Chapter 242: Well, let’s hope they’re just hangry
Kellen didn’t think he’d ever seen Rhys or Sergei this angry in his lifetime. Rhys had had plenty of times to be angry, but this? This was something that Kellen had never seen before.
The air in the room was violently cold, so tense that Brent and Uncle Parker froze in the doorway. The two A Classes couldn’t handle what was going on, so Kellen knew that no one else could interfere. It was going to have to be him, or Aunt Dina, and she seemed to be involved with what was going on.
She wasn’t the one who had instigated this anger. Instead, it had been the two new folks that were in the room that Kellen didn’t recognise. He hadn’t seen them before at all, if Kellen was honest, but Kellen probably knew their names. He read files, not watched t.v. There wasn’t t.v. on the front lines.
If these people were anything like Rhys or Sakura, Kellen wouldn’t know them by their faces but by their names. However, Kellen didn’t think that he was going to find out names if everyone didn’t calm down immediately.
He was only gone an hour, what the hell had happened in that time?
It appeared, to Kellen’s eyes, that these people had arrived, an altercation happened, Kellen and Brent solved their issues but only for another to pop up.
The first thing Kellen noticed was that outwardly, one was a man and the other was a woman. They had their backs to Kellen so he couldn’t confirm that, but from behind? That’s what he thought.
Sergei was scowling angrily, as was Aunt Dina, and Rhys’ face was in profile. Even from that Kellen knew that things were going poorly. Even his parents, who were normally the calmer heads in rooms like these, were not trying to smooth anything over.
Kellen sighed.
"What in the world is going on here?" Kellen kept his tone even, his voice firm, and watched as five sets of monstrous glowing eyes turned to him. Yellow, red, silver, and then a set of blue and dark green.
All he needed was a set of true grey and he’d have the whole elemental list here. He almost laughed at himself, but the eerie purple gaze of his Mom told him to control himself. Something had happened that was beyond Kellen’s current understanding, and given that Rhys had been in such a good mood before, there was very little that could upset him.
It took Kellen all of two seconds to figure out what it probably was, because the two fools who had joined the group didn’t bother hiding their interest.
"Ah, is this the new hole to relieve our insanity?" For greeting lines, it was pretty out of pocket. Had Kellen heard worse on the front lines? Not for long, he didn’t. Rhys looked ready to box the man’s ears who had spoken, while Kellen’s Mom vibrated at the disrespect. Kellen didn’t outwardly react, but he did feel Brent shift next to him.
Kellen scanned the blue-eyed man who had spoken, then he looked towards the earth Esper, a woman it appeared, and found that she was looking at him in the same way that the man was. Lust. Desire. Need.
Kellen didn’t need to be able to see the energy in the room to know that they were under-guided and were lashing out because of it. Also, there were too many S Class Espers in a room together so the tensions were already going to be high, no matter what was said.
Kellen let out a slow, measured sigh.
"Rhys, come here." Kellen ordered and watched as the man flinched. He knew that tone, but he was too stuck in his own moment to be able to tear free. Kellen watched as he struggled, like he was pulling himself out of a sticky trap, before slowly he moved towards Kellen’s side. Sergei stayed where he was. He was on the other side of the duo, so now they were surrounded on three sides still, but Rhys was next to Brent and Kellen. By the door.
Kellen stared at them and he could tell that the fact that he hadn’t spoken to them yet was getting to the Espers, but Kellen didn’t really care. How dare they come into his Aunt’s Guild and behave this way? How dare they upset his Esper? They were lucky that he was a Field Guide before anything else, otherwise his good fist would be meeting with their faces, but he also had to worry about his new ring. He didn’t want to damage it, and tragically Rhys had convinced him not to carry in the building.
He had a feeling he wouldn’t have to worry about that tomorrow.
"Hey, I’m talking to you." He barked and Kellen didn’t move. He barely reacted.
"Oh? Were you? I couldn’t tell since you were talking about a sex toy, not a Guide." Kellen deadpanned, and watched as the mood in the room shifted. He wasn’t sure how he was able to pick it up, but before the fist made impact, Kellen was there. The woman had reacted, moving towards Kellen as if to put him in his place.
Kellen wasn’t sure if it was his powers, his skills, or a mixture of both that had prevented her from making contact before Rhys stepped in, but he could tell that he had surprised them both.
Not in a good way either, from the looks on their faces.
"What the fuck?" She hissed, pissed, and Kellen glanced towards Brent. He couldn’t look at Rhys without being obvious since the man had come to stand protectively on his weaker side, but he could look at Brent easier.
That was how he caught Brent reaching his hand out and wrapping it around the woman’s throat before it happened. She gasped as Brent squeezed, his eyes blazing blue. Kellen watched as the man worked, not because he wanted to, but because if he didn’t he wouldn’t be able to yell at them properly. Kellen felt the same urge, but was surprised that Brent got to it first.
"You better be made of fucking money, or I swear to whatever god you believe in, the S Classes are going to be the least of your worries." Brent hissed. Kellen thought that was a bit brash, but given that the woman had tried to harm him, he didn’t stop Brent. In fact, Kellen smiled.
"I think we must let calmer minds prevail in this moment of disarray and tension. Rhys, would you politely grab the other one and Brent and I will guide them." Kellen said calmly. It was clear that everyone wanted to protest, but Kellen and Brent were not about to back down in a room full of Espers. Both men were glowing, just like the rest of them.
The only difference? Both men were ’weaker’. The new Espers didn’t know better, and thus, had their guards down. They wouldn’t think that the two people that they actually needed to be scared of were the man with one arm and the other man in an eyepatch.
Kellen knew that, and he also knew that in the back of their minds, so did the other S Classes that were worked up from the language that they were using. Kellen just hoped that after this, these S Classes were the kind of Espers that could be spoken to and understood that way.
He wasn’t cleared for fights yet, as much as he wanted to be.
His Aunt was the one to speak up, running a jerky hand through her hair. She looked pissed, beyond pissed, but something had shifted now that Kellen was back. There was a hardness in her gaze, as well as a dark humour. She knew who her nephew was, and these people didn’t.
"I trust your judgement, Kellen. Come back in one piece." To the others it would have sounded like she was telling Kellen to come back in one piece, but Kellen knew better. She was angry at the people who had insulted her people, her family. She also knew that Rhys was not about to let them go alone, and nor was Sergei.
Sergei marched across the room, grabbing the male Esper by the arm and yanking him along. It was violent, but given what they had probably said about Guides in the time that Brent and Kellen had not been here, Kellen had a feeling he was being generous.
"Hey!" The man complained but Kellen rolled his eyes. Instead, he turned his gaze to Brent who still had his hand around the woman’s throat but now she was holding onto Brent’s hand like a lifeline. She was gaining colour back into her face at the same time that Kellen knew Brent was squeezing just a bit too much for comfort. She looked thrilled, and Kellen reached for Rhys’ hand and took it into his own.
"We’ll be next door." Kellen told the room. He received nods that he didn’t even confirm, letting Brent drag the woman by her throat while the man protested at his treatment.
The minute they were in the other room and Kellen had his hand on the other man he settled down, but Kellen was not pleased about how he had to guide him. He wanted to just let the air around him fix him and his companion, but that wasn’t going to cut it when he could tell they were this far gone.
Kellen’s glimpse into his mental state made that very clear.
The man was a parched desert, tumbleweeds rolling by. There was a sucked dry oasis nearby that Kellen didn’t need to be guided to to know what to do. Within moments Kellen was summoning rain to crash down on this parched place. In the real world, Kellen and the others heard the man gasp as Kellen began to overwhelm him with his powers.
The area was flooded, water spilling out of the watering hole and down into the desert sands. It soaked into everything and anything, the trees that had shriveled up due to the lack of water sprang back to life rather quickly. Kellen didn’t even feel that tested, which should be surprising. It wasn’t like this man wasn’t an S Class, or an elemental.
Kellen hadn’t had a good compatibility score with elemental Espers this whole time. Or maybe Rhys was just that much more of a big deal that guiding him consistently had made him realise that everything else wasn’t a big deal?
Or, like Kellen, had Rhys jumped in Classes as well?
Kellen did not, would not consider that in this moment. He had an anger that was simmering beneath the surface, since who, in their fucking right minds, would go to a meeting that they knew was going to test them emotionally, physically and mentally, this drained?
Kellen was going to rip into these two if they didn’t have a good excuse, or a damn apology, for their behaviour across the board. Hell, he might even send them packing back to where they came from, and he didn’t think anyone would protest that either.
They had been ready for blood, so Kellen sending the Espers packing was fresh, if not annoying, and it was only because Kellen didn’t think that these fools were involved with the E.A.G. He would reserve judgments until after they were well.
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