WHOO! NEW OC! He's a cross between an old friend of mine and Seto Kaiba, though the later is only because the inspirations real personality is so close to Kaiba's that I'd probably be yelled at for copying if I didn't state that.

Author's Note: I own all original characters, concepts, ideas and plots. I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh or any of its characters, concepts or ideas though.

Chapter 23- Burning

Time/ 3:30 pm EST

Location/ An office building in downtown Checkers

Aaron Maldan was not happy. Not happy at all. He had just been informed that some rather important co-workers of his had vanished from this plane. And that was never good. It meant that HE would have to come up with the next Tenu expansion by the end of the week if they didn't show up by then. It also meant that, if they did not return, 40 of all Elemental Inc. stocks would suddenly be up for grabs. That would not be good. It would mean that he would no longer own the company. Sigh.

As he typed madly, trying to finish HIS normal part of the work before scedual so that he would be free to fix THEIR mistacks, a pair of steel-blue eyes watched him from the desktop. Not the digital desktop, the one on which the computer was resting.

"You have to expect this sort of thing. They ARE all bandits and criminals and psychopaths."

The teenage-genious didn't so much as bat an eye.

"You'd expect three and a half millennia in the dark to at least mellow the Thief and Beast…"

"Ha! All it did was make them more reckless. They didn't even tell us they were going to initiate another magician into the fold."

"Did you really expect them to?"

"Not really."

"We're going to have to go after them, you know."

The executive finally sighed and closed the lid of the laptop, replacing it with a thick, leather-bound book.

"Yes, I know."

he tapped an intercom button on his desk.

"Karen?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Cancel everything for this afternoon. I have a personal emergency to attend to."
"Very well, I'll be on it."

"And Karen?"

"Yes sir?"

"Have a nice day."

"Thank you, sir."

Aaron shut off the intercom and opened the book, flipping to a page halfway through. He opened a window before tracing a diagram with his finger, saying three short words in Egyptian, and jumped out the window. People at ground level would later swear a glowing, golden bird the size of a condor, yet much more graceful, had flown out the 36th story of the Elemental Inc. building, take a few powerful wing beats, and disappear in a burst of flames. This was not the first time this had happened; nether would it be the last.

On the desk of Aaron Maldan, a plushy sat, abandoned. There was not a spark of light in it's eyes.