(BL) Hunting The Field Guide-Chapter 411: Going to the front lines with the Captain, part 3

Hill was inside, deeper in the building. As Rhys had brought up, over time, some things changed due to the high concentration of magic in the area. This brick building was one of them. While it looked like a small, condensed building on the outside it was actually the size of a warehouse on the inside.

There were a few of his own Espers, the older new recruits who were inside, and they straightened at the sight of Rhys. Saluting him as he passed, and Rhys smiled. Sergei snickered.

"Scare your newbies, hmm?" He teased when they were out of hearing range. Rhys made a disgusted noise.

"Scare them? Both you and I know neither one of us needs to try too hard to scare anyone." Rhys said and Sergei nodded, acknowledging that Rhys had gotten a good jab in. They continued to weave their way through the machines until the familiar form of Hill appeared in the distance, along with a few other people.

Rhys recognised a few. One was the maintenance worker who was in charge of the generators. They had been here for a long time and Rhys could tell that they looked ill. Sick. Rhys could only imagine the kind of stress they were feeling.

Hill looked up as if she was able to sense that Rhys was coming, which was possible given who she was and how often and how close they had worked together. She gave a tired smile at the sight of him.

"Ah. Big Boss man, come to see me. Where’s Kellen?" She asked without missing a beat. Rhys grumbled.

"Am I chopped liver? He’s staying home. He’s got a big day, and I don’t want to bother him." Hill snorted at his response, rolling her eyes.

"Didn’t want to bother him, my ass. You probably just had your fill of him, didn’t you? Then you left him at home to recover." Rhys wasn’t going to confirm nor deny her words, but Sergei snorted beside him. Rhys clenched his teeth, shaking his head at his lieutenant. She grinned, and it lifted some of the tiredness from her face.

Alright. Rhys would let her get away with it this time.

"So? What’s the situation?" He asked, ignoring her and she let out a burst of laughter, before shaking her head. She put her hands on her hips, smiling as she continued to shake her head before she waved Rhys over. Rhys went, along with Sergei while the maintenance worker shifted nervously from foot to foot.

"I swear everything was fine until it wasn’t fine." He started, and Rhys nodded. He would find out the truth, one way or another. Strangely, or not that strangely, it was easier to read intentions off of objects for him then it was from people themselves. People had too many things going on, while items didn’t. Rhys was able to ’read’ them.

What he was actually doing was a form of reading the past and future. It gave him a prediction of what was likely to happen, and what had happened to get there. Sometimes it wasn’t that straightforward so he had to work backwards to figure out what had happened. What path he wasn’t shown, and figuring it out in the most complicated, time consuming and power consuming way.

Thankfully, Rhys didn’t have to worry about things being complicated.

Gunther knew his powers. He knew what to do to help him get the best reading. What was unfortunate was the fact that it had been Gunther.

As he normally took on some of the sensations of the items he tried to see, Rhys could feel the cool touch of Gunther’s hand on his skin and hear the soft whispers from Gunther’s lips.

"They’re planning something worse than this. They’ve been planning something worse than this. Something on the front lines. I don’t know what yet. Pull the new recruits." It was quiet, soft, but it was Gunther.

The warning couldn’t be any clearer. But what did it mean?

Rhys looked closer, past Gunther’s closer imprint to see that the maintenance worker was right. He had checked, he had made sure. He might have done some other things while here, but Rhys wasn’t about to kink shame someone in front of a group when there was no reason to.

Shaking off the remnants, Rhys came to. He took a few moments to gather himself, feel human again. No one said anything. Hill was used to this, as was Sergei since both had seen him doing something like this before a few times. Hill, obviously more, but Sergei wasn’t dumb. He knew what Rhys’ powers could do, and both men respected each other enough not to rush them.

Rhys turned to the maintenance worker first, and gave him a soft smile.

"You are free to go. Get some rest, and we’ll see you tomorrow. Take a day off. You need the rest, and the Saturn Guild will make sure that nothing happens to your machines, alright?" He looked like he was going to sob at Rhys’ words. He grabbed Rhys’ hands, giving it a squeeze.

He was just a regular human. A human who risked his life to maintain the machines out here since the Espers didn’t, excluding Rhys, and the Guides had their hands full with other tasks.

"Thank you. Oh, thank you so much!" He cried, relief in every inch of his face.

"You’re welcome." Rhys told him warmly, smiling and it was a few more minutes of consoling the man before he left. Leaving behind Rhys, Sergei and Hill, as well as a few of their own members. Rhys’ smile faded and he looked at the more senior members who were around them. "Go to the new recruits. Come back when I call you over." Rhys ordered and they nodded, moving. Hill didn’t look happy to hear that, nor did Sergei.

Sergei shifted on his feet, his hands still in his pockets while Hill crossed her arms across her chest. Most would have seen it as a provocative move, since it plumped up her chest. Rhys just knew that was the most comfortable way for her to stand sometimes. He knew because he’d asked once.

She didn’t hate that it had an added bonus that most people glanced down. At least most times.

"What did you see?" She asked after a moment and Rhys sighed. He raised a hand, running it through his hair and smiled as he was reminded of the fact that Kellen really, really liked to mess up his hair.

"Gunther did it." He told them, and Sergei’s jaw tightened.

"You’re certain?" He asked, and Rhys nodded grimly.

"Yeah. I’m sure he used his knowledge of rotating shifts to get in. We’ll have to change the schedule immediately. Switch things up. Get new passcodes, the whole lot." Rhys wasn’t taking a chance, not after what Gunther had said.

Glancing around casually, Rhys waved a hand, freezing everything around them. It was something he only did when he knew that others wouldn’t notice. His own people weren’t going to make a comment on it, but it wasn’t like freezing time as others perceived it.

If he froze time around them, the rest of time kept moving. Especially when he used it like this. It wasn’t a good thing to use when in battle since enemies could move into the space of the where time was frozen and could still harm you. To others it would look like they were standing still, even if they were moving. They would just move rapidly once time unfroze for them.

Cool in theory, but not always great in practise.

Unless you were trying to tell a secret.

"He said the E.A.G. is planning something for the front lines. Something bigger than damaging some generators. He warned us to pull our newer people." Rhys told Hill. Hill sighed. She dropped her head.

"Ah fuck." She muttered. Sergei looked angry.

"What? They’re planning to hurt the front lines? Are they fucking morons?" Sergei was practically seething with anger. Rhys couldn’t blame him. The front lines were practically sacred. They were where most of humanity fought their battles. At least when gates weren’t opening in the cities.

"I don’t know what they’re thinking, but Gunther let us know ahead of time. There might have been more, but Gunther doesn’t know everything yet. He’s just giving us a heads up. A warning. Fuck. I don’t even want to think about what those sons of bitches are planning." Rhys growled. Sergei nodded in agreement.

"Those cocksuckers must be rubbing their hands together in glee, thinking we’re so fucking dumb. Too dumb to put anything into place to protect our own. It just sucks that we started to get the gate raids back up and running." Sergei muttered. Hill looked upset too.

"I agree. With that said, I want to follow along with what Gunther said. I’ll delay sending the next round to the front lines. I can’t risk their lives like this. Especially with Kellen’s sister in the next batch." Rhys’ heart nearly stopped.

"Do you think they might be targeting her?" He asked the group and Sergei gave a snort of disgust.

"I wouldn’t put it past them. They’re disgusting enough to kill for their cause, even if it’s a shitty one, harming a sibling doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility." Sergei said gruffly. He was already worked up, his eyes hadn’t changed colour. Hill’s gaze was also orange now from the strength of her emotions.

"Fuckers. Every last one of them. I hope there’s a fighting ring and that Gunther is fucking dominating in it." Hill muttered and Rhys chuckled. Gunther did have a pretty mean left hook.

"Alright. I’ll get Gunther’s message to the others quietly when I get back to the city. Sergei, can I put you in charge of changing the routes? Use the generator issue as the reasoning for it. You can even say that I wasn’t able to pick up on anything. Give them a false sense of hope." Sergei nodded.

"Sounds good. You can leave that to me." Sergei said and Rhys looked at Hill. He nodded.

"Alright. Let’s get back to our area. I want a quick debrief while I’m here." Hill nodded and with another wave of his hand, the time freeze ended and they were back in regular time. Sergei headed off with a wave while Hill and Rhys stared at each other.

"You good?" Rhys asked, serious, and Hill blinked, before a soft, calm smile crossed her lips.

"Stressed, but okay. I’m just...I’m okay, Captain. Really. I’m taking a break from some of my activities. With Gunther gone, I have more on my plate and I’ve been...reevaluating what I want for the future. That’s all. Nothing stupid. Nothing silly. Just pure taking my time." She said and Rhys stared at her for a long, long moment before he nodded.

He believed her. Now, it was his turn to repair the generators, check on the others here, and then head home to his sweet boyfriend. He could do this.