Blue Destiny
Copyright information: Yugi-oh, the title and characters are all owned and copyrighted by Kazuki Takahashi, and Weekly shonen jump publication. Viz, and 4-kids are owners of the manga and anime of Yugi-Oh. Upper Deck and Konomi are owners of the trading cards and video games. All likeness to persons living or dead is purely coincidence.
Author's Notes: Okay thank you to Cytrus for giving me a great idea, and to the reviewer who also put another good idea in my head. And than you for taking the time to review this. ^_~ I'm going to try to do my best to keep this story as exciting as possible. Oh and one more thing, due to some math that I did, and also events that will be coming up in the chapter 9, I had to make some changes in chapters 2 and 6. And uh one more thing, I don't know if I at all mentioned it but Gwen is 15 and was born on April the 10th. ^_^
Side Note: // -// indicates messages via the computer.
I should note that I'm using the names from the original version of the show and comic. So here's how they are set up. Yugi Moto =Yugi Mutou, Tristan Taylor =Hiroto Honda, Téa Gardner =Anzu Mazaki, Joey Wheeler =Katsuya Jonouchi, Duke Devilin =Ryuji Otogi, Seto Kaiba =same, Mokuba Kaiba =same, Maximillion Pegasus = Pegasus J. Crawford
Chapter 7: Computer War
The car ride home from the museum was silent. Mokuba refused to speak to Seto, and Seto was in no mood to make nice with his brother. His mind was buzzing wildly. Just what had happened to Gwen Scotts that would terrify her so much of falling? He frowned, what made her start to scream like that, and why only when she looked down. This was a puzzle, and one he intended to solve.
As they pulled up the hotel Smith gently parked the car before the entrance. He cleared his throat, so as not to upset either of the young men that sat in the back seat, and said slowly, "Well, I'm sure that both you boys have had enough time to cool off. Mr. Kaiba, I know it's not my place, but I have to say, Sir, that it seems a bit tense back there. And I was thinking, maybe if the two of you stop giving one another the silent treatment then…"
"I have nothing to say to him," Seto told Smith getting out of the car, and not looking at all at his little brother. Mokuba felt his anger rise. Fine if that was the way he wanted it to be, then that was the way he'd be treated. Mokuba got out on the other end and rushed past his big brother, he didn't want Seto to see that he was crying. Seto followed Mokuba into the lobby and saw his little brother sprint to an elevator, and get on, not waiting at all for Seto to board with him. Kaiba sighed to himself, and pulled out his phone. If Gwen was suffering from some mental problems he wanted to keep Mokuba away from her, and he needed to make certain that Mokuba was so occupied that he wouldn't have time to think about Gwen, or anything else for that matter.
"Amy," Seto said into the phone when he got his secretary, "I need you to find out about all the day time programs in the area. Museums, camps, anything that would keep an eleven year old gamer busy."
***
The following week Mokuba found himself drenched in activities. It started on Monday when a woman in a coaching uniform came to pick him up.
"I'm sorry ma'am, but I think you have the wrong room," Mokuba told her when she buzzed the bell to their penthouse.
"You are Mokuba Kaiba, aren't you," the woman said, her tan face smiling brightly at him.
"Yes," Mokuba said slowly, giving the woman a queer look.
"Then I'm at the right place," the woman said, all smiles.
"Seto," Mokuba called, as his brother came down, dressed for work. They still were not talking, but for the moment Mokuba forgot all about that. "Um, there's a woman here saying that she's here to pick me up for Soccer camp."
Kaiba nodded as he chomped on a muffin, he thought he'd told the chefs not to make the banana nut ones with walnuts –he hated walnuts, "That's right."
"What?" Mokuba shouted, as Seto came over and shook hands with the woman.
"Marcia Davis, camp director, at your service. Um, young man is your father around?"
"No," Seto said bluntly, "he's dead."
Marcia's face drew a blank, and she pulled out a clipboard from her bag, and looked it over. "Wait, it says here that Seto Kaiba, parental guardian, called to sign up Mokuba Kaiba for soccer camp."
"Yes, and I'm Seto Kaiba," Seto calmly explained, he was already annoyed by this woman. "I'm Mokuba's guardian, as of October 25 1995, when I turned 15. Do you need to see the legal documents, or something? Or is this a problem for you?"
"No, no," Marcia said putting away the clipboard. "Not at all, it's just, well I've never had a brother sign up his little brother for soccer camp, it's usually the moms and dads."
"I see," said Seto coolly, and Marcia gave him a nervous smile. Kaiba looked at Mokuba and tossed his head slightly in the direction of the stairs. "Shouldn't you go get dressed?"
"I guess so," Mokuba said in a distant voice, but his eyes were hard. He'd wanted to try and talk to Gwen today to see exactly what had happened to her in the museum. But now he couldn't thanks to his brother. Mokuba stormed up the stairs and into his room. Five minutes later he came out, dressed to go play soccer, but looking very miffed. Marcia at once commented at how cute Mokuba looked in his shorts and t-shirt. This led Mokuba to cast a very dark look at his brother.
"Aren't you going to say bye to your brother," asked Marcia as Mokuba pushed past Seto out into the hallway.
"Why bother, he doesn't care if I come back or not," Mokuba shot in Seto's direction. "Isn't that right, big bro. So long as I'm kept away from the big bad white wolf, right?"
Seto said nothing, but the look in his eyes could have killed a charging bull rhino. Mokuba sniffed, he didn't care. He knew why Seto was doing this; it was a punishment for him for becoming friends with Gwen, and for questioning him. Marcia rushed after Mokuba and Seto slammed the door behind her. For the rest of the day Mokuba found himself being dragged around town by different people, insisting that it was all for the best, and that he could make new friends. But the only friend he wanted to be with was Gwen, and Seto had made sure that he couldn't get into contact with her.
The week past rather slowly, Mokuba gritting his teeth during each new camp that he had to go to, and exhausting him so much that he didn't even have time to check his email. It was early on a rainy Thursday morning that Mokuba found himself alone in the penthouse. His surfing class had been canceled due to the rain, and Seto had gone early to work. For some reason Seto had been receiving several phone calls during the day, many of which Mokuba was not allowed to answer. This had irritated Mokuba to no avail. Seto was back to keeping secrets from him, and Mokuba had a feeling it had to do with Gwen. He was just about to close down his lap top and take a nap; there was nothing better to do, when his IM started to blink like crazy. He clicked on it, and saw that it was an instant message from someone called "DragonTamer15".
Mokuba knew better then to open IM's from people he didn't know, and one of the few strict rules that Seto had placed upon his internet use was that Mokuba couldn't hand out his IM name. So he was very hesitant in opening up the mail, but curiosity got the better of him and he Okayed the message.
DragonTamer15: // Hello there. //
CapMonChamp: // Uh, Hi. //
DragonTamer15: // Thank goodness I was able to find you. You have no idea how much I've missed
talking to you. //
CapMonChamp: // Huh? Sorry but I don't even know you. How did you get my IM name? //
DragonTamer15: // I have my ways. Lol. //
CapMonChamp: // You have your ways? Wait who is this? //
DragonTamer15: // Isn't it obvious? //
CapMonChamp: // No. //
DragonTamer15: // Have you totally forgotten about me already, Prince Charming? Sniff. //
CapMonChamp: // Gwen? //
DragonTamer15: // Lol, yes of course it's me. Took me a long time to find you, but I did it. //
CapMonChamp: // You shouldn't be talking to me, I'll get into big trouble. //
DragonTamer15: // Why? //
CapMonChamp: // Because if Seto finds out he'll be really mad…//
DragonTamer15: //…He hasn't been hurting you has he? He hasn't hit you or anything like that?! //
CapMonChamp: // What? No, he'd never do anything like that! No I'm just being punished. //
DragonTamer15: // ?? For what? //
CapMonChamp: // More like I'm in prison. Seto has me going to all sorts of places. Keeping busy. That's all. I just feel like I'm being punished for believing you. //
DragonTamer15: // Is that so…//
CapMonChamp: // Yeah. He's been so busy recently. It's weird, I've never seen him like this. It's scary.
DragonTamer15:// What do you mean by? //
CapMonChamp: // Well, for example, I'll pick up the phone when it rings and Seto will tell me to give to him. He won't even let me talk to the person, he'll just grab it and give me a look that says, "Didn't I tell you not to answer the phone." And then he'll go into the other room to talk. And, when he comes out he's hardly talks, like he's really thinking about something. And he won't tell me what! It's driving me crazy. Listen I better log off, if anyone sees me they may tell him. //
DragonTamer15: // Can you tell me the names of the places you've gone to. //
Mokuba read and then reread the last passage, and wondered why Gwen would want to know the names of the places he went to.
CapMonChamp: // You aren't going to follow me to those places are you? //
DragonTamer15: // No. But I need the names. //
CapMonChamp: // Why would you need the names? //
DragonTamer15: // Never mind, I just need them, okay. I have a plan to get you out of prison. But I
need your help. I need you to give me the names of the places that you've been going to in order to execute the plan. Can you do this, can you give me them?//
CapMonChamp: // Why? //
DragonTamer15: // Don't you trust your Princess? //
Mokuba felt his face get red. He wanted to trust Gwen, he really did, but something seemed rather odd about the whole thing. Still, Mokuba thought as he quickly typed in the names of the groups that Seto had signed him up for, which was the worse of two evils. Giving Gwen the names of the places he was going to, or continuing being exhausted night after night after being led all over Venture on tours that he could care less about.
DragonTamer15:// Thank you. I'll talk to you later tonight. //
With that Gwen logged off the IM and smiled to herself. She rapidly typed in a command at her terminal and brought up a rather unique program that she designed. The basics were simple; the program was set up to act as search engine that pulled up information on specific subjects. In this case the subject was Mokuba Kaiba, the second step of the program was to pull up files from records that dealt with the subject matter. From there Gwen could easily, with a code breaking program, hack into the various files and change them around. She smiled as the program downloaded the files that listed Mokuba's name, and showed her the times that he was assigned in.
"Man, he's got him going all over the place, Surfing, museum…what the…oh come on, sea shell collecting," she thought looking at the list of activities that Kaiba had put Mokuba in to keep him busy. "Must have been getting desperate at the end, every one of them I have no part in. No sponsorship, no nothing. So that's his plan then, keep Mokuba so busy that he doesn't even have time to think about me, or anything else for that matter. But why? Why would he suddenly decide to keep his brother away from him? Unless he's up to something…"
Gwen frowned, "Well if that's the case, then maybe it's time to try and force his hand, see what he's been doing while his little brother is out. And I better find out who he's been talking to."
She quickly downloaded the files, smiling to herself Gwen set about changing the times of Mokuba's appointed activities so that they conflicted. She had to laugh at how Kaiba would certainly look upon seeing his plans go awry. She giggled at the thought of making him squirm, not knowing what to do to correct the situation, and to Mokuba she would be a hero. Gwen leaned back in her chair, and watched as the program did its dirty work, and then she sent the corrected files back to their home computers. In her mind she could see Mokuba smiling at her, his bright eyes shining with admiration and respect. She began to daydream of the perfect situation, and she stared up at the ceiling and let her thoughts wander off into this world that she created.
She could see Mokuba sitting on the ground crying, his kind face stained with tears and dirt. He was dressed, in her dream, in dirty rags and a rope for a belt. Beside Mokuba was a bucket of water, and he was on his knees scrubbing a hard floor. He was inside the Shine Palace card, and all around him the world sparkled and glistened. His blue-eyes were bright and moist from the tears, and he kept rubbing his face with his hand, which was rough from all the scrubbing that he was doing. Mokuba stopped, and covered his mouth to let out a little cough, and a soft sob escaped his parched lips. His hair was wilder then usual, and seemed to be kinky and knotted in spots, so when he brushed his hand to push it behind his ears he wound up giving it a yank.
"Ow," Mokuba yelped, and rubbed his sore head. He looked so tired and sad to Gwen, not at all the cheerful little boy that she knew. Mokuba looked around, and said quietly, "I'm sooooo thirsty."
Glancing up he saw a pitcher of water nearby, it was metallic silver like thing, with beads of perspiration that lingered over the neck and body. Mokuba was sweating as well, and he wiped his face with his sleeve, and licked his dry lips. But he was hesitant in getting up, and Gwen could hear his thoughts as he stared at it. "If only I could take one sip, I'm sure he wouldn't mind just that."
Cautiously Mokuba crawled cautiously over to the pitcher, his little hands outstretched, a gleam of hope in his eyes. "Only one little sip, one little droplet to cool my throat, that's all I'll take. He won't miss tha,t he won't…"
SMACK!!! A hand reached out and cracked Mokuba across the face and sent the boy back to where his bucket was. Gwen saw suddenly that a tall, threatening shadow over took the whole area. Darkness now covered every inch of the room, and Gwen noticed that Mokuba was on the floor shaking with fear, bowed down all the way stretching out before the person who hit him.
"Please, I'm sorry, I was only…" the little boy tried to explain, but a cold, hard, monstrous voice cut him off. It sounded to Gwen like a snake hissing out just after it's had a good meal.
"Only trying to steal my water..." the figure said as it set foot outside of the shadows, and loomed over smaller Mokuba. "You know how I feel about you going against what I want."
"I know, I know," Mokuba cried out and then looked up, tears in his young eyes. "I'm sorry…Big Brother…"
Gwen now saw that the person who hit Mokuba was none other then Seto Kaiba, as she figured it would be. His face was cold, cruel, dark, sinister looking, and taught, giving all the features of his face some edge. His eyes were lowered and shadowed, and there was a nasty smirk to his face. He was dressed in some outlandish black and red suit, giving him a demonic like appearance. Kaiba crossed his arms and leered down at his little brother.
"Sorry," said this strange distorted version of Seto Kaiba, "sorry won't cut it this time, little brother. I should have kicked you to the curb a long time ago. Servants, like you, were meant to serve men like me. I take what I want, and use you as my cover. So long as I can say that I'm doing what I'm doing for you, then I will have no trouble getting saps to follow my commands."
"Yes I understand, I'm sorry," Mokuba cried out and crawled over on his stomach, and clung to his brother's leg. "I'm so sorry; please don't feed me to your dragons. Please Big Brother…"
Seto glared at him with such disgust that Gwen felt her stomach churn just looking at him. Kaiba suddenly lashed out with the leg that Mokuba was clinging to and sent his little brother sprawling. He gritted his teeth and spat, "Get away from me you worthless piece of bile. Don't you dare go touching me again, you little puke. You think you're worthy enough to touch me? I wouldn't even let you lick my shoes!" –Then he smirked again –"But don't worry about the dragons, I wouldn't let my precious Blue-eyes eat such a distasteful meal like yourself. I've have a far better punishment for you."
"Please Big Brother, forgive me!" Mokuba screamed and prostrated himself before Kaiba who looked down annoyed. "I only wanted some water, I'm soooo thirsty."
"Is that so," Kaiba suddenly said in a more gentle tone, Mokuba looked up as he knelt down to examine his little brother for the first time. Kaiba held up Mokuba's chin in his right hand, and twisted it this way and that, as if he were looking it over for ascetic reasons. A work of art. He smiled at his little brother saying, "You're lips look so dry, and your skin is so sallow. So all you wanted was water, huh?"
Mokuba nodded, a look of hope entered his face, maybe his brother would help him out. Kaiba stood up and walked over to where the soapy bucket was, and picked it up. "Well, why didn't you say so?! Here! Have a drink!"
He then poured the whole bucket over Mokuba's head, dousing the boy all over. Kaiba laughed and laughed, "You look like a drowned rat, I think I'll start calling you Rat-boy just for the fun of it."
Mokuba let out a small sob, but said, "Thank you big brother."
"And quit calling me that," yelled Kaiba, he grabbed hold of Mokuba by the collar and shook him. "I'm your master, you will call me Master Kaiba, understand."
"Yes Big…" Mokuba started to say, quite scared of his older brother at the moment, and quickly corrected himself. "I mean, Master Kaiba."
"Better," Kaiba said smirking. He threw Mokuba down to the ground, "I'm in a good mood, so I won't punish you. But you had better clean this mess up, it looks like a sty. Don't you do any work at all, Rat-boy?"
"Yes Master Kaiba," Mokuba moaned and started scrubbing again as Kaiba departed. Once the demonic older brother was gone, Mokuba started to cry and sob.
"Oh, why can't some Fairy Godmother come and help me," he cried out. Just then a light from above cast away the gloom. Mokuba looked up and saw a girl floating down from the clouds. She wore an iridescent gown of blue and white, much like that of a fairy princess of yore. With ruffles and a large skirt with lace, and a crown of blue jewels upon her head; she was the picture of perfection and elegance. Gwen smiled gently as she landed before Mokuba. He gasped at the sight of her beauty and radiance.
"Who are you?" He asked timidly.
"I'm your Princess," Gwen told him. "And I've come to save you and my brother."
"You have?" Mokuba asked, and she nodded. He bowed down before her and said, "Oh mighty Princess, please tell me your name so that I may serve you."
"I am known simply as Gwen," Gwen told him, and then pulled a sparkling magic wand from her dress. She waved it over his head, and suddenly he was in a blue and white costume. White knickers and tights, with a blue and white tailed coat and a ruffled ascot, and silver shoes, his hair was also fixed back to it's normal untamed self. When he saw himself Mokuba let out a cry of disbelief.
"Can that be me?" He asked her with awe to his young voice. Gwen nodded.
"It can if you want, come with me and we'll rule this land together. Side by side, Kaiba and Scotts, no technical business can ever stop us."
"I'll go, and I'll help you save your brother too," Mokuba told her. Suddenly there came a loud crash, and Kaiba ran through the doors, looking very pissed off.
"How dare you try and take my little brother, Mokuba, come here! You can't trust her!"
But Mokuba grabbed hold of Gwen's waist, "No I won't go with you. I'm going with Gwen. You should give her her brother back."
"I won't," Kaiba cried. "He's mine all mine!" And out came a maniacal laugh. Mokuba ducked behind Gwen, who stared calmly at the raving Kaiba.
"Is that so, well, I think he's got to have a say about that," Gwen raised her wand and waved it, pulling a card from Kaiba's pocket. It floated in mid air and he became speechless, then she waved her wand again and instantly a Blue-Eyes White Dragon appeared before Kaiba. It let out a mighty roar, and Kaiba screamed.
"No, no it can't be, I'm the master of these beasts!"
"No,
not of this one," Gwen retaliated, "For this one is my brother! And he's going
to subject you to a horror that you have never seen before. It's payment for
all the pain that you have caused, Seto Kaiba.
To me, to your brother, and to those we love and cherish."
"No, No, NOOOOOOO!" Kaiba yelled out as the dragon released a Neutron Blast that utterly obliterated him. Not even ash was left behind and Mokuba covered his eyes, when it was over he peeked out and asked.
"Is he gone?"
"Yes," Gwen told him, "You're free now."
Mokuba let out a loud cry of exaltation and hugged Gwen again. Then the two boarded her brother and they flew off into the sky.
Gwen opened her eyes and smiled at the thought, then scowled. The thought of flying didn't bother her, it was the height in the sky that did. Kaiba had come too close to finding her only other weakness, and she blinked wondering if that was what he was doing with the phone calls. Were he to find out about her father and his past then he might use that in retaliation. Her mind slipped back to the museum and the railing that he was holding her over. He'd let his grip relax, and she shivered. Had he not pulled her back she would have fallen to her death, but he had, and she was safe, at least for the time being. Gwen had thought she had her fear under control, but apparently it wasn't as simple as she had first figured. Rather it was still causing her to fall into attacks as it had when she was a child. But Jakob wasn't around to help her with them now.
Instinctively her hand reached for the broken locket around her neck and she bit her lip. Her one worry was that Mokuba would learn of this problem as well, if his brother was, as she suspected, digging around for her history. But it was no matter, at least at the present, because soon enough he would be busy trying to right the schedule she'd messed with and that would give her enough time to bury her past even further.
***
Seto Kaiba clicked at his laptop dully; while most of his workers were out taking their lunch, he was busy trying to locate several delicately isolated documents. For the past few days he'd purposely immersed himself into the history of Blue Destiny Enterprises, and Venture City itself. So far he'd had little luck, and very few clues to go on. It frustrated him to no end, and still he was determined to find some evidence that Gwen Scotts had forced most of her clients into illegal contracts. There was something very wrong in the fact that Blue Destiny had its hand in almost every major business within a twenty mile radius. And that most of these businesses seemed to react violently or totally ignorant when any mention of Blue Destiny came up in the conversation.
Seto had called up a favor from an investigation agency in Los Angeles to dig into the past business history of Blue Destiny, but so far they had only come up with information that Seto already had in hand. He knew that Benjamin Scotts, Gwen's great-great-great-great grandfather, had founded the company back when it was simply known as Scotts, Moore and Hardgrove: Locksmiths. Scotts, with Moore, had bought out their third partner, and renamed the business Moore and Scotts: Industrial Enterprises. They specialized in creating new security features for businesses, and for automotive companies. It wasn't until Gwen's great-great grandfather took over his father's business that the company became solely under the control of the Scotts family. He took the simple security company and turned it into a technical business, specializing in modern devices for the home and other advances of the time. Electric lawn-mowers and the like; this all helped build up the Scott's family name and income. Gwen's great-grandfather, Elijah, started to invest in the stock market, and in films, as well as manufacture props and machines to create special effects for the motion picture industry.
This was where the history of Blue Destiny became fuzzy. When Henry Scotts, Gwen's grandfather, took over after his father's demise, he started to contribute to campaign funds and seemed to be interested in his own run for office. This didn't amount to much, as Seto learned. Henry lost most of his family's funds in deals in Vegas with some rather nasty mob figures. Apparently his eldest son, Milford –Gwen's father, took command –by force it as it appeared to Seto –and re-established the company for the new era by investing in working with computers and other high tech money. He, somehow, managed to pull the company out of the red and made it soar over the following years. Henry retired to Europe, some where in France where he died (it had been a hell of a task to find the death certificate, and make sure it had been authentic, but Seto's team had done it), leaving his son in sole command of the company. Blue Destiny started in creating video games and systems at this time, and was up there rivaling some of the best in the business. But it was only in recent times that Blue Destiny had made a name for itself as a leader in Magic and Wizards video games.
What was puzzling Seto was this, Milford Scotts had died in 1987, when Gwen was five and apparently her brother took over the company, but there was no record of how Milford Scotts died or when it was that Gwen official took over as head of Blue Destiny? What was really irritating was that there was no record at all of a hand over, or any material indicating that there was a will detailing who ran the company if Milford died. There was also something that bothered Seto; it had to deal with a contract that he found that linked Blue Destiny to Industrial Illusion. This seemed to have been created back in 94, at the very latest, and was an agreement for Blue Destiny to create one of the first Magic and Wizards video games. However the thing that bugged Seto was the fact that the names had been scratched out, and replaced by new names. The whole thing had huge sections blacked out, but Seto couldn't tell why. He clicked to the next page, and saw some notes scribbled on it.
Black out sections five, ten, and twenty in this document, the scrawled handwriting read. Seto's eyes lingered over these few words; they seemed to be the most important in the whole document. Find out with Penderton if any of this can be used in new contract, but keep it quiet. Discussions with the name was obliterated this afternoon. Something to do with again the word was blacked out. Obviously, seeing as it was a public record, a certain party name would be kept off record for privacy. But, while Seto respected this, he couldn't help but grit his teeth. The most important parts of the document were kept out of his reach. He was about to shut down his computer and go home, when his phone rang.
"Kaiba," he said his tone crisp and curt. The caller got this, and quickly stated his name.
"Mr. Kaiba, this is Lenny Harrison, from the Cultural center."
"Yes," Seto said bluntly, he didn't have time for solicitations, nor did he want them. He'd have to talk to the operator about blocking his number, especially in the afternoon.
"Sir, I just wanted to inform you about a slight…well make that sizeable situation." Harrison told him kindly. Seto sat back in his chair and closed his eyes; he had a feeling that this was going to deal with money.
"And you called me because you want a donation…"
"No, Mr. Kaiba," Mr. Harrison replied, slightly annoyed by Seto's tone of voice. He figured had forgotten that Seto was still a teen-ager. "It has to do with your brother's scheduled activities. As you know he's been placed on several tours to our local historical and cultural sights."
"And," Seto said sounding annoyed now. He wanted Harrison to get to the point.
"And, we discovered that he has conflicting times," Harrison explained. "See, Mr. Kaiba, it appears that you signed Mokuba up for classes at one and four at our art house, but at the same time he's scheduled to be on a tour at our local auditorium."
Seto sat up, "What do you mean…I thought I made it clear to the woman who was creating the schedule to set up times that didn't clash. Mokuba was supposed to be on the music outing at four, and that was on Wednesday. And I know for fact that the art house class was at noon on Friday. So what's the deal here?"
"I was hoping you'd tell me," Harrison replied. "Hang on; let me check with one of my assistants."
Seto was put on hold, something that he absolutely loathed, and he drummed his fingers on the desk top. He was sure that he'd made certain that none of the classes clashed. It would have been stupid to put Mokuba in two different classes at the same time, only an idiot would do that, and Seto was no idiot. When Harrison came back on he sounded brusque, but apparently not at Seto.
"Mr. Kaiba, I'd like to apologize, apparently we've been hacked into. We'll correct the situation at once. I'm sorry to inconvenience you like this…"
"Hacked into?" Seto asked and he heard Harrison sigh.
"Yes, hacked into. I'm not sure why, but whoever did it was very good. The only strange thing was that it was only Mokuba's files that were disorganized. Again I am very sorry…"
Seto cut him off, "Did they get an IP?"
"Excuse me?" Harrison sounded surprised.
"An IP, a port where the person hacked from?" Seto spat back, he was standing up now, and flipped open his computer.
"Ah, no I'm sorry they did not," Harrison said quietly. "Mr. Kaiba, we don't have the computer capabilities like you do. Again I am sorry this happened."
"Yeah, so am I," Seto said and thought. "But I'm about to make someone else sorrier."
"Thank you for the call, Mr. Harrison," Seto said and hung up the phone. Scotts, it had to have been her. But how did she learn of Mokuba's classes? He didn't care, she'd attacked him again, and Seto was getting sick of it. He'd been playing nice, she was two year younger then him, but now it was time to take the kid gloves off.
"So she thinks herself a hacker huh," Seto said to himself as he linked to his computer back in Domino, and smirked. "Well, she's about to meet a true expert."
The screen on his laptop turned black then his name blazed across it, and a voice came up.
"Well, it's nice to see you again."
"Yeah, good to see you too," Seto replied to the computer's artificial AI. "Can we cut the small talk and get to work."
"What, no, Hi how are you? Boy, something must be bugging you," the computer said snippily.
"You could say that," Seto said pulling out a head set, made it easier to work with the voice activated programs.
"Really? Don't tell me it's Pegasus again," the computer squeaked.
"No," Seto said coolly. "It's something worse. A girl by the name of Gwen Scotts. She's taken it into her head to try to go after my Blue-Eyes White Dragons. Only thing is she's trying to use Mokuba to get at me. She just recently hacked into the records office of the Cultural Center here in Venture City and changed Mokuba's scheduled activities. "
"Ah, the sneaky woman's approach," the computer said. "Well this is interesting. So what are we going to do about it?"
"Well, were about to show her what true hacking is all about." Seto said with a smile.
"Gotcha," said the computer.
"Alright, get me access to Blue Destiny Enterprises," Seto told the machine. "Knowing Gwen and her affinity for creating video games, she must keep most of her records on line."
"So what are we looking for?" the computer asked as it linked up to the Blue Destiny website, and then used it to access to the main headquarters computer system.
"Anything to do with Henry, Milford, and Gwen Scotts in the record bank," Seto explained. "I want to everything you can get on those people."
"And then what?"
"Then we go after her programs and give them a sever case of the hiccups." Seto said smirking, he chuckled. If Scotts wanted to play these kinds of games he could too. He also hoped to use the "hiccups" as a way of blocking the computer techs from noticing the missing files. He waited as the computer brought up the main data base at Blue Destiny.
"Alright, cross reference the main records, starting with the public information, "Seto said to the computer, "We don't want them getting wind of us just yet."
"Alright, if you think that's best."
"I know its best," Seto told the computer. He watched as the AI pulled up several files with the names of Henry and Milford, but when it came to Gwen's own files, there was nothing there. Seto's brow wrinkled.
"That's it in the main public records, "the computer told him. "Are we going to try the private hall of records next?"
"On the nose," Seto said. "Use the same references, only this time look for specific files, things that had to do during time frames. Search for the Vegas acquisitions under Henry's name. For Milford I want files on his time as President of Scotts Enterprises, and for Gwen I want all her files anything that you can get on her."
The computer started to hum again and things ran smoothly. Seto watched as the screen changed to a virtual world, and he saw several different buildings show up as the computer scanned them. Seto noted that each was designed to look like a building out of Magic and Wizards, and he wondered if Gwen was just as fanatical about the card game as he was. The computer stopped before a large castle looking fortress that read, "Record Hall", above the top.
"Not very imaginative when she names them, is she," the computer quipped. "Well do we go in, or stay out here."
"We're going in, but be ready for anything," Seto warned her. After dealing with Pegasus he had upgraded his computer's anti-virus capabilities, but Gwen was a different type of disease so he had no idea how she would try and block him form getting at her files.
"Standing
by," the computer said. "Entering Record Hall."
Suddenly a large brick wall built itself on Seto's screen. "What the…"
"It's a firewall," the computer moaned. "So now what? It looks to be unbreakable."
"Try again," Seto commanded, "Enter Record Hall."
Again the computer tried to get in, but another wall came up, this one made of steel. Seto smiled, she was good he had to give her that, but not good enough.
"Watch this," he said switching over to manual and typing in several codes.
"Watch what?" the computer asked, "Exactly how do you intend to get past two firewalls. The first one's like an iron gate, and the second is brick!"
"Yes, but brick and steel melt," Seto said, "So I'm going to heat this place up. Scotts better watch out, because I'll burn her little hall down."
He hit the enter key on his laptop and a flame thrower came on screen and melted a huge hole in the two walls. The computer laughed, "So that's what they mean when they say you're the toast of the town."
"Okay, enough with the lame jokes," Seto commented, "Enter Record Hall."
"Right," the computer complied and executed the command. They got to the doors, but were blocked again. Seto cursed under his breath and the computer said, "Password. It's got a lock on it, and it has a password to enter."
"Hummm, Gwen Scotts thinks that the world is her oyster. She'd never think that anyone would get passed the first two firewalls. But I don't think she's as egotistical as Pegasus." Seto commented to the computer.
"So then, how do we get in?"
"We decode it," Seto said and pulled up a decoder program. He set it to words and phrases, and placed it upon the locked doors to the hall of records. It took the decoder a few seconds to access the password.
"Blue," he said a bit surprised. "She picked Blue?"
Seto smirked, well it made sense, and after all it seemed to be the only damn color that she ever wore.
"Password," the computer chimed.
"Blue," Seto said and the virtual doors opened. Inside was a sprawling vault, with millions of cabinets.
"Great, so where do we look first?" The computer asked, and Seto smiled.
"With H, of course." It was a start at least, Seto figured. The computer scanned entries dating back to the fifties looking for the names of Henry and Milford Scotts. What surprised Seto was the number of unfinished contracts that Blue Destiny kept. He watched, impatiently, as the down load of the first group of files came in. "Alright, now go for just Milford on his own."
"Looks like its clear sailing for now," the computer chimed in as it rapidly searched the files in the hall. Seto scowled and began to worry, so far it had been easy, too easy and it was making him uncomfortable. No viruses, no new firewalls. It was like Scotts didn't care if her records were hacked into. Then a disturbing thought came to him, what if all the files he was downloading were fake or fixed. It was a very real possibility. Scotts seemed like the type of person to pull off such a stunt; keep the federal government off her case on taxes and tariffs.
"End download," Seto commanded and the computer halted the program.
"Why are we stopping? I nearly had a complete…"
"Because she wants us to take these files," Seto stated and took over on manual. "She has the real records hidden."
"How do you know? Maybe she doesn't think that anyone would go after her…" the computer started to say, but Seto cut her off.
"No, Gwen Scotts isn't that naïve. Think about it; use your cpu, why would she not have better security up here if these were the real files." Seto stared at the numbers on screen as they whizzed by, "She has this whole record hall set up as a scam. A red herring and we were dumb enough to fall for it."
"So where do we go from here? You're not thinking of starting the whole thing over again, by then they will notice that we're here," the computer noted and Seto laughed.
"Of course not," he clicked on a set of numbers that looked right. "But what we are going to do is try to slip into their data storage. That should give us a clue if there are any hidden records, be on stand by with those names, and get ready to scan for them when I tell you."
"Right," the computer said and re-uploaded the names. "Standing by with names of Henry, Milford, and Gwen Scotts."
Seto held his breath as his data program flipped through several hundred files, then spat out seven locations where there could be hidden files. "Okay now, scan these seven; see what you come up with."
"Scanning…." The computer replied, and when she'd finished a binging noise drew Seto's attention. "We have at least three possible hidden files sites. You want me to scan these too?"
"Nope, because I know that these are the files," Seto said eagerly, his eyes went wide with excitement. He had her, and soon she'd be the one trying to defend her pawns.
"How do you know?" the computer asked puzzled.
"Look at the security measures she's put on these," he stated. Several icons on the dos system indicated firewalls, virus programs, and other programs that could seriously damage his computer system. Seto laughed, she was good, but not good enough to beat him. He could hack into the government's website and get past all their security measures, without getting caught. Gwen was about to learn a harsh lesson, unfortunately so was Seto.
"First time to get rid of these pests," he used a program to cure the viruses that lingered in the hidden records. This appeared on screen as a vaccination needle, and the computer screen indicated that the viruses were cured. Next he went after the firewalls, systematically disabling them one by one, and then came the passwords. He was able to decode most of them, and he figured he'd have to take a chance at going in with what remained of Blue Destiny's security. "Now let's see what you have to hide Gwen. Enter hidden record hall."
While the computer scanned for the names, Seto set about giving Gwen's computer system a very bad case of the hiccups.
Her phone rang wildly off the hook, and Gwen jumped up from her desk. "Yeah, what is it?!"
"Ms. Scotts, this is Byron down in the Computer data center," said the caller, and Gwen tapped her forehead looking over at Donovan who was going over some files that she'd given to him.
"Yeah, so what is it?"
"Ms. Scotts, we have a situation down here, apparently someone has hacked into our system and is created a loop program. It's forcing the computers to crash, then reboot then crash again."
Gwen jumped up out of her seat, and screamed," Oh Crap! What the hell do I pay you people for? I thought that you said the security measures…"
"Whoever is doing this has some very sophisticated programs, we can't make heads or tails of it," Byron admitted. "We're trying to slow the worm down, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen."
Gwen waved Donovan over and put Byron on speaker phone, "Tracey has just informed me that there's also some activity in the Y sector of the system, apparently someone wanted to check up on our graphics, but why they would go into that sector I have no idea. There's nothing there but deleted programs…"
Gwen spat out a curse, and then looked at Donovan who tensed up. Both knew that Sector Y was known to the employees as a "Dumping ground" for old files. The truth though was that that was where Gwen had stored all the contracts and other files that were personal, private, and recorded meeting and agreements that were not on the record. As well as the private files of her mother, brother, and father; and worst of all it also had in there a file that she had hoped would never ever get leaked out.
"Try and deal with stopping the worm, I'll handle the hacker myself," Gwen told Byron, her voice shaking with anger as she spoke. Byron agreed and signed off. Gwen pulled out her laptop and attached it to her main computer. Donovan watched her with some puzzlement.
"Gwen, what are you going to…"
"Do," she finished for him as she accessed a new Magic and Wizards online duel game that Blue Destiny was working on. "I'll tell you in a moment. There, now that I have this. All I need is this."
Donovan watched as she pulled up a rather nasty looking virus and uploaded it into a time set release program. She smiled at her assistant with a hungry look to her eyes, it worried him. Gwen had been getting worse since the time Seto Kaiba and Mokuba Kaiba had come to Venture. Once she had been a nice girl, someone that you could trust and respect as a whole. Now though, she'd become malicious and a blackmailer, fully immersed in her own greed and needs. It troubled him to no end, and he wondered if there was ever going to be a time when she would return to that young girl that he'd once known.
"I'm about to exterminate a rat, Donovan," Gwen told him as she set about finding the IP of the hacker. "And this rat is about to taste my wrath. No one, not God himself, ever hacks into my files and survives."
Back at Kaiba Corp, Seto watched as the files were downloaded into his computer. They were already at forty percent when a strange pinging music came out of the speakers attached to his computer. He watched as the screen shifted, shrinking the down load screen into a small window, and up popped a sand colored screen, with two sides set up like a Magic and Wizard's game sheet for beginners.
"What the…" he muttered and then dropped his jaw when he saw a Toon Blue-Eyes White Dragon appear on screen jumping about, waving it's arms and legs in outlandish positions. At first he was just annoyed with it, but when it made a rude gesture to him Seto shouted to his computer, "Viral control lock down, delete this…Thing from my screen, NOW!!"
Ping! An instant message box came up with the name DragonTamer15 as the sender. Seto hesitantly clicked on it, and the Message read. //So you want to duel?//
//Who the hell are you?// he sent back.
DragonTamer15: //Jeeze, you even picked a lame screen name. You have absolutely no imagination.//
SetKai: //Your right, I don't, so cut the crap. Who are you?//
DragonTamer15: //Ah, ah, that would be cheating now. And I sooo like guessing games.//
Gwen was stalling, she needed to get the "Time bomb" set up and the program was slow due to the worm Kaiba had put into her system.
SetKai: // I don't. So either you tell me now, or I'll destroy your computer.//
DragonTamer15: //Come on, don't be such a spoiled sport. Your brother figured it out really fast.//
Seto felt his pulse race, Scotts, it had to be her. So that was how she had found out about where Mokuba was going. He'd told her on line, they were talking, and somehow Gwen had figured out Mokuba's screen name. He gnashed his teeth in his mouth, and scowled at the screen. Mokuba would be mad, but his laptop would have to go, at least until they had moved to San Francisco.
SetKai: //You bitch. You come near my brother…//
DragonTamer15: //Save your breath Kaiba, the games about to begin.//
SetKai:// Game what game?//
DragonTamer15://Our first duel. Look up at in the middle of the screen. You see that red box with the numbers on it. That's the time you have left to download your files, fifteen minutes. Not much I know, but still just enough for us to play this one game. See this is how it works that box up there is a 'Time bomb'. What that means is in there is a virus of my own concoction, a real dooze. Anyway the way the thing works out is this. We play a duel, if I win, the box is automatically opened and the virus is released into your computer. If, by some bizarre chance you win, I'll give you some clues as to how to disable the bomb. But, if it's a draw or time runs out, then we both get the virus. Oh and if your computer program down loads the files before time runs out well then the virus is released too. You game?//
Kaiba stared at the screen, he knew the instant they started the timer would start and he knew that Gwen would play dirty. But still, there was nothing in the world that gave him a better high then dueling.
On.//