Legal stuff: I obviously don't Yu-gi-oh in any shape, manner, or form. I'm just writing a fanfic. Similarities between this fanfic and other fanfics are purely coincidental. (I haven't read many other fics based on what I'm writing mine about, so it's entirely possible that someone else thought of the ideas I'm using before I did. I apologize in advance if this is the case.)
Disclaimer: This fic has a few references from season "zero" of Yugioh, but it's otherwise based entirely on the official anime we all know. I haven't seen every episode, and the characters probably aren't as in character as I'd like them to be, but eh, I'm just doing this for fun (and a happy ending). It doesn't have to be totally accurate. And on that note, my explanations for certain things will be lacking at times, since I don't have a wealth of knowledge of technical things. I hope you enjoy it regardless of these things.
Also, Nii-sama means something along the lines of honorable or respectable brother, I'm not certain. Mokuba calls Seto that all the time in the Japanese versions.
Resurfaced
Chapter 1
It had been only a few months since Atem left, never to return. And for the most part, life was back to normal for everyone, the days filling up only with normal activities, casual gaming, and the kind of little adventures daily life tends to throw at people from time to time. Most everyone was glad to have things this way; a quiet life can be a blessing for some. But sometimes yet still, unusual things occur, and lives change to adjust fitting in what was once never there before.
Today, the events would cause the Kaiba brothers to embark on such a thing.
Mokuba, the preteen with a large mop of black hair looking ready to engulf his head was standing side-by-side with his ever-stiff brother, Seto. The boy's hand was submerged deeply in his pocket, fidgeting eagerly with a number of egg-shaped capsules, individually bound in clear plastic wrappings. He had recieved them from a vending machine not far from his school, outside of a generic game shop, just before Seto had called him to come home immediately. Capsule Monster Chess pieces, Capmon, one of his favorite games, and the main reason he'd never been much into the card games his taller sibling had dominated. He fiddled with these, anxious to know if he'd gotten any he hadn't before, as he watched the going-ons of this slate room, filled with a maddening amount of cables, wires, and cords. They all slid out of the walls like chrome snakes, all meeting in the center, attached to a strange, large metal box that had no less than several hundred ports.
The box held a lot of concern, especially to Seto. It was found washed up from the ocean, on a beach where it had been discovered and quickly whisked away by the loyal associates of KaibaCorp. Their reason was simple; the sealed box had the company's logo grafted onto it. Yet, there was no other indication whatsoever that it had ever been created by anything related. No one knew where it came from, why it had been in the ocean, or why it had the logo on it in the first place.
Many precautions were taken with the handling of the box, firstly a fortified steel room where it was carefully peeled open by robotic arms in the event it might've been an explosive device. The next was transferring it to a scanning instrument to determine the nature of the box. The results were intriguing, as it was inconclusive, but based on what information they did receive, the metal box of ports was either an irregularly crafted server, or some piece of a much larger computer. Whichever the case, it most certainly contained data...which is what now brought these brothers to this cable-woven area.
Seto, with arms loosely crossed, was feeling confident that they would be able to find out where the box came from and who built it based on the processing that was about to initiate. And from there, get some legal retribution on whomever was trying to pass off constructing things under his company name. On the other hand, Mokuba wasn't nearly as enthralled by the infobox. While it did pique his interest, simply for there being such mystery surrounding it, the greater mystery was in knowing what kind of monsters were hidden under the numbered plastic capsules shuffling in his jeans' pocket. So much so, there was a quiet crinkling as his nimble fingers were unwrapping one of the pieces out of its confines, with Seto being too focused on the massive screen built into the opposite wall to notice.
The two of them were standing only about a yard away from where the cables started coming out of the walls. It was a short distance to be standing from, but a safe one nonetheless. Whatever information the box held, it would come up on the screen the moment it was translated from binary by the surrounding computer consoles behind the walls from whence the cables came.
"Is everything ready yet?" Seto asked with swelling impatience, breaking the silence of the room aside from a low humming.
"Less than a minute, sir." came the reply from speakers in the ceiling, the crew working at the consoles behind the walls. "Then we'll be ready to purge whatever information is inside that data unit. For your safety, remember to keep clear of the perimeter. We're going to be putting a lot of energy into this."
"We know." he grumbled solidly, feeling that staying away from the cables should have been a given...a fact degrading to be told more than once about.
Mokuba continued to watch on with only a mild interest. His hand was slipping the capsule out of its wrapper, to which he cupped within a fist, and brought out of his pocket. He made a slow step backwards, trying to put himself out of Seto's field of view...he figured that his older brother wouldn't appreciate his inspecting of a figurine at a time like this, but he simply couldn't wait. He glanced down, relaxing his fist a bit to at least get a look at the number on it. His vibrant eyes brightened at the number 5 set over a lavender star on the capsule's surface.
"Level 5 monster.." Mokuba whispered to himself. "A level 5 is the strongest level."
With that thought in mind, he really wanted to see what the monster inside would look like. His fingertips nervously pressed on the item, to open the cap, but it ended up popping out of his hands at an awkward angle...there was a light tip sound as it landed on the floor and rolled away. Mokuba watched with a particular horror that only a young boy could have over a new toy being lost, for it rolled and rolled until it stopped under and past an especially thick cable, the width of a man's arm. He was momentarily stunned at how bad his luck had to be for it to roll as far as the cables, and under one of the biggest ones at that. He quickly looked up to see if Seto had taken any notice..which to his relief, he did not. Seto's piercing blue eyes were still set to drill a hole in the large monitor while he contemplated the fate of the ones responsible for this.
A scene quickly played out in the younger Kaiba brother's mind; his Nii-sama towering over him, asking why he had to bring out that knickknack while there was important research taking place. Mokuba's answer wouldn't be a good one, he knew for sure that simply saying 'I really wanted to' wasn't going to look well for him. His eyes flashed out of the image, looking back over to the fallen capsule. I can get it back. He thought. I still have time. Seto won't notice.
There was a minor amount of luck he had. The cable was one furthest to the side, thus the trench coat clad brother would likely not notice if someone were to sneak by there, as it was just barely out of his field of vision. Mokuba took quick, but careful steps towards the fallen egg.
"Fifteen seconds." spoke a voice from the speakers. The boy nearly jumped at hearing it, almost ready to throw his hands up as a criminal caught in the act...but now under the realization that he had such little time, it made him shake off the worry and hurry up. He had to get it before they started, or else someone would definitely see it there...that, or the plastic would melt. He didn't like either idea.
He dove right down to the floor once he got close enough to the large cable, on his hands and knees, and started reaching for the egg. His youthful arm, small in comparison, couldn't reach the length the capsule had gone. The warmth of the cables and being so close made his skin tingle, his heart thump, and a light sweat emerge under his dark bangs.
"Countdown. Five."
Mokuba pressed himself down on the welcomingly cold floor until his shirt and jacket were sandwiched between himself and the metal below.
"Four."
He stretched his arm out as far as it could go, wide eyed, scooting himself forward just slighty.
"Three."
His fingertips touched and crawled on the plastic egg, rolling it into his palm.
"Two."
His fist gripped tightly, capsule in hand. He immediately scooted backwards on his elbows.
"One."
There was a sudden buzzing in the air, and Mokuba fell into a prompt panic. It was a spilt-second realization that it probably wasn't such a great idea to be so close to these cables, even if it meant getting into trouble later. He withdrew his arm in a whipping motion, desperate to get away. This motion, though fast, was clumsy in his terror, and the back of his hand brushed against the underside of the massive cable.
Mokuba was only aware of a stiffness and horrible pain stabbing through his body, everything else seemed to fall into obscurity, he couldn't see anything. He plunged into unconsciousness before he had time to scream, before the pain had time to fade.
Seto raised an arm to shield his eyes as a momentary brightness filled the room. The screen above filled only with corrupted gibberish.
"Something's wrong." someone said out of the speakers.
"I can see that.." an annoyed Kaiba stated. He turned his head back, noticing that his younger sibling had been especially quiet. "Mokuba, are you..?"
His brother wasn't standing there. He whipped around, looking for where he could have gone at a time like this. He briefly glanced at the fallen form near the large cables before doing a double-take, and his eyes looked ready to burst out of his face as he became understandably shocked and terrified.
"M--Mokuba!!"