On a bright sunny day like this, it wasn't right for a kid like K.O. to have to spend all of his time working away at a convenience store. Of course, K.O. would've been perfectly content with doing so, as he absolutely loves hanging out with his friends and helping people get what they need. However, Mr. Gar had decided to give everyone the day off and close the Bodega for the day, meaning that K.O. could stay home and do whatever he liked. It was especially nice because it was a Friday! So, he decided to invite one of his closest friends over to his house to enjoy their company- Dendy!

During their time together at his house, K.O. and Dendy did a large assortment of things they absolutely loved to do- playing video games, watching television programs (anything from the news to cartoons), and even simply enjoying some food and drink. As he enjoyed all of this with her, he began thinking about how lucky it was that he met her, the thought of it making him blush a bit.

Wanting to explain this to Dendy as he grabbed both of them a soda from the fridge, he remarked casually, "Geez, how lucky is it that us two random kids went and lived around the same place, went to the same school, and met each other when we did?"

"I'm not sure what luck has to do with it, but I would say it is nice," Dendy replied without a second thought, not turning away from the TV, where a news story about an incredible scientific breakthrough was being reported.

He stopped in his tracks upon hearing that, and as he began to slowly walk over to her, he asked with confusion, "What do you mean by that? Am I mixing my words up again?"

"Oh, do not worry so much about it K.O., it's a common mistake- us meeting each other can not be attributed to luck as you state it, but to pure coincidence. There are an infinite amount of possible ways we could and couldn't have met, and this is just one of the universes where we do."

His mouth was agape as he sat next to her, dropping the soda into her lap and making her jump from the sudden cold object touching her like that. Two minutes ago they were casually talking about how neat lightbulbs were, and now she was saying things about other universes! He tried to think about anything else, but he couldn't help but think of as many questions about this as there were universes.

Glancing over at K.O., who was shaking as he tried to not let his curiosity get the better of him, Dendy snidely commented, "I see you must be interested in these other universes."

This made him blush a bit, realizing he was literally gripping onto his shorts' sleeves, and he chuckled a bit with embarrassment about how worked up he got over something relatively minor. He then thought about it and realized it wasn't all that minor- it's universes for crying out loud!

"Yeah, it might seem silly, but it just sounds so unbelievable that there are other universes out there- I can't imagine a world where we haven't met!" K.O. exclaimed, looking at Dendy with a smile.

Now, it was her turn to blush a bit, although she did it far less than K.O.. Despite the feelings she felt upon hearing that, she still had a concise response to his mostly rhetorical statement.

"Well, K.O., you won't need to simply imagine," she explained as she began to remove her backpack, unzip it and fiddle with some buttons, "as I have been working on a device that can help with doing so without ever needing to get up from this couch."

K.O. smiled at the prospect of simultaneously viewing other universes and still being lazy, and his smile turned into an expression of surprise and disbelief when her button-pushing formed a large helmet with wires connecting it to the rest of the backpack, with headphones and goggles hooked up on the inside, and a dial and a fingerprint scanner on the back with a small screen above it.

With a gasp almost loud enough to wake his exhausted mother from her sleep (as she had also gotten a day off), he asked, "How does this amazing thing work?"

"It is simple- all you have to do is use the dial to put in what parallel universe you would like to see after scanning your fingerprint so it picks them specifically for you, then place the helmet on your head to begin observing," She explained with a proud smile.

"Oh my gosh, I have no idea what to pick, this is so much pressure- c-can you pick for me?" K.O. asked as if he was asking for help on a test.

With a calm expression, but a small blush like before that show she felt happy about him asking for her help, Dendy replied, "Of course I can! I have already used this, and I have discovered that there's a pair of universes in which my family has traded places with a stength-centric family in a strange location known as Or-e-gon, U.S.A."

He gasped once again and asked, "What's she like?"

"I must admit, K.O., I have not thoroughly watched through these yet- as I said, only you can watch the universe with you in it, and I wanted to wait until I could show you my first-hand reactions before viewing the one in which I am in her place," She sheepishly explained.

With a light blush and a cheery smile, he gushed, "Wow that's pretty nice of you to do! I-If you don't mind, could I try it out first and see what it's like when I meet this person?"

Simply nodding in response, she turned the dial until it was in the right position (as she could tell from seeing the right symbols on the screen, a bag of ice and the letters OKKO), then she handed the helmet to him. "I hope it isn't disappointing."

"Heh, nothing you do could disappoint me Dendy," He commented, and before things could get awkward because of that compliment, he plopped the helmet on and prepared to enter this alternate universe. Soon, everything in his actual reality faded away...

August 3, 201X

4:10 PM

It was another great day at school for K.O.! Sure, nothing out of the ordinary happened, the lunch wasn't greater than it usually was, and most of the other kids showed the same lack of enthusiasm to learn they typically did, but that didn't prevent him from being happy about how the day went! He had been dropped off from school half an hour ago, and was now almost at Lakewood Plaza Turbo after a whole week of working there! He had enough enthusiasm about all of that to sing about it, so he did!

As he sang a cute improvisational song about his current actions to himself, he did not realize that someone was listening to him. Well, of course his singing was just loud enough for people from nearby stores of Lakewood Plaza Turbo to hear, but more specifically, someone was listening to his song without their presence being made aware to K.O.. With how oblivious he was at times to his surroundings, that person could easily remain unknown to K.O. for as long as they wanted… but that wouldn't be as fun as introducing themselves, which they planned to do when they had an opening.

Luckily they soon did as K.O.'s song finished with his exclamation: "Lakewood Plaza Turbo!"

"Nice song dude, although I'd work on your lyrical skills," A female voice suddenly commented in a very relaxed tone.

With a gasp, K.O. turned around a full 180 degrees, abruptly putting his fists up to defend himself as if he expected those to be the words of someone wanting to sneak up on him and attack. Once he opened his eyes, though, he realized that he was a bit hasty.

The person he saw in front of him was a girl around twice his height with thick, gorgeous hair going all the way down just past her hips, a cute plaid green shirt with a white tanktop barely able to be seen underneath, a lumberjack hat on her head, some blue earrings, a pair of blue jeans and a pair of muddy rain boots, along with some delightful freckles and some pretty green eyes. Of course, those descriptive words came from K.O.'s mind upon seeing her.

"U-um, h-hey, how are you?" He asked her with a light blush, not moving at all.

With a chuckle, she replied, "Pretty good, although you're intimidating me quite a bit with those fists- how about shakin' my hand instead?"

He realized he was still clenching his fists, and he snickered awkwardly and unclenched one of them and held them out for a handshake. He was then surprised by how strong this girl's grip was as she shook.

"S-so, uh, what's your name? And uh… why are you following me?" He asked nervously as she kept shaking.

She let go of his hand and casually answered both questions, leaning against a wall behind her while holding her axe: "Oh, my name's Wendy, and I'm not technically following you… well yeah, I pretty much am, but my house is in the same direction you're heading, and I recognised you from school."

"Ah, okay, my name is- wait, you go to my school?!" He asked in immense surprise, having not remembered seeing her during class.

"Well duh- it's my first day there, and it's a K-12 kind of school- we're not anywhere near the same grade I'm guessing, but your hair is impossible to not notice. Plus, I could recognise your singing voice distinctly from the hallways," Wendy teased gently before tucking the handle of her axe into her front pocket and taking out her phone to see if she received any notifications.

He chuckled a little, not minding her teases, before realizing he had not properly introduced himself yet. "M-My name is K.O., by the way! If you need anyone to show you around Lakewood Plaza, I can help you for sure!"

"Hmm, I might need to call my parents and ask them if- hah, just kidding, let's do it," Wendy laughed, standing up straight with the intent of following K.O. on this tour.

This was quite exciting for the young hero-in-training- already, he was making a new friend who wanted to get his help learning the ins and outs of Lakewood! Beaming quite enthusiastically, he turned around and began heading to Lakewood Plaza.

"Where do you want to go first? There's an Internet Cafe, a barbershop, the Bodega where I work-"

Wendy interrupted him with an bemused question: "Wait, you have a job? Aren't you in elementary school?"

"W-well, technically yes, but that doesn't mean I can't do just as good of a job as everyone else! Plus, it's easy once you get the hang of it, for the most part," K.O. answered, embarrassed by her questioning of his job but still showing how proud he was to have it.

"Well, how about you take me to your job and prove yourself to me?" The red-headed girl asked him with a wink and a smile.

In order to keep her from seeing how much redder his face got because of that wink, he grabbed her hand, turned and began to quickly lead her to the Bodega.

She took it all in stride, not really reading into his odd behavior too deep, although she found it a bit amusing how eager K.O. was to prove himself. After all, he only just met her, and it wasn't like she was going to judge him that harshly.

Soon, the two of them entered the Bodega, with Wendy stopping abruptly at the door while K.O. ran to find a customer to help out to show his prowess in retail. Upon realizing she was no longer following, he skidded to a stop and turned around.

"Hey, are you gonna- wait, I gotta introduce you to my co-workers!" He suddenly realized, although Wendy had already taken notice of the purple ponytailed girl at the counter.

With a casual point, Enid greeted, "I'm Enid, and over there napping near the boxes is Rad."

After casually glancing and seeing Rad doing as she was told he was, Wendy smirked and told Enid, "I'm Wendy, Wendy Corduroy, I just moved here so this guy's showing me around."

"Yeah, and I'm gonna show you what a great employee I am!" He exclaimed before running down the aisles to find a customer to assist while Wendy remained leaning against Enid's counter to watch from afar.

K.O. usually was pretty excited to help people, but this time he was even moreso, because he had a brand new friend to try and impress! It helped that this person he had met already seemed pretty nice, and… well, just pretty. He tried to take his focus off of those kinds of feelings, although his adorable blush could not be controlled. Soon, he approached someone who looked like they were needing help- Joff the Shaolin Monk.

"Hey Joff, anything you're looking for I can help you with?" He asked, looking over at Wendy with a thumbs up.

Wendy kept herself from snickering at this, beginning to find K.O. quite endearing with how positive and helpful he acted.

"Oh yes K.O., I am in need of a box of granola bars that will help me with retaining energy," Joff replied in a calm manner.

Pumping his fists excitedly, he immediately ran past Joff at incredible speeds to obtain the granola bars. In just two seconds, he came back carrying a box of granola bars the size of his head which he held up to Joff.

With a smile, Joff told K.O., "Thank you, I'm glad to have found this."

Then, Joff went to the counter, where Enid checked the box out for him, and he went on his merry way. Once that was done, K.O. ran over to Wendy to see what she thought.

"Were you impressed by my employee skills?" He asked with hope in his eyes.

Wendy decided to be completely honest with him: "Yeah, you did great- like, if I had that much spirit I would've already gotten a job."

"W-well, you could get a job here at the Bodega- you get to meet lots of new people and help them, you have a fun place to hang all day, and Mr. Gar doesn't even care if we lounge around a bit!" The spiky-haired kid offered to her with as much energy as he worked.

Wendy seemed like she was beginning to be intrigued, but since she wanted to make sure she was fully prepared, she casually asked, "Are there any risks I should know about?"

Before anyone could respond, they heard the sound of people outside screaming and panicking, causing them all to head to the window to see what was going on. When they did, half of them groaned in annoyance, while K.O. began to get giddy, while Wendy looked petrified at what she was seeing; clouds were swirling around as a large purple portal opened up in the sky, emitting an ominous glow upon all of the Plaza, and soon, a large box fell from that portal to the ground with a label reading BM. While Wendy Corduroy was having a lot of trouble processing this, K.O. was simply excited to show her what he really loved.

_

"K.O.? Are you okay? You're shaking and getting a bit red," Dendy commented, tapping on his shoulder.

Soon he removed the helmet from his head and gasped in shock from how realistic this was before replying, "U-um... I'm excited to keep watching, but... I should probably give you your turn now."