K.O. was cleaning up the bodega. Things had been slow today, not that any of the workers were complaining. No attacks, no problems. It became awkward to the three workers when a day didn't start with an assault on the bodega, that weird atmosphere only increased when there was a lack of customers.
"Hey K.O.?" Enid chirped, getting his attention while he swept. The ninja was idly relaxing since she heavily doubted things would remain calm for long.
"Yeah Enid?" K.O. asked. She sounded rather worried.
"Does Rad seem… distracted, to you?" the Level 4 ninja asked. K.O. was confused, pondering on the question for a moment.
"Kinda," the Level 3 hero nodded. He felt that Rad was more depressed than distracted. K.O. felt bad, since he was usually always upbeat and cheerful, and his new girlfriend only added onto that. "I'll go talk to him," he volunteered. Enid shrugged, letting the youngest worker do as he pleased, since his optimism tended to brighten her mood, at least whenever she felt down.
K.O. approached Radicles. The stockroom worker was restocking some blasting gauntlets, mostly keeping to himself, until he saw the brush haired boy approach.
"Oh hey, little buddy, what's up?" Rad greeted him, grateful for the distraction. K.O. could sense the aura of him preferring to be alone right now, but that did not stop that happy smile on his face from appearing.
"Are you alright, Rad? You're acting like your van got stolen again," K.O. asked rather straight forwardly. The alien had been unlucky with several incidents happening to his prized van, all of which were Boxmore's doing, but each time it was like he had part of himself stolen.
"Yeah little buddy. Just been thinking a lot…" the Level 3 alien stated. Clearly he was hiding more than that.
"Is it something you wanna talk about?" K.O. offered. Rad was not the type to get so lost in thought like this. Whenever it happened, it was nothing short of bad news. The alien paused for a brief moment, but he chuckled, shaking his head.
"I can trust you with anything little buddy. It's just… The other day, I talked with Shannon," the young stockroom worker began. K.O. feigned surprise at hearing this. His girlfriend had already told him all about it last night. He just didn't want Rad to figure out that he knew already. "And I… pretended to lose." Rad declared.
Now that actually did genuinely surprise K.O. All those injuries they treated were not that bad. The dots all began connecting themselves from there. It made him relieved to know he had not caused bodily harm to his dear friend
"I owed her it, at least, since she went out of her way to say sorry to me… and I know you helped her with it," Rad gave a toothy grin. K.O. looked down, sheepishly guessing his naturally helpful nature gave that away.
"Sorry, Rad. She asked me to during our fight," K.O. confessed. He was bad at lying as he always was.
"It's cool, pal," his close friend rubbed his head.
"…You've been wondering what it'd be like if Raymond and Darrell hadn't ruined things, haven't you?" the Level 3 hero chirped, remembering Shannon expressing similar thoughts to him last night after dinner.
"You're getting good at reading people, little dude," Rad confessed, having to wonder if he was becoming easier to read, or if K.O. was simply getting smarter. All the same, he could not hold back the truth now. "Sometimes I still dream about what it would have been like. I was thinking I was over it, turned out I wasn't, so when she apologized to me, I was ready to give it a real shot, but she said she was already dating somebody new… I dunno who they are, and it's obvious they make her happy, so I let her go."
K.O. could see that feeling of sorrowful guilt in Rad's heart, expressed in his eyes, all for ignoring his emotions for so long. "Rad, I'm so sorry…" K.O. could only say, feeling his own guilt beginning to overwhelm him.
"It's fine, K.O. I can't be mad at whoever she's with, since, well, he's made her happier than I ever probably could have… I'm sure they're a great person," Rad exclaimed. The young bodega cleaner felt crimson creeping onto his face from the praise that Rad had just given him without knowing.
"Well… I mean, that's great that you can move on," K.O. stammered, shaking off the blush.
"Yeah… Thanks for hearing me out, K.O. I feel a lot better," the Level 3 alien smirked.
"It's nothing," hummed K.O. in reply. However, they had no chance to get back to work, as the sound of an alarm blared.
"The plaza is under attack!" Mr. Gar's voice roared over the loudspeaker.
"Finally, some action," Enid hopped over the front counter and ran out the door. Her two friends followed shortly after, just as eager for a brawl as she was.
When they got outside, the usual large box from Boxmore was in the parking lot and falling apart, revealing only Raymond and Darrell. K.O. worried about where Shannon was, but the furious aura the robots gave them was far more terrifying.
"You guys are later than usual today," Enid stretched her legs, getting ready.
"You finally starting to realize you can never beat us?!" Rad laughed.
Then a baseball hit his stomach at a high velocity. Before he could recover, Darrell fired a full-powered plasma beam at him. By the time K.O. and Enid registered what happened, Rad was out, laying in a broken bodega window.
"Okay, no prefight banter! Let's go, K.O.!" the Level 4 ninja declared.
"Right Enid!" the Level 3 hero agreed, both of them dodging another blast of plasma, the two separating instantly to try and split apart their opponents. There was an unnerving silence coming from their enemies during this battle. This was no usual plaza attack.
K.O. ducked under the explosive baseball coming his way and jumped over a hockey puck that got hit toward him. He was able to get close enough to Raymond. K.O. let both aura knuckles charge up.
"Take this!" he unleashed a flurry of blow against the sports addicted robot. Each attack caused that upgraded armor to bend around, absorb and disrupt each impact individually. Upon realizing this, K.O. tried to attack faster, but it was not long before he was burnt out. "Haah… haah… did you get more upgrades?" the young hero panted. That attack exhausted him, and now he was breaking into a nervous sweat.
Enid jumped high into the air above Raymond, her leg catching fire to start her flaming axe kick. "Take this!" Enid was about to collide with the Boxmore bot's head, but before she could, she got blasted with a strong burst of plasma, throwing her to the ground.
"Enid!" K.O. called out to his groaning friend. Enid couldn't regain her bearings on the situation. Raymond whacked her head with his hockey stick. Enid stumbled for half a moment before falling onto her side, unconscious. K.O. was terrified. Both of his friends were now out cold.
"We're not here for an attack. We're here for you," Darrell shattered the tense silence of the short battle, aiming his blaster at the boy.
"It's like their upgrades got even stronger…!" K.O. gulped, wondering what happened to cause this strength. His arms were tied up behind his back with rope that Raymond had brought before they began dragging him away, leaving Enid and Rad unconscious.
It seemed like the Boxmore baddies had gone out of their way to not let anybody see them bringing in K.O. They took him to a far back room within the facility and threw him against the wall.
"Are you guys malfunctioning or something…?" the Level 3 hero groaned wondering. They were so angry today that it made him anxious.
"No. We want to figure out how Shannon wound up dating you of all people," Raymond shot back. Everything he knew, about Shannon dating him, about how happy she was with him, made his circuits boil. And he himself was responsible for setting those wheels in motion. Raymond cursed his audacity to have told her such advice.
"Wh… you guys found out?!" K.O. gasped, "H-how did you guys find out?" he knew lying his way out of it was futile. They knew the undeniable truth.
"Now I'm starting to wonder if Shannon just has a thing for heroes," Darrell commented. First time a malfunction of her emotional circuits, now this. They were going to leave their father out of it. Whatever Boxman would do was far worse than anything his sons planned.
"I am Jethro," Jethro made his sudden entrance as he rolled into the room.
"Right… Guess dad does need an explanation for that unannounced attack," Raymond understood. He walked off to get the matter resolved so they could get back to the task at hand.
"Keep an eye on li'l Romeo, Jethro. Don't let him escape," Darrell ordered before following his younger brother out the door, leaving the two alone in the room.
"Hey, Jethro… can you tell me what happened?" K.O. questioned, he presumed Jethro knew from the start, since he had been there when the young hero initially asked Shannon about her feelings for him.
"I am Jethro," the blue robot booped.
K.O.'s jaw dropped. "You told them?!" he cried, "But why!"
"I am Jethro," Jethro simply responded.
"To help us…?" the Level 3 hero frowned. This wasn't helpful in the slightest. He watched as the weakest Boxmore bot rolled up to him before opening up a small compartment on his chest.
"I am Jethro," Jethro repeated, letting a small USB driver fumble out to let K.O. have it. The young boy raised an eyebrow, not sure how any of this was helpful from Jethro, but it was too late to complain. He used his bound hands to grab the USB and hide it into his pocket. Shortly after, Jethro rolled away.
"What did he mean I'll know when the time to use it comes…?" K.O. mumbled to himself, more lost than anything. He only hoped Shannon was okay.