~Even Villains can be Heroes~
(Disclaimer: I don't own OK K.O. Let's be Heroes, I only own my OCs; all credit goes to the original creators at Cartoon Network, please support the official release).
Chapter 1: A New Employee
The sun rose to the sky on a clear cloudless morning in the town of Lakewood, the was a cool breeze in the air and the sound of chirping birds could be heard; in a small cottage near a small river, a young girl awoke from her peaceful slumber because of the incessant ringing of an alarm clock that sat on the bedside table.
The girl stuck her hand out from underneath her blanket and smacked the alarm clock, shutting it off; she then pulled her blanket off her head revealing her to be a young anthropomorphic fox girl with orange and white fur, black fur on her hands and feet, dark red hair and light green eyes. She yawned and stretched her arms as she climbed out of bed and headed into the bathroom.
She brushed her teeth and took a shower, putting on a pink sleeveless shirt and blue jean shorts; she combed her hair before exiting the bathroom and heading over to the kitchen, the cottage was only one story high so every room was on the same floor. The girl placed two toaster pastries into her toaster as she opened the refrigerator and pulled out a jug of orange juice.
"Huh, you actually got up when the alarm clock went off? That's a first", said a voice. The girl looked behind her to see another anthropomorphic fox had entered the kitchen; this one was a young man with grayish blue hair and dark orange fur wearing a mechanic's uniform and sitting in a wheelchair he moved with a joystick. The girl smirked, "I start my new job at Lakewood Plaza Turbo today, Desmond. I'm not gonna oversleep this time, in fact I'm practically an adult now so I'm more responsible", she said as she pulled the pastries out of the toaster and began eating them.
The young fox man, Desmond, smirked at her. "Did you remember to take your pills?", he asked. The girl suddenly froze before rushing over to the cabinet and pulling out a small bottle filled with little white pills; she popped open the bottle and took out one pill, throwing it into her mouth and washing it down with the orange juice.
"Yeah Abby, if I still need to remind you to take your medication, then you're not an adult as of yet. Plus, you're only fourteen...I suggest you slow your roll there", said Desmond with a playful smile. The girl, Abby, pouted before lightly punching him in the shoulder. She finished her breakfast before throwing on a hoodie, grabbing a small purse and headed for the door, "I'll call you when I get there and when I come home later, I'll tell you how my first day went", she said.
Just before she walked out the door, she turned to see Desmond making a heart shape with his hands. "I love you too, big brother", said Abby as she made the same shape with her hands and then left the house. As he sat by the counter brewing a cup of coffee, Desmond could see Abby get on her bike and ride into town through the kitchen window. "I hope he doesn't give any trouble this time, the last thing we need is another tragedy", he sighed.
Soon, Abby came upon Lakewood Plaza Turbo, pulling her bike towards a store called Gar's Bodega; she chained her bike to the bike rack outside and walked into the store where she spotted two people by the counter talking to each other, one was a teenage girl older than her with light brown skin and pink hair and the other was a tall alien with curly green hair and light blue skin.
Abby shyly walked over to them, waving slightly when they noticed her. "Oh hey you're the new girl, what's up? I'm Radicles, but you can call me Rad for short, and this Enid", said the alien. "How are you doing?", asked Enid. Abby looked away for a second with a nervous blush on her face, she was quite confident about working at Gar's bodega weeks prior but now that she was actually very nervous and unsure about working there.
She was hoping that her coworkers would become her friends as well but since she was timid, she feared they might dislike her. Just then, two more people walked into room: one was a little boy with dark brown hair held by a red headband, light brown skin and was wearing red wristbands, a blue vest, a white shirt, blue shorts and pink legwarmers on his ankles. The other was a grown man wearing sunglasses, a pink necktie, no shirt and khaki pants.
"Oh you must be Abigail, I'm Mr. Gar. I look forward to seeing you working here at the bodega, speaking of which...I should probably give you this", he said as he held up something.
It was a blue vest similar to ones worn by Rad, Enid and the little boy; Abby figured it was her work attire, so she took the vest from Mr. Gar, walked into the break room, took off her hoodie and put the vest on.
She walked back outside, "Alright now that you've got your vest, there's some boxes in the back. The items inside need to be shelved, so why don't you go get started on that Abby", said Mr. Gar.
As he walked away, the little boy approached Abby. "Hello, my name is K.O. What's your name?", he said. Abby smiled at him, "My name's Abigail but you can call me Abby for short. Nice to meet you, K.O.", she said as she patted him on the head.
"Say Abby, why does your voice sound so weird? It sounds like you have the voice of a twelve year old boy", said Rad. This prompted Enid to slap him in the back of his head, "Rad, you dingus! She just started working here and you're already asking her awkward questions! For Cob's sake, at least get to know her first", she said.
Abby rubbed her arm nervously, "Its okay, Enid. He's just a little curious, so I can't blame him. But she's got a point, Rad. Maybe I'll explain it to you some other time, but not now. I better go start shelving those items", she said as she walked towards the back of the bodega. As she bent down to open the boxes, Abby noticed that K.O. had followed her and was opening the boxes as well.
"What are you doing here, K.O.?", she asked. "Oh I'm helping put away these items, its your first day so I figured you could use the help", he said with a smile. Abby smiled as she picked up a box and walked back outside, placing some of the items on the higher shelves while K.O. placed some on the lower shelves. They made several trips back and forth to collect the other boxes and put the items on the proper shelves.
Abby then joined K.O. in mopping the floor, deciding they each take one section of the store to clean, during which they decided to have a conversation. "So Abby, did you just move here to Lakewood?", asked K.O. "Oh no, I've actually lived here for the past two years. Its It's just that I wanted to get a job and when I saw an ad that Gar's bodega was hiring, I decided to apply. So far, this is a neat place", she said.
"I live not too far from here with my mommy, what's your family like?", said K.O. Abby suddenly grew quiet and let out a small sigh, "I live in a small cottage in the woods not too far from town. I live with my older brother Desmond, I never knew my father and my mother died when I was a baby", she said somberly. K.O. had a sad expression on his face and ran up to Abby, hugging her around the waist, which drew attention to how tall she was for her age because of how tiny he looked standing next to her.
"Abby, I'm sorry. I didn't know...I wouldn't have asked if I...", he was cut off when Abby put her index finger to his lips. "Its okay, K.O. As sad as it is, I've learned to live with it. Again, my father was never around so I never met him, and I lost my mom when I was just a baby so I don't really remember her. In fact, there are a lot of things in my early childhood I don't remember", she said.
K.O. stared down at his feet, "If it makes you feel better, I know how you feel. I still don't know who my Dad is, I think about it sometimes and I wish I could meet him someday. Maybe he was a hero just like my Mom, I don't know and I probably won't ever find out", he said.
The air around the two became thick with an awkward sadness, Abby looked around to find something that might change the subject. That was when she noticed the POW Card machine, "Hey uh, K.O. What's that over there?", she asked.
K.O. turned to look at where she was pointing to, "Oh that's the POW Card machine, it has tons of POW Cards of famous heroes and even some villains too. Come on, let me show you", he said as he led her to the machine. He showed her that on the front of the machine were two buttons: one that would dispense cards from within the machine and another that would give one their own POW Card. "What's the 'self' button for, K.O.?", asked Abby.
"If you push that button, the machine will give you your own POW Card. I've got my own, you should push it and see what your power level", said K.O. as he pulled his POW Card from his hair and showed it to Abby. She could see that his power level was at a 4, making her curious as to what hers was. So she pushed the 'self' button on the machine, it made a few beeping sounds before a card slid out of the slot.
Abby took the card and looked at it; it had a picture of her striking a dynamic pose, near the bottom it said her full name 'Abigail Zigdras' and next to her name was her power level. Both she and K.O. were taken by surprise by the number, "WHOA! Your power level is 15! You're not even a grownup and you're at Level 15?! That's awesome, you must be very powerful!", K.O. said excitedly.
Before Abby could even question the logistics of her power level being so high, an alarm suddenly blared through the bodega as a bright red light flashed. "K.O...WHAT'S HAPPENING?!", she yelled out over the alarm as she tried to block her sensitive ears from its noise. "Its another robot from Boxmore, they're here to attack the plaza!", he shouted as he ran outside with Rad and Enid.
Abby followed after them, just in time to see a giant box fall from the sky; the box opened up to reveal a small army of amount twenty Darryls, all of them armed with laser whips and swords. "Looks like Boxman's trying out a new gimmick. Gotta give him points for creativity", said Rad. "Well creative or not, we'll still take these bots down just like always", said Enid.
Suddenly, the Darryls charged at the three heroes: Enid jumped into the air and spin kicked three of them, Rad picked a few in his tractor beam and swung them around smashing into some of the others, and K.O. fired power fists at the bots while also jumping to and fro in order to dodge their attacks.
While this was going on, Abby hid underneath a bench that was nearby; she knew Lakewood was full of heroes, with the Plaza being a major hangout spot for them, but she never expected to get caught in a fight between a group of heroes and villains. She wanted to help her coworkers/new friends but she was too scared of being caught in the crossfire.
Suddenly, four of the Darryls spotted her under the bench and ripped it out of the ground, exposing her; Abby let out a scream of terror as she threw her arms over her head, her entire body quaking in fear. "No! Leave her alone!", K.O. shouted as he charged at the four Darryls, punching two in the face. But as he did, he left his back turned and his guard was down allowing the other two to sneak up behind him. "K.O., look out!", Abby screamed.
K.O. didnt turn around in time and one of the Darryls swung his laser whip at him, electrocuting him; K.O. let out a loud scream before he fell face first onto the floor. Abby saw this and suddenly became very angry, she had only known K.O. for all of half an hour but in that short amount of time she learned that the two of them have an understanding of what its like to grow up without a parent/parents, and that the two have a lot in common.
She considered him a friend and now he was getting zapped by these ridiculous robots while she sat cowering in fear. "What am I even doing? A real hero wouldn't sit here and cower while their friends needed help! I've got a power level of 15, time to justify it!", she said to herself as she leapt into the air and landed gracefully in the middle of the battlefield.
"Hey tall, red and stupid! Pick on someone your own size!", she shouted at the Darryls that were still attacking K.O. They left him alone and charged towards Abby, readying their whips and swords; Abby positioned herself in a fighting pose as she pulled her right hand back, closed her eyes and concentrated. As the first Darryl jumped up to slash at her with his sword, Abby's eyes suddenly opened, having turned to a glowing red color; a bright purple flame engulfed her right hand.
"ULTRA...FLAMING...PUNCH!"
Abby launched her fist forward, punching the Darryl square in the face, knocking his head off and causing his body to explode into purple flames; she then back flipped into another cluster of Darryls and began throwing a torrent of flaming punches at every single one of them, smashing them to pieces or causing them to spontaneously combust upon contact with her fiery hands.
K.O. lifted his face up from the ground just in time to see Abby's feet were now engulfed in purple flames as well. "SPINNING FIRE KICK!", she shouted as she spin kicked the few remaining Darryls, effortlessly slicing through their bodies as if they were made of butter. When she finally stopped, she looked around to see she had destroyed every Darryl, excluding the ones that had been taken out by Rad, Enid and K.O.
Abby fell backwards onto her rear end, panting from exertion; she looked up to see the others standing in front of her. "That...was...AWESOME!", K.O. excitedly shouted. "Yeah, Abby! That was the single coolest thing I've ever seen in like...ever!", said Rad. "Yeah...how exactly did you do all that, Abby?", asked Enid. Abby stopped panting as she leaned backwards on her hands, "I'm not sure...I just know that I got super mad when those robots hurt K.O. and I wanted to fight back.
"I closed my eyes as I thought really hard, trying to see if I actually had any power I could use. That's when I felt this strong force flowing through my body, wanting to get out; I concentrated that energy into my hand and it turned into a purple flame that I used to fight the robots. Then when I saw that they were all destroyed, as quickly as that power rose up inside me, it just...dissipated. I think it's only dormant when I'm not fighting, which probably explains why I never knew I had it because I've never fought anyone before", she said.
K.O. smiled at her, "Well either way, you did really great out there. Its a no wonder you're at level 15", he said. This made Rad and Enid stop in their tracks, "Wait a second...you're at level 15?", said Rad. Abby reached into her pants pocket and pulled out her POW Card, showing it to them; when they saw the level, their jaws dropped. "No way! You're at level 15? But...you're not even an adult yet!", said Rad. "Yeah, to be this strong at your age, you must've gond through intense training day and night, slowly leveling up until you reached this number", said Enid.
"Then either the machine is on the fritz or I just had some hidden potential I never about because I've never done any training or anything having to do with combat, I generally don't like fighting", said Abby. "Well, now you know just how strong you are and that you're a real hero", said K.O.
Just then, Mr. Gar arrived on the scene. "Nice work on taking care of that squadron of Darryls, team. Now I shall congratulate your achievements individually: Enid, nice work on those spin kicks. Rad, smart thinking using your finger beam to fling the bots around. K.O., great to see your power punches have improved tremendously. And Abby, that was the most amazing display I've ever seen and from a newbie no less, great job! Now, I want this place cleaned up", he said before walking away.
The group used brooms and dustpans to sweep up all the broken robot parts before dumping them into the dumpster behind the bodega, "Well I don't know about the rest of you guys but that fight made me work up quite an appetite", said Rad. "Yeah, now that you've mentioned it...I'm pretty hungry too", said Enid. "I know! Who wants to go get some burritos? Mom recently doubled my allowance so I've got enough to buy us all lunch", K.O. suggested.
The group agreed as they finished their cleanup duty and headed over to the burrito shop, "Oh by the way, Abby...when we get back, I'll get you a binder of your own so you can start your own POW Card collection like me. And since we're friends now, we can get together and trade cards", said K.O. Abby smiled as she ruffled his hair, "Thanks, K.O. I really appreciate that", she said as she followed her new friends to the burrito shop to have lunch.
Author's Note: That's it for the first Chapter of 'Even Villains can be Heroes'. I wanted to establish something I feel I didn't make clear in that message attached to Light of Hope 2: Season 3 of OK K.O. is where all the major plot points take place like K.O. locking T.K.O in his subconscious or the reveal that Professor Venomous was both Laser Blast and K.O.'s father, my story will operate on a separate continuity in which Season 3 doesn't happen the way it did in the show but rather how I'll write it.
Anyway, come back next time for Chapter 2; until then, this is Superkirbyland234 signing out!