Chapter 696 Team Zephyr Meets The Fox Spirit Commander

Lee Seng and the group followed Valen and Shang up a couple of floors and towards a familiar part of the building Lee Seng remembered. Valen stopped and turned to look at Lee seng and his friends.

"Stay here for a moment. I'll be back." Valen told them. Lee Seng nodded as Valen turned to Shang. "Come with me."

"Awh, but I wanted to stay with Senior Lee Seng…" Shang pouted. Valen patted Shang and knocked on the door.

"Come in." A voice called out. Valen looked at Shang, nodding his head for him to follow as he stepped into the room.

"Hello, Commander. Hello, General." Shang happily greeted the leaders.

"Shang!" General Halys chuckled. "Not causing trouble are ya?"

"No, sir." Shang closed the door behind him, leaving Lee seng and his friends alone in the hallway.

"Anything we should know before we go in there?" Liz asked. Lee Seng turned, noticing he was the only one not facing inwards. "Commander and General sound like big names. Who are they? Will they help you? Us?"

"General Halys and Commander Chimera are friendly." Ritsuka answered. "You don't have to be worried about them. They've been around for a long time."

"What? Forty years? Fifty years? Are they old?" Evan asked. Ritsuka shook his head.

"No," Lee Seng answered. "Fox Spirits don't age like we do. If they don't get their nine tails, I think they can live up to five or six hundred years."

"Woah. They're old."

"You're going to be amazed when we walk in there then." The door opened and Shang's head popped out.

"You can come in now." Shang informed them. Lee Seng and the group turned, walking into the room one by one. Commander Chimera sat on the left side, head of the conference table with General Halys to his right.

"Lee Seng, it's been a while." Commander Chimera spoke. They stood up, nodding and greeting everyone. "I see you've come with a whole crew as well. Hello everyone."

"Woah, she's pretty." Liz whispered to Manny.

"She? The Commander's a guy." Manny whispered. Lee Seng smiled, awkwardly, nodding at Commander Chimera and General Halys.

"Please, have a seat." General Halys motioned. The group all took a seat as the Commander and General followed.

"It's been a while, Commander, General. I hope you've been doing well." Lee Seng awkwardly responded.

"I've been quite busy with the new recruits and travel. I take it you're not here for small talk. What seems to be the problem, Lee Seng?" Chimera asked. They were in business suits and looked like they had come to this meeting at the last minute. Chimera still looked quite neutral to Lee Seng. Lee Seng had assumed Chimera's effect had swayed the others into seeing something.

"Well, sir…" Lee Seng glanced down at his legs before looking up. "My friends and I were attacked today… In the apartment the Creator had put me in. The place exploded in flames, and I assume there's loads of people looking for me."

"The news is labeling it as an assassination attempt or some kind of terrorist attack." General Halys informed them. "There was no trace of you, so everyone's in a panic."

"People are digging through footage to try and see what happened. Did you burn to a crisp or was the fire just for show?" Chimera added. They flicked their eyes over to the rest of the group. "Why were you guys there? Visiting your friend who's supposed to be in solitude?"

"We wanted to visit him… Sir." Manny answered. Liz and Evan looked over at him like he was disrespectful.

"I thought the Commander was a woman…" Evan whispered to Ritsuka. Ritsuka's eyes were saying it all.

"Commander Chimera's gender neutral. You either see the masculine or the feminine. It's a trick of the Commander." Lee Seng informed his friends. "You'll have to forgive them… This is all… new."

"It's quite alright." Chimera chuckled. "Sir, ma'am, Commander. You may call me what you want. I find no disrespect in it. But you were saying, you went to visit your friend? How were you even able to do such a thing? A Number's child wouldn't be able to get in so easily. Did you have connections?" Manny wasn't too surprised by what Chimera said. Everyone knew he was the brother of Zoe and the son of Dr. Valentin.

"Mr. Damon 'Manny' Valentin, Miss Elizabeth Walt, Mr. Evan Trainor, Mr. Ritsuka Yamada, whom I've met already and lastly, Miss Olivia Ok. I know who you all are. You're Lee Seng's friends, correct?" Chimera asked. The group turned to look at each other and then settled on Lee Seng, who shrugged. "My men kept tabs on Lee Seng and his friends. Especially the one inside of him." Chimera pointed over to Lee Seng.

"They know about that, too?" Liz whispered.

"Who are you exactly?" Manny asked. "Why do you know our names? Are you keeping tabs on us for the Creator?"

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Well, I guess this wouldn't work in this scenario…" Chimera's fingers brushed their chin as they thought.

"What the Commander means is, yes." General Halys spoke up. "We know who you all are. Y'see, we've kept tabs on Lee Seng this whole time. Since he was born, we've kept eyes on him. When he eventually became a Fox Spirit, the Twin Souls, the Commander was curious. We heard from one of our men back in Daros, Lee Seng was there, so the Commander and I took the opportunity to meet him. That's how we met Lee Seng and Ritsuka."

"So, what you were saying was true…" Olivia looked over at Ritsuka.

"I wasn't lying to you. Did you guys really think it was all made up? Even after seeing Keng?" Ritsuka asked.

"What do you want with Lee Seng? With us?" Manny asked, standing. "Why are you watching him?" Manny had grown defensive. It was naturally apart of how he was. His constant spotlight had made him suspicious of people. He was friendly, but suspicious and coupled with the fact it was Lee Seng… Well, Manny didn't want to take any chances.

"Manny." Lee Seng stood up and moved over to him. "They're allies. You don't have to protect me against people I know."

"But I don't know about them. Why have you been watching Lee Seng since the moment he was born? What's the reason for that, Commander?"

The Commander's cheek puffed as the General simply folded his arms.

"Commander, you'll have to excuse him, he gets like this when something happens to—" Lee Seng began to say as Manny's arm pulled Lee Seng away from the table and behind him. His arm and part of his body blocked Lee Seng as the Fox Spirits watched.

"You should show some res—" Valen began to say as the Commander's hand flew up.

"We've been watching the Creator ever since one of our own was taken from us." Chimera told Manny. "The Creator took one of my brothers and started to experiment on him. If it weren't for me, he would've never come home. Thankfully, only blood was taken and eventually put into Lee Seng, who became one of us. You do not need to worry, Mr. Valentin, we are allies. We are here to watch and observe. When true evidence of the Creator comes into the light, we act."

"'True evidence' of what?" Manny asked. Lee Seng grabbed Manny's arm and lowered it.

"What if my brother's blood was used to further the Biohumans? What if it was used for the wrong things? It would be my responsibility to fix that and avenge my brother, no?" Chimera lowered his hand and folded his hands together on the table. Lee Seng moved his hands onto Manny and gently pushed him back onto his seat. Manny begrudgingly sat down and watched Lee Seng return to his seat.

"You've kept tabs on everything Lee Seng has done?" Ritsuka asked.

"Yes. Just like we've kept tabs on you since you were introduced." General Halys answered.

"Do you not trust us or something, then? It sounds like if I were to say anything, you'd get rid of me."

"A possibility." General Halys nodded.

"W-what? Why? We didn't even know until recently?" Evan blurted out. He gulped as the two Fox Spirits looked over at him. "I… I didn't mean to… um…"

"Chrono told me something about a supposed Deimon. What's that?" General Halys switched the subject. Ritsuka hushed Evan as Lee Seng turned his attention to his seniors.

"A project my father's been working on." Lee Seng answered.

"How did you come across this information?"

"I've seen three of them. I learned that there were more of them when I was petrified."

"Petrified? Don't tell me you became a Number." General Halys asked. Lee Seng nodded. "Is that why your energy feels so different?"

"Yes and no." Lee Seng answered. "I'm sure you've probably heard and if you didn't, I lost my Fox Spirit powers. It happened a couple months ago… After the gruesome murders… But I recently came out of petrification because they had inhibited my ability to use my powers until then." Lee Seng lifted his arms, showing he didn't have the bracelet on him anymore. "Rather, after the incident with Akio going mad, nothing seemed to work on me. My evolved power won't allow disabling effects to happen on me anymore."

Chimera and Halys nodded like they had known about this beforehand. Halys turned to look at Chimera and stayed that way for a while before Halys turned his attention back onto Lee Seng.

"So, what happened to your Fox Spirit abilities?" Halys asked.