Chapter 8: Don't call me Fantra

"You're still as good a cook as ever." Kane said with a full stomach.

"Well, I've been practicing." Said Krist. "I'm kinda the unofficial chef, so in a way I'm the most important person here."

"Before he came here, I was the person making the food. Damn near burned the whole place down to the ground." Eplectan said with a reminiscent smile. "It makes everyone feel better knowing that after a long day of spying, bombings and assassinations they don't have to eat my cooking, which everyone said was far more dangerous."

Kane was untouched by the humor "So, what are all these papers?" he said as he looked around the table, which was strewn with important looking documents and the remnants of dinner.

"Files," Explained Krist "Plans, information, portfolios and profiles. Were in the process of putting it all in the computer, so it's a little disorganized right now."

Kane picked up a paper nearest to him and scanned though it. It looked like it was about a prison called "Trescwitz facility.

"Whets The 'Trescwitz Facility'?" Kane asked

"It's a prison located in the mountains in the Kletop district." Krist said. "We don't know too much about it, the whole thing is pretty secret. The public isn't made aware of its existence, only higher ups in the state know about it, and they don't like to talk about it. I don't know too much about it myself, I'm still too low-level for that. All I know is that it's what they call a "Labor camp". There are about 7 or 8 in Serenthia alone, and about 5 more in the occupied territories. Don't know what they do there, all I know is that people who get sent there don't come back."

"Reminds me of High School." Kane said drily "Hey, is there any chance of getting seconds?"

"Sure, help yourself." Krist said as Kane ladled some more soup in his bowl "Hey Epps, you know where Fangirl is? Dinners gonna be cold by the time she gets back." He sounded concerned.

"She's out in the woods, training." Eplectan explained. "Which is fine by me, cause once she sees what happened to her car, she's not going to be happy."

"Who's Fangirl?" Krist asked between spoonfuls of soup.

"Her real name is Fantra, but no one calls her that" Eplectan said "Mainly cause she'll light you on fire if you do. She's or mechanic and explosions expert. Also, she's completely Bat-Fuck insane. Found her living on the streets about a year and a half ago. Homeless, stealing for food, practically freezing to death at night. It's pretty common in the slums of the big cities, like Karnigan or Vantrill. I was just driving through when I saw this short chick holding a knife to some guy's throat. Naturally, this spiked my curiosity, so I pulled over to see what was going on. Apparently the guy had mistaken her for a prostitute, and she was in the process of…What did she say again? "Cut his fucking head off and shoving it up his ass" I think was her exact words. She seemed just crazy enough to do it too. I figured that having someone like that on your side is always an advantage, so I Pointed a gun at her and told her to get in the car. At first she seemed ready to kill me to, but I think the fact that she had a .38 Kantox in her face calmed her down a little. I told her about us, the association, and she joined us. Found out a few weeks later that she was a Paladin" She paused as Kane looked up from his food in surprise. "She can cause change in atmospheric pressure, resulting in strong winds. Right now her Elemental control isn't fully developed, she can't sustain wind currents for very long, and she's still unable to fully control there trajectory"

"She's not crazy, she's just very strong minded and hot tempered." Krist said defensively "She's actually rather intelligent, especially when it come to machines and chemicals. That's why she's almost always under the hood of a car. Not to mention the fact that her Elemental skills have greatly improved since she first got here."

"Well of course you're going to say that" Eplectan said exasperatedly "You guys have been fucking like rabbits for the last two months, waking me up at ungodly hours of the night."

"Ah, you're just angry at the fact that you haven't gotten any in how long now?" Krist retorted smugly.

"Yeah, I suppose your right," Eplectan said sarcastically "I suppose that's why the other morning she complained on how you "misfired" the night before."

Krist turned slightly red before responding "Oh, one fricken time! Seriously, it happened to all guys once in a while!"

"Uh, no it doesn't actually…" Kane added "At least not to me it hasn't."

"Shut up Kane" Krist said angrily "now all I'm saying is-"

"I felt my ears burning" came a voice at the door.

A young woman walked towards the table. She had short, dirty blond hair and oval blue eyes. Her nose was short and her face was tan with long lips that looked as though they didn't smile often. She wore a torn, red t-shirt and a pair of dirty, ripped jeans. On her feet was a pair of handsome leather boots. She wasn't very tall.

"Hey Fangirl." Eplectan said.

"Hey" she responded back before seeing Kane "Who's he?" She said, staring at Kane with a look of dislike on her face.

"Our new recruit" Eplectan said"He's name is Kane. Found him in Lethkill. Krist mentioned that he used to know a Paladin, so I decided to look in on it."

"Yeah, I heard him talk about that too. How do you know we can trust him?"Fantra said shortly

"Because Krist trust him, and that's good enough for me." Eplectan said, as though that settled the matter

"Well, it's not good enough for me." She said, still eyeing Kane malevolently "For all we know he could be a spy from the state or a coward, don't you remember what happened last time we recruited a coward? You really think that this prick has the balls to kill someone?"

"Nice to meet you to Fantra, you seem like a lovely and charming young lady."Kane said with a smile on his face.

Fangirl seemed enraged. She pulled a small, curved knife from her pocket. She looked slightly deranged. "If you EVER call me that again," She said while holding the knife up "I'll stab out your eyes while you sleep and sew your mouth shut so no one can here you scream."

Kane was unfazed. "Those are really big words coming from such a little midget. Why don't you stand on a chair and say that to my face?"

Kane barely had time to react. Fantra had thrown the knife at him so fast that when he ducked, he could have sworn he felt it go by his head. When he looked up he saw her whip her hands to the side, and instantly he was slammed into the opposite wall by a monstrous wind. His shoulder hit first, and followed by a popping sound in his shoulder." When he attempted to get up, he put down his left arm for support and promptly slumped down again. He then used the wall and his right arm to get back up. He looked up at Fangirl, who was smiling smugly at him.

"You fucking BITCH!" He screamed as he swiped his hand towards her. Instantly her hair was on fire. Fangirl Instantly started to run towards the kitchen to put her hair out. She turned on the Facet and stuck her head beneath the cold water. When she brought her head back up she was completely soaked and the ends of her hair were badly singed. She stared at Kane with a look that can only be described as homicidal rage. She sprinted towards Kane, arms outstretched towards his neck.

Krist Suddenly stood up and caught Fangirl as she was running at Kane. He held her down with a bear hug, pinning her arms at her sides.

"I'LL KILL YOU, I'LL KILL YOU, I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD I'LL KILL YOU!" She screamed at him while being carried away by Krist. He walked through the door while Fangirl was still pinned and yelling threats to Kane. The door closed and the sounds of her screaming where almost completely blocked. Kane turned to Eplectan, who had a small smile on her face.

"She seems nice." Kane said while rubbing his injured shoulder.

"Yeah, like I said, Bat-Fuck insane. If I were you, I would sleep with one eye open tonight, or maybe not sleep at all."

"I'm not afraid of her" Kane said dismissively.

"I would be if I were you" she advised him "Believe me, that was somewhat tame for her."

"It's like a nice little dysfunctional family you got here." Kane said while sitting down.

"I suppose we do." Eplectan said with a smile. Kane walked across the room and laid down on the couch.

"You mind if I crash here tonight? I really don't feel like driving home right now."

"Sure." Eplectan said "Besides, the cars in rough shape right now, I'll have Fangirl take a look at it when she calms down. Besides, I'm getting pretty tired too, and there's still a lot we need to discuss. I'll drive you home in the morning after the car has been fixed up and repainted. There's a chance that the State task force has a description of the vehicle, so we need to change the color and put new plants in it. It might take a couple of days to do all that, so until then you're going to have to stay here. I'll call Dreskent and tell him to pick up a few of you things from your house."

"Who's Dreskent?" Kane asked sleepily

"Just another Member. I'll talk about it more tomorrow, right now I'm dead on my feet." Here, I'll get you some blankets and pillows." She walked off into the hallway.

"Well," Kane muttered sleepily to himself "At least I won't get bored."

By the time Eplectan came back with the blankets, he was fast already fast asleep.