(BL) Taming the Field Guide

The morning light trickling into the city cast a rather ominous glow in the lobby of the Phoenix Guild. Everyone was dressed in their Guild’s colours and uniform, and that included Kellen, Rhys and Sergei. Sergei wore his Captain’s uniform, black and red, while Rhys and Kellen wore the Saturn Guild’s colours.

It was not lost on Kellen that two of the three major Guilds in their city wore black and another colour. Thank goodness for Sakura and her love of white. Though, black and pink would look nice together too.

The mix of colours in the lobby should have made the early morning gathering feel ridiculous, but with the grim, serious air, the colours were the least of their problems. Rhys and Sergei knew where they were going. Kellen had a semi understanding, but he wasn’t as familiar with the area. It didn’t help that where they were going was a clear area, but one that people didn’t live in.

That was the rules. They had to meet in a place that was mostly destroyed to keep the damages to a minimum if the S Classes got a little too crazy. They were all bombs in the eyes of the average civilian, and while Kellen, Brent and the rotating Guides had been making sure that the S Classes that were with them were well taken care of, Kellen couldn’t say the same of the other S Classes.

It was the same when Rhys had come last time. They had met in a mostly destroyed town that was that way because of a gate that had exploded. Kellen had a feeling that they might be going to the same location, or somewhere similar.

Kellen looked around at the crowd, at his parents and his Aunt who were seeing them off, and felt a little bitter that Brent couldn’t even come to see them off this morning. Sergei didn’t look upset, but when Kellen asked if Brent had his gun with him, Sergei nodded.

"Thank you for the gun, Guide Kellen." Sergei whispered. "It’s appreciated, and made Brent very happy yesterday. He was in a much better mood, and thus, we were able to discuss a few of the problems he had." Sergei’s eyes were tight, but in contrast, he also appeared happy. Kellen smiled.

"I’m glad it helped." Kellen told him, Rhys’ hand in his own. He was wearing a backpack instead of using his Field Guide uniform. He had hummed and hawed over what uniform to wear today, but had decided to align himself to just Rhys today because if things went poorly, they would know he was a Field Guide. He wouldn’t have to prove it by his outfit choice.

Kellen wasn’t sure who gave the signal, but it was shortly after that that they began to move. Every S Class had a way that they were going to move. Some were jumping, some were flying, and Sergei was kind enough to help several of the S Classes without a flying ability move at the same speed that he was. Kellen and Rhys were a couple of those people.

Sergei wasn’t trying to shame those who weren’t helping like he was, he was just used to working with others, S Class or otherwise, and it showed. Rhys might have kept his face neutral, not trying to brag about the man, but Kellen wasn’t.

He was smirking and smug that one of his city’s Espers was being so kind, especially when there were other S Class telekinetics who weren’t being as generous. He did keep his mouth shut though, but his smirk spoke volumes.

Rhys just shook his head at Kellen’s antics, holding onto him as the sun peaking out between the city’s towering buildings washed over them. Kellen held onto Rhys, taking in the city that he had seen on his way in, and now, on his way out. It was actually quite interesting to watch so many Espers take off into the sky from the Phoenix Guild building and also notice the distant figures doing the same thing all around town.

Kellen could see probably about 20 other, if not more, shadows moving around the city at this early hour. He was sure that there were more, that some had probably left earlier than their group was leaving, but there were still a lot of people. That, and most of these S Classes were representatives for their own region, meaning there were probably two to five more S Classes per region.

That was a lot of people for a meeting like this. No wonder they had to go outside of town. The sheer energy alone would have set someone off to explode.

~

The scenery as they were moving through the world around them was very pretty. Outside of the slaying of monsters that had to happen as they moved, Kellen was really enjoying himself. He didn’t have to lift a finger since the S Classes were taking turns rotating who got to kill the next monster.

It was kind of cute, and the ones that were flying with the help of Sergei were all turning to Kellen to show off after they took down a monster. It was something he was familiar with, having led many groups into gates before. They were like little kids showing off to their favourite teacher or a parent that they had accomplished. Kellen had forgotten that was something that some groups did.

He’d mostly specialised in taking scientists into the gates near the end of his being a Field Guide so he was the one doing more ’Esper-like’ tasks. He forgot the joy that some Espers got from fighting monsters and taking them down. They even had a tally system to see who was ’winning’ in taking down the bigger monsters and the more dangerous monsters.

Apparently, if the monster was big enough, it could be ranked higher on the take down list because that did take more effort. Kellen turned to Rhys to see if there was logic in that kind of explanation, and when he found the other Espers nodding in agreement, Kellen just kept his mouth shut. This was too sweet of a situation going into something that could be hard for him to get into a semantics argument with them. Let them have their fun, enjoy themselves, before everyone got underneath one roof and had to debate over what was going on with the world.

Kellen didn’t need Rhys to tell him that they were almost at their destination. The sky darkened significantly as they grew closer to the area, the air began to feel electrified, heavy. The monsters were meaner, rougher, and the trees hadn’t quite taken over this place yet.

It wasn’t as far out from Brent’s hometown as Kellen thought it would be. It was still fairly closer, and as Kellen looked down and took in the damage, he could see the path where a road had been. The concrete and asphalt was broken, roots having drilled holes through it, tearing it up. The trees here were far more patient then the ones back home, but that was to be expected.

The humans had had a longer time to fight back against them here. They had to bide their time.

Smaller structures were dotted around, homes, office buildings, farms. Things that every growing city needed, but Kellen could also see the remnants of closed gates and where the exploded gate probably had been. Kellen exhaled lightly, seeing the expanded area in the middle of town.

It had probably been a desert type gate given the sand, cacti and other things that were around the old shell where it had been. The caution tape, metal protective gates and other things around it were like a crime scene that had kept expanding. Kellen had heard of a situation like this, read about it when he was going over exploded gates as part of his research.

Hundreds of people died. The monsters inside of the gate had been flying types, and those are always the worst to deal with. Kellen felt badly for those who had lost their life and he said a small prayer for them. Nothing crazy, it was more of an acknowledgement that they had lived, had done their best, and they were not forgotten.

Rhys was bringing them towards the one building still standing. It looked older, but not as old as the dilapidated buildings around it. It had probably been built in the last 20 years or so and it was a large pillar of sorts. It looked a little crazy, if Kellen was honest.

The base of the building looked like a long shaft which probably held stairs instead of an elevator because where would one find power out here? Generators were the only thing that Kellen could think of, but even then he didn’t trust it. There were too many creatures out here that would feed off of those kinds of things.

That didn’t seem to matter though, since the top of the tower flared out into a wide, huge open space. It was covered in windows, and even the roof had several sun roofs along with a small entrance down into the main hub of the tower. It looked like it could topple over in a heartbeat, but Kellen knew in his gut that it wouldn’t.

It was built too sturdy, and given its age, his Aunts and Uncles had been around for its construction. They might not have gotten along with many of the other S Classes and SS Classes, but they cared about people. They wouldn’t put them in harm’s way.

"Does the bottom have stairs?" Kellen asked Rhys as they slowed, but another S Class nearby answered.

"No. You have to enter from the top. Whether that’s through your own powers or someone helps you. It’s a security thing." He answered with a smile and Kellen nodded. Fascinating.

"And that beige colour. Is that intentional or a result from the building material?" Kellen asked and the same Esper answered again.

"It’s a bit of both. When they were building the first tower they found that the monsters were drawn to it and knocked it down. So, when they built the second tower, they made sure to mix some of the bones of more powerful monsters into the finishing touches. That then meant when it dried it had this beige look because of the bone powder mixed in." Kellen was fascinated. He knew that they did tend to mix in powerful monster bones to buildings when they were important but had to be left alone in the wild, and Kellen had a feeling that this might have been the testing grounds. "It also has a few generators to keep it powered while we’re here. A few S Classes show up early to get it started." He continued.

"Oh how fascinating." Kellen muttered quietly and Rhys chuckled, giving Kellen a squeeze.

"You might win some brownie points by asking the older S Classes questions. This also isn’t the only tower that they’ve made. There are I think 6 towers in total around the world." Rhys told him, his eyes warm. "However, I feel that there is a part of the tower that you’re going to want to see first." Kellen wondered what he meant by that, nodding to his words but turning the fact that there were 6 towers like this around the world in his mind.

"Do they have plans to build more?" Kellen asked and Rhys shook his head.

"Not as far as I know." They glanced towards the Esper who had interjected and he shook his head.

"Not as far as I know either. 6 is a good number, and I think if we did build another one it would be outside of your city at this point. That’s becoming a hot spot, isn’t it?" He asked and Kellen laughed.

His city, a hot spot? It better fucking not.

Rhys laughed too, shaking his head.

"Then it’ll be a long time till we build another tower. Brace yourself. We’re coming in, Kellen." Rhys warned as they began to descend. Someone opened the door at the top of the tower, and Kellen watched as they observed everyone coming in, landing on the platform at the top of the tower.

They were older, with grey hair, with an older uniform on that felt like something his parents would wear, and serious, but somehow kind eyes. They weren’t a normal shade, glowing from the inside like a lightbulb. Bright, vibrant, the sign of a Light Esper. They didn’t smile, but Kellen didn’t think they needed to.

"Welcome, everyone." They greeted and Kellen exhaled. Now, it began.