(BL) Hunting The Field Guide novel Chapter 56

Chapter 56: The E.A.G.

Uncle Tom spent the next hour going over everything that he knew. Captain Sergei had already gone through most of this information, but he was happy to add his own personal experiences or opinions for the benefit of Kellen and the Captain. It turns out that the organisation called themselves E.A.G. Espers against Guides. It was simple, and disgusting.

What they found out was that this was a much larger group than they thought.

The E.A.G. had branches across the globe. Ever since the Guide Act was put into place about 40 years ago, there had been active protests from both sides. The Guides protested because at first, it put a huge target on their backs. It made it easier for those who wanted to harm them to find them if they registered with a government body and told them where they were hiding. But when the Act actually worked in protecting them, it gained more positive attention from Guides. It had taken about 10 years for the attitude to flip for Guides, and now most Guides were registered. Any Guide who wasn’t obviously had their own reasons, and even if Kellen didn’t like that they wouldn’t, he was not one to force others.

The Espers, however, were a different story. They didn’t like the Act because it attempted to put a stop to their horrendous behaviour. Prior to the international agreement to put the Guiding Act into action, Guides were not treated like humans. They had been treated like cattle. Creatures to be dragged around and used until they were worthless.

For female Guides...you can only imagine what it was like for them. Kellen got sick even thinking about the treatment before the Act was put into place. He knew that nowadays, Espers were still crazy, but they knew better now. No one, unless they weren’t afraid of getting caught by the government, behaved that way anymore.

But that didn’t mean there wasn’t a full fucking movement of like minded individuals out there.

Kellen wanted to assume that the E.A.G. started from a good place. He wanted to believe that they were just worried that there would come a time where Guides were actually too powerful. Where Guides had more authority than Espers. Maybe in their twisted minds there was a point down the line where Espers would have actual collars and Guides would hold the leashes of them. Kellen knew that was never going to happen, but he wanted to believe that their fears actually came from a somewhat reasonable place, instead of bigotry and a desire to possess others.

But the more that he heard about the group, the more he knew that he had too high of hopes for them.

Uncle Tom made it clear that the branch had been in operation in the area for about five years. Each branch had an Esper who ran it, and they had to be at least B Class to be in charge. The rumour on the streets was that the Head of the E.A.G. was potentially S Class. Kellen shivered at the thought that there was a chance a true psycho was running the show.

Kellen, for the most part, didn’t view Espers as poorly as some other Guides did. That was because from a young age his parents had made him desensitized to the true, crazy nature of them. He grew up around S Class, A Class, and even one SS Class Esper. He knew what crazy looks like, but unlike other Guides, he embraced it. It was the reason he got along so well with other S Classes, and why they all felt comfortable around him. Even Brent, who Kellen would consider around the same type of Guide as him, was hesitant around most S Classes.

That also meant Kellen had a better understanding of them, and it was also why he was terrified if an S Class Esper was running the show behind the E.A.G. Whatever logic an Esper came up with for hating Guides was flawed. On principle, you shouldn’t ever hate someone who gives part of their livelihood to save you. After all, a Guide could guide someone to the guide’s own death if they weren’t careful. That was what the side effects were for. They were warnings to stop, and also protect them. But S Class Espers who refused guiding were a different problem. Kellen had never met any who had outright refused guiding, which was good, since S Classes had a baseline thread of insanity built into them. It wasn’t anything they could control, either. Once you went past A Class, there was nothing you could do about it. Humans were not built to hold the powers they were given, and it seemed like the tap out point was A Class. Kellen had only met one S Class Guide in his lifetime, and he’d had a thread of insanity just like an Esper would. The difference between the two types of insanity was the fact that the Guide kind of floated. He wasn’t all there, while any Esper he’d met was harsher around the edges. Like a giant predator with their mouth open. A prey vs predator situation.

So having someone whose insanity he couldn’t predict in charge of an organisation that’d just attempted a crime against a large group of people, both Guides and civilians, left Kellen quite worried. So were the Captains. It also didn’t help that they hadn’t known about this organisation at all for the five years they had been operating in the city. There was no excuse on their part. That was a long amount of time for something to operate under the government’s nose. Given how upset Uncle Tom was, he wasn’t lying about it either. Kellen had a feeling that his Mother was going to have another ’vacation’ soon.

Some of the information on the group they were able to figure out was that outside of the main Esper, there were about six others who held a significant amount of power. Even if it was a small group, it was a powerful one. Powerful enough to hide in a city that had four S Class Espers promised to protect it. For the sake of the guilty conscience of Captain Sergei and Captain Thatcher, the two of them spent quite a bit of time on the front lines trying to protect the country. It was a small reprieve of guilt, but that didn’t mean that either one of them accepted it. Captain Sergei was taking it particularly hard that this had happened right under his nose, and Kellen found he hadn’t been aware that he had such a strong patriotism for the country.

The reason why it was allowed for the S Classes to reside in a city when usually a grouping of so many S Classes in one place spelled disaster, was the simple fact that the city was the closest to the front lines. If something bad happened there, they could mobilize all S Classes to help. Captain Sergei apparently took that very seriously. Uncle Tom was the one who should be feeling the most guilt, since he was the one who was supposed to be in charge of not only the D.E.C. but he was also supposed to have a pulse on the police as well.

Captain Sakura should also be held accountable, but at the same time, her Guild as it was known, was only 3 years old. She’d inherited the mess of a Guild from the previous Captain, and had only gotten into her groove in the last 1 year and 1/2. In fact, she wasn’t even here because she was helping her Guild oversee the reconstruction of the damaged area.

All of this was to say, Uncle Tom had a laughable amount of knowledge on the group that had attacked the city. It was actually quite embarrassing, and when Kellen and the Captain shared a look, they made a decision. They were going to have to ask someone to research the group and see if they could get more information about them. Both of them had a feeling this wasn’t going to be the last they heard of them. This had to be the first of many attacks.

~

After the not so helpful, but publicly important meeting, the two left the office of Uncle Tom with Captain Sergei. Kellen still held the Captain’s hand, and Captain Sergei glanced at the two before turning his attention forward as they waited for the elevator down. Captain Sergei actually looked paler than he usually did, and Kellen felt worry well inside of him. From his behaviour in the office, he knew that the man had to be overworking himself. Prior to the Captain and Kellen announcing their pair, the only person who’d had a consistent partner out of the four S Class Captain’s was Uncle Tom. Captain Sergei had no one to look out for him, and that worried Kellen.

Without his knowledge, Kellen squeezed the Captain’s hand tightly, and the Captain glanced down at his Guide. Staring down at him he could tell that Kellen was deep in thought.