(BL) Hunting The Field Guide - Chapter 361

Chapter 361: The front lines are not run by the Nemesis Guild
The following week was pure insanity.

Pamela had given Gunther a ‘plan’ for him to follow to get the attention of everyone and everything. It was written out in a bullet point format, on regular paper, and handed over much to Gunther’s smirk. Pamela had talked him through it, each day planned out to the exact minute. Gunther hadn’t said anything as Pamela had briefed him, but Kellen could smell that the plan Pamela made wasn’t going to last for long.

Rhys was supposed to follow it as well, since they were in this plan together. Rhys’ was slightly off of Gunther’s since the two weren’t supposed to interact with each other after the ‘fight’ that they had. Of course, the fight alone had gotten out of hand, so it wasn’t a surprise to Kellen that by the second day, Gunther had flown over the handlebars and straight into pure chaos.

He’d run into Rhys on his own, punched him again, exploded fire hydrants, caused chaos like a d tier super villain, and had relished in the spouts of water popping up over the city. A still frame of Gunther laughing, water soaking his clothes and his pitch black eyes and long, white hair swaying in the wind had been circling the media. Kellen thought it was ingenious.

Pamela was pulling her hair out, frustrated beyond belief that her perfect plan had been disrupted, while Kellen had to hide his smile from her view.

He had a feeling that the E.A.G. would avoid Gunther if they even got a whiff of a PR situation on him, and was a little bit proud of the chaos he’d created. Rhys was the same. He put on the good show, agreeing and comforting Pamela, his face still healing from their fight, but behind closed doors, he laughed at the ridiculous, damaging things that Gunther got up to.

They damaged the city, but didn’t hurt any civilians, but definitely targeted specific areas. Kellen was sure that the fact that Guiding Center A was affected the most wasn’t a coincidence, and he knew he owed Gunther something for that once he came back.

Kellen had his own hands full, unable to really keep an eye on what Gunther was getting up to because he had to correspond with Captain Sergei to start pushing the plan forward to get the Field Guides on the front lines.

Captain Sergei had been ecstatic that Kellen had wanted to move the date ahead, and actually get a date set in stone. The front lines were lacking capable Guides at the moment, and any relief was needed, even from trainees. The front lines had always had a disproportionate amount of Espers to Guides, but apparently it had gotten worse.

More Espers had come to the front lines in the time that Brent had been away from the front lines, and due to the loss of his fellow Field Guides to the gates, some other Field Guides had taken a break. That meant, even though there were a ton of Espers on the front lines, doing work on the gates, they weren’t at their best.

Brent was excited to hear that, while Kellen, Hill, and Casper found that alarming. It was concerning, because with the activity of the E.A.G. in the area, there shouldn’t be a surplus of extra Espers. Yes, some from the Nemesis Guild, and the scientists coming to and fro from the front lines, but other Espers?

They should have left, given how most access to the gates had been denied while this new gate was open. They should have asked permission to go to other front lines, or should have come into town and caused problems in that way.

So many had remained behind, and Kellen was a little surprised he hadn’t realised it before now. Captain Sergei hadn’t considered it weird, but Uncle Tom certainly should have noticed. The fact that he hadn’t was another mark against him not just from Rhys’ side, but also from Kellen. Captain Sergei had all the notes, all the information before him, but he had also been so focused on the glowing, purple gate emanating poison that he hadn’t connected the dots.

Kellen didn’t want to worry him directly, so he gently spoke to one of his Lieutenants and let them know what he was thinking. Something was up with all of the Espers remaining on the front lines up until this point. After this point, as the Captain’s of the Guilds were ramping up to start exploring gates again, whatever, Kellen wouldn’t look at the amount too skeptically. But before?

There should be probably 5-6 Espers to a single Field Guide, but Kellen was seeing that there was somewhere between 8-9, even 10 Espers to one single Field Guide sometimes. That was far too many for regulation, and Kellen knew what Brent and Casper had gone through managing the Guild, he couldn’t even imagine how the Field Guides were staying afloat.

He hoped that Taylor had given them a deal on the shakes.

On top of still teaching his classes, managing correspondence with Captain Sergei, and checking in with the Guides that they had on ‘loan’ from the other Centers, Kellen also had to manage the new, strained relationship he had with Casper.

Whatever had happened in the time between when he’d left him alone with Gunther, and when he’d come back with Rhys, something had changed. Kellen didn’t understand where this strain had come from, but he could feel it. Casper had gotten colder. He wasn’t as warm or welcoming, nor was he willing to discuss what was wrong.

Kellen had asked him, but he wouldn’t give him a straight answer. He just brushed it off, saying it was nothing, but Kellen could feel it. The other problem was that he couldn’t ask Gunther about it, and when he brought it up with Brent, he just shrugged. He didn’t know what was wrong with Casper. Brent was focused on managing the Espers he was in charge of, his malfunctioning arm, and teaching other Guides. He had his hands full.

Kellen didn’t feel comfortable bringing it up to anyone else, besides Rhys. Rhys wouldn’t let him keep it to himself, so when he finally admitted it, after Rhys had left him breathless, Rhys had grown thoughtful. He didn’t have an idea about what the cause could be either, but maybe it had to do with Gunther? Kellen wasn’t an idiot, he could make that much out, he just wasn’t sure what about his interactions with Gunther that upset Casper.

Rhys wasn’t much help, and Kellen didn’t want to burden anyone else with his thoughts, so he kept them to himself, while also keeping an eye on Casper. Especially as he took over after being in grief. Kellen wasn’t sure if Casper coming back so quickly was smart, but being the kind of man that he was, he didn’t want to tell Casper what he could and could not do. He’d want to get back into work after something like this happened to him. He would want to keep his mind busy.

Especially since he was pretty sure something had happened between Gunther and Casper when he had chased after him after Gunther had left his apartment. He didn’t think that the relationship was in any way repaired, but something was different about it. Which made Kellen even more concerned about Casper’s behaviour towards him.

He really, really hoped that Casper wasn’t treating him like this because of jealousy.

Hill was over the moon to hear that she would be heading back to the front lines. It was a plan that Rhys and Kellen had discussed after Kellen had explained more about his plan for the trainee Field Guides.

It made sense to take the new trainees to the front lines at the same time that the Field Guides were going. That way the newer members could get cross trained. With both Brent and Hill inside the gates with them, or a more experienced member of the Saturn Guild, it could provide a better training experience for everyone involved.

Hill was willing and ready to do anything to make sure that this happened without a hitch. She was working on her side to get the Saturn Guild’s area of the front lines set up, and was also using Miro, who was constantly going back and forth because of Carlos’ research. Miro made sure that their space was clear, and started getting the list of things that Hill asked of him while he was on the front lines.

So, between Kellen and Hill, things were being set into motion for the front lines, and for the Saturn Guild’s return there. In two days, Kellen was going to draw the straws to see who was going to be going first, and who would be going second.

His end goal was to get the first group out there in ten days. That was his hope, that was what he wanted to do, and he hoped that Gunther’s behaviour was enough to keep the E.A.G. focused on him, and getting him on their side.