Chapter 308 Sudden Summon

The phone buzzed in Lee Seng's hand as he stared at the caller ID.

"What does he want?" Lee Seng muttered. He removed his eyes from the phone and pulled the SCD out and handed it to Manny. "I gotta step out and take a call from my brother. You guys can handle the trade?"

"Yeah, we'll be fine." Manny nodded, taking the SCD. Lee Seng turned and moved to the nearest exit. His phone continued to buzz as he swiped and lifted it to where his human ears used to be. It was a force of habit he hadn't broken yet but his impeccable hearing allowed him to understand what was being said.

"Lee Seng!" Akios loud voice shouted. "Why'd you take so long to pick up? Aren't you done with your classes? Why didn't you pick up right away?" His protective older brother was barraging him with questions, again. He stepped out into the cold outside.

He continued to walk down a random path until he was away from the loud crowds.

"I was training with my friends for tomorrow." Lee Seng answered. He sat down on one of the cleaned benches and took in his surroundings. He didn't know where they were but the area seemed to reflect modern city architecture. "What do you want? Why're you calling me?"

"I was told to come get you from the Academy." Akio told him.

"Why?"

"You did a check up with Dr. Valentin not too long ago, right? After your arena match?"

"Yeah…? How do you know that?"

"It doesn't matter. Your father wants to discuss your changes with your Dark Matter. Apparently it didn't sit well with Dr. Valentin that it was so different from two weeks ago, so he looked into it." Akio explained. "The Creator wants to ask you questions about it."

Lee Seng sighed, turning his head to the side. He watched as a small gorup of friends happily chatted away as they passed him. A girl noticed he was looking at her and immediately peeled her stare away from him.

"Why does it have to be now?" Lee Seng asked. "I have a field expedition assessment test tomorrow. I need plenty of rest for that. Can't we do it afterwards? Dr. Valentin wants Manny and I to go back for Thanksgiving dinner at Dr. V's place. I can do it then.'

"No, your Father wants you tonight. I'm at the main telepad center waiting for you."

Lee Seng sighed and nodded.

"Fine. I'll meet you there then." Lee Seng sighed. He ended the call and wandered back towards the Trade Center. He looked for his friends, finding them near the front.

"Oh you're back?" Olivia asked.

"Yeah, uh…" Lee Seng ranchis fingers through his hair. "I gotta meet my brother at the telepad center. I have to go back to the Creator's lab for some person business."

"Oh okay." Olivia and the others nodded.

"You need me to go with you?" Manny asked.

"Nah, it shouldn't take too long. If anything, you'll just see me at the telepad center tomorrow."

"Alright, see you later then." Ritsuka waved. They said their goodbyes and Lee Seng pressed on back into the telepad rooms. He looked for an empty telepad room and found one halfway down the hall. He stepped in pulling his phone out.

He inputted his destination as he stepped up onto the platform. He sighed and hit go. He flashed into the Telepad center and stepped out of the room. He made his way into the large lobby and looked for Akio.

"Lee!" Akio's voice called out from behind him. Lee Seng turned and waved at his brother. The two met up, Akio giving him a warm smile. "You came pretty fast. I thought you'd be avoiding this."

"Let's just get this over with." Lee Seng sighed. Akio led the way. They moved to a restricted door and Akio out his hand up to the scanner, unlocking it. They appeared in one of the private telepad rooms. The door shut behind Lee Seng as Akio stood on the telepad, inputting his destination.

"Come on." Akio motioned. "Can't keep him waiting."

"Fine." Lee Seng stepped onto the telepad. "Am I gonna have special access to teleport back and forth?"

"Yeah, you should already have access to the Lab." Akio looked up at him. "Ready?"

"Mm." Lee Seng nodded.

The room lit up and they disappeared. Theh appeared in the telepad room at the Lab.

"This one's the telepad you have access to teleporting to." Akio told him as he led the way out of the room. "It leads to the lab area you're familiar with. Come and go as you please."

Lee Seng nodded as Akio led him to the Creator's office.

Three raps went into the door and Lee Seng could hear his Father and Dr. Valentin talking.

"Come in." The Creator's voice spoke. Akio opened the door and moved in. Lee Seng followed after, closing the door and standing near the door. Dr. Valentin and the Creator looked at the two and nodded, greeting them.

"You can come closer. Have a seat." The Creator instructed. Lee Seng nodded and pulled one of the raises chairs over and sat behind the large lab table in the middle of the room.

"Well, now that he's here, we can go through the information." The Creator spoke. He and Dr. Valentin stood on the opposite side of the table while Akio stood off to the side. "It's been awhile since I've seen you, Lee Seng. How's school?"

'Shouldn't he know?' Lee Seng thought.

"Fine. It's been hectic." Lee Seng answered.

"Making friends? Adjusting well?"

"Yeah, I made some friends. I share a room with Dr. Valentin's son, so it isn't anything new." Lee Seng cautiously told him. His father nodded and tapped on the tablet in front of him on the table.

"Good, good. Glad to hear you're doing well. You know why I summoned you today?" The Creator asked.

"Akio said you wanted to talk about the DM values from two weeks ago and a couple days ago. Dr. Valentin did say he find it strange, too." Lee Seng answered like he was on eggshells. The doctor and the Creator nodded.

Holographic screens appeared in between Lee Seng and the Creator and doctor. The Creator motioned at it and cleared his throat.

"Just like you summarized, the DM values are suspiciously too different." The Creator began. "Dr. Valentin showed me this and we've been studying it for awhile. Normally this doesn't happen to anyone, but there are a couple of people who've shown significant changes in their DM values."

"The Creator and I have run through similar cases and found it's similar to a case before the serums were officially released to the world." Dr. Valentin continued. "To be more specific, it has to deal with the Creator's first few experiments."

The holographic screens in front of Lee Seng showed different pictures of abnormal humanoid creatures. One picture was a humanoid creature with a disfigured face and a large bloated arm. Another picture showed a bat-like humanoid and another showed a perfectly fine human being.

"What're these?" Lee Seng asked.

"Early experiments." The Creator answered. "Your case matches these individuals. They had thicker DM values but quickly switched over to a more thin consistency. It began to alter them physically."

"What about him?" Lee Seng pointed to the perfectly fine human being. "He doesn't look like the rest."

"He and you share a lot in common." The Creator answered. Lee Seng gave the Creator a strange look.

'Why would he say it like that?' Lee Seng thought. He took a moment to really stare at these pictures. The Protocol's voice played in his head.

"The Failed Ones." Her voice echoed.

'That's what I'm seeing. The Failed Ones…'

"How does comparing me to a failed experiment make sense?" Lee Seng asked. He looked up at his father and the doctor. "How do the two correlate?" The holographic screens changed. Graphs and charts appeared.

"Your chart is on your left. The other guy is on the right." Dr. Valentin motioned. The charts started to highlight similar patterns.

"They look exactly the same. What're you tryna say here?" Lee Seng asked.

"It took about a couple months for both of you to show significant changes in your values." Dr. Valentin continued with the explanation. "If this goes on, we're thinking something might actually happen to you."

The chart on the right switched. There was a sudden drop. Lee Seng gave the Creator and Dr. Valentin a confused look. He didn't know how he should really react.

"It's gonna drop like that? There has to be a reason why that guy suddenly just dropped in DM value." Lee Seng started to logically try to pick apart the chart. "The serum was very unstable then, so that could be the case there."

"Yes you're right about that but then he showed signs of sudden DM growth again. It was thinner than last time." Dr. Valentin motioned. "So what we're saying is–"

"We think you might thin out like this guy. And it's going to cause a lot of problems." The Creator spoke.