(BL) Hunting The Field Guide - Chapter 118

Chapter 118: This is what I’ve got to work with?

Chapter 118: This is what I’ve got to work with?

Bree raised her hand.  “I’d like to be part of the first group to run it.” She said, and the other two nodded.  “Well, we have an even number, so only two at a time for safety reasons.” Kellen told them, and the three of them nodded.

They nodded at his words, and the two Guides who joined from the afternoon class did a quick game of rock paper scissors before the one who won joined Bree at the starting line.  The course was set up as usual, but Kellen and Brent had marked out different sections with cones.

They thought it was a reasonable distance between each set, and would help them understand their physical prowess and also trouble-shooting capabilities in tense situations.  Kellen and Brent grabbed their clipboards they’d made, along with the sheet that had all of the Guides names on it.

Kellen pulled out his phone to keep time as well, making sure Brent had done the same thing.

Then, they nodded to each other.  And so began the obstacle course challenge.  Most of them couldn’t make it to the second set of cones that marked the course.

Bree surprised them and managed to get to the fourth set, but she almost severely injured herself by falling in the wrong direction, so they forced her to stop.

There was another Guide who made it to the third set of cones, but overall, a fairly disappointing showing.  The Guides were beating themselves up, probably because Brent and Kellen had made it look so easy.

Kellen wasn’t sure how to appease them, but decided to continue on with the lesson.  With Brent as the example, he made them all watch and observe as he had Brent slowly run through the course again, and Kellen explained what Brent was doing, and why he was doing it.

Kellen made Brent stop after the sixth set of cones, since he was sure no one was going to get past that, at least in this class.

Then, he made them run it again.  Everyone did get further, which they were clearly proud of themselves for, but Kellen had to keep his own disappointment inside.

How had Guides who had wanted to be Field Guides have so low of fitness?  After they finished their second round of their run, Kellen and Brent split the group back up and ran them through some basic, but important exercises that they wanted the Guides to begin to do.

If they were serious about becoming a Field Guide, they were going to need to start working out.

Even twice a week would help them, and they had left a plan for working out in the Guide gym as well.  One of them asked if they would run into Kellen or Brent there, and if they did, could they ask them for advice.

Kellen froze.

He wasn’t sure how to tell them that he wasn’t ever going to see them at the lower level gym because he was at the A Class gym.

This was because he had an obsessive, S Class Esper as a pair, and wanted to make sure Kellen was always safe, but Brent saved his ass.

Brent told them that the two of them worked out in the A Class gym as a reflection of how much others respected their abilities and that if they tried hard enough, they could end up with the ability to work out there too.  With that, the first class ended only about half an hour over time, which meant that Kellen and Brent had to rush their own lunch, but that wasn’t a big deal.  Honestly, Kellen was pretty surprised by how everything was going so far.

He thought that some of them would get discouraged and angry at the results of the obstacle course, but he was wrong.  In fact, it seemed that instead of making them feel bad about themselves, it had instead invigorated them.

Even those who he had thought were going to be intimidated by them had the same, fierce look in their eyes.

Brent and Kellen had done their best to provide a clear statement that things were only going to get more difficult as time went on, and instead of them flinching, they had come back ready to learn.

It was inspiring that the first class was showing such a strong will.  But that was the first class.  The class after lunch was a different story.  If the first class was anything to go by, Brent and Kellen weren’t expecting much in the way of physical ability.

The second class only had one person who got to the third set of cones.

Even after they had gone slowly over everything again, and showed them what to do.  Their attitudes were also incredibly awful.

Kellen had thought that the afternoon class would have had a conversation with at least Casper and the Espers doing the ‘cleansing’, but given the way they looked at Kellen and Brent, and their way of speaking, Kellen could not believe that had happened.

At least, not yet.  There wasn’t fear in their eyes when they looked at Kellen.

Which made it obvious to Kellen that they hadn’t heard about what he had done yet.

That, and lunch had really soothed the beast that had been inside of Kellen.

That was still inside of him.  Between their poor performance, and the lack of respect, Kellen expected it when about four of them returned the uniforms at the end of the class.

That left them with four remaining people for a class that was supposed to be 15.

That was fine.

There was the backup list, and it was still a lot of new Field Guides.

16 new faces would be a godsend to the front lines.  Plus, it was a huge difference from the zero Field Guides that the Saturn Guild would have trained once Kellen and Brent were done with them.

Brent and Kellen didn’t count, since they had hired them, and not trained them.  After the last Guide had left, Kellen and Brent were cleaning up after them and discussing what they were going to do now that their groups had decreased so quickly when they heard a knock near them.

Turning, they spotted Taylor with a couple of the medical Espers entering the obstacle course room.

Taylor looked tired.

In fact, all of them did.

They carried with them a bag full of shakes and handed them over to the two watchful Field Guides, making sure that Brent had more.

A small portion of Kellen worried that they were going to be mad at him for what he had done upstairs.  “Taylor, what a surprise to see you outside of your medical bay.

Is everything okay?” Kellen asked and she made a face before waving her hand.

She grabbed one of the few folding chairs Kellen had grabbed just in case, unfolded it, and sat down.

She sighed.  “I was just checking up on the Espers who had almost surged.

We kept them on the floor above until now just in case something happened.

They’re fine now.

My team did a great job, but as the lead, I have to make sure.” Her eyes looked over Kellen, glowing green for a second as she glanced over the two Guides, before going back to her normal blue shade.

“I also saw the video that Casper sent to the group chat.

Are you okay?” Her voice held genuine concern and Kellen blinked.

They had a group chat?

A group chat for what?

And why wasn’t Kellen in it?

“I’m fine.

You look exhausted though.” She chuckled and looked over the two Field Guides.

Her eyes hadn’t lingered on either Kellen or Brent when she had been scanning their bodies before, but now she realised that both men were in just their shirts, showing off their arm muscles.

Taylor did a double take when she saw Brent’s prosthetic arms.  “Holy shit!

Is that what I think it is?” Her excitement took Kellen by surprise.

But Brent seemed even more so.

Taylor shifted, getting to her feet almost immediately.

“Excuse me, can I see your prosthetic?” She asked, her fingers reaching out for his arm, but stopping herself.

Brent furrowed his eyebrows.  “Uh, why?” He asked and Kellen noticed that there was a slight sparkle to Taylor’s gaze.

He wondered what that meant.

She was a little bit of a nut when it came to the medical field, but he hadn’t seen her like this before.

Her reaction was making Brent quite hesitant though.  “Oh, it just looks very advanced.

I’ve only seen a couple of models like yours before, but only in pictures.

Where did you get it?” Brent flushed as Taylor motioned for him to come closer.

Brent glanced at Kellen, checking to see if she was okay, and Kellen gave him a smile, and a thumbs up.  “Taylor may be a medical nut, but she’s good.

I’ve known her since high school.” Kellen told him, and Brent’s eyes went wide at that information.

Slightly relaxing, he let Taylor touch his arm.

Taylor and the other medical Espers swarmed the man, excited to check it out.

There was nothing demeaning about it, they were just genuinely curious.  Kellen watched as Brent slowly relaxed, and answered any questions that they had.

The conversation went over Kellen’s head, so he turned and focused on packing everything up.

It was a few minutes later before Taylor remembered herself and she flushed, clearing her throat and moving away from Brent.  “Sorry.

That must have made you uncomfortable.

Sometimes I forget myself and my interests take over.” Her cheeks were a bright pink and Brent chuckled.  “It was my first time having a woman fawn over my arm, but I didn’t hate it.

You can do that whenever you like.” Brent winked and Taylor flushed more, before glancing at Kellen.

He shrugged.

Kellen couldn’t stop him.

She cleared her throat again.  “Kellen, I was also coming to get you for your guiding session with the Captain.

We’ve breezed past when we normally had it, but we also understood that you had your first classes today.

Plus, the Captain’s been worried about you all day.

Apparently, you missed him by seconds upstairs.” Ah, fuck.

Kellen hadn’t forgotten about his session, but between the delay in starting their day, and also cleanup, he’d gotten distracted.  “Is the Captain okay?

He must have used up quite a bit of his powers if he’s anxious to see me.

He must have gotten up to something bad while I was gone.

Do you know where he is?” Taylor paused, blinked, and then looked over at Brent.

Brent shrugged.

Kellen didn’t understand why they had given each other that look.  “Uh, well, I guess you could say that.

He did visit the prison with Karen and Casper earlier.

He left quite angry, or so I’ve heard.

There has also been a…different development, but I think it’s best you heard that from him.

I know where he is, which was another reason I stopped by.

He should be waiting for us in the guiding room.” Kellen nodded.

He glanced around the room, noting that most of the stuff had been packed up, it was just delivering it back to storage and the Field Office.  “Sorry Brent.

I’ll have to leave you to clean up everything on your own.” Brent sighed, as if it was a great burden.

He rested a hand over his heart, playing it up.

“How could you do this to me?

You always vanish into the night, leaving me to clean up.” Kellen chuckled, grabbing his jacket and pulled it on.

Taylor folded up the chair she had grabbed.  “Yeah, and how many times did I cover your ass while you went to go pound someone else’s?” He gasped, and Taylor burst into laughter.  “How could such vulgar words come from your mouth?

I’m going to tell your Mother!” He threatened, and Kellen shook his head, waving over his shoulder as he left with the medical team.  “She wouldn’t believe you!

She thinks I’ve never sworn in my life!” He called as they left.

Brent called several words after him that couldn’t be repeated, while Taylor snorted, looping her arm through Kellen’s but held her tongue.

Her smile gave her away though.

CREATORS’ THOUGHTS CalyB First lesson down.

Woo!