We take a break from Train's stay at Creed's mansion. I know you want to get back to him, but he always seems to get injured and end up in that blasted chamber when I write about him. To keep him safe from harm for now, we will actually work on some plot development. Bear with me here.

The Lee Family – Part 1

"Shiki-san. Would you mind handing these over to Creed-sama? They were part of the mine exchange during the conference we disrupted," Sheldon explained, holding out two purple disks.

"Yo! Sheeelldooon! Let's go shopping already!" Kyoko yelled across Ekidonna's room.

"YES! Get out of my room already!" screamed Ekidonna, embarrassed to have all the Hoshi gathered in her private chambers. The next time Heartnet goes on a killing spree, she was leaving them in with him.

"Maro! Get out of my lingerie drawer! Aitsu (1)! GAH!"

Aitsu was rooting through Ekidonna's closet before he suddenly turned around and released his spirit. It hit Ekidonna, and then returned to his monkey body. Only, it wasn't a primate body anymore. It was that of a naked Ekidonna, exactly alike to the last strand of hair.

"Mmmm…never knew you had such a sexy ass," commented the doppelganger, checking out his, or more accurately, Ekidonna's exposed butt.

"ARGH! OUT YOU FUCKIN' MONKEY! OUT!"

Sheldon, miraculously, seemed to be able to keep complete calm in the racket that followed. Even Shiki was wincing under his bandages, before he realized Sheldon still expected an answer, and it was too much of a good opportunity to waste.

"Of course I will not mind," Shiki said oily, taking the disks.

"Sheldon?" Kyoko asked, grabbing Sheldon with both hands before leaning inward, as if to kiss him. Sheldon immediately blocked her lips with a glob of blood.

"EWW! I wasn't really gonna kiss you. You're hot under the glasses and hat and all, but you're just not my type," pouted Kyoko, licking off the blood. She proceeded to drag Sheldon out the door, happily humming about shopping.

Shiki sent one of his wasps after them, smiling maliciously under his bandages.

Jiang Zheng Lee ran a hand through his thinning pepper and salt hair as he stood before two sweepers of Rotenburg City.

"You sure you haven't seen her?" They pushed the rough sketch of Eve closer into his face.

"A pretty young 'un like her? I'd not forget!" He subtly backed up into the doorway, prepared to close the door on their face if things got violent.

"Well inform us if you get any information, alright? She may not look like it, but she's an escaped convict and a dangerous killer. Took out 8 of our men."

And I'll bet those eight just happened to be part of the Volts gang.

Lee did not voice his thought though. Instead, he nodded compliantly, even a bit eagerly, to show his obedience. As the two left, he overheard them gossiping to each other.

"Heard about Creed's last exploit?" the first one, a skinny blonde with a tattoo on his chest asked.

"Yeah. He's getting bolder, stealing a top secret orihalcon mine. There's only 2 left in Chronos's position now, though I here they're trying to force a privately owned one off the hands of a rich Chinese family," replied the second brunette.

"Rumors are that they disrupted a peace conference between the country holding ownership of the mine and Chronos's negotiators. Number II ran away before the slaying begun, and thus escaped injury," conversed the blonde.

"Really? Man, the Guardians are getting more cowardly each day. It's up to us Sweepers to maintain justice."

As the two rounded the corner, the blonde turned slightly toward the eavesdropping Lee, blocking his companion from sight. The tattoo X on his chest contrasted darkly with his skin as he winked subtly at Lee, before following his companion.

The gray haired man collapsed on the doorsteps in an awkward sprawl, processing what he had discovered. Creed was on the move, and had succeeded in another well thought out plan. The Guardians had once again been defeated. But what did Xiao (2) mean by number II running away? It was a blatant attempt at decreasing the Guardian's import to the sweepers, as this rumor would no doubt spread to all by sundown. There was a double meaning though. Why would someone as highly ranked as Belze even bother with a petty meeting? Obviously, Chrnonos had some information it wanted Belze to hand over during the meeting, as he was an expert in negotiation and information exchange. So what was in that was exchanged?

His thoughts were interrupted as a mature but young voice sounded out behind him. "Ojii-san. Sven's not back yet—he said he'd return in time for dinner today," commented Eve, worry evident on her face.

Poor girl, already lost one friend and desperately clinging on to the other.

"I'm sure he's fine. I wouldn't worry about a grown—"

A phone rang insistently inside the building. Lee stood up tiredly, and walked in to answer the phone. Long ago, when the place was an actual store, the neighbor had pitched in all their money, and with the help of a sympathetic and rich uptowner, got a public phone installed there. Now it was just an ancient piece of metal hung up on a deteriorating wall. Only a few people ever called anymore, as no one had a phone around the region anyways.

"Yes? Hello?"

"Ojii-san? This is Lee 1."

A peculiar expression overcame the old man's face as he heard the voice at the other end of the line. It was a mixture of love and longing, combined with disgust and resignation.

"Look, ojii-san, I don't have time to discuss the merits of my current occupation with you. I need to reach Lee 2 as soon as possible."

"But Xiao just left," the old man protested.

"Shh! This line could be tapped, most likely considering where I am right now. I have another minute before any serious repercussion could happen though. Just get him to meet me at the old playground. Thank you and good-bye."

"Da Lee…" Jiang Zheng's voice was full of regret and wistfulness. Don't go… It was an echo of what he had said to his eldest son years ago when he had decided to cut all family ties.

The other end was silent, and Jiang thought his son had hung up, before the voice, softer than before and full of tenderness replied.

"It's 'Doctor' now."

(1) He is the weird monkey Hoshi with the power of Dou, meaning he can clone into anyone.

(2) Xiao Lee, Chronos Guardian Number X, master of disguises. And since the old man seems to have the same last name as him, they are, of course, related. You can probably guess that Xiao Lee is the younger bro of Da Lee aka. Doctor.

Oooh…evil Shiki got the disks, and is going after Kyoko and Sheldon. Wonder what will happen? Well, go ahead and wonder; but you won't find out unless you read the next chappie, silly!