DISCLAIMER: If you recognise it from somewhere else, it isn't mine.

Stalked by the Rare Hunters

Even as he listened to it, Joey couldn't believe it. 'You can't be serious! You mean to tell me that rich punk, Kaiba, is throwing his own exclusive Duel Monsters Tournament?'

Yugi nodded once. 'Yup.'

'And the whole thing kicks off in less than a week,' Téa said.

Joey growled. 'I can't believe moneybags didn't send an invite to me! I was the runner-up at Duellist Kingdom! Where's the respect?'

Tristan gave him a bland look. 'Here's a newsflash for you, Joey: Kaiba doesn't like you.'

'I'll give him something not to like!' Joey insisted.

'You know, this is exactly how he wants you to react,' Tristan pointed out.

'Huh?' Joey drew back.

Sharee laughed. 'Maybe so, but you got a point, Joey.' She dug into her pocket. 'As a matter of fact…' She dialled. Everyone turned around and watched her. After a moment, she grinned. 'Hey, Shauna, wanna do your sis a favour? It's about the Battle City Tournament.'

There was talking from the other end.

'Right. Great. Thanks.' She hung up. 'Your name should be on the system when we go and pick up the duel disks.'

Joey grinned. 'You're awesome, man! Maybe this'll teach Kaiba he can't keep me outta no tournament!'

Sharee chuckled. 'Well, I guess that means we only have to really worry about Marik and those cards then.'

'Marik?' Tristan asked.

'Cards?' Joey asked at the same time.

'Super-rare cards we have to get back from a bunch of thieves,' Yugi said. 'That's why I have to enter the tournament. I just found out it's the only way I can achieve my destiny.'

That had Joey's attention. 'Your destiny? What are you talking about?'

'It's kind of a long story.'

'I got nowhere to go.'

'All right,' Yugi said. 'Some kind of evil force is coming back from the past and I'm destined to join this tournament to defeat it.'

'Then it's my destiny to help!' Joey insisted. 'I got just the card! I'm talking Red Eyes Black Dragon, folks!'

Yugi, Tea and Tristan stared at him.

Sharee chuckled and shook her head. 'All right, all right. Let's not get over-excited. Nearly everyone died last time.'

This time everyone stared at her.

'How do you know that?' Tristan asked.

'Because dad's been deciphering the hieroglyphics from that time for two years,' Sharee said. 'He found a really long list of the dead. The evil is described as a "monstrosity from the depths of darkness and the heart of terror".'

Téa drew back. 'That sounds horrible!'

'To say the least.' Yugi wrapped his hands around the Puzzle. 'And that's what the Pharaoh defeated all those years ago?'

'I'd say so.'

'Huh?' Tristan and Joey asked.

This time, Téa explained. 'It turns out Yami, the Spirit of the Millennium Puzzle, is actually an Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh. He was king of Egypt when all this happened.'

Joey chuckled. 'Well, I guess that explains why he's so awesome.'

'I think the word you're looking for is "powerful",' Sharee said. 'Anyway, Joey, if you're gonna be in this you ought to know we're gonna be working with Kaiba's set of new advanced duel disks.'

'The old ones were too advanced for me!' Joey insisted. 'They cost me the duel!'

'That wasn't the duel disk,' Sharee muttered.

'You're a much better duellist now than you were then, Joey,' Yugi told him. 'But before you jump right into another duel with Kaiba, you should practice with the new duel disk.'

'Then what are we waiting for?' Joey demanded. 'I gotta sign up for this thing!' He ran off. The rest of them groaned.

Sharee just shook her head. 'I'm glad Shauna works fast.'

YGO

Yugi was also glad Shauna worked fast. They got Joey a duel disk with no problems. Of course, when they stepped out it was dark. Apparently, Shauna had "accidentally" crashed the system a bit while she added Joey in.

'Guys, I gotta get going,' Joey said as he turned down a street and away from the rest of the group. 'My sister Serenity's operation's tomorrow and I told her I'd stay at the hospital tonight.'

'All right,' Yugi said. 'Wish Serenity luck for me, Joey.'

Sharee smiled. 'And the rest of us too.'

'I'm sure everything's gonna be fine.' Yugi nodded.

'Thanks a lot, Yug.' Joey raised his hand. 'Later, you guys.' He turned and ran down the street.

'Bye, Joey,' Téa called. 'Good luck!'

YGO

Sharee was woken rudely at about two o'clock in the morning. Her cell phone rang insistently until she picked it up. 'Someone had better be dead,' she grumbled into the receiver.

'Sharee, you had your sister hack into my mainframe, didn't you?'

'Kaiba.' Sharee yawned. 'What makes you think that?'

'Who else possesses the skill with a computer to get Wheeler onto the system?'

'Caught me.' Sharee rolled over and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. 'Well, he was the runner-up at Duellist Kingdom, and that's where Yugi won his title: King of Games. Not very professional of you, allowing your antagonism for him to uninvite him from the tournament.' Suddenly, it clicked in her head. 'Wait a second.' She sat up straight and flicked on her bedside lamp. 'He'd be one in thousands! We only did it this afternoon just passed! I doubt you have the patience or the inclination to flick through the contestants. How did you find out he was on the system so fast?'

'He got involved in a premature duel.'

Sharee's eyes narrowed. 'Against whom?'

'Just five random guys.'

'Five?' Sharee demanded. 'At the same time?'

'Yes.'

Rats! 'Come on now, Kaiba, you know as well as I do they were not random. Goodbye.' She hung up on him and dialled again before he could call her back. Sharee listened to the phone ring before she heard the click.

'Hello?'

'Shauna, I need you to reroute a call for me.'

'Sharee, why are you calling me at two o'clock in the morning?' Shauna demanded. 'Yes, it's eleven in the morning here, but you're on the other side of the world!'

'Yeah, I know.' Sharee quickly told her what had just happened. As she did so, she was stumbling out of bed and looking for both her shoes and her Bandanna. She was relieved, when she finished, to hear Shauna moving about on her end of the line. 'So I need you to bypass the hospital's main office and go right to Serenity Wheeler's room.'

'Okay…are you sure she'll be awake?'

'Trust me, if she's anything like her brother she'll be awake.'

'All right.' There was a pause. 'Redial now.'

Sharee pulled the phone away from her ear and dialled the hospital that Serenity was in. She listened to it dial. Unlike when she'd called her sister, it didn't ring for nearly as long. For a girl on the brink of losing her eyesight, Serenity grabbed the phone really fast.

'Joey?' she asked anxiously.

'He not there?' Sharee asked. 'I was afraid of that.' Ow! Oh, there are my shoes. 'Okay. Serenity, my name's Sharee Pertinicle. I'm one of your brother's friends. I just got a phone call that made me think he didn't make it to the hospital after we parted ways a few hours back.'

'Yeah, he's not here,' Serenity said. 'I'm really worried about him. Ever since we were kids if he said he was going to do something, he did it.'

'I know.' Sharee could remember quite a few incidents like that. And there's my Bandanna. Come on, Shamee. We have to find Joey! I'm already looking. 'Right, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna call our other friends and we'll all look for him. With some luck, we'll have him at the hospital by morning.'

'I wish I could help,' Serenity said.

'You've already done all that I could ask for.'

'Thank you.'

Sharee just nodded and hung up. She set down her phone, only to tie her Bandanna onto her head. She then scooped it up again and bolted out the door and down the stairs. She was already mentally reciting three more phone numbers and dialling one of them. Maybe Joey shouldn't have thrown such a fuss in that store. If who it looked like had attacked him had, it was safe to say Joey was no longer in possession of the Red Eyes Black Dragon.

YGO

Yugi yawned as he just about tripped down the stairs and over to the phone. He yawned again and picked it up off the cradle. 'Hello, game shop.' What he heard on the other end woke him up immediately. 'What? What happened?' He listened as Sharee shot through everything she knew. 'You're right. I'm coming.' Yugi hung up and darted back upstairs. He'd need the Millennium Puzzle, and proper protection against the night chill.

His grandfather was just coming out of his bedroom, rubbing his eyes. 'Who was calling so early in the morning, Yugi?'

YGO

Téa decided that whoever was calling at this godforsaken hour was going to suffer. Her parents slept like the dead and this persistent caller was not letting up. She stomped down the stairs in a huff and snatched the phone off its cradle. 'Hello?' She was sharp and curt, making sure the person knew she was in a bad mood.

The person turned out to be Sharee, who had seven words that killed Téa's anger where it stood. They killed the anger and made another emotion rise up in its place. With a gasp, Téa's free hand flew to her mouth.

YGO

Tristan hated people who called anytime between ten at night and ten in the morning. And this person called at two in the morning. He was tempted to just ignore it. But his parents were out for the night and all he heard was a never-ending ringing phone. He hauled himself out of bed and through the house.

Snatching the phone off the cradle he barked into it, 'Hello!'

'Joey never made it to the hospital.' And Sharee killed his anger with one sentence.

'What?' If Joey never made it, it meant something had happened to him. 'Where are you now?'

'I'm running down the streets, heading for where we last saw him,' Sharee said. 'And then I'm going to run down that street and try to find him. Shamee ought to be able to track him down. I already called Yugi and Téa, so you won't need to bother. But I left the house in such a hurry, I forgot to grab my dad's motorbike. You got one, haven't you?'

'Yeah.' Tristan remembered she'd seen it once before. 'I'll swing by and pick you up. It'll be much faster than running.'

YGO

Sharee was deeply familiar with the sound of a motorbike over the sound of a car. When she heard one coming up behind her, she turned her head. She easily recognised Tristan riding along the road. He pulled up next to her. Sharee wasted no time hopping on the back and yanking the spare helmet onto her head. Tristan took off again.

'I guess none of us were willing to stop and get changed, huh?' she remarked as Tristan found his way back to where they'd last seen Joey.

'Who's got time for it when a buddy needs help?' he responded. 'How'd you find out anyway?'

'Kaiba, oddly enough,' Sharee said. 'Apparently, when the duel disk activates he knows about it and, because they're registered, he saw it was Joey. Called me to pick a bone.'

'Joey got into a duel?' Tristan demanded.

'With five guys.'

'Five?' Tristan nearly lost control of the bike.

'That's what the duel disk registered, or however it works.' Sharee scowled. 'Anyway, then I called the hospital, just to check. You know the rest.'

'Yeah.' Tristan turned down the street where they'd last seen Joey running.

Sharee's eyes scanned around and it didn't take her long to see him. 'Stop!'

Tristan slammed on the brakes and swung the bike to a stop. 'Aw, man. Joey.'

Joey was slumped, unconscious, in a gutter. His duelling deck was scattered all around him. Sharee and Tristan climbed off the bike and walked over. Tristan immediately started gathering up the cards. Sharee bent over and checked Joey over for physical injury.

'Is he all right?' Tristan asked.

'A bump on the head,' Sharee said. 'Might be a concussion, but my dad ain't that kind of doctor.' She dug into her jacket pocket and pulled out a small cylindrical container with some kind of spices inside. 'One way to know for sure.'

'What are those?'

Sharee yanked the lid off and waved the container under Joey's nose. 'Smelling salts.'

Joey seemed to wake up fast and flinched back from that. 'Get that stuff outta my face!'

'Well, he's not confused.' Sharee capped them again. She held up four fingers. 'How many fingers am I holding up.'

Joey opened his eyes and blinked a few times. 'Uh…eight?'

'And that is what double-vision looks like.' Sharee stood up. 'You rest there for a bit.'

'You just have smelling salts in your jacket pocket?' Tristan asked.

'Habit,' Sharee said. 'Bit more to archaeology than people think.' She looked at the blond at her feet. 'Hey, Joey what happened?'

'Uh…' Joey blinked. 'Well, there were these guys…five of them. They wanted to duel me. Actually, only one did the actual duelling. And then…' He waved his hand.

Sharee turned her head. 'Wait, were they in long dark cloaks?'

'Yeah.'

'Tristan, check his deck. I got a feeling.'

'Huh? Sure.' The cards shifted over each other as Tristan shuffled through the cards. A moment before he found it, Joey made a choked sound in the back of his throat. 'Hey, the Red Eyes is gone!'

'They stole it!' Joey jumped to his feet and swayed.

'Yeah, they do that.' Sharee pushed Joey back onto his butt. 'The Battle City Tournament rules don't come into effect until it actually starts. The Rare Hunters steal rare and valuable cards and either keep them for themselves or sell them on the black market. Now, the Red Eyes Black Dragon is of a class that you can bet they'll keep it for themselves.'

Joey ground his teeth. 'So I'll have a chance to get it back.'

'Yes.' Sharee smiled. 'But, right now, I think you have a little sister to take care off.' She offered him her hand. 'I promised I'd have you at the hospital by morning.'

Joey looked up at her, smiled and took her hand.

An hour later, the sun was coming up and Sharee was standing with Tristan in the doorway of Serenity's room. They watched as Joey's little sister just about hugged the life out of him. Sharee smiled like that. It was a different sibling dynamic, again, from the one she had with her sister.

Sharee was just glad they'd found Joey alive.

YGO

'Hey, Joey,' Yugi said. 'Serenity's operation went well?' Joey had just called them over the phone. There'd been a lot of phone calls between these guys in the last few hours.

Beside him, Téa cheered. 'Awesome!'

'She's in the recovery room now,' Joey said.

'Who were those guys last night, Joey?' Yugi asked, and he didn't like the answer he got.

'Sharee said they were the Rare Hunters.' Joey sounded angry now. 'All I know is I'm gonna find them and win back my Red Eyes.'

'Well, I'll be there to help you, Joey,' Yugi said.

'I know you will, pal. Listen, I'll stop by on my way home.'

'You got it! Bye.' Yugi hung up the phone. The Rare Hunters…