Chapter 2: - Keeping Secrets
"I brought you a present from the girls." Tristan said as he chucked the parcel to his friend. Joey was being released from hospital today and was just finishing packing up his stuff, "They sent one to Yugi too."
Joey stopped and caught it, moving a lot faster now then he had been able to for the last month or so but still holding back slightly. "It's nice to be getting out of here finally." Joey commented as he checked the tag, wondering what 'the girls' had sent him.
He knew who Tristan meant by that, whenever his friend spoke of Mai and Jamie he referred to them as 'the girls', but he'd spoken to them just this morning and they hadn't mentioned anything about presents.
"Joey, this will make your life easier." He read out loud, "It might seem a little heavy at first but you'll get used to the weight, trust me on that. Just don't ask how we got it." Curious now, Joey opened the package to find a belt that looked very similar to the one that Jamie wore that held her Pokeballs, except for the fact that there was a deck holster on it and the buckle had an odd cerulean blue symbol on it that looked kind of like a Dragonair.
"Yugi's had a sideways crescent moon on." Tristan commented, "I wasn't even aware they'd found any Pokemarts yet but..."
Joey tested the weight of the belt, before putting it on and slipping his deck into the holster. He paused for a moment as he considered the Pokeballs on the bedside table and slipped them into place on the belt, becoming surprised when they both attached and came away easily.
"They called me this morning." Tea said, speaking up as Tristan grabbed Joey's bag and the three o f them left, signing the right paperwork on their way out of the door and heading for the Day Care Centre to meet up with Yugi, who was supposed to be getting off of work soon. "They told me to tell you to take it easy."
Joey snorted, "The Doctors have already told me I'm not allowed to go back to work for another fortnight," He looked frustrated by that, "And no heavy lifting for two weeks after that."
"You nearly died." Tea's tone was reproachful as Joey backed up, amused by her reaction. "Of course you need to be careful."
"I will, I will." Joey put his hands up in the air with a chuckle, "Mokuba's been getting status updates on me from Yugi and he's already turned around and said that he's going to be checking the clock in register and if I'm on it before my fortnight's up he's docking my pay."
"That's nice of him." Tristan sounded surprised.
Joey just snorted. He had a feeling it was half concern and half that Mokuba didn't want a staff member collapsing in the Day Care, especially while tending to the Pokémon. It would make them look bad and scare people off.
"Let's go pick up Yuge." Joey said, trying to shrug off the odd feeling that he was being watched. "He's probably exhausted by now."
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"Watch it, Kaiba!" Yami snapped as he picked himself up, wincing slightly and cursing that he hadn't seen that bolt of dark magic coming until it had hit.
Kaiba had stopped paying attention the moment that Yami had started to pick himself up and was now looking at the Millennium Rod speculatively. "I've never seen you do that." He commented at the Pharaoh, who glanced at the clock and gained a slight frown.
"I can," Yami replied, "But I prefer not to. I prefer to keep my powers a secret and I don't generally need to blast people when I have Joey and Tristan with me anyway. They normally act long before I need to."
Kaiba let out a soft snort as he looked the Pharaoh over. He had been one of the first to notice that there were two Yugis and he had often wondered just how powerful Yugi's Puzzle really was. He'd accepted that magic was real a long time before the Millennium Rod had come into his hands – around the time his brother's soul had been sealed into a playing card.
"Kaiba?" Yugi's voice broke Kaiba's train of thoughts, "I need to leave. Now."
Kaiba scowled as he looked at the clock and realised that he'd kept Yugi here for too long. He didn't want it getting out that he owned a Millennium Item, so he'd arranged the sessions with Yugi for times when his friends would think that he was in work. That arrangement was coming to an end with Wheeler's release from hospital.
"I'll get someone to drop you off at the Day Care." Kaiba nodded, "But I will be calling this evening to arrange our next lesson."
Yugi nodded, his hand slipping to his pocket where he kept the mobile phone Kaiba had given him when he'd agreed to teach him, stating that he didn't trust an unsecure line and that the mobile he'd given Yugi was encrypted to only respond to certain numbers.
What he hadn't told his teacher in Shadow Magic was that the mobile would patch straight through to Kaiba's personal number, which only Roland and Mokuba had, and that he could use it as a much more cost effective way of keeping tabs on his rival. Oh it was underhanded and quite possibly illegal, but Yugi wasn't likely to find out and, though he knew Yami would be furious, somehow he knew Yugi wouldn't get irate about it.
"Mr Mutou?" Roland poked his head around the door and Yugi turned to follow.
"See you later, Kaiba." Yugi paused and waved at the door and then departed.
Kaiba watched the limo leave out of the window, then turned back to his work, trying not to think about how unhappy Yugi was with the current arrangements.
He knew Yugi hated keeping secrets from his friends, but he'd played on the fact that Yugi would never break a promise to force the teen into keeping their lessons from the others, a fact that had irritated Yami.
The stupid thing was that two weeks ago when he'd started these lessons with Yugi and his other self, he wouldn't have cared. Yugi had called Kaiba his friend long before he'd started teaching him but until the CEO had spent any real amount of time around his rival he hadn't realised that he actually felt concern for Yugi and that, for all his claims that he didn't give a damn about Yugi and his dweeb squad, he'd actually been concerned when he'd heard about the helicopters being brought down and not just because of the bad reputation it would give his pilots.
Seto's phone rang and the CEO picked it up quickly, recognising the ring tone instantly. "Mokuba?"
"Come to the roof Seto." Mokuba's tone was oddly flat, making Seto frown. Mokuba was never that emotionless, especially when talking to him, "Quickly."
And with that he put down the phone leaving Seto confused and concerned.
In a heartbeat Kaiba had called up the security footage for the roof, letting out a curse when he realised that the cameras up there weren't working.
He ripped open the drawer containing his deck and Duel Disk and combined the two before darting out of his office and over to the elevator, glad of the helipad that necessitated such a convenience.
When the doors opened he was confronted by the sight of his little brother stood at the side of a man in a turban and a white robe who looked to be of Egyptian decent and had an odd, blank look to his eyes.
But not as blank as his brother's.
"Shadi, I presume." Kaiba growled, spotting the Millennium Key almost instantly, "Yugi warned me of your powers. Undo what you did to my brother and I won't have to tear you apart."
"If the Pharaoh's vessel has warned you about me, then you know what I am here to do, Kaiba Seto."
"You think you have the right to test everyone who holds a Millennium Item." Kaiba snorted, well aware that if this freak dared to call Yugi that in front of Yami the Pharaoh wouldn't stand for it. "But if you were really ensuring the Millennium Items were going to their rightful holders Marik wouldn't have nearly killed the Pharaoh. Twice."
Shadi paused at Seto's tone and stance then mentally shook his head, "It does not matter what you believe of me, Kaiba." The spirit said, "If you want your brother restored you will play my game."
Kaiba snarled, furious, grey blue eyes flashing angrily, "You harm my brother any more then you already have and you will pay with your life. Understand me?"
"How could I not?" Shadi asked, his Key glowing, "Let the game begin."
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Bakura didn't come to the Day Care very often any more. The Pharaoh was there too often for the Thief King to feel comfortable but on the days when Kaiba 'borrowed' Yugi for a few hours he popped by, if only to give his Flygon some face time with other Pokémon.
While his Haunter often came and went as he pleased, in fact Bakura was half certain it was haunting Yugi, Flygon didn't have the same option. He exactly didn't disagree with the practice, especially when Haunter instigated things like 'kidnap the Pharaoh's hikari' - while Bakura didn't need the Pharaoh snarling at him it was always amusing to watch the King get riled up.
He didn't even pause when he sensed the Shadows flare up. They often did when Yami was teaching Kaiba, the Pharaoh and the CEO were prone to rubbing each other the wrong way and sometimes even Yugi's legendary levelheadedness wasn't enough to stop the magic flowing.
He knew. He'd tracked down the Pharaoh when Yugi had vanished after school the first time, and he'd sensed Shadow magic soon after he'd seen the pair arguing. Kaiba was very good at keeping his emotions in check, but bad at keeping his magic under control, probably because just over a month ago he hadn't believed in magic, and as such was a complete novice at something for the first time in years.
"Oi, Mutou! We could've done with you earlier! The ghosts have been playing up again!" His head shot towards the staff lounge, where Yugi was emerging from the door looking a little tired, and frowned, confused.
It wasn't like Kaiba didn't play with his toy if the Pharaoh wasn't around, but the wave of Shadow magic he'd sensed had definitely come from two Millennium Items.
"Sorry, sorry." The runt waved it off, except that while the first sorry had been Yugi, the second was much deeper. Yami gave his Hikari a worried look as the spirit-form teen took off after the group of ghosts, "I was out on an errand for the boss's brother." Yami shrugged, a frown settling as his eyes came to rest on Bakura.
"And what Mr. Kaiba wants…" One of the Trainers rolled their eyes as they turned away to help Denkou, Jamie's Raichu, move her yellow and black eggs somewhere safe.
"... Mr Kaiba gets." One of the other staff members finished, nodding as they passed, heading out for their break. Bakura lost interest in the rest of the conversation, though he knew he saw the nameless Pharaoh stiffen out of the corner of his eye as the combined magic of three Millennium Items became easy to sense.
Now, Bakura had two Millennium Items, the Ring and the Eye, the Pharaoh held another two - the Puzzle and the Necklace - but the only other Millennium Item in Domino was the Rod, which Kaiba currently held and which Bakura planned to relieve him of before too long.
Which meant that the only two remaining Millennium Items belonged to a spirit who was even worse at staying dead then he was. After all Bakura had personally killed off the holder of the Scales and the Key millennia before Yugi had been born.
Part of Bakura was torn over what to do.
No matter who won the game the end result was the same, at least in terms of his long term plan (and every time he thought about it, the term got longer). Either Kaiba would lose and Shadi would confiscate the Millennium Rod, which should in theory then go to the nameless Pharaoh (somehow, Bakura doubted that that would happen) or Kaiba would win and Bakura would take it from him when he beat Kaiba at the game he was preparing for him.
Before he could make up his mind, the Pharaoh strode over and planted himself in front of Bakura, glowering as if he thought that Bakura was the cause of the magic.
"What are you doing here?"
"Sitting." Bakura smirked back at him, already amused at the Pharaoh's defensiveness. He watched as Yugi's head shot towards his dark half, a concerned look crossing his features. Yugi apologised to the ghosts and vanished, returning to the Millennium Puzzle and the safety of his Soul Room.
"Why are you sitting here?" Yami growled.
"Unless you've already forgotten, Pharaoh, and that wouldn't surprise me considering your horrendous memory, I was training Pokémon long before you were." Bakura snorted back, still trying to decide whether to go deal with Shadi again or continue to drive the Pharaoh up the wall considering that there was no way Yami would challenge him while at work. "I'm allowed to let my Pokémon loose here at any time I want and Flygon," Bakura gestured towards the Ground/Dragon Pokémon who was chasing a group of bird Pokémon across the sky, "Needed some time in the air with other Pokémon."
"Mutou!" Langley bellowed, frustrated as one of the ghost Pokémon, who was annoyed by Yugi's sudden vanishing act, picked up one of the customers and started making them float up towards the ceiling and wary of setting his electric type Pokémon on it when they were holding onto someone, "Ghosts. Deal with them."
Yami hesitated but Yugi took spirit form and put his hand on Yami's before darting towards the problem.
Yami turned on Bakura and gave him the strongest death glare ever. "You lay a hand on Yugi or get your ghost to do it for you and I swear…"
"Yeah, yeah. I have no interest in getting into a brawl with you today anyway." Bakura leant back on the bench he was sat on and waved off Yami's anger, "Besides, you keep blaming me when the ghosts abscond with your better half, but I have little enough to do with my host, what interest could I possibly have in yours?"
Yami bristled but before he could say anything to that, his friends called out to him, having just walked through the door.
Yugi looked over, delighted to see Joey out of hospital and quickly turned to Yami, hesitating momentarily when he remembered that Yami didn't like dealing with the ghosts. Yami just sighed and switched himself with his hikari.
"Thanks , Yami." Yugi called to his dark as he grinned at him over his shoulder before darting over to his friends, leaving Yami to deal with the ghost type Pokémon.
While watching the ghosts run circles around the high and mighty Pharoah was fun, Bakura had no interest in getting caught here by any of his friends. However as Bakura collected up his Pokémon, Joey came over to him and hesitated for just a moment before saying, "Thanks."
Bakura just stared at him, not sure what Wheeler was saying 'thanks' for.
"Look, I know you probably had your own reason for doing it, but thanks for helping me rescue my sister."
And if Wheeler thought that he would have done anything to help a friend of the Pharaoh then obviously he really was losing his touch. Obviously a dangerous game with near death experiences would be required soon in order to gain some of his former reputation back.
Bakura turned and left, refusing to admit to himself that during that fight, for just one moment, he'd felt a kinship with the Pharaoh's protector.
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"You'll blow A.C.'s cover." The voice made Spectre, a black-haired, scrawny youth with pale skin glance up irritably from where he was glowering through the Day Care's glass frontage.
"Piss off, Venom." The teen shot back at the purple-haired woman, "At least my target's in there, yours isn't even in Domino."
"Wow," Venom looked impressed as she looked away from her immaculately manicured nails and considered the teen in front of her carefully, "How did someone as inoffensive as that runt tick you off this badly?"
"You wouldn't understand." Spectre growled, not wanting to explain it, even to one member of the tiny group he considered colleagues.
"You can't touch him yet, Spectre." Venom warned, with a concerned look for her team mate, "He's untouchable until Mars gives the order. They all are except Her."
Spectre scowled. He didn't see the point of being assigned targets if they couldn't question them, especially now that they had another method of tracking them.
"Come." Venom ordered, the older teen pulling rank and seniority on him, "I need a hand and Mars has Oracle working on something else."
Spectre's glower only deepened at that. There were six of them in what was less politely known as Mars' freak squad, and as one of the younger members he hated the way the others thought they could order him around, especially when even Oracle, who was younger then him, did it.
"Now, Spectre." Venom insisted, impatiently.
Spectre turned to look inside the Day Care for a few more moments, taking in the real Yugi Mutou interacting with his friends while the ghost that sometimes possessed him was left with dealing with the ghosts that Mutou had riled up. If Spectre was right, the ghost was the one that did all the fighting and duelling, and now he was being left to clean up Mutou's other messes as well.
"Spectre." Venom growled, getting annoyed. No one ignored her if she had her way.
"Why can't Flame or Snow help?" Spectre demanded.
"Because Snow's busy with the computers and Flame's powers aren't subtle enough."
"Fine," Spectre said as he turned to look at her, "But if I help you with this, I want your assistance with something."
Venom paused, gaining a small smirk, as if she thought him bargaining with her was funny, "Do tell."
Spectre gestured for her to precede him, "I'll tell you on the way."
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"You've got to be kidding me." Joey protested, having not seen the hordes that had been challenging Yami almost constantly since Battle City.
"This is a small group." Yami commented, having taken control of the body the moment they'd walked around the corner and straight into a group of twelve Duellists. The Pharaoh was more then a little fed up with the almost constant stream of Duellists that had come to challenge him on a non stop basis since he'd gained the God Cards, and often enjoyed the peace and quiet he got in the Day Care - Kaiba Corp was refusing to fix any Duel Disk that suffered from 'overcharge' damage (which was what Kaiba was calling getting hit by a Thunderbolt from an irritable Raichu).
It wasn't like any of them could use the damn things, in fact Joey had traded Ra with him for that exact reason. Yami was beginning to think that they were more trouble then they were worth.
Not that that meant that he wouldn't use the God Cards, but…
"Do you have an order sorted out?" Yami asked the group, well aware he'd probably get through three of them at least before some of the others decided they were going to try their luck another day, either because of boredom or because they had to travel to get home.
At which point it devolved into a brawl as everyone tried to be first.
The gang would have taken the opportunity to slip around the group and run to the relative safety of the Game Shop, but they didn't get the chance as one of the Duellists slammed their deck into their Duel Disk before anyone could say anything. He played a field card that expanded out from the Duellist and pushed everyone but Yami away, leaving the pair of them in a giant, glowing green circle, the outer ring of which had runes running around it while a six pointed star appeared on the ground below them.
Yami could sense the magic surrounding them easily, a scowl gracing his features for a moment before he realised that his friends weren't stood at his side.
"Joey? Tea? Tristan?" Yami asked, wheeling around to look at his friends who were picking themselves up.
"Ow." Joey commented, causing concern to pass over the link from Yugi until Joey gave him a reassuring look and gestured towards his opponent, "We're fine, focus on him."
Yami nodded and turned back to his adversary, "What is this?" Yami demanded, gesturing towards the circle and amused by the way that the other Duellists that had been there to challenge him had legged it even as he was wary of what the magic that now surrounded him was.
"This," The guy said, his head glowing with the same symbol as the one now at their feet, his eyes glowing the same colours, "Is the Seal of Orichelcos," Yami was distracted for a moment by Joey trying to cross the edge of the seal, only to bounce back off of the wall of green light that separated Yami from his friends, "Now you have to fight me first because until one of us wins, neither of us are getting out."
Yami let out a low growl, "Fine, but you should know that I'm no stranger to ancient magic." He said as he tried to tap into the Puzzle's power. His Millennium Item glowed for just a moment then, to Yami's shock and Yugi's dismay, the glow died as the Puzzle's magic was crushed under the weight of the Seal's power. "What?"
"They told me you'd try something like that." The Duellist in question commented, "That you'd try and cheat using magic. Now I've got the power behind me. Your God cards will soon belong to me."
"Who are you? And who are 'they'?" Yami demanded, fuming.
"I'm Drake Miller, but soon they'll be calling me 'King of Games'." The Duellist sneered. He was a tall brunette man with eyes that had been brown before the Orichelcos had tainted them. "As for who they are, it doesn't really matter." Drake played two cards face down and set a monster in defence mode. "It's your move, Yugi."
Yami growled slightly at the way Drake said Yugi's name, making it sound like something rude. He felt Yugi's calming presence at the back of his mind as the hikari told him to pay it no mind and that Drake was trying to rile him up, something Yami would recognise if he calmed down and started thinking properly.
The Pharaoh took a deep breath as he drew, well aware that Yugi was right. He was allowing his concern over the Seal to cloud his judgement, but if Drake was so certain that he'd escape unharmed if he won, then what Yami needed to do to get both himself and Yugi out safely was to beat Drake at whatever it was he had planned.
"I play one card face down," Yami said as he considered his hand and then looked at Drake's cards, wondering what kind of deck the other Duellist played, "And I summon Queen's Knight in attack mode." The Knight appeared on the field and glowered at the enemy as Yami continued, "And that ends my turn."
"You're so predictable." Drake snorted, "Do you have King's Knight in your hand too?" He asked as he drew, "I play Double Summon, allowing me to summon my Chamberlin of the Six Samurai and sacrifice my face down, Shien's Footsoldier, to summon my Grandmaster of the Six Samurai." The two monsters appeared on the field for only seconds before they let out a surprised cry and their eyes glowed like their master's as the symbol of the Seal appeared on their forehead and their attack points grew by 500, "And that's not all. Because I have two Six Samurai monsters out on the field I can summon my Great Shogun Shien to the field as well."
The seven star, warrior/effect monster appeared on the field to join his comrades only to be possessed by the seal as well.
"Try getting out of this one." Drake smirked, "Grandmaster, destroy his Queen's Knight."
Yami internally winced as his Queen's Knight tried to defend herself, only to die at the end of the Grandmaster's sword.
"Now my Shogun, attack him directly." Drake ordered before Yami's points had stopped falling.
"I activate Magic Cylinder!"
"What?" That was about all Drake had time to say before the Shogun's attack backfired, the power slash going though one tube and back out the other and knocked Drake off of his feet as 3000 points worth of damage struck him directly.
"Ready to call this off?" Yami asked as Drake picked himself up slowly, looking unsteady on his feet, "You can't win."
"You'd like to believe that wouldn't you?" Drake demanded, his movements pained, "Chamberlain, attack him directly!"
Yami winced as Drake's Chamberlain knocked another 700 points off of his total, taking him down to 2200, "That ends my turn."
"Before you move, Yugi," Drake sounded far too pleased with himself, "You might like to know that because of my Shogun's effect you can only activate one spell or trap card each turn."
Yami scowled. That made his life more difficult, but he could still win this. "I set one card face down and activate my Pot of Greed magic card…" Yami paused as electricity passed through him for less then a microsecond. He knew that feeling and indeed, when he looked at the card he found himself staring at Obelisk the Tormentor.
Now to get him out…
"And set a card face down in defence mode. That ends my turn."
Drake snorted, unconcerned, as he drew, "I play Fusion Sword Murasame Blade, equipping it to my Shogun." Drake's Shogun handed his sword to the Chamberlain and took the Murasame Blade, examining it as his attack points grew by 800.
"Now." Drake said, looking at Yami's field, "Let's try this again. Grandmaster, attack his face down card!"
"I activate Soul Shield!" Yami called, his points dropping to 1100 as Drake's Grandmaster stopped mid attack and returned to Drake's side of the field.
"Last turn, Yugi. Next turn you won't be able to protect yourself."
"He's wrong, Yami." Yugi sent, sensing his dark half's confidence wavering slightly, "We'll win."
Yami sent the mental equivalent of a nod as he drew, believing his light's words, letting out a relieved sigh as he looked at the card in his hand, "I play Monster Reborn, bringing back my Queen's Knight from the graveyard." His Queen's Knight came back from the Graveyard and scowled at the enemy, "And I summon my King's Knight in attack mode."
"And because you summoned King's Knight and Queen's Knight, you can summon Jack's Knight. I know. Just get on with it." Drake grouched, gesturing towards the Pharaoh who swiftly summoned his Jack's Knight.
"I set two cards face down and end my turn."
"You know, even with your Knights on the field, you're going down this turn and you didn't even get a chance to summon your God cards." Drake commented as he drew, "My Shogun has more then enough attack points to wipe out your life points in one fell swoop. Shogun attack his Queen's Knight! Send her back to the graveyard and her Master's reputation with her!"
"Zero Gravity!"
"Damn it! How many stall cards do you have?" Drake demanded, furious as his Duel Monsters switched to defence mode. If Yugi had used his Mirror Force, he had Musakani Magatama face down which could have negated and destroyed it, however… "I end my turn."
"My turn then," Yami smirked, "And I sacrifice my three Knights for Obelisk the Tormentor!" The huge blue Egyptian God monster appeared with a bellow, appearing ill amused by what was going on and ready for battle. "Obelisk, destroy his Shogun!"
Obelisk punched Drake's Shogun who burst into about a million shards and vanished from the field.
"Your move, Drake."
Drake hesitated before drawing. He couldn't win now, he was well aware of that little fact. None of his monster effects or trap cards could harm the huge beast, and he had nothing that was as strong as it and if Yugi summoned another one…
"I fold." Drake said, putting his hand over his deck, "You win." Even as he spoke the seal started closing in on Drake, who looked around, panicked. "What?"
"You gave in." The speaker was one of a trio of bikers who were stood waiting and watching at the end of the alley. "And only the winner gets to leave the seal. The loser's soul becomes a sacrifice to the Great Beast."
"You didn't tell me that!" Drake yelped before he was lost in a bright green glow. As the glow died down his body hit the floor, soulless.
Before anyone could move, the redheaded biker had stepped forward to take the card that had ejected from the fallen Duellist's field card slot by itself before snapping the cord on a weird pendant that Drake had been wearing under his shirt and pocketing the pendant.
"I told you he couldn't do it." One of the others, a brunette, chuckled. He sounded far too amused for the group's liking. "I suppose it was a good test though. Now we have more of a clue what he," The Biker's eyes flickered to Yami, who glowered back, "Can do."
The final, biker just nodded before scowling at the Pharaoh. "Don't get too relaxed, Pharaoh." The huge blonde growled at Yami, who tensed up, wondering if he'd have to duel again so soon, "We'll be back." With that the trio left.
"The hell was that about?" Joey demanded as Tristan tried to wake Drake up.
Yami just stared in the direction the bikers had gone.
"And I thought we had enough trouble with Galactic…"
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"Hi."
Mokuba, who hadn't long been rescued from Shadi by his brother, jumped a mile at the sound of the girl's voice in his office. He turned around to find a small, mousey gaijin girl waving at him happily from her perch on one of the short filing cabinets against the walls. The door slammed closed behind him.
"Who are you?" He demanded, already reaching for the pokeball in his back pocket as he backed up towards his desk, completely confused as to how this girl had gotten into his office without anyone knowing.
"I'm Oracle." The girl said, waving her hand and paralyzing Mokuba on the spot. She circled the younger Kaiba brother, who was trapped in a strange pink glow, once and then came to stand in front of him, "You know, you're cuter then Mars gave you credit for."
"What…?" Mokuba's tone wavered as he tried to break free of whatever was holding him.
"Definitely cuter then your big brother." Oracle continued as she walked around him and moved over to his desk, "Now, where do you keep your staff files?"
"Get away from there." It frustrated Mokuba that he couldn't see what she was doing.
"Password encrypted." The girl, Oracle, sighed, "Could you tell me your password?"
"Why?" Mokuba asked as who she worked for sank in. "What do you need it for?"
"Please?" Oracle asked as Mokuba was forced to turn around to face her by the power holding him captive. "With a cheri berry on top?"
"No."
"I'm nicer then my colleagues," Oracle told him, giving him a slightly bored look, "But I need all of your files on the Day Care Staff members, specifically those on what Pokémon they hold, so if you'd be so kind as to give them to me, I won't have to play nasty."
"I'm not scared of you." Mokuba would have shaken his head if he could have, refusing to show any weakness, just as he knew his brother would. Kaibas didn't bend to anyone.
The tiny brunette moved towards him again, giving him a slightly hurt look, "I'm not gunna hurt anyone. I just want to know who's holding the Master Ball. Of course…" She waved her hand again and Houndour's pokeball floated out of his pocket, "Apparently it's not…what?"
She jumped back slightly and the aura surrounding Mokuba vanished as, in a bright white light Houndour appeared, growling at the girl.
"You're not supposed to just let yourself out like… meep." Oracle squeaked as Houndour roared at her.
"I have no idea where the Master Ball is, now get out of my office." Mokuba told Oracle as Houndour loosed a flame attack that narrowly missed and, instead set the desk on fire, causing the sprinklers to kick in.
"I don't like you very much." A soggy looking Oracle told the Dark/Fire Pokémon before vanishing into thin air.
"Mr Mokuba!" His PA burst into the room where the sprinklers were in the process of dousing the flames, "Are you alright?"
"Where's my…"
He didn't even get to 'brother' as Seto strode into the room with an irate look on his face, though Mokuba could see the concern behind it.
"What happened here?" Kaiba demanded as the last of the flames went out.
"We need to work on our security." Mokuba sighed, relieved that Seto seemed unharmed, "We had another intruder. Houndour…" Mokuba trailed off as his Houndour started glowing white, "Um…"
The three of them, all of whom were still swiftly looking progressively more and more like drowned rats, watched in shock as Houndour's shape and size changed, until finally the light died down, leaving behind a huge black dog with white horns, a silvery collar around it's neck with a skull motif for a tag and white stripes across his back.
"What?"
"Houndoom!" The canine Pokémon bellowed.
"Was that evolution?" Mokuba asked, slightly stunned.
"I don't care, just put it back in its ball." Kaiba growled, "It's caused enough trouble today." With that he stomped out of the room, muttering something about lost hours and firing every member of the security staff if they were so incompetent that they let two complete strangers into the building, independently, in one day.
Mokuba, however, was more concerned and turned to look at his Pokémon as the fire alarm cut off and the sprinklers died. "If you promise not to set anything else on fire, you can stay out."
The Houndoom looked like it was thinking about it for a moment, then he moved over to sit at the side of Mokuba's desk.
"Mr Kaiba, shouldn't we leave?"
"The fire's out and…" Mokuba groaned as he realised that his computer had shorted out. Then something hit him. If they'd come after him, Mars might be after the others too… He gestured for his PA to leave as Houndoom paced the room irritably, annoyed at being wet, and called up a number on his phone.
"Risha? Is Mutou still there? No? His friends came by? Alright thanks." Mokuba put down the phone and instantly started dialling the Game Shop. "Mutou-San? Is Yugi home yet? Do you have his mobile number? Alright, thanks." Mokuba scribbled it down as Solomon said it, "No, no everything's ok… thanks, bye."
Mokuba let out a soft sigh as he rang the number. Third time was the charm as Yugi picked up.
"Moshi moshi?"
"Yugi? We need to talk."