"Dude, get your butt off my face!" Tristan grumbled, shoving Joey off of him as he sat up, checking his surroundings.
Yugi held out his hand, helping Tea to her feet.
Jericho removed his jacket and sighed mournfully. "My jacket is destroyed. I paid $200 for this thing." He noticed a large pile of thin wooden beams, drywall, and ceiling squares in front of him. "Oh, crap, those kids!"
He moved to grab a wooden beam, but the rubble began shaking, little pieces tumbling onto the floor as bigger pieces shifted around. A burly forearm burst through the rubble, pulling out a body attached to; it was Scott, covered in dirt, mold, dust, and rotten wood specks. He threw two beams away from the pile, pulling Jacob and Susan out behind him.
He had covered them when the ceiling came down. Jericho admired the loyalty and selflessness the boy showed, and held out his hand. "This may seem like an awkward time to request something like this, but when we get out of here, I'd really like to duel you."
Scott didn't know what to say at first. He'd almost just died twice – once from falling through the floor, and once from the ceiling caving in on him – and here was someone he barely knew asking for a duel. Somehow, he figured this was Jericho's way of complimenting him.
"Yeah, sure, why not?" He shook Jericho's hand.
To most people, his response would seem odd after what had just transpired, but this was a circle of duelists. To them, he would've been crazy not to say yes.
"Are you hurt?" Jacob asked, looking over his sister, who had only a few scrapes as far as he could see. She shook her head, smiling at him. Everything was going to be fine now that they were out of harm's way. "Good. I'll never let this happen to you again, sis. I'll protect you better next time. I promise."
The pile came to life again. The remaining three beams and most of the drywall slid away, and the four women who had interrupted Yugi's and Seeker's duel rose up. Their black suits were coated in a thick layer of gray from the drywall. Their distinguishing belts remained untouched, though, through some strange means.
With the women came a wave of tension. Everybody perked up, glaring at them. The women formed a single file line, making their way past the group and to the door leading to the front room.
As the teal belt passed, Jericho reached out and gripped her arm. "Hey, who do you think you are? You can't just—"
Without hesitation, she broke free of his grasp, twisted his arm behind him, and kicked him into the wall.
"That does it! I've never hit a woman before but I think I'm gonna start with this one!" Tristan shouted, rolling up his sleeves.
"Tristan, don't," Yugi said. "Let them go."
The girl gave a cold glance to Yugi, the blue of her irises meeting with the purple of his. She continued on without so much as blinking.
"Why'd you stop me, dude? She deserved to be roughed up a little. You saw what she did to Jericho."
"I have a feeling we'll see them again. Right now we need to focus on ourselves and get out of here."
"Right."
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Bright HID lights on the front of a car marked its path as it traversed down a street in between two large warehouses. It came to a slow stop in front of a metal garage door, which pulled open, allowing entrance into another warehouse at the end of the street. The V8 engine purred before revving up as the vehicle moved into the abandoned building. After it had been fully engulfed by the building, the garage door slid shut, and industrial-sized lights popped on, illuminating a vast majority of the area.
Like ants to a picnic, several Rare Hunters showed themselves, surrounding the fire red sports car. The driver side door opened, and a man in a black robe stepped into the light, showing his slightly tanned skin. He was a taller man, so it was surprising that he fit so comfortably into the small car. He ran a hand through the front of his hair, pushing it up into thick black and red tufts.
The man pressed a button on his remote, and the car chirped twice.
"Master Marik has been expecting you," a wide-eyed man said, kneeling down in front of the car. There was a symbol depicting two flags – one checkered and the other red with a small slanted cross in the center – intersecting at the bases of the poles in the middle of the fender. He lifted his finger to caress the symbol when he was subsequently grabbed by the hood of his robe and slammed onto his back.
The spiky-haired male pressed his knee into the man's windpipe, causing him to cough and sputter. "Don't…touch my car." He wrenched his knee. The man began wriggling around underneath him. "If I find even one speck of a fingerprint on my car, I will rip your hands from the wrists and force feed them to you until your throat is so full of your grubby little fingers that you choke to death. Do you understand me?"
There was an instant nod.
"What's going on out here?" Odion's deep voice resounded throughout the spacious room. "Kai, you know it's not wise to keep Master Marik waiting."
Standing up, Kai brushed his pant leg off and turned to Odion. "Alright, let's go."
The wide-eyed man on the floor rolled over, rubbing his throat and coughing up blood.
Odion and Kai ingressed into a much smaller room with television screens covering one of the walls. A luxurious recliner sat ten feet from the wall, facing it.
"Kai, what did you find out?" inquired the man who was slouching in the recliner. "Who were those four fools?"
"They were all women," Kai responded, taking a place next to the recliner and observing the various scenes unfolding on the wall in front of him. "The one with the purple belt is called Omi. The one with the blue belt is Kalika. I don't know the names of the other two yet."
"You had better find out. I can't have them ruining anymore of my plans, understand?"
"Yes, sir."
He could see KaibaCorp Tower in one of the center screens. His eyebrow twitched.
Marik grumbled, turning his scepter slightly and looking over the screens in front of him. He could tell Kai was glaring at one screen in particular; he did it every time he was in the room. "In four days, Seto Kaiba will be vulnerable. That is when we'll make our move."
"How can you be so sure he'll be competing?"
"He'd be a fool not to."
Marik pulled out a deck of cards from a square box by his feet. He scanned through the cards, picking out two and replacing the rest in the box. The two cards were unlike the rest. One was color-coded in red, and the other in yellow.
"He wants these two cards, and he knows he has to duel in order to get them."
Kai's face tensed up. "The Egyptian God Cards?"
"Yes; the most powerful cards in all of Duel Monsters. Due to an unfortunate event, Kaiba has the third Egyptian God, and I want it back."
"I'll humiliate him and bring you the God Card."
"Kaiba is not one to be underestimated. I brought you in because you were an exceptionally skilled duelist, Kai. Duel Odion, and if you can defeat him, I'll assign you to face Kaiba in Battle City."
Kai faced Odion, who merely nodded back. The two headed out of the room, returning to the room where all of the other Rare Hunters were residing. They were both handed Duel Disks, which were promptly activated.
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Pouring rain clapped down onto the roof of the game shop as Yugi and the other returned to the game shop. Jericho, Joey, Tristan, and Tea shed their wet jackets and left them on the coat rack by the front doors. Yugi was met by an old man, shorter than even he was.
"Yugi! I was worried sick! You look like you've been in a fight!" the old man huffed.
Yugi chuckled. "Sorry, Grandpa. But I'm fine, really! I'll tell you all about it tomorrow."
"Who are your friends?"
Scott, Jacob, and Susan introduced themselves cordially. They'd been in the shop before, but only for brief stints, so they'd never actually met Grandpa.
"Yugi, a package was delivered here while you were out," said Grandpa, handing him a disc. "I'd like to watch it with you, but it's really late and this old man needs his beauty sleep!"
The group said their goodnights.
"Who's the disc from?" asked Tea.
"It doesn't say."
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
The rain increased its power, dropping so hard it sounded like hammers on the roof of the altitudinous building. Lightning struck several times, acting as a spotlight. Four Yamaha sport bikes purred through the rain, driving into the parking garage below.
"Sometimes I think we chose the wrong vehicles for this kind of stuff."
"Oh, quit your whining, Omi. You're just not a good driver. It's okay."
"I'm not a good driver? You're full of it, Athena. I saw you spinning the tires out there a few times."
"Yeah, yeah…" The girl with the yellow belt set her helmet on the seat of her bike, twirling her keys on her index finger.
The teal belt got off her bike, lifting her arms to remove her helmet. She grunted as she did so, garnering the attention of her comrades.
"Kalika, is something wrong?" asked Athena, tilting her head.
The blue-eyed girl removed her hood with her left arm – with no accompanying grunt – freeing a mass of sandy blond hair from its restraint. She rubbed her right arm, groaning slightly as she did. "It was that collapse in the corridor. I'll be fine." She turned to the green belt. "Hera, are you still going back out to track the Rare Hunters?"
"No, I think we've gotten ourselves enough attention tonight. We should lay low for a bit and plan our next move out. Come on."