K.O. followed Shannon outside. It was getting late and she insisted she had to get home, despite how much fun they had been having during her stay. The young couple stood on the sidewalk by the yard, stopping shortly.
"So… what'd you think of tonight?" K.O. asked, holding her hand in his with a nervous smile, hoping his mom had not caused any trouble while he was gone. The Level 3 hero saw a quip grace her face, looking pretty reassured.
"I think it went about as good as it could. Your mom is nice," Shannon replied, picking up on how worried he was about first impressions, even if this technically wasn't their first. The Boxmore bot decided against letting her boyfriend know about Carol giving her blessings to their relationship, since it would probably cause more confusion than it was worth.
"Really? I'm glad… My mom can be scary at times," K.O. said, feeling relieved to at least know intimidation had not been a problem tonight.
"I hope I can meet your family one day… outside of a battle," the young hero stated, feeling the crimson creeping up his face while she held his hand.
"We'll figure something out, but a hero shouldn't overwork themselves, right?" Shannon reassured that they would handle it, one day, but not anytime soon. She hoped. Though as they talked, she could tell there was a small sense of guilt radiating from her boyfriend. "Is everything alright? You've been distracted a lot," Shannon took a seat on the grass, letting him sit beside her on the soft ground. He let a sigh escape his lips. That voice in his head would never let him live down the guilt in his heart.
"I-I think I hurt my friend really bad today. I was so excited about having you over for dinner tonight, I told her on accident, a-and…" K.O. hid his face in his hands. He was guilty for hurting Dendy. He was unsure if it was ignoring her affection for him all this time or just for blatantly announcing he had a girlfriend in such a rude manner that did it, but both combined caused enough guilt to make him feel as if he deserved a level down for it.
"You're not the only one who had to break a heart recently, K.O.," Shannon rubbed her hand on his back, trying to comfort him. She still couldn't decide if she was happier without having the memories of hers and Rad's relationship anymore, but it upset her worse that she couldn't remember it.
"That's what you wanted to talk to Rad about…?" K.O. asked, rather meekly.
"Yeah…" Shannon turned her gaze up to the sky. Stars were starting to shine. "He wanted another shot at a relationship when I was apologizing for that mess. Ever since Raymond told me about it, I've been wondering what my life could have become," Shannon confessed. The young villain might not know every last detail. But knowing at one point she had been planning on running away to live a new life with Rad, she wondered what that life would have been like, even if it was just a love built upon a malfunction.
"O-oh, I don't mean that I'm disappointed with you though! I meant…" Shannon stammered. K.O. began to snicker. It was kind of amusing seeing her in her panicked scramble to not be insulting accidentally. Most boys wouldn't enjoy hearing their girlfriend talk about their ex like that, but the young hero didn't mind and understood perfectly.
"Don't worry. I wondered about stuff with Dendy too, but… I feel like there's nothing there," K.O. sighed, not able to put it any other way. He knew T.K.O. felt opposite to that. Despite them having opposite opinions, it still left the young hero pondering, and he rarely ever thought that far ahead in his life.
Silence fell upon them for a moment. The two for some reason seemed to connect their emotions together. They may have worried about bringing up their inner thoughts, but nevertheless, they appreciated each other's honesty. They both felt much more comfortable.
"Well, I better get home… I'll see you tomorrow for the morning attack," Shannon stood up, helping her boyfriend to his feet as well.
"Yeah! Don't worry I won't hold back," K.O. nodded enthusiastically. His girlfriend exchanged one last passionate kiss with him afterwards. The brush haired boy stood there in delight, watching as Shannon walked away. He only hoped she did not need him to blow up a friend again.
K.O. began to make his way back up toward his home, but then he felt his head throb again.
"Ow…! T.K.O., stop that! I know you're doing that on purpose!" the Level 3 hero spoke aloud, not even trying to brush the pain off this time.
"Well, what else do you want me to do?" T.K.O. shot back at his mind, "All I can do is beat up my punching bag in here every time I see you two together!"
"I want you to just be happy for me… for us…" K.O. cast his gaze downward, sounding far worse than just annoyed at this point. His bad side was just making matters worse with their arguments. "My life as a hero'll just get harder eventually. If I can have someone like Shannon to make it more bearable, it'll be a million times better," the Level 3 hero mused. He had his ups and downs at the bodega since he first became a hero, and inevitably, there would come a longer chain of hardships in the future, he knew that much.
K.O. just went inside, not wanting to dwell on the annoyances of the night. All he wished to remember was that it as a great time where Shannon got to meet his family.
But lo, what K.O. had no idea about, or what he could even feel, was that he had a device stuck to the inside of one of his wristbands. Someone had been listening in on him for an unprecedented amount of time.
"…I gave you that item so you could feel safe knowing someone would be able to find you no matter what…" Dendy murmured. She sat on her chair within her lab, resting the headphones down. Even though she tried to ignore it, her heart ached. She barely noticed as well that tears welled in her eyes from the entire time she had been eavesdropping.
"I guess you forgot about it," the young kappa held her head as she talked to nobody but thin air. It was so strange though. She began feeling an unwarranted sense of insanity creeping in on the folds of her mind. Yet she did her best to always fight it off. Most scientists became a cliché due to their experiments like that, as far as she cared.
Why did it have to be Shannon anyway? That question ran through Dendy's head at least a hundred times since she first overheard her name. Nothing about it made any sense to her. Shannon had become K.O.'s girlfriend. Of all the people in town, he chose a villain over her. That was what hurt her much more.
Although her mind began to clear, a thought came to mind. A devious quip appeared across her face. Her goggles practically shimmered in enthusiastic joy. It was not too late to put an end to this travesty.
"Their falsehood of a relationship shall be easy enough to stop. I just have to simply inform Rad, Enid and his mother about this," Dendy started typing away on her computer. "Then, once K.O.'s emotionally stable after they force it to end, I'll not hesitate to make my feelings known to him, while comforting him."
The young kappa soon finished the plan she had laid out. What really disturbed her however was that she had no reservations about doing it. No sense of guilt or hesitation that she would have. She knew she was going to hurt K.O., but as long as his affections were diverted to a villain, that she was sure that common humanity would deem wrong, she wasn't going to sleep at night.
Dendy then downloaded the audio to her phone. "Tomorrow…" she murmured, all the while the tears would not stop.
"Her boyfriend is… That pipsqueak of the plaza?" Raymond held his head. Already he regretted not getting nosy with his sister's love life. Jethro had shared the news to Raymond and Darrell two hours ago. The two had not taken it well at all. Jethro had long rolled away like nothing happened as usual, brushing things off with ease. Darrell and Raymond stood alone, still unable to wrap their heads around Shannon actually dating one of their own adversaries, and on her own accord. Both doing their best to leave out the 'again' part to this situation.
"I don't get it… Why would she date him? She isn't malfunctioning this time," Darrell pondered aloud. The news had actually shocked him so badly he wound up having to get loaded into another body.
"I don't know," Raymond seethed, "I just don't know what came over her when she thought any of this was a good idea!"
"What do we do? Talk to Daddy? To Shannon?" Darrell stammered. If Boxman found out, he was definitely going to lose it. "Raymond?" He squeaked, hoping for some input.
Raymond took that moment to think about it. But he soon did have an idea that just might work, or rather was all taht would come to mind. "Simple," he sternly spoke, "We'll talk to K.O."