Broken

Chapter 31

Frustration gnawed at me as I sat in the back of a modified cargo van, glaring out the blacked out windows on the rear double doors. Didn't these reporters get bored at all? Was there really a need to come here, to the Titanfall Tower, just to harass my brother? I had no doubt that was exactly what it was they were up to. That, and catch me coming here to pick him up.

As was predicted, and expected, the media had wasted no time digging up every publicly available scrap of information they could find about me, including who my brother was and the fact that he was currently in the Tower for his required round of 'practical experience'.

Normally, the university was quite good at keeping their students information private, but this was an annual, required event. Just knowing that Yejun was a technical student and a first year meant that he had to be within the tower right now. They were here because this was the scheduled day for the students to return, and were hoping to ambush Yejun for an interview, or get to me while I was here to get him.

"Vultures..." I growled, eyes narrowed on the mass of men and woman with professional cameras and mics. They were mixed in with fellow anxious family members, waiting for their loved ones to exit the tower. After this raid, the students were given a week off their classes to get some rest before returning to their normal routine. "Is it considered self-defense if I hit them for harassing me?"

"No, but I wouldn't mind helping." Grinned Argus from the bench across from me. Even in the dark van his bright red hair stood out, not that he needed the locks to look like a sore thumb. He alone seemed to take up most of the van, which was modified to get the members of the Chaos guild from instance to instance all at one. A team of them at least. "I am sure that if I clocked a couple of them, the rest would go running."

"Don't." Groaned Carson. He has been in the driver's seat at first, but when we parked the van as close to the tower as we could, he and Aiden had moved to the back with the rest of us. I was currently dwarfed and buried in a sea of many muscles and would have felt claustrophobic if I wasn't so angry at the current situation. "The last thing we need is you causing more bad press for the guild."

"What bad press?" Huffed the berserker, the broad grin on his face clearly indicating he knew exactly 'what'. "I am a damn saint."

"Between you and those two-" Carson pointed and accusatory finger at Eric and Greyson, who were both squished in next to me on a bench seat. "- I have no end of complaints and a negative image to work around."

"What did we do?" Snapped Greyson, glaring at his guild master. 

"Ugh, stop arguing." I huffed, eyes still glued out the window. I had gotten exceedingly comfortable around the members of the Chaos guild over the last few days. Perhaps it wasn't surprising to most who knew me, but I did seem to fit in with this crazy bunch of well meaning, but overly eccentric meat-heads. 

Honestly, if it weren't for the need to run it all by Yejun first, I probably would have agreed to join them by now. It was nice, having others around who understood the raider's way of life, and having support was a major boon as well. I hadn't realized just how nice it was to have others around to lean on until it was forced upon me.

But, as good as Carson's offer had been, the deal from the Northern Paladins was also just as tempting. Not so much for myself, but for Yejun. They had offered basically the same thing as Chaos, but 'better' due to their greater resources and connections. And they had Gordon Mills with them as well. I might not have liked the pompous old man, but I knew that Yejun looked up to him as a fellow, more experienced and proven, mana engineer. Passing up the opportunity to work with that man might be too big of a deal for Yejun to pass up.