(BL) Hunting The Field Guide - Chapter 106

Chapter 106: Hunky and smart Chapter 106: Hunky and smart The rest of the day passed with a blur.

Kellen and the Captain didn’t even go to the medical bay for their guiding session, and instead did it in a small guiding room on the conference level with Taylor beside them.

She’d taken a small, portable machine with her, since she was also going to be busy with everything that was going on.  They still hadn’t found out the identity of who had come out of the gates.

By now, Maeve was already on her way to the front lines, along with Lieutenant Miro.

He was going as a plant consultant, and to see if his powers could affect any of the poisonous ones growing around the gate.

If he could, there was a chance he could slow the poison spreading down, but changing what growth level the plants were at.  Captain Sergei had evacuated the area around the gate back.

Thankfully, Sakura’s Guild had created a poison measuring machine, and with its help they were able to get back to safe levels.

But it was clear the poison was everywhere.

It was alarming, and worrying to everyone.

But, the Captain’s had come to some kind of agreement of sharing the load.  The D.E.C.

was going to take the full frontal blame.

At this point, it was only a matter of when the public found out about everything.

The Captains had decided that with the PR that the D.E.C.

had, they made the most sense.  The Nemesis Guild was going to provide the hazard suits, made from materials from their own gate, with help from the scientists they hired, as well as the Captain’s, and Sakura’s Guild as well.  Sakura was going to provide help with the poison.

She was still nervous about contacting their joint acquaintance, but this time she was going to use Kellen’s name so they couldn’t say no as easily.

But even without their help, they did have a team that focused on poisons, and they had done this before they had arrived.

She was the best hope for potentially finding an antidote.  The Captain was providing people.

Manpower.

Their Guild had the specialization of closing gates, therefore, they were the best to go into the gate to close it.

Everyone who would be selected for the teams going inside would be veterans, people who had already closed gates.

People who knew what they were getting into.  That team hadn’t been selected yet, especially since the first scout team hadn’t ‘left’ the gate, and the gate needed to be observed again.

No one was going into the gate for at least a week.

Probably a month if they could get away with it.

With the gate still fluctuating on the extreme end of the scale, the experts had all agreed that they could probably hold off on worrying about a gate explosion.  So, there was a tentative plan.

Captain Sergei was going to stay on the front lines for the time being, while Hill would eventually join him there once they had selected the team.

That team would then go into several gates for training purposes before eventually going into the gate once Sakura had come up with an antidote of sorts.

They would then, hopefully, take in a recording device so that they could observe what the gate looked like inside, and then come back out.

Safely.

Alive.

With minimal injuries.  But it was a worry, because if the gate wasn’t incredibly dangerous from the get go, why didn’t the scout team turn around?

Was there something preventing them from doing so?

It was a concern, and there hadn’t been many gates who had locked up behind them, so they were going to have to prepare for the worst case scenario.  That the gate would let you enter, but wouldn’t let you leave until you either died, or found the gate core.  Either way, it meant that everyone was busy, but Kellen felt like he didn’t quite belong in the high pace room.

For Brent, he fit right in.

He had a depth of knowledge about Guilds and gates that some people were finding suspicious, Kellen included, but he was a good aid.

He knew what others needed before they asked, and got it done.  Kellen, however, was more hands on.

He could help with the training of the team, and with the knowledge they would probably need, but that was it.

He wasn’t meant for the chaos of this room.

It was making his head spin.

All the logistics side of things wasn’t his primary worry, and the Captain could see that.  He’d come over, kiss Kellen’s forehead and wrap him in a hug, before forcing him out of the room and off to eat and work out.

The Captain would rather Kellen be in peek form in case something happened, then for his head to spin while being in the room.

Kellen didn’t take it as an insult, and did what he was ordered to do.  ~ Over the next two days, while everyone else was running around, stressing about the gate and logistics and everything else, Kellen ate, slept, and worked out.

Of course, he wasn’t unaware of what was going on, but he knew he also wasn’t helpful up there.

They already had Kellen’s Father making sure the room was eating and watered and taking breaks, they didn’t need Kellen to hover.  So, he did what the Captain suggested, only going up to the conference level when they needed to do their guiding sessions, hoping that they’d need him for something, and if they didn’t, off he’d go to the gym or the cafeteria and just ate or worked out.

He’d lapped himself for first place on the obstacle course, ran an impromptu work out class for the Espers in the A Class gym, and surprisingly, over the two days, got thick.  It was slightly concerning how tight his pants were now, and how hard it was to button up his shirts.

He hadn’t expected that he’d need to request a larger Guide uniform so quickly, but since no one had really needed him, and the Captain only needed minimal guiding right now, where else was it going to go?  He felt good though.

Healthy.

And he looked better than everyone else in the conference room.

But now, it was Thursday afternoon, Kellen had just left the conference room after guiding the Captain, and there was a surprise waiting for him in the A Class gym.  He was alone, since Brent had turned out to be quite useful upstairs, so he was already wearing the workout uniform when he entered the gym.

What he wasn’t expecting was a pair of arms to wrap around him like a spider monkey and cling to his form.  “Kellen!” Instinctively, Kellen wrapped his arms around her to support her, and flinched at the cold dampness that touched his skin.  “What the hell have you been up to?” He asked his sister, as she giggled, holding only him tightly.  “We were doing some fun training today with the other recruits.

Any time we failed, Lieutenant Gunther soaked us.” Ah, that explained the dampness.

As Kellen looked over the room, he noticed a large crowd near the sparring arena.

It was an area he avoided, for obvious reasons.  Kellen turned his attention back to his little sister.

He hadn’t seen her for a while, and he wanted to make sure she was okay.

She hadn’t messaged him before or after getting back from her little trip, but looking at her now, she was simply glowing.

She was having the time of her life, and Kellen sighed.

He could easily forgive her if she was just distracted because she was enjoying herself.  Hoisting her up, much to her joy, he headed towards the crowd, and as much as she enjoyed being carried by him, he could tell she was a little embarrassed.

That only made him want to hold onto her more.  “Nice.

How many times did you fail?” He asked and she scoffed.  “Only twice.

Others had it way worse than I did.” Kellen nodded.

That was to be expected.

She had been training with a retired Esper practically her whole life.  “And what were the exercises you guys were failing?” He asked and she smirked.  “Not anything you could do.” Kellen stopped in his tracks.

She giggled at the expression on his face.

“Lieutenant!

I think Kellen wants to try!” Gwen called before sliding out of Kellen’s arms like a snake and grabbed hold of one of Kellen’s hands.

She tugged him closer to the sparring arena, and the crowd separated so Kellen had a better view of what was going on.

But Gunther blocked his view.  Gunther stood waiting, a malicious grin on his face.  “Is that true, Kellen?” He asked, his arms crossed, and looking like some kind of villain.

There was a horde of others around him, drenched.

Most of them were new recruits, but Kellen could see a few well known Espers mixed in among them.

Everyone seemed pretty tense, given that no one had succeeded in this training.  “Well, Gwen piqued my interest.

What is it that you guys are doing?” Kellen asked and Gunther shrugged, his smile still on his face.

He pointed behind him, towards the middle of the arena and Kellen noticed that there was a training bot there.  A training bot was a machine that had been created from products from gates.

Like gates, most monsters in gates had cores.

These cores could be used in multiple ways.

One of the ones that Kellen enjoyed were the training bots.

There were two versions of the bots when it came to training.

The basic form was Class level.

They would take the average power level of each Class and give that to the bot.

The bots had a remote that would control them, and you could choose the level, how fast it moved through each Class, or if it even moved through them.

It was a fun training bot.  The second form was the bot itself would measure your power level and would go through 10%, 25%, 40% etc.

of your power level.

Until you were fighting a bot that was at your level, or higher.

It was a good way to gauge how strong you were, and what your weaknesses were.

Kellen worked mostly with the first type of bot, but had encountered a few of the second type.  Kellen glanced around the area, noticing that the dirt was wet, and there were several puddles in the arena.

He glanced at Gunther.  “Oh, so you guys are doing sparring training.

Does it go up by Class or by your own power level?” He asked, and Gwen seemed surprised that Kellen knew what the bot was, while Gunther chuckled.  “Class level.

I’m not a monster, Kellen, and they are too fresh to know their own power levels that well to go against a bot safely.” Kellen shrugged.

“I’d say Gwen has a pretty good understanding of her levels, but that’s only because she trained with our Mom.” Kellen looked over the area again.

It was a good thing that the arena was made of dirt, since the area would have been twice as slippery if it had been fake grass or training mats like some of the other areas.

He put his hands on his waist.

“Alright, I’ll give it a go.

Just give me a few minutes to stretch.

Oh, I’m also sure I’ll end up drenched since it’s been a couple of months since I’ve moved like I’m about to.

Please be kind with your judgments.” Kellen told Gunther, who laughed in his face.  “I’m not lowering my expectations for you.

I’ve been on missions with you, remember?

A few months isn’t going to change who you are.

Plus, I know you’ve put on more muscle, and I’ve been to the obstacle course room in the last two days.” Kellen tsked, upset that he’d been so thoroughly called out and Gunther came over, placing his hand on his shoulder.

His dark eyes sparkled.

“If you don’t make it to A Class, I’m going to be very disappointed in you Kellen.” Not the disappointment card.

Kellen placed his hand over his heart, pretending to be greatly hurt.  “You wound me, Gunther.

You know that I had plans to get fat and comfy when I moved back to the city.” Gunther looked over Kellen, with his bulging muscles, straining pants, and shook his head.

“And instead you were a twig missing half of your body weight.

I know you’re filling out now that you’re on a proper diet.

We all get updates on your condition from Green, plus, I’ve been to lunch with you a couple of times.

I know you’re just trying to not make the new recruits feel bad because you’re a ‘Guide’.

But, this way, they will actually see what a Field Guide is able to do, and why they are different from normal Guides.” Gwen giggled and Gunther smiled at him.

The new recruits around them shifted, clearly interested, but also slightly upset.

Kellen had a feeling several of them didn’t make it to A Class, even while they were A Class, and Gunther was egging them on with Kellen participating.

Kellen shook his head.

Whatever.

As long as this helped the others, and it was a good distraction from feeling like he was useless.

CREATORS’ THOUGHTS CalyB Thanks for reading!