Chapter 701 Shocking Turn Of Events

Ysa paused the video, and all eyes were on Manny and Liz. Liz cocked her head and then turned to Manny.

"Are they speculating we did it?" Liz asked. Manny stood there frozen. One of the scenarios he had briefly thought of had just happened. Liz tugged at Manny's arm. "Manny, please tell me this is a joke! They're calling you and me terrorists!" Liz's voice grew more panicked as Manny stood frozen.

"They're pinning it on these two. The Internet is going crazy saying it's some kind of backstabbing ploy." Ysa told them.

"Manny! Answer me!" Liz tucked Manny's arm hard, falling backwards onto the ground. She winced at the pain, staring at Manny. Tears welled up in her eyes as Manny's lips slightly twitched. "Manny! What should I do? My parents will be so pissed! They'll say I'm a monster, and this has been an on-going problem since I got my powers! What do I do?!?"

Liz bawled her eyes as Olivia moved to comfort Liz.

"Hey. It's going to be alright." Olivia whispered, pulling Liz into her arms as she cried. Lee Seng and the guys turned to Manny, who was frozen in fear. His eyes shook with tears as he held it in.

"Manny." Lee Seng called out. Lee Seng's voice broke Manny out of it. Tears fell as his legs dropped him to the ground. Soft cries came out of his slightly opened mouth as his hand moved up to cover it.

"No… No…" Manny whispered. Lee Seng crouched and tried to get a good look at Manny. Manny refused to look at him, trying to scoot himself away. Manny's phone buzzed, sending him into a frenzy of shouts. "No! I'm not a terrorist! I'm not!" Manny pulled the phone out and froze. "No… No… It can't be. H-help… Someone help…"

Manny turned his head and looked at Lee Seng, Evan and Ritsuka. He turned the phone and the three of them read the caller id. "Dad." The phone flew out of Manny's hand as Lee Seng rose. The phone smashed into tiny bits, spilling into the ground.

"W-what do I do? What do I do, Lee Seng?!?" Manny screamed. Lee Seng ruffled his hair and turned to the Commander and the General.

"This is bad." Lee Seng stated the obvious. "This is really fucked up."

"Yes." Halys nodded. He looked over at the Foxlings and motioned for them to leave. Once the Foxlings were out of the room, Halys rounded the desk and leaned against it.

"What do we do?" Ritsuka asked. "Those two are currently wanted as terrorists. Is there some kind of plan?"

"We dug into it." Halys sighed. "The Commander and I have come up with a plan, but you must agree to it." He looked at Lee Seng. "The lives of your friends are in your hands. Since you're a Fox Spirit, it's your decision."

"Where can we go? We're criminals!" Liz cried. Lee Seng nodded. He turned to face the group, noticing Liz and Manny were both in hysterics about the news. Evan was trying his best to comfort Manny, who was in denial of the whole ordeal.

"Does this… answer your question?" Chimera asked.

"Yes, it does." Lee Seng replied, turning to face the Commander. He let out a sigh and nodded.

"What will you do? Will your friends put their trust in you and us or will you decide?"

"Where can we go? There's nowhere to go! We can't even run out of the city." Manny asked. He looked up at the two Fox Spirit leaders, wiping snot and tears away as he lightly tapped Evan to move. Manny stood up and sniffed the snot away and let out a shaky sigh. "There's nowhere to run. We'll be targeted. Once they find us, they'll assume we captured him somehow and make an elaborate story to quell any anger from the people."

'He's not wrong.' Lee Seng thought.

"You have any idea, Mr. Valentin?" Halys asked.

"It's better to give in now than—"

"I knew you would say that!" Liz threw herself onto her feet and rushed towards Manny. She bumped into him, throwing her fists into his chest as Manny let it happen. "You want me to be a monster like they said? I don't want to! I can't afford to! I thought you said you'd help me become stronger! Was that a lie?"

"We don't have any other choices, Liz." Manny told her. His defeatist attitude was certainly being showcased, well. Lee Seng sighed and ruffled his hair.

"Please, Manny. I don't want to go to jail for something I didn't do. Let's take the Commander's offer! Anything! I'll do anything!" Liz pulled away from Manny and locked onto Lee Seng. She moved over to Lee Seng and grabbed his hand, tugging at it. "Please, Lee Seng… I-I can't be a monster! I can't!" Lee Seng folded his lips inwards and licked them. He allowed Liz to pull at him and plead as he thought.

"H-hey, it'll be alright, Liz." Evan awkwardly cut in. He moved his hands to grab her arm, but was met with a spark of electricity. Lee Seng winced, enduring it. "H-hey! It's alright! You're not a monster!"

"I am! They all say I am!" Liz shouted.

"What do we do?" Ritsuka asked Lee Seng. Lee ESeng reeled. He had everything he needed to know but it didn't sit right with him. Electricity flew out of Liz's hands, shocking Lee Seng even more. Lee Seng grunted in pain as he forced himself to endure it.

'You can speculate about it whoever it is as much as you want, but if you don't do anything, you'll just spend your life speculating what-if's. Do you want that?' Carter's advice crept back up in that moment and Lee Seng nodded.

"Enough." Lee Seng said. The electricity fizzled out as a gray bind wrapped around Liz's wrist like a bracelet. He turned to face his friends, pulling his arm away from Liz. The entire room looked at Lee Seng shocked.

"What did you just –" Manny began to say as the gray bracelet faded away.

"We'll have to go to Daros. It's the only option that keeps all of us safe." Lee Seng told them. "I'm sure the Commander and the General would've said the same thing. We can lie low there until things quiet down."

"Will they quiet down?" Ritsuka asked. "It seems… bad."

"Very bad." Olivia agreed. "Even if we go to… Daros or whatever, we're leaving everything behind. Can we at least say goodbye?"

"That's dangerous." Ysa spoke up. "If you do that –"

"Ysa." Halys put his hand up. Ysa glanced away, not saying another word.

"You want to chance us being caught?" Evan asked. "I-I get you have your grandma, but I don't have that great of a relationship with my dad. My mom would oust me the moment she saw me in fear she'd seen a ghost. Ritsuka's siblings and parents are all involved government wise. Manny's family is involved with the Creator and I'm not even going to mention Lee Seng!"

"My parents will one hundred percent throw me to the cops. This is their chance to!" Liz cried. "Do we really have to?"

"I don't think it's the best idea but at least Olivia is far enough away we could possibly do it." Lee Seng gave his opinion on the ordeal. "The rest of us would just make things more complicated."

"Is Daros safe?" Manny asked. "Will that place, wherever it is, protect us? A-are we really gonna run away from this?"

"You're the one who said to settle down and do nothing." Lee Seng looked at him. Manny could feel the coldness radiate off Lee Seng. Manny clamped his mouth shut. He had literally made a ruckus earlier.

"If we're really running away, I need to go back home to grab something." Evan spoke up.

"Is it safe to go back to the Academy? Won't it be hard to… get out?" Olivia asked.

"I can tele—Wait, I can't… Shit." Lee Seng cursed. "It's tied to my Fox abilities, which I don't have."

"You don't have your fox abilities?" Ysa asked. "I knew I felt something off about you."

"If you had them, it'd be easy. We'd be exposing ourselves for… What exactly?" Ritsuka asked Evan. Evan shifted and sighed.

"My crest. If they find it, they'll really think I'm dead." Evan answered.

"Wouldn't it be better that way?" Lee Seng asked. Evan shook his head.

"It's… complicated. There's… stuff in my crest that could be useful one day… If things settle down long enough, I can use those things to… Help."

"This crest means a lot to you?" Olivia asked. "Leaving without it would get rid of whatever is in the crest?" Evan nodded.

"Please. I know I'm risking it even more, but I need that crest. The crest is whatever, but what's inside of it was left by my grandpa. I need that."

'Manny and Liz are wanted terrorists. Everyone thinks I'm dead and Evan needs whatever is in that crest. To do that, we'd have to go back into the lion's den…' Lee Seng bit his lip and sighed.

"I need that sword, too…" Lee Seng whispered. He looked at each person and asked them all, "We're in and out. We'll need some Fox Spirits to come with us if we do this. If we are willing to do it together. Can we do this?"