Her Sweetness: Well, guys, like last time I am without much of a plot. I mean, I have a plot but I need… ties. Yes, that's the right word. But don't worry about me, I like being in deep water without a lifesaver. It'll teach me how to swim.

Enjoy!

A Tale of Two Bunnies

Chapter 2:

"HEY! LET ME IN! C'MON GUYS, PLEASE!"

Mokuba shouted at the closed door and banged with his tiny fists loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear. Marik and Malik's neighbors—who never liked the boys anyway—all peeked out of their windows cautiously to watch the spectacle going on. Mokuba continued to shout and scream until Marik's voice was heard through the door.

"Shut up out there," he hissed. "You're going to make those old people across the street call the police again!"

"Please Marik, help me! I can't do this by myself, you saw it with your own two eyes: my brother's been kidnapped by aliens!"

Bakura, who was obviously by the door as well, chimed in, "That's why he doesn't want to let you in the house. If the aliens want your brother and your company, then they're going to want you. And if you're in the house with us, they might just take us along for the ride as well!"

"Yeah and I don't really feel like having a cold, metal probe launched up my butt," Marik said.

Mokuba stopped suddenly and sat down on the porch. He sniffled, wiping his nose with his sleeve. "That's not fair…"

"Life isn't fair."

Inside the house, both Marik and Bakura had their backs to the door as reinforcement to the locks. They heard Mokuba's sobbing out on the steps and tried to ignore it. Just then Malik walked in from the kitchen, holding in his oven mitt-clad hands a tray of hot cookies.

"Who wants chocolate-chip cookies?" he sang.

"Malik, shut up," Marik said.

Malik looked around and set the tray on the coffee table. He put his hands on his hips. "Where's Mokuba? What'd you two do to him?"

"Nothing," Bakura said and pointed at the door behind him. "He just decided to kick himself out."

"… What? Oh hell, get out of the way!" Malik kicked them both until they mewled with pain and stumbled out of the way. Malik opened the door and was just in time to see Mokuba shuffle down the street like a lost little puppy. He ran out of the house and had Mokuba's hand in his in a matter of seconds.

"Let go of me," Mokuba said stubbornly. He jerked his hand away. "I'm going to Yami and Yugi's house."

"Oh, Mokuba, you can't."

"Why not?"

"They went on vacation."

"… Vacation?" He cried out, aghast. "What the heck for?"

"I dunno. I guess after everything that happened, they wanted a little… alone time? Look, hell if I know, but I guess we're the only ones you have. So don't worry, we'll help you."

Mokuba's eyes brightened. "Really?"

"No!"

Both Malik and Mokuba looked back towards the house to see Marik and Bakura come running up to join them. Marik wore a frustrated look on his face as he poked his hikari in the forehead. "No, no and no again! Dammit, Malik, I'm already stuck trying to look for Ryou, I don't need this on my plate too."

"But Marik—"

"Wait a minute!" Bakura looked at his fellow yami and pouted. "What the hell? What do you mean you're 'stuck' searching for Ryou? Don't you like him?"

"… What? Oh come on, Bakura!"

"Don't you?" Bakura persisted.

"W-Well he's okay. He's just… clingy."

"Clingy? Marik, how dare you! You wouldn't like it if I said something like that about Malik!"

"Ha. I wouldn't care."

Malik gasped. "Hey!"

"This is not helping!" Mokuba waved his arms about, gaining their attention. Most of it anyway.

They looked down at him.

"Listen," he said quickly, "if you help me find Seto then maybe we'll find Ryou on the way! You've got to admit, it is strange, Ryou missing, then my brother, then all of Kaiba Corp. Don't you think there's some kind of connection?"

"No," Bakura said. "But I'll give it a shot anyway."

"Great! Marik? Are you coming?"

Marik began to stutter incoherently. He did not want to go on a wild goose chase for Seto Kaiba but then again, he didn't want to be the one stuck at home to guard the furniture. "Fine," he said nonchalantly.

Mokuba and Malik cheered and Bakura eyed Marik warily. Mokuba smiled. "So where do we begin?"

There was silence. Everyone turned to Marik.

"… Huh? Me? Well what… Ugh. Alright, well I guess the most logical thing to do—"

Bakura stifled a giggle.

Marik glared and then continued. "The most logical thing to do is to follow the kidnappers and just take your brother back, Mokuba."

"… Follow them?"

"They're in space, dummy," Malik said and received a slap in return. As he sobbed, Marik continued once again, "As I was saying… we could go into town and see who has a spaceship for rent. We'll use that to get up there."

More silence.

Malik rolled his watery eyes. "Oh that has got to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard!"

"Yeah, Marik," said Bakura. "We all know that renting spaceships is expensive business. We don't have any money for that kinda thing."

"Oh. Yeah."

Mokuba blinked. He waved his hand to get some attention. "Wait, I got it. We can use my allowance from this past week. There's still a little left. We just have to stop off in my room to get it."

They all looked at each other for a second before laughing behind their hands. Malik leaned down and patted Mokuba's hair. He said, "That is so sweet. How much money do you have?"

"Erm…" He thought for a minute. "About 2.5 million, if we don't count the money in my piggy bank."

Malik face-faulted.

"Everyone over to the rich kid's house!" Marik shouted gleefully.

"YAY!"

Unfortunately, Bakura's car was in the shop at the time and the bus that Marik and Malik usually took wasn't running due to idiots crowding the streets. So the four of them started off from Sphincter Ave and headed out of East Domino. As they entered Central Domino and walked further and further into the main streets, they noticed that the crowd of dawdling idiots grew larger.

"What is going on?" Marik called out to his companions as they were beginning to separate due to the thickening mob.

"I think the Pope is in town," Bakura called back.

Malik paused. "As a general rule, Bakura should not be allowed first response."

"Hey, I heard that!" Bakura pouted.

Mokuba cried out in anguish.

"What's wrong, Mokuba?"

"Someone stepped on my foot! … And they didn't say sorry!"

Marik groaned. This was taking longer than he thought it would. They could've already been in Northern Domino if not for this huge road block. Suddenly, as the four of them continued to wade through bulky waters, the crowd of people automatically stopped giving way for them to move. Marik pushed at a fat man in front of him but that didn't do anything. He shouted at him, "Hey, get out of the way!"

"Ohhh…" was all he said.

Marik's eye twitched.

Bakura and Malik were both currently beating on the back of some middle-aged men in suits and still, they wouldn't move. Most of the crowd seemed to be starring up towards Northern Domino but because of the height of some of them, they couldn't see.

Bakura growled. "Can anyone see what they're starring at?"

"… Hold on, I'll go check."

Mokuba, unlike the other three, was able to get down on his knees and crawl between the people's legs, however uncomfortable it may have been for him. After creeping underneath the better half of the swarm, Mokuba came up in a clear spot and, still not being able to see very well, he climbed atop a very tall man's head. He sat on the man's bald cranium and shaded his eyes with his hand.

"Well? What do you see?" Malik asked.

"Oh my gosh. It's the spaceship! Hey, you guys, it's right there!" Mokuba shouted, continuously jerking his pointer finger to the object floating right over Domino City Park. In the clearing where only trees and a few benches surrounded, the large metal-cased heart was hovering silently but did not go unnoticed.

Policemen began to surround the thing, their guns up and cocked but their voices a little less than threatening.

"A-A-Alright, you alien, you…" one cop stuttered almost incoherently at the craft. "Come out with our… t-t-tentacles up…!"

Mokuba rolled his eyes. "Oh for Pete's sake. Marik, do something!"

"Why do I have to do something? Your brother's in there! And you're closer!"

"Hey, guys, look at that!"

Everyone turned their attention to where Bakura's voice rang from, his eyes focused not on the spaceship but on the giant television scene on front of a nearby building and the somewhat smaller ones attached to neighboring shops. The screens turned from the currently popular show Cooking with Dick Chaney to static and then a familiar face appeared through the grainy display.

Bakura's eyes widened.

"RYOU?"

"Hi, 'Kura!" Ryou squealed and waved happily at Bakura down in the crowd below. He looked around and picked out Marik, Malik and Mokuba from the large group as well. "Hi, guys! Guess where I am?" He didn't give them time to guess. "I'm in that ship over there! I guess I left in such a hurry a few days ago that I forgot a few things so I came back to pick them up."

"W-Wait a minute, slow down," Malik said, looking back at the ship. "Pick what up? And just where did you go?"

Ryou giggled madly. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Ryou, where's my brother?" Mokuba demanded, still atop his own personal bald man.

"Oh, he's working. He's not in the ship with me, if that's what you're asking. I dropped him off at home along with the rest of Kaiba Corp's scientists and whatnot."

"Huh?"

Bakura tapped his foot impatiently. "Ryou, I want you off that spaceship and back down here; we've been worried about you!"

"My poor little 'Kura. You've been lonely, haven't you?"

"No—"

"C'mon then," Ryou said and the screens were suddenly blank. The boys looked at each other for a moment before the spaceship in the center of the park began to spin. It rotated counterclockwise faster and faster until a green light from the tip appeared and ran over the perimeter including the crowds of people just beyond the park's limits. Sirens that seemed to come from the craft sounded loudly and were deafening to most.

The masses all screamed disjointedly and ran in all directions with their hands over their ears. The bell from the craft was at such a high pitch that it caused animal-like confusion and sent them into panic, running into one another and falling down helpless like wounded cows. Mokuba's bald man was still on the run and Mokuba held on to his head for dear life, screaming at the top of his lungs, "HELP ME!"

Marik had tried to get out of the way of the herds but was cornered and trampled over. Mokuba saw this from his spot high above the others and spotted both Malik and Bakura at the edge of the park on their knees, hands over their ears. Mokuba tried to shout over the noise, "GET MOVING," but wasn't heard and the bald man that carried him was suddenly taken down accidentally by an inexperienced policeman's gun. Mokuba fell into the heap.

The green light from the tip of the heart slowed its rotation and scanned the ground gradually. In its final go-around people started to disappear in the beam. A few here and a few there evaporated and were launched into the belly of the ship. The siren stopped and Malik looked up, his hands slowly coming down into the grass. The shaft of light from the ship was making its way towards him and Bakura, who was on the ground, knocked out.

Malik gasped and grabbed hold of Bakura's arm, yanking his torso up and off the ground. "C-Come on, Bakura," Malik said through gritted teeth. "Ra, you're heavy!"

Malik hobbled only about three yards more before the green light caught up with both of them.

Everything was quiet then and the largest screen across the street came back online, Ryou's face lighting it up. He surveyed the area. "Woo," he whistled. "What a mess. Teehee, they're gonna need one hell of a cleanup crew!"

The screen clicked to white noise and the spaceship took a heavy liftoff and headed upwards.

Her Sweetness: Thanks for reading, please review!