K.O. and Shannon had traveled a short distance into this part of town, a little away from where they had met at. Things seemed really lively here for still being early in the night, the Level 3 hero was looking around in awe, having forgotten about his own disguise, even with how unnoticeable it felt.
"How do you know where to go, Shannon? It looks like the whole town's in a giant party here," K.O. wondered if they were lost, or if this was just that type of theme for the party. His date laughed a little at his overwhelmed awe.
"I've been here hundreds of times, so I know where I'm going. This is kind of where I was created," Shannon explained. She wished she could reminisce more on her memories, but she wanted to focus on the task at hand for tonight.
"This is where you were born? Wow…" K.O. was in awe. It was a lot more complex than he made it out to be. The orange Boxmore bot guessed that was not wrong.
"Oh, here we are!" Shannon gasped in excitement, pointing dead ahead to a small building. The hero was confused. He imagined the place this party would be taking place at to be a lot bigger, but he didn't mind at all. He was just glad to see his date excited.
When they got to the door, Shannon knocked eagerly, the two waiting outside for a response.
"What are your friends like?" K.O. chirped to his date. She shrugged.
"They're kind of like distant family. More than friends. We were all built off the same base coding design," Shannon answered, though her reply confused her date a lot. She knew he wasn't the brightest person out there, but she appreciated the obvious effort he was putting in to trying to understand. "Basically, we all were originally programmed to be woodworking bots, but they needed help finishing us, so daddy agreed for easy money," the orange bot began retelling the story with a clear warmth to her voice that made her feel like she was at peace as she flashed back to it.
"Wow… that was really nice of Boxman," K.O. was in awe. But that didn't really explain how she became a Boxmore baddy bot.
"Yeah… but daddy saw the potential in me, so he stole my code and built around it," Shannon finished. Essentially her father stole an unfinished AI program and grew it on his own as an easy method to work around a few issues.
"Well… at least he's sweet in an evil way?" K.O. couldn't really say much beyond that without coming off as rude.
"Yeah, but my friends wound up getting bought by other villains as servants after the woodworking company closed down. It's how we reconnected, or at least, a few of us did." Shannon stated.
A ding stopped their conversation. The young robot opened the door, revealing an elevator inside.
"An elevator?" K.O. chirped, but he did not really question it. The two of them stepped on. The young girl shut the door behind them and hit the only button available. The elevator began to move shortly after.
"What kind of party is this?" K.O. requested to know. He had neglected asking her before. Now he was becoming too curious.
"Oh. It's nothing special. It's just a simple hunting party," the orange robot replied. For some reason hearing that enthralled K.O. The imagination of hunting down big bad monsters in a group thrilled him.
"It's nice to know I won't be hunting alone for a change," Shannon commented to herself more than her date though, as she got a little distracted in her imagination. She felt K.O. take her hand into his and hold it tight.
"Don't worry. I promise to be the best hunting partner date I can be!" K.O. promised, giving that enthusiastic thumbs up to her. Shannon returned his promise with a bright smile, simply joyful to have him with her for this gathering.
The elevator came to a sudden halt, almost throwing the young boy to the floor. The doors opened a moment after. The Level 3 hero went wide eyed at what he saw.
"Yeah, that's how I looked when I first came here," Shannon giggled at his reaction as they stepped off the elevator. It was a giant forest deep underground. There was somehow even a sky here, but K.O. could not even tell if it was fake.
"It's so pretty…" K.O. could only say. The lush growth of the place and the trees that made this thick jungle amazed him. Even a lot of animals were noticeable with barely any glance.
There was a small group of people gathered up around. From what K.O. could tell, they were all robots, as well as villains. He felt a little nervous, though he did his best to relax.
"Shannon? There you are!" the two heard an energetic voice chime up. They turned around to see a similarly aged robot girl that had a blue metallic tint to their roundish armor, and a pair of drill halves on both of her shoulders.
"Percer! It's been so long!" Shannon exclaimed, almost tackling her friend with a tight embrace. Percer gladly returned it without hesitation. The two looked like quite a pair. The disguised hero guessed that distant relative comparison was a lot more accurate than his date described.
The embrace soon ended. "Who's this guy?" Percer asked.
Shannon held her date's hand as she presented him. "This is… ehhmm…" Shannon realized that could not speak her date's real name without it being known he was a hero. K.O. stood there obliviously with a smile on his face, wondering why she looked so scared suddenly.
"Em, huh? Beats being named after your manufacturing number," Percer did not pay the name any mind. She crouched down to the young teenagers height and shook his hand gladly. "So, what brings you here little fella?" the drill bot politely asked assuming that the disguised K.O. was simply a training dummy bot. It took K.O. a moment to register his disguise nickname now.
"O-oh! I'm on a date with Shannon! This is my first hunting party!" the Level 3 hero exclaimed. The party host looked shocked to hear that. The drill bot looked to her dear friend as she stood up. Shannon was looking to the side with a nervous blush growing on her face. She appreciated K.O.'s modesty, but it still embarrassed her slightly.
"Shannon… you finally are in a relationship?" Percer gave a cocky grin with their hands on their hips.
"N-No! This is our first date!" the orange bot held her hands up defensively, her embarrassment only growing.
"Wow… well the hunt will begin soon. Good luck, little guy. Shannon here has quite the temper. Haha!" Percer made to walk away after giving out her warning, so she could go to attend to the other party goers.
"Are you okay, Shannon?" K.O. asked his date as he tried to escort her aside to a long table. Mechanical food and drinks were spread out for those invited.
"Yeah, yeah, just… how are you able to stay so calm about this?" Shannon was impressed at how calm the Level 3 hero was being. All the time, she was stressing over being possibly caught.
"You're my date. I'm supposed to only care about you tonight," K.O. gave a smile. Shannon started at him in surprise. If anyone else said that, she would roll her eyes at them, but coming from the most honest and innocent human, she knew it meant a lot.
"Thank you, K.O…." Shannon held her hand over her corsage for self-assurance. Once it was done, the two took a few seats at the table to try and rest for a moment.
The two spent a short while talking to one another, not about much however. "So, this is Percer's dad's base?" he asked. He was surprised that such a beautiful place belonged to a villain hiding in public.
"Yeah it is. Percer always throws one of these parties whenever he goes out of town on business," Shannon responded, eating one of the pieces of metal at the table. K.O. took a sip out of an oil can that had a straw in it, which made her quirk an eyebrow. "Uhh… is that safe for humans to drink?" she asked. The brush haired boy didn't seem to even register what he was drinking.
"Oh… I've drank worse than this," the disguised hero commented before taking another sip. Most healing potions tasted awful to him. He didn't really care though, as long as it quenched his thirst. His date just tried to ignore it.
"I swear he's trying to act more like a robot for me…" Shannon thought. As sweet as it sounded in premise, she just knew how innocently oblivious he could be.
"But you said you haven't seen your friend in a while," K.O. reminded her, breaking her train of thought.
"Because I wasn't as good at fighting so I couldn't hunt as well… So, I just began avoiding them for a while," Shannon sighed, laying her head on her arms. Her confidence in her abilities was still lacking.
"Come on. How tough can this hunting party be? I'll be here to help you, no matter what," K.O. reassured. Shannon smiled a little at his words. Of course she wouldn't be alone, and it was nice to have someone far more reliable than her siblings helping for a change.
"The hunt's only as tough as the monsters they let out. Every group has their own to hunt and the three fastest hunting groups win," Shannon explained the hunting party's conditions. The winners tended to get special prizes to represent their placements.
"I just hope we get an easy one…" K.O. was not a fan of fighting animals. He hoped these were simply monsters more than anything.
They then heard the sound of a microphone loudly ringing out to get the villains and their cohorts' attentions. The two daters got up to join the small crowd around the table. They could see Percer standing on a makeshift stage.
"You all havin' a good time?" the driller bot asked.
"Yeah!" a crowd cheered out loudly. K.O. was surprised by how excited everyone was. He only saw that with Enid when she was playing music as DJ Fireball.
"Well, it's about to get a whole lot better!" Percer retracted their hand into their arm before firing out sheets of paper into the air for everyone to catch. Shannon caught one for both of them, and she and K.O. read it. It read the name of the creature they'd have to hunt down; 'Oil Lizard'.
"An Oil Lizard? Wow… I never thought I'd see one in real life…" K.O. sounded ecstatic for this. But Shannon was nervous. Her buzzsaws tended to leave burning hot sparks a lot. If they collided with easily flammable oil, it would be a nasty mix.
"Now let your hunts begin!"