to get back inside and find out what was happening with Mr. Thorton!
As Seto walked down the crowded corridors and past the busy shoppers, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched. Someone was following him. Slowly he turned around to look and then stopped short in utter shock.
A live reindeer was standing right in the middle of the floor, its long antlers pointed directly at him!