A/N: The following story is chronologically tenth, but was posted fifth.

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Mokuba

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The name's Kaiba. Mokuba Kaiba. Years ago, people only knew me as Seto's annoying younger brother who kept getting kidnapped. (Seriously. Pegasus, the Rare Hunters, Gozaburo... it happened more often than I'd care to admit.) What people didn't know was that I am also Vice President and co-owner of KaibaCorp.

Lately, I've been able to step out of my brother's shadow and successfully run our popular KaibaLand theme parks (now in London, Paris, and Amsterdam, as well as our several American locations!).

Living the rich lifestyle is great, but sometimes I just want to sit in my brother's office chair and take charge. And today is my lucky day.

The phone rang, interrupting my train of thought. I turned on the speaker and put the receptionist through.

"This is Mokuba."

"Mr. Kaiba, you have guests."

"I don't have any appointments with anyone and I've busy handling my brother's work. Could you please tell them to drop by in an hour?"

"HEY! MOKUBA! IT'S US!"

I recognized the pair of voices on the other end of the line and an ecstatic smile curved over my face. "Nevermind, Rose. You can let them in."

I leapt right out of my brother's chair as I heard the buzz that indicated the electronic bolt on the doors was being released. The doors opened up, and standing right in front of me were Max and Sam Stromberg.

"Max, Sam!" I cried out as my two friends walked right up and gave me firm man-hugs. "Oh, boy! I forgot you guys had a break from Duel Academy!"

"Heh, time does fly by when you're working, right?" Sam chortled as he lightly punched my right arm. "Sheesh, you've been taking over a lot of your brother's office work?"

"Yeah, but I asked him if I could."

Max folded his arms as he stepped into the office. His eyes widened in shock whilst gazing over the piles of paperwork I've been working on.

"I know. It's been a tough few days," I sighed deeply.

Max chuckled. "So, has Seto been slacking off or something?"

"More like going around promoting the next line of Duel Monster games for our stock holders," I explained as Lyn walked right into the office. "Oh, Lyn! Look who's back?"

"I know. I saw them storming into the front part of the building," Lyn smiled as she walked in, carrying bottled tea. "I've had to lead them through security at the front." She placed the bottled tea on my brother's desk. "I brought some bottled beverages if you guys want any."

"Thanks, sis!" Max and Sam said.

I walked back over to my brother's chair and sat comfortably, leaning back. "So, how's your second year in Duel Academy been?"

"Man, you thought that whole Shadow Riders mess last year was crazy, you should hear about this Society of Light mess," Sam briefly explained as me and Lyn listened. I was hearing a lot about Obelisk Blue students suddenly wearing white uniforms, but I didn't take into account it was really happening. "We were lucky not to get caught up with that mess, but a few of our classmates and friends have been taken into this cult."

Lyn interjected while filing a few documents for me. "Society of Light?"

"Yeah, sis," Max added as he walked over to grab a tea bottle. "Some creepy guy named Sartorius has been doing something weird to the students."

"And they all claim to have seen the light or something," I heard Sam point out. "Some of our friends like Chazz, Alexis, and Bastion are wearing white uniforms."

"Sartorius. I've heard that name. In fact, my brother knows him," I affirmed. Yeah, I've seen him on TV before. He really did give me some creepy vibes. My brother has personally met him. Wait, hold the phone! "I remember my brother saying something about allowing Sartorius to use Kaibaland Theme Park for the Duel Academy field trip!"

"I was just going to tell you that, Mokuba!" Lyn exclaimed. "I tried persuading him not to, but he was so damn adamant. I hope he knows what he's doing."

Max smirked. "Well, if we know our pal Jaden Yuki, I'm sure he'll deal with Sartorius."

"Whatever that creepy guy had up his sleeve, Jaden will be ready for him!" Sam added confidentially.

Jaden Yuki. I swear, the more I hear about this kid, the more I'm beginning to wonder if he truly is the second coming of Yugi. After researching more of his progress, I've become impressed. He's got an awesome win-loss record and has only lost very few duels. Max and Sam have preached the gospel of how great Jaden is, especially after beating these Shadow Riders they told me about. My brother even speaks pretty highly of his dueling skills. Heh, I'd kill to see Jaden duel with either Yugi or my brother. Those would make epic duels.

"Speaking of weird occurrences, you two have missed out on some outlandish stuff," Lyn informed her brothers. "Did you see the reports of those strange lights people have seen?"

"Oh yeah. Henry, Sara, and a few of their friends alluded to something about those lights," I stated, standing up from the office chair. I shifted my view toward Max and Sam. "There was also a monster attack in Joey and Mai's arcade."

"Really? We heard about the one in Akihabara, but no one's mentioned anything about the arcade," Max exclaimed.

Sam sighed. "Man, I really wish we could've been there to help them fight it."

"This was actually before the attack on Akihabara, but for some reason, Joey and Kuwabara don't seem to want to talk about it."

Lyn furrowed her brows, pivoting her head as she faced me. "You think Arcadian Cross could be behind the lights in the sky?"

"If they're not, the timing seems awfully coincidental," I replied. "And you know what they say about coincidences."

"They take a lot of planning," a gruff voice stated.

"Well, look who finally decided to show up for work!" I heard Lyn call out as my brother walked in with a rolled up newspaper under his right arm.

"Seto!" Max and Sam addressed my calm and collected brother.

"Good to see you two didn't get caught up with that Society of Light, or whatever they call themselves," he nodded to the brothers. He turned as Lyn walked up and pulled him into a kiss. I watched the two give each other a quick lip lock before I cleared my throat. "Bro."

"Is there anything?" I heard him ask me.

I quickly responded. "Yes, you received a call from a Ricky Stiffelman."

"That hack lawyer from TV? Don't tell me that mutt is actually suing me? On what grounds?"

I frowned, shooting him a stern and authoritative look. "Reckless endangerment and selling a faulty product."

"FAULTY PRODUCT?"

"Seto, Mai was nearly electrocuted!" I retorted passionately.

"The pod was probably just damaged in that attack they had and they just want a refund."

"They should get one! You grossly over charged them, anyway! For last-gen tech!"

"Bah! They don't have a case!"

Lyn stood idly by, sipping her tea whilst Max and Sam stood beside her.

"Man, this is like a back-and-forth WWE match," Sam said.

Max scoffed. "Nah, this is non-scripted."

The blue-haired young woman chortled. "Brotherly love, don't you just love it?"

I couldn't believe the excuses my brother was making up! Oh, that tears it. Time to let the inner Mokuba out! "It doesn't matter if they have a case or not. If this goes out to court, it'll be a public relations nightmare!"

"So, what will it take to get out of court?"

"Well, give him that refund, for starters. And give him some of the newest models to replace the old ones you sold him."

I watched my brother nearly scowl and uncurl his lips in fury. "You can't be serious!"

"If you do that, then I'll get him to agree to a no-fault clause and a confidentiality agreement."

Lyn, Max, and Sam snickered in background as I stood my ground against my brother's wrath. I stood firm and unfazed by his irate glare. I think I finally got through that impenetrable barrier he calls an ego.

"..." Seto stared deeply at me, but it had little effect on me.

"Don't look at me like that. You shouldn't have ripped Joey off just because you don't like him," I plainly stated.

Finally, I watched my brother shake his head and give in. He offered no further retort against my argument. "Fine. Make it happen. You know, you're becoming more and more willful every day."

My smile curved across my lips, grinning from ear to ear proudly. "I learn from the best!" And I'm damn proud of it.

"Hell yeah!" I heard Sam walk up to me as he gave me a high-five. "Sick burn, Mokuba!"

"Someone had to do it," I shrugged, scratching my nose.

"Well, I did help soften him up for you," Lyn nudged me in my side, smiling evilly.

Seto groaned in defeat as me and Lyn chuckled.

Max chimed in, smiling. "I'll say! I guess learning to put up with him made you come out of your shell?"

"It was a slow process, but I couldn't let Joey get unfair treatment," I said. "Right, Seto?"

"Humph, whatever," I heard him scoff as he scanned through each folder I organized. "Anyway, nice work covering the office while I was gone."

"Anytime, bro."

"Before I was bombarded with accusations, I came here to inform you guys about a duel taking place."

"In Domino City?" Lyn inquired.

Seto nodded, turning toward Lyn. "Yes, in fact, it's a duel involving Duel Academy students. It's most likely over by now, but I saw a report of two Academy students dueling some schmucks on the rooftop where Yugi and I dueled Lumis and Umbra."

"I remember that place." How could I not? It was the site of my second kidnapping. Well, third if you count the time in the Virtual World when I played decoy for a princess who for some reason looked exactly like me, but I don't want to talk about that.

"There was a news helicopter that caught a shot of those Academy students," I heard my brother go into further detail. "A short green-haired kid with glasses and some dark-skinned guy with braids and a dinosaur-head skullcap. I pulled up their records and checked their student profiles."

Upon hearing this, Max and Sam exclaimed in alarm. "Syrus and Hassleberry?"

"Friends of yours?" Lyn turned to her brothers. "I know you've mentioned Jaden and Syrus, but who's this Hassleberry?"

"We just happened to meet him this year," Max stated. "He's a freshman and a really cool guy."

"He's a duelist with a Dinosaur deck," Sam pointed out.

More promising duelists, eh? Man, these last few years have been producing some really good duelists. I guess that shouldn't come as a surprise. Our Duel Academy has succeeded in producing the best duelists our country can offer. Heck, these friends of Max and Sam could provide great challenges for my brother, Yugi, Lyn, and Joey. No offense to Tea, Tristan, and Duke, but I think Max and Sam's friends would mop the floor with them. The graduation duel between Jaden and Zane Truesdale proved, without a shadow of a doubt, they're more than ready to tangle with Domino City's best.

"Hey, Mokuba, you free? We want to show you our new decks," Max walked up to me, offering to demonstrate his modified deck.

"Sure thing. Let's go to the roof and we'll have a two-on-one duel."

"Two-on-one?" Sam pondered. "You sure you want to tangle with the terrible twins?"

"Haha... I'm no slouch myself, you know. Bring it on."

While I led the brothers out of the office, Seto resumed his work and Lyn sat down to keep him company. As soon as we reached the rooftop, we stopped and spotted a guy garbed in some outlandish purple suit and a gray metal mask.

"Hey, you there! Who are you?" I shouted at the masked man.

Before we knew it, the masked man slipped through a portal. Before we could invoke our Spirit Fused forms, the mysterious man vanished.

Max blinked in bewilderment. "What was that?"

"That must be one of the portals Joey and Takato mentioned," I recalled after hearing each of their encounters. I guess we should chalk this up as another Arcadian Cross sighting. "We need to go tell my bro about this!"

Sam asserted. "You don't need to tell us twice!"

I've got a bad feeling about this...

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LazerWulf's Commentary: Once again we mention the events at Joey and Mai's arcade before that chapter was actually posted. It's almost like foreshadowing, I guess, but supposedly takes place after the fact, so maybe aftshadowing?

Anyway, this chapter was mainly to set this story firmly in the timeline. After the events of The Taiyoukai Awakening, Max and Sam were enrolled in Duel Academy, so they would have been in the middle of their first year when the twins were born. Now they're in their second year, same as Jaden, which sets this story during the second season of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX where they take the summer field trip to Domino City (as evidenced by the references to Sartorius using Kaibaland and Syrus and Hassleberry's duel atop the tower).

Anything else I could say about this chapter was already said by K in the original A/Ns, so this is LazerWulf, signing off.