#and now I disappear to play thru Natlan some more✨✨

[aego-philautia]

Stranded -Bamby(Bambelle x Anby) fic

Words: 5.5k

Barely proofread(I got lazy)

An: This goes with the art posted on my main, I got the idea after i was halfway through it which is why its the scene of Bambelle crying in fear LMAO. Im thinking of drawing another piece of this tho so hopefully I can draw her w a smile next time 😭😭

Enjoy~

Eyebrows scrunched in concentration, fingers aching, sweat dripped down the woman's brow as she put her full focus on the task in front of her. Her heart beat out of her chest, as her bright pink hair started to frizz up from the humidity around the group. A white-haired woman stood nearby, watching the action with bright-eyed interest despite seeing clearly the results that were coming.

Suddenly, the cyborg next to the pink haired woman let out a loud whoop as the screen on the arcade cabinet flashed a large ‘WINNER’ screen with the name ‘KID’ underneath. The woman next to him let out a huff of annoyance at his celebration, pouting as he did a victory dance,

“And as always, Billy Kid reigns victorious over his adversaries!” The AI was currently moonwalking around the woman mockingly.

“Ugh, Whatever, you’re an AI maybe you plotted the best paths to use or something to get the highest points.” She scoffed at him, pulling out her phone in mock disinterest as Billy gasped at the accusation.

“Me? THE Billy Kid, CHEATING?? A true Starlight Knight NEVER takes shortcuts!” He crosses his arms, annoyed, “You’re just mad because you lost for the third time in a row, Nicole.”

Nicole rolled her eyes, sharp nails tapping through recent messages on her phone, “Actually, we BOTH agreed that I should’ve won the first round since you killed my snake the second before the round ended.”

Billy let out a short huff, display changed to mimic a pouty expression, “Humility is one of the more important qualities in a hero! Even so, I won that round fair and squa-“

“Hold on a second,” she raised a manicured finger to Billy’s face before he could finish his retort, her eyes widened as a specific message popped up on her screen, “It seems our ‘co-worker’ has contacted us. So I guess I’ll let you have the win this time.”

“Nicole,” the white haired woman spoke up finally, pushing herself off the wall she was leaning against, “Even if you did win the first round, wouldn’t the ‘rule of three’ state that-“

“Shh Anby, not now!” Nicole hushed her as she gathered her stuff with sudden haste, “Everyone, let’s go rent some movies!”

-------------------

Within the hour, the group arrived at Random Play, meeting the ever tired Wise, who offered them a dreary smile nonetheless before quietly ushering them into the back room of the store. After waving a short greeting to the Bangboo worker 18 and shutting the door tight, the other twin, Belle beamed at the hollow raiders.

“That was quick, Nicole. Had nothing better to do?” she teased the taller woman as she pulled up the commission details on her phone.

“Of course I did, my schedule is always busy, as you know-“

“Busy with being a sore loser~.” A staticy voice crackled from the couch behind her.

“A-hem, but I always have time for my favorite proxy!” Nicole said, ‘bright’ smile barely concealing her otherwise annoyed expression.

With a sigh, Wise jumped into the explanation, fiddling with his jacket sleeve, “We got an urgent commission from Belobog Heavy Industries.” He stepped over with a large tablet in his hands as the entire group gathered around to scan the information presented. Wise continued,

“A companion hollow suddenly formed around a team sent to do work for the day at one of the construction zones owned by Belobog. A majority of the workers and civillians managed to escape or be rescued, but a few that happened to be deeper in the zone are still left inside. Among those left is a particular employee that both Ben and Koleda stressed the importance of.”

Wise paused to let the group take in the information of the employee whose name and picture was displayed along with other general information. Billy cocked his head, reading the name carefully.

“’Bambelle?’ I feel like I’ve heard that name before…” he wondered idly, cupping his chin in thought, before Anby immediately spoke up.

“It’s that goat woman you almost killed in the video store the other day.”

Nicole quickly whipped her head toward him, “What!?”

“I-it’s not like that I swear-!”

“It actually isn’t.” Belle chimed in, getting Nicole’s attention before she gave the poor cyborg an earful.

“Billy and Anby were in the video store not too long ago looking for a movie. Bambelle happened to be there, and she…doesn’t have the best spatial awareness.” The short girl finished with a slightly nervous smile.

“Billy startled her when he came up from behind to ask what movie she was so focused on and she…” Wise continued before trailing off, not sure how to properly explain the next part.

“Died. And then, reanimated.” Anby finished without a hint of humor.

“She fainted.” Belle quickly corrected her.

Nicole blinked, clearly confused but relieved nontheless, “Im…getting different stories…”

“Bambelle suffers from a condition called myotonia congenita.” Anby continued, “It’s a condition that causes the patients’ limbs to lock up whenever they experience sudden surprise or excitement, thus causing them to go limp for up to several minutes. Almost like that zombie movie where the zombies only ‘die’ for a few moments, before coming back to life.”

Belle let out an exhausted sigh at the ending of the explanation, “The general idea is correct. Basically, Billy scared her and her limbs locked up, she fell over for a few seconds. She was perfectly fine, if not a bit annoyed…”

Finally, Nicole let out a relieved sigh, “Great, we can’t go around paying for wrongful death lawsuits.” She let out a shudder at the thought.

Wise cleared his throat, trying to get the group back on topic.

“Koleda and Ben personally asked us to take the commission as soon as they got the news, they’ll be busy taking care of the surviving workers and assessing damages so this is up to us. They’ve showcased a high level of trust in our abilities. So we decided to pick the team we had the most trust in.” The taller sibling finished with a slight smirk toward Nicole.

“Especially since they give us such a generous commission fee~!” Belle tacked on flashing her best winning smile at Nicole, who simply rolled her eyes at the display.

“Yes, yes, I get it,” she said with a dismissive wave of her hand, “Of course I have to give my most loyal clients the best price on our services! As long as they’re willing to return the favor- “

“We cannot forgive any of your debt Nicole, you have a bit too much you owe for that.” Wise states bluntly.

The woman muttered a curse, “Ok ok, consider the commission fee lowered then! H-how about that?”

“But Nicole, what about grocery expenses for the month?” Anby questioned. Nicole smiled back at her, knowing the obvious answer already.

“Billy was so kind as to offer to cover it this month from his paycheck~.” A sputter and crash could be heard from the couch as Billy fell off of it from shock.

“WAIT WHAT??? W-WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?”

-----------------

Later, Inside the hollow…

Anby handed the shaking woman in front of her a small pack filled with supplies,

“Take this and follow the route out of the Hollow. The ethereals have been taken care of, don’t worry.”

“Oh, bless you ma’am!” The woman replied, excitedly taking the supplies before booking it in the direction Anby specified. Billy scoffed, rubbing at a scratch he got in the fight they got into before finding the woman.

“Seriously? No blessings for the hero who fought to defeat those monsters in the first place?” While he was pouting, Nicole smugly grinned at him, “A great hero once said, ‘Humility is one of the more important qualities in a hero’.”

“Well, yeah! Of course! But…a little recognition doesn’t hurt…” His screen turned to a hurt expression.

“Come on you guys,” The proxy, through Eous, scolded, “We managed to rescue most of the survivors, but it seems like Bambelle fled further into the hollow. Im getting a signal from that building further ahead.” The Bangboo gestured it’s tiny arms toward a large building in the distance, it appeared to be a sort of warehouse judging from the shipping crates and boxes surrounding it.

“Just be careful, im also getting some activity from outside and inside of it, including a rather large ethereal energy signal inside.”

Nicole tapped a finger on her chin, thinking up a plan of action to deal with the situation. Finally, she turned toward the rest of the group,

“Got it. Me and Billy will stay out here and clear out the ethereals to keep them from interrupting the rescue. Anby, you go in and locate Bambelle, try to steer clear of that dangerous ethereal and if you run into it, contact us immediately.”

Anby responded with a militaristic salute, “Instructions received, proxy, can you lead me to Bambelle while avoiding the ethereal?”

Eous looked at the small device in it’s stubs quizzically, “I can try. The ethereal keeps moving, almost like it’s searching for something…” The little guy shook it’s head before putting the device away. “Follow me, Anby!”

While Nicole and Billy headed toward a group of nearby ethereals, Anby and Eous snuck past the fighting to enter into the warehouse. With Anby quickly defeating the monsters as they encountered them, they were able to get pretty far into the building around where Bambelle’s energy signal was last pinged. Eous took out the device again, moving it around to try to get a better signal.

“Being inside makes it a bit harder to find any signals, but her last ping was a bit ahead, so she couldn’t have gone far. I wonder why she came here in the first place instead of trying to leave…”

Anby pondered the question for a moment, “Maybe, her zombie disease has started progressing to the next stage. In File Z, besides sudden limb locking, those affected would shamble to random locations with no recollection of how they get there or why. It was the virus slowly taking over their mental faculties- “

Eous let out a sigh, “Maybe we should bar you from renting any more zombie movies…wait!” The Bangboo stared wide-eyed at the display in front of it, “The dangerous ethereal, I just got a ping from it, it’s coming closer!”

Anby quickly grabbed Eous and hid behind some nearby boxes. Seconds later, animalistic growling and grunting accompanied with the clacking of nails on the concrete flooring could be heard. Wanting to take note of what the ethereal was, Anby peeked out from the hiding spot, thankful at the fact that the monster was looking away from her.

A large, humanoid frame covered in dark, black antimatter interrupted by shards of rock and metal jutting out from its shoulders and arms greeted her. The monster must have been one of the workers before it transformed, because it also had a power tool, specifically a power saw, attached to the end of one of it’s arms like a mock replacement for a hand. The ball of matter that acted as it’s head controlling it’s body looking around, searching for signs of life. The monster groaned lowly as it took a few steps around the area, clearly aware of Anby and Eous’ presence. Anby barely managed to duck back behind the box as it looked her way. But it seemed it was a second too late, as the pair could hear the monster as it started coming toward them, growling growing louder, a sharp whirring sound as the power saw, apparently still fully functional, started up. It seemed the monster planned on cutting the metal boxes apart to see whatever had just left it’s line of vision.

As Anby grabbed her sword, ready for a fight, a clinking sound nearby caught both her and the ethereals attention. She looked down as a small cylinder rolled over. A moment passed just before a loud bang. Suddenly, she couldn’t see as the entire area was covered in smoke. She coughed out as the unexpected gas entered her nose and mouth, barely registering when her arm was grabbed.

“Go! Run!”

Anby grabbed the confused Eous before following the voice, vision still blurred and senses dulled as she followed the person pulling her in the direction they chose to flee in. A loud roar was heard as the ethereal tried to pursue, but it still hadn’t recovered from the smoke bomb fast enough, thus quickly losing them as they ran deeper into the warehouse and took cover inside of a semi empty metal shipping container. After Anby rubbed at her eyes and took a few breaths, she finally looked toward the person who saved her, letting out breath.

“Bambelle!”

The goat therian woman was still recovering from running, clearly exhausted. The trinket attached to one of her horns shaking wildly as she huffed out breath after breath with her hands resting on her knees. She raised a tired hand to Anby,

“J-just a second. Whew… Thats… the third or fourth time ive…hah…had to run from that guy…” She stretched her arms up, placing her shoulder bag on the ground to stretch her shoulder. Finally, she looked toward Anby with sudden shock.

“You remember my name?” Her eyes lit up in excitement at the notion.

“Of course,” Anby replied, “You were highlighted as one of the workers we had to rescue for this commission.”

Visibly deflating, Bambelle let out a small sigh, “Oh. Right, naturally. That…makes sense.”

Eous tapped it’s small arm against Anby’s leg, “She also remembered your condition! Anby filled her teammates in on your myotonia congenita, all from memory!” The little Bangboo winked up at Anby, hoping she got the hint.

“I wanted to make sure it wasn’t a zombie vi-“

“SHE WANTED to learn more about you, to help out possibly!” The proxy loudly interrupted.

“Oh!” Bambelle said with a slight smile, “That’s pretty thoughtful! Unfortunately, it’s just something I have to deal with. I remembered to take my medication to help with it this morning though, so it isn’t as bad as it was that day!”

“Medication?” Anby questioned.

“Yeah, I’m a bit forgetful so I didn’t take them that day, under regular circumstances I could walk off a scare that small.” Bambelle explained with a bashful expression, tapping her fingers together. “My medication is special made for people with my condition, it helps keep my limbs from locking so I can function day to day. It has it’s limits of course, but It’s been really helpful for me to be able to outrun that ethereal, as long as I don’t focus on it too much.”

Eous bounced a bit, “Speaking of, that must be why you’re in this warehouse in the first place? To outrun that ethereal?”

The goat woman nodded, “Yep. I was helping some of the workers and civilians get out and I got in the middle of that thing trying to hurt a kid. I guess it held a grudge or something, it hasn’t given up chasing me for awhile now.” The short therian hefted herself up onto one of the boxes to sit on it, absentmindedly kicking her legs as she continued, “Grace gave me a bunch of her shock bombs to modify for a project we were both working on, so I’ve been luring ethereals into puddles and stuff and detonating the bombs to damage them before finishing them off. But that…thing has taken three shocks already and its still going. Im exhausted… And unfortunately, I used the last smoke bomb getting us out of there so, those are gone.”

While Bambelle was explaining, Eous had taken the liberty of digging out the last few shock bombs from Bambelles bag, letting out a hum as the proxy thought up a plan.

“Grace’s bombs are pretty powerful by themselves…that ethereal must have some kind of resistance.”

“Resistance can only work so much, esecially if the explosion is big enough…” Anby offered, following the line of logic the Proxy set out. Bambelle cocked her head, not understanding.

Eous held up two of the five bombs left, “Maybe we can fuse these all together and create a sort of ‘mega-bomb’ to set off on that ethereal. A bigger explosion might be able to take out a bigger monster, after all.”

Bambelle anxiously hummed, “I don’t know, what if we need them to deal with other ethereals?”

“You won’t need those bombs.” Anby swiftly replied, making eye contact with Bambelle, “As long as I’m here, I’ll keep you safe from any ethereals, that’s a promise.” She said with sincerity in her voice. Bambelle’s eyes widened, momentarily stunned, before she recovered, clearing her throat.

“W-well…ok then. I trust you guys!” A warm smile came onto her face as she hopped off the box and gathered the bombs together, new energy coursing through her. “Leave the bomb fusing to me! Just fill me in on the plan details once you get it all worked out.”

Anby couldn’t help the slight smile on her face at the sight of Bambelle’s excitement, but she brushed it away and turned to Eous, “Call Nicole and Billy, we have to start getting ready.”

-----------------

The ethereal let out a low rumble as it scanned the area. It had been lured through the warehouse by strange clacking sounds and the occasional sight of the goat woman it had been chasing after, tirelessly dragging itself closer and closer to it’s quarry. It was now at the very end of the warehouse, surely there's nowhere else for her to run. It wandered until it reached a sort of makeshift hallway in a maze of boxes and shipping containers, ambling along the path single-mindedly. A sudden yell had caught its attention down one path it almost passed, turning and locking eyes with the very goat woman it had been chasing all this time at the dead-end of the path, surrounded on all sides by tall shipping containers as she stood defiantly with her eyes locked on it.

“HEY STUPID!” Bambelle yelled toward it, poking out her tongue, “Come and get some!”

The ethereal roared, power saw whirring to life as it barreled down the path full speed toward her. The danger of the situation fully sunk in, causing her anxiety to spike as Bambelle felt her limbs unable to move an inch. Dammit, her limbs locked up. Silently praying for the plan to work as the monster came closer and closer, relief flooded her as Anby dashed up from behind her at just the right moment to knock the power saw away with her sword. The monster stumbled back, caught off guard as Anby was launched backward by the same force, recovering effortlessly.

“Nicole!”

“Take this, you disgusting freak!” Nicole launched out from the open shipping container that the ethereal was next to, the monster too focused on it’s target to see the opening housing both Nicole and Billy as well as the container far opposite them that housed the fused together bomb. With a yell, Nicole lodged the barrel of her gun case into the ethereals side before triggering it, launching the monster straight into the opposite container right on top of the bomb.

“And now,” Billy piped up, aiming toward the bomb with his pistol, “for the finishing touch!”

Firing a high-caliber round straight into the bomb set it off, causing a loud explosion that shook the ground around the team. While the shipping container contained most of the explosion, debris from the boxes inside the container had flown out and scattered around the outside along with smoke and dust that had been aggravated into the air, somewhat clouding the area. As the team let out coughs and sputters, The proxy quickly spoke up through Eous.

“Is everyone alright?”

Bambelle, who was almost knocked over by the force of the explosion before being held up by Anby, sneezed a bit. Rubbing the dust out of her eyes, she responded, “I-I’m f-f-fine. Sorry Im…im still kinda…sh-shaken up…”

Nicole let out breath, fixing one of her ponytails, “It’s a good thing that crate was as far away as it was, otherwise me and Billy would’ve been hit by some of the debris.”

“THAT. WAS. AWESOME!!!” The cyborg in question yelled out followed by a whoop of victory as he did a celebratory dance, “Did’ya see that?! That shot was perfect! AND and the epic line before, ‘and now, for the finishing touch.’” He repeated the line, spinning one of his pistols before mock aiming it at the air, then punching his fist up in excitement. Nicole giggled, endeared by his childlike attitude.

“Awwww man I was SO cool back there! But ya know, it’s all in a day’s work for a he-“

Billy was cut off by a loud roar coming from the container the ethereal was supposed to be dead in. As the smoke and dust in the container still covered it, a hand shot out grabbing onto the ground in front. Anby immediately got in front of Bambelle as Billy let out a groan.

“Ah, I jinxed it, didn’t I?”

“You don’t say.” Nicole retorted, “Everyone, let's get outta here!”

Before they could fully turn, the ethereal emerged from the container. While it’s lower half was blow clean off, it still maintained the power saw and seemingly grew some extra limbs from where it’s body was damaged. And while none of the new limbs seemed to help it’s mobility issue, the extra hands grabbing and dragging it did still give it some speed as it started desperately crawling toward the group, digging the sharp teeth of the saw into the ground to give itself some minuscule leverage. The monster growled and roared as it scrambled toward them, clearly not giving up its pursuit even with its lack of legs.

Bambelle stood completely frozen, staring at the ethereal in horror as her limbs once again locked up completely. She barely registered Anby picking her up in her anxious state, arms only managing to lock themselves around Anby before becoming as useless as the rest of her body.

The team ran full speed away from the ethereal, who tried it’s hardest to chase after them using every limb it had to grab on to boxes and the ground to propel itself forward. Thankfully, it wasn’t quite used to the new mode of travel as it quickly lost sight of the group, letting out one last, long roar as everyone made it outside of the warehouse. The commotion had attracted other ethereals, which Billy and Nicole took care of with Anby helping out as much as possible while still holding a shaking and crying Bambelle close to her. Once the last ethereal was defeated and the area was secure, Eous gestured everyone close so it could activate the Carrot to get everyone out of the hollow.

-------------------

Finally outside of the hollow, Billy collapsed on the ground and spread out, face toward the sky as he let out an exhausted sigh. Nicole sat down on her gun-case to catch her breath while Anby set Bambelle down, who immediately curled up and started sobbing.

“I-hic-im so sorry guys!” she wailed out between sobs, face cradled in her arms. “Im such a coward! I should’ve been helping fight but…but…my stupid limbs…” her words trailed off into cries as she continued breaking down. Nicole rubbed the back of her neck, clearly uncomfortable as Billy quickly chimed in,

“Aww come on! You were totally brave! There’s a certain bravery in knowing your weaknesses after all!” He cheerfully chimed, thinking that he was actually helping.

“Billy!” Nicole scolded, before clearing her throat and trying herself, “You were very helpful to the plan, Bambelle! I mean, we did need someone to be bait after all, you were perfect!”

Billy glanced over at her, annoyed, “And that was better than what I said??”

“Bambelle,” Anby piped up, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder, “You were the one who managed to fuse the bombs together and lured the ethereal into place. If you ask me, that’s very brave of you.”

The small goat woman finally looked toward Anby, face still partially concealed, “I…I guess…”

“I know. You helped get me to safety earlier, and you were brave enough to face that monster down till the end. You don’t need to fight to be strong.” Anby finished with a small smile, the sight managing to cheer Bambelle up enough to smile a bit herself.

“Thanks, you guys…” Bambelle sniffles, wiping her tears away. “You’re all so nice to me despite this whole mess and me getting you into a fight with that dangerous ethereal.”

“Ah,” Nicole says with a dismissive wave, “We’ve faced ethereals that could eat that thing for breakfast, it’s just that our job was to get you out safely, not to fight.”

“I mean it.” Bambelle emphasized, shakily managing to get to her feet with Anby's help, “The first chance I get, I’m gonna make it up to you guys, I promise.”

Hearing this, Nicole got up on her feet and immediately jumped at the chance, “Weeeellll, If you’re really serious about it, we do happen to take tips and bonuses for our top-notch services~!”

“AHEM, the commission fee from Belobog is quite generous already, there’s no need to ask for more, Nicole.” The proxy jutted in as Eous jumped up in front of Bambelle to redirect Nicoles attention from haggling the poor woman. Nicole let out a huff as she pouted. “Fine. It’s our pleasure to simply do a job well done or whatever…”

Bambelle hummed thoughtfully, before an idea came to her, “Oh, my paycheck should be coming in soon! I can treat you guys to dinner sometime next week, you can pick the place!”

Billy tried to gesture for Bambelle not to do that, but Nicole piped up, “OH that's so generous of you! I know some great restaurants that I can only go to once in a blue moon, they’re a bit ah…pricey but I won’t leave the full bill to you of course, Billy and Anby can donate some money from their paychecks to it!”

“BOSS come oonnnn!” Billy whined as Anby simply sighed and shook her head.

“What? If it makes you feel better, I’ll take care of the grocery bill, alright? Besides, it’s only fair after you gave our client here quite the scare last time.”

“How was I supposed to know about her condition?! Besides, you still owe me a bowl of ramen since I won our round of games earlier!”

“As we both agreed, I should’ve won the first round! And I bet you cheated last round too!”

“Guys,” Eous bounced up to the pair to try to calm them down, “Maybe we should talk this out after we turn in the commission!”

While the trio were busy arguing, Bambelle went up to Anby, an embarrassed expression prominent on her face as she looked toward the ground. “H-hi.”

“Is something wrong? Are you hurt?” Anby immediately asked, mistaking her behavior for signs of discomfort. Bambelle shook her head.

“No no, Im fine, don’t worry! I just…wanted to apologize…I guess…”

When Anby simply blinked in response, Bambelle continued, “For, y’know, crying into your ear earlier when you were holding me. A-and for holding you so tightly when you were running, I was probably hurting you.”

“Oh.” Anby said simply, holding her chin in thought, “My noise-cancelling headphones were active, so I wasn’t too bothered by your screaming. As for the holding, you aren’t difficult to carry, and besides I was okay with you holding me tightly.”

Bambelles eyes widened as her cheeks got hotter, “Really?”

“Yep. It made it much easier to carry you.” She finished.

Trying not to let her disappointment show through, Bambelle gave Anby a somewhat forced smile, “Great. Im glad I could make things easier on your end!”

Anby studied her for a second, brushing away the thought she just had, “Let’s get you back to Belobog, Im sure they’ll be glad to see you safe.”

Bambelle nodded, “Let’s head out then!”

---------------------

A giant bear therian nervously looked over some records next to a much shorter, red-haired woman. He let out a sigh, rubbing the back of his head at the large estimation in front of them, “This might cut into expenses much more than we planned for the month, President Koleda.”

The woman shook her head dismissively as she crossed her arms in front of her. Her shoulder hurt slightly from how tensed they were, but as always she simply ignored the feeling, “As long as everyone is safe and healthy, we can pay however much it takes. Besides Ben, incidents like these are covered under our employment contract, not to mention the meetings we have every day, our employees are well aware of the risks. Im more worried about the poor civilians caught in the crossfire, and about the safety of-“

“Bamby!!” Ben shouted as he stopped looking over the records and went toward the group who finally made it to the Belobog Heavy Industries temporary headquarters. Bambelle smiled widely, almost forgetting what Ben just called her. At least until Nicole spoke up with a snicker.

“Bamby?” the leader glanced at Bambelle after repeating the nickname, who looked away nervously, quickly regaining her composure to look calmer than she was at finally seeing her closest companion.

“B-Ben! Don’t call me that in front of others!” Bambelle quietly scolded the giant bear, who sulked a bit. Seeing his reaction, a wave of guilt and relief immediately crashed over her as she realized how much she missed him over the past few hours of this nightmare, and she swept her embarrassment aside to wrap her arms as much as possible around Ben in a big hug, who reciprocated immediately. “Who am I kidding, I missed you so much Ben!” She exclaimed, on the verge of tears again already.

Koleda cleared her throat, previously tensed shoulders now visibly relaxing at the sight of Bambelle safe and sound in the arms of Ben. “Glad to see that your back, Bamby- er, Bambelle.” She turned toward the group which now included Belle instead of Eous, Wise never really like being in the spotlight.

“And as for you guys,” Koleda continued with a grateful smile, “We managed to get the rest of the civilians out of the hollow safe and sound thanks to you! The payment will be wired to you as soon as we sort out the damages, expect it around two days from now.”

Belle cheerfully clapped her hands together, “As always, it was a pleasure working with you guys, thank you so much for trusting us with this mission, Koleda.”

Koleda nodded and went toward Ben and Bambelle, who were still close to each other as Ben bombarded her with questions about her wellbeing. Bambelle scolded him once again, gesturing toward the group who were about to leave and turning toward them to give them a wave.

“Thank you guys so much, for everything!” She called toward them, a wide, bright smile on her face as Ben also bowed and waved to them. The group gave their own goodbyes as they turned and went toward the van to leave.

As they were walking, Billy, who had his hands clasped behind his head, let out a yawn, “Man, all that saving really gets a guy tired. And hungry…”

“I agree, I say we get burgers for dinner tonight.” Anby said, looking toward Nicole with a slight spark of hope in her eye. Nicole rolled her eyes.

“I guess we did do a great job back there…fine, my treat I suppose.” She relented. Anby and Billy let out exclaims as Belle once again pulled out her winning smile.

“Hopefully that includes your favorite proxies as well?” She said giving the leader a puppy dog expression.

“Ugh don’t look at me like that! Yes, yes of course that includes you two. If only we could’ve invited Bambelle, Im sure she would’ve loved having the chance to talk to Anby some more~” her tone took on a teasing lilt toward the end of her sentence as she glanced over to Anby, who looked slightly confused. “What do you mean?”

Nicole scoffed at how dense her friend was, she really didn’t catch on?

“Come on, you saw how excited she was talking to you back there! She was smiling and everything, she has a crush on you, dummy!”

Anby simply shook her head, “She was in the middle of a high stress situation, her nerves were most likely acting up.”

“Yeah! Plus,” Billy chimed in, unable to read the conversation, “If I were in the presence of someone who saved my life, I’d be pretty excited too, y’know.”

Nicole, frustrated, crossed her arms and pouted at the both of them teaming up against her, “Whatever, it’ll smack you in the face sooner or later.” With that, she suddenly gained newfound speed and made it to the van quickly, with Belle and Billy rushing to catch up. Anby strayed behind a bit, thinking on Nicoles words in addition to her interactions with Bambelle. She was pretty excited. And the way she always smiled at Anby…

Anby cleared the thoughts from her head. Nicole was most likely just messing with her. Brushing the thoughts aside once again, she caught up to the van.

End! ^.^