It had been a week since the last attack on the plaza. Since Shannon defeated Rad, Boxmore had been relaxed, though everyone who knew that business was aware that would not last long.
K.O. was enjoying his lunch while sat on a bench. Things felt awkward from not having any attacks recently, but the bodega employees were enjoying their half down time.
"Good evening, K.O.," he heard a familiar voice from behind him. He hopped up seeing a familiar kappa, Dendy, up and about, perfectly hanging her advanced backpack on her shoulders.
"Dendy? Hey! Glad to see you're better!" K.O. exclaimed, hopping over the bench, excited to see his close friend again. She had been sick for the last two weeks, and she had not been around the plaza recently as result. Yet, he'd forgotten the talk with T.K.O. about her a while back.
"Indeed! I am back to 100% strength and health. How have things been?" Dendy happily replied. Even if she didn't show much emotion, she cared a lot about the Level 3 hero, more than others thought. Despite their drastically different IQs and personalities, they got along pretty perfectly.
"Things are going great! Boxmore's laying off with their attacks lately. Rad's a bit down though," the young hero exclaimed. He and Enid weren't sure what was wrong with Rad, but they presumed it was because of how he lost the battle a week prior.
"I'm pleased to hear it, perhaps they've learned a lesson… or didn't and are preparing for a large-scale assault," Dendy replied. K.O. wouldn't be surprised by the last option, they would worry about that when and if it happened. With how cheap Boxman could be, they would find an easy workaround.
"I guess, but since things have been so calm lately, mom thought it'd be a good chance to meet my girlfriend, so I'm going to ask her to dinner at my place tonight," K.O. tried to focus more on a positive side of their lives, not shy to announce the new significant other in his life.
"Ah, I see. I hope that goes well with your… uh, hang on, I think my hearing is still recovering from the disease," the kappa hero awkwardly paused. Girlfriend, K.O. said? Was he serious? "Correct me if I am wrong, but did you just say girlfriend?"
"Yeah!" K.O nodded, "We've been dating for about two weeks now. She acts mean, but she's really sweet," his wording made it clear. K.O. was taken.
"Oh…" she muttered. Deep down though, she was disappointed. She really hoped to win his heart, but it seemed too late now. Her heart felt torn in half. "Congratulations K.O…" she forced the words out of her mouth
K.O. wondered why her demeanor seemed to just plummet down in seconds. He felt his head throb in slight pain, like someone had hit him on the back of his skull from inside his own head.
"Jeez, and I thought I was supposed to be the bad half," T.K.O. chimed up in his other half's head.
"What are you talking abou… oh…" K.O. quickly had his memory refreshed. He was surprised. Dendy truly had feelings for him all this time. He thought she saw him as nothing more than another fellow pow card collector and interesting person to study. It seemed he was wrong. "Uh, Dendy, are you okay?" K.O. felt terrible now. He just had to casually announce his relationship status, citing it about as subtle as a Boxmore attack. Showing how joyous his girlfriend made him did not help the news at all.
"I must take my leave for now… Apologies," Dendy turned on her heels and walked away. K.O. wanted to follow her to try and comfort her, but right now, he presumed he would just hurt her more than he just did.
"I didn't think you were right, T.K.O. Ah, jeez," the Level 3 hero held his head in shame, wondering if he had to go to Enid for more advice, since her last guidance for him worked out so well.
"I warned you, and you wouldn't listen. How can you have such a hard head, yet such a tiny brain?" T.K.O. groaned, still flabbergasted by his other half's lack of perception.
"I'll try to talk to Dendy about it later. Right now I need to go call Shannon," K.O. claimed ignoring his other sides scolding and staying focused on his plans for today.
Shannon couldn't believe her sales shot up so much over a week. Everything felt way better to her, and her depression seemed like nothing more than a distant memory. She was sharpening her sawblades, as a few pieces of paper lay beside her, showing sales reports of how many of her models were sold in under a week. Her models' sales had tripled.
"You've really sold up a storm recently," Raymond chimed up from nearby, just relaxing with an oil can in his hand, occasionally sipping from it.
"I know. I didn't think it'd ever happen," replied Shannon.
"That's what happens when you beat a hero," laughed Raymond. Boxman's children were enjoying the peace from not fighting constantly as much as the bodega workers were. Their father was busy with a personal project and filling out all the new orders.
Shannon heard her phone ring. She took out. It was K.O. calling her. They had been mostly texting back and forth for a while, this was the first actual call. "I'm gonna take this call," she said.
"Okay," the sports loving robot nodded. He just knew it was this new boyfriend of hers calling, but he tried not to let his irritation known, since everything seemed perfectly fine so far.
Once Shannon was outside of the room, she answered the call. "Hey, K.O. I didn't think you'd be the first to call," she commented everyone was so busy that nobody was around so she could be more relaxed in the halls at the very least
"Heh! Hey, Shannon is this a good time?" K.O. laughed lightly. He chilled in the food court away from many of the people there, away from work under the excuse of it being a lunch break.
"Yeah, what's up?" the orange bot gladly responded.
"W-well… y'see, my mom really wants to meet the person I'm dating, and I told her I'd ask you to dinner at our place tonight," K.O. explained. Keeping things secret without introducing his supposed date would make others far more suspicious. The level 3 hero had no logical reason to be hiding his significant other after all.
"You want me meet your family already? This is really sudden, isn't it?" Shannon replied. She thought it would happen later into their relationship, at least a couple more weeks.
"Well… I see a lot of my friends as family, but this is just my mom. I thought you'd like being able to get away from your family for dinner, at least," K.O. explained, thinking it would not be hard for him to introduce his girlfriend to his mother, especially with the disguise-o-matic on their side.
Shannon had to pause. She wanted to ask about her boyfriend's father, but she doubted it was a safe topic to discuss. She breathed out a sigh as she guessed they had to do it sometime. She just hoped she did not need to introduce K.O. to her family anytime soon. "Alright K.O. I'll do it. Just text me your address."
"Really? Thanks, Shannon! Love ya!" K.O. thanked her, sounding ecstatic knowing she agreed.
"Love ya too," she cooed before hanging up. The female robot didn't understand why whenever they ended a date or met up and went their separate ways, they began to say that to each other instead of goodbye. It made Shannon feel warm inside.
"Shannon?" that familiar whiny voice startled her. She turned around to see Darrell standing there, looking very confused.
"I knew I should've got my awareness sensors calibrated last night…" Shannon muttered under her breath, regretting procrastinating immensely now. "H-hey, Darrell. I didn't notice you there," she spoke to her brother, doubting tearing his body into pieces would do any good now.
"Who were you talking to?" the one eyed robot questioned. Shannon never talked like that to anybody. Not even their own father.
Shannon began to mentally scramble. She felt scared. Lying was not going to get her out of this. She decided to build up her courage to say the truth. "I was… talking to my boyfriend. I'm going to meet his family tonight."
Darrel was surprised. Pieces began to get put together quickly in his head. Maybe, he believed, that was why Raymond seemed so irritated or unsettled recently. "Is your emotional circuit malfunctioning?" he asked.
Shannon felt offended. "What? You're saying I can't have a boyfriend unless I'm malfunctioning?"
"Wha? No, I meant…" Darrel put his hands up defensively as he felt his back against the wall.
"I'm completely functional! And happy, too!" Shannon accused, "Now I'm getting ready for tonight, and if I so much as see a sign of you near us, I'll tear you apart!"
"S-sorry, Shannon, I get it, I get it!" Darrell pleaded. His words were enough to make her back off before heading off in a huff. He never saw Shannon like this before in his life. The cyclops robot turned away from his sister, thinking that he needed to talk to Raymond and Jethro about this.