Slowly (A Brawl Stars Fanfic)

Lady Of Mystery

Colt didn't respond but instead just kept looking at Shelly, kind of like Rico looked at Piper. Shelly ducked her head and stepped away without a word, retreating into the crowd. She felt so conflicted, her emotions tearing her apart.

She was aware now that she actually did have deeper feelings for Colt, but had absolutely no idea what to do about it. She kind of just hoped he'd back off, but deep in her mind she knew she'd be devastated if he did so.

Arghh why did this even have to happen in the first place? Shelly plastered a venomous glare on her face to hide the smile creeping forth. She was slightly excited, but over all just confused.

Standing behind the hoard of brawlers, Shelly stood still and thought and considered things she never had before, up until Bibi approached, a pained look on her face.

"I've never died before," She said the moment she was in earshot, "It's not very pleasant."

"Agreed. Who killed you?" Shelly jumped on the conversation at once, since it was something else to think about.

"It was that Carl fellow. His pick got me deep in the leg." Bibi crossed her arms, gritting her teeth.

"Wait, but wasn't he Bull's teammate?"

"Yeah, but I guess he didn't get the word or doesn't like teaming."

Shelly didn't reply, as through her mind was running memories upon memories upon memories of her dying terrible ways by Carl, as well as every other brawler. Perhaps the worst way so far was that instance long ago when Shelly suffered a direct hit from Mike's bomb barrel and actually survived. Honestly, death is merciful to anyone that happens too. Of course, the injuries killed her twenty minutes later, but it was still a miserable twenty minutes.

"There are worse ways to go." Shelly said a minute later.

"Like what?"

"Well, you could always get half-blown to smithereens by a couple ten pounds of dynamite. That's always fun."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

The women stood silent for at least five minutes, having their own thoughts, before Piper came around.

"'Sup." Bibi said to her.

"Nothing really. I just wanted to talk about Rico." Piper replied in Shelly's direction. Bibi took the hint and stepped back.

"What about him?" Shelly found herself looking over her shoulder for her own admirer, but he had relocated.

"He will not stop pestering me. So annoying." The proper lady said sharply, but Shelly noticed her pale cheeks taking on a pink shade.

Shelly smiled to the side of her mouth. "You like it, so don't come complaining."

Piper froze, tilting her chin up. "No, I refuse!" And then she was gone, slinking away.

"Well, alright then." Shelly shrugged.

Bibi came back over. "What was that about?"

"Do you ship Rico and Piper?" Shelly asked instead of replying, startling Bibi.

"'Scuse me?"

"They're just so cute together!"

Bibi clamped her mouth shut, not sure how to respond or what was going on.

Shelly didn't blame her. She had asked to voice her thoughts, not expecting an answer.

~

Shelly stuck around to congratulate the winners after the Showdown. Tara and Mortis stepped forward from the respawn platform, receiving cheers and praise.

"Good job, guys!" Shelly called to them, though her voice was lost amid the others. She didn't like the pair much anyway, so it didn't matter to her whether they heard or not.

Apparently, Tara did, despite everyone else's voices. She stepped off the platform slowly and went through the crowd, heading toward Shelly. Shelly took small steps back, figuring this would be the time Tara finally killed her outside matches as she promised to do.

Instead, as Tara reached her, the mysterious woman held out her arm to Shelly.

"Uh, what?" Shelly's first thought was that she was trying to shake hands, but her hand was in a fist.

Tara glanced over her shoulder to make sure no one was watching, and she carefully removed the golden bangle from around her wrist.

Shelly's eyes widened in shock.

On Tara's wrist was a rash, a red, angry, bumpy rash. What was so surprising about this was that the rash seemed to have been there for a while, growing, but Tara had just respawned. As brawlers respawned healthy and pristine, this was very strange.

"That's not possible." Shelly looked at Tara closely. Tara's one visible eye was hooded and she looked dejected. "I know." She said quietly.

Shelly's brain filled with theories and possibilities, determined to get on top of this. But before she got deep into that, she asked, "What disease is that?"

"Not sure."

"It looks bad."

"Nothing I can do."

"You can see Pam or Poco..." Shelly trailed off, considering one theory. "Wait, does their power even work on you?"

Tara hesitated, then said simply, "No."

"What? That's not even- what?" That is literally impossible. Something's not right. Unless... Shelly pressed the tips of her fingers together, took a deep breath, and asked in a low voice, "Are you even a brawler, Tara?"

Tara took a long while to reply, pushing the bangle back over the rash and making small, unnecessary adjustments. Finally, she said tentatively, "I honestly do not know."

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sorry for short chapter, it just seemed like best place to leave off