Domino City: 04-12-04: Monday: 3:10 P.M.

The bus rolled on down the streets of downtown Domino City, makings its scheduled stops along it's route, picking up and unloading passengers. Yugi and his friends had immediately hoped on after school had ended and were on their way to Kaiba Corp. to see how Kaiba was coping with this hacker situation. While on their way, there was one question that everyone had on their mind: who the hell could have the technical know how to pull a stunt like that?

"I say it's some super geek wierdo who does nothing but stare at his computer all day," stated Joey. "I dunno. Maybe it's Pegasus?" Tea suggested. "Seems to me he'd be pretty mad at Kaiba right now, what with his rights to print the Duel Monsters cards taken away. Maybe it's payback?"

"That doesn't sound like Pegasus though," said Yugi. "But we won't find out until we get there." As the bus went rolling along, Tea began to hear something outside. "You guys here that?" she asked. Yugi, Joey, and Tristan looked around. They didn't see anything.

"Tea, I think all that worrying and panicking you do has finally gotten to you," said Tristan. He suddenly felt a sharp pain in his foot, then began yelling as he tried to pull his foot out from under Tea's heel. "I'm serious, guys, I do hear something!" Joey looked around again and noticed two people running along side the bus as fast as they could. The weren't just any two people though, it was Duke Devlin and Joey's sister, Serenity. They were yelling for the bus to stop.

"Yo! Driver!" yelled Joey. The driver looked back at him through his mirror. "Stop the bus, there's two people running along side us trying to get on!" The driver did as requested, stopping the bus and opening the side door. Duke and Serenity filed in, obviously exhausted from having to run so fast.

"Sorry about that, guess I didn't see you at the last stop," said the driver. Duke waved his hand and paid for his and Serenity's bus fair. "Don't worry about, no harm done..." said Duke, exhaustion in his voice. The two made their way to where the others were sitting and plopped down in a bus seat near them.

"Miss the bus?" asked Tea. Duke tossed her a glare. "No. We just thought we'd get some exercise chasing it."

"So, what were you and Serenity doing together anyways?" asked Tristan suspiciously. 'Oh, here we go...' thought Yugi. Duke was now glaring at Tristan.

"We were both late trying to catch the bus. That's all," Duke replied. Tristan hmphed, crossed his arms, and looked out the window. Serenity just chuckled. She rather liked the fact that there were two guys fighting over her, but she'd probably have to pick one of the two sometime soon before they killed eachother. Joey knew what she was doing, so it didn't bother him anymore as much as it did a year ago at Battle City. In fact, he had been trying to figure out which side of the family deviousness came from because what Serenity was doing was just cruel to poor Tristan and Duke.

"So I guess you guys saw that news report too, huh?" Yugi asked them. "Yeah. I saw it while I was in home economics," said Serenity. "Computer programming for me," replied Duke. "I honestly must say, whoever did it has got some big brass ones." Everyone nodded, despite Duke's rather 'vulgar' description. The ride went along without any further occurances until the six finally reached their destination. Kaiba Corporation.

The group filed out of the bus and stood in front of the large corporate building, it's several glass windows reflecting the sunlight in every direction, making it almost blinding to look at.

"Well, let's head on inside and see what's up." Yugi and his friends walked towards the large building and stood infront of the glass door. Yugi pushed on the door but it didn't budge. "Looks like it's locked," said Yugi. "Great," Duke groaned, "now what?"

"Hey, guys!" Startled by the new voice, the group turned around to see Mokuba, Seto's little brother, running up to them with his bookbag on his back. "I guess you guys heard too?"

"Yeah, we were gonna see how your brother was doing, but the building is locked," Serentiy informed him. "Oh, that's no problem. I have a key right here!" Mokuba announced proudly, holding up a ring of several keys.

"Yeesh, how many keys do you need, Mokuba?" Joey asked. "There's one for every door in the building, except for the ones that require key cards. I'm not allowed to go into those yet, not til I'm older." Mokuba quickly walked up to the door and unlocked it, pushing it open. "My best bet is that he's still in his office, if he's still here at all. I hope you guys like walking though." Yugi tossed Mokuba a glance. "Why is that?"

"The elevators were controlled by the computer, and since that's down, we can only go up and down by stairs," Mokuba informed. Mokuba quickly led them to the stairs in the main lobby of the building and entered, the others following him in.

"Woah!" Joey yelled, his voice echoing up several flights of stairs. "Exactly how many floors do we have to climb?"

"Seto's office is about halfway up, on the fourteenth floor," Mokuba replied. Everyone groaned and began their journey up the stairs. As they climbed up, Yugi began asking Mokuba questions about the situation at hand.

"Do you know of anyone that would want to do all this to your brother and why?" Mokuba shook his head. "Not really. Over the years, Seto's made quite a few enemies that would like nothing more than to see him topple. The charming attitude he used have didn't make him very popular." Yugi nodded in understanding. Kaiba used to be quite a jerk, like it was a third hobby next to duel monsters and computers. However, Yugi had noticed a change in Kaiba in the past year, mostly because he was 'nicer' to them, and started calling Joey by his first name. The group continued on up the steps without saying anything else.

Yugi's Home: 04-12-04: Monday: 3:45 p.m.

Solomon casually swept the welcome mat in front of his card shop/home. He paused briefly to look at his watch. Yugi had called earlier saying he was going to be a little bit late getting home, but it would usually be fifth-teen or twenty minutes, not thirty-five!

"I hope nothing's happened to him..." Solomon said to himself and continued sweeping. He was interrupted yet again when somebody's shadow swept over him. Startled, he turned around to see a cloaked woman standing behind him, her eyes covered by a large hood with a purple eye on it.

"Oh, you startled me! Can I help you?" Soloman asked. The woman nodded. "I wish to purchase a certain set of cards. Might you have what I'm looking for?" Soloman scratched his head. "I might. You'll have to come in and look around. Here." Solomon opened the door for the cloaked woman and she walked in, Solomon entering behind her. The woman looked around the shop and saw several assortments of rare and powerful cards on display. However, none of them seemed to spark her interest.

"What set of cards are you looking for?" Solomon asked as he took his place behind his counter. "If it's an Exodia set, I'm sorry to say that I don't have one." The woman shook her head and approached the counter. "No, I'm interested in a set of cards much stronger than Exodia." Solomon laughed at this statement.

"Maybe you're new to duel monsters. There are no cards stronger than Exodia," he stated. "Oh, but there are," the woman replied, pulling three pictures from her pocket. Soloman took the pictures and examined them. Upon looking at them, he did recognize them. Yes, they were a set of three cards that Yugi owned and kept in a locked safe up in his room. Solomon had only seen the cards once, and that was when Yugi put them in the safe. He had said something about them being so strong that they should never be played with. What did he call them...God cards?

"These are the ones I'm looking for. Obelisk The Tormentor, Slifer The Sky Dragon, and The Winged Dragon of Ra. It would be a great help if you had them," she stated. Solomon put the pictures down trying to figure out what to do. He knew how important those cards are to Yugi, so he couldn't sell them. Even if he could, he didn't know the combination to the safe. It also didn't seem this cloaked woman wasn't going to leave without them.

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I've never heard of these cards, nor seen them," Solomon replied. The woman was quiet for a moment and stood there looking at Solomon, making him feel a bit uneasy under her stare. The woman turned away and looked around the shop a bit more.

"Such valuable cards....it'd be a shame if something happened to them, wouldn't it?" she asked. Solomon knew where this was going. "Threats won't get you anything. I told you, I've never seen them."

"Well, then maybe I can refresh your memory a bit?" she replied as she reached for something in her cloak.

Kaiba Corporation: 04-12-04: Monday: 3:55 P.M.

"Oh, thank God..." Tea replied as she leaned against the wall. Everyone else did the same thing or just slumped to the floor, groaning in agony. Mokuba just looked at them. "Geeze, guys, you're all out of shape."

"Well, we're not used to going up that many stairs at one time!" Joey yelled. Mokuba just shrugged. "Guess I'm just used to it then." After everyone had gotten their breaths back they exited onto the four-teenth floor of the building. "Seto's office is just at the end of this hallway," replied Mokuba. As the group walked down the hallway they noticed several pictures on the wall, all of them of duel monsters, most of them from Kaiba's deck.

"Wow. I didn't think he had paintings made of his favorite cards," said Joey, carefully examining a painting of a Blue Eyes White Dragon. "Yeah. Seto searched for and bought all of his favorite duel monsters paintings," said Mokuba. "These are the ones that Pegasus hand-painted himself to be printed on the cards."

"So these are the originals, huh?" Serenity asked. "Yup! Even though Pegasus is a creep, Seto always liked his artwork," Mokuba stated. "Well, no time for gawking. Come on!" They continued on down the hall, still glancing at the paintings as they passed by them. They soon arrived at the door to Kaiba's office and Mokuba quickly fumbled his keys to unlock it. Once he found the key, he inserted it into the keyhole and opened the door. However, he paused before entering.

"Listen," he whispered, "don't say or ask anything that may upset him, alright? Even I don't know what could set him off or make him feel worse in this kind of situation." Everyone nodded and followed Mokuba in. The sun shined brightly into Kaiba's office from the window behind his desk. Kaiba's laptop was there, running on battery power and casting a hardly noticeable glow onto the desk chair which was turned towards the window.

"Seto?" Mokuba slowly walked over past the desk to see his brother sitting in the chair. He had his head resting in his hand and a look on his face that showed less emotion than usual. One thing that startled Mokuba was that Kaiba was slouching very badly, a pose that Mokuba had never seen his older brother sit in.

"Is he over there, Mokuba?" Tea asked. Mokuba turned towards them and nodded, then turned his attention back to Kaiba. "uhh...bad day, huh? ...well, duh, of course it was..." Kaiba sighed and sat up straight. "Yeah, it's been a bad day...not much I can do about that." Kaiba turned his chair back around to face Yugi and the others."Looks like you all heard too." Yugi gave a nod. "What happened, Kaiba?" Kaiba gave another sigh and lowered his head.

"A hacker broke into the companies computer mainframe and stole all the data relating to the battle city tournament, as well as all the duel disk specifications and duelist profiles that we've collected. They also crashed our computer beyond repair. Believe me, I've already tried to repair the damage just to get the functions that control the building to work. Nothing." The room fell quiet for a long time as Kaiba stared down at the top of his desk, suddenly finding it rather interesting. "I didn't like the taste of defeat the first few times I had it. It doesn't taste any better now, that's for sure."

"Hey, don't you worry, Kaiba," Joey popped up. "We'll help find this hacker guy for ya, no sweat." That little statement of Joey's brought Kaiba's head facing them again. He was rather surprised that Wheeler was willing to help, considering their 'extreamly' rocky relationship. "I appreciate the thought, Joey..." Kaiba began, "but it's impossible to track this guy."

"Well, it doesn't hurt to try, right?" asked Yugi. Kaiba groaned rather loudly. He didn't want any help with this, but it looks like they were going to help whether he wanted them to or not. "Listen...this guy was able to out-wit me. Do you actually think that he'd be careless enough to leave a trail?"

"Even the most skilled and experienced at something eventually mess up," Tea replied. Kaiba rubbed his chin in thought for a moment. Tea did make a point. Although he was a skilled player of duel monsters, there have been the very few times he messed up a move. But still...

Kaiba's thoughts were derailed when Tea's cell phone rang. Everyone looked at her as she dug around in her purse and pulled out the hot pink phone and answered it. "Hello?"

"...Tea...Come quick...bring...Yugi..." came Solomon's voice, then the connection died. "Hello!? Mr. Motou!?"

"What is it, is my grandfather okay?" Yugi asked, panic in his voice. "I'm not sure, but he sounded pretty hurt," Tea replied. "Well, what are we waiting for!? Let's get over there!" Joey yelled, making a break for the door.

"Not so fast," said Kaiba. Joey stopped in his tracks and looked back at Kaiba, who was closing his laptop and taking out a pair of keys from his pocket. "I'll drive you there. It will take too long to get there by bus or on foot." Everyone seemed rather shocked by Kaiba's declaration but were not going to argue with him.

"But Seto, do you think everyone will be able to fit in our car?" Kaiba shook his head. "No, we're not going to take my car. We're going to take my limo." Now everyone was 'really' caught off guard from that. "I didn't think you knew how to drive it," Mokuba said rather stunned. "I've rode in it enough times and watched the driver to know what I'm doing. Now come on." Kaiba walked past everybody and out the door, Mokuba following close behind.

"So...that was...odd," said Tristan. "Yeah, since when was Kaiba so generous?" asked Joey. "I dunno, but I sure like this Kaiba better than the older one," Serenity replied. "He seems nicer."

"And completely depressed too," Duke added. They quickly followed behind Kaiba, though Yugi was held back by a small voice in his head.

"Yugi...I can sense a darkness approaching...be careful..." came Yami's voice. Yugi gave a nod and ran to catch up with the others.

Yugi's Home: 04-12-04: Monday: 4:40 P.M.

The black colored Kaiba Corp. limosine came to a stop in front of the card shop that served as Yugi's home. Not a second went by when the doors suddenly burst open and Yugi and his friends came pouring out. Yugi made a run inside of the card shop and found it to be in shambles. All of the cards were strewn about on the ground, the glass case where the register was was shattered, and one of the book cases had fallen over.

"Grandpa!?" Yugi shouted into the shop. He ran in a little further and yelled again, not getting an answer. Joey and the others soon filed in as well. "Wow, this place got trashed!" Tristan yelled. "Yeah, no kidding," said Duke. Yugi was about to run into the living room when he heard a groan come from under the fallen book case. Yugi ran over to it and looked underneath to find his grandfather, the phone only a few inches from him with the line cut.

"Guys, give me some help!" Yugi called and began to lift the case. Joey, Tristan, and Duke quickly came over to lend a hand. Tea, Serenity, Kaiba, and Mokuba filed into the shop in time to see the four boys lift the case up. As Joey, Tristan, and Duke put the case back up, Yugi kneeled down beside his grandfather, who wasn't in the best condition.

"Yugi..." Solomon whispered. "I'm sorry, I couldn't..."

"Couldn't what?" Yugi asked, a few tears in his eyes. "I couldn't...keep those cards from her...I'm sorry..." Solomon passed out in Yugi's arms. It wasn't until Yugi sat him down did he notice the blood that was on his hands and on the floor. Whoever wrecked the shop had cut his grandfather pretty bad.

"I'll call 911," said Tea, taking out her cell phone. Kaiba came over and looked down at Solomon. He remembered doing the very same thing to the poor old man, but he didn't hurt him this badly. Kaiba was feeling really sorry for what he had done back then. Yugi, however, couldn't bring himself to stand up. He just stared down at his grandfather, trying to decipher what he had said while holding back his tears. Then it suddenly hit him.

"The Egyptian God Cards!" Yugi sprang up and made a mad dash for his room. "Yugi, where are you going!?" Joey yelled, quickly following his friend. Kaiba watched the two pass by him then decided he would follow them too.

"You guys stay here, me and Wheeler will see to Yugi. In the mean time, I'd try and stop the old man from bleeding to death." They all nodded and Serenity immediately went to find the bathroom to get some towels while Mokuba found his way to the kitchen and found some dish towels. The two quickly went back to the shop area, giving Tea and Tristan the towels as they worked to keep any more blood from coming out. None of them really liked the site of blood, let alone getting their hands in it, but it was necessary.

Upstairs, Yugi had made it to his room and looked inside his closet, only to find the small door to the safe that he kept his most treasured items in to be broken. Yugi looked around furiously for the three God cards, but his efforts were fruitless. The cards were gone. Joey and Kaiba arrived a few seconds later to see Yugi completely break down on the floor.

"It's my fault..." Yugi cried quietly. "If only I didn't keep those cards here..." Joey slowly walked up and put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, bud. Don't worry, your grandfather is going to be fine. He's been through a lot worse situations, remember?" he said, referring to when Pegasus stole Solomon's soul. Yugi wiped the tears from his eyes and gazed at the safe.

"Who would want to do such a thing though?" Yugi asked. "Why would they want to hurt my grandfather for no reason at all?" Yugi was doing his best to keep the tears from coming, but they leaked out anyways.

"It was probably the same person that hacked into my database," Kaiba replied. Yugi and Joey looked toward him, seeing Kaiba looking at a poster of the Dark Magician that Yugi had up on the wall. "Think about it. My database is hacked into and all the duelist profiles and duel disk specification were stolen. Now, the Egyptian God Cards have been stolen too." Yugi thought on this for a moment, for Kaiba made an excellent point. There was no way any of this was coincidence. "This would also narrow the search a little," Kaiba added. "It has to be a rare hunter..."

"A rare hunter?" Joey asked. "But I thought after Yugi defeated Marik at Battle City, the rare hunters disbanded?" Kaiba snorted a little. "It's hard to get rid of slimeballs like them." The sounds of sirens soon came to their ears as the three decided to head back downstairs to join the others.

The next hour passed with Yugi and his friends telling the police what they knew and anybody they knew who would want to hurt his grandfather. However, it was mostly the others telling them what they knew. Yugi was busy trying to care for his grandfather but the medical technicians didn't let him get anywhere close to him, so all he could do was watch. They quickly loaded Soloman into the ambulance and hauled him off to the hospital, though they wouldn't let Yugi ride with them because of the cramped space.

"I sure hope your grandpa is alright, Yug," Joey said walking up to Yugi, who was watching the ambulance leave. "I hope so too. He's everything in the world to me, I don't know what I'd do if he were..." Yugi stopped his sentence there and remained silent.

"I think the old geezer will be alright," Kaiba said walking up next to Yugi. "If he could survive me then he can survive about anything."

"Yeah, but you didn't exactly cut him open though like that," said Tristan, who was looking back at the card shop which the police were no collecting evidence and barracading the entry. The neighborhood had become quite interested into what was going on and were filing out of their homes to see.

"Regardless, I'm going to find whoever did this and make them pay for what they did, and get those cards back," Yugi stated angerly. Tea sighed and looked up at the top of one of the nearby buildings, which the horizon was setting upon. 'Poor Yugi...seems out of all of us, he seems to suffer the most, and from people who just want to pick a fight too...hey...what's that up there?' Tea shielded her eyes and looked more closely. It appeared to be a person and they were watching them like a hawk.

"Hey guys...who is that up there?" Tea pointed to the figure and everyone turned their attention to them. Whoever it was, they were wearing a robe-like outfit. Mokuba quickly dug into his vest pocket, pulling out a small telescope and looking through it towards their mysterious watcher.

"Can you tell who it is, Mokuba?" asked Serenity. "Well...it appears to be some woman in a long black robe," he replied.

"Why does 'that' sound familiar?" Joey stated sarcasticly. Mokuba continued to look on and noticed the woman move her hand to her pocket, where she pulled something out. She quickly flashed them to her onlookers and Mokuba gasped. "She has the Egyptian God Cards!" That definitely got everybody's attention, especially Yugi's, who had reached over and snatched the telescope from Mokuba to see for himself. Sure enough, that's what she was holding.

"It was her!" Yugi yelled. The woman quickly turned and began to run, jumping to one of the neighboring buildings. Yugi began to run after her and tossed the telescope back to Mokuba. "Yugi, wait up!" Joey yelled, who was quickly followed by Serenity. "Hey, wait for us!" Duke yelled who was followed by Tristan and Tea. Kaiba watched them go and then walked back to his limo. Mokuba pocketed his telescope and followed.

"Seto, shouldn't we help them?" Mokuba asked his older brother. Kaiba reached the limo and opened the driver side door. "We are. We're going to follow them, now get in." Mokuba smiled, running up and hoping into the passenger side of the limo. Then the two sped off and followed Yugi and his friends.

Streets of Domino: 04-12-04: Monday: 7:20 P.M.

The woman was hoping from building to building, even running across some street lights and hoping off of them to cross some of the wide intersections. Yugi was pursuing her relentlessly. In fact, Yami had already taken over for him and was doing a good job of keeping up.

/Why would she want to harm my grandfather?/ Yugi asked. (She obviously wanted the Egyptain God cards), Yami stated. (But to do something so despicable to get them is completely uncalled for!) Yami carefully watched the woman as he ran down the sidewalks. Oddly enough they were empty and there didn't seem to be a car on the road at all. The woman gave a quick glance down to Yami, then made a left turn at an intersection.

Yami quickly followed her, but as she was halfway down the next block, she quickly turned and jumped over the road to the building on the opposite side and disappeared. "Damnit!" Yami yelled. He continued on and made a turn at the next intersection in the direction she had went, but could no longer see her.

"No, I lost her!" Yami bent over on his knees so he could catch his breath, but was still looking around to see if he had missed her. Behind him he could hear the footsteps of his friends approaching fast. /Where did she go?/ Yugi asked. (I dunno, but she's bound to surface again,) Yami stated.

"About time you stopped!" Joey yelled as he stopped next to Yami. "You lose her?" Yami sighed and stood back up straight. "Yes. She got away." Joey snapped his fingers just as the others approached.

"Where'd she go?" asked Serenity. "She slipped through our fingers, sis," Joey replied. Yami slowly slipped his coat off and draped is over his arm, he had gotten quite hot from all that running.

"Who was that, one of those rare hunter freaks?" asked Duke. "Had to have been, who else 'could' it be?" Tea replied. Kaiba's limo soon pulled up, shining its headlights on the group as Kaiba and Mokuba stepped out. "I take it you lost her?" Kaiba asked. Yami quickly looked at him and gave a nod, resulting in Mokuba lightly banging his fist on the engine hood. "Well, what now?" asked Tristan, "You think we should head to the hospital and check up on Mr. Motou?"

"That sounds like a good idea to me," stated Tea. "Yugi, what about you?" Although it was Yami in control at the moment, in everyone elses eyes he was Yugi. So Yugi turned around and began walking towards Kaiba's limo. "Sure, if Kaiba doesn't mind giving a ride?" Kaiba shook his head and pressed a button on the drivers door for the other doors to open. "Hop on in. It's a one way ride though, me and Mokuba have to be heading home." Everyone nodded and proceeded to the limo. As they approached they heard what sounded like clothes flapping in the wind up above them. They looked up just in time to see someone land on top of the limo's hood, successfully denting it. Big time.

"Hey!" Kaiba yelled while jumping back, startled by the strangers appearance. Yugi and Mokuba quickly recognized them though as the same woman from before. It looked like they hadn't lost her afterall.

"Well, well, well," she began, standing up on the limo and removing her hood. She had long silver hair with several black lightning bolt shaped stripes going through it and unusual eyes of green, yellow, and orange. She also had very pale skin, almost white. "Did you all get some good exercise chasing after me?"

"Who do you think you are, lady!?" Joey yelled. The woman laughed a little. "I'm Calli, that's who." Joey growled loudly from having her turn his sentence around on him. "What is it that you want, and why have you hurt my grandfather!?" Yugi yelled.

"I already have what I want, starfish head. I'm just here now to have a little fun with you. You're grandfather on the other hand was an added bonus." Yugi's face flushed a deep red. "You've got some nerve." Calli laughed and hoped off of the limo. "Why, thank you. Now, let's get started. You do want to get your cards back, right?" Yugi growled and gave a nod.

"Very well then. Here, catch!" Calli threw a duel disk over to Yugi, who barely caught it since he wasn't expecting anything to be thrown to him. "We'll duel for them. I win, I keep them, and if you win, you can have them back. Sound fair?"

"They're mine to begin with, I shouldn't have to duel for them!" Yugi yelled. "Aww, is the rockstar wannabe gonna cry? Shut up and load your deck!" Calli yelled, who slipped her deck into the duel disk she was already wearing.

"Watch yourself, Yugi! Remember, these rare hunters are tricky!" Joey yelled. "Yeah, don't let your guard down!" Duke called out. Yugi stood on one end of the intersection and Calli on the other, the limo's headlights shining on them from a third instersection, which was also where everyone was standing.

"We'll duel by battle city rules with four-thousand lifepoints each. The winner claims all three of the Egyptain God cards, and the loser...well, loses." Everyone facefaulted to the pavement, expecting something with a little bit more of a twist.

"Enough, let's just do this!" Yugi yelled, launching his duel disk holo-emitters. "Alright!" Calli yelled, doing the same. "Let's duel!"