"About us…?" Rad could not really believe what he was hearing from Shannon. After the long time it had been since they were together, things were feeling like they were back to normal. The young alien had been keeping those memories in the very back of his mind, yet she acted like she had no recollection of it until now. "Why? Just to torture me?" Radicles wondered aloud. If this was some type of Boxmore plan, he was going to not hold back. It would just make him even more berserk.
"N-no! I didn't remember anything until I dragged it out of Raymond. My memories got erased when I reset myself…" Shannon defensively stated. She was hurt that he would even assume that much, but she guessed she could not blame him, given how crazy Boxman's schemes had been recently.
After a moment the Level three hero relaxed since she seemed to be genuine with her emotions. "Fine… I'll hear you out," he reluctantly agreed, letting the orange Boxmore bot step closer to him, but the Level 3 hero kept his guard up.
"I… I want to apologize for messing with your heart like that when I was malfunctioning. I hate that I can't remember it though… even if it wouldn't have worked out no memories deserve to be completely erased," Shannon exclaimed. She could not remember, yet she knew he had been suffering with the memories weighing his heart down ever since, and knowing that made her feel all the guiltier.
Rad saw her becoming gradually more upset during her talk. This was enough proof for him that there was nothing shady going on here. "It's… It's fine Shannon," Rad finally chimed up. "Honestly, it might not've work out anyway… plus I was in love with a fake you, right?"
"It was…" Shannon nodded. Emotions were a nightmare on their own. Malfunctioning emotions on the other hand were far beyond worse.
"Thanks for coming to apologize to me about it. You really didn't have to… But I really couldn't stand not knowing how we'd actually do together…" Rad had this thought plaguing his mind for the longest time. He wondered if this was a chance to really see how they'd do as a couple.
"I'm sorry, Rad… I really do want to give you another chance, but I have a new boyfriend," Shannon apologized. The teenage alien at first assumed she was merely brushing him off with a lie to be nice. But he could tell from her behavior. She was being honest from start to finish about everything.
"O-oh alright… That's great, really," the Level 3 hero stuttered. Things went back to being awkward quite fast. The young Boxmore girl decided that it would be best for the topic to end here.
"Let's get back to the battle. Gotta impress daddy," Shannon laughed a little. She made to turn around.
"Hey, just one more thing?" Rad stopped her on her tracks, "I owe ya for apologizing to me… so… I'll let you beat me in this fight."
Shannon could not believe what she was hearing. "You don't mind taking a fall like that?" she questioned. If she could actually beat one of the Lakewood workers on her own, she would impress Boxman to no end.
"Just bang me up a bit. I'm good at acting tired," Rad insisted.
Shannon hesitated for a moment before retracting her hands into her arms to let the buzzsaws pop out, they began to whir at a fast rate. "You heroes are starting to make me soft…" Shannon murmured. She charged right for Rad. The alien stood there, ready to let her do as she pleased to make it look authentic.
After a short time, K.O. and Enid had been able to beat the Boxmore bots. The two were exhausted, but happy that they were able to handle their enemies' upgrade with ease now.
"You alright, K.O.?" Enid asked her close friend. She noted how exhausted he had become from dealing with Raymond's shock absorbent armor.
"Yeah… I just hope Rad's alright," K.O. answered. He felt bad that he had to hurt one of his best friends like that, but he wanted to help his new girlfriend however he could. The two heroes began to head toward the direction they saw Rad get launched towards.
"Rad!" Enid and K.O. called out for him, looking around for the stockroom worker. There was no sign of Shannon, which made him even more worried.
Rad's exhausted and pained voice could be heard. The two ran over to where they heard his voice come from, and they found the young alien lying near the delivery bay, cut and bruised all over.
"Jeez, Rad. You had a rough landing," the Level 4 ninja commented. She had seen their co-worker fall from orbit-high heights and not look this bad.
"No… Shannon came after me and got me pretty good," the young alien exclaimed, making it out to be that he had lost only because of being dizzy due to the blast and fall subsequently. The cashier helped him to his feet.
"I-I'm sorry, Rad, I didn't mean to get you hurt!" K.O. apologized profusely. He wondered if that talk Shannon wanted to have with Rad had ended poorly or if he had refused to talk with her and caused this beatdown.
"Not your fault, li'l buddy… you can't win them all, right?" Rad chuckled, taking his loss rather well. The three went on inside. They saw no signs of Shannon around, taking it as that they won most of the battle against the Boxmore bots.
A good bit of time was spent treating Rad's injuries. K.O. just felt bad for getting his friend hurt like he did.
"Well since the interruption's over, why don't we continue with the talk from earlier," Enid offered their young friend, to break the silence.
"Oh, yeah!" K.O. nodded. Rad just stayed quiet, not really focusing on much right now. He was contemplating why he was having mixed feelings about his interaction with Shannon earlier.
"So does the girl you're dating come to the plaza often?" Enid asked, continuing to bandage up a larger cut on the Level 3 alien's forearm.
"Uhh… Yeah… as much as we do," K.O. honestly answered, recalling Shannon's preference to keep their relationship secret for the time being.
"Wait, you got a girlfriend now?" Rad was surprised to hear this.
"Yeah! She's really nice and sweeter than she acts," K.O. claimed. But he tried to think on the matter, not wanting to end up revealing the truth of who his date was. He felt Radicles pat his back.
"Way to go, little buddy," he congratulated the cleaner. He was glad somebody was at least having good luck in the romance department. The embarrassed K.O. felt a blush on his face.
"What's her name anyway?" Enid put away the first aid kit.
K.O. ended up getting worried now. He didn't think to make up a lie for his new girlfriend's name to keep Shannon safe. He tried to scramble for a name in his head. "Sh…Sherry! Yeah, her name's Sherry," K.O. finally had a good cover name come to mind. However, his co-workers did not really recall anyone named Sherry ever showing up at the plaza before. Though Enid knew their young friend described her as less like a hero and more like a bully, she thought little of it.
Raymond and Darrell were back at Boxmore industries and loaded into new bodies after their last ones had been broken apart from the battle.
"Darn it… They overwhelmed my shock absorbing armor," Raymond grumbled, frustrated. Their upgrades lost their worth so fast.
"They jammed my arm cannon and I wound up blowing up on accident," Darrell sounded irritated. He was used to his weapons being sabotaged, but having it be actively used against him was more frustrating. They both noticed no sign of their sister around.
"We better go tell Daddy what happened," the red robot insisted, assuming their sister would catch up. They had to go let their father know that the upgrades were now nothing more than a minor inconvenience to the heroes. He would be mad for sure.
They headed into Boxman's office, after noting that nothing important was happening inside for now from the sounds of it.
"Sorry father, but we were beaten… oh?" Raymond saw Shannon and Jethro nearby with their father sat behind in his desk. There was one proud look on their boss of a fathers face.
"I was just about to request you two to come," Boxman greeted his sons. His cheeriness made them anxious. Shannon looked sheepish, yet cheerful herself.
"I am Jethro," Jethro stated. The other bots were confused.
"It seems despite lacking the upgrades, Shannon has been able to defeat one of those heroes on her own," Boxman explained. Now he doubted his decisions on who he assigned upgrades to now.
"That's great, Shannon! Fantastic job!" Raymond smiled.
"Yeah! You must've done great if you didn't even need many repairs!" Darrell added.
"We-well, he was really out of it after K.O. accidentally blew him up," Shannon giggled nervously. She was feeling golden right now. For the last couple of minutes their father had been talking about how proud he was of her and all the hard work she had been doing, with praises upon praises to follow.
"I guess daddy's been reading that positive reinforcement book we got him for Christmas… two years ago," Darrell whispered to his younger brother. As far as they knew, that book had just been a balancer for their dad's desk since he received it.
"Darrell, Raymond, you two are going through training again to make sure you're using your full abilities. I still need to talk to your sister alone," Boxman ordered. The two bots felt immensely annoyed. Training was meticulous and boring. But they nodded. All three left without further word, simply glad their sister was happy once more and not wanting to spoil her first victory in a while.
Shannon was so grateful for K.O.'s help. She wouldn't have gotten to talk to Rad if it hadn't been for her new boyfriend after all. Maybe, she thought to herself… maybe she should give them both presents she pondered.