Chapter 868 Bad Feelings



"Do you think everyone will be able to live a normal life after this?" Olivia asked. She was lying in bed while Lee Seng sat beside her, slowly picking at his own porridge. She looked over at him, noticing he was spaced out. She cleared her throat, gaining his attention, again.

"Hm?" Lee Seng snapped out of thought. Olivia smiled. She found Lee Seng's spaced out face adorable. He was always in his head and if he wasn't, he was usually drawn to something so minuscule. 

"What're you going to do after all of this is done?" Olivia asked. "After you get answers… What're you going to do?" She was letting her curiosity get the best of her. Her feelings were swelling and she couldn't help but want to know more about Lee Seng. 

"Well," Lee Seng looked at Olivia. "I still want to claim the old world, but lately I've been feeling down about that dream." His eyes grew distant with his apparent sadness. "I don't really know how to explain it. After I paired with Keng, things slowly changed. My world became more complicated. The Numbers, the Creator… They all expect me to be something. The expectation grew and trouble after trouble came and Keng introduced me to the world of Daros and… maybe I used it to get away from Earth, but I've slowly grown to like the diversity. There's humans and Biohumans in the human villages with Fox spirits and a multitude of people. I kinda want to stay in Daros. It would be better off that way."

Olivia could only notice how sad Lee Seng felt saying all of that. She certainly didn't understand the full feeling, but her misplaced anger - the anger and grief of her grandmother and village being destroyed - lingered. She could understand why Lee Seng had chosen this path. The front door beeped and the two glanced over. 

"I guess they're back." Lee Seng sighed, standing. "I'll leave you to rest." Olivia nodded and watched Lee Seng step outside. 

"Man, that was rough." Evan sighed. "I didn't think we'd go all the way over there." 

"At least we finished early. We still got plenty of sun." Manny commented. The door closed as Lee Seng appeared from the hallway.

"You're back already?" Lee Seng asked, scooping a bite of porridge into his mouth. The group looked over at him. Keng rushed over, almost knocking the porridge out of his hands as he wrapped a hug onto his brother.

"You took your sweet time!" Keng shouted. "What did you do? Did Lady Vix'I have any answers for the disease curse thing?" he pulled away and Lee Seng shook his head. 

"No, not really." Lee Seng shook his head. He hadn't really gone to visit her. He had only gone to talk to Captain Calis, but it seemed things weren't even going that well. Keng nodded and peeled away from Lee Seng. "So, how'd it go today?"

"Got sent out to check some places that got overrun." Liz explained. "Cleaned up the areas, someone got lost and—"

"I didn't get lost. I was looking around for extra monsters." Evan corrected Liz. The group snickered at that and shuffled over to sit on the couch.

"How's Olivia?" Ritsuka asked. Lee Seng spun around and leaned against the wall as he took another scoop of porridge.

"She ate some porridge and had some meds. I talked to her for a bit. She might still be up if you wanna pop in and say hi." Lee Seng motioned. "Oh, Liz might have to wipe her body down. I gave her a warm towel earlier but haven't given her another one since." Liz nodded and stood up and started to her room.

"Olivia~" Liz called out. Lee Seng sat on the couch with the rest of the boys and scooped another bite.

"If you want some porridge, it's in the rice cooker." Lee Seng told them. He scooped his food into his mouth and stood up. "I think I'm going to take a nap and then continue researching." 

"Alrighty." Keng yawned. "I guess that's my cue to take a shower. I think I still got slime goop somewhere on me." He lifted his arms and looked at his pits. 

—

18 Hours from Capitol City

The cars moved through the desolate streets and forests in the night. The tires on the cars were flipped horizontally, soaring through the air as they moved over the rough terrain with ease. Akali stared at the tablet, flicking the information. Her lip twitched as she raised her thumb to bite her nail.

"I don't like this one bit." Akali whispered.

"What is it?" Akio asked, glancing over to his sister who sat in the passenger seat next to him as he drove. Akali bit her lip as she looked up from her tablet.

"They're moving faster than expected. In twenty-four hours, we'll be screwed with their new security system. We'll be caught at this rate." Akali sighed. "What do we do now? We don't even know if Lee Seng is anywhere near Capitol City. This could spell trouble. Should we reach out?"

"Did you have the guys hack his phone before it was dropped, Nikolai?" Akio looked at the rear-view mirror. Nikolai pulled away from the injured worker, lighting the runes. The injured worker gasped as the runes burned into their skin, slowly piecing them back together.

"I did it." Nikolai answered. "I don't think I can help this poor sod. We need medical attention. One better than my attempt to keep them together with the first aid kit and runes." He scooted away from the injured worker and wiped his bloody hands with a disinfectant cloth. 

"Text Lee Seng and tell him what's happening. We'll have to act faster than anticipated." Akio told Akali. 

"Do you think it's a good idea? We don't really know if our information is correct. I could've been given false information to lure us out." Akali asked her brother. 

"Just do it." Nikolai insisted. "If it's bait, we can take it. Plus, they surely don't know Lee Seng is awake and prowling. It'll throw them off long enough for us to do our work." Akali pulled her phone out and unlocked it. 

"I feel bad using him as bait." Akali sighed. She tapped Lee Seng's name and began to type a message out. "But, we gotta do what we gotta do in order to end this mess."

"Let's hope Lee Seng's appearance sways some of the Numbers to his side." Akio said. "If we can get some of them onto our side, it'll be smooth sailing."

"Let's hope so…" Akali hit send. She scanned her sent message and clicked her phone off and stuffed it in her pocket. She was regretting this back-up plan. 

—

"This is bad." Lee Seng sighed. He stared at the strange text. His biggest worries were coming to the forefront as the text message stayed on the screen.

"I hope you're in the city. Things are going to get complicated in twenty-four hours." The text read. It was from an unknown number and was intialed with 'A IX.' 

"This is bad." Lee Seng stood up from his spot and moved through the dimly light apartment. "It takes like thirty hours to get from here to there… They would've taken longer because of monsters and such, too… If they're really saying this then that means…" He rushed into the hallway and into Manny and Evan's room. "Manny!"

"Hu-huh?" Manny groggily answered, still very much asleep. He lifted his head from the pillow, not even registering Lee Seng was marching over to him. 

"Manny!" Lee Seng shook Manny awake. 

"Wh-what is it? Is Lee Seng gone?" Manny asked. Lee Seng pinched Manny and shook him, again. Manny hissed in pain while Evan was lured awake by the noise. "Ow! What the hell?"

"Bad news." Lee Seng stuck the screen in Manny's face. Manny turned, his eyes burned. "Akali sent me this message. I'm sure of it. She's usually cryptic like this and initialed it A IX! Something's going to happen to Captiol City soon!"

"W-w-wait." Manny shook himself awake, grabbing the phone and reading the message. "There isn't anything on the news, right? H-how does she know that something's going to happen? And how did you even get that from this message? Complicated could mean many things."

"I know my sister." Lee Seng plucked the phone out of Manny's hand. "If she was joking, she'd have Akio text me. She means the real deal. Something we don't know is happening soon. We need to go as soon as we can."

"Olivia's still sick." Evan quietly mentioned. He sat up in bed, hair a mess. "We can't leave unless she's better."

"And even then, it'd be hard to get into the city." Manny added. "We can't just teleport there." Manny added.

"I've been there before. We can just teleport to a place I know is safe." Lee Seng told them. 

"Where?"

"We'll have to take our chances with Commander Chimera and their group." Lee Seng shut his phone off and looked at Manny and Evan. "I'll send a message to them. I'm gonna break cover." He spun on his heel and exited the room, leaving the door open.

"H-hey! Are you sure you want to do that? Things might get complicated if one of them are captured!" Manny shouted. "He didn't even close the door!"