Note: Just a random thing I wanted to mention: I wouldn't have let the reindeer run across Kaiba if he would've gotten really hurt because of it ^_~ I do not think injuring people is funny at all! Mmyep. . . . ANYWAY, on with the story!! ^_^
Tea was just finishing setting up the Legos at the back of the store when an impatient-looking woman marched up to her. "Uh, can I help you?" Tea asked.
"I should hope so," the woman grumped. "Some boy went into the storeroom to find the Star Wars Unleashed figures ages ago and he hasn't come back yet! I have had enough dawdling for one day!"
Tea gasped. "Bakura wouldn't be dawdling!" she said indignantly. "He might be hurt!"
"Hurt?" the woman said incredulously. "You mean he's accident-prone or something?"
Tea didn't answer. Instead she ran into the storeroom frantically. "Bakura?" she called, looking down every aisle. "Where are you?!"
She had searched through nearly the entire area when she suddenly spotted a limp hand hanging out from an empty packing crate. "Bakura?" she whispered fearfully, peering inside. The missing boy had been dumped carelessly at the bottom of the crate, and he wasn't moving. Tea let out a shriek of horror.
"Tea! What's wrong?!" Yugi called worriedly from the main part of the store.
"It's Bakura!!" Tea screamed, kneeling next to the crate and gently laying a hand on the boy's shoulder. "He's hurt!" She shook him very gently. "Bakura? Can you hear me?" Upon not receiving an answer, Tea felt herself getting dizzy with panic. "I can't wake him!!" she cried in alarm.
The Millennium Ring glowed and Yami Bakura appeared, looking less than pleased. "Ridiculous mortals!" he fumed.
"What's wrong with Bakura?" Tea demanded.
Yami Bakura shook his head and tried to lift the boy's body out of the crate. It was a bit like picking up a ragdoll. Bakura looked as though he were asleep, but he wouldn't awaken, and he was so limp. . . .
Tea watched fearfully as the ancient tomb raider pulled Bakura into his arms and stared angrily at him. Suddenly the girl paused, blinking in confusion. "Hey, it smells sweet in here!" she declared suspiciously.
Yami Bakura grunted in reply, not really paying attention. He stared into the motionless boy's innocent face. "Bakura, you fool," he growled. "What have you gone and gotten yourself into this time?!"
"I think he might've been chloroformed!" Tea said shakily.
Yami Bakura snorted in disgust. "Of all the absurd, ridiculous . . ." He slapped Bakura across the face in an attempt to wake him up.
"Don't do that!" Tea said indignantly. "You might hurt him!"
Yami Bakura growled angrily.
"Maybe Mr. Thorton will let us lay him on the couch in his office," Tea said hopefully. "Can you carry him out there?"
"Of course I *can*, you fool," Yami Bakura said grouchily. He stood up, holding the boy's body in his arms. "The question is, Will I?"
"You know you will," Tea said in frustration. "But be careful with him!!" She walked to the door and found Yugi just coming in with Maureen.
"How is he?" Yugi asked in concern. "Is he hurt bad?"
Quickly Tea told them of her suspicions as Yami Bakura made his way over to them. He was still holding Bakura, and was trying to support the boy's limp neck with his arm. "What a dolt," he muttered, his slanted brown eyes revealing his worry.
Yugi looked horrified as he saw Bakura's still form. "Let's get him onto the couch in Mr. Thorton's office!" he exclaimed.
****
Mr. Thorton's eyes went wide when they brought Bakura in. "Oh gracious! What has happened now?! Oh, this poor boy!" He hovered around Yami Bakura as he laid Bakura on the couch, greatly annoying the thief.
"Stay back, you fool!" Yami Bakura growled. "Give him room to breathe!"
Mr. Thorton wrung his hands anxiously. "This is horrible! My store isn't safe for anyone!!"
"What can we do to help this kid?" Maureen asked, feeling guilty because she had been the one to put Bakura in charge of the counter. "Do we need to call an ambulance?"
Tea realized then that she didn't know if it was better to let Bakura sleep off the effects of the chloroform or not. She also didn't know what would happen if his attacker had used more of the stuff than was necessary. Bakura might go into a coma, or worse, he might . . .
She didn't finish that thought. "We need to try waking him up," she decided finally, going to the water cooler and dampening a bandanna she'd found in her pocket. Gently she dabbed it over the boy's forehead and face. "Bakura? Can you hear us?" she asked worriedly.
"Foolish mortal," Yami Bakura said again. "Wake up!!" He grabbed the boy's shoulder forcefully.
Bakura, slowly emerging from the fog of unconsciousness, felt himself being grabbed and cried out in fright.
"You dolt! It's me!!" Yami Bakura said in irritation.
Bakura's eyes fluttered open. He blinked in apparent disbelief. "Yami?" he said softly.
"Of course, you fool." Yami Bakura loosened his grip on the boy's shoulder.
"Bakura, are you okay?" Yugi asked.
Bakura closed his eyes briefly, then opened them again. "I'm alright," he said finally with a weak smile. The truth was, he had a headache and he couldn't remember what had happened, but he was certain that he would be fine in a few minutes.
"Are you sure?" Tea asked, her eyes shining with concern.
Bakura nodded and then blinked in confusion. "What happened to me?"
"You don't remember?" Tea looked worried.
"I'm afraid I don't," Bakura replied, wide-eyed.
"Your friend thinks you were chloroformed," Yami Bakura told him, indicating Tea.
"Chloroformed?!" Mr. Thorton shrieked.
"Oh my," Bakura gasped. He paused. "I think I'm starting to remember now," he announced a moment later.
"Then what happened, for heaven's sake?!" Yami Bakura demanded.
Bakura sat up, rubbing at his temples. "Someone grabbed me from behind and wouldn't let go," he said with a shudder. "They put a sweet-smelling cloth over my face and . . . Well, I'm afraid that's all I remember."
"Oh, this is horrible!" Mr. Thorton cried, messing up his hair. "I'm ruined! Ruined!! I'll be shut down by the Safety Committee!"
"Don't worry, Mr. Thorton," Tea said comfortingly. "We'll find out who's behind this!"
"That's right!" Yugi agreed with a firm nod. His gaze fell down on the man's desk and he noticed a strange picture hanging out from under a stack of papers and moved over for a better look.
The picture was black-and-white and very shadowy, but looked as if it had been taken recently. Yugi could make out a frantic-looking woman trying to make a phone call. She seemed to have dark hair and bright, worried eyes, and around her neck she wore a locket. Yugi stared at the picture, something about it drawing him in. He knew it was important. When they came back later to search the office, he would have to somehow make a copy of it.
Bakura was now trying to stand up with Yami Bakura's assistance.
"Are you sure you're okay, Bakura?" Tea asked worriedly.
Bakura smiled and nodded. "I'm alright, Tea," he said.
"This is all too much," Mr. Thorton cried. "He may be alright, but I don't think I am!"
Maureen, used to her boss's melodramatic moans, ignored him.
"I think I should go home," Mr. Thorton declared, going to the door. "I need a good rest!"
"I'll drive you there, sir," Maureen volunteered, winking at Yugi. If she could get him out of there, the teens could search his office. It wasn't hard to get Mr. Thorton to agree to her suggestion, and before long the teens were looking through the papers and files and strange odds-and-ends on the man's desk.
"I wish we didn't have to do this," Yugi sighed.
"I know," Bakura agreed. "It seems like such an invasion of privacy. . . ."
Tea nodded as she looked through the filing cabinet. "But if we can find out what got him so upset, we might be able to help him," she said, and suddenly screamed as a huge, plastic spider popped out from among the files.
"What is it?" Yugi gasped.
Tea pointed at the spider. "That! It's disgusting!!" she declared.
"What's disgustin'?" Joey asked from the doorway.
"Joey!" Yugi exclaimed. "What's been happening with you and Tristan?!"
"Kaiba got run over by a reindeer," Joey announced, and Tristan nodded in agreement.
"Not that again," Tea sighed.
"I'm serious this time," Joey replied.
"Shut up, Wheeler." Seto appeared in the doorway as well, looking miffed. His gaze fell on the picture Yugi had discovered earlier, which the other boy was now preparing to Xerox. "What's that?" Seto demanded.
"I don't know," Yugi said slowly.
Seto grabbed and stared at it, then stuck it in the Xerox machine and made a copy for himself.
"What's so interesting about that thing?" Joey asked with a blink. "I don't get it."
"You don't have to." Seto slipped the Xerox into his briefcase.
"Oh my," Bakura cried suddenly, "I just remembered—what about that lady who wanted the Star Wars figures?!"
"What!" Yami Bakura said in disbelief. "You dolt! What a thing to be worrying about right now!"
Bakura shook his head. "But she wanted those figures . . . I'd want her to be able to get them . . ."
"Maureen found some for her," Yugi told him. "She said 'your friend there must have knocked them over when he was riding that radio-controlled car'," he quoted.
"I am not his friend," Yami Bakura grumped.
Tea gasped suddenly. "I just thought of something! What if the creep who hurt Bakura is still housed up in the storeroom?!"
"Bakura got hurt?" Joey exclaimed, wide-eyed.
"It's a long story," Bakura sighed. "But I'm fine, really."
"Maybe we should call the police," Tea worried.
"Perhaps we should, but I will investigate first," Yami Yugi announced, appearing suddenly. "Most likely, he left long ago after chloroforming Bakura." After instructing everyone else to stay in Mr. Thorton's office, the pharaoh disappeared into the storeroom.
"What could that guy have wanted in the storeroom?!" Tristan wondered.
"Heh, if we knew that, we might have this whole thing solved," Joey replied.
As they continued to search through the office, a piece of paper fell out of a file Yugi was looking through. "Huh? What's this?!" the boy exclaimed, blinking in surprise.
Everyone gathered around to look. It seemed to be a transcript of a phone call between an operator and a frantic woman . . . perhaps the same one in the picture Yugi had found.
Operator: Hello, how may I help you?
Caller: Help! Please help me . . .
Operator: What's wrong, ma'am?
Caller: I'm being held hostage, and I don't know if my little girl is safe, and . . .
Operator: Alright, ma'am, calm down. . . . Can you tell us more about your situation?
Caller: My little girl is carrying some important information, and . . .
Operator: Hello? Ma'am, are you there? Hello? . . . Hello? . . .
Everyone stared at the paper in disbelief. What was going on around here? Seto picked it up slowly, thoughts swirling through his mind. Was Mara the little girl? Was the frantic caller her mother? Why did Mr. Thorton have it? Was he guilty of kidnapping Mara's parents?
The doorknob turned abruptly.
"Someone's coming!" Tea exclaimed in horror. "And there's nowhere to hide!"
Tea was just finishing setting up the Legos at the back of the store when an impatient-looking woman marched up to her. "Uh, can I help you?" Tea asked.
"I should hope so," the woman grumped. "Some boy went into the storeroom to find the Star Wars Unleashed figures ages ago and he hasn't come back yet! I have had enough dawdling for one day!"
Tea gasped. "Bakura wouldn't be dawdling!" she said indignantly. "He might be hurt!"
"Hurt?" the woman said incredulously. "You mean he's accident-prone or something?"
Tea didn't answer. Instead she ran into the storeroom frantically. "Bakura?" she called, looking down every aisle. "Where are you?!"
She had searched through nearly the entire area when she suddenly spotted a limp hand hanging out from an empty packing crate. "Bakura?" she whispered fearfully, peering inside. The missing boy had been dumped carelessly at the bottom of the crate, and he wasn't moving. Tea let out a shriek of horror.
"Tea! What's wrong?!" Yugi called worriedly from the main part of the store.
"It's Bakura!!" Tea screamed, kneeling next to the crate and gently laying a hand on the boy's shoulder. "He's hurt!" She shook him very gently. "Bakura? Can you hear me?" Upon not receiving an answer, Tea felt herself getting dizzy with panic. "I can't wake him!!" she cried in alarm.
The Millennium Ring glowed and Yami Bakura appeared, looking less than pleased. "Ridiculous mortals!" he fumed.
"What's wrong with Bakura?" Tea demanded.
Yami Bakura shook his head and tried to lift the boy's body out of the crate. It was a bit like picking up a ragdoll. Bakura looked as though he were asleep, but he wouldn't awaken, and he was so limp. . . .
Tea watched fearfully as the ancient tomb raider pulled Bakura into his arms and stared angrily at him. Suddenly the girl paused, blinking in confusion. "Hey, it smells sweet in here!" she declared suspiciously.
Yami Bakura grunted in reply, not really paying attention. He stared into the motionless boy's innocent face. "Bakura, you fool," he growled. "What have you gone and gotten yourself into this time?!"
"I think he might've been chloroformed!" Tea said shakily.
Yami Bakura snorted in disgust. "Of all the absurd, ridiculous . . ." He slapped Bakura across the face in an attempt to wake him up.
"Don't do that!" Tea said indignantly. "You might hurt him!"
Yami Bakura growled angrily.
"Maybe Mr. Thorton will let us lay him on the couch in his office," Tea said hopefully. "Can you carry him out there?"
"Of course I *can*, you fool," Yami Bakura said grouchily. He stood up, holding the boy's body in his arms. "The question is, Will I?"
"You know you will," Tea said in frustration. "But be careful with him!!" She walked to the door and found Yugi just coming in with Maureen.
"How is he?" Yugi asked in concern. "Is he hurt bad?"
Quickly Tea told them of her suspicions as Yami Bakura made his way over to them. He was still holding Bakura, and was trying to support the boy's limp neck with his arm. "What a dolt," he muttered, his slanted brown eyes revealing his worry.
Yugi looked horrified as he saw Bakura's still form. "Let's get him onto the couch in Mr. Thorton's office!" he exclaimed.
****
Mr. Thorton's eyes went wide when they brought Bakura in. "Oh gracious! What has happened now?! Oh, this poor boy!" He hovered around Yami Bakura as he laid Bakura on the couch, greatly annoying the thief.
"Stay back, you fool!" Yami Bakura growled. "Give him room to breathe!"
Mr. Thorton wrung his hands anxiously. "This is horrible! My store isn't safe for anyone!!"
"What can we do to help this kid?" Maureen asked, feeling guilty because she had been the one to put Bakura in charge of the counter. "Do we need to call an ambulance?"
Tea realized then that she didn't know if it was better to let Bakura sleep off the effects of the chloroform or not. She also didn't know what would happen if his attacker had used more of the stuff than was necessary. Bakura might go into a coma, or worse, he might . . .
She didn't finish that thought. "We need to try waking him up," she decided finally, going to the water cooler and dampening a bandanna she'd found in her pocket. Gently she dabbed it over the boy's forehead and face. "Bakura? Can you hear us?" she asked worriedly.
"Foolish mortal," Yami Bakura said again. "Wake up!!" He grabbed the boy's shoulder forcefully.
Bakura, slowly emerging from the fog of unconsciousness, felt himself being grabbed and cried out in fright.
"You dolt! It's me!!" Yami Bakura said in irritation.
Bakura's eyes fluttered open. He blinked in apparent disbelief. "Yami?" he said softly.
"Of course, you fool." Yami Bakura loosened his grip on the boy's shoulder.
"Bakura, are you okay?" Yugi asked.
Bakura closed his eyes briefly, then opened them again. "I'm alright," he said finally with a weak smile. The truth was, he had a headache and he couldn't remember what had happened, but he was certain that he would be fine in a few minutes.
"Are you sure?" Tea asked, her eyes shining with concern.
Bakura nodded and then blinked in confusion. "What happened to me?"
"You don't remember?" Tea looked worried.
"I'm afraid I don't," Bakura replied, wide-eyed.
"Your friend thinks you were chloroformed," Yami Bakura told him, indicating Tea.
"Chloroformed?!" Mr. Thorton shrieked.
"Oh my," Bakura gasped. He paused. "I think I'm starting to remember now," he announced a moment later.
"Then what happened, for heaven's sake?!" Yami Bakura demanded.
Bakura sat up, rubbing at his temples. "Someone grabbed me from behind and wouldn't let go," he said with a shudder. "They put a sweet-smelling cloth over my face and . . . Well, I'm afraid that's all I remember."
"Oh, this is horrible!" Mr. Thorton cried, messing up his hair. "I'm ruined! Ruined!! I'll be shut down by the Safety Committee!"
"Don't worry, Mr. Thorton," Tea said comfortingly. "We'll find out who's behind this!"
"That's right!" Yugi agreed with a firm nod. His gaze fell down on the man's desk and he noticed a strange picture hanging out from under a stack of papers and moved over for a better look.
The picture was black-and-white and very shadowy, but looked as if it had been taken recently. Yugi could make out a frantic-looking woman trying to make a phone call. She seemed to have dark hair and bright, worried eyes, and around her neck she wore a locket. Yugi stared at the picture, something about it drawing him in. He knew it was important. When they came back later to search the office, he would have to somehow make a copy of it.
Bakura was now trying to stand up with Yami Bakura's assistance.
"Are you sure you're okay, Bakura?" Tea asked worriedly.
Bakura smiled and nodded. "I'm alright, Tea," he said.
"This is all too much," Mr. Thorton cried. "He may be alright, but I don't think I am!"
Maureen, used to her boss's melodramatic moans, ignored him.
"I think I should go home," Mr. Thorton declared, going to the door. "I need a good rest!"
"I'll drive you there, sir," Maureen volunteered, winking at Yugi. If she could get him out of there, the teens could search his office. It wasn't hard to get Mr. Thorton to agree to her suggestion, and before long the teens were looking through the papers and files and strange odds-and-ends on the man's desk.
"I wish we didn't have to do this," Yugi sighed.
"I know," Bakura agreed. "It seems like such an invasion of privacy. . . ."
Tea nodded as she looked through the filing cabinet. "But if we can find out what got him so upset, we might be able to help him," she said, and suddenly screamed as a huge, plastic spider popped out from among the files.
"What is it?" Yugi gasped.
Tea pointed at the spider. "That! It's disgusting!!" she declared.
"What's disgustin'?" Joey asked from the doorway.
"Joey!" Yugi exclaimed. "What's been happening with you and Tristan?!"
"Kaiba got run over by a reindeer," Joey announced, and Tristan nodded in agreement.
"Not that again," Tea sighed.
"I'm serious this time," Joey replied.
"Shut up, Wheeler." Seto appeared in the doorway as well, looking miffed. His gaze fell on the picture Yugi had discovered earlier, which the other boy was now preparing to Xerox. "What's that?" Seto demanded.
"I don't know," Yugi said slowly.
Seto grabbed and stared at it, then stuck it in the Xerox machine and made a copy for himself.
"What's so interesting about that thing?" Joey asked with a blink. "I don't get it."
"You don't have to." Seto slipped the Xerox into his briefcase.
"Oh my," Bakura cried suddenly, "I just remembered—what about that lady who wanted the Star Wars figures?!"
"What!" Yami Bakura said in disbelief. "You dolt! What a thing to be worrying about right now!"
Bakura shook his head. "But she wanted those figures . . . I'd want her to be able to get them . . ."
"Maureen found some for her," Yugi told him. "She said 'your friend there must have knocked them over when he was riding that radio-controlled car'," he quoted.
"I am not his friend," Yami Bakura grumped.
Tea gasped suddenly. "I just thought of something! What if the creep who hurt Bakura is still housed up in the storeroom?!"
"Bakura got hurt?" Joey exclaimed, wide-eyed.
"It's a long story," Bakura sighed. "But I'm fine, really."
"Maybe we should call the police," Tea worried.
"Perhaps we should, but I will investigate first," Yami Yugi announced, appearing suddenly. "Most likely, he left long ago after chloroforming Bakura." After instructing everyone else to stay in Mr. Thorton's office, the pharaoh disappeared into the storeroom.
"What could that guy have wanted in the storeroom?!" Tristan wondered.
"Heh, if we knew that, we might have this whole thing solved," Joey replied.
As they continued to search through the office, a piece of paper fell out of a file Yugi was looking through. "Huh? What's this?!" the boy exclaimed, blinking in surprise.
Everyone gathered around to look. It seemed to be a transcript of a phone call between an operator and a frantic woman . . . perhaps the same one in the picture Yugi had found.
Operator: Hello, how may I help you?
Caller: Help! Please help me . . .
Operator: What's wrong, ma'am?
Caller: I'm being held hostage, and I don't know if my little girl is safe, and . . .
Operator: Alright, ma'am, calm down. . . . Can you tell us more about your situation?
Caller: My little girl is carrying some important information, and . . .
Operator: Hello? Ma'am, are you there? Hello? . . . Hello? . . .
Everyone stared at the paper in disbelief. What was going on around here? Seto picked it up slowly, thoughts swirling through his mind. Was Mara the little girl? Was the frantic caller her mother? Why did Mr. Thorton have it? Was he guilty of kidnapping Mara's parents?
The doorknob turned abruptly.
"Someone's coming!" Tea exclaimed in horror. "And there's nowhere to hide!"