After that strange night that was yesterday at home, K.O. was trying to go about his day like normal, even if his head was constantly being weighted down with various thoughts. He entered the Lakewood Plaza Turbo for his average day routine, stepping inside Gar's Bodega. The hero supply store was as it was, stocked for anything a hero might need whenever it was ready.
"K.O.!" a voice, manly beyond belief, made K.O. stand firm. Mr. Gar, the boss of him and his friends, stood there, wearing just pants, a tie around his neck and glasses on his face. His mustache practically looked as strong as he did.
"Yes sir, Mr. Gar!" K.O. stood straight, saluting to the Level 11 hero he idolized.
"You can relax, K.O., this isn't the military," Mr. Gar stated. Even after how long he had little K.O. employed here, the owner of the bodega still could never get used to that kid idolizing him, or at least how openly he did it. "I have a temporary reassignment for you today."
This already made the young fighter more than ecstatic already. "I'm ready for anything, sir!" K.O. eagerly cried. He was usually just in charge of cleaning up the bodega.
"Since Enid is taking a personal day off, I need you to take over in her place at the register," Mr. Gar ordered.
"I won't let you down, sir!" K.O. nodded his brush-haired head back and forth. Without any reluctance, he hopped over to behind the counter. He had to stand on the chair Enid normally laid back on to relax. He needed it just so he could be seen over the counter.
"Great! Good luck with the customers, K.O.," Mr. Gar said. However, before he could make leave to his office, the Level 3 hero had last night's thoughts cross his mind yet again. It was hard to keep them away. His mother did suggest asking his friends if he needed to, and he saw his boss as a friend.
"Mr. Gar, can I… ask you something?" K.O. requested, though was nervous.
"What is it, K.O.?" Mr. Gar requested. He had a lot to do himself before the day even really got started.
"You have a crush on my mom, right?" K.O. began. It had been more than obvious of his boss's infatuation with Carol, but bringing it up had a bit of a special effect on the middle aged man.
"I-I You… Y-yes K.O. I-I-I do… Why do yo-you ask?" Mr. Gar was able to keep himself together, despite his face heavily blushing red.
"What would you do if someone liked you but you weren't sure about it?" K.O. asked, innocent enough as he could put it. His boss's face tinted even redder at the mere thought that Carol might possibly be returning his feelings.
"I have important work to do! Dismissed!" Mr. Gar stomped the ground, cracking the floor open. He jumped down into it before pulling it closed behind him like he wanted an emergency escape route to his office.
"Well… maybe he'll have an answer later?" K.O. rubbed his head, more confused than he was before about it. He hoped that his boss just needed time to come up with the answer.
For the next couple of hours, K.O. worked the register and put up with the customers, that normally made Enid lose her patience. His cute charm and appeal tended to make them hold up the line trying to talk so much, so Mr. Gar had to use the springboard under the floor in front of the register to throw out the stallers, as the boss called them.
"Break time!" K.O. hummed before hopping over the counter and making his way to the break room. he was happy with how today was going, though when not dealing with customers, he did spend most of his time thinking about all he talked about with his mother last night.
K.O. sauntered over to the break room, sat on one of the chairs and took out a sandwich. "Man… what should I do about Shannon…?" he pondered to himself, staring downward at his food.
"Hey little buddy!" K.O. suddenly heard a familiar voice from nowhere that startled him suddenly. The young boy looked over his shoulder. "Whoa, you okay? Looked like you almost had a heart attack there," Radicles, the stockroom worker, questioned. The Level 3 alien was one of K.O.'s closer friends in the plaza, and his psychic powers made him perfect for his position in the bodega.
"Ye-yeah, sorry… just distracted," the brush haired boy responded, trying to relax while his green alien friend took the seat across from him at the table with his own lunch.
There was an awkward silence between them both K.O. did initially want to get Rad's input on his situation, but he recalled the green alien's past experience with Shannon and how they were in a very brief relationship, which got interrupted by Boxmore's other robotic children and outright destroyed.
"So what's bugging you, K.O.?" Rad suddenly broke the silence, more than able to tell something was on his best bud's mind. The Level 3 alien took a bite out of his food as he waited. There was not much else to do today as he could discern.
"It's… Is it normal for a girl to show she likes you by being rough with you?" K.O. blurted his question out. Rad kept declaring himself a chick magnet. K.O. did not understand it entirely, but figured he would be able to help the most if it were true.
"Are you kidding? Have you seen how many times Enid's throw kunai at me?" Rad laughed hard in reply. Though his laughter stopped when he saw a sad face on K.O. Desperation for some honest advice was written all over his face.
"Yeah! K.O., a lot of girls do that. Usually they aren't that intense about it though," Radicles answered, going from mainly personal experience. The girls that showed interest in him were never that type and weren't too cruel about expressing their affection. "How hard of a time has this girl been giving you?" the Level 3 stockroom worker asked, though he could not think of who his short friend could be referring to.
"She tries to cut me in half a lot… she usually cuts my hair on purpose too, and insults me a lot," K.O. explained. His friend paused for a brief second to ponder about it. No one matching that description that he knew came to mind.
"Well, they, uh… sure sound like the type to show their affection through being tough on you," Rad responded. His Level 3 friend held his head in uncertainty, feeling steadily stressed out by this answer.
Rad remained silent from there on, guessing that K.O. was just having relationship issues more than anything now.
K.O. took a bite out of his food while his best friend attended to his own food. Shannon was trying to show him she liked him for a long time? Was that a possibility? "Rad, there's something else I wanna know…" K.O. breathed. Radicles nodded, his mouth full of his lunch. "What was it like when you were with Shannon?" K.O. did not mean to open old wounds, but he was too curious for it, especially if he planned on at least looking into it slightly more.
"When I was what-?!" Rad wound up choking on his food for a moment. There was an even longer pause. His last relationship with her, but it was only brief. Very brief, not even half a week in length.
"I wanna know, Rad. You're the only one I know who's dated someone like a villain," K.O. covered his query up with a lie to keep any suspicions off him, equating someone bullying him so badly that it was like they were a villain seemed to do the trick.
"I-I hate to tell you, li'l buddy, but we weren't even together for a week, so we never really got to know," Rad hated those memories. He couldn't get them out of his mind either. They never really got far enough to see how they would have done if the relationship had gone on longer.
"Oh… alright…" K.O. sighed solemnly. He had been hoping for a better answer.
"K.O., why don't you go patrol the plaza? I'll handle the register for a bit. Everything's already restocked," Rad insisted that his friend went to try and clear his head. The Level 3 young hero nodded. His lunch was eaten up anyway. He stood up from the table and began to walk away. "Jeez… I wish Enid was here," Rad muttered feeling bad for not being of anymore help. He went to get to the cash register to deal with any customers that would come.
K.O. spent a short amount of time wandering the plaza, greeting the variously ranked heroes as he passed them. His kind heart and attitude with wanting to help everybody he could really gained him a positive reputation, even if he was also known for being a bit on the annoying side.
"Man… What should I do? Just try and talk to her about it?" K.O. muttered to himself. He had heavy doubts though that talking with Shannon was even an option, or at least being able to talk to her without getting attacked.
As he walked around the back of the plaza, he heard a clanging noise coming from one of the two dumpsters. The Level 3 hero approached, placing his ear against the dumpster to try and hear inside.
He heard what sounded like a very faulty engine constantly having minor blowback. He raised an eyebrow. He knew where that sound came from. "Again? Jeez, Jethro…" K.O. grabbed the side handle for the dumpster, opening the hatch. A small blue robot with treads and an exhaust pipe on his back rolled out of it.
"I am Jethro," Jethro, one of the Boxmore bots and renowned as the weakest of them all, expressed his gratitude.
"No problem. What are you doing in there? Trying to find Mr. Gar's weakness in the trash again?" K.O. asked, though he guessed he could not judge. He sometimes looked in the trash for POW cards people might have thrown out carelessly.
"I am… Jethro," Jethro answered. He owed K.O. for saving him from waiting to be crushed in a trash compactor until he got reloaded onto another body again.
"How'd you even get in there?" the barefoot boy mentally pondered. Asking the weakest Boxmore bot this was pointless though. He would get no answer. Jethro was more resourceful than he looked. Jethro started to roll away. "He-hey! Wait!" K.O. ran for him. He grabbed the robot and turned him around to face him. "I wanted to ask you something."
"I am Jethro," the tin can on treads remained stationary.
"Do you… think you can help me talk to Shannon? I want to ask her some things," K.O. requested nervously. As the thought about it, he figured that maybe asking Jethro of all people would not be a bad idea. Their history of passive truces and ignoring one another unless in a fight could help.
K.O. stayed crouched down to Jethro's height. The tread bot let an antenna pop out from his head before beginning to transmit a signal of beeping noises.
"Is that a yes?" the Level 3 hero wondered aloud. He soon heard a long distant whistle, and then a crash that shook the ground beneath them both.
"I am Jethro," Jethro said as they heard a whirring noise. They looked over at the remnants of a destroyed box.
"One of these Lakewood losers are trying to botnap you, Jethro? Well, let me put them in their place!" that familiar voice cackled. K.O. gulped, thinking Jethro set him up on this one inadvertently.
There she was. Shannon, the orange robot girl of the Boxmore family, whose hands retracted with buzz saws in their place and spinning rapidly, like predators ready to go in for the kill.
"Thanks, Jethro…" K.O. held his head. He was not going to get out of this without a fight, at least he could talk while fighting.
"I am Jethro," beeped the robot. K.O. was welcome.