ZZZ: Dawn of The Black Sun

Koleda stood in the middle of the construction site, tapping her foot anxiously. The Phaethon and the Cunning Hares will be here soon and she wants nothing more but to put her best foot forward. She already fucked up big time by blocking her, she must not do that again.

Soon, the gate opened and the Cunning Hares stepped in with Ben leading them. "Come on in Miss Proxy," he said, gesturing at Belle to step into the construction site. "This is, as you know, Koleda our President,"

The Proxy grinned and waved her hand cheerfully. "Hi Koleda!"

Koleda couldn't help but smile. "Good morning Proxy," she glanced at the four people behind her. "And the Cunning Hares,"

Nicole smirked and put a hand on her hips. "Well, well, well, look who came crawling back..." she glanced at her nails, smug grin never leaving her face. "Guess our service is worth the money after all~"

Somehow, that really did not offend Koleda in the slightest. If anything, she's relieved that the Cunning Hares thinks this way, it made her feel just a bit less guilty. "Heh, I admit, you guys actually are second to none when it comes to job like this," she folded her arms. "Sorry for that,"

Belle giggled and waved her hand. "Come on guys, it's okay~ These are just business stuff," she walked between the two. "Besides, it's only natural for someone to try out other options before sticking on one, right?"

Ahh, if only Belle could stop defending her, Koleda sighed. There's really no other reason for her to block them aside from 'our mechanic thinks you're sus'. Which, now that she thinks about it, is extremely silly. How did Grace even come up with that logic?

"Anyway," Koleda waved her hand. "Back to the main commission... Our mission is to find a lost Industrial Grade Pile Driver," she explained. "This fellow is quite adept at navigating the Hollow and is potentially far deeper in than the other machines, I'll need your help to find it."

Belle nodded. "Got it," she stepped forward. "Don't worry, for this commission, I'm going to personally lead the way,"

Koleda raised an eyebrow. "You're not going to use your Bangboo?"

"Nope!" Belle grinned. "I'm testing out a new technology, don't worry about it," she jabbed her thumb at Nicole and the rest. "Don't worry, Nicole and the rest will keep me safe along the way and I have ways to combat ether corruption," she explained.

"I see..." Koleda nodded. "Moving on, there were actually three machines that went missing. Our mechanic, Grace, already... recovered two of the heavy machinery."

Belle nodded. "Is there any correlation between these three disappearances?" she asked. "Perhaps we can use this heavy machine to find the location of the Pile Driver."

"In theory, yes, but unfortunately," Koleda sighed a little. "Grace is currently hospitalized and we don't really have the expertise to operate these heavy machines the same way she does," she turned around and gestured at them to follow her. "Come, let me show you..."

Koleda led the two towards a large clearing where 2 gigantic heavy machine is waiting. Both machines have this smiley face display. "Miss President!" one of the machines greeted them, robotic voice resembling that of a teenage girl. "You're back!"

"Right, ahem, thanks for waiting for me uhh..." Koleda paused, already forgetting the machine's name. "Anyway, these are the proxies who will help us find the last missing machine and the Original Prototype," she stepped forward. "I will need both of your help to find these machines."

"A tough bro like me has better things to do than to look for missing rust bucket!!!" the grappling machine exclaimed. "Just because you're the president doesn't mean you can tell me what to do! You have to prove yourself, you little pipsqueak!" the heavy construction machine waved around its grapple. "I challenge you to a duel for honor!!!"

Both Nicole and Belle stifled a laughter while Koleda just gritted her teeth, visible tick mark on her head. "You're so lucky it cost us 870.000 dennies to build you..." she gripped her hammer and before taking a deep breath. She then turned back to Nicole and Belle, a tired look on her face. "As you can see, Grace put too much 'heart' into these machines and now they're..."

"They're being too human," Belle took a step forward and looked at the machine before her. "Let's see..." she circled around the machine with a soft smile on her face. "What's your name?" she asked it.

Koleda watched as the proxy began circling the machine, as if she's a predator circling her prey. "It's Hans," the heavy machine replied, playing it cool. It twisted its display around, following Belle's movement. "And you are?"

"It's Belle, nice to meet you," Belle's voice was warm and playful. "By the way, you said you have better things to do with your time... what do you like to do in your spare time? I'm kinda curious you see?" she asked.

The machine's display looks confused for a split second. "Uhh, well, I love to lift! Exercise and build my mechanical joints so that they work perfectly!!!"

"Really? You must be the toughest machines out there!" Belle smiled sheepishly. "Meanwhile I could barely pick up a box of tapes by myself, ahaha~"

"Well, it's not too late, even for a human like you!" the machine exclaimed. "With enough practice, you too can be as strong as I am!!!"

Belle tilted her head. "Hmm... is that so? But I do wonder, is it worth it to be strong and powerful?"

"Of course! I can take down anything I want! Nothing can defeat me! No bears, no ethereals, or stupid president!"

'Hey!' Koleda shouted from the background.

"Ehehe~ That sounds amazing!" Belle paused for a second and stopped, a quizzical look on her face. "By the way, can I see you in action? I want to see you fighting off ethereals and put those mechanical arms to use..." her voice lowered ever so slightly. "I think it would be really, really cool..."

The machine shifted ever so slightly. "Well, if you insist,"

"Really! Oh, that's amazing!!!" Belle did a little twirl. "You truly are the greatest machine I've ever set my eyes upon!!!" she clasped her hand together. "So you'll help us then? For me? Pretty please~"

"Ha! Since you're the one asking me so nicely, I suppose I can!!!" the machine nodded. "Lead the way!"

Belle gave the machine a thumb up. "Great!!!" she walked closer to the machine. "So you don't mind if I plug this in?" she showed Hans a small flash drive. "Oh, don't worry, I'm sure this would do no harm to you! A real bro like you shouldn't be worried about a little data extraction program."

"Ha! True that! A real bro will nenenenevevvvvvveveerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" the machine glitched out the moment Belle plugged in the flash drive. It froze, jerked a little bit, before shutting down. Koleda flinched at the sight of it, something tells her it does not feel pleasant. If these machines can feel anyway.

Belle took out her phone. "What do you get fairy?"

"Analyzing operation log," a woman's voice came from her phone. "Affirmative, this machine has been receiving updates and signal marked as 'BLG_001'. The origin of this signal is unknown and most of the signal is already damaged. I can use what's left of this signal to track down the general location of the Pile Driver with 350 meters radius accuracy,"

"Go ahead fairy," Belle replied.

"What should I do with... the 'bro'?" Fairy asked. "I can perform a factory reset on his system to return him into his more obedient, functional, and working state."

Belle turned to Koleda. "What do you say?"

Koleda waved her hand. "Eh, just leave the bro be, Anton kinda likes him," she replied.

"You heard her," Belle plugged off the flash drive.

"-er back down from a challenge!!" the machine sprang back to life.

Belle gave the machine a few playful pats, much to its confusion, before walking back to Koleda. "I have the data I need, should we start looking for the Pile Driver then?"