Chapter 344: Small victories, small rewards

Kellen didn’t lower his gun even as a familiar face came into view. For her part, the purple-haired Lieutenant didn’t seem to take offense. She kept her hands up, and tuned down her powers. Her eyes weren’t glowing, but a calm, easy brown as she stared at Kellen.

"How many do you have with you?" He asked and she glanced behind her.

"Five more, six including me. A three plus three situation. Three from the Phoenix Guild, and three random S Classes." Someone coughed.

"Random S Classes? Come on, Lieutenant. We’re not random." One of the two Guides gasped, her hand flying to her mouth.

"Kellen! That’s one of the Captains from my neighbouring city! My hometown!" She whispered intensely. Kellen didn’t flinch or change his behaviour and Lieutenant Zaria smiled.

"That, my dear Guide, is not going to change his opinion. You forget, he’s an S Class too. I work with one of the strongest ones in the city. That’s not going to move him." Zaria told her and Kellen didn’t agree or disagree. The Guide, however, looked at Kellen, looked at the gun that had already shot at a Lieutenant of the Guild that was protecting them and was being invaded at the moment, and swallowed.

"Should I go and see if I can get Captain Sergei?" She offered. "He’s above us. He’d know if what she said is true." Kellen’s mouth firmed into a thin line.

"Kellen, we have extra masks. She could take mine." Brent offered and Kellen still didn’t like the idea. No strange feeling tingling in his stomach, just a strong dislike that didn’t want to split the group up further.

He wanted to tell Brent to go, but if things took a turn for the worst, he didn’t want to be alone against six Espers. He was good, but not that good. Not without casualties.

"I don’t think that’s a good idea." Kellen told Brent, not taking his eyes off of the others.

"Come on Kellen. We have no idea where Sergei is right now, and so-"

"So sending her up on a random chase when we ourselves aren’t sure if the upper levels are safe? What if they are fighting others up there and we send her up, mask on, but nothing else to protect herself? No, I won’t do it." Kellen said firmly. He swallowed, staring at Lieutenant Zaria, and for her part, she seemed a bit proud to see Kellen so firm in his stance.

Brent grumbled, huffing and stomping his foot like they weren’t potentially in a rather dangerous situation. Kellen did not smile, even as some of the Guides did. Kellen knew that the actions weren’t for him. Brent was just as wound up as Kellen was, but his job was to make sure that no one panicked in this situation.

"So, we wait?" Zaria asked and Kellen gave a nod.

"We wait." Kellen replied. Zaria gave a soft sigh.

"Better get comfortable on those stairs, everyone. Kellen isn’t going to budge." Zaria told them and there were some protests from the others. Kellen wanted to tell them at least they weren’t stuck in poison, but he didn’t want to reveal anything until the others came back. Kellen adjusted his stance, keeping his gun trained on them, and blinked.

This would be his life for the next little bit until the others arrived.

~

Sergei came back with the other Telekinetic about 20 minutes later. It was a rough time for everyone but Kellen. The Guides were nervous, worried, and it was a good sign for Zaria and the others that they did wait that long. No one got angry, no one tried to bully and push their way onto the floor. They respected Kellen’s actions and orders, and that did tilt the scales in their favour.

So did Sergei’s response as soon as he saw them.

"Back already?" He asked, not even flinching at the fact that Kellen was pointing a gun at them.

"Yes, Captain Sergei. We completed our mission without much fuss and when we came back to the Guild building we found, well, hell, and I wasn’t able to contact anyone inside. I called up reinforcements despite that, and we were able to get our people into the building up until this point but I couldn’t break windows outside or get the others to notice me." Zaria explained. Sergei came to stand beside Kellen.

"Have the team enter one at a time." Sergei ordered and Kellen watched as the Espers slowly stepped in. Three members were dressed in the Phoenix Guild uniform, and three were dressed in an all black uniform that Aunt Dina had grabbed for the S Classes so that it wasn’t as obvious where they were from.

Sergei grunted.

"No one was hurt? How was it on the lower levels?" He asked. Zaria’s face cracked then.

"Bad. We haven’t spoken to any of the safe rooms or breached them because it still isn’t safe. For some reason there were a lot of people who tried to go to the jail safe room and it was like feeding lambs to the slaughter. We have a lot of injured and Vance is in the upper levels. For now our allies are helping, but with him being an S Class..." She trailed off, swallowing, and Kellen finally relaxed.

"So we need to prioritize getting Uncle Vance down and out of the building." Kellen said and Zaria nodded, before her expression relaxed more.

"You believe me?" She asked and Kellen nodded.

"I apologise for firing at you." Kellen said, aware that she wasn’t hurt even though he was a great shot. She grinned.

"Thankfully, Captain Dina had me train my powers to divert bullets, so I’m safe. The cement is damaged though, but I have a feeling that’s the case everywhere. The main stairs are a damn nightmare." She muttered, shuddering. Any injuries on your side?" She asked and Kellen shook his head.

"No. We’re fine, but we did find a Guide who had suffered poison damage, and two casualties." Her face fell. "The floors above us and leaking into this level had gas bombs thrown into them. They had no chance to escape, and it’s not knockout gas." Kellen explained. "We have a Wind Esper helping us clear the levels now because of the open windows, but-"

"I’ll go help." She interjected. "Two Wind Espers is better than just one. Then we can move. There’s also a safe room on those floors." She looked worried and Kellen frowned. Yeah, he was worried too.

"We had him start on the safe room floor. We couldn’t all fit in the safe room on the gym floor so that one is full and these are the remaining members who couldn’t fit inside of it. I was told how to get in and the code by one of the Guides from the Phoenix Guild." Kellen explained to Zaria. She gave a soft sigh.

"Well, at least we know, tragically, that our protocols work. We’ll have to adjust a few things going forward." She muttered grimly. Kellen couldn’t help but agree. Kellen lowered his gun further as the other Espers came in.

From the looks of it they had another Wind Esper in Lieutenant Zaria, two Physical Strength Espers, a Water Esper, a Flying Esper, and a Fire Esper. An elemental heavy rotation, but that was fine. It would work out somehow.

Sergei took over the orders, having now seen what Kellen and Brent had done, and sent Zaria on her way up to help the other Wind Esper.

Kellen watched her go, Brent coming to stand at his side as they watched Sergei speak and a few of the fellow S Classes came to talk to the others. Kellen was glad that at least one of the Guides had someone that they could talk to. He could see the relief on her face as she spoke to the Water Esper. They looked to be about the same age. There was a high probability that they had gone to the same school.

"This is a damn shit-show, isn’t it?" Brent muttered. Kellen grunted as he nodded. "Why do you think she wasn’t able to break the glass?" Brent asked and that had Kellen frowning. He’d been thinking about that too.

As far as he knew, his Aunt Dina hadn’t put up a force field in place, and they were really fucking expensive. Too expensive for Guild buildings that tended to be taller than average simply to give them a vantage point to overlook the city below. That wasn’t exactly the case in his hometown, since they had several tall buildings clustered together, but that had been the original plan. Either way, it didn’t change the fact that protective force fields were expensive and impractical.

He could see her getting one and focusing it in a certain area, but she would have been alerted if it had been activated.

The only solution that Kellen could come up with was that someone else had created a force field to keep others out, and Kellen didn’t think that they had pure intentions.

"Someone is keeping others out from interfering." Kellen said. "They probably planted bombs in the building." Kellen said casually. Brent turned wide eyes towards Kellen.

"Why the hell would you say that? Where do you have the confidence to say that?" Brent asked and Kellen shrugged.

"It’s just a feeling. It’s what the E.A.G. does. Scares an area, plants a bomb, explodes them. I just hope that Rhys hasn’t used any of his powers recently. He’s going to need them if we’re to prevent the whole place from crumbling, and I don’t want to have to go into overexertion. Well, I wouldn’t mind, but I doubt that Rhys would approve." Kellen said casually. The other Guides around them who heard him gasped, and turned.

"You? Go into overexertion?" One of them sounded horrified. Even Brent gave Kellen a rather odd look.

"You did that when you were a fresh-faced A Class, Kellen. You’re far beyond that now, and it’s not like it’s a couple of city blocks like it was last time. It’s just one building." Brent pointed out and Kellen shrugged.

"That we’re aware of, and this place is far more detailed compared to what they were scanning before." Kellen pointed out in turn. Brent frowned, not happy, while Sergei looked back at Kellen, his eyes glowing.

"I would rather not see you get a nosebleed again, Kellen." His voice held a warning to it, and Kellen gave him a smile.

"What? I thought it was sweet how you all worried over me. I was fine." Kellen argued and Sergei was quiet. Brent huffed.

"Yeah, what he said." Brent told him and Kellen rolled his eyes.

"Well, let’s just hope it isn’t as I fear." Kellen said, coming to a happy medium. He hoped he was wrong, but given that they had already used poison bombs...well, one could hope.