FNB: 1874

The year was 1874. It was a hot summer day in Northfield, Minnesota.

Nichole flitted a wisp of blond hair from her eyes. The heat was bad in the bank, and she fanned herself with a crisp stack of $50's to stay cool. It was a slow day. Too slow. The door, which hadn't moved in hour, swung open, and with a flash of daylight, four men swaggered in. They said nothing.

Vince 'The Vault', looked up from his counting to see the silhouettes of the men clomp in on their leather boots, spurs clicking on the wooden floor. The door slammed, catching the attention of the rest of the employees. As their eyes adjusted, they could see that these men were no normal customers. Along with their weathered, leather chaps and sunshine faded button up shirts, they each bore two six shooters, and a bandanna across their faces, covering everything but their eyes. This was a hold up.

Diana "shotgun" Shaffer, was the first to recognize the threat, and with the speed that garnered her namesake, she whipped around grabbing the sawed-off pump action on a hidden hook below the coin trays and spun to face the intruders.

The act was valiant, but these were no normal intruders, and as she spun, the man in front flicked up his gun from the holster in the blink of an eye and cracked of a shot. As Diana spun, the lead bullet slammed the gun out of her hand, send it spinning to the back of the bank, careening across the floor.

"Damn" said Vince.

"OK, now listen here!" Said the masked man with the smoking pistol. "We want your money, and we want it NOW." The employees stood frozen, in their tracks. John O'Garvey, the Irish account executive, looked across the room at his very own six shooter, rested helplessly on the coat rack. Don't bring your guns to town!, his mother had always told him. Today he was glad he brought them to town, but wished, gal darn it, that he had carried them the extra ten feet to his desk.

"Now we know full well you have all the money in these here parts" Continued the man in the front, keeping his gun at held up. "So lets get it in some sacks, and lets get it out of here, before we have to use these shooters here for real." The men around him slowly pulled out their own weapons and started for the teller line. The other man stood facing the rest of the bank.

As the men approached the teller line, they threw some burlap sacks over the counter and told them to fill 'em up. Steph, the teller in line who caught one of them, used the distraction to reach into her purse to pull out a small dagger, jeweled at it's crest, and deadly at it's point. It had saved her life from a violent vagrant before, and she hoped it would do the same again. She leaned forward towards the nearest bandit and spoke in a soft voice while batting her eyes. "Why, such a big man such as yourself wouldn't need any money would he?"

The man stood unmoving, gun still raised. And then without provocation let out a shot. Steph's plumed hat flipped off of her head.

"I 'pologize for the rudeness ma'am, but we ain't here for fraternization, and I'd mightly 'preciate it if you'd place the dagger on the table." Infuriated, and scarlet in the cheeks, she placed the dagger down, cursing to herself about her favorite hat.

As they filled up the bags, the moment arrived that Becky had been waiting for the whole time. Becky, the vice president, had just recently installed a trap door security system due to the persistent request of Rick 'The Bandit Baffler' Moe. So as one of the masked men grabbed a full satchel of cash from Nichole, she pulled the rope above her desk. And WHOOOMM, the man fell through the floor with a shout "DAGUMMIT!"

The distraction was all Nichole needed, and she reached into her purse for her little derringer, polished sterling with an ivory hilt and a pink feather on the butt for effect. It also smelled of jasmine.

O'Garvey, winking at Becky, dove across the deck and flew for his own guns, grabbing the belt from the hook and falling behind the welcome desk. Sarah was already under there.

"Are they gone yet?" She whispered.
"No!" O'Garvey said exasperatedly.
"The tall one is kind of cute," she thought out loud. John rolled his eyes and made a note to ask for more male employees. A shot cracked through the wood between their heads, and a shaft of dusty light cut through their hiding place.

Vince, seeing the melee break out, reached for his own sidearm. Reaching down, he began to pull up a pistol, which a muzzle so large, no one had seen the likes of it. In fact, it was so large, that he couldn't quite pull it out. And he got stuck, shooting a hole through his pants and into the wooden floor.

"I'm shot!" cried Liz, a customer service agent.
"No, you are not, now SHUSH!" said Kristina, who was making her way over to Sarah's desk to discuss some important business about the tall bugler with those really blue eyes.

The lead bandit saw The Vault struggling, and ran over to apprehend him, when John came blasting out from behind the reception desk with twin shooters adorned in clover emeralds. If it were anyone else, the fight would have been over, but unbenownst to them, this was the one and only Jesse James, and he wrapped up Vince with a headlock with a pistol to his head, bullets whizzing by and shouted.

"Drop it. Or I drop him!"

O'Garvey tentatively layed down the guns, he had no choice. "You too sweetheart", Jesse said to Nichole, who gave him a dirty look and dropped the gun to the floor.

"OK the money. NOW!" His henchmen collected themselves and grabbed the sacks from the floor and made their way to the door as Jesse followed, holding Vince hostage, walking backwards.

Just as they reached for the doorknob, it swung open knocking two of them down. Rick "Big Bear" Estenson, cleared a path, and right behind him through the bright sunshine a silhouette came marching in. Jesse Jame's eyes widened in fear.

"I thought you didn't work here anymore!" He said, stammering backwards. "I thought you left a while back!" Vince looked up at him and karate-shopped the gun out of his hand, and did a back flip behind the counter.

"I did leave, but I'm back to finish up some paperwork" said Theresa, as she sauntered in with a rifle held high, pointing at Jesse's chest. "Now git! Before you ain't got no legs to get with!" The rifle clanked with its doileys and multi-colored hoop rings hanging aimlessly on it.

"Yes ma'am" Jesse said in a fearful tone.
"And don't let me see you in this parts ever again, ya hear?"
"Yes ma'am". Jesse turned and ran, henchmen trailing south as far as they could. They founded the town of Faribault some years later.

The employees looked around in satisfaction. Another robbery averted. No one hurt, save for Steph's favorite hat. Same 'ol slow Wednesday at the bank.

Everyone settled down, and went about their business.

"Help?" sounded a voice far down at the bottom of trap door pit.