The day started off in the dusty red desert, where a hero with purple skin, and a blue leather vest rode a motorcycle with flame patterns on it while a voice-over announced, "Mad Sam! Human level three. A mutant straight from the Danger Zone and a warrior of the road."

The scene then changed to show a kid in blue overalls and a bomb hat charging forward with a bomb in his hand while a voice-over announced, "Bomber Fan! Hero level two. A boisterous teen with a talent for pyrotechnics. His personality is-," before the bomb exploded while the voice-over added, "EXPLOSIVE!"

The scene then showed Punching Judy, while the voice-over explained, "Punching Judy! Hero level three. The heart of a fighter and the mind of a twenty-something!"

What this actually was was KO showing off his spectacular POW card collection at the store. At the moment, he was showing off his Chip Damage card, explaining with interest, "Chip Damage, level ten! The limited edition hologramic card!"

Dendy, whom he was showing it to, commented with great intrigue while watching a hologram of Chip Damage show on the card, "Ohh! Your collection is quite extensive, KO."

Atalanta was sitting next to KO and Dendy as she was observing how KO showed his POW Cards to Dendy, "I agree with Dendy, KO. You really love to collect POW Cards, huh? Can't say I'm impressed myself for a kid collector of your age."

KO giggled, "Thanks. I've been collecting my whole life! I even have my own card," he showed off his POW card, where his level was currently 0.1, before saying, "Once you do something really cool and heroic, you'll get one too, Dendy."

However, that sentence made Dendy feel a little bit sad, mentioning, "Actually, KO, I'll never have my own POW Card."

Hearing this, KO was shocked, shouting, "WHAAAAAAAAAAT?"!

OK K.O.!: No More POW Cards

"How come you'll never have your own POW Card, Dendy?" Atalanta asked curiously and pitifully.

Dendy explained, "I'm unable to receive a Pow Card because...I'm a Kappa."

KO was a bit confused, asking Dendy, "Whassat?! I mean, what's you?"

Dendy explained to him, "Kappas are a species of semi-aquatic creatures."

"I think I've heard of you as a Kappa, Dendy, But I didn't know about the history of Kappas and why they aren't capable of having POW Cards," Atalanta admitted.

A hand-drawn flashback played, explaining the history of Kappas, while Dendy elaborated, "Many decades ago, my people lived in ponds and small lakes. Eventually, land-dwellers began to settle in the area. Kappas were forced to live under bridges, and eat leftovers from their new above ground neighbors. It wasn't ideal, but we adapted to the situation. But then, people started making up stories about Kappas pulling people underwater!"

"What?" KO asked, feeling surprised people would think that.

"Well, that's absurd!" Atalanta commented disappointedly.

"Precisely," Dendy replied, adding on, "The reality was very different from the rumors."

The hand-drawn flashback continued as one Kappa felt a kid poke him in the eyes, forcing him to shoot some water from his mouth at the kid, who ran away, panicking, "Wahhh! Daddyyy! A Kappa tried to drown me!"

Dendy continued to tell the story, "Despite their absurdity, the stories persisted, and Kappas came to be seen as monsters, incapable of power or heroism."

As the flashback ended, Dendy concluded, "That is why Kappas are ineligible for Pow Cards."

To show him what she meant, Dendy showed KO by saying, "Observe," before pressing a button to try and get a POW card. But the screen said "ERROR - NO KAPPAS" and had a frowning face symbol to demonstrate it meant no.

KO still thought it wasn't right that his close friend couldn't have access to a POW card just because of the kind of species she was, commenting, "But- you're not a monster!"

"Correct, although, I do eat a lot of fish head," Dendy mentioned.

"That still does not count. My mom ate the meat of fish heads," Atalanta admitted.

KO looked at the machine's giant array of POW cards, saying, "How can I keep collecting these cards when they exclude one of my friends?"

Dendy took that into thought, replying with, "It's true...it would appear that from a moral standpoint, Pow Cards are inherently...wrong."

"Exactly, Dendy! Pow Cards are wrong and bad," KO declared with determination. If POW cards weren't gonna include his friend, then it didn't feel right to have them.

But Atalanta was surprised by this. These kids thought too personally and extremely about these POW Cards as she tried to be reasonable with them, "Whoa, whoa, guys. Come on. You don't have to think that POW Cards are wrong and bad like that. They are just cards."

"You're right, Atalanta. Then, the next course of action is clear," Dendy proclaimed, with KO nodding in agreement, and Atalanta groaned with a facepalm.

And that course of action, what it may be, you may ask? It wound up leading to KO, Dendy, and Atalanta standing at the top of a giant volcano, with KO holding his POW card collection book.

"You know, this is not what I mean. AND I DON'T KNOW WHY I AGREE TO BRING YOU UP HERE!" Atalanta shouted, thinking KO and Dendy's plan was so ridiculous.

"Ready Dendy?" KO asked his friend.

"Ready," Dendy replied while getting her collection of POW cards from her backpack, both kids peering over the volcano, holding onto their collections.

Atalanta didn't want the kids to get through this. She just couldn't! They were just children, and she believed they should make such sacrifice, "Kids, come on. Don't be so overdramatic about this. And don't destroy your POW Cards. These POW Cards are not just cards, these are the things you guys had in common. These are how you guys like each other. Plus, you both love POW Cards. You can't destroy something you both loved. What other things symbolized your friendship than POW Cards, huh?" This caused KO and Dendy to look at each other, reflecting Atalanta's speech. She sighed, and continued, "You can't force yourself to dislike something you both love."

Dendy then stated, "It doesn't make sense to hold onto something so negative, K.O. No matter how much satisfaction they bring to both of us, or their...symbolic importance in the timeline of our friendship".

But the more set they were on being ready to dump their POW cards, the more they started to listen to Atalanta, and realize just how significant these cards are to their friendship ever since they started becoming friends.

This realization struck an emotional chord with KO, who found himself emotionally unable to do this, admitting out loud, "Dendy, I can't do it! These cards are important to me! I-I know they're bad, but...I still like them. Atalanta's right. I don't want to destroy something I love. I'm sorry, Dendy."

As KO wiped away a tear, Dendy found herself admitting to KO, "KO, I...I don't want to throw them away, either"

KO gasped, surprised to hear this, as he listened to Dendy tell him, "I can't explain why, but I just don't! You're right that Atalanta's right. I don't know how I can still feel attached to something that I know is bad!"

"Maybe….maybe we're bad," KO theorized to himself, feeling a little bit sad from the thought.

"No, KO, you're not bad," Atalanta cooed, "You can't be bad just because you think POW Cards are bad. Maybe you guys shouldn't think so negatively about POW Cards so you guys won't feel you're bad."

"Or mayyybe we can appreciate what's good about POW Cards while still recognizing their faults! KO, we don't have to volcano our POW Cards. We can like them for what they mean to us," Dendy told KO.

KO sighed in relief, saying in response, "I'm so glad this is all solved now."

Just before the scene could end with a star iris, KO seemed to remember something, shouting, "Wait!" As the scene returned to normal, KO told Dendy, "We still don't know why POW Cards exclude Kappas based on super old myths!"

"There's only one answer!" Atalanta stated.

"Huh?" KO and Dendy asked.

"Why don't we go to the origins of POW Cards, huh? Why don't we just go there, and find out ourselves? Go to the place where POW Cards were made and sold!" The half-hero/half-villain teen suggested.

"I agree with you, Atalanta. Let's go directly to the manufacturer and find out," Dendy suggested as the pair went to prepare for their quest to the POW Card Industries building to talk to the manufacturers.

Later on, Dendy's mom and dad drove the kids over to the POW Card Industries building.

Exiting the car, water spilled out, splashing KO and Atalanta while Dendy remained on her feet, telling her parents, "Thank you, mom and dad."

"Sure thing, Den," her father replied.

"We'll pick you two up after we get back from your aunt's," her mother mentioned.

The frog that was in the pond on Dendy's father's head ribbited before he asked Dendy " Hey, you wanna switch places, Den?"

He chuckled while Dendy's mom replied as she joined in on the laughter, "Oh, Pavel, you stinker!"

"Oh, i'm just fibbin'," Pavel playfully retorted as the two parents happily drove away.

Dendy mentioned while watching her parents head off as KO and Atalanta got back onto his feet, still a little wet from the water, "It's their anniversary next month. I'm very proud."

"Focus, Dendy," KO reminded her.

"Oh, yes," Dendy replied, becoming focused on the mission at hand.

"Let's get going," KO commented.

Atalanta first stopped the two kids from walking forward as she looked at the building, and said, "We just need to blend in first so no one would get suspicious."

Inside the building, a toru was going on, where a female guide in a blue shirt was showing them around, saying, "Okay, folks, let's get this tour moving!"

In the crowd of tourists, KO, who was wearing a red-and-white polka-dotted bandanna over his head, Dendy, who was wearing a red cap and a fake mustache, and Atalanta, wearing a brown fedora with a pink bow in the middle, were blended in, disguised as fellow civilians.

During the tour, the guide pointed to some of the rooms, saying, "This is our decorative break room. And on your left are some offices."

Dendy was peering her eyes over, trying to find where the POW cards were actually made.

Meanwhile, the tour guide informed the crowd, "And our gift shop is just down the hall!"

She then noticed a little "man" (Dendy in disguise) raise "his" hand, making her say, "Yup!"

Dendy then asked the tour guide, "Where in this facility are the POW Cards actually...created? I'm asking for my...book report."

The tour guide happily answered, "Great question, sir! All of our cards are generated in a secret room right over there. Behind the beautiful statue of our company's founder!"

There was a large door with a brain symbol on it and the sign "Secret room" above it right behind a gold statue of the company's founder sitting in a chair, and the name Powio B. Cardsley encrypted on its pedestal.

"That's it," Dendy asked curiously.

"Yup," the tour guide replied, not at all suspicious of why this "sir" was asking this question.

"Oookay," Dendy replied while she and KO made their way over to the room, with the tour guide watching and commenting as she led the tour group away, "Those kids were fun!"

KO, Dendy, and Atalanta tried to pass the gold statue, but they didn't know that when they did that, the gold statue came to life, until they felt a shadow loom over them and turned their heads, seeing the statue staring at them down. It shot a giant gold POW card at them, causing KO, Dendy, and Atalanta to scream and duck their heads, with only their disguises getting caught, luckily.

KO ran for his life, dodging the gold POW cards the statue shot at him as it tried to pursue the hero, while Atalanta got behind the statue, and fired her laser eyes at it, but it continued to attack KO, and Dendy hid behind a pillar and started to type something on her holographic keyboard.

Meanwhile, KO found himself surrounded by POW cards, as he turned and was cornered by the statue, who grabbed the helpless boy and was set to punish him. Suddenly, to KO's surprise, it jiggled and jostled mysteriously, releasing KO before falling over and shutting down.

The cause of that was a smiling Dendy, who had hacked into the statue and shut it off, as she said to KO and Atalanta, who joined back with the kids, "Excellent job distracting the statue android, KO, Atalanta! Let's move forward."

"Coming," KO declared as together, they walked into the secret room, and on the inside, the room was a sight to behold.

The room had a giant map on its monitor, and a deluxe keyboard to type anything and everything regarding POW Cards.

Dendy was amazed while KO's eyes sparkled in awe, the boy commenting, "Whoa."

On the map, a star appeared in a country, and a digital POW Card with the hero name "Squeezo" on it, and showed that he was a level one.

There was a twin conveyor belt printing system that worked hard to make a lot of copies of POW Cards of the new hero right away, making KO say, "Dendy, it's really the place where they find new heroes!"

Suddenly, KO gasped when he saw a computer by the printer saying, "And look! It's a computer! You love those!"

"Indeed," Dendy happily replied.

As Dendy approached the computer and got her things together to start hacking into it, KO was straight flipping out in excitement at how wondrous the place was, saying, "This is so exciting!"

Atalanta kept her gaze around the room, "I wish I can work here someday… or one of my siblings could work here," she teased, preferring any of her smart siblings.

KO took a minute to breathe in and out to regain his focus, starting to point out, "Probably gonna take forever to hack into-,"

But that got easily interrupted when Dendy announced while showing what she was doing on her holographic screen, "I'm in. I have written an override code that will allow the system to recognize the biosignatures of Kappas around the world. All I have to do is press this butto-"

But just before she could press the button, a laser beam shot over her head, making her and KO look up and see they were surrounded by two guards that stormed into the place.

"Leave! Step away from the hero-puter," one of the guards shouted while the other one grabbed the kids by their hair and shouted, "You devils are under arrest for trespassing!"

"Awww, but we were so sneaky," KO commented in defense, thinking that they were sneaky earlier.

"Does this look sneaky to you," the other guard asked him while holding a screen that showed the video of KO running away from the statue android, screaming, and Atalanta shottong lasers behind the statue.

Atalanta scoffed, and rolled her eyes, "I should've known about the camera.".

Just then, the guards heard a voice tell them, "Put them down, and back away. I'll take it from here."

The voice, to the guards' surprise, belonged to none other than Mr. Cardsley III, who was the current owner of the business.

"Yes, Mr. Cardsley III," the guard replied while saluting as the one holding the kids let them go.

Mr. Cardsley shot a smile at the guards before he faced the kids, saying to them, "Now, now, it's alright. Did you get lost? Tours are back out there, kids!"

"We are not here for no tour," KO told him before he asked Dendy, for reassurance, "Well, not today. Right, Dendy?"

"Correct," Dendy replied with an affirmative nod

KO then told Mr. Cardsley III with frustration and almost a sense of bitter anger, "In fact, we got a bone to pick with you, mister!"

"Is that so? Alright, I'm all ears," Mr. Cardsley III replied, willing and open to hearing them out.

KO started things off by saying, in dramatic fashion, "Mr. Cardsley! All our lives we've loved POW Cards! See," while showing him his collection.

Mr. Cardsley looked at KO's collection of POW Cards, impressed by how much he's collected, saying, "Oh, very nice."

KO then said while picking up Dendy, "But then, we found out you don't let Kappas be recognized as heroes! And that's the most messed up thing I ever heard!" he then clutched Mr. Cardsley III's pants, shouting in a heart-wrenching tone of voice, "So fix it, plee-eee-ase," while sobbing his heart out, hoping that the borderline in his emotions would help convince the owner.

However, Mr. Cardsley III's answer turned out to be, "Well, what's there to fix? I mean, why in the world would Kappas need POW Cards?"

"Be...cause! It's bad to leave them out! Don't be bad," KO replied, feeling very ticked off, thinking his answer sounded reasonable enough.

Mr. Cardsley's response to this was, "And you're asking we include them for...what, exactly? Drowning people? Honestly, I've never seen a Kappa do anything of significance. Heroic or otherwise, they're just little monsters."

His answer seemed to hurt Dendy a great deal, making her feel very sad,

"Hey, no one should call Kappas monsters, not even this little nice girl right here!" Atalanta thought of this as a racist, and she already noticed how this comment hurt Dendy as she tried to defend her, "You should take that back, and try to have POW Cards for Kappas, will ya?!"

Mr. Cardsley continued by adding, "And though we appreciate your feedback here at POW Industries, this is the system we've used for decades. There's no need to change a thing."

"But can't you see how much it upsets us," KO exclaimed, his face fuming red while tears were ready to burst.

Mr. Cardsley III let out a sigh before addressing, "Look, I'm sorry you're so upset, kid, but it's the simple truth."

"It's nowhere near the truth! My friend Dendy here does great things all the time! And- and-," KO mentioned before he suddenly felt a very strong question form, asking Mr. Cardsley III, "...Do you even know any Kappas, Mr. Cardsley?"

That question got the POW Card Industries owner very nervous, and in response, he signaled the guards, telling them, "Please escort these trespassers off the premises."

"Yes sir," the guards replied, ready to take the kids away.

KO felt disappointed that not even his tearful explanations were enough to convince the owner, saying as the officers approached him and Dendy with cuffs, "Still?! After all my tears?"

"Don't you dare touch us, or I'll…" Atalanta yelled with a threatening voice.

Finally, Dendy decided to speak up, asking, "Please wait. ...Once more."

The guards felt very disappointed, shouting, "Aw, c'mon! Just...wanna cuff...so baa-aa-aad," before rolling away in anger together.

Dendy faced Mr. Cardsley II, telling him, "Mr. Cardsley. Have you ever considered the reason the world does not view Kappas as heroic is because we don't have any heroes of our own to look up to? And for those that are out there doing something you'd call noteworthy, we'll never get to notice, if your computer doesn't, either. All I request is for us to be given a chance."

Mr. Cardsley didn't look amused, but given that the kids were persistent, he sighed, giving in, declaring, "Fine, if you insist on learning the hard way."

He called out to someone named "Carla!"

"Greetings, Mr. Cardsley," Carla commented while coming down, brought into the room by a metallic clamp that dropped her to the floor.

Cardsley asked his assistant, "Carla, my trusty engineer. Can you temporarily allow the hero-puter to detect the Kappa species?"

"I'd love to! Just gimme one minute…" Carla replied as she turned towards the computer and was about to type something into it when she saw a cord got plugged into the computer, making her jump back a bit.

She saw it come from Dendy's backpack, with Dendy telling her, "Pardon, I've already written an override code for your system."

Trying to play it cool, Carla replied hesitantly with a nervous chuckle, "I...just making sure you're not trying any funny business!"

She saw how Dendy had made the code, becoming instantly impressed, mentioning, "It would've taken me forever to write this code! Please, press away!"

Dendy pressed the button on her holographic screen to activate the override code, and at first, there appeared to be no changes in the map. It seemed that…it didn't work.

Thinking his point was made, Mr. Cardsley II started to tell the kids, "Ohh. Sorry, kids. Like I said, Kappa- aaah!"

That scream made the kids turn their heads and see on the map monitor that there were dozens, hundreds, possibly thousands of Kappa superheroes all over the world, with their own names, pictures, and levels.

"Wow," Carla commented, in awe of all the images.

KO, Dendy, and Atalanta were really surprised, but not as surprised as Mr. Cardsley II himself, who became more shocked when he saw the new Kappa POW Cards immediately being made and printed.

"What the…," he muttered under his breath, almost not wanting to believe what was happening.

He picked up one of the newly-made cards, which felt hot, making him toss it up a bit while saying, "Hot hot hot hot hot!"

Once it was cool enough to hold, he took a great look into it, the card showing a picture of Dendy's dad Paval, who was level 6; his mind boggled, making the owner declare, "How can this be? I - was - wrong? I. Can't. Process. I was - always told I'm right! I - " and proceeded to suck his thumb to try and calm down, like a three-year-old.

Caral giddily shook Dendy's hands before announcing, using the screen to show all the rising rates and charts, "Oh, this is fantastic! Our database is flooded with new profiles! Sales have gone through the roof! A new market of Kappas are buying our Pow Cards in droves," before mentioning to Mr. Cardsley III, "This is the biggest sale in the history of the company, Mr. Cardsley!"

Suddenly, behind him, Mr. Cardsley saw that the hallway leading up to the secret room was being flooded with thousands, almost millions of Technos, one of the employees telling him while a guard and a fellow employee were stuck, "Sir! There's no place to hold all the Technos!"

A giant wave of Technos broke through, making everyone ride a wave of money all the way back out into the main hallway.

Processing all of this new information that just went down, Mr. Cardsley sat up and asked Dendy, "Young lady. Dendy, was it?"

"Yes," Dendy replied with an affirmative nod.

Mr. Cardsley III then said to her with a genuine smile, "Dendy, you've really taught me something here today. I thank you."

He then stood up and announced, "And from now on, Pow Cards will recognize the heroic feats of Kappas across the globe! Grandfather would be proud...of how much money we're making," before diving into the Techno coins and swimming in them as if it was water, cheering happily that he was now very, very, very rich.

Even the statue itself shed a gold tear of joy.

KO, Dendy, and Atalanta laid on the coins, with KO telling her, "Great job, as always, Dendy! There's so many more cool Pow Cards I can strive to collect now," before diving into the coins and collecting some of the new POW cards that traveled with the money wave.

"Well, I can collect some of my own if I don't mind myself."

Dendy smiled, sitting up and hugging her knees while replying, "Yes, Kappas never needed POW Cards to be heroes. But knowing that I can get one too, makes me feel...hmm!"

Truth be told, Dendy felt very happy and quite proud that she was able to help accomplish something historic and wonderful for her people.

KO then mentioned, "But Dendy, this was super heroic! Look!"

Dendy noticed a POW Card that had her picture, name, and a level standing: 1. She happily picked it up and examined it, coming to terms that it was indeed real; she finally now had her own POW Card! She smiled happily before taking her backpack off and adding her new POW Card into her collection.

Atalanta happily commented on Dendy's success, "Well, congratulations on getting your own POW Card, Dendy. You did something heroic, and you got your own card. Maybe someday I'll get mine too."

"Or maybe… you can get your today," Dendy showed Atalanta a POW Card.

Atalanta looked at the POW Card Dendy showed to her, and gasped. It has her picture name, and level power: ?. "Dendy…" she grabbed the card, and looked closely. It was her card. It was hers, "I…" Atalanta was so speechless. She thought it was impossible for her to get a POW Card because she was still undecided status. But here it was. Her very own POW Card, "I don't know what to say. My very own POW Card? But… but how?"

"While I was coding into the system earlier, I used my spare time to code into the computer to have your own POW Card. Yours is easier," Dendy explained as the flashback showed that while Atalanta was gazing at the Secret Room, Dendy was coding into her hackpack while glancing at Atalanta. The flashback ended, and explained further, pointing "Unfortunately the computer didn't give you a specific level of your POW Card. it only left you a question mark."

"It doesn't matter what my level is. It's not important. What's more important is that I have my very own POW Card!" Atalanta squealed happily as she picked up Dendy, and hugged her, "Thank you so much, Dendy!"

"I'm happy to help," Dendy answered.

Atalanta then put Dendy down before flying in loops in the air with such happiness, "I can't wait to tell my family! Woo-hoo!" She flew off while finding the exit.

The kids watched Atalanta go as KO told Dendy, "Wow, Dendy, not only you gave Kappas a chance to have their POW Cards, but you also helped Atalanta too."

"Atalanta was like me. Not as a Kappa, but because she didn't have her own POW Card. After she went along to help us, I decided to give her her own card. She deserves it," Dendy said.

THE END

Special thanks to MasterClass60 for helping me with this story.