So chapter six is up. This chapter was a real pain in the ass to write. I am not good at writing relationships so trying to get Kaiba and Tea to interact in a romantic way, while trying to keep them in character, sucked. I re wrote six times and I still don't like it but needed to move the story forward, so here it is.
I don't own yu-gi-oh or iron man.
Seto looked at his computer screen and sighed. It had been more than a week since he started poking around the Kaibacorp records and he still couldn't definitively tie the weapon shipments to any one person at the company. In truth it looked like the shipments had never been authorized at all. Whoever had done this had covered their tracks VERY well.
On the positive side his second project had been coming along nicely. He had finally engineered a way to stabilize the suit in flight, although he made the mistake of video chatting with Mokuba while he was doing the flight tests. As a result the kid now had a video of him launching himself into a wall. He had underestimated exactly how much power the thrusters had. The result had been a spectacular and very painful crash. Mokuba was threatening to put the video on Youtube, but Seto managed to bribe him. It meant that he had to go to the local amusement park with Mokuba the next time he came home, but Seto considered it well worth it. It wasn't so much his pride he was worried about, (well, maybe a little) but he simply didn't want any video of what he was working on getting out yet.
Putting aside the fact that his little brother had blackmail material that he could use at will, the repulsors were more than he could have hoped for. Not only did they allow him to more easily control his flight, but if he fired them at full power they packed quite a punch. There were two holes in the walls that testified to that fact. The first was from the blast, the second from where he had slammed into the wall after he had been thrown across the room. He was just glad no one had been around to see that one. His was very sore from both impacts and while he waited for his bruises to heal, (he was lucky he hadn't broken anything) he had been renewing his efforts to link Gozaburo to the weapons.
He had even contacted the Big Five, the Kaibcorp board of directors, for help. They at least hated Gozaburo as an obstacle to them gaining more power. If he could use them to bring the old man down he would, but so far they hadn't turned up anything more than he did. Gansley had promised to let him know of any new developments but so far he was completely out of ideas.
"Excuse me Hon," Janet chimed. "the suit you designed has finished fabricating and is now ready for testing."
"Excellent." Seto smirked. He had been itching to try the armor since he had finished the design. This made the one he built in the cave look positively medieval by comparison. It was smaller, sleeker and far more powerful. He eagerly took his place in the center of the automated platform he had made to fit the armor. It went much faster than Aurthur manually tightening bolts and he was fully suited in less than a minute. "Janet, are you there?"
"I'm here , the download was fully successful. Beginning pre-flight systems checks." Every system, flap, weapons system, or thruster cycled, opened, and closed. "Pre-flight check complete, systems look good."
Seto smiled. "Let's activate the thrusters at 15 percent and see what happens." Small jets of flame issued from the bottoms of the armor's boots lifting it into the air. Seto struggled for a moment to keep it level but gradually he managed to get feel for using the repulsors. It felt amazing. He could actually fly!
"I think we should land and run another systems check. We don't want you to go crashing into another wall"
"No, I don't think so, check in with air traffic control, see if the skies are clear."
"The skies are clear but I really think you should practice more before you try to fly. We don't know how the suit will react to the strain of full flight, or what could happen at altitude." Janet started displaying as much information as possible on the HUD inside Seto's helmet, trying to get her point across.
"Janet, stop panicking. We'll just take a quick flight." Even before Seto finished his sentence he had already angled for the tunnel from the garage and engaged the boot jets. He had a brief moment of panic as he accelerated faster than he he had anticipated but with a few seconds he was clear of the garage and flying through the clear night sky. The feeling of freedom was incredible.
'Mokuba would love this.' Seto thought as he effortlessly turned loops and drove low to skim over the water. As he looked at the reflection of the armor he smiled. Everything looked so smooth, more so even than it had in the workshop. The armor was a work of art, and it was performing far beyond his expectations.
"Janet, what's the altitude record for aircraft?"
Janet displayed the information but not without commenting. "I really don't think this a good idea. You've had your fun, but I really think its time to go back and look over the flight data." Seto was already climbing as Janet finished her sentence. "Or you could completely ignore me."
Seto was loving this. His adrenaline was surging and he could honestly say he had never felt so free. it was similar to the first time he had summoned his Blue Eyes White Dragon. He was so excited he failed to heed Janet's warnings or notice the HUD alerting him to the build up of ice on the exterior of the armor. Suddenly he lost power and began to free fall from a ridiculous height. Seto cursed. It took him several seconds to get himself oriented into a controlled descent but once he did he was able to reach a manual control to open the control surfaces. this not only broke most of the ice loose but also slowed his descent. The systems started coming coming back online. This was going to be close. He finally managed to activate his thrusters and avoided being a smear on the sidewalk by meters. He also managed to cause a major pile up as cars swerved to avoid him.
"Janet, find out who those drivers are so we can reimburse them for any injures or damages. And I don't want to hear you say I told you so."
"Of course not, I never dreamed of telling how right I was. Maybe next time you'll listen to me."
Seto ignored her and returned to his home. He hovered over the patio above his garage. He was already thinking of a way to fix the icing problem. "Cut power."
The suit landed on the patio and crashed straight through in the garage, crushing one of Seto's sports cars. Seto groaned as the various bruises he still had were joined by several new ones, including a nasty bump where he banged his head against the inside on the helmet.
"I told you so." Was all Janet said.
Seto adjusted the Ice pack on his head. The good news was the armor had survived without any damage. Even the crash hadn't done anything except scratch the paint. It was even tougher than he had hoped. 'I just need some more shock absorbers, especially in the helmet and solve the icing.' he thought.
"I finished looking over the flight data, should I tell you the results?" Janet asked.
"No, you already made your point. Let's build the suit with some of that titanium from the Kaibacorp satellite program. That should stop the icing problem."
"Would you like to paint the suit?"
Seto looked at the sleek silver suit. "No. I like the way it looks now."
"Of course you do, its silver with blue eyes. Would you like me to add some wings and a tail as well?" Janet asked.
"Save the sarcasm and just build the damn suit." Seto growled as he glanced at the TV across the room.
"And here tonight at the annual Kaibacorp charity gala we are expecting to see the owner of Kaibacorp, Gozaboro Kaiba any minute. Whether Seto Kaiba will put in an appearance tonight is anyone's guess as he has been in seclusion since he was rescued." The reporter said.
"Janet, did we get an invite to that?"
"Not on my records, why?"
Seto smirked. "I think its time to show myself to the press, get the suit built in the meantime."
"Sure thing Hon, time to complete, 6 hours."
"Don't wait up." Seto said.
Seto rolled up to the charity gala feeling pretty damn good. The suit worked and was better than he hoped, and now he was getting an opportunity to gatecrash Gozoburo's party. He exited the car and handed the valet his keys. Taking a look around he couldn't help but feel a little disgusted. media vultures were everywhere and it took less than three seconds for one to spot him. In seconds he was surrounded by dozens of reports and cameramen.
"Mr. Kaiba," the one nearest to him asked. "it has been weeks since anyone has seen you. Do you have anything to say?"
"Just that my investigation is still ongoing, and that you are in my way." Seto said as he pushed through the crowd and headed into the party.
Inside their weren't as many reporters, thankfully. The event was special permission only and so their were only 4 or 5 reporters milling about. Seto made his way to the bar and ordered a scotch. He didn't normally drink but being out among people for the first time since his captivity was making him nervous. His mood was not improved when he saw Vivian Wong headed his way. If possible she was even more annoying than Mai, and he didn't know her nearly as well.
"Hello Seto!" She said. "What are my odds of getting an exclusive interview, huh?" She asked as she pressed against him and batted er eyelashes.
"About as good as you learning the meaning of subtlety." Seto replied while scanning around for someone, anyone else to talk to. He spotted Gardner with her back to him a short distance away and quickly walked over to her. "Dance with me." He whispered.
Tea was shocked but followed him to the dance floor. "Kaiba! What are you doing here?"
"At the moment hiding from the press. Mostly I came here to see what my dear stepfather was up to. I also wanted to be seen in public so people wouldn't think I turned into some kind of crazy recluse. By the way, you dance very well. "
"Thank you. You know that I wanted to study dance, right? Before I got hired to be your assistant." Tea said, blushing. She was feeling a bit odd. First Kaiba had asked her to dance and then told her she danced well. Was he feeling alright? He never gave her compliments. She looked up into his eyes and saw something she hadn't expected, fear. Seto Kaiba was afraid. The more she thought about it, the more sense it made. This was his first time in public since his press conference. All the people, the noise, lights it must be overwhelming.
"I think you might have mentioned it a few hundred times." Seto smirked. A sever chose that moment to drop a tray making a loud noise that echoed in the large room. Seto Jumped and spun around. For a moment it looked like he might run. Tea quickly pulled him back into the dance before anyone noticed his reaction.
"You Okay?" she asked. Kaiba looked like he had gotten his control back, although his eyes were still moving around the room. Tea glanced around. She saw the door was open to the balcony and thought it might be a good idea to get some air, for both of them. She was enjoying dancing with him way too much. "Kaiba, follow my lead."
Seto looked at her oddly for a second, then he saw she was heading toward the balcony doors. He sighed in relief. He was going to have to do something nice for Gardner later. They danced out the door. into the cool night air. Surprisingly even though they were now outside and there were no reporters around, they were still dancing. He would never admit it, but he was really enjoying their dance and he was reluctant to let her go. He gave Tea a look of gratitude and found he couldn't look away.
Tea was starting to feel a little odd. They were still moving to the music but had slowed down considerably. Seto...no Kaiba she reminded herself, he hated when people called him Seto, had been staring at her for several minutes now. The odd thing is that she didn't seem able to look away. His eyes were so blue, were they always that blue? She wasn't used to such a soft look on his face. 'If he would just get that look a little more often...'
Seto wasn't sure why they were still standing there. the music had ended, and yet they were still standing there, looking into each others eyes. Also she seemed closer to him, like she was leaning toward him. Then he realized that is what she was doing. worse he was leaning toward her as well. What the hell was going on?
What was going on? Tea had no idea. She and Seto...no Kaiba damn it! Were now just a few inches apart, so close she could feel his breath on her lips. Her eyes started to drift closed...only to snap open as a loud fanfare was played by the band inside. Seto's head snapped up and just like that whatever spell they were under was broken. Kaiba saw they were still holding each other and quickly took a step back, muttered something about getting a drink and vanished back into the party. Tea wanted to the curse the band, then stopped. Why was she mad? She should have been grateful. Not like she actually wanted Kaiba to kiss her, right?
Seto walked up to the bar. Now he needed two drinks. The fanfare that had interrupted him and Gardner had been the announcement that Gozaburo was taking the stage for his speech. The real question was why was he so angry? Yeah that was his stepfather talking and that was always a sure way to piss him off, but that wasn't what was really making him mad. Had he actually wanted to kiss Gardner? He wasn't sure, which was itself rather confusing. Maybe he should go back outside and talk to her. He hated that he had just run away, after all he never ran from anything, but what would he say? While he was thinking it over he felt a hand on his shoulder. Just from the touch he could tell it was a woman a thought it was Gardner. Figures that the prime minister of friendship wanted to talk about things. He turned and was annoyed to see Mai standing there. He looked around for Wheeler but he wasn't present. "Where's the Mutt?"
"I left Joey with his sister, just on the off chance you would be here. I don't have enough for bond money." Mai said without a hint of humor. "How's your investigation going?"
Seto sighed. "Honestly not well. I know how they're doing it, I just can't find any proof about who "they" are." Mai looked like she was interested and he wanted to get someone else's take anyway. He was tired of just bouncing ideas off Janet. "This is off the record." At her nod he continued. "It looks like special shipments were made and then sent to the middle east where they were reported as "lost" also known as stolen. It happens fairly often in war zones that supply convoys get attacked so no one noticed when a shipment here or there turned up missing. One of the more recent ones I know for a fact ended up in the hands of terrorists was listed as destroyed."
"How do you know the shipment wasn't destroyed?" Mai asked.
"Because I saw boxes with the same ID number in the canyon where I was being held. My guess is that something happened and whoever was supplying them didn't have time to assemble a custom shipment and sneak it into the country. So they quickly sent out what they had and marked it as destroyed. But whoever is doing this, they are really good at covering their tracks. I haven't been able to find anything that I can link to anyone."
Mai looked thoughtful. Then she opened her purse and pulled out some photos. "I'm almost sorry to do this, but I have these pictures that were taken two days ago less than a hundred miles from where you were found." She handed the photos to Seto.
Seto was struck speechless. He saw a group of terrorists clearly armed with Kaibacorp weapons lining people up against a wall. He skipped the next photo knowing it likely showed the execution and looked at the next picture. A large man could be seen directing the others. He recognized Raphael almost immediately. Two pictures later he saw the familiar shape of the Jericho missile. "What the hell!"
Seto stormed toward Gozaburo who was on his way out having finished his speech. He grabbed him by the arm a pulled him off to the side. "I know your behind this you bastard." He said shoving the photos into Gozaburo's hand. " I swear I'm going to take you down." Seto growled.
Gozaburo glanced at the photos then smirked and leaned into Seto's ear. "Prove it." He said before walking past Seto and out the door to his limo.
Seto stood stewing for a few minutes. He was going to get that bastard, but first he needed to do something about Paradias still using his weapons. He just didn't know what.