FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The museum guard yawned as he watched the cameras, idly eying a book he'd left on the desk. It was dull work, watching the cameras actively; he honestly wondered why the position even existed, since they were recording anyway. Still, it paid well, even if his sleep schedule was still adjusting to the night shift. His pager buzzed with a message, a check-in from the other security office; he sent out a reply, turning away from the screens showing various ancient artifacts. In the corner of his eye, he saw a blur on one of the screens, but given his lack of sleep he assumed it was just a trick of his mind.

For a moment, he considered watching some more, but instead decided to get back to reading. He was tired, and he had no interest in following up on a simple hallucination. Turning the page back to where he left off, he didn't notice another blurry motion on a camera, one closer to the office.

Karen grit her teeth as she approached the office, sharp fangs hidden in her snout. The shark was careful; a full mask and goggles hid her face, her shoes were a new pair, her gloves keeping her from leaving any fingerprints - not that she expected much to come from trying to track folk in a public space, but still. Coming up on another camera, she took a deep breath and rushed past once more.

Her plan was simple; rush through the place, grab a few artifacts, and rush out- after disabling the security system, of course. Approaching the door, she knelt down, trying to stay quiet while she got close. She'd already had a friend break into their system to look at the scheduling, and as much as she felt for the tired guard, this was her best chance to pull off her plan.

She looked up at the handle, trying to ascertain the lock method. A metal box, but with both a keyhole and a numpad; she highly doubted she could crack it without the guard noticing, assuming she could at all. Hearing a step nearby, she turned towards it; thankfully, the guard was already wandering off without having even looked her way. The urgency of her infiltration grew; even if she gave up she'd need to make her escape as fast as possible.

Luckily for her, speed was her specialty.

Standing up, she decided to try something bold to get inside the room. Raising her fist, she gave a firm knock on the door, before calling out to the guard. "Hey, new hire here, I forgot my key, can you let me in?"

The guard dropped his book onto the ground, cursing her out in his head for making him lose track of his page. He was quick to pull the door open, ready to yell at her. Just who was this woman, barging in on him? Was the boss catching on to his slacking? Before he could even process the masked face before him, though, he found himself getting punched in his chest, collapsing in pain and surprise while she hurried inside and shut the door.

"Sorry about that, and this." Karen pulled his radio away from him, tossing it into a corner and pulling out a set of plastic ties. "Just need you to stay quiet, alright?" He nodded weakly, not even trying to resist when she bound his arms and legs. As she turned toward the computer, looking for the power control, the guard spoke up.

"You know, the footage is saved off site..." he muttered, looking up at her.

"That's... fine. That's fine. This'll still help me." she replied as she watched the system shut down, before looking at the main tower. Without a word, she slammed her fist through it, thankful her gloves were strong enough to survive without any major scratches as she rendered the machine useless. Still, she was quick to check if she left any fibers behind, and was happy to see them mixed in with dust and hair already present.

"Hey... can you pass me my book?" the guard asked, having recovered enough to sit upright. "Gonna need something to do while you and your buddies rob us."

A twinge of guilt ran through the thief's mind, remembering that the folk she was targeting still included normal folk, but at the same time there was an odd sense of pride in hearing him assume she had a team, when she was going solo. She knew there were other supers, of course; while rare, there were enough of them, with a variety of ethics and affiliations. She didn't feel like telling him about how this was actually her first time pulling a robbery right now, although she did hand him the novel, and smiled under her mask as he nodded in appreciation.

Of course, by now she knew she was on a much harder timer; no doubt a silent alarm was already triggered, with guards on alert and full on cops on their way. Hell, maybe even one of the nocturnal vigilante types, or a government sanctioned hero. It was convenient for her that the local hero community was strict about no-killing policies, at least; somehow they'd even tamed the regular cops on that front. Not that spending the rest of her life in a jail cell would be much of an improvement in her eyes.

It was time for her to use her carefully honed superspeed. Sliding out of the door, she saw another guard pointing a stun-gun at her, already pulling the trigger. Her power let her dodge to the side, before slowing down again to kick the weapon from his hands, making sure to stomp on it as she ran to the artifact wing she'd made her target. Behind her she could hear the guard calling in over the radio, warning that she was a metahuman; yet more incentive to hurry up.

As she found the displays, she rushed over to her first target, shattering the protective case with a swift kick. Her tail lashed behind her, using a plate of armor she'd attached to free another old relic, a stone figurine from centuries ago. She was careful to only break the cases of things she knew she could cart around with minimal damage; it wouldn't do for her to try to offer piles of dust and fabric shreds to her intended recipients.

"Freeze!"

Turning her head, she saw another pair of guards, ready to fire. One snarled, feline fangs gleaming, but the other held him back with one arm, continuing to address her. "You're under arrest."

Karen wasn't having it. She bolted to the side, only narrowly dodging the tiger's shot; the other was slower to fire, but took the time to do his best to lead the shot, failing to hit her solely because she herself could react to the shot while it was still in motion to pull away. Before either could reload to try another shot, she was in their faces, a low sweep of her tail toppling them. The tiger tried to slam his emergency stun device into her neck, only for her to yank it from his hand, before hitting the two with shocks to leave them on the ground.

With her opposition defeated, she returned to her treasure hunt; pulling more sturdy figures out and stuffing them into her back. Generically unbranded, she hoped that it would keep cops off her, though she had weighed the risks of making things too generic and being left with something just as identifiable.

She rushed over to the next room on her mental checklist, accidentally bowling over another guard in the process. She stopped and fell back, checking to see if she hurt him; thankfully for her conscience, his injuries were minor enough that she could let him deal with them on his own. Soon, she found herself confronted with an assortment of gemstones; holy relics with particular carvings, that had been taken by collectors before making their way to the building.

Pressing her palms against the glass of the casing, she shook her arms, vibrating the glass, making her way to the right frequency to shatter it. She didn't know the exact material, but she was able to guess, making it a quick process to accelerate to the exact right speed. Thankful that the falling shards hadn't cut her skin or clothes, she began to stuff the gems into a free section of the bag, already stuffed with paper to keep them from bumping each other somewhat.

Once she was satisfied with her haul, she turned to hurry back to her escape route, eager to lose the cops. Already she could hear them yelling, trying to work with the guards to figure out what was going on. She knew she couldn't handle that large a group, not with her inexperience and lack of any weapons beyond the stolen stun device, something that would only be of use in melee anyway. Pulling the door open, she rushed over to the modern artwork section, smiling when she saw the room was empty.

The central figure of the exhibit was a massive statue of various geometric shapes, interwoven and overlapped into a tower that reached the room's skylights. Carefully, she jumped up, exploiting the same enhancements that granted her speed to not only overtake the small fence, but to make it to the bottommost part of the tower, a sturdy cube taller than most people. She remembered when interviewed, the artist noted it didn't want anyone to climb the tower for fear of injury, a concern that was very relevant for her as she scaled it.

The tower itself had enough hard edges and level platforms for her to be able to climb up, grabbing onto a pole and pulling herself atop it. But between her exhaustion and the threat of people searching for her and shooting at her, she was afraid of what might happen if she fell from the assorting triangular planes. Sure, her powers made her more durable than the average shark, but a two story fall would be a bone breaker regardless.

If she had a god, she'd be praying to them in thanks, hitting the top of the tower. Standing atop the dodecahedron that capped the tower, she took a deep breath, lifting one hand to the skylight and the other to her face. She began to reconsider her plan; while she could shatter the skylight with her powers, she'd have nowhere to hide from the rain of glass. She could hide under the statue, but that required her to find something else to break the glass with. And she wanted to avoid hurting the guards and cops any more than needed, so she had to work fast. Vibrating and feeling over the frequency she'd need to shatter the window, she looked back at the stolen weapon she had, settling on a risky gambit.

Climbing back down, under the cover of one of the statue's panels, she shook the device. She made it go faster, higher frequency, a spark telling her that she'd torn apart the internal wiring. Once she had it at the right frequency, she tossed it into the window, at as high a speed as she felt safe with her perch. The metal and plastic slammed into the glass, and while the far weaker plastic coating simply shattered on impact, enough of a crack was made in the window to start spreading out. After a tense several seconds, the glass broke apart, the sharp shards littering the floor while Karen curled up on the statue.

Once she was confident the glass was safely out of her way, she climbed back up, shoes crunching against a few fragments as she stood up. Below her, she heard more yelling, angry officers ready to take her in. Before she could give them a chance to spot her, she jumped up into the night air, landing on the roof and surveying her surroundings.

None of the cops had made their way up with her yet; there wasn't even a helicopter, although she could assume that it was already en route given they'd easily guess at her own path. The alleyway that she intended to run into stood below her, but she was nervous about the trip down.

Thankfully for her, a fire escape allowed for a safe passage. She was somewhat slow on her climb down, still unused to the use of her powers on stairs, but was able to make her way down safely. A voice called out from her left, "Halt!" while another came from her right, "Please don't resist!" She looked in both directions at the cops attempting to surround her, before charging forward into the alley. Behind her, she heard the sound of a stun-gun firing, followed by a yell of panic from the police hitting her teammate. She giggled a little at their poor grasp of weapon safety, before darting past another officer who'd be forced to take the long way to reach her.

Weaving and jumping off the walls, she was able to throw off his own aim, his gun harmlessly embedding itself into a brick wall. With clear, open roads ahead of her, she ran off, rushing into another alleyway only to crash directly into another figure when she tried to look behind her, falling onto her tail while the other person simply stood unfazed.

Before she could recover, the strange figure was lifting her up by the shoulders, bringing her face to face with the ominous white mask they wore, covering a lupine muzzle. "Woah, kid, are you alright?" they asked, muscles visible beneath the black coat and tight top they were. Karen recognized this figure, stuttering a bit at the sight of the villain that had been making waves recently.

"Terror-Cotta?" she muttered, looking into the eyes of their mask. "Oh I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"It's alright." they assured her, one arm wrapping around her waist as they helped pull her further into the alley. "Well, aside from the fact that me and my crew were gonna hit the museum." Karen couldn't see their expression beneath the mask, though luckily for her they couldn't see hers either.

"Oh, I, ah, didn't know you were also gonna go there tonight." she sputtered, previous confidence drained in the face of a fellow metahuman.

"Nah, I'm just casing things." they clarified. "Still, it's gonna be a hell of a lot harder now."

"Maybe... I can help?" Karen asked. Terror-Cotta set her down, before pulling a sewer cover aside with bare hands. They let out a small chuckle, guiding her into the dark, damp tunnel, before following in and closing the cover behind them. Safe on the stone platform, the water in the tunnel long-ago drained, the relative veteran talked.

"Alright. Deal. Either you hand over your haul-"

"No."

The wolf paused, turning towards their guest in surprise. Moments before she was audibly scared of them, and now she was suddenly defiant of them. "I wasn't even done talking."

Karen stood up a little taller, clutching the bag close. "I'm not taking this for money, or for myself at all." Terror-Cotta leaned forward a little. "I'm taking these... to return to their rightful owners, after they were stolen. If you want them, you'll have to go through me."

Terror-Cotta simply laughed, but as they looked at the shark, taking her in, they smiled beneath the mask. They reached up, slowly pulling it away, exposing the pale gray fur of their actual face to the surprise of Karen. The wolf's smile was soft, and seemingly genuine as they spoke. "Well, funny story, I was planning on doing the same thing. I think we're more alike than you think."

Karen paused, still wary of them. "You don't- no one's seen you without that mask, not when you're on duty."

"No one except my friends. Well, and you, I suppose; it's a bit early to call you a friend." They began to walk and talk, stepping over some old trash. "Now, as I was saying, the deal is this; either you hand over the stuff you already got, or you tell me what your powers and strategy were so we'll know what kind of new countermeasures the place will have."

Karen nodded, her grip loosening on the stolen goods. "Oh, well, it's pretty simple, actually; I just sorta, have superspeed, so I just ran past the cameras as fast as possible until I could turn them off."

Terror-Cotta nodded, looking up at another cover. "Considering all the cops, I'm guessing mucking up the cameras sent an alarm."

"Yeah, it turned into a smash and grab. Which, in fairness, was part of the plan."

The wolf smiled, grabbing the rungs and climbing up. Karen followed after, and the two soon found themselves in a new alleyway, hidden from view. "Alright, thanks for the help. You good to change outta that disguise?"

"I should be, yeah." she said, looking at the sole of her shoe. "Except this, maybe; I got glass stuck in my shoes. At least they were burners anyway."

Terror-Cotta simply handed her a few bills while she was pulling the shards free, saying "Here. For replacements." Karen didn't verbally thank them, but was happy to take the cash and made it clear. The wolf nodded, before continuing. "Say, do you happen to be free around, say, 1 AM Friday?"

Karen looked at them with confusion. "I... should be, yeah. Why?"

Terror-Cotta held out an envelope, sealed and unmarked. "Wanna join up with my crew? We're all a bunch of villains and anti-heroes, working in the shadows when we can. I think you'll fit right in. Plus, we'll get you some professional gear."

The shark was blushing under her mask as she accepted the invitation. "Oh, I- sure!"

Terror-Cotta smiled wide, her gleaming fangs on display. "Great. Don't open that envelope until like, an hour before you arrive. And if you change your mind, destroy it. Alright? I may operate under no-kill rules, but that doesn't mean I won't retaliate if this is some sorta sting." Their smile faded, and Karen suddenly remembered that she was dealing with someone who once crushed an armored truck with their bare paws.

"I, um, understood."

The wolf smiled again, a more subdued, casual smile. "Alright. I'll be seeing you." With that, they slid back into the sewers, taking their own hidden route back into their own home base. Karen pulled her mask and goggles away to expose the pale blue skin below. Looking outside, she smiled at seeing no one around other than a man sleeping on a bench, and quickly stuffed her jacket, tail-plates and gloves away to quickly change her look. Even if the cops knew to look at any errant footage here, they'd see someone looking only loosely similar to the thief.

When she reached her apartment, she sighed, tossing her shoes aside. She was thankful she'd managed to salvage them from unsold, "to-be-destroyed" stock, leaving less of a paper trail. Still, she already had to replace them. Mulling over her first job, she knew it could have been worse; no one was seriously injured, and she wasn't arrested. But then again, she was also now going to have to meet up with a much better fighter, though she supposed it wouldn't matter if Terror-Cotta simply never got a hit in.

All this and she still didn't even have an actual superhero - or, she supposed, supervillain - name picked out for herself. Climbing into bed, it now dawned on her, she was in way over her head.

So why, then, did it give her such a thrill of excitement? Why was she going to willingly meet up with a deadly supercriminal, over some old rocks and bones? Why was it that she was enjoying herself in her new role?

Why did she want to be a supervillain?