Chapter 11 In Which One Takes Charge

Hobson was annoyed.

When he was annoyed, it was dangerous. The board of directors had already discovered this when they realized that he was serious about taking over the company himself. Needless to say, they no longer bothered anyone about Hobson being in control, which was what the man desired.

Right then, the spy before him was growing bothersome.

"I've told you before, Hanakori. I don't want Kaiba killed until there is no way for it to be tied to us. With the looming appeal, fingers would point to us. I don't care how much you hate him; believe me, I despise him more. So, watch yourself."

Mr. Hanakori remained silent, though his own irritation was apparent.

"Then what do you want to do with the other one? Mokuba is merely awaiting your pleasure in the storage room."

Hobson guffawed. "Good, good, good. I cannot wait to deal with that young one. He is as annoying as the elder Kaiba. Which room is he in? How did you take him?"

As Hanakori began to go into details about the kidnapping, Hobson's master-minded brain began ticking off items from the need-to-do list. With the appeal moved to an indeterminate time, there was going to be something outstanding that would annoy him. Yet, at least one loose end had become tidy.

The boxes of paper were unintelligible in the darkness that enwrapped Mokuba. When he had finally reached the last box and discovered it held only more papers, any yearning hopefulness plummeted to the ground. Nothing in these boxes would help free him.

Sighing to himself, he remembered how this reminded him of the time he and Téa were trapped in a warehouse. Then, it had been filled with boxes as well. Recalling the experience, Mokuba glanced up the wall. Maybe it was possible to do what they had done before…

Heart pounding, he could dimly see the outline of a vent high on the wall. Better yet, the vent was one of the larger kind found in professional buildings. He would fit inside it easily. Gwalin from the goon squad had taught him well.

Quickly, Mokuba began piling up the boxes so that he and the boxes would become tall enough to reach the vent. With all the papers in the cardboard, as they were stacked full, it was unlikely that they would crumble beneath his weight. Freedom was so close from such an amusing tactic he could almost forget this was something serious and not a game.

Still, no sound came from the other end of the door. But, with bad luck, someone would come to check on him now that he was leaving or immediately after his exit. Hesitating or delaying would just aid whoever kidnapped him, so Mokuba scrambled up the boxes, teetering near the top for a few seconds. Precariously balanced, he waited just long enough to keep his footing and then reached the vent.

No screwdriver!

Mokuba could have sworn an oath, but he thought staying quiet was best. Time against him, the boy did what he had to do—sticking his thumb nail into the screw's edges, he struggled to use the nail as a screwdriver.

Fortunately for him, it only cost him four nails. The screws were relatively loose and came out after a bit of a struggle. Even with throbbing fingers, the end result of an open route was worth the pain. Not knowing what to do with the grille that had covered the vent, Mokuba placed it inside the vent itself, crawling over it.

He glanced back down once. His trail was obvious. There was little he could do to hide it, so Mokuba decided to use speed instead of secrecy. Without replacing the cover at all, the boy scooted and crawled down the slick tunnel.

Everything was still dark, but this time, he was very closed in and blind. Fresh air blew occasionally, and that was when Mokuba knew he was going by a new path in the vents. Unsure of where to go, he chose on whim which direction to take. At the ends of some of the paths, a glitter of light shown. While that might have been his overall goal—gaining freedom to a different room—Mokuba did not think that one with a light on would be at all helpful to him. Therefore, he continued in various directions.

Crawling along the bottom of a metal vent was not as easy as it would seem. For one thing, even Mokuba was a little big for it. His back soon cramped from constantly being bent in odd directions. Then, with everything so close letting through no breeze, he also began to sweat.

Being uncomfortable and warm, Mokuba kept forgetting that he was also supposed to be silent. With metal encasing him, any extra exert of pressure resounded down the vents with hardly a warning. There was no way to stifle it. Cringing and hoping no one heard him, Mokuba would pause for a moment, then move on again, determined to be quieter. He had to remember that stealth was needed over speed now that he had gotten himself lost in the vents.

Thinking of Gwalin, Mokuba wondered how the short man lived in the vents at the Kaiba mansion and could move so quietly. But then, the thoughts of the mansion brought unwanted other thoughts, so he turned his mind away from one worry to a different one.

He hoped no one turned the heat on any time soon.

It had been at least a half hour by now. Everything in the vents looks the same. Mokuba feared he was completely lost, victim to the repeating gray metal and fractured light from where the vents reached the light of day.

"I've been stupid," he moaned to himself. "Even if I get somewhere I want to be, I won't be able to escape. The vents unscrew from the outside."

So, lost and trapped inside the vents, the boy despaired of ever getting out alive.

Now I know I'm dumb, he said to himself. Everyone else knew it long ago, when they wanted to adopt Seto and not me. Dumb people should just die.

Sitting cross-legged in the vents, Mokuba finally reached down to grab what he meant to get rid of long ago. Clasping his necklace in his fingers, he cocked it open one last time…

…except seeing his brother's smiling young face almost made him change his mind.

"No," he whispered to himself firmly. "That Seto is gone. He may have wanted me, but this Seto is ruthless. He just uses me like he used the Blue-Eyes White Dragons. I won't let him control me anymore!"

With that, he undid the necklace, holding it in his fingers. Below him was an opening in the vent that went somewhere deep into the basement from what he could tell. The slits that let out air were large enough, he guessed. All Mokuba did was cast one final glance at the card amulet and release it.

A small thud revealed that it was stuck in the vent. Stuck. Everything in Mokuba's life went wrong!

All he wanted was the final reminder of his brother gone forever, and Seto had to go lodge himself in the vents and remain a nuisance! Mokuba wouldn't take that! He refused to allow himself to be hurt and pestered anymore! If Seto wanted to continue to hurt him, Mokuba would never let him. Today, Seto would be gone for good!

His anger boiling more than the heaters would if they were on, Mokuba stuck his legs over the side of the shaft that went down. The tunnel he was following had paths that went up and down, as well as side to side. The one he had dropped the card necklace down was a vent that would open in the ceiling of another room, but try as he might, Mokuba could not reach the bottom of the downward shaft by just putting his feet over the edge.

It's time for you to leave forever, Seto, Mokuba thought grimly.

Easing himself over the edge even farther, the boy did not care if he got trapped in the bottom of the ventilator shaft. If he had to die to destroy his brother, so be it. At least, that was what his rage said.

Before his feet could touch the bottom and squish the card into the grating to be lost in the basement of this building forever, Mokuba slipped. His hands scraped the edge of the smooth metal, but it did not slow his descent.

With a rubbing sound echoing behind him, Mokuba's feet finally jarred him to the top of the vent, his left foot on top of the necklace. However, before he could begin to maneuver to push the card through the slits, the strength of his fall tore the screws loose from the shaft.

For a split second, Mokuba's eyes widened and he struggled to hold on to anything. But there was nothing there. Then, the slender bit of grille beneath him broke free from the ceiling and plunged him down into the darkness.

One thing managed to break his fall and at least one bone. A wet crunch ricocheted into the air, his body made a dull thud, and then metal hitting metal was the only thing fading away.

Worms of light crawled across his vision as pain shot up his arm along with an uncontrollable trembling. He could not move for several minutes, straining just to stay conscious.

Are you happy now, Seto? You took care of me in the last. I won't make it after all.

The boy gritted his teeth as he struggled to sit up, but the wind was knocked out of him and his torso was completely bruised. He decided it was better to stay on the ground. Somewhere under him, prodding him in the back was the annoying amulet. Somehow, it was still near him and refusing to let him go to sleep. If anything happened to him after that, Mokuba just wanted to remove that burden from him.

The vent grille was also under one of his legs, but it was not nearly as irksome as the necklace. Finally, groaning, he rolled over onto his side, clutching the arm that was not pressed against the floor.

Warm and sticky blood oozed onto his fingers, and when his finger brushed against something smooth with the blood, Mokuba finally let the blackness take over.

School was over again for the day, finally. It had been especially hard for Joey and Tristan, even though they had had one fewer day than everyone else.

Moaning, they clutched their heads.

"I can't fit in one more educational word!"

"If I hear about one more test I dink I'll die!"

Téa glared at them. "You, two!" she said warningly. "Maybe if you actually came to school more often and did the homework, education and tests wouldn't be so hard to contemplate!"

Yugi had been listening, amused as usual, though a little worried, since his grades were not nearly perfect either, when he suddenly remembered something. Letting out a gasp, he stopped in his tracks.

Duke glanced at him. "What's the big deal? We have to get going so I can show you the new game at my shop."

"But I just remembered!" Yugi did not even finish before taking off at a run to go to his grandpa's game shop.

The others looked after him before turning back to Duke. Being aware that he was the focus of everyone's eyes, he tossed his hair and gave a smile. "Well, you are all still welcome to my game shop. I promised you would be the firsts to test the merchandise!" He looked from one to the other.

Téa uncomfortably looked over to where Yugi's tri-colored hair still bobbed up and down like a boat at sea.

"You guys go on ahead. I have to see what's up with Yugi."

"So do I," said Joey.

Duke scoffed. "No way. The one time I offer you to do something with me and you turn me down?"

Tristan punched Duke's shoulder. "Don't worry, man, I'm going to go with you. I still need to find myself a game that I can beat someone at. Maybe then I'll impress Serenity," he added under his breath. For once, Joey did not hear as he was already headed down the street.

Duke did, however, and laughed. "I'll always beat you, Tristan! Don't worry!"

Bakura glanced from one group to the other. Then he looked straight out, brown eyes baffled.

"Why do I get the feeling I am unwanted luggage in this story?"

CfB blinked. "I don't know. Maybe because you only get filler lines?"

Bakura sighed. "Then I'd better get going after Duke. You won't be following his part of the story. But I must say, I am glad that you have not brought up the ring yet."

CfB. "Well, I could…"

(hehehee. I just had to. But if you don't like it, here: "Which way do you want to go, Bakura?" Téa asked, waiting for him to choose.

"I'll just go with Duke. I know if I go to Yugi's, his grandfather will have chores for us to do."

"All right. See you later!" Téa said. So Bakura trotted after Duke and Tristan to check out the new game as the other three went back to Yugi's house.)

The Kame Game shop sat docilely before them, Solomon for once not sweeping the sidewalk outside the store. Yugi banged through the front door and hardly took time to say a greeting to the old man. Instead, he raced up to his room, dropped off his bag filled with books, and charged back down he steps.

Téa and Joey were almost in his way, but they dodged to the side before getting mown over.

"Yugi! Is that any way to treat your friends?" Grandpa frowned at him.

"'S'all right, Gramps. I just realized why he's in such a big rush. We gotta get goin'!"

Téa was still as clueless as the elderly man. "We do? Why? Why don't you fill me in, Joey?" She had to begin hurrying after the two of them as they went back outside.

"We gotta meetin' today wid YO!"

They still would not slow down, so Téa jogged to keep up. "What? You couldn't put it any later in the day so you wouldn't have to rush from school? And why are you meeting with YO? Couldn't you just go see him since he's your uncle?"

Joey shook his head in disbelief. "Sometimes I dink you're more foolish den I am! He may be my uncle, but I still gotta get a time slot assigned ta see him!"

"Yeah, and we want to know anything about the Kaibas," Yugi added, panting. "We thought he might tell us more in person than if we just called him up on the phone. So I got a meeting with him. Maybe everything will finally be cleared up."

Téa stared at them both, but that caused her to slow down. Quickly, she caught up again, deciding not to pry any further into Joey's life. His dad was already bad enough. And she knew his mom had oddly left him alone with the drunkard, so Téa did not question why YO had changed his name or even question why he acted as he did.

The lawyer's neat building was made of a tall skyscraper, though it was not nearly as tall as the Kaiba Corporation building. Rather, the Hobson Corporation building. Already the KC was being exchanged for more appropriate lettering.

Being one of the top lawyers, YO had an entire floor in which to conduct his business in the law firm's building. He had a secretary of his own as well, since his nephew was so terrible at answering phones. Joey still worked occasionally, but it was more out of pity than for his skill.

They headed over to the elevator. Yugi looked around, feeling a little out of place here where there were only two other adults, both in business suits. As soon as the doors closed on the elevator, he took a small breath of relief.

Four floors went by. On the fifth, Joey moseyed on out, looking completely self-confident. Sometimes, Yugi wished he could be more like his best friend. Trying to keep his thoughts his own was always a slight struggle, but his other self did not say anything. For that, the boy was grateful.

The secretary, or rather, permanent secretary, glanced up as they walked up. She saw Joey and smiled, thinking he had come to beg for more time to work. However, that thought was proven wrong once they said they had an interview, and her finger found the names written in.

"Well, then you can go on in," she said in surprise, watching them go into the large office.

YO, not being given a fair warning, had his feet propped up on his desk and was reading a newspaper as they walked in. Instantly, his feet clanked to the floor and the paper folded on top of his desk as he turned his attention to the visitors.

After offering them a seat, the lawyer looked them over one by one, focusing entirely on each person. All three shifted uneasily.

"So, you want ta know de truth," YO began.

All three leaned forward unconsciously, eyes zeroing in on the man before them.

YO smiled. "Well, I'm goin' over dere today, so we gotta be quick. But I will tell you dis—Kaiba and Mokuba lost a trial for de guardianship of Mokuba. Now, dere's an appeal we're workin' on dat we can't lose. Faulty evidence and all dat crap. Anyway, Mokuba was livin' with de Janukas, as you know, until you stole him." YO's gaze was piercing, making both Yugi and Téa appropriately humiliated. Joey had no reaction to the look, merely seeming proud of himself.

Shaking his head at his nephew's reaction, YO suppressed a grin. After the small pause, he continued, "For some reason, de boy ran off. And dat's where we are today. We gotta find Mokuba, since plenty of people already are learning about it, including ones that will use his running off to their advantage. So, keep a lookout for de boy, will you?"

They nodded, heads spinning from what remained unknown. Why had Mokuba just run off? This spiraled around their minds as they left the building and slowly walked over to Duke's shop. Silence ensued.

The pain returned. It had never been too far beneath the surface to begin with, but now, it threatened to overpower him once more with its strong arms twining throughout his body.

Blinking away tears, Mokuba tried to focus on the ceiling above him. Gradually, the pain and feeling of nausea passed from most of him. In his arm, however, it remained like a swarm of red ants feasting on his flesh. He almost dared to glance at what was wrong, but the remembered feeling of smoothness caused him almost to hurl already. Deciding not to look down, Mokuba tried to move his body into a more comfortable position.

The problem was right there: no comfortable positions existed anymore. With his broken arm, the boy's entire felt bruised. Falling through a ventilator shaft could do that to someone.

Mokuba did roll slowly to his back again, and when a small prick reminded him of its presence, he remembered the necklace lying there.

"Seto never leaves me alone," he said aloud. For some reason, that struck him as funny, but as he started to laugh, his ribs hurt. Needless to say, that action did not continue very long.

Most of the blood from his arm appeared to have stopped oozing, though it was still gooey. A few bits of crusty, blackened bits were around the edges, and that was as far as Mokuba looked. His clothes were slightly torn and full of blood, so he decided escaping and going back onto the streets would not work very well.

With no extra clothes to try to make a bandage out of, he did the next best thing: pulled up the bottom of his shirt to support his wounded arm, holding the cloth up with his other arm. Then, Mokuba was free to slowly get to his feet and look around.

The steady tapping of the rain on the windowsill echoed the tapping of YO's fingers on the tabletop. The lawyer realized what he was doing as the young man's eyes focused intently on the movement. Embarrassed, YO stopped his tapping and folded his hands into his lap.

Kaiba moved his gaze to the lawyer's face. Now that he looked closely, there was a very faint resemblance to Joey Wheeler in YO's hair. Its color was the same messy strands. Otherwise, the lawyer kept it short and neat, or at least attempted the latter. But Joey Wheeler was not why Yale Oaken was here.

"We need to appeal as soon as possible, Mr. Kaiba. I know you wanted to wait to find your brother and surely it won't look good with Mokuba missing, but that is not something that can be taken into account during the appeal. The appeal will only be on whether or not the evidence used in the former trial was gotten legally. Therefore, before the defense has enough time to gather their evidence or witnesses, we need to press our advantage."

It made sense. That just angered Kaiba further. His brother was missing; nothing should be so clear as to carry on with business. Heck, the entire world should stop moving and find the boy before something happened to him if nothing had already. But, the business part of him still understood how the bureaucratic systems of the world functioned and did not care for any individual.

"All right. We'll do this appeal. But then, I need to focus on finding Mokuba. No doubt if we win this appeal they will be breathing down our necks again in order to prove I lost Mokuba. However, I would rather face that than face a life without any hope of spending time with my brother again."

"I'm aware of that, sir. And remember, you have my support through all your endeavors. Once we win the appeal I will not be abandoning you again. I will keep Mokuba and you together."

There was no answer. YO stood, extending his hand, which Kaiba took out of habit. Then, with the cold feeling of the CEO's hand still permeating through his flesh, the lawyer let the goons escort him out.

Alone in the living room, Kaiba gazed at the fire, remembering a time before when Mokuba had fallen asleep before this fire. Then, they had been closer than ever before. Now, with what those notes said, Kaiba doubted his brother would ever forgive him, even though he had not written them himself.

How had they gotten his handwriting down so well? Kaiba could not believe anyone was that talented with a pen. There was no way someone was looking at his writing and forging it. No way any human could…

Like a security camera zooming in to focus on an infiltrator, his mind rocketed to the invention he had made years ago. Gozaburo had confiscated it right away, but Kaiba had never doubted that the slimy man used it. At that time, however, he had not wanted to believe what his step-father was doing.

Maybe a human could not duplicate his handwriting exactly, but a machine he made himself could certainly do it.

"But where did that machine go?" Kaiba muttered to himself. Gozaburo was the last who knew, or so Kaiba guessed. The old man must have taken it with him to the pavement, and hence, his grave. "Could someone else be using it? If only I knew where it was…"

Mokuba stared up at an odd machine. That was what had broken his fall and his arm, as well as aided in bruising his entire body. It looked like an extra-large printer, but something else came off the edge of it. Something oddly familiar…

Gasping, Mokuba recalled the last time he had seen this machine. It had been a few years ago, but the incident was forever in his mind.

Flashback

Proudly standing back from the last screw he had put in, Seto smiled at his little brother's curious look.

"Are you all done, nii-sama?" the boy asked, peering at the machine.

"Yes. Do you want to see how it works?" When Mokuba eagerly nodded, Seto put in several sheets of paper to the proper place and took out a pen, writing on a different sheet of paper.

I, Seto Kaiba, made this machine on my own, though my little brother was a good inspiration.

Mokuba's eyes went wide with joy. "I was?"

Seto nodded, placing the paper with the note into the part that would download it into the computer. There was a small whir and few winking lights from under the cover, making the process even more mysterious to the young boy. After only a couple minutes, the handwriting appeared on the screen. Seto pointed it out to Mokuba, then pushed the "print" button.

"How is this different from the other printers, nii-sama?"

Seto looked up from adjusting the way the pen sat in the machine's mechanical arm.

"Well, on a regular computer you can't print someone's true handwriting. And it doesn't use pens or pencils."

Mokuba watched closely as the pen in the machine's arm wrote out the note again, eyes whizzing back and forth between papers to see if there were any differences. Proudly, Seto claimed they looked exactly the same.

"My brother's a genius!" Mokuba cried, looking up just in time to see Gozaburo enter the room.

End Flashback

After that, Gozaburo had taken control of the machine, and even if he were pleased with how it worked, he had not changed his attitude toward the boys.

So this is Seto's handwriting machine, Mokuba thought, looking it over.

Surprisingly, the machine did not look old or even dusty. In fact, it seemed in perfect order. Paper even sat in the bottom, awaiting to print more. He never knew what had happened to it, but apparently, someone still put it to use.

Mokuba's eyes continued around the room, freezing when he saw something familiar on the wall. It was too dark to be certain, so Mokuba walked over to the wall, trying to find a light switch. When his fingers clicked it on, the boy's eyes went as wide as when he had heard he had been a good inspiration to his older brother.

There, before him on the wall were the letters "K" and "C." He was in the Kaiba Corporation building. Obviously, he was somewhere low, since no windows were in this room and since he had never seen the machine for a long time. All the upper levels he had seen recently when trying to see his brother. But the basement was avoided by almost everyone.

"But then why is it in such good shape?"

There were no cobwebs or dust bunnies around the room. The lights worked fine and nothing smelled musty. Obviously, someone had been using this room a lot recently. But who could it have been? He could not believe his brother had hired that man to kidnap him. Then again, Mokuba did not think he could trust his brother anymore.

Stooping down slowly, the boy picked up the necklace once more. He wanted to throw it far away forever, but for some reason, he put it in his pocket. At least there it was out of his sight and mind.

Now, he had to work on escaping this place without being caught.

Mokuba peered out the doorway, but the entire hallway was dim. No one else was around here. Perhaps they did not even know he had escaped yet. Or maybe, they did not even care.

What if they put me in that room just to get me out of the way? Maybe they wanted me to starve to death in there. Mokuba could not shake the thought out of his head, even as he desperately reached for something great and shining to show him the way. He was alone, as usual.

"Then it's up to just me now," he said, finding it reassuring to hear his own voice. At least then, the voice in his mind was quiet. "I'll find my way out and…" He stopped. "I'll just take it a little at a time. First, I have to get out."

"First, I have to get in." He gave a quirky smile. "This won't be too difficult. I'll just send a virus to lock down everything mechanical inside. Heh. Then, when they're busy dealing with that, I can go find the machine that must be in there somewhere."

Kaiba looked up at the building, face not changing from its usual wary look at the sight of the changing name. Hobson Corporation indeed. While the syllables were still correct, seeing such a pathetic attempt at gaining prestige by simply taking over another company made him very amused. If his brother had still been here, there was a chance that a smile would have adorned his face for a brief moment.

"I'll take care of Hobson once I solve this mystery and find my brother. Then, with the appeal soon, my life might actually go back to being somewhat normal." He ceased his muttering as he stopped to work on his hand-held computer.

Within moments, another entertained glance came over his face and he looked up. Inside the clear windows near the bottom, workers had puzzles looks on their faces. Kaiba was really beginning to enjoy himself when he saw someone who was a supervisor struggling to solve the problem for an employee. The woman looked confused and dismayed as she realized how many people were having the same problem.

Now was the time to enter.

There was plenty of security at Kaiba Corporation. Of course, Hobson would not have destroyed it, but with Kaiba's little virus, all of that was taken care of. Free to move around the building, looking like he belonged here (and Kaiba never doubted for a moment that he did), no one paid him any heed. After all, the workers who had been hired by him were no longer here. Some had quit. Others were "gone." With the new virus annoying everyone, it all added up to being invisible in his own company. Well, his former company.

Unless someone had already redecorated, which was completely possible, seeing that the outside of the company was getting new wording, the machine had not been on any of the upper levels. So, he might as well start in the basement. After all, there was no reason to test his luck by remaining around employees as they tried to debug computers. And, the elevator would not be working, so he decided going down one flight was better than walking up twenty.

The door closed with a small snick behind him, the stairwell lit softly. Humming, the lights seemed to be chanting the sacred syllable Om. Only his footsteps made a sound as he walked down them with ease, coat billowing out behind him.

Almost to the bottom, he stopped when he heard a sound from farther below him. The door where he wanted to leave started to open, but there was not time for Kaiba to hide. So, he waited and watched the door open, expecting someone much taller to come out.

Frozen on the steps, Kaiba could only stare as the black-headed boy glanced to both sides, not moving once he saw Kaiba.

"Mokuba," Kaiba whispered, unable to move.