“I can’t believe we actually wasted a month in Odessa chasing one of your wild theories, Rueb.” A stocky man sounded from the Itami Enterprises private jet as the small group of five fastened themselves into their seats and awaited the take-off of the vehicle.

“We didn’t waste any time, Rude.” Jorna took it upon herself to respond to the self-professed ‘tank’ of Rueben’s hand-picked team. “The good doctor was clearly hiding something.”

“Jorna’s right.” Rueben nodded. “The mere fact that we got tied up in month-long bureaucracy and still weren’t granted permission to visit Stonehenge – even with Shin vouching for us – is proof enough that there are secrets in Odessa that Dr. Angelus and Marshack Almed don’t want us learning.”

“I could’ve told you that three weeks ago.” The fourth member of the five-man team spoke up, running his hand through his wild red hair as he reclined and made himself comfortable. “You could smell the bullshit coming off that guy the minute we met him.”

“Cunall’s right. He was very squirmy when we tried to extract any kind of information from him – he constantly acted like everything was sensitive.” The tall young woman who made up the last of the team affirmed. “Which begs the question: what’s the plan now, Rueben?”

“Well since they won’t let us into Stonehenge to check out this ‘gate’ of theirs, we’re gonna go to Merricent and check out this Kanrei kid.” He explained. “We’ll have to see if we can make any connections between his abilities and the haima’sa once we get there.”

“Additionally Lya – or should I say more importantly, we’ll also be searching for the Geon vessel in Merricent, at Shin’s behest.” Jorna added, drawing a nod from the well-spoken young woman as the small hover-jet began to take off.

The loud whir of the jets quieted the conversation somewhat, as each of these five braver-tier channelers awaited the completion of the take-off sequence before continuing their communications.

“So, Cunall, since you’re the only one on the team with any real stealth capabilities I wanna assign you to shadow this Kanrei kid – which means skulking around at Titan Academy.” Rueben suggested. “I don’t suppose I can convince you to have a shave so you can stop looking like the wolf-man?”

“That depends on your persuasive abilities.” The unkempt, red-haired Celt replied calmly. “Are they resistant to battle-axes to the knees by any chance?”

Rude and Jorna laughed lightly at the exchange.

“Honestly Rueb, if Cunall shaved he’d probably look like twelve – which would probably make the half-pint stick-out even more at Titan.” Rude quipped, poking fun at the diminutive stature of the red-head.

“Just remember that you still have to look up at this ‘half-pint’ when you’re on your back, Rude.” Cunall threatened. “Or have you already forgotten the last time?”

Rude snarled at the threat. “You got lucky that one time and you know it! I’m ready for a rematch, anytime.”

“Oh for heaven’s sake, simmer down you two.” Lya admonished them both before turning her attention back to the de facto leader of the small squad. “Rueben, would you like me to accompany Cunall?”

“Nah, that shouldn’t be necessary. I’m not in a much better boat than Cunall when it comes to looking my age, so I’ll shadow him – I can easily blend in with the kids at T.A.” He explained. “I think your talents would be put to better use if you were our point person with the Rogues. You’re the one that they’re most likely to take seriously.”

Lya just smiled and nodded. “Very well.”

“Jorna, I’d like you to take Rude and follow up on any haima’sa leads – if things go south, you two are probably the best equipped to survive a scrap.” Rueben continued with the assignments.

“That works for me, Jorna and I could use the quality time anyway.” Rude smirked as he turned to the surly security officer and winked at her.

“Just so you know Rude, Shin only asked me to ensure Rueben’s safety—” Jorna quipped “—I don’t think he’d lose a wink of sleep if you didn’t make it back home in one piece.”

Cunall just chuckled. “Actually, if Rude didn’t make it home he’d probably give you a raise. He could take it out of all the money he’d save by not feeding the land-whale.”

“Wow, seriously?” Lya sighed lightly. “What is it with you two anyway?” She inquired, this being her first time interacting with Cunall and Rude at the same time.

“Ignore those two.” Rueben replied to her exasperation with a smile. “They don’t look it, but the two of them are like brothers – this is unfortunately the only way they know how to show each other affection.”

“I’d like to show you some damn ‘affection’.” Cunall replied with a dismissive scoff. “What he really means to say, Lya, is that Rude’s a giant meathead and Rueben’s a pansy who lets him get away with being a meathead. That leaves me to keep him in check so that we can get anything done as a team.”

“Right.” Rude rolled his eyes. “I think it’s important to point out that Cunall’s only been rolling with us for… what, three years now? Whereas Rueben and I go way back – and function effectively as a team, I might add.” He explained. “The dwarf’s just bitter ‘cause he can’t stand up and say any of this to my face.”

Lya just shook her head at the back-and-forth between those two before her gaze drifted towards Jorna, who was typing something into her data comm rather conspicuously. A puzzled look dawned on her face before she could no longer resist the urge to ask.

“What are you doing, Jorna?” She inquired.

“Updating my bucket-list; scratching ‘pointless penis measuring contest’ off the very bottom.” She quipped, before returning to whatever it was that she was actually doing.

All Lya could do was laugh at the dismissive statement and note that Jorna had changed very little since the last time they met, some two years prior.

“Now if we’re done pissing in the wind, why don’t we go over the specifics for this trip to Merricent while we have the time – we’ll be touching down in less than four hours after all.” Jorna continued.

“Yeah Jorna’s right, I should really brief you guys on what I know.” Rueben chimed in. “As you know, this assignment comes straight from Shin and he gave me free reign on the team that I chose to work with. I chose you guys ‘cause you’re my closest friends and the people that I work the best with… despite you having absolutely no idea what’s actually going on.” He chuckled lightly. “Priority number one is locating the Geon vessel, this is an individual – expected to be a braver tier channeler – who manifests an ability known as ‘geon’.”

“Sounds easy enough, what does this geon ability do?” Rude chimed in. “Just so we know what we’re looking for.”

“That’s the tricky part – geon does a lot.” Rueben scratched the back of his head as he often tended to; trying to figure out the best way to explain the power of the legendary energy-type. “All of its effects are related to structural manipulation of zeta constructs and tend towards stabilising them or increasing their durability. At a fundamental level, it stabilises energy forms.”

“Well that’s not incredibly vague or anything.” Cunall just looked annoyed at the response. “That could be freaking anything.”

“This is true. What else do we have to go on Rueben?” Lya pressed.

“Just a couple more things.” He started. “These guardians choose their vessels in vitro and they do it around the same time.”

“Guardians?” Rude inquired, absolutely puzzled by the classification that he’d so far heard nothing about, only to receive confused shrugs from both Lya and Cunall who were equally oblivious.

“So we’re looking for a kid in their late teens to very early twenties.” Rueben simply continued, ignoring Rude’s puzzlement. “Their personal energy should manifest itself in some shade of green and their energy outputs should be uncharacteristically high for their age. Exhibiting unusual abilities for his or her class or tier also tends to be a dead giveaway. So keep an eye out for stuff like that.”

“Sweet, then we can call this trip off and had back to Avalon for drinks.” Cunall replied as he reclined further in his seat, pointing out what the other three members of the team had already picked up on.

Rueben however remained completely baffled by Cunall’s odd assertion.

“Bro, you just described yourself.” Rude finally enlightened him, causing Rueben to laugh lightly at the postulation.

“Hah hah, it’s not me.” Rueben replied with a stern look. “The geon vessel has never been an Itami to my knowledge… I don’t think the ability is even compatible with the one trait we all share.” He shook his head, leaving the others puzzled. “Veranos.”

“The green flames that you almost never use?” Rude released a scoff of his own. “Small loss bro.”

Rueben just laughed.

“Well regardless, you can rule me out. In addition to natural abilities, guardians also choose their hosts based on specific… ‘personality-profiles’ I guess you could call them. The vessel has to be compatible with the guardian’s will so their energies can synchronise properly. Geon vessels have historically been mild mannered and good-natured, we’re looking at someone who’d be the ‘heart’ of a team.”

Cunall just stared at Rueben.

“For the last time, it’s not me.” He added, causing the group to laugh lightly.

“So to recap, we’re looking for a kid with green energy, unusually strong, weird abilities and who’s a boy-scout. That about sum it up?” Jorna summarised, causing Rueben to nod in the affirmative. “Good. Now, what the hell is a ‘guardian’?”

Rueben just chuckled at the question and looked at his watch.

“Now that’s a long story, you guys should get comfortable.”