They walked in the direction the Serpent had suggested. He seemed to have some information about Coral Grove - and not just the deduced kind which he had used to figure out what had occurred what he was crystallized. However, for now at least they did not question it, as Lee's brother seemed mollified and seemed to be leading them in a logical direction (and in any case they had quite a few members in their group now, so they figured they had a good chance of fighting off any sudden danger).

Lee walked beside his mother. He suddenly remembered that he had an important question to ask her: "Mom, I know this is gonna sound weird, but... I'm definitely your son, and not your clone's son, right?"

"Of course! Why would you think otherwise?", his mom replied, with her tone the same as if he had just told her an obvious answer to a math question.

"Well... it's just that, with our names being almost the same and all, I thought..."

"What? You thought I confused you with your brother?" His mother's expression softened. "Of course not. You are both my sons and I love you both very much."

Lee smiled, and then asked, half-jokingly: "So you're a math teacher too, right? It's not just your clone?"

Some way behind them were Jenny and the Serpent (with Holger bringing up the rear, as they had left Lynch behind, partially encased in crystal). As they walked, however, Li quickly realized that Jenny seemed to be staring at him much of the time - and it wasn't exactly a pleasant stare; it was more of a glare of utter contempt, in fact. Finally, he could take it no longer: "What? What is it?"

"What is it? WHAT IS IT!?", Jenny replied, almost yelling the second time. "You know perfectly well what it is, buster! You tricked me, you betrayed me, you left me out in the woods twice - come to think of it, you probably even stole my bike!"

Li hung his head slightly. "Yes, it's true, I admit it - even the bike-stealing part," he said, though quickly realized that latter part might not be helping his case much, as Jenny's glare intensified when he said it. "Look, I'm really sorry about what I did."

"Sorry! Ha!", Jenny snapped. "Sorry was for the first time - now it won't even come close to cutting it!"

"I had to do it! I was working for them. I was on the wrong side, I know, but you have to do what you have to do sometimes. Besides..." - here Li hesitated for a moment - "I got to know you before they instructed me to do that."

Jenny's gaze softened slightly. "Really? Well... okay, tell me then: did you really like like me, or was that just another one of your tricks?"

Li seemed slightly shocked by this question, but his response was cut off as his brother saw several people walking towards them and exclaimed: "Biffy! Mr. and Mrs. Goldstein! You're okay!"

Both of their groups stopped as they caught up to each other. "Oh hey Lee! Yeah, my parents are fine - they were just working on some top-secret prototype or something. Can you imagine it? Their work was so important that they weren't even affected by all that stuff!"

"Really?", Lee asked. "Well, I suppose it doesn't matter now. It's time to get on that sub and go home."

"Ping, you're generally smart and all but you can be so dense sometimes," the faux-bully responded. "Have you considered who's going to be running this place after we leave? Heck, those people who got crystallized are probably still like that, aren't they?"

"Uh...", Lee was embarrassed and wasn't sure what to say. He looked around their group; everyone seemed to be ashamed as well. Finally, he said: "Yeah, none of us really thought much about that... well, Kimmie did, actually...", suddenly remembering the girl's statement back at the very bottom of Coral Grove.

"Kimmie? Really?", Biffy began, but then saw Lee's slight smirk and exclaimed: "Yeah, whatever, uh... anyways, as it happens, I already have a plan for just that. Specifically, my parents have decided to finish their project - just because the company's been taken over doesn't mean their job is over, you know. They can supervise this place for now."

"Great," Lee said, "as it happens, we need to leave as soon as possible, because..." Lee frowned. "Wait... you're just gonna leave your parents here?"

It was Biffy's turn to have his response cut off, as the girl whose name they had just mentioned was running towards them! "Guys, we need to go, now!", Kimmie said, quite obviously out of breath.

"What is it? What's going on?", Biffy asked, shocked even more than the rest of them at her appearance - in every sense of the word.

"I'll explain on the sub! Just go!"