"What was that?!"
"What happened?!"
Worried cries rose from all directions as the people began to panic about the blackout and the scream.
Now Rex pulled himself out of the ice water, completely drenched. "You dino-brain! You're not supposed to wander around in the dark!"
"Who are you callin' a dino-brain?!" Joey yelled loudly, grabbing Rex by his sleeveless jacket and pulling him forward.
The PA system crackled now and a pleasant voice came on. "This is your captain speaking. There is nothing to worry about. We are having some difficulty with the electricity, but that will be resolved shortly. Please return to your seats and refrain from panicking."
Rex struggled to pull free. "You hear that? Return to your seat!!" When Joey still didn't let go, the other boy growled angrily. "Hey, who are you anyway? You sound just like . . ."
"Joey Wheeler," the blonde boy replied loudly, just as the lights went on. "That's right—it's me, in the flesh!"
Rex glared at him, not entirely surprised, then turned to stare at the room around them.
Yugi and the others ran over to them now, staring as the two boys dripped water all over the floor. "What happened?!" Yugi exclaimed.
"What is this—a convention?" Rex grumped. "This was his fault!" he declared in answer to Yugi's query, pointing at Joey.
"What's going on around here?!" Tea cried, throwing her hands in the air.
"I was just about to ask that question myself," Seto said dryly, coming into the room from where he'd been standing in the doorway.
"I wish we could find out who screamed," Bakura said worriedly. "Someone might be in trouble!"
That's when the uniformed man from earlier burst into the dining room, looking ready to bite through metal. "Is everything in shipshape here?" he demanded.
"Someone screamed!" a random voice called out.
"Well, then, don't just stand around! Find out who screamed!!" the uniformed man replied hotly.
"Excuse me!" Yugi called out, waving.
With a scowl, the man went over. "What do you want?" he demanded.
Yugi tried to ignore the man's rude tone. "Can you tell us, sir, what was wrong with the electricity?"
The man shrugged. "It was a short, but we fixed it now. Nothing to worry about."
By now everyone was coming the room, trying to find someone—anyone—who might have been the source of the scream, but to no avail. Everything seemed to be in perfect order, except for the overturned food carts and tub of ice water.
"It was probably just someone screamin' 'cause they knocked something over," Joey suggested with a shrug, still angry about falling into the water.
"I don't think so," Yugi said gravely. "Remember what happened earlier with that lady. Maybe she or someone else was hurt!"
"Oh hey . . ." Joey turned to glare at Rex. "Who was that lady you were talkin' to, anyway?! Someone tried to throw her overboard earlier!"
Rex stared at him. "What?! That's crazy. Who would want to throw her overboard?!"
"That's what we want to find out," Tristan said. "Now who was she?"
"Hey, I don't know!" Rex cried in frustration. "She just came up to me and wanted to know where the staterooms were! She never gave her name or nothin'!"
"We should find her," Yugi said grimly.
Tea nodded in agreement, then turned to Seto. "Is Mokuba here with you?" she asked curiously.
"He is," Seto replied shortly. In fact, the boy thought now, I should go make sure he's alright. With all this nonsense going on, there's no telling what Mokuba might've gotten into. Without another word, the blue-eyed boy turned and left.
Suddenly a loud pounding sound came from somewhere in the room and a female voice cried out in panic. "Hey!! Let me out of here!!"
Everyone in the room snapped to attention. "What's that?!" Joey burst out.
"Someone's locked in the storage closet!" the uniformed man cried in disbelief, running to the door and yanking it open.
A frazzled Mai Valentine tumbled out.
"Mai!" Yugi and the others gasped. "What are you doing here?!"
"Becoming very frustrated!" the blonde girl cried. She stood up and dusted herself off.
"Were you the one who screamed?" Tea asked.
Mai nodded shakily. "When the lights went out, someone just grabbed me and shoved me into that closet!"
"Why the heck would someone do that?!" Joey said in disbelief.
There was a flash of light and Yami Yugi appeared, looking immensely concerned. "Tell me, Mai, where were you sitting when this happened?" he wanted to know.
Mai gave him a strange look. "Over by that window," she replied, pointing. "Why?"
"Perhaps there was a reason why they wanted to get you away from there," Yami Yugi replied, leading the way over to the table in question.
"Excuse me!" a man's voice called, and another uniformed man came through the crowd. Yugi recognized him as the captain—Geoffrey Hardy—and hurried over.
"Captain Hardy?" the boy said, looking up at him.
The captain looked at him, distraction on his face. He was a kind man, but right now he had many pressing problems on his mind. "What can I do for you?" he asked, trying to manage a small smile.
"Captain, we found the girl who screamed a few minutes ago," Yugi replied, deciding that now was not the right time to introduce himself.
Instantly the man gave Yugi his full attention. "Is she alright?" he demanded.
"She seems to be," Yugi told him, "but she says someone purposely threw her into a closet when the lights were out."
The captain groaned. "This is bad!" he said low, shaking his head. "This is the fourth terrible thing that's happened today!"
"The fourth?" Yugi gasped.
"Yes," Captain Hardy nodded solemnly. "The first happened even before this cruise began, when some poor woman was nearly thrown overboard."
"My friends and I talked to her after that happened," Yugi said slowly.
"The second was, of course, this problem with the electricity," the Captain continued, pausing.
"What was the other thing?" Yugi prompted.
Captain Hardy looked tired as they walked over to where Mai and the others were. "Someone's luggage was misplaced in the hold."
"Wouldn't those kinds of mistakes happen a lot?" Joey asked curiously as they approached, over-hearing the last part.
"Not this way," Captain Hardy replied. "The person located their trunk, but it was completely covered in a red substance that looked like blood!"
"How terrible!" Tea cried.
"Sounds like a mean prank to me," Joey remarked.
"I would normally agree with you, young man," the captain said, "except that the person began screaming and crying and carrying on in such a way that it let me know that it was not any prank to her. She seemed to think it was a . . . warning of some kind." He paused, blinking. "Why am I telling you kids all of this?" he exclaimed now.
Yugi had to chuckle. "Captain Hardy, I'm Yugi Muto," he introduced himself.
"Solomon Muto's grandson?" Captain Hardy asked, recognition dawning.
"That's right," Yugi smiled and then introduced his friends. After they thanked the captain profusely for the free passes, the teens vowed to help find out who was behind this strange series of events.
"It would be a relief to me," Captain Hardy said, examining the area around Mai's table. After a moment, he shook his head in frustration. "I can't understand why anyone would want to put you in the closet, Ms. Valentine," he said with a sigh.
Mai sat down again, looking defeated. "It was probably just a mean prank," she decided.
"I don't know, Mai," Yugi said slowly. "In light of the other things that have happened, I don't think we should dismiss it so lightly."
"Hey," Tea said suddenly, "whatever happened to Marik?!"
The teens all looked at each other guiltily. Amidst all the excitement, they had completely forgotten about the Egyptian boy.
"I think he went to find Ishizu and Rishid," Bakura spoke up now, "but I don't see any of them around."
The Captain ran a hand over his face. "We'll find them," he said determinedly, feeling weary after the long day of strange events.
"Let's all split up and look," Yugi directed, and the others agreed.
Rex watched them disappear in various directions but didn't offer to help. He was sure that their friend—whoever he was—was just fine.
****
Seto made his way down the long halls until he finally found the stateroom he and Mokuba were staying in and opened the door. "Mokuba?" he called softly. He wasn't sure if his younger brother would be in there or not. Mokuba had mentioned wanting to explore all around the ship, but he had promised to make it back to the stateroom before dinnertime so that Seto wouldn't have to look everywhere for him.
Sure enough, the little boy came running out now and leaped into Seto's arms happily. "Hi, big brother!" he greeted.
"Hey kid," Seto smiled, holding him close. "Did you have a good time exploring the ship?"
Mokuba beamed. "There's so many cool things here, Seto!" he exclaimed, going on to tell him about all the fun things he'd seen. "There's even a video arcade!"
"There is, huh?" Seto always enjoyed being with Mokuba. The younger boy had so much energy and was always so innocent and pure. "Are you hungry, kid?" Seto asked now.
Mokuba nodded. "Yeah!"
"Come with me, then," Seto said gently, leading Mokuba out into the hall and heading once more for the dining room.
****
Bakura wandered down through the corridors calling for Marik and his sister, but to no avail. They didn't seem to be anywhere around.
"Foolish mortals," Yami Bakura remarked, coming out of the Ring and following the boy down the hall.
Bakura blushed as a passenger turned to stare at them strangely. "Yami, please don't say things like that!" he begged. "Everyone will think we're quite out of our minds!"
Yami Bakura snorted. "You worry too much, you dolt," he said.
Bakura tried to ignore him and looked into the ping-pong room. The only people inside were two ladies in their early twenties engaged in a heated round of the game.
"Excuse me," the boy called shyly, and both women looked up.
"Hey!" one of them chirped.
"Can we help you?" the other one asked, looking a bit annoyed about being disturbed.
Bakura scratched his cheek. "Well, I'm terribly sorry to bother you two, but I was wondering if you've seen a friend of mine?"
The girls shrugged. "We might've," the first one said slowly.
"What does he look like?" the second one demanded.
Bakura paused. "He's an Egyptian," he told them, "with long, blonde hair and gold jewelry . . ."
"Oh yeah!" the first one interrupted. "I saw him. He was going down the hall towards the cargo hold."
Bakura blinked in confusion. Why would Marik be going to the cargo hold? Rishid had been taking the Ishtars' luggage to their rooms, so Marik couldn't have been going to the cargo hold to get it. "Was he alone?" the boy asked now.
"I think so," the girl replied. "I hope you find him!"
"As do I," Bakura said, backing out of the doorway. "Thank you for your help!" he called with a wave.
Before long Bakura found his way down to the cargo hold and he and Yami Bakura went inside.
"This is absurd," the old thief muttered as he followed Bakura around through the rows of luggage.
Bakura barely heard him. He was wondering why there hadn't been anyone standing guard at the door. It seemed very strange, and he couldn't help feeling uneasy.
Suddenly the ship gave a tremendous lurch and several heavy trunks fell from a shelf above them. Bakura cried out as he was thrown hard to the floor, but luckily escaped being hit with any of the luggage.
In a moment it was over and all was silent. Now Bakura slowly raised himself up, shaking. "Yami?" he called frantically. "Yami, where are you? Are you hurt?"
There was no answer.
"What happened?!"
Worried cries rose from all directions as the people began to panic about the blackout and the scream.
Now Rex pulled himself out of the ice water, completely drenched. "You dino-brain! You're not supposed to wander around in the dark!"
"Who are you callin' a dino-brain?!" Joey yelled loudly, grabbing Rex by his sleeveless jacket and pulling him forward.
The PA system crackled now and a pleasant voice came on. "This is your captain speaking. There is nothing to worry about. We are having some difficulty with the electricity, but that will be resolved shortly. Please return to your seats and refrain from panicking."
Rex struggled to pull free. "You hear that? Return to your seat!!" When Joey still didn't let go, the other boy growled angrily. "Hey, who are you anyway? You sound just like . . ."
"Joey Wheeler," the blonde boy replied loudly, just as the lights went on. "That's right—it's me, in the flesh!"
Rex glared at him, not entirely surprised, then turned to stare at the room around them.
Yugi and the others ran over to them now, staring as the two boys dripped water all over the floor. "What happened?!" Yugi exclaimed.
"What is this—a convention?" Rex grumped. "This was his fault!" he declared in answer to Yugi's query, pointing at Joey.
"What's going on around here?!" Tea cried, throwing her hands in the air.
"I was just about to ask that question myself," Seto said dryly, coming into the room from where he'd been standing in the doorway.
"I wish we could find out who screamed," Bakura said worriedly. "Someone might be in trouble!"
That's when the uniformed man from earlier burst into the dining room, looking ready to bite through metal. "Is everything in shipshape here?" he demanded.
"Someone screamed!" a random voice called out.
"Well, then, don't just stand around! Find out who screamed!!" the uniformed man replied hotly.
"Excuse me!" Yugi called out, waving.
With a scowl, the man went over. "What do you want?" he demanded.
Yugi tried to ignore the man's rude tone. "Can you tell us, sir, what was wrong with the electricity?"
The man shrugged. "It was a short, but we fixed it now. Nothing to worry about."
By now everyone was coming the room, trying to find someone—anyone—who might have been the source of the scream, but to no avail. Everything seemed to be in perfect order, except for the overturned food carts and tub of ice water.
"It was probably just someone screamin' 'cause they knocked something over," Joey suggested with a shrug, still angry about falling into the water.
"I don't think so," Yugi said gravely. "Remember what happened earlier with that lady. Maybe she or someone else was hurt!"
"Oh hey . . ." Joey turned to glare at Rex. "Who was that lady you were talkin' to, anyway?! Someone tried to throw her overboard earlier!"
Rex stared at him. "What?! That's crazy. Who would want to throw her overboard?!"
"That's what we want to find out," Tristan said. "Now who was she?"
"Hey, I don't know!" Rex cried in frustration. "She just came up to me and wanted to know where the staterooms were! She never gave her name or nothin'!"
"We should find her," Yugi said grimly.
Tea nodded in agreement, then turned to Seto. "Is Mokuba here with you?" she asked curiously.
"He is," Seto replied shortly. In fact, the boy thought now, I should go make sure he's alright. With all this nonsense going on, there's no telling what Mokuba might've gotten into. Without another word, the blue-eyed boy turned and left.
Suddenly a loud pounding sound came from somewhere in the room and a female voice cried out in panic. "Hey!! Let me out of here!!"
Everyone in the room snapped to attention. "What's that?!" Joey burst out.
"Someone's locked in the storage closet!" the uniformed man cried in disbelief, running to the door and yanking it open.
A frazzled Mai Valentine tumbled out.
"Mai!" Yugi and the others gasped. "What are you doing here?!"
"Becoming very frustrated!" the blonde girl cried. She stood up and dusted herself off.
"Were you the one who screamed?" Tea asked.
Mai nodded shakily. "When the lights went out, someone just grabbed me and shoved me into that closet!"
"Why the heck would someone do that?!" Joey said in disbelief.
There was a flash of light and Yami Yugi appeared, looking immensely concerned. "Tell me, Mai, where were you sitting when this happened?" he wanted to know.
Mai gave him a strange look. "Over by that window," she replied, pointing. "Why?"
"Perhaps there was a reason why they wanted to get you away from there," Yami Yugi replied, leading the way over to the table in question.
"Excuse me!" a man's voice called, and another uniformed man came through the crowd. Yugi recognized him as the captain—Geoffrey Hardy—and hurried over.
"Captain Hardy?" the boy said, looking up at him.
The captain looked at him, distraction on his face. He was a kind man, but right now he had many pressing problems on his mind. "What can I do for you?" he asked, trying to manage a small smile.
"Captain, we found the girl who screamed a few minutes ago," Yugi replied, deciding that now was not the right time to introduce himself.
Instantly the man gave Yugi his full attention. "Is she alright?" he demanded.
"She seems to be," Yugi told him, "but she says someone purposely threw her into a closet when the lights were out."
The captain groaned. "This is bad!" he said low, shaking his head. "This is the fourth terrible thing that's happened today!"
"The fourth?" Yugi gasped.
"Yes," Captain Hardy nodded solemnly. "The first happened even before this cruise began, when some poor woman was nearly thrown overboard."
"My friends and I talked to her after that happened," Yugi said slowly.
"The second was, of course, this problem with the electricity," the Captain continued, pausing.
"What was the other thing?" Yugi prompted.
Captain Hardy looked tired as they walked over to where Mai and the others were. "Someone's luggage was misplaced in the hold."
"Wouldn't those kinds of mistakes happen a lot?" Joey asked curiously as they approached, over-hearing the last part.
"Not this way," Captain Hardy replied. "The person located their trunk, but it was completely covered in a red substance that looked like blood!"
"How terrible!" Tea cried.
"Sounds like a mean prank to me," Joey remarked.
"I would normally agree with you, young man," the captain said, "except that the person began screaming and crying and carrying on in such a way that it let me know that it was not any prank to her. She seemed to think it was a . . . warning of some kind." He paused, blinking. "Why am I telling you kids all of this?" he exclaimed now.
Yugi had to chuckle. "Captain Hardy, I'm Yugi Muto," he introduced himself.
"Solomon Muto's grandson?" Captain Hardy asked, recognition dawning.
"That's right," Yugi smiled and then introduced his friends. After they thanked the captain profusely for the free passes, the teens vowed to help find out who was behind this strange series of events.
"It would be a relief to me," Captain Hardy said, examining the area around Mai's table. After a moment, he shook his head in frustration. "I can't understand why anyone would want to put you in the closet, Ms. Valentine," he said with a sigh.
Mai sat down again, looking defeated. "It was probably just a mean prank," she decided.
"I don't know, Mai," Yugi said slowly. "In light of the other things that have happened, I don't think we should dismiss it so lightly."
"Hey," Tea said suddenly, "whatever happened to Marik?!"
The teens all looked at each other guiltily. Amidst all the excitement, they had completely forgotten about the Egyptian boy.
"I think he went to find Ishizu and Rishid," Bakura spoke up now, "but I don't see any of them around."
The Captain ran a hand over his face. "We'll find them," he said determinedly, feeling weary after the long day of strange events.
"Let's all split up and look," Yugi directed, and the others agreed.
Rex watched them disappear in various directions but didn't offer to help. He was sure that their friend—whoever he was—was just fine.
****
Seto made his way down the long halls until he finally found the stateroom he and Mokuba were staying in and opened the door. "Mokuba?" he called softly. He wasn't sure if his younger brother would be in there or not. Mokuba had mentioned wanting to explore all around the ship, but he had promised to make it back to the stateroom before dinnertime so that Seto wouldn't have to look everywhere for him.
Sure enough, the little boy came running out now and leaped into Seto's arms happily. "Hi, big brother!" he greeted.
"Hey kid," Seto smiled, holding him close. "Did you have a good time exploring the ship?"
Mokuba beamed. "There's so many cool things here, Seto!" he exclaimed, going on to tell him about all the fun things he'd seen. "There's even a video arcade!"
"There is, huh?" Seto always enjoyed being with Mokuba. The younger boy had so much energy and was always so innocent and pure. "Are you hungry, kid?" Seto asked now.
Mokuba nodded. "Yeah!"
"Come with me, then," Seto said gently, leading Mokuba out into the hall and heading once more for the dining room.
****
Bakura wandered down through the corridors calling for Marik and his sister, but to no avail. They didn't seem to be anywhere around.
"Foolish mortals," Yami Bakura remarked, coming out of the Ring and following the boy down the hall.
Bakura blushed as a passenger turned to stare at them strangely. "Yami, please don't say things like that!" he begged. "Everyone will think we're quite out of our minds!"
Yami Bakura snorted. "You worry too much, you dolt," he said.
Bakura tried to ignore him and looked into the ping-pong room. The only people inside were two ladies in their early twenties engaged in a heated round of the game.
"Excuse me," the boy called shyly, and both women looked up.
"Hey!" one of them chirped.
"Can we help you?" the other one asked, looking a bit annoyed about being disturbed.
Bakura scratched his cheek. "Well, I'm terribly sorry to bother you two, but I was wondering if you've seen a friend of mine?"
The girls shrugged. "We might've," the first one said slowly.
"What does he look like?" the second one demanded.
Bakura paused. "He's an Egyptian," he told them, "with long, blonde hair and gold jewelry . . ."
"Oh yeah!" the first one interrupted. "I saw him. He was going down the hall towards the cargo hold."
Bakura blinked in confusion. Why would Marik be going to the cargo hold? Rishid had been taking the Ishtars' luggage to their rooms, so Marik couldn't have been going to the cargo hold to get it. "Was he alone?" the boy asked now.
"I think so," the girl replied. "I hope you find him!"
"As do I," Bakura said, backing out of the doorway. "Thank you for your help!" he called with a wave.
Before long Bakura found his way down to the cargo hold and he and Yami Bakura went inside.
"This is absurd," the old thief muttered as he followed Bakura around through the rows of luggage.
Bakura barely heard him. He was wondering why there hadn't been anyone standing guard at the door. It seemed very strange, and he couldn't help feeling uneasy.
Suddenly the ship gave a tremendous lurch and several heavy trunks fell from a shelf above them. Bakura cried out as he was thrown hard to the floor, but luckily escaped being hit with any of the luggage.
In a moment it was over and all was silent. Now Bakura slowly raised himself up, shaking. "Yami?" he called frantically. "Yami, where are you? Are you hurt?"
There was no answer.