Authors Note: Hey all, so this is my first time trying to write an OK:KO fic, so I hope it is okay. Let me know what you think of it, this is Fallen Pens, dropping out.
Lakewood Plaza Turbo, where many heroes came through often when stocking up for their adventures, was the home to Gar's Bodega, one of the stores that carried the most variable supplies. But today seemed to be an odd day for the small shopping center. The sky was a little cloudy but otherwise sunny, and not a lot of the usual customers were around today.
"Well, that's that," yawned an older girl in a blue crop top and black pants, her purple hair being done up behind her head looking rather messy.
"Weird… even the attack today felt slow…" the young boy beside her spoke, wearing a blue vest with a white undershirt and a red hairband wrapped around his dome, his head full of brush-like hair.
The two were Enid, a well-versed ninja at Level 3, and K.O., a young aspiring hero that had barely reached Level 1 recently. They stood outside of the bodega, surrounded by robot scraps from the most recent attack by Lord Boxman. This time it had been a limited-edition battleship Darrell.
"Today's been so slow that it kinda makes me want to help customers for once…" Enid agreed with her close friend. The register worker normally avoided customer interaction if she could. It depended on how annoying the customer themselves could be.
"But Enid, there's none of those either! Maybe today is just a slow day?" K.O. said. One of his two close friends did not know what to say to that, she didn't know if she was relieved to be able to take it easy at work or annoyed at the overwhelming boredom that was setting in. Even their boss, Mister Gar, had been acting more sluggish than usual.
"Guess so…" the purple haired ninja shrugged it off, "I'm sure it'll go by instantly after a nap."
"A slow day is better than no day," the young boy smiled, using one of the many positive mottos his mother had taught him. Enid gained a warm smile. She reached a hand down and rubbed K.O.'s head, messing his hair up slightly.
"If they start tracking cuteness as a POW card stat, K.O., you'd be Level 100," Enid joked. The young boy gained a bright smile from ear to ear from imagining that.
"You serious?!" The POW card collector asked. She laughed, he always brightened the teenager's mood. It was simply hard to be down when K.O. was around.
"Heh, maybe one day… Well, I'll let you handle the cleanup. Nothing left of Darrell this time but tiny scrap," Enid spoke before heading inside, thinking it would be no trouble for the young aspiring hero.
"I'm on it, Enid!" K.O. grinned, before bumping fists with his co-worker. She headed off back inside the Bodega to let him clean up. If he needed help, he knew to come get her or their other friend who was the stock boy for the store.
"It is kinda creepy that things are so slow… and I don't think there've been any time controlling villains or heroes around lately," K.O. mused to himself. Talking to the empty air was a bad habit that grew on him more and more with each passing day. Something about it was alleviating for his anger, he had to be in check of it too, or something terrible would happen to him and those around him.
"But there's just no one that needs help today…" K.O. added to his train of thoughts, beginning to sweep up the many bits and pieces that belonged to the destroyed Darell. Besides his mother, there was nothing he loved more than helping people the most in life, but since there was nobody to help today, he was losing steam gradually, his morale being widdled away over time too.
"Ow! Careful where you poke that!" A higher-toned voice chimed up. K.O. raised an eyebrow, looking around.
"Darell? Did Boxman send another one of you to fight!?" the young boy got on his guard, dropping the broom and dustpan. Both hit the ground with loud clanking noises.
"Yeow! I said watch it!" K.O. looked behind himself. On the ground laid the red one-eyed robot's head, dented, battered and bruised, or at least the brain in the green dome atop his head looked bruised.
"Oh… Uh, sorry," the young hero apologized, lowering his guard fast when realizing it was just the same enemy that they had fought moments ago. K.O. picked up Darrell's head before resting it on top of the rest of his remaining scrap from his injured robo-body in the trash can.
"If it makes you feel better, your new limited-edition form was neat! …Until, y'know… you blew yourself up," K.O. felt his voice trail off toward the end. The battleship Darrel did not get to do much in the fight. He and Enid had jammed Boxman's minion's cannons with full trash bags that they had been trying to throw out when the fight began, causing his self-destruction.
"Thanks for not using my head as a kick the can toy again…" Darell only could reply. Whenever a battle ended between the heroes and villains, things tended to become oddly casual afterwards.
"Sooooo… Do you want me to send you back to Boxman or the dumpster?" K.O. coughed to break the silence. It was standard policy to send the robots' broken parts back to their rightful owner, though it was more so done to add insult to injury by reminding their enemies that they had lost.
"Dumpster please… Dad's gonna throw my head in a compactor again anyway," Darell sighed, figuring he could at least enjoy the day and night until the garbage truck came tomorrow. The robot boy had a seemingly endless supply of bodies he could always be booted into after his last one was destroyed. The same went for the rest of Lord Boxman's creations that he dubbed as children.
K.O. spent the next ten minutes cleaning up the outside of the bodega of all the robot parts. He was wheeling the last of them in a metal bin to the back of the store, to pour them into the dumpster.
"Aaaaand that's everything!" K.O. smiled, tossing the garbage can to the side. The dumpster was empty aside from the robot parts filling it. Darell's head rested in the middle, looking lost in his own mind
"Say, Darell… since you're going to be there a while, can I ask you something?" K.O. requested.
"Well… You were nice enough to let me spend today in the dumpster, so I guess I can answer," Darell replied. Boxman's son tended to fall into a slight sadness when imagining his creator's disappointment or anger with him.
"Has today felt slow to you? It feels like the world turned off and we're the only part of it still on," K.O. did his best to explain his question. The robot took a moment to process it.
"Actually, it's been so slow that dad's even fixed some of our weak points," Darell nodded to the best of his disembodied head's ability. Lord Boxman had told his robot children it would take months to even get the blue prints done for the upgrades, but today had been just that slow and uneventful that he focused his time on them, so much so that they had been done in nearly a day.
"Really? Like what?" K.O. innocently asked. The robot gave an annoyed glare.
"Nice try Lakewood loser, but I'm not THAT dumb to expose my upgrades," Darell retorted. The brush haired boy did not mean for his question to come off that way, but he decided to let the topic go. He suddenly heard a faint noise catch his ears attention.
"Hey, do you hear that?" K.O. asked, swearing he was hearing a fast whoosh.
"Yeah… it's the kind of sound someone makes when they're falling from orbit," Darell knew that noise all too well from the hundred or so times he had been knocked sky high. The young boy looked up at where he thought the noise was coming from.
"It's something shiny. Maybe a bird dropped a spoon or something?" K.O. commented. He watched as the shimmering object fell, but he had no reaction time when it soon landed square on his head with a loud clunk.
"Ow! What the-?!" K.O. held his head in pain, barely opening one eye to see it. A strange shaped hourglass had bounded off his head and landed in some of the trash that cushioned its fall. He reached into the dumpster and picked it up, looking very confused.
"An hourglass…?" he muttered. The hourglass looked normal, except the wooden pieces holding it together had one little top hat in the center of each one with other various looking pieces. The detail made it look oddly beautiful. The shimmering silver sand inside was almost mesmerizing.
"Never seen one of those before," Darell spoke. Hourglasses never fell from the sky, according to his data.
"Ah, no! It's cracked! I was thinking mom would've liked it too…" K.O. sadly exclaimed. Upon one short look over, the hourglass had cracked when colliding with his head. It was a miracle that it was not broken.
"Maybe it'll still hold the sand?" the aspiring hero thought that the crack would be something easily ignorable as long as the hourglass worked like it was supposed to. K.O. turned the ancient clock upside down, watching the silver sand inside begin to quickly pour down faster than it should. Before he knew it however, the hourglass began glowing brightly, almost blinding them both.
"Wh-what's happening?!" Darell fearfully shouted, wishing he had his legs to run with right now, as well as immensely regretting his choice of dumpsters to be thrown into. The two were completely blinded in a matter of moments.
When that blinding light faded away and allowed his vision to return, K.O. found himself standing outside of the front of Gar's bodega, holding the hourglass in his hand.
"Wha… wuh… huh? What happened?!" K.O. looked around in confused fear.
"That's what I was about to ask you!" he looked over. Enid stood beside him again. They were carrying one overfilled trash bag each. The very thing they had been doing earlier. They were in the exact same positions, except the hourglass was still snug in the young aspiring hero's free hand.
"I-I don't know! I got hit in the head by this weird shiny old hourglass, and when I turned it upside down, I went blind!" K.O. gave his best recollection from his short-panicked state. They were back in the exact place doing the exact same task from half an hour ago.
"A shiny old hourglass…?" Enid raised an eyebrow. They then heard a loud crash. The two looked over to the parking lot in front of them. A giant box had crashed there, cracking a lot of the ground. The sides of the box began to fall apart, revealing the individual inside of it.
"Nyeheheh! Looks like we're gonna have a rematch, Lakewood Losers!" Darell cackled with his sharp teeth quite prominent. Cannons were protruding on his shoulders, and his arm blasters were fully charged, ready to blast anything it could. He was in an odd sailor outfit too with a ship like design to his body, he was three times their size.
"Dar-darell! Wait! We already did this!" K.O. shook his head, protesting the second fight.
"Boxman really makes him fast," Enid grumbled, looking at the full trash bags beside them. She grinned, but did not move a muscle, having been stopped when the trash bags were hit by a large blue laser blast, evaporating them into nothing and leaving only a scorch mark in their place.
"Nah, ah, ah! I'm not falling for that twice! I'm going to beat you both, tear apart the bodega, and then get that hourglass for myself, so I can do it over and over again! FOREVER!" Darell began maniacally laughing, as if his very creator had possessed him.
"Over and over again?" the teenage ninja was confused and irritated. The one-eyed robot seemingly knew their moves before they could even pull them off.
"I-I don't think that's a NEW Darell, Enid! I think that's the same one…!" K.O. meekly insisted, not wanting her to get mad with him. All this did was add onto the confusion.
"What can I say? It's the chance to show you Lakewood Losers Limited Edition Battleship Darell's abilities!" Darell declared in a third person perspective, his one eye turning into a targeting reticle before focusing on the two employees of Gar's bodega.
"I can't believe this junk. K.O., keep that hourglass safe. If he wants it, that means we can't let him have it," Enid ordered her close friend to be defensive, the brush haired boy gave a determined nod. As if to signal the start of their power battle, the one-eyed robot fired several cannon shots that rung out loudly across the area,
The teenage ninja huffed, pushing her little friend gently to the left a little. One of the cannonballs crashed between them, making them bounce off their feet, Enid immediately darted off as fast as her legs could carry her.
"Come on, stand still! It's already hard enough to control this!" Darell exclaimed, watching each cannonball crash into a part of the parking lot and miss his target. Enid was able to keep easily ahead of his attacks. The parking lot was getting broken more and more by each explosive cannonball.
Darell aimed his arm cannon and fired a laser. His opponent stopped on her heels as it blasted right past her face.
"Crud…" Enid grit her teeth, hearing the next volley of cannonballs get fired. She came up with an idea, smirking. The first cannonball landed on top of her, but right before it could collide she vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving behind a wooden log that got turned into toothpicks after the hit.
"What the? Where'd she go?!" the one-eyed robot growled.
"Whooooaaa…" K.O.'s eyes shimmered with excitement. Darell followed where the young boy's eyes were focused on. Enid had begun jumping up on each cannonball with great precision, climbing up each one like they were mere springs.
"Oh, real funny, but you're just a flying duck now!" Darell fired another laser. Enid jumped up to the next cannonball, watching the laser evaporate some of the shots from the last volley.
"Do you ever cram it, you goon?" the Bodega worker cracked her knuckles, staying atop the gradually falling cannon shot, the robotic enemy had been firing them so high that it was taking even longer for them to touch the ground now.
"I will gladly after you get a couple of jawbreakers!" the one-eyed robot fired another volley of twelve cannonballs. Enid let her left boot catch on fire, before jumping up off the cannonball she had been riding, right in the path of the next volley.
"Here you go!" Enid delivered a flaming kick against one of the cannonballs, sending it right back toward the sender like a charged soccer ball.
"Gaaaaah!" the cannonball went through his arm, breaking the laser blaster to pieces. Wires and bolts bled out of the wound and dangled loosely.
"You rock, Enid!" K.O. cheered. By the time Darell got his ground back, another two cannonballs were hit right back at him, breaking some of his cannons to nothing but metal chunks.
"I'm starting to regret this do-over…" he coughed. The Limited-Edition Battleship Darell wished he had went against the idea of his dad launching him to attack the bodega to re-plan everything. Another cannonball bounced off his head, cracking his glass dome that contained his brain. Enid landed back on the ground.
"So, you gonna give up?" Enid offered the robot to raise the white flag, letting the flames on her boot vanish. to her there was something so satisfying about beating an opponent so hard that they were forced to surrender.
"No way, Lakewood Losers! I still have one more trick, and it's literally up my sleeve," Darell grinned, his still active arm opening with steam emitting from the sides. A large cannon appeared from the wrist, replacing his hand. He took aim for Gar's bodega.
"Don't think you can knock THIS one back! Nyeheheheheh!" the red robot was more than happy to take a nobody wins route. If he could not get that hourglass, neither would his families enemies.
"And we were getting along so well a minute ago… err… a minute ahead? The past minute ahead? The past minute ago that was a minute ahead?" K.O.'s disappointment turned to confusion, trying to figure out how to describe the time travel now for a route that no longer existent.
"Well… I'm out of ideas," Enid did not exactly know how to counter a cannonball that was as big as the hero supply store they worked in.
"Maybe we could use the hourglass?" K.O. suggested that they could restart the fight again and just change how things went. His close friend did not seem to like this idea.
"Sorry, K.O. but I'd rather let myself get blown up then mess with time travel. That's for another hero's arsenal," Enid rubbed his head, appreciative of what he was willing to do to try and help. Darell's cannon began to violently smoke. Indicating that it was going to fire in a few moments.
"Wait! I have an idea!" the young boy hopped up before he clung and held onto her left arm, whispering his plan to the ninja's ear.
"There's no way that it's that simple, K.O., but… Not like doing nothing'll get us anywhere," Enid sighed, resting him back down. She was ready to get him out of there if they had to. She dug around in her pocket before pulling out a chain that had two heavy looking balls on the ends. Both of the spheres looked incredibly detailed and sturdy, but they had clearly seen their own fair use in battle.
"I'm rusty with meteor hammers, so, wish me luck," Enid began spinning the meteor hammer in her hand trying to get its speed to build up to give it more force.
"Nyhahaha! You think some tiny balls like those'll do anything to me? I already took plenty of balls to the face during this fight alone!" Darell laughed. However, during his distraction, she spun around in a full circle and threw the meteor hammer toward his large cannon with all her strength. The odd weapon fell inside his large cannon, vanishing into the barrel. All they heard were several loud clangs. But sadly, no results.
"No!" K.O. gasped. He had hoped that it would work. That had been his only plan immediately in mind. He could already feel Mr. Gar's disappointment in them.
"Well… Crud," Enid sighed, not too surprised by that failing. Suddenly, their attention was averted to a sounding rumble.
"Eh?" Darell raised an eyebrow, confused. Before they knew it, his arm cannon exploded, blasting the robotic henchman into a million shrapnel pieces. K.O. grabbed one of the umbrellas from the inside of the store entrance and opened it. Enid crouched down to his short height, letting him hold the umbrella over them both.
"Wow… I can't believe that worked…" Enid confessed as she watched some of the scorched fragments of metal bounce off the umbrella, landing around them.
"I was thinking it'd either jam the cannon or cause the cannonball to blow up. Boxman had to cut corners somewhere on the upgrades, right?" K.O. gave a bright smile, proud his plan worked.
"Well this time, I'll help clean up… once the junk stops raining," the purple haired girl declared, not wanting to make the young boy handle the same mess that he cleaned up once earlier. She was also too lazy to go tricking Rad into doing it.
"What should we do with the hourglass?" K.O. requested, not sure about leaving it alone or unattended. His co-worker shrugged.
"Guess we'll have to talk to Mr. Gar about that," Enid replied, thinking their boss was the only one possibly with any real solution. If some hero lost it, they could come right to them to find it. If a villain dropped it on the other hand, then they would smash it beyond repair. The young boy nodded, eagerly agreeing with this plan.
"…Hey Enid?"
"Yeah, K.O.?"
"You're not mad at me for rewinding time… are you?"
"Nah, I know you didn't mean to. But please don't go doing it again. I'd rather not deal with the same customers from this morning again."
K.O. gained a bright smile at her reassurance. "Thanks, Enid."
"Don't sweat it. Now come on. Let's get to cleaning."
"You can count on me!"