Crimson Infinity

Patrol

"Come on man, we gotta get outta here fast! There's no telling when the cops'll be on our case, and I'd rather make do with what we already have. After all, having your health is the important thing, right?" A man in a beanie spoke as he made his way to his friend.

"I've calculated their time of arrival, and thanks to that little traffic jam we caused on the main road, we'll have an extra five minutes to empty this place." His friend spoke, pulling his bandana down to breath easier.

The alarms furiously rang throughout the jewelry store. The display cases scattered around the store were all shattered, their contents taken away. Two duffle bags were located in the middle, just by the two men, and they were filled to the brim with the store's offerings.

"Geez, once we manage to sell all of these, we probably won't have to work for a good two years. We'll be living the life, man!" The one with a bandana spoke; his face was filled with excitement.

"Wait, do you hear that?" The one in a beanie shushed his friend and pointed to the store's exit.

The one in a bandana shrugged, and once more began to fill his bag with jewelry. "Big deal, the knob was too fucked to keep the door closed."

"No, bro. Don't you remember? We locked the door, it was fine."

"Wait, so what are you trying to—" He turned to face his friend, and his eyes widened as his friend's body fell before him limp. He was still breathing, but the left side of his face was bruising badly. He looked up and saw a horned silhouette, slowly making its way towards him. The thug felt his heart begin to race and he scrambled to pick up his flashlight, making sure not to take his eyes off the silhouette.

Finally finding his flashlight, he twisted it open and wasted no time in pointing it at the shadow. "What the hell is this supposed to be? What the fuck!?"

A masked figure stood over him, its lack of features an imposing sight in itself. Horns rested on either side of the mask. There was an indent in the middle of the mask shaped like a 'Y'. It was predominantly brown, with two streaks of black going through where its eyes would be.

He growled in anger and slowly stood to his feet. "Is this supposed to be some kind of joke? Because it isn't funny. This isn't Kick-Ass, bro!" He threw a hook at the figure, but its forearm immediately intercepted his attack. He felt a blunt pain in his bicep, and as he took a step back, noticed that a majority of the figure's jacket was reinforced with armor plating.

Before he could make his next move, he felt the figure's toes impact against his crotch, causing him to keel over in pain. 'Steep tipped?!" He looked back at the figure to see it shake its head.

"You're right, this isn't Kick-Ass." She spoke, proceeding to pull her arm back. A solid block of ice materialized around her fist as she proceeded to smash it against the side of his head.

Sirens soon came into earshot, and she walked towards the exit before taking one last glance at the two thugs. "Don't cause anymore trouble, you hear?" She chuckled and began to run in the opposite direction.

000

"Shoko, Shoko!" Saki waved her hand in front of her friend's face. She had a confused look on her face, as this was really out of character for Shoko. She never spaced out so early in the morning.

Snapping out of her haze, the brunette chuckled and looked up at her friend. She felt her cheeks burning in embarrassment, and shook her head. "Sorry, were you saying something? I… didn't get much sleep last night, you see," she spoke, trying desperately to not invoke suspicion in her friend.

"I was going to ask if you wanted to hang out tonight. Emi and Ria are coming, too. We never actually got to do anything the other day because of, well, you know what, so we planned on making up for lost time tonight." She chuckled, and lightly tapped the back of her friend. "You don't have any class tomorrow, do you?"