Author Note:
It's been about a year and a half since I last updated this... my apologies! I got caught up in other writing projects and this one fell to the wayside.
This chapter was also difficult to write because it's more of a transition chapter that sets up things in later chapters.
In Stark Contrast — Chapter 7 "Intercession"
Mokuba leaned closer to the screen, hoping that doing so would somehow make it easier to see more detail in the footage he was currently watching. Eventually he sat back in his seat and sighed, entering the command to make the video replay from a predesignated point.
The footage on the screen jumped back to the beginning of the scene Mokuba had already watched dozens of times by now: his brother's office the night that he'd disappeared. The part that had interested Mokuba the most was the phone call his brother had taken before leaving his office and setting off in his jet. There was no audio, unfortunately, so he could only watch his brother's expression during the phone conversation.
His brother nowadays usually kept a calm demeanor even when provoked, yet even on the security footage it was plain that whatever he was hearing on the phone had shaken him.
Hitting pause on the footage, Mokuba sighed again and resigned himself to the fact that he couldn't gather anymore clues from this footage alone. His brother had gotten the call on his personal cell phone, which meant that he couldn't track it through the company's phone line. Even going through his emails for the past month hadn't yielded any clues. Whomever his brother had gone to see, he'd kept correspondence with him strictly confidential. Which meant only one thing.
"Heh heh." Mokuba cracked his knuckles as he glanced down at the keyboard mischievously. He'd been able to crack the encryption on his brother's personal computer for years, now. As long as the files weren't saved on the network, he could get through any encryption his brother put up. He felt a bit guilty breaking into his brother's confidential files. Considering the situation, though… well, he didn't dwell on it for too long.
...
Pepper glanced out the window from her seat in first class at the indistinct clouds below. The screen in front of her estimated 4 more hours until her flight landed in Tokyo.
Sighing, she glanced down at her phone. Twenty missed calls to Tony over the past day. Lab 23 had confirmed that he'd headed to Domino City and had not been heard from since. Had it not been for their inability to contact him as well, she wouldn't have hopped on a flight to Tokyo first thing in the morning. Maybe Tony was just ignoring all of his phone calls to be a jerk, but even that seemed beyond him.
She had a bad feeling about this. Like the time Tony had gone missing in Afghanistan. And now… well, she wasn't sure what she'd do once she landed. The only lead she had was the recent disappearance of Kaiba Corp's CEO. Considering how much Tony had been looking into all this, Pepper wondered if he'd gotten himself in too deep.
Actually, knowing him that was pretty likely.
"Tony, what have you gotten yourself into this time…?" Pepper murmured to herself as she once again checked through the Kaiba Corp files she'd brought with her.
...
Kaiba awoke to unfamiliar surroundings with a splitting headache. As he tried to recollect the last thing he remembered, he took in his surroundings. The room he was currently occupying was tiny, maybe no more than ten feet across horizontally and maybe five times that lengthwise. Going by the corrugated, drab grey walls, he was in some kind of metal box. The only piece of furniture besides the hard cot he was lying on was a chair and a desk.
He sat up slowly, the memories of his capture and his conversation with the hologram claiming to be Gozaburo resurfacing in his mind. There was no doubt that this little box was his prison for however long.
A voice that seemed to fill the room answered his question.
"Nice to see you've finally awoken, Seto."
Kaiba looked around for the source of the voice, figuring it was coming from a speaker somewhere. Just like the hologram before, the voice was a perfect simulation of Gozaburo's.
"I suppose this is where you tell me that I'm completely at your mercy?"
"You always did act like such a know-it-all." The voice chuckled. "Well, I suppose I may as well cut to the chase. I'm sure you can see that desk ahead of you."
"And?" Kaiba asked. He just wanted to get this over with. If his captor had demands, he'd prefer to hear them rather than deal with pointless banter. In any case, the sooner he got this over with, the sooner he could work on figuring out his escape.
"You will see a laptop on the top of that desk."
Kaiba stood up and crossed the small room to find that there was, in fact, an indistinct grey laptop sitting atop the desk. His eyes narrowed.
"So, what, you want me to code for you?"
"Sharp observation as always. Why, yes. In fact, I'm sure you'll find this code quite familiar once you take a look at it."
Kaiba sat down at the desk and opened up the laptop. It opened immediately to an editor program displaying lines upon lines of code. The person behind that voice was clearly implying that there was something special about this code. And as he continued to look through it, it dawned on him.
"This is…!"
"Ah, so you do recognize it. Excellent. That saves me an explanation."
Grinding his teeth together, Kaiba glared at the computer screen. This was the code for the defense system AI that Gozaburo had forced him to work on. It was supposed to be a system that could send out anything from drones to guided missiles with frightening accuracy. The old Kaiba Corp's ultimate project: Gozaburo had believed would make the company the undisputed defense systems leader in the eastern hemisphere. At the time he'd been working on it, he knew just how dangerous this system could have been had it been completed. He'd stalled as much as possible and as a result it was never finished. Once Kaiba had taken over the company, he'd scrapped the entire program. Instead, he'd repurposed the code to serve as the basis of his Solid Vision system. But now…
"You honestly expect me to finish this?"
"I do," the voice answered confidently. "And no stalling this time, Seto. As I said before, your little brother's life depends on it. The faster you finish this project for me, the more I can guarantee his safety."
"Tch." Kaiba considered his options. He couldn't just outright discount his captor's threat. If this had been orchestrated by someone within Kaiba Corp, then his brother very well could be in danger, even all the way across the Pacific. On the other hand, he'd committed to never creating weapons ever again.
"Well, Seto? The decision is yours. Either you finish this or your brother's life is forfeit."
Kaiba glared at the screen. At the moment he had no other option.
"How can I guarantee that my brother's life will be safe even if I do finish this for you?"
"I suppose you'll just have to take my word for it, Seto. In your current situation, it's not like you have a choice, either way." The voice chuckled again. "But I assure you the chances of your brother's survival go up significantly should you cooperate."
Closing his eyes, Kaiba crossed his arms and sat back in his chair. As vexing as it was to admit, the voice was right. He didn't really have any other options.
"Fine. I'll be your code monkey. And meanwhile, you can drop the Gozaburo act. It's not very convincing."
That prompted a laugh from the voice. "Oh, you always were a sharp one, Seto. I'll concede that you've seen through my façade. But I'm afraid I can't let you hear my actual voice. Otherwise, I'd have to kill you. And we wouldn't want that, now would we?"
So that meant his captor was someone that he knew. Kaiba stored that information away.
"Have we come to an agreement, then, Seto?"
"We have," Kaiba answered flatly.
"Excellent! And do avoid trying anything suspicious. We see and hear everything you do in this room. And I will have the code checked over, so don't try anything funny there, either."
"I wouldn't dare dream of doing such a thing," Kaiba answered sarcastically.
"Good, good! Now then, if you need anything, you need only speak up. Just be aware that you're surrounded by armed guards. So do try to be nice to them." With that, the voice went silent.
At the very least he'd managed to get that idiot to shut up, Kaiba thought as he turned his attention back to his laptops screen and his old nemesis.
...
The doors before Pepper slid open silently, revealing a large lab. At the moment, however, there was just one lone occupant typing at a computer. Upon hearing the click of Pepper's heels on the floor, she turned around.
Adjusting her glasses, the woman's confused expression was quickly replaced by surprise. "Ms. Potts?! What are you doing here in Lab 23?!"
"It's a pleasure to finally meet you in person, Dr. Tanaka." Pepper smiled. "I apologize for the abrupt and unannounced visit."
"If you've taken the trouble to come all this way…" Dr. Tanaka crossed her arms as she thought over the situation. "Does this have to do with To–er, I mean, Mr. Stark?"
Pepper nodded and explained his lack of response to any of her means of contacting him.
"Your presence here means that something has happened to him. We were hoping that wasn't the case."
"I have reason to fear the worst, I'm afraid."
Dr. Tanaka sighed. "I shouldn't have expected anything less." She turned back to her computer. "Actually, I can bring up some of the data I went over with him…"
"About the Kaiba Corporation? I still find it odd that the interests of Stark Industries and Kaiba Corporation would come together like this."
The sound of Dr. Tanaka's typing filled the room until she found what she was looking for. She brought it up as a holographic image.
"This is the prototype suit that was stolen. Alongside that, Mr. Stark found what looked to be experimental hardware belonging to Kaiba Corp." She then brought up an enlarged image of what looked to be some kind of computer processor. "I'm still not entirely sure of what exactly this chip is for. I have a feeling that it's crucial to this whole incident, however."
"It seems that Tony left us with quite the mystery," Pepper mused.
"I'm afraid I can't do much considering my duties here," Dr. Tanaka admitted.
"That's fine. I'll be heading to Domino City tomorrow and any information would be helpful."
"I'll do whatever I can from here. If there's any way I could assist you from here, please let me know." Dr. Tanaka shook her head. "I hope that Mr. Stark is okay, wherever he is."
"As do I…" Pepper glanced out the window over the city skyline.
...
"Mr. Kaiba, we're glad to hear from you! I wanted to offer my condolences regarding your brother…"
Mokuba tapped his fingers impatiently on the desk, his eyes never straying from the screen ahead of him.
"Is this Mr. Nakajima?" He wasn't really interested in pleasantries at the moment.
There was a moment of pause on the line before someone else took the phone. "No, this is the vice president speaking. Unfortunately, Mr. Nakajima isn't available at the moment."
"He isn't available?"
"Well, to be honest…" The voice on the other end of the line went quiet for a moment. "We haven't been able to get in contact with him for the past few days."
It took a bit to get all of the details, but from what Mokuba can tell it sounds like Mr. Nakajima went missing not too long after his own brother did. He's almost certain that isn't a coincidence.
He hung up and put his head in his hands. He'd hoped getting in contact with Mr. Nakajima would help him understand what was going on. Instead, he just had even more questions. A feeling of panic was threatening to overwhelm him and he was doing his best to not lose it, but at this rate he'd run out of leads. He knew his brother was out there. He knew he had to still be alive. But as to where his brother actually was, he hadn't the faintest clue.
He felt so helpless. Like… like back during Duelist Kingdom.
Mokuba shook his head to clear the memories. Now wasn't the time to be giving in to past nightmares.
As if to help him forget, the phone on his desk rang. He picked it up without another thought.
"Mr. Kaiba, I apologize for bothering you like this, but there is someone on the phone insisting that she speak with you. I wanted to check with you before letting her go."
Mokuba raised an eyebrow. "Who is it?"
"She claims that she is a Ms. Potts of Stark Industries."
Mokuba nearly jumped out of his chair. This was exactly the kind of lead that he needed. "She's on the line right now?"
"Y-yes, Mr. Kaiba. She's called three times already."
"Transfer her right away," Mokuba ordered, ignoring the secretary's surprised response.
"O-of course!"
...
Pepper had expected to have far more difficulty getting a hold of the new CEO of the Kaiba Corporation. Yet here she was, invited to his house of all things. She had yet to meet him and had declined his offer for a ride. She had already decided that she would be as careful as possible. Lab 23 was already constantly monitoring her location at her own request.
Though at the moment, what was occupying her attention was a large painting hanging between two long windows stretching from floor to ceiling in the impressively large living room.
The painting, done mostly in whites and blues, depicted a nude woman bathed in light with her back turned to the viewer. Her arms outstretched as her form seemed to melt into that of wings. And attached to those wings was a dragon rising up just as the woman was. Pepper wasn't much for art, but there was something about this painting that caught her attention. Whoever had painted it had certainly been quite talented.
"That's my brother's favorite painting. Everyone always seems to get caught up in it."
Pepper nearly jumped at the sudden voice. She turned around to find a young man with black hair that fell to his shoulders dressed in a suit that looked just a bit too large for him. The jacket was folded over one of his arms.
The man smiled. "Sorry, didn't mean to surprise you like that." He extended his hand. "I'm Mokuba Kaiba, temporary president of Kaiba Corporation. It's nice to meet you, Ms. Potts."
Pepper was taken aback. She hadn't expected such cordiality based on what she had heard about the elder Kaiba. Perhaps his little brother was more different than she'd assumed.
She stepped forward to shake his hand. "It's nice to meet you, Mr. Kaiba. And please, just call me Pepper."
That seemed to have caught him off guard. He seemed to shrink back into himself as he scratched his cheek nervously. "Oh really? Well, um… just Mokuba's fine, then. I don't really like it when people call me 'Mr. Kaiba,' anyway."
Pepper couldn't help chuckling, which only made Mokuba start fidgeting with his folded suit jacket.
"I see. Well then, I'll be sure to do that, Mokuba." She glanced around the large living room again. "I didn't expect to get a meeting with you so quickly. Really, I have to thank you for being so kind as to set this up on short notice."
Mokuba shook his head. "I'm pretty sure I have an idea of what you're here about."
"Oh?"
"It's about my brother, right?"
Pepper couldn't hide her surprise. "Well yes, that is part of it…"
"Just part of it?"
Pepper glanced around the room and noted the tall windows. "As pleasant as this room is, I'd feel more comfortable explaining things somewhere less open. Would that be possible?"
Mokuba seemed to realize just how visible the living room was from outside. "Oh, right! Um… yeah. Just follow me."
She ended up following him up some stairs and into what looked like an office. Mokuba closed the door and leaned against it with a sigh of relief.
"This is one of the offices my brother sometimes uses." He glanced around. "Though it looks like it hasn't been used in a while…" He turned his attention back to Pepper. "In any case, I'm pretty sure we're safe here. What were you going to say?"
Pepper explained what she knew about Seto Kaiba's disappearance and Tony's involvement in it. She kept details somewhat vague and only mentioned that Tony had been looking into things. While she trusted Mokuba, she was still erring on the side of caution.
Mokuba looked shocked. "Mr. Stark was trying to find my brother?!"
Pepper nodded. "But he's gone missing, too. I came here to find out what's going on."
"N-no way…" Mokuba's eyes grew wide. "But he's Iron Man!"
"Under all that armor, Tony is as human as anyone else, I'm afraid," she explained with a sigh. "I think he got in above his head. In any case, I imagine that whoever is responsible for his disappearance are the same people who have seemingly captured your brother."
Mokuba's expression brightened when Pepper mentioned his brother. She supposed she couldn't blame him. People were probably assuming that his brother was dead, after all.
"So now that I've told you what I know, I assume you know things that I don't? I came here with the intent of getting to the bottom of this, after all."
"Sounds like we have the same goal then."
"I believe we do," Pepper said with another nod.
Mokuba grinned. "Then sure, I'll let you know what I know. I think together, we just might be able to do something about this."
...
"Get up."
Kaiba slowly opened his eyes to find a gun pointed at him. He didn't even flinch, though he was annoyed at being woken up. He had only been allowing himself brief naps since he was thrown in this cell. And now of all times, his guard had been down.
Upon glancing up, he saw that the person holding the gun was dressed in military gear with his face covered up by a helmet.
He did as he was told and as he glanced past the man with the gun, he noticed a similarly dressed guard grab the laptop.
As the armed man led Kaiba toward the door, Kaiba glanced sidelong at him and asked, "So are you going to tell me where you're taking me or not?"
"You'll see soon enough. But you'll have to wear this."
Before Kaiba could respond something was pulled over his eyes.
"Follow me."
Before Kaiba could ask how he was supposed to follow, he felt what he assumed was a gun poke his back.
"Move."
He did as he was told. As soon as he left his cell, he noticed the shift in the air. He still seemed to be inside but the space was larger. The sound his shoes made against the floor seem to indicate that it was metal. That's about all he was able to figure out with his eyes closed as he was led to wherever he was being taken.
It didn't take too long, and before he could react, he was shoved into what he assumed was his new cell. The hood that had been pulled over his head was removed and all he heard from behind himself was, "Get back to work. You'd better pick up the pace, now," before the door to the cell was slammed shut and audibly locked.
Kaiba was left wondering about those words and just why he had been moved. He doesn't have to think over it for long, however.
"Yo," a familiar voice from behind him said.
Kaiba whipped around to find possibly the last or maybe second last person he wanted to see right now.
"You."
Tony Stark was leaning against the bed, his grin far too wide for someone who seemed to have also been captured.
"Funny running into you here." He winked at Kaiba.
Kaiba felt a familiar sense of irritation well up in his mind. Something he usually only reserved for a certain blonde-haired mediocre duelist that he thankfully hadn't seen in years.
He wasn't sure if things had just gotten worse or better with this turn of events. At the moment, Kaiba leaned toward the latter.
Thanks for reading!
