Krista was luckily gone by the time Frost arrived to smuggle an unconscious woman into his bedroom. With his mind on different things, he didn't even stop once to consider whether his actions appeared legal from the outside looking in. Even stranger perhaps was the fact that not a single soul stopped him on his way. Today was not Lana Whitehall's day.
When she awoke, she was handcuffed to the bed frame. At this point, even someone as oblivious as Frost was forced to admit that this looked bad. If Krista were to return, it could get messy. Frost had already closed the window, but the door to his room wasn't exactly soundproof, quite the opposite in fact.
Lana saw Frost's face, glanced at her hands in the cuffs, and then immediately started writhing around. "Help! Someone help! Rape! Rape!" Interestingly, her accent was gone.
Frost watched her silently until she quieted down and realized no one was coming to help. "Satisfied? I cuffed you to protect myself, I'll have you know." He dragged a chair to the side of the bed, just out of Lana's reach, and sat down with a knife in one hand. "We're going to have a friendly chat."
"Friendly?" She eyed the knife, and continued to struggle. Nothing happened but the expenditure of a precious calorie and a drop of sweat that now ran down her forehead.
"It's as friendly as you make it." Frost promised. Even so, he pointed the knife at her while he said it to make it clear what would happen if it wasn't friendly. "So. Can we talk?"
Lana clenched her jaw, her facial features scrunching up in some imitation of childish anger. She shook the handcuffs one last time and then let her body go limp in resignation. "Say your piece," she said sadly.
Lex's competence had meant that Frost didn't ask as many questions as he should have. He didn't want to give an indication of weakness, even an inch of it. Around a man like that, it would've been deadly. Now was the perfect time to find out everything he needed to know.
"How long have you been a Voidhunter?" He asked.
"I should be asking you that–?" Lana said
Frost jabbed the knife out. "The one with the weapon asks the questions."
"Two months," she replied. "God-damned Void Attraction Principle!" She yelled in anger. "I should've known! I should've ran!" She turned away from Frost in embarrassment.
[GreatGadfly30: The Void Attraction Principle is what brings Voidhunters together.]
[GreatGadfly30: It basically just states that Voidhunters trend towards one another.]
[GreatGadfly30: It happens against your will.]
"You want to talk!? Uncuff me!" Lana cried. "Why do you have handcuffs in the first place, you kinky motherfucker!"
I promise you the actual answer is so much worse… "I'm a rare handcuff collector," Frost said. He was really on fire with his strange excuses. "Now tell me about you and Lex."
"Eh?" She looked confused at both statements. "He's a two faced bastard! He shows up to fencing all weak and scrawny, then kicks my ass when the distortion shows like he's getting payback for it! He's pretty mysterious, I'll give him that. I don't know much more than you do."
Well I didn't really know any of that. It seems like Lex plays so far into his nerd personality that he actually lets Lana beat him. Talk about avoiding suspicion.
[Checkpointer20: Personal distortions follow and attack sources of Void energy.]
[Checkpointer20: A place like this with four Voidhunters is a breeding ground for it.]
[Checkpointer20: I would expect them to occur on a weekly basis.]
The chat was backing him up with knowledge to avoid him sounding like an idiot.
"So you two fight often?" Frost asked. "He hasn't just killed you yet?"
"We fight whenever the distortions appear. And no. It's not like that. We're adversaries, but only out of necessity. I don't hate him… He's had many chances to take me out, and he never does." Lana's face made clear her complicated emotions about Lex. Frost saw a strange mix of admiration and anger. "There's a sort of mutual respect," she added.
She seemed conflicted about him in the same way Frost was. Lex seemed trustworthy enough, and yet there was too much he didn't know. This place was strange. The Voidhunters were essentially sparring against each other in semi-serious competitions only because the distortions dictated it. What to make of it all?
Lana's confusion was growing. "You should know all of this, shouldn't you? You've been… Watching?"
Frost wondered what she was talking about for a moment before forcibly jogging his memory. "I'm not your mysterious third Voidhunter, I'm afraid. That one is still at large." Frost shrugged. He was curious about that, too. Whoever it was, they were inside of the distortion area earlier. How? Where? This person was skilled enough to remain unseen. That, above all else, was incredibly dangerous.
Lana was stunned at his words. She ended up turning and screaming into the pillow. "Motherfucker! So you mean there's four of us now!?"
"I guess so," said Frost hesitantly
"Well. That complicates things." She sat up as much as she could. "Lex and I have been trying to find the third since the beginning of the semester. If even Lex can't find him, then I admit I'm at a loss." She glanced at her cuffs. "Hey. Can you let me out of these damn things? I'll even forgive you for shooting me. It happens."
Frost couldn't help laughing. "You aren't a good liar."
"Right. And you are? Mr. Calligraphy!?" She strained the cuffs in anger again, exploding and showing her true colours.
"What happened to your accent?" Frost expertly drew the attention away from his own lies. When Lana looked shocked, he smiled in satisfaction. "Looks like we all wear our own masks around here, don't we?"
Lana had been called out accurately enough that she didn't want to look him in the eye anymore. "How long have you been a Voidhunter, exactly? You hide it well…" She mumbled.
"About three days." Frost stood up to stretch his legs. "But I've been into shady business for a lot longer, I admit." He pulled Lana's pistol from his waistband and tossed it onto the end of the bed, just out of reach, not that it was loaded. The weapon was a standard issue Beretta M9, a weapon that definitely wouldn't have been Frost's first pick. It drew Lana's eyes immediately, but she seemed preoccupied on a different detail now.
"Three days!?" Lana boomed. "And you thought you could go toe-to-toe with–"
"Seems like I did, no?" Frost gestured to the bullet wound he'd so kindly bandaged on her shoulder. "Next, you're going to tell me about the gun I shot you with, yeah? Last I checked, it's illegal for an individual under the age of twenty-one to buy a handgun in the United States of America. That would be fine and all, maybe you're twenty-one. It wouldn't be the first thing you lied about. But the thing that makes me believe otherwise is one tiny detail." He picked the gun up and flipped it over. "This bad boy has the serial number filed off. So tell me. Where'd you buy it?"
"I bought it in the Void," she said.
"Someone sold you a Beretta M9 in the Void?" Frost asked. It wasn't a well-thought-out response on her part. "Curious. I'd have thought that they would be more… Sophisticated."
Lana sighed. She remained silent for a moment, and held it for long enough that Frost suspected she might stay that way. "Alright. I get it already! Yeah. I bought it here. I have a guy," she said at last and with great frustration.
"Finally some honesty. Now we're getting somewhere, Lana!" Frost took the gun back. "I'm going to keep this, I hope you don't mind."
"I mind heavily!" Lana hissed.
"Well that's a crying shame, isn't it?" Frost produced a key from his pocket. "A few more questions, then I'll set you free."
"Just ask them already!"
Frost walked over to the window, which was sealed shut at the moment. It was getting to be dinner time at last. This had been one of the longest days of his life. "Do you know anybody by the name of Ren? And are you affiliated with the Realmguard?" If she answered yes to either of those questions, he'd have to kill her. Ren for obvious reasons, Realmguard because it was best to not have anyone spying on what came next.
"No and no! The Realmguard are a bunch of fuckers! Lex will tell you the same…"
"Where are you really from?" Frost asked. He walked to the foot of the bed now and studied her face closely. Indeed, her beauty was otherworldly. "It's not Earth at all, is it?"
Lana stared right back into his eyes. He saw a pain that he recognized intimately within them. A sea of it, sloshing around within her mind and begging to be unleashed on someone. This line of questioning had angered her more than anything else. "Set. Me. Free," she said.
"Will you attack me?" Frost asked, feeling nervous. "Be honest, now."
Lana wiggled a bit and bared her teeth at him, trying to look scary like a feral hound. "Your questions have exhausted me. I can hardly speak another word let alone throw a fist."
Frost threw the keys. They landed in her lap with a jingle. "Don't try anything funny. Lex wants to meet tomorrow. Says he needs help, and he wants me to bring you with me."
Lana finished undoing her cuffs and slunk off the side of the bed. "I'm not going anywhere with you. You're lucky I don't rock your shit."
"I could've killed you," Frost spoke in a strict tone. "You ought to thank me."
"Just give me my gun, and I'll be on my way," she gestured for him to pass the gun over. "If we fight, your whole room will be trashed. You probably don't want that."
"I'm keeping the gun," Frost said, adamant on this point. "I'll give it back tomorrow when you meet up with me and we go to see Lex. Call it insurance."
Lana crossed her arms and tapped her foot. It was a very girlish pose, which almost made Frost forget that she was asking for a firearm. It took her a long while to deliberate on the subject, but at last she nodded to great relief from Frost. "Fine. Tomorrow, noon, at the cafe. Be there, or I'll throw a grenade through your window."
What a threat. Frost stuck his hand out. "Deal."
She grabbed it and shook it. "Deal. Now show me out?"
Frost smiled. "With pleasure."