Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh. I do, however, own a Kaiba starter deck
and a few booster packs. And they are MINE! So, ha! I also own the plot,
well, most of it. Some of it is Ladyschumon's. Hyne, I don't even own my
own stories anymore!
Pairings: Seto/Jou, Bakura/Ryou, Yami/Yugi, Marik/Malik, one sided Mokoba/Ryou
A.N: Fourth chapter! Hooray! And yes, it is late. I apologies. But it's long! A whole *checks* 3089 words! Think of that as compensation for the wait. And to think, this was going to be part of the third chapter too.Anyway. I'd like to thank my reviewers from both the second and third chapter, as Ladyschu forgot last chapter. *glares at her* Okay, thank you to Ranma Higurashi (twice!), The Absolinzee, Ru-chan, Angel-soul03 (again!), A lost black cat, Lady Geuna, Iron and Yukito.
Demon Darkness- Jou is sensitive to electrical stuff because.I'm not telling yet! Hah! In other words, I'm not quite sure yet myself. ^^; There -was- a reason though.
Rachael- Thank you! I'll edit those bits soon. As for yaoi.I guess it depends on how much you and Jay actually want me to write it hmm? *wicked grin* As for the spelling of Mokoba, I always have put it a 'Mokoba' though not many other people tend to. Well, we all know who I'm talking about.
So yes! Thank you to all you wonderful people. You really make my day! ^^ Now, I'll stop blabbing and let you get on with the fic.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Kaiba thinks he's such a good boy. Bullshit that, he's as corrupt as the rest of us. Do whatever it takes to gain the highest profit, that's his motto. This latest choice of his though is.odd to say the least. Disturbing the pattern. Playing along with the government almost never pays off. Which leads me to wonder.why play it safe this time? This is almost nothing compared to some of the risks that man has taken. Only can mean one thing really, he's got someone else to worry about this time. No prizes for guessing who, it's common knowledge his brother's just returned from over seas. One thing's for sure though, Kaiba will pay for depriving me of what I want. He will pay.
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Jou winced as Seto slammed the limo's breaks, causing the expensive black vehicle to skid to a halt just in time for the red light. A handful of school children stared, like deer caught in the headlights, from the middle of the road they'd been crossing until Jou gave them a little wave that sent them scurrying over the opposite side.
Seto, after storming from Pegasus' mansion, hadn't bothered waiting for his driver's return, instead taking the wheel himself. Jou had slipped into the passenger's seat without argument. At the speeds Seto had been driving however, he was beginning to wish he'd stayed back with the driver, creepy pink mansion or no. He let out a shaky breath a the short respite from the roller coaster ride that made up Seto's driving, flexing his hands that had cramped up due to his vice like grip on the car handles. Still simmering, Seto did not seem conscious of where he was driving to, Jou was positive the Kaiba's mansion was in the opposite direction in any case. Either that or the brunette didn't care. Jou cast a look at the older man, wondering what he could say to calm him down.
'Kaiba-san?'
Muttering to himself, Seto rammed down the accelerator, sending Jou slamming into the door as they veered around a corner. He seemed not to have heard the blond.
'Pegasus seemed pretty riled up about this program everyone's getting themselves into a flap about.' Jou glanced at Seto, whose hands had tightened considerably around the steering wheel. 'What could possibly be so interesting about a computer vir-.'
'Enough.' Seto snapped, cutting the younger man off. He took a deep breath before moderating his tone. 'We shall talk about this in my office.'
Jou let it slide, knowing that tone booked no argument. His father had used it often, with dire consequences if it were ignored. He sunk further into his seat as they pulled into the car park of a large office building with a bold sign out the front proclaiming 'Kaiba Corp.'. The buzzing had returned like a smack in the head and Jou was looking forward to spending the afternoon in that building about as much as he would look forward to tap- dancing in a pink tutu. Digging around in his jacket pockets he pulled out his packet of aspirin, downing two tablets dry. He was oblivious to Seto's curious stare.
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Bakura was not a happy man. Well, he was never really happy, but today he was more irate then usual. Not only had his employer, one Pegasus J. Crawford, woken him from an exceptionally nice dream but the horse man had sent him off to kidnap a kid. He muttered angrily, kicking a stone and not even wincing as it smashed the window of an abandoned building. It was a rookie's job, any fool could kidnap a child and he really had better things to do, like throwing daggers at his dart board. His dart board covered in pictures of a certain white haired young man with brown eyes.
He halted outside a fancy building, the only one above one story in the street. It was a red brick affair reaching a grand three stories into the air to finish with slate grey roof. Giant wrought iron fences bordered the grounds with two elaborate gates closing off the driveways. A brick column separated the gates with a sign proudly bearing the words 'Jean Claude's school for young gentlemen.' Bakura snorted.
'More like Jean Claude's school for pansies.' With that he vaulted the fence, landing with a quite thud in the grounds. Walking straight through one of the many vibrant flower beds, Bakura browsed through the open windows, much like a window shopper looking for a particular bargain. Bakura cursed colorfully once he was certain his target was no where on the first floor. The little brat just had to be on the higher stories didn't he? Logically, Bakura knew that it wasn't the child's fault as he didn't choose the timetables, but Bakura was never a very logical man. Still cursing, he hoisted himself into one of the many evergreen trees by the wall before pulling himself onto the thin ledge that ran around the second story.
After three windows, and many more curses, Bakura finally found himself looking into the History class room where his target was currently immersed in his studies. The grey haired man pulled a photo from his pocket before smirking wickedly at the unsuspecting boy. Mokuba Kaiba.
It was likely that Seto Kaiba would have a fit if he knew that anyone had even a picture of the boy, more so that anyone had tracked his route home. Oh how he would have loved to see the older Kaiba's face when he was informed of his younger brother's disappearance.
Moving to jump to the ground, Bakura's smirk vanished as a thought occurred to him. Kaiba would be suspecting an attack like this; the younger boy would not be unprotected even during school. Repositioning himself by the window, Bakura stole another glance into the room. Everything looked normal, the rows of students, the teacher up the front, the white haired boy up the back. Bakura did a double take. White hair, soft brown eyes, gorgeous smile. The smirk returned.
'Ah Ryou,' the darker man chuckled. 'You really have gotten yourself in too deep this time.' Bakura's suspicions were confirmed as the bell rang and the raven haired Kaiba ran over to Ryou, bouncing about impatiently as the older man gathered his belongings. Giving one last hungry leer at the unsuspecting duo, Bakura swung himself onto the school's roof, plucking his cell phone from his back pocket. He tapped in a few numbers, listening impatiently to the dial tone before a familiar voice picked up.
'Moshi moshi?'
'I found the kid.'
'I knew you would,' Was Pegasus' reply, sounding thrilled. 'When can you deliver him by?'
'Tonight at the earliest,' Bakura leant against one of the school's chimneys. 'And I have a proposition for you Pegasus.'
'Oh?'
'I'll deliver the boy half price, if-'
'If?'
'If you let me keep his guard,' there was a chuckle from the other end of the line.
'An old acquaintance of yours?' Glancing over to where Mokoba and Ryou had just exited the building, Bakura allowed himself the luxury of grinning.
'You could say that.'
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Kaiba led the way through the lobby of the Kaiba corp. building, nodding in greeting to the desk clerks before entering the lift, Jou on his heels. The brunette's mood seemed to have improved since the helter-skelter ride through the streets and with this mood came the urge to aggravate his blond companion.
'You'll need a key card to access any of the floors above the twenty- first.' He began, chuckling softly as Jou jumped, surprised at being addressed. 'I'll have my secretary lend you one.' Glancing over in the blonde's direction he was surprised to see the younger man leaning against the elevator wall, a small grimace of pain splayed across his features. He resisted, marginally, from reaching over to tuck a stray lock of golden hair back behind the other's ear.
"You've only known him half a day!" he berated himself, furious. "And you've been irate most of that time anyway. He's just a bodyguard"' He stole another look at the blonde, before continuing.
'I doubt you'll be doing much here besides fetching me coffee, the chance of an attack on me here is remote.' From the look Jou gave him, the younger man would have liked nothing better then to have dumped a pot of coffee over the CEO's head. Seto internally winced. 'I'll tell the secretary to provide you with a card.'
Seto liked his personal floor in the Kaiba corp. building. Actually, he preferred it to his house and would have lived there, had Mokoba not told him that under no circumstance was he not to return to the main house every evening.
"My little brother, setting me a curfew," Seto would have chuckled at the thought if not for the blond slouching along at his side. Seto hadn't meant to upset Jou, well, not much anyway, but the insults had just seemed to roll off his tongue.
"And besides," a mischievous grin threatened to creep its way onto the brunette's face. "He looks so cute when he's angry."
As they approached the end of the corridor, two looming white double doors seemed to reach out of the floor towards the roof, dwarfing the secretary's desk situated on the left hand side of the hall. The secretary, a middle aged woman with unbelievable black curls, looked up from her keyboard and flashed the duo a dazzling smile.
'Kaiba-san!' she chirped happily, pushing herself away from the desk on her wheelie chair. 'I was beginning to wonder when you'd come in today.'
Seto let a smile grace his features. He also liked his secretary, she was good company, unlike the airheads downstairs.
'Good-'he checked his watch. 'afternoon, Jemima. Any news?'
'The usual,' She drawled, chewing on the end of her pen. 'Companies wanting loans, employees seeking favors from the boss, you know the deal.'
'It can wait,' replied Seto, returning to business mode. 'I need a new key card for Jou here.' He hesitated a moment, before adding. 'And one for my office.'
Raising a curious brow, Jemima pulled a flat card from her desk draw.
'I'll need to get the office key cut.' She said doubtfully. 'And whether or not they cut that sort anymore I -.'
'Just do it,' Seto swiped his own card through the lock. 'Please?' He didn't wait for her nod before entering his darkened office.
Seto's office wasn't an overdone, gaudy affair like the pink mansion they'd just left behind them. It was simply yet elegantly furnished with a large oak desk to one side with a black leather chair behind it, A black sofa, matching the chair, furnished the opposite side of the room and there was another white door leading to gods know where at the back of the room.. A huge fish tank containing turtles stood next to the single door. Jou, forgetting his bad mood for a moment, stooped to look closer.
'Never thought you were the turtle type Kaiba,' he ignored Seto's snort. 'What're their names?'
'Caitlin and Frank,' Jou chuckled.
'Frank?'
'I'll have you know I'm rather fond of the name Frank.' Seto said, seating himself at the desk and motioning to the other chair. 'Now I believe there were a few things you wished to know?'
'To put it lightly,' Jou took the offered seat, 'I think I'm, we're, entitled to know what you're gotten yourself into. That's the only way we can help.'
'You weren't sent to 'help'.'
'No, but that doesn't mean we won't,' Seto sighed, leaning back into his chair.
'I suppose I do owe you an explanation,' He began. 'Where do you want me to begin?'
'At the start?'
'A good place,' Seto chuckled, before sobering. 'I was writing a new security system for our company. Several of my newest ideas for VR systems were being stolen before I even begun creating them and several viruses were being sent to us daily, not to mention the amount of Trojans found every month,' Seeing Jou's face become completely blank, Seto decided to elaborate, 'Trojans, spy ware that is sent into someone's computer specifically to send back information to the sender via the internet. Anyway, normal security systems and firewalls were turning out to be completely useless so I decided to create my own.'
'Makes sense.'
'That's what I thought,' Seto ignored Jou as the blond put his feet up onto the table. 'And I was positive I could create a program much better then any commercially available one,' he interrupted Jou as the younger man opened his mouth. 'A vain thought, yes, I know. None the less, I created a basic security system. But naturally I wasn't happy with that, I wanted the -best- security system. So I began writing in extra layers, extra firewalls, basically changing the program into something that I thought would be sufficient. And it was. I installed it the next day onto my personal computer, where quite a number of viruses were being sent and it did the job perfectly, blocking all attempts of sabotage,' Seto paused for a moment, taking a drink from the glass on his desk. Jou took the opportunity.
'I don't see what this has to do with anything.'
'Trust me,' Seto took another sip of water. 'It has everything to do with it. You see, having this untried program exposed to these viruses was probably the worst mistake I could make. You see the program wasn't quite perfect, whatever I believed, and one or two viruses slipped through. These viruses infused themselves with the program and to tell the truth I'm not entirely sure what they did. What I do know is that the program, instead of merely keeping things out of my hard drive, began deleting programs as well. Important programs. In the end it caused my hard drive to crash completely, which in it's self was a relief. I thought that would be the end of it. I had several of my most important programs on floppy disk, so I could transfer them to my laptop. That was my next mistake. You see, the virus not only had infected my main computer but had also infected any floppy disk I had used in that time. Therefore, when I transferred my files to the laptop, the virus was transferred as well.' He sighed, now holding the empty water glass, 'And there you have it, my very embarrassing story.'
'It's not -that- embarrassing,' Jou removed his feet from the desktop. 'But what I would like to know is how come your laptop is still working? Shouldn't it have crashed as well?'
'Technically, yes,' Seto rose from his chair to retrieve the said laptop from his cupboard. Placing it on the desk, he booted the machine up, 'But as I recognized the 'symptoms' of the virus now, I was able to contain it.' He waved the cursor over a large lock program on the desktop. 'Though it is contained for the minute, if I was to plug my laptop into another machine and unlock the program the other machine would be as good as infected. And if that machine was networked to any others those would be infected as well. So you can imagine what would happen if someone was to let it loose into a main internet supplier.'
'Anarchy, Chaos and Destruction?'
'Close enough. Mass crashing of computers globally, important files being lost, hospital programs crashing.'
'Well, I got the chaos and destruction part right,' grumbled Jou.
'I never said you didn't. But you get the picture. With the virus contained, I can work on deleting the program. Unfortunately though, there are many people who would like the virus for their own purposes.'
'Pegasus?'
'He is one of them. That is why the government sent you, to protect my brother and myself,' Seto looked once more at the flashing laptop monitor, 'And the program.'
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Mokoba sighed audibly as the last bell of the day sounded. Today had been a particularly bad day, being told off for daydreaming during double science hadn't improved it any either. The only up side was that he'd been left alone by bullies during lunch, but Ryou's presence probably had something to do with that. Mokoba looked over at the white haired man. Ryou had been reasonably quite throughout the day, joining Mokoba at lunch but just staying near the back of the room for the rest of the time. He seemed to have been listening intently to the teacher, scribbling down notes every so often, when he wasn't reading a book. Mokoba walked over to the older man.
'Ready to go?'
'Almost,' Ryou packed the rest of his books into his bag. 'Alright, shall we make a move?' Mokoba nodded.
'We'll be walking home, since it's a nice day,' the two made their way from the school building and away from the school grounds, chatting amiably as they went. Both were unaware of the brown eyed figure slinking after them.
Pairings: Seto/Jou, Bakura/Ryou, Yami/Yugi, Marik/Malik, one sided Mokoba/Ryou
A.N: Fourth chapter! Hooray! And yes, it is late. I apologies. But it's long! A whole *checks* 3089 words! Think of that as compensation for the wait. And to think, this was going to be part of the third chapter too.Anyway. I'd like to thank my reviewers from both the second and third chapter, as Ladyschu forgot last chapter. *glares at her* Okay, thank you to Ranma Higurashi (twice!), The Absolinzee, Ru-chan, Angel-soul03 (again!), A lost black cat, Lady Geuna, Iron and Yukito.
Demon Darkness- Jou is sensitive to electrical stuff because.I'm not telling yet! Hah! In other words, I'm not quite sure yet myself. ^^; There -was- a reason though.
Rachael- Thank you! I'll edit those bits soon. As for yaoi.I guess it depends on how much you and Jay actually want me to write it hmm? *wicked grin* As for the spelling of Mokoba, I always have put it a 'Mokoba' though not many other people tend to. Well, we all know who I'm talking about.
So yes! Thank you to all you wonderful people. You really make my day! ^^ Now, I'll stop blabbing and let you get on with the fic.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Kaiba thinks he's such a good boy. Bullshit that, he's as corrupt as the rest of us. Do whatever it takes to gain the highest profit, that's his motto. This latest choice of his though is.odd to say the least. Disturbing the pattern. Playing along with the government almost never pays off. Which leads me to wonder.why play it safe this time? This is almost nothing compared to some of the risks that man has taken. Only can mean one thing really, he's got someone else to worry about this time. No prizes for guessing who, it's common knowledge his brother's just returned from over seas. One thing's for sure though, Kaiba will pay for depriving me of what I want. He will pay.
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Jou winced as Seto slammed the limo's breaks, causing the expensive black vehicle to skid to a halt just in time for the red light. A handful of school children stared, like deer caught in the headlights, from the middle of the road they'd been crossing until Jou gave them a little wave that sent them scurrying over the opposite side.
Seto, after storming from Pegasus' mansion, hadn't bothered waiting for his driver's return, instead taking the wheel himself. Jou had slipped into the passenger's seat without argument. At the speeds Seto had been driving however, he was beginning to wish he'd stayed back with the driver, creepy pink mansion or no. He let out a shaky breath a the short respite from the roller coaster ride that made up Seto's driving, flexing his hands that had cramped up due to his vice like grip on the car handles. Still simmering, Seto did not seem conscious of where he was driving to, Jou was positive the Kaiba's mansion was in the opposite direction in any case. Either that or the brunette didn't care. Jou cast a look at the older man, wondering what he could say to calm him down.
'Kaiba-san?'
Muttering to himself, Seto rammed down the accelerator, sending Jou slamming into the door as they veered around a corner. He seemed not to have heard the blond.
'Pegasus seemed pretty riled up about this program everyone's getting themselves into a flap about.' Jou glanced at Seto, whose hands had tightened considerably around the steering wheel. 'What could possibly be so interesting about a computer vir-.'
'Enough.' Seto snapped, cutting the younger man off. He took a deep breath before moderating his tone. 'We shall talk about this in my office.'
Jou let it slide, knowing that tone booked no argument. His father had used it often, with dire consequences if it were ignored. He sunk further into his seat as they pulled into the car park of a large office building with a bold sign out the front proclaiming 'Kaiba Corp.'. The buzzing had returned like a smack in the head and Jou was looking forward to spending the afternoon in that building about as much as he would look forward to tap- dancing in a pink tutu. Digging around in his jacket pockets he pulled out his packet of aspirin, downing two tablets dry. He was oblivious to Seto's curious stare.
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Bakura was not a happy man. Well, he was never really happy, but today he was more irate then usual. Not only had his employer, one Pegasus J. Crawford, woken him from an exceptionally nice dream but the horse man had sent him off to kidnap a kid. He muttered angrily, kicking a stone and not even wincing as it smashed the window of an abandoned building. It was a rookie's job, any fool could kidnap a child and he really had better things to do, like throwing daggers at his dart board. His dart board covered in pictures of a certain white haired young man with brown eyes.
He halted outside a fancy building, the only one above one story in the street. It was a red brick affair reaching a grand three stories into the air to finish with slate grey roof. Giant wrought iron fences bordered the grounds with two elaborate gates closing off the driveways. A brick column separated the gates with a sign proudly bearing the words 'Jean Claude's school for young gentlemen.' Bakura snorted.
'More like Jean Claude's school for pansies.' With that he vaulted the fence, landing with a quite thud in the grounds. Walking straight through one of the many vibrant flower beds, Bakura browsed through the open windows, much like a window shopper looking for a particular bargain. Bakura cursed colorfully once he was certain his target was no where on the first floor. The little brat just had to be on the higher stories didn't he? Logically, Bakura knew that it wasn't the child's fault as he didn't choose the timetables, but Bakura was never a very logical man. Still cursing, he hoisted himself into one of the many evergreen trees by the wall before pulling himself onto the thin ledge that ran around the second story.
After three windows, and many more curses, Bakura finally found himself looking into the History class room where his target was currently immersed in his studies. The grey haired man pulled a photo from his pocket before smirking wickedly at the unsuspecting boy. Mokuba Kaiba.
It was likely that Seto Kaiba would have a fit if he knew that anyone had even a picture of the boy, more so that anyone had tracked his route home. Oh how he would have loved to see the older Kaiba's face when he was informed of his younger brother's disappearance.
Moving to jump to the ground, Bakura's smirk vanished as a thought occurred to him. Kaiba would be suspecting an attack like this; the younger boy would not be unprotected even during school. Repositioning himself by the window, Bakura stole another glance into the room. Everything looked normal, the rows of students, the teacher up the front, the white haired boy up the back. Bakura did a double take. White hair, soft brown eyes, gorgeous smile. The smirk returned.
'Ah Ryou,' the darker man chuckled. 'You really have gotten yourself in too deep this time.' Bakura's suspicions were confirmed as the bell rang and the raven haired Kaiba ran over to Ryou, bouncing about impatiently as the older man gathered his belongings. Giving one last hungry leer at the unsuspecting duo, Bakura swung himself onto the school's roof, plucking his cell phone from his back pocket. He tapped in a few numbers, listening impatiently to the dial tone before a familiar voice picked up.
'Moshi moshi?'
'I found the kid.'
'I knew you would,' Was Pegasus' reply, sounding thrilled. 'When can you deliver him by?'
'Tonight at the earliest,' Bakura leant against one of the school's chimneys. 'And I have a proposition for you Pegasus.'
'Oh?'
'I'll deliver the boy half price, if-'
'If?'
'If you let me keep his guard,' there was a chuckle from the other end of the line.
'An old acquaintance of yours?' Glancing over to where Mokoba and Ryou had just exited the building, Bakura allowed himself the luxury of grinning.
'You could say that.'
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Kaiba led the way through the lobby of the Kaiba corp. building, nodding in greeting to the desk clerks before entering the lift, Jou on his heels. The brunette's mood seemed to have improved since the helter-skelter ride through the streets and with this mood came the urge to aggravate his blond companion.
'You'll need a key card to access any of the floors above the twenty- first.' He began, chuckling softly as Jou jumped, surprised at being addressed. 'I'll have my secretary lend you one.' Glancing over in the blonde's direction he was surprised to see the younger man leaning against the elevator wall, a small grimace of pain splayed across his features. He resisted, marginally, from reaching over to tuck a stray lock of golden hair back behind the other's ear.
"You've only known him half a day!" he berated himself, furious. "And you've been irate most of that time anyway. He's just a bodyguard"' He stole another look at the blonde, before continuing.
'I doubt you'll be doing much here besides fetching me coffee, the chance of an attack on me here is remote.' From the look Jou gave him, the younger man would have liked nothing better then to have dumped a pot of coffee over the CEO's head. Seto internally winced. 'I'll tell the secretary to provide you with a card.'
Seto liked his personal floor in the Kaiba corp. building. Actually, he preferred it to his house and would have lived there, had Mokoba not told him that under no circumstance was he not to return to the main house every evening.
"My little brother, setting me a curfew," Seto would have chuckled at the thought if not for the blond slouching along at his side. Seto hadn't meant to upset Jou, well, not much anyway, but the insults had just seemed to roll off his tongue.
"And besides," a mischievous grin threatened to creep its way onto the brunette's face. "He looks so cute when he's angry."
As they approached the end of the corridor, two looming white double doors seemed to reach out of the floor towards the roof, dwarfing the secretary's desk situated on the left hand side of the hall. The secretary, a middle aged woman with unbelievable black curls, looked up from her keyboard and flashed the duo a dazzling smile.
'Kaiba-san!' she chirped happily, pushing herself away from the desk on her wheelie chair. 'I was beginning to wonder when you'd come in today.'
Seto let a smile grace his features. He also liked his secretary, she was good company, unlike the airheads downstairs.
'Good-'he checked his watch. 'afternoon, Jemima. Any news?'
'The usual,' She drawled, chewing on the end of her pen. 'Companies wanting loans, employees seeking favors from the boss, you know the deal.'
'It can wait,' replied Seto, returning to business mode. 'I need a new key card for Jou here.' He hesitated a moment, before adding. 'And one for my office.'
Raising a curious brow, Jemima pulled a flat card from her desk draw.
'I'll need to get the office key cut.' She said doubtfully. 'And whether or not they cut that sort anymore I -.'
'Just do it,' Seto swiped his own card through the lock. 'Please?' He didn't wait for her nod before entering his darkened office.
Seto's office wasn't an overdone, gaudy affair like the pink mansion they'd just left behind them. It was simply yet elegantly furnished with a large oak desk to one side with a black leather chair behind it, A black sofa, matching the chair, furnished the opposite side of the room and there was another white door leading to gods know where at the back of the room.. A huge fish tank containing turtles stood next to the single door. Jou, forgetting his bad mood for a moment, stooped to look closer.
'Never thought you were the turtle type Kaiba,' he ignored Seto's snort. 'What're their names?'
'Caitlin and Frank,' Jou chuckled.
'Frank?'
'I'll have you know I'm rather fond of the name Frank.' Seto said, seating himself at the desk and motioning to the other chair. 'Now I believe there were a few things you wished to know?'
'To put it lightly,' Jou took the offered seat, 'I think I'm, we're, entitled to know what you're gotten yourself into. That's the only way we can help.'
'You weren't sent to 'help'.'
'No, but that doesn't mean we won't,' Seto sighed, leaning back into his chair.
'I suppose I do owe you an explanation,' He began. 'Where do you want me to begin?'
'At the start?'
'A good place,' Seto chuckled, before sobering. 'I was writing a new security system for our company. Several of my newest ideas for VR systems were being stolen before I even begun creating them and several viruses were being sent to us daily, not to mention the amount of Trojans found every month,' Seeing Jou's face become completely blank, Seto decided to elaborate, 'Trojans, spy ware that is sent into someone's computer specifically to send back information to the sender via the internet. Anyway, normal security systems and firewalls were turning out to be completely useless so I decided to create my own.'
'Makes sense.'
'That's what I thought,' Seto ignored Jou as the blond put his feet up onto the table. 'And I was positive I could create a program much better then any commercially available one,' he interrupted Jou as the younger man opened his mouth. 'A vain thought, yes, I know. None the less, I created a basic security system. But naturally I wasn't happy with that, I wanted the -best- security system. So I began writing in extra layers, extra firewalls, basically changing the program into something that I thought would be sufficient. And it was. I installed it the next day onto my personal computer, where quite a number of viruses were being sent and it did the job perfectly, blocking all attempts of sabotage,' Seto paused for a moment, taking a drink from the glass on his desk. Jou took the opportunity.
'I don't see what this has to do with anything.'
'Trust me,' Seto took another sip of water. 'It has everything to do with it. You see, having this untried program exposed to these viruses was probably the worst mistake I could make. You see the program wasn't quite perfect, whatever I believed, and one or two viruses slipped through. These viruses infused themselves with the program and to tell the truth I'm not entirely sure what they did. What I do know is that the program, instead of merely keeping things out of my hard drive, began deleting programs as well. Important programs. In the end it caused my hard drive to crash completely, which in it's self was a relief. I thought that would be the end of it. I had several of my most important programs on floppy disk, so I could transfer them to my laptop. That was my next mistake. You see, the virus not only had infected my main computer but had also infected any floppy disk I had used in that time. Therefore, when I transferred my files to the laptop, the virus was transferred as well.' He sighed, now holding the empty water glass, 'And there you have it, my very embarrassing story.'
'It's not -that- embarrassing,' Jou removed his feet from the desktop. 'But what I would like to know is how come your laptop is still working? Shouldn't it have crashed as well?'
'Technically, yes,' Seto rose from his chair to retrieve the said laptop from his cupboard. Placing it on the desk, he booted the machine up, 'But as I recognized the 'symptoms' of the virus now, I was able to contain it.' He waved the cursor over a large lock program on the desktop. 'Though it is contained for the minute, if I was to plug my laptop into another machine and unlock the program the other machine would be as good as infected. And if that machine was networked to any others those would be infected as well. So you can imagine what would happen if someone was to let it loose into a main internet supplier.'
'Anarchy, Chaos and Destruction?'
'Close enough. Mass crashing of computers globally, important files being lost, hospital programs crashing.'
'Well, I got the chaos and destruction part right,' grumbled Jou.
'I never said you didn't. But you get the picture. With the virus contained, I can work on deleting the program. Unfortunately though, there are many people who would like the virus for their own purposes.'
'Pegasus?'
'He is one of them. That is why the government sent you, to protect my brother and myself,' Seto looked once more at the flashing laptop monitor, 'And the program.'
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Mokoba sighed audibly as the last bell of the day sounded. Today had been a particularly bad day, being told off for daydreaming during double science hadn't improved it any either. The only up side was that he'd been left alone by bullies during lunch, but Ryou's presence probably had something to do with that. Mokoba looked over at the white haired man. Ryou had been reasonably quite throughout the day, joining Mokoba at lunch but just staying near the back of the room for the rest of the time. He seemed to have been listening intently to the teacher, scribbling down notes every so often, when he wasn't reading a book. Mokoba walked over to the older man.
'Ready to go?'
'Almost,' Ryou packed the rest of his books into his bag. 'Alright, shall we make a move?' Mokoba nodded.
'We'll be walking home, since it's a nice day,' the two made their way from the school building and away from the school grounds, chatting amiably as they went. Both were unaware of the brown eyed figure slinking after them.