The Sharp Penguin

A white minivan sits in traffic along with a plethora of other vehicles as rush hour rages on even at 11PM. A soft rain trickled down the minivan as it slowly made its way to the next light. From the outside, everything seemed normal as civilians made their way home from work, and the buisnesses and establishments winded down for the night, but on the inside of the van, five suspicious individuals clad in black and holstering firearms were waiting patiently to reach their destination.

"Friggin' traffic. I hate this goddamn city." The driver of the van complained, "We would've gotten to where we needed to be literally hours ago if it wasn't for this. The boss is gonna be pissed."

"Oh quit complaining. You knew the traffic would be terrible today, why'd you even bother driving?" One of the henchmen sitting in the back asked the driver, the driver in response only gritted his teeth, but before he could curse out the henchman, a woman in the passenger's seat pinched the driver in the neck, her gloved nails delivered an icy shock to the drivers neck, causing him to flinch hard.

"What the hell woman?! Can't you see I'm driving here?"

"Yes I can. Focus on the road instead of arguing, and as for you in the back, wake up the rookie." The woman ordered the henchman. The henchman begrudgingly nudged the sleeping guy next to him awake.

"Ugh… are we there yet?" The sleepy guy asked.

"Not yet sleepyhead, try and stay awake for the rest of the trip yeah?" The henchman answered, and the sleepyhead only sighed in response.

"We're almost there, rookie." The woman reassured, "By the way, what's your name? I feel like the nickname 'rookie' is gonna overstay its welcome pretty quick."

"...My group before you guys just called me the Penguin. So just refer to me as that and nothing else." A few snickers could be heard from the back of the van, but the Penguin simply ignored them, and the woman shot the snickering henchmen icy glares before turning her attention back to the Penguin.

"Alright Penguin. The name's Rime, you remember the objective right?" The woman asked, and the Penguin nodded.

"Yeah, shoot up the bank, get the fox girl's attention, take her dead or alive."

"No, we need her alive, and it won't be easy."

"Oh please," The driver scoffed, "This is gonna be a piece of cake. It's five of us and one of her. She doesn't stand a chance."

"Famous last words. Did you forget that she literally took out another squad of ours a few months ago? She cracked a guy's skull, and sent two of them to the ER." Rime said.

"They didn't know what they were doing, they were green." The driver responded.

"Yeah, and now they're black and blue, and you're gonna end up like them if you don't take this seriously." Rime shot back, the driver shrank in his seat a little, the Penguin let out a dry chuckle.

About 10 minutes later, the van finally reached its destination, the North Void Bank. The vehicle pulled up and parked comfortably behind a SUV at the end of the block. The crooks slowly exited the van from the back, they held their firearms close to their bodies while they made their way to the entrance of the bank, their black attire blending in with night seamlessly.

"Alright everyone, operation Fox Chase is a go." Rime says as she busts down the glass doors to the bank with her shoulder.

"EVERYONE PUT YOUR HANDS OVER YOUR HEADS AND GET DOWN ON THE GROUND RIGHT NOOOOOW!"

a

RATATATATATATATATATATATAT!!!!!

The crooks aimed their guns skyward and emptied their rounds on the ceiling, and if breaking down the glass doors didn't get the attention of the people in the bank, that certainly did. The henchmen did their part as well, ramming their gunstocks into the faces of the people who didn't heed what Rime was saying.

Bank notes were thrown everywhere, tables and chairs were flipped, and people were ducking for cover trying to avoid it all.

The Penguin did a 360 of the bank's lobby, trying to see if there were any standout civilians, the gang member's eyes landed on a nearby bandit barrier. The Penguin didn't recall anyone coming out from behind the barrier, so the crook made his way over to it, and surely enough, he heard the meek whimpering of a bank teller hiding underneath the barrier.

"Hey Penguin! Is there anyone else over there?" Rime shouts to the newbie, Penguin hesitates for a moment.

"…Nah, seems like the coast is clear." Penguin confirmed making his way back over to Rime, "So, now we wait?"

"Of course." Rime answered while smirking to herself, "We wait."

*******************

Meanwhile, almost halfway across the city, Carmine sits on the edge of a rooftop, a warm plastic bowl of jambalaya in one hand, and a plastic fork in the other hand, and her flip phone cradled in between her neck and shoulder.

"Hey Pat! I'm uh- working overtime tonight. You know how it is with the new job and everything. But we still on for our jam session tomorrow right? …Sick! Thanks for understanding. By the way, I helped this old lady with directions earlier, and she gave me some jambalaya, and it's actually really good. …Save you some? Pfft, you'd better go out and buy your own-"

*WEE WOO!*

*WEE WOO!*

*WEE WOO!*

*WEE WOO!*

Carmine's fox ears instantly perk up at the sound of the blaring sirens rushing down the streets below.

"Hey Pat- I'm gonna call you later ok? You hear sirens? That's because uhm- I'm just taking a walk! Talk to you later!" Carmine ended the call, scarfed down the rest of her kielbasa and rice, put her mask back on, got up and began running parallel to the police cars down below.

Finally, something good! Today has been so slow, this is an awesome change of pace! Carmine excitedly thought to herself as she leapt from building to building, easily keeping pace with the police wagons as the vehicles twisted and turned around each street in a rush.

Not even 20 minutes later, Carmine and the police cars were coming up on the bank, the shattered glass from the bank's doors littered the sidewalk. The police hastily exited their vehicles and stood next to the bank's entrance, guns unholstered, almost itching to go into the building and fight.

One police officer exited his vehicle with a megaphone and held it close to his mouth.

"THIS IS THE CPD! WE HAVE YOU SURROUNDED! COME OUT OF THE BUILDING WITH YOUR HANDS UP IMMEDIATELY!"

Having a reaaaally weird case of deja vu right now. Carmine thought to herself as she sat perched on a rooftop of a building right across from the crowded bank. The fox's tail wagged in anticipation.

"THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING! WE WILL USE FORCE IF YOU DO NOT-ah screw it. Go in there and take them down already!"

The police team quickly ran into the building, semi-automatic guns poised and ready to fire at anything that breathed. But they were surprised to only find Rime standing in the middle of the building, arms crossed, and no other criminals in sight.

"Hello men, how is your-"

"OPEN FIREEEEEEE!!!"

RATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATAT!!!!!

And the bullets flew. The hostages cowered and covered their heads, and the henchmen (who were each hiding behind different structures from inside the bank) braced themselves just in case a stray bullet or two managed to find one of them.

Carmine was shocked to see the scene unfolding right before her eyes, she prepared to leap off of the building and intervene, but she stopped herself once she got an eyeful of Rime's bullet ridden body. The bullets definitely pierced the woman, but the bullet holes on her body looked like fractured glass. The "body" fell to the ground with a violent CRACK! The rest of the decoy shattered into large icy chunks.

The police team all lowered their weapons in shock.

"What? Was it fake? But that body was literally just talking to us? How in the hell is that possible?" One police member shouted incredulously, suddenly, the officer felt a frosty chill on his face as a bare hand rested on his cheek. The officer watched in horror as a thick layer of ice spread all over the officer's head, the man couldn't even feel his own face anymore. But the worst part is that no one seemed to notice. Until the officer standing right beside him noticed his horrified expression.

"Hey man, you alright?" The officer saw the hand freezing the officer's face off, and after taking a solid 42 seconds to process what was happening, he put two and two together, now in a panic, the officer raised his own gun at the hand and almost pulled the trigger, which would've been very bad for the officer whose head was currently getting deep frozen, but in a flash, the gun was snatched out of the officer's hand, all of the other officer's guns were quickly stolen away too.

"What the hell? Where did my-"

"Has anyone ever told you guys that you're all terrible at your jobs?"

"Carmine! We had this under control! Leave this area immediately!"

"If 'under control' means almost shooting your buddy's face off. Then yeah, you're doing a bang up job pal." Carmine quipped as she proceeded to snap each assault rifle in half with no effort, "How about this, you guys take five, maybe go grab a snack or something, while I clean up. Deal?"

The officer hesitated, but realizing there was nothing he could really do at the moment, he reluctantly turned to his comrades and gestured to them to retreat. The officer whose head was turning into a popsicle realized that he no longer had a hand on his face, he was still confused on how the limb even got on there, but he was more grateful that it wasn't on his face anymore, he wondered on how he would thaw his head as he left the bank.

Carmine had snapped the final assault rifle and then held up the arm from the officer's face. The fox examined it for a few seconds before the limb turned a dark blue and shattered like glass.

"Saw you looking at my hand Carmine, be honest, how are my nails? I got them done today just for you." Rime said as she suddenly came from behind a support pillar, taking her glove off of her other hand.

"Eh, 5 outta 10. You gotta find a new salon girl."

"Hmph, well given how sharp and jagged your nails are, I wouldn't trust your opinion on them."

"Right, now… what's your damage? Why are you doing this?"

"Well Carmine, we have a proposal. You see, our new boss has had her eyes on you for a while, and she wants you to be a part of her 'mission'. She wants to get rid of all crime in Lower Camdelia, and with your help, there's really nothing stopping us, so-"

"So your answer to stop crime in this city is to cause more crime? Count me out!"

"What? I haven't even listed off any of the benefits."

"I don't wanna hear 'em. I'm not joining your little mission, sorry."

"Hah, well. Funny thing about my boss, when she told me the objective, she didn't say you had a voice in the matter. So…" A faint blue glow started to emanate from Rime's body as she got into a fighting stance, "you're coming with us whether you like it or not, fox!"

"Bring it on Jill Frost!" Carmine beckoned while getting into her own fighting stance. The fox and Rime darted at each other and immediately came to blows. Rime made the first move, she held out her hands in an attempt to make contact with Carmine and freeze her, but the fox immediately slid under her and delivered a hard kick to her back, sending Rime flying into a nearby pillar.

Wasting no time, Carmine teleports to Rime's position and grabs her waist from behind, but Rime quickly reacts by grabbing Carmine's arms and attempts to flash freeze them, the fox immediately lets go of Rime's waist and teleports away, but the moment Carmine reappears a few feet away from Rime, the crook smiles as she pulls out a handgun.

"Boys. Fire at will." The moment Rime finished her command, 3 of the other henchmen got up from their hiding positions, aimed their assault rifles at Carmine and opened fire, Rime did the same with her handgun, there were bullets coming from the front and behind Carmine now, the fox quickly hopped, twisting and contorting her body to avoid most of the bullets, it didn't stop one from clipping her tail though.

"OUCH! You could've gone for anything else but the tail!"

"Heh, you're right, this time it's your head fox girl!" One henchman said as he just finished reloading his AR, but a flash of lightning formed around Carmine, and she teleported right next to the henchman.

"Hehehe… just you wait you furry bitc- how the hell did you get over here so fast- ACK!" The henchman was quickly shut up by a knee to the face from Carmine. Rime didn't even react to Carmine's speed either, but by the time she did, Carmine had taken out both henchmen with ease.

"You! How the hell are you so fast?" Rime pointed her handgun at the fox, but Carmine quickly teleported in front of Rime, hands behind her back, she had a playful grin under her mask.

"Well, maybe I'm not even that fast. Have you considered that you're just too slow?" Carmine taunted, Rime growled in frustration as she pointed the handgun right in front of the fox's mask.

*CLICK!*

"...shit."

"This bank heist is over!" Carmine exclaimed as she slugged Rime across the face, the crook recoiled back as she got pummeled by the fox, of course, Rime tried to get some shots at Carmine, but she was simply too slow to keep up with her opposition.

Meanwhile, Penguin had refused to come out of his hiding, he did not want to deal with Carmine without a plan at least, but he had been watching the brawl intently.

"H-h-help? Is…is someone there? Are they gone?" An elderly bank teller poked his head out from behind the counter, him and the Penguin made eye contact, and the bank teller's eyes went as wide as saucers, but before the old man had the opportunity to move his head back behind the counter, the Penguin pointed a handgun point blank at the man.

"Listen carefully old man…"

Rime had once again been sent flying into the same pillar from before, her dirty blonde hair was now a mess and her sky blue nails were cracked, Rime took a look at her nails and groaned.

"Bitch…."

Carmine reached into the inside of her vest and took out a pen and some sticky notes. She quickly wrote down her signature, along with a cute little image of a fox, she then tears the note from the pad and sticks it on the beaten up crook's forehead.

"Hey, I think that sticky note is a pretty good look, that bumps you up to a 5.5 outta 10 now." Carmine quipped, Rime didn't respond, she only looked up and past the fox, and what she saw made her smile. Carmine noticed the smirk and whips behind her, her eyes widened behind her mask, the Penguin had the old man's neck wrapped around his elbow, and a gun pointed to the side of his head.

"Good, looks like I won't be having to shout to get your intention after all." The Penguin's voice was ice cold, he had no qualms about ending this senior's life right there, the old man on the other hand was scared out of his mind, but if he just followed what the Penguin had to say, he should be ok, hopefully. Carmine went silent for a moment, the fox briefly crackled with electricity preparing for another teleport, but the Penguin retaliated by squeezing the trigger and pushing the gun's barrel up against the old man's head, Carmine quickly canceled her teleport attempt.

"Now I got it. Me and you are about 15 feet away, those henchmen you took down were about 6 feet away, I assume the longer distance you have to teleport, the more electricity you produce." The Penguin explained, keeping the old man still, "You flash with electricity for about a second, that's more than enough time for me to do what I gotta do."

Carmine only stood for a second, she was a little surprised that he managed to gather all of that, but she kept her composure regardless.

"Yeah, I'd say that's pretty spot on. Though I've only had these powers for only 4 months now, I'm not even sure of what I'm fully capable of." Carmine smirked a little under her mask, but became serious again, "So what's gonna happen now huh?"

"...How about this? You expose your true identity to me, and I'll let this guy go. You mess around though, and…" The Penguin pushes the gun against the side of the old man's head. Rime looks confused.

The hell? Learning about Carmine's identity isn't really a bad thing… but why is he deviating from the plan like this? Rime did catch on that Carmine was completely focused on the Penguin, she smiled to herself again as she quietly placed her hand flat on the ground, a sheet of ice slowly formed and crawled its way toward Carmine's foot.

Meanwhile, the fox had slowly begun to remove her mask, she knew that her powers don't automatically deactivate when she removed her mask, but she had no way to prove if this crook would still shoot the old man or not regardless if he knew her identity.

"Hurry up already. We don't have all night." The Penguin rushed, Carmine's mask was fully unfastened, she lowered it, revealing her yellow eyes slits, the Penguin was intrigued.

Those eyes, it's unlike any other chimera* I've ever seen, what the hell is she?

Carmine lowered her mask some more, revealing her nose, and the top of her lip, she was about to go further, until she realized that her leg was unusually cold. She could barely feel it, the fox looks down to see that her left leg has almost been completely flash frozen.

"Did you forget about me already? Silly fox girl."

Carmine flashes with electricity, but it's too late.

SHANK!

A shard of ice impales Carmine through the side of her abdomen, the combination of the freezing cold and sudden sharp pain causes the fox to drop her mask, revealing the rest of her face, the Penguin got a good eyeful of that while he let the old man finally go. The geriatic breathes a massive sigh of relief as he dashes back behind the counter.

Blood starts to pool out of Carmine's stomach wound, but she tries to teleport away again.

SHANK!

"UGH!"

This time, an ice shard impales her right leg, canceling out her teleport again, Carmine yelps in pain as she bends her knee, still trying to dig the ice shard out of her stomach, Rime gets back on her feet and begins to taunt Carmine.

"Ah~ I don't give a shit about taking you alive anymore, the new boss lets us get away with anything anyways." Rime got really close to Carmine's face, taking a good look at the fox's features, the crook smiles.

"What a shame, you have such beautiful features, I'm actually a little jealous." Rime said as she drove another shard of ice into Carmine's shoulder, the fox groaned, and a sadistic smile crept onto Rime's face as she went behind Carmine, kicked the back of her legs, forcing her on her knees, and held her by her hair.

"Ok rookie. I've had my fun. Blow her brains out and we can get going." Rime's nails dug into Carmine's scalp, small red hairs fell out of the fox's head. Carmine and the Penguin looked at each other, the fox's look of worry turned into a toothy, albeit forced smile, the Penguin on the other hand only took a deep breath and held his gun up.

"Well? We've got places to be. Take the shot." Rime said while digging her nails deeping into Carmine's head, the Penguin let out a chuckle.

"Ok. You got it."

*CLICK!*

*BANG!!!*

*THUD!*

A deafening bang rang throughout the bank, and a loud thud followed afterward. The Penguin took out a rusty lighter and lifted up his ski mask, revealing more of his olive skin, and stuck a cigarette in his mouth. He lit the cigarette, took a long drag, and blew out a white puff of smoke.

Meanwhile, Carmine had instinctively closed her eyes, resigned to her fate, but they snapped back open when she noticed that she wasn't the one with a bullet in her skull, she looked back to see that Rime was laid out on the floor, eyes wide open and petrified, with blood pooling from the bullet hole right in the middle of her forehead. Carmine looked back and forth at Rime and the Penguin in confusion, then she suddenly felt the jambalaya she ate earlier start to come back up to her mouth, the fox started to retch violently.

"Yo, at least wait until I'm finished smoking to throw up. I'm not trying to see that right now." Penguin casually said while taking another long drag of his cigar, with some effort, Carmine broke free of the ice, picked up her mask and got to her feet, she held the side of her stomach in pain.

"You just… murked her. Why did you-"

"Don't get the wrong idea. I'm not on your side, I'm only against this mafia trash."

"Wait… hold on…"

The Penguin turned around to make his way to the back exit of the bank, but his exit was interrupted by a blaring police horn outside.

"WE WILL NOW REENTER THE BUILDING, EVERYONE INSIDE STAY WHERE YOU ARE!"

The Penguin scoffed as he continued to go to the exit, and Carmine limped behind him, they were stopped by a bullet whizzing past their heads, they turned back around to see a policeman holding a smoking gun, the officer looked at the crook with disgust in his eyes.

"Scumbags. Stay right where you are and don't move." The officer threatened, Carmine gave another toothy grin, she reached for the Penguin's shoulder, but the police officer saw this.

"I said don't move!!!"

*BLAM!!!*

A speeding bullet flew out of the handgun and at Carmine, aimed at her head, but the fox simply opened her mouth and let the bullet fly in between her teeth, and she chomped down as hard as she could, the sheer force from her teeth shattered the bullet completely. The cop lowers his gun, his eyes go wide.

"Uh- what… did you just do?"

Carmine smiled again and put her hand on the Penguin's shoulder, who was similarly surprised.

"Heheheh, peace out!" Carmine flashed the V sign at the officer before she teleported away with a flash of lightning.

A short series of teleports later, and the two arrive on top of a random low-rise restaurant, Carmine sits down on the pebble littered rooftop, the Penguin remains standing, his cigarette still burning.

"There… you save me, I save you. We're even now." Carmine said in between gasps, teleporting clearly took a lot out of her.

"..."

"And I know what you're gonna say. 'Why did I save you?' well, you said you were against the mafia right? Well, apparently I am too now. The enemy of my enemy is my friend right?"

"...listen," The Penguin drops his cigarette to the ground and stomps on it, stuffing the flame out, "You've been doing this for 5 months right? Going around stopping crime and stuff?"

"For the most part, yeah. Though, that was the first time I've seen someone get killed like that." Carmine shudders, remembering the body of Rime.

"You seem like a good person Carmine, and what you're doing is righteous." The Penguin had fully turned to Carmine now, "So lemme tell you now, you need to quit while you're ahead."

"...why's that?"

"Because, I've seen too many bright-eyed individuals like you end up getting themselves killed because they want to do what's right. And I always ask myself why?" The Penguin turns around to face the city in the darkness, "There isn't anything worth saving in this goddamn city. Take it from me, you'll only end up driving yourself crazy, or dead. Especially if you're dealing with the freaks in the mafia. So just… don't put yourself through that."

"No."

The Penguin turns around, he was taken aback a little by Carmine's lightning fast response, he walked up to the sitting fox and looked down on her.

"Did it go in one ear and come out the other? I'm warning you, dumbass. I've been down this road, and in a word, it sucks."

"Ok, then I'll do what you tried to do, but better."

"That's not the point I'm trying to make here!"

"Listen man, you think I wanna get out of bed in the morning, and be chased around by cops? Have stuff thrown at me by strangers? Get shot at by crooks? 'Course not. But I'm not gonna stop doing it because it's 'not worth it.'"

"Ok fine. Then why are you doing this Carmine?"

"Because it's the right thing to do, and no one is ever gonna tell me otherwise."

The Penguin only looked at Carmine, and facepalmed.

"Sounds like this city has already driven you crazy."

"Maybe. But I think it's worth it." Carmine struggled to get to her feet for a moment, but she got there, she limped over to where the Penguin was standing and gazed out into the city as well, "Besides, this city sucks ass, and someone has to help out, and… if I don't do it… who will?"

The Penguin falls silent for a moment, before he reaches for his face mask, and takes it off, revealing his blue eyes, curly bleached hair, and the multiple scars on his face, he looks at Carmine.

"Can't say I fully agree with what you said. But it wouldn't hurt to have a teleporting fox lady help me take down the mafia. 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend' right?"

"Yeah, I guess so. Don't shoot people in the head though, please. Or I'll have to beat you up."

"Oh please, if you're gonna hang with me, you better get used to that shit." The crook turns around and walks toward the stairs to reach the bottom of the building, "Oh, and the name's Misha. I'll be around. Gotta make sure the mafia isn't on my tail 24/7 for shooting one of their own."

"Heh. Alright Misha, have a good night!" Once Misha had disappeared down the stairs, Carmine checked her wounds, they were healing a little bit, but not fast enough. The fox groaned and began her grueling trek back to her apartment, about a quarter of the way across the city.

************

Courtesy, Your Local Fox Gal, Carmine!

고맙습니다! - ((ΦωΦ))

************

"Well. It seems that 4 of our men are out of commission now, but the blonde one child seems to be alright."

"..."

"Our efforts to persuade Carmine were also unsuccessful. What will our next plan be from here?"

"I'm not giving up on Carmine. She's too valuable of a potential asset, and too dangerous as a potential enemy. I will not give in on this."

Even as I say these words, uncertainty creeps up my spine, causing me to shiver a little. But I swallow my fears, and push on. Because all I want to do…

"...Is honor your legacy. I will do what I can."