----Dae----

Laigon was a small guild. They’d been thrilled when Dae accepted their offer. Blissfully unaware that the only reason they’d been picked came down to their proximity to Dae’s home town and position on the pile of offers. Contracting with the first guild that seemed half descent in a desperate bid to avoid 609 was shockingly a terrible choice on Dae’s part. Apparently deciding on a job to avoid your first love was just as reckless as choosing it to follow them. 

Laigon wasn’t corrupt or overly controling. The guildmaster was a kind C-class Esper who probably should be retired by now. He praised Dae easily and gently corrected him when necessary. The other members were welcoming and kind to Dae. The problem lay strictly in the large ability gap between Dae and the rest of the guild. 

That gap created certain expectations of Dae. 

Dae was warned of this probability by the testing center director. She smiled at him and cooed over how proud she was. Told him he was a miracle, destined to save the world. Babbled saccharine praises until Dae became dizzy. Dae didn’t feel like a miracle. He felt like a failure. 

When the director took his hands between hers and looked into his eyes, suddenly serious, Dae didn’t need her to open her mouth to know what she was about to say. 

“Your mother is a guide, correct?” Dae nodded. She nodded along with him, smiling with misplaced sympathy, “You must know about the increased…strain, S-classes are put under.” 

The understatement of the century. Dae’s heart had been pounding since he got the classification. Images of a mousy man falling to his hands and knees in Dae’s childhood home filled Dae’s head. They twisted into a pimple-faced man in his twenties collapsing into Dae’s lap at the infusion center. And finally a nineteen year old with red eyes looking up at him with fear and pain. White streaks defiling black hair. Sweat slick skin going pale and limbs going limp. 

“When you’re in the field you’ll have to wear sedative collars. You’ve never shown any violent tendencies and your powers aren’t particularly dangerous so you shouldn’t have to worry about kill collars any time soon.” 

Dae nodded blankly. His vision went hazy and his mind wandered. He felt the corruption 609’s energy had so adequately excised creeping back in. A constantly ticking clock counting down the time until Dae would be deemed too dangerous. Not an if, a when. 

“It would be wise for you to snatch up an exclusive guide as fast as possible. Unless you snag an S-class you’ll probably be needing a new guide every four to five years. I’ve heard some S-class Espers will contract multiple at a time so they last a little longer.” 

The hand 609 had held twitched in Dae’s lap. He looked down at it and tried his best not to envision chipped black nails coming to rest on his knuckles. 

“We’ll be more than happy to run your compatibility with everyone at our center and if you sign here we’ll check the entire government employee database.” She flipped her tablet around to face Dae. The cursive X telling Dae where to sign looked like a death warrant. 

“We want to help you as much as we can! Oh! That reminds me! We also have a universally compatible guide. As much as it would pain me to let him go, he’s all yours if you need him.” 

The ‘pained’ expression she donned was her worst performance yet. Dae couldn’t stop himself from grimacing. An action she instantly misread. 

“Ah- No worries then! Just sign this and we’re sure to find you a match somewhere.” 

Dae slowly shook his head and gently pushed the tablet back towards her. Her smile faltered and she tilted her head in annoyance. 

“I’m sorry? Do you already have someone in mind? A young romance perhaps? I know how it is at that age, but as an Esper of your calliber-” 

Again, Dae shook his head. Harder this time. He finally broke through the anxiety binding his tongue, “I’ll worry about that once I’m contracted with a guild.” 

Of course, she hadn’t appreciated his answer. Training centers were given grants when they produced S-class Espers. Dae later discovered that this grant was nearly tripled if they also successfully paired said S-class with a government guide. 

The director’s clear annoyance barely registered in Dae’s memory. It was instantly overshadowed the moment Dae returned home that night. The lights in the apartment were off and when he stepped through the door he found the entire space empty. 

It seemed like a blessing at first. Anything to stall the conversation Dae knew would occur the moment he came face to face with Helena Kane. A conversation might have hurt less than the reality. 

There were two suitcases in the living room. Dae’s fears were confirmed when he checked his room. His bed had been stripped and all his belongings were gone. He wouldn’t know which items Helena threw away until he unpacked in the Laigon dorms. 

Old projects, childhood journals, notes passed between Dae and Simon. All of it scraped at the edges of the empty pit in Dae’s chest. But the thing that hurt worst? Dae’s biggest regret? It hit when the scent of woodsmoke faded from Dae’s clothes. It dug deeper than any petty vengeance his mother could ever attempt. 

Helena Kane couldn’t escape her fate. There was always a guide better than her, even to her own son. 

After a week at Laigon Dae was given his first mission. The guildmaster wandered into Dae’s office and waited patiently for him to look away from his lines of code.

“Daedalus, we have a mission for you.” At Dae’s hesitant expression the guildmaster smiled encouragingly and put a hand on his shoulder, “I know we don’t have a designated guide for you yet but with your vessel and your current levels you should be more than fine.” 

Unfortunately, Dae was in no position to argue. He may have been S-class but he was also only eighteen. An awkward barely adult working his first real job. When the guildmaster said jump, Dae was only to respond with “how high?” 

So he found himself at the mouth of a gate. The coordination team consisted of four members. The mission commander who would be watching Dae’s vital reports which transmitted from inside the gate every two hours. Two guides who were both only C-class but with whom Dae had >60% compatibility with. And the guildmaster. 

“Who else is going in with me?” Dae asked, readjusting his bullet proof vest. The guildmaster laughed and the guides joined in. Dae stared at them blankly. 

“Why would anyone else go with you? C-classes like us would only slow you down.” 

Dae tried his best to take this information in stride. He nodded and swallowed thickly. He masked the way his hands shook by pretending to readjust his gloves. Either he succeeded or the others didn’t bother addressing it. 

So Dae stepped through the portal alone. As his physical being compressed and his vision swam he made a mental note to create a device that could broadcast through the gate more reliably. An achievement he would manage less than six months after this very mission. 

Not that future accolades and advancements mattered as Dae’s boots hit loose dirt and his eyes soaked in the worst possible theme the pocket dimension could have taken on. Around him tropical trees stretched up and blocked the bright sunlight. Thick vegetation, colorful flora, and humid air, all ingredients to Dae’s downfall. 

Nature settings were some of the worst for Dae. He became extremely limited when it came to his ability. All the training in the world couldn’t help Dae conjure metal that just wasn’t there. 

Dae’s green eyes reflected the jungle around him. His thick dark hair instantly began sticking to his forehead. Sweat collected under Dae’s combat vest and chafed his skin uncomfortably. 

Luckily, there were no gate beasts in the immediate vicinity of where the gate. For a half a second Dae considered stepping right back through. Telling the guildmaster he’d need to find another Esper to handle this gate. The flickering and cracking of the gate behind Dae called to him sweetly. 

But before Dae could give in, 609's face came to mind. Smiling as he talked about how good it felt to help people. Reframing the white streak in his hair as a symbol of achievement. So Dae took another step into the jungle. 

His safest bet was to find a stream. Riverbeds often contained metal in the real world so Dae hoped the same could be said of this gate. And unlike natural deposits in the earth, running water made noise. 

The trek through the thick underbrush took up whatever focus Dae wasn’t using to listen for water. It consumed it so absolutely that Dae failed to notice the trap. Spikes hidden under plant matter, a pitfall trap. One that Dae tumbled into idiotically. 

It was only large enough for one foot to go through. When Dae’s heavy boots snapped the wooden spikes, protecting his feet and relegating damage to shallow cuts along his calf, the only thing Dae felt was regret that the spikes weren’t made with metal. A foolish thought? Most likely. But Dae was growing tired of fighting his way through thick vines and plentiful vegetation. He longed for a blade. Anything that could carve out a path for him. 

Monotony and arduousness should have been the last of Dae’s worries. Something Dae was reminded of three nanoseconds later when a snarling sloth shaped beast fell from the trees above Dae and latched onto his torso. 

One foreclaw latched into Dae’s shoulder and the other caught in the corner of his mouth. In a blind panic Dae reached up and tried to wrench the beast off of him. His efforts only succeeded in enraging it further. The claw caught on Dae’s mouth dug and tore at Dae’s flesh, carving out the corner of Dae’s mouth and searing down his chin and lifting away after scratching his neck. 

Tears formed in Dae’s eyes as he rolled forward. He ducked his body in and crushed the beast under his back. It let out a strained shriek before going still under Dae’s torso. Dae hauled himself up and clapped a hand over the corner of his mouth. Blood pulsed through Dae’s fingers and dripped down his forearm. He pulled a large plaster from his pockets and pulled his flesh together before slapping the bandage on. 

The gatebeast below him was roughly the size of Dae’s upper body. It had no back limbs, just the long hooked forelimbs that had cleaved through Dae’s flesh. Its face was a flat circle with rows of teeth spiraling down into a gaping mouth. It reminded Dae of the mouth of a lamprey. 

Dae shuffled on his knees until he could pluck one of the wooden spikes from the trap he’d fallen into. He wrenched it from the soil and adjusted his hold on it before plunging it into the gate beast's chest. It would be unlikely for this creature to have the gate's core but it contained another resource that was equally useful to Dae. 

Rich, red liquid oozed along the wooden spike. Dae said a silent prayer of thanks to The Beyond for giving this creature iron rich blood. Dae pulled the spike out and shoved two fingers into the hole he’d created. The warm pulsing feeling of the creature’s innards made Dae gag but he did his best to focus on the task at hand. 

Closing his eyes and breathing evenly, Dae tried to visualize the floating specks and molecules of iron suspended in the plasma. He willed every speck to gravitate towards his fingers. Power surged out of Dae and filled the creature's cooling corpse. It sifted through the blood like a fine siv. Each sweep brought Dae more and more usable material. 

When he couldn’t find any more he pulled his hand back out. It was less than a gram in total. Little more than a coating across the tip of his index finger. But it was a start. Dae used the iron to paint a thin coating along the tip of the wooden spike he’d stolen from the spike trap. If he focused his powers properly he should be able to strengthen the metal each time he struck.