"I sit behind you in class." Dendy explained as the two walked outside of the bodega. T.K.O. had "gotten off" because his job was "Helper," and as a part of Doc. Venomous's plaza, he had to help everyone that came to the plaza. He was thankful to still be paid as he followed the girl around the plaza. "I've noticed things that usually villain's never care about come into your radar."
He flinched a tiny bit and Dendy continued, "I also know that your father is the prestigious ex-hero Laserblast."
He stopped in his tracks. "Anything else, you stalker?"
"I'm not a stalker, just a scientist looking for something new to investigate, and I've noticed that you wish to bond with your villainous coworkers even when they won't spare you a passing glance. And I think I know why."
He gulped.
"You wish to have friendships like a normal creature in childhood, but are held to far higher expectations by your father."
He let out a sigh of relief.
"And…let me tell you…I have no friends of my own as well, so I thought that this way I could get someone to 'help me.'"
T.K.O. felt those words stir in his heart. He had wanted to help people, he never could let anyone know that but…she was…much strange and slightly more polite about it. "Tch. Yeah, sure, I'll help you I guess." He sighed.
"Let us proceed." She said, taking off her backpack.
"What, you got your quest list in your backpack?"
"This is no ordinary backpack," she told him, revealing a strange device. "I use it to allocate code blocks for the purpose of manipulating real-world objects."
"So, what, you play Cob with that thing?"
"More of, hack my way into changing the world around me for the better."
"Yeah, playing Cob."
Dendy rolled her eyes. "Now, listen, I need your help to gather three things to help me fix it, as it is broken."
"Alright, I'm sure you could find them all in the bodega-"
"Already hacked and checked your stocks. You do not have what I am looking for."
"What are ya lookin' for?"
"The first thing is a dilation circuit." She presented.
"Hmph. That's on top of the plaza roof. Here, let me show ya." He stamped up and floated to the ledge. "What, can you not get up here?"
"One second!" Dendy charged her feet, and made a bound upwards,grabbing her boots in the process and putting them back on.
"Sick." T.K.O. told her.
"I am quite healthy."
"No. I mean- Nevermind." T.K.O. muttered.
"So, there is a lot of dilation circuits up here, but will I find one in the right size?"
"You should." T.K.O. growled as he fiddled with something in his jacket pocket.
Dendy did, and procured the piece carefully. "The second item we need is a copper pewter alloy, preferably in disc form."
"Huh. Well, if you got a .25 techno disc, I know where to get the thing." T.K.O. shrugged. "The arcade is usually not getting that much business except for villains though."
Dendy thought for a moment. It would be much easier to get in if she had a villain with her, especially considering the villain's policy on attacking heroes. "Could you protect me?"
T.K.O. nearly choked on air. "Wh-what?"
"Could you protect me?" Dendy asked again. "I'm not very strong, and I'm a sure target for them to gang up on me. I know Doc. Venomous enjoys seeing the fights and never stops them."
T.K.O. paused, feeling his blood rush to his face. "Ugh. Fine. Only cause I don't want to go back to the bodega. Too stuffy."
Dendy giggled with triumph.
The two walked into the arcade and Dendy looked around at the villain's who were giving her hateful glances. While not one for emotion, Dendy felt fear claw at her spine and she followed closely with T.K.O., making sure not to be too close and keeping in step with him.
T.K.O. just kept onward, looking for the token machine. When he found it, he made a quicker beeline for it, causing Dendy to go a bit faster.
"Alright, we're just .25 technos away from getting your computer disc whatchamacallit. Let me just-" He searched his right pocket, and found nothing and he turned his inside of his left pocket out. There were two moths that came out. He looked surprised. "Uh…gimme a sec, nerd. Stay put." He said, walking away.
Dendy couldn't stay put though. She felt so many eyes watching her. Like hungry hyenas finding an injured gazelle in the savannah. She ran to behind the token machine, and looked at the wiring. Hmm, faulty. If I just…rewire this… she followed her mind's blueprints and got the token machine to spill.
"Gotcha, ya little scamp!" T.K.O. grinned at the caught moth and then looked back to the token machine, which now villains were gathering and pocketing the tokens.
Dendy tried to sneakily grab one, until a villain spotted her.
"Hey everyone!" The villain triumphantly showed her off. "This kid just got us free games!"
"Haha! Noice!"
"I can't wait!"
The villain looked back at Dendy, who seemed frightened. "Well, go on kid! Take as many as you like!"
Dendy gulped, and looked down as she grabbed a single token.
"Haha! What's with that look? C'mon, there's gotta be more that you want!"
"I…er-"
T.K.O. didn't think as the words left his mouth. "Hey! Science Baby! You comin' or what!?"
Dendy felt warm at the nickname and she quickly went to T.K.O., pocketing the needed copper pewter alloy disc.
The two walked out with T.K.O. having his arm around her shoulders and keeping her close to him. The two walked out and away from the arcade, not breaking a part.
"What's the last thing?" T.K.O. asked.
"Hmm? Oh, right! Yes! The last item I need is a glorb." She showed what seemed to be a white, nonliving gloop. "I know that there is a roboto barber around here, so we can just extract it by force-"
"No!"
Dendy looked at T.K.O. quizzically, and he flinched, almost as if he expected a hit to come from her. "No?"
T.K.O. took a bit to find his voice. "U-uh…y-yeah…you can't hurt Mr. Logic, he's like…everyone's barber. Society can't exist if like, everyone's bumping into everything they see because their hair's so long!" He explained with a laugh. To demonstrate, he made his hair fall in front of his face and walked away from Dendy, running into a pole and falling.
Dendy giggled, and that caused T.K.O. to giggle a bit too. She then realized something. "Wait, then how do I get a glorb without a robot?"
"Oh, Boxmore sends in their robots for testing against those who work at Gar's. We're constantly smashing them up and throwing them in the alley, but I'm sure one of them could still have a glorb."
"Hm. Very well. To the alloy!"
"Alley."
"To the alley!" They began to walk and Dendy readjusted her backpack. "This is not the first time a glorb has destabilized my rig's dilation circuit."
T.K.O. nodded absent-mindedly, pretending to know what that meant.
"You know how it is with power cells!" Dendy laughed.
"Uh, yeah, power cells. That's like…a battery?"
"Precisely! It's the last thing I need to restore the backpack to its former glory! Once we retrieve one, that'll be it!"
T.K.O. stopped and leaned in. "But, Dendy, how can that be it…" He poked her in the chest. "When you're it?"
She didn't seem to get it.
"You're supposed to tag me back."
"Oh." Dendy gingerly brought her hand out to try and tag T.K.O., but he leaned away with a giggle. Dendy caught on, and began to chase after him as he ran from her. She caught up quickly and tagged him on the back. He looked back with a boyish grin. "You're it!" She ran around his right flank to try and make a lap around the plaza, and T.K.O. chased after her, laughing.
"You're faster than you look!" He shouted.
"This game is more fun than it looks!"
"Well, that's good, cause-" He jumped into the air, "you're it!" He said as he tagged her and got in front of her.
"Not for long!" Dendy called and stopped.
T.K.O. looked ahead, and didn't stop in time. He ran into the fence.
He felt a light tap, and there was Dendy, next to him. He giggled and soon Dendy joined in as he tried to get himself down.
Dendy gasped. "I have forgotten about our task. That is very unlike me. Anyway, glorbs are commonly-"
"Found one!" T.K.O. announced, presenting a glowing orb that was attached to a fish like machine. He climbed over the fence while she was monologuing.
Dendy opened the gate to let herself in. "While that is quite the glowing orb, that is not a glorb." She told him.
"How can you tell?"
"Glorbs are found inside of robots. This one seems to be using it externally." She told him as he fiddled with the wire.
The junk fish opened its maw and tried to chomp down on T.K.O. He dodged and growled in triumph. "Hah! NO way would you be able to get the drop on me! You'd have to get up pretty earl-eeeeee!" The junk fish reeled him in and practically ate him.
Dendy looked with curiosity. "Not what I was expecting, but effective." She brought up her screens.
"Don't worry Dendy!" T.K.O. announced. "I'll get the glorb out of this bot!" He punched the wall with the fist that still had the orb. It simply cracked and exploded. He reeled back from the impact before growling. "Okay…let's see how tough you are without it!" He began to fight inside the robot as Dendy recorded his status.
Determination: Subject appears to be aloof, and is unclear about this, though seems to embrace situations with even the slightest statistical likelihood of success.
Hobbies: Fighting, helping others, "tag" game.
Problem-Solving: Subject displays a tendency to fixate on and exhaust a single method of solving a problem rather than seeking novel approaches.
Mortality: No data.
She scrolled.
Reflexes: Response to physical stimuli are more expedient than others.
Temperament: While appearing aloof similar to his coworkers, he seems to still cling on to what some would call vestiges of childhood, which he should embrace given his age.
Agency: Subject is quick to act, and constantly needs external validation.
Self-Preservation: Subject appears to embrace danger openly. Subject may be compensating for conspicuous lack of maternal figure and neglectful father figure by placing himself in dangerous situations, hoping to prove either worthy of love or capable of himself.
Another scroll until she reached the top.
Subject Name: Turbo K.O.
Hair Color: Dark brown
Eye Color: Dark violet
POW Level: 0
Occupation: Student/Part-Time Helper
Known Allies: Laserblast (Father(questionable))
Birthday: No data
Blood Type: O
Pain Tolerance: High
Body Fat Percentile: No Data
GPA: No Data.
The experimentation went into the night, with T.K.O. still in the fish and punching his way.
Dendy heard a bone crack, followed by a pained screech.
"I-I-I-I…I guess my dad was right…I belong in the trash…" T.K.O. sobbed. "Can you type up documents on your screen thing?"
"Oh, that can be managed." Dendy said, typing.
"Can you take my last will and testament?"
Dendy looked to the gate, and saw no one was coming. "Proceed."
"To Rad: I leave my action figures. To Enid: I leave my video games. They should split my piggy bank, for college… It's only fair Dad gets my- my comic books. As for my POW Cards-"
"You collect POW Cards?!"
"Y-yeah! Er. I used to. Before my life as a trash boy began."
Dendy collapsed her screen. "I. Love. POW CARDS! Have you seen the next Ted Viking card with battle damage? It's so cool! I have doubles!"
"No! If we hadn't come here to fix your backpack, we could've traded."
Dendy looked to her backpack. "I think we will be able to trade."
"Maybe. If you can get this thing to open." T.K.O. began to ramble as Dendy attached her wire to the fish.
"If junk fish contains child, then barf!" Dendy declared.
The junk fish was overrided and barfed out T.K.O.
He groaned before realizing what happened. "I'm free!" T.K.O. declared. He then saw the wire. "Woah! Ya fixed your backpack! Guess you didn't need that glorb then, huh?"
"T.K.O…my backpack was never broken."
"Oh, well, glorb or no glorb, problem solved!"
Dendy blushed. Was he serious, just forgiving her like that?
"You slap it!"
Dendy came back to her senses and realized T.K.O. outstretched his hand. "It's just that…rather, I…mmm!"
"It's easy, you just take your hand-"
"You aren't understanding! I was interested in you as a specimen. The backpack quest was a ruse I engineered to study you in a variety of shared experiences."
"Wait…you just wanted to hang out with me?"
Dendy put her hand over her mouth sheepishly. "Correct."
T.K.O. laughed. "If you wanted to hang out, you could've just asked!"
"Oh."
"It might have been for a fake quest, but I still had a lot of fun. Plus, I made a new friend. That part's real, right?"
Dendy blushed. "I— I would not have made such an error had I known of our common interests."
T.K.O. smiled at her, which she returned.
Dendy then gasped and pulled up his stats, which T.K.O. looked to. "Wait, so you do stalk me?"
"Everyone has their own page." Dendy explained. Next to Allies, she added: "Dendy (self)."
The two smiled at each other, before T.K.O. poked her. "You're it!" He declared.