Chapter 245: The differences between cities

By the time that Kellen’s parents and Uncle Xavier came back, the chicken had been consumed, Kellen and Brent looked a bit more like themselves, and the Captains were sitting down at the table as well as everyone else instead of standing in the corner like naughty children.

His parents had clearly calmed themselves, gotten information as well, and didn’t bristle at the two Captains anymore. Kellen knew that was only a temporary thing. He had a sneaking suspicion that this wasn’t going to be the last of this, and Brent seemed to be of the same mind.

From the looks that the two had shared, silent but informative in the way that two who knew each other well could communicate, they were on high alert. They both were in agreement that this wasn’t the last time that Espers, S Classes, would be coming to the Guild like this. Not if the E.A.G. was involved.

"Aunt Dina," Kellen began, "you might want to prepare some Guides. I have a sneaking suspicion that they weren’t the only ones affected by this plan." Kellen warned. Hearing the words spoken out loud had everyone on alert.

Rhys, who had finally sat down next to Kellen in his line of sight and had taken his hand, turned to look at him. His eyes were glowing yellow, and while his body was relaxed and he looked calm, Kellen knew that he wasn’t. He had a direct line into Rhys right now, and the waves were violently crashing against anything that came near.

"Why are you so sure?" Rhys asked, hinting at something in front of the Captains. It was clear that he was keeping Kellen’s powers, Class and everything else from the others. However, he was too worked up to not ask the question. Kellen chuckled. Kellen patted Rhys’ thigh with his own hand, offering comfort to the on edge man.

"Patterns, Rhys. If they did this to two people, they probably did this to more. I have no doubt that the monsters weren’t there because of natural means. Getting S Classes together like this happens rarely, and given how quickly we planned this, this was probably the best that they could do." Kellen’s Dad nodded in agreement, as did his Mom and a few others in the room.

"Agreed. There is no part of me that thinks this is normal. Especially after you put things in place in case of emergencies and checked the areas before you left. While I can’t trust you at the moment, I trust that you care about your people, your Guilds. You wouldn’t do something so foolish as leave them defenseless, or yourselves." His Mom said and the Captains relaxed slightly.

"While we understand that our actions hurt you, we appreciate that you’re giving us even this much trust." Captain Mckay said. Captain Gordson nodded in agreement.

"Yes, and again, my sincerest apologies. I truly wasn’t thinking straight." She apologised again and Kellen chuckled.

"I can tell that you feel truly apologetic, Captain Gordson. No hard feelings as long as you control yourself and manage yourself better going forward." She nodded. They both did, in fact. Both of the Captains looked terrible.

"Thank you. We would never-I can’t believe that I felt that way towards a Guide, ever. I-"

"We don’t need to hear it." Brent cut in, speaking for the first time. "The more you apologise, the less happy I feel having helped you in the first place." Brent wasn’t trying to be mean, but he really was just trying to get her to stop.

Kellen understood why, at least to some degree. If Brent didn’t nip this in the bud now, she wouldn’t stop apologising to them whenever she saw them. It happened sometimes when Espers felt guilty for lashing out when they were at their weakest. Kellen didn’t mind it up to a certain point, but Brent?

This was one of the few times that he viewed something in a very black and white stance. Once or twice was fine, after that? That was enough, because now you were getting in the way of his work.

She looked embarrassed at Brent’s words, and Brent shrugged.

"Sorry. Hate to be that way, but seriously. It’s leaving a bad taste in my mouth. I just did my job, you spoke out of turn, we dealt with it, end of the story. Your people know you’re safe, you made it, and also know that something happened along the way that made you act out. I’ve been around enough S Classes now to know that you’re all built a little differently." Brent said. The Captains stared at Brent, before glancing at the others around them.

"Brent, you haven’t been around a lot of S Classes, you’ve been around ours. They tend to get along, compared to the rest of them. We sent two S Classes from our city, while each other region only sent one." Kellen pointed out. Brent shrugged.

"An S Class is an S Class, even if they can play nicely." Brent said and Kellen almost took offense. Almost. Kellen laughed.

"I see. Play nicely, huh?" Kellen was reminded of a time when Sergei and Rhys had fought, not disclosed it, and Kellen had to basically emergency guide Rhys. His mood soured. "At least you make Taylor’s job easier." Kellen muttered and Rhys squeezed his thigh.

"What were you thinking about?" He asked softly and Kellen waved it off. It was unimportant to the moment, and they had bigger things to focus on.

"It doesn’t matter. I want to instead focus on the types of monsters that were summoned or controlled, where they are most likely found, the gates that they are often from, etc. I want to get a full picture before we send these two off to their rooms to recover. Aunt Dina, that Guide group?" Kellen asked and the S Classes once more realised that out of everyone, Kellen was calling the shots.

They swallowed, watching him anxiously as he continued to speak and boss the others around. They realised that it was only because of Kellen that they had been given any kind of grace. It seemed that, from their shared look, they were either going to take advantage of that, or not. Kellen would have to wait and see what their joint decision was later.

~

Aunt Dina spoke to her Lieutenant in charge of Guides and she was in full agreement. She was back in her apartment for security reasons, but she called in and spoke to the group, or Kellen, about who would be the best fit. It took about an hour, but they ended up deciding on a rotation of Guides so that they didn’t get exhausted. They would get overtime pay and hazard pay, and she would reach out and contact the first round as soon as the call ended.

This was to take the weight off of Kellen and Brent’s shoulders, as well as give the team more experience. She didn’t foresee any of the Guides that they had selected saying no to it either. All of them were A Class Guides, good in their own right, but they might balk at the sight of truly deranged Espers. That was why Kellen or Brent, or both, would be with them during the guiding process.

They weren’t doing anything more serious than hand holding, and that was intentional. Some of these Espers could have long time partners, usually did, and it was best not to cross any lines like that. Or if they didn’t have long-term partners, they might try to use that as an excuse to bring them back to their Guilds with them.

They could do that on their own time, but not when Kellen and the others were trying to keep them from surging and killing the whole city.

The first round of Guides were on their way to the Guild building by the time that Kellen and the others had started truly going through what had attacked the Espers on their way here. Kellen wanted a full picture of this region since he wasn’t aware of what was normal, or common for gates, monster sightings, any of that. He wasn’t even fully aware of where their front lines were, how they differed from his own, or little details like that.

He was excited to pick their minds about the differences and kept a record of the differences for his own personal reasons. He also wanted to pass it on to the Guides that he was training in a bid to help them differentiate themselves from other Field Guide trainers. The more information that they knew, the bigger upper hand they would have over others.

So, Kellen and Brent went over what was common for the region, what exploded gates were theorized to be in each region from what had been spotted, and Kellen learned that the areas here were under far more control compared to where they lived. There was much more risk traveling to their city because of the large expanses of untouched land. Or, well, not untouched, but taken over land.

It was a reminder that what Jax and Jules did was fucking insane, and that they were able to live the way that they were was ridiculous and frighteningly impressive, even if Kellen didn’t like admitting it.

They had the help of the others, but it was becoming clear to Kellen that the Phoenix Guild was not a Guild that often worked on the front lines. That came with an explanation that this city, being as big as it was, didn’t have just one front line.

They had several.

The city was protected in the center with black our regions around the front lines for civilian safety. Each front line was built similar to theirs, with generators and small tent towns outside of a few buildings, but each front line was usually managed by a particular Guild that would contract out to the others. It wasn’t like where they were from, where the D.E.C. had a bit more control over things as a governing body.

There wasn’t anything like the D.E.C. here. Which was probably why the police were useless. Kellen frowned at that, but he kept his mouth shut. He wouldn’t belittle other cities. Not yet, at least.

The system normally worked out well, and the Phoenix Guild actually worked more in the transport and exchange of goods from the front lines. They didn’t have to fight often, but their people did spend time in gates. They had a rotation, a voluntary force. People did do it, and often.

It was different from Kellen’s city and region because there were more people to help here where that wasn’t really an option for them. Their nearest town was powerful, but small, and it was usually the Saturn Guild and the Peach Guild that sent help out to the surrounding regions.

The Nemesis Guild did help, but just in less public ways, as was their way.

Either way, it was interesting to hear how bigger, less destroyed regions acted, and it made the monster attack even more suspicious. Especially as it became clear that the monsters weren’t from the region, or gates that were nearby.

Kellen didn’t like it that he was right, not in this context, but they didn’t have time to worry about that. More S Classes were arriving, and terrifyingly, Kellen was right. If there was one silver lining to this all, it would make it easier for Kellen and Brent to get support if the E.A.G. kept attacking their people like this.

No one liked being made weak like this, especially when you are supposed to be representing a whole region, and most S Classes liked to look good in the face of the public. The E.A.G. was making this easier for Kellen.