Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Sorry, K.O.,” Venomous sneered as he put on Lazerblast’s helmet. He loomed down at the boy menacingly, “I am your father.”

“No,” K.O. whispered, his strength failing him. The purple lightning cloaking his arms began to spread as his fight for control waned. He wanted to scream, cry out for help, or ignore Professor Venomous’ claim.

No. He thought. No no no no no no no no no no!

The purple lightning began to thicken, T.K.O. banging inside of his subconscious for freedom. No amount of will power was going to help him. K.O. invested a great deal of energy in containing T.K.O. and he could feel it slipping away in his shock, slipping away like water trickling through cracks in a pool.

It’s just a dream, K.O. thought, Just a bad dream and I’ll wake up and Lazerblast won’t be Professor Venomous and I’ll still have full hero blood in me. Let me wake up, Cob. Please let me wake up!

He didn’t notice Professor Venomous kneeling down next to him, or how the villain slipped his hand into his lab coat to pull out a remote.

“Your blood,” Professor Venomous sounded amused, “Is it…beckoning you? Fighting for dominance?”

K.O. was too startled to respond.

Professor Venomous continued in what K.O. thought was meant to be a fatherly tone, “You shouldn’t keep it in like that, it’s not healthy for you. Don’t fight it, K.O. Let your blood boil. Free the beast.”

“N-no,” K.O. gritted his teeth, feeling his voice deepen for a moment before he quashed it down. He wasn’t letting T.K.O. out again, there was no telling what would happen if he did.

This made Venomous sigh, “Well, if you don’t want to let it happen, who am I to make you?” For a brief moment, the lightning faded away. K.O. looked up at him hopefully.

Click!

K.O. felt the floor beneath him rise up and the purple lightning began to consume him again. TKO’s voice grew louder in his head.

Let me out. Let me out! LET! ME! OUUUUUUUUT!

Straps pinned his arms and legs together, rotating him to face Venomous, who was searching through his lab coat again.

“Something for the nerves,” he said before shoving something under K.O.’s nose and he smelled something like lavender and mint. Immediately, the lightning was gone, and K.O. sagged in relief. His body felt numb, the effort from containing K.O. must have been a lot harder than he thought. This must be what pudding feels like, unable to keep itself together on its own. Maybe a little shut eye wouldn’t hurt…

K.O. snored softly as the straps released him. Venomous looked at him with near fondness, as if he were seeing the boy for the first time. He picked up the boy and leapt off the railings. The floor beneath him rose and the ceiling above opened, right as a cannon rose up from the floor with Boxman inside it. He had two helmets with him, one already on his head.

“Cannon’s aimed at Billiam’s, PV!” He grinned. He caught sight of K.O. in Venomous’s arms, “What’s that kid doing?”

Venomous accepted the helmet without comment and secured it onto his son, “I’m thinking of turning this into a Bring Your Kid to Work day.”

He climbed into the cannon with a baffled Boxman and smirked as it went off, sending all three of them into the sky.

Chapter Text

The first sensation was awareness. Followed by awareness of being aware. K.O.’s brain couldn’t register much else thereafter for a time. He could hear voices but couldn’t put names to them for some reason. Wasn’t he just sleeping? It felt like his fingers weren’t there anymore, though. And he didn’t feel a soft blanket covering him. And Mommy would hold him a lot differently than…what?

His mouth fumbled over half-made words, his tongue heavy as a boulder.

“…payment just received…”

Payment? Like working at the Bodega and getting handed a check from Mr. Garr? And then having Mommy put most of it into the bank for college? And who was that talking? He never heard that person before.

“…forward to doing business again…”

That voice. It sounded…familiar. And it make K.O. want to throttle something.

“I’m not going to even ask about that in your hands. Heroes aren’t allowed in my home, you know.”

“That is none of your concern, I’m afraid, Billiam.”

K.O. chose that moment to groan as more feeling returned to his body little by little.

“Now if you’ll excuse me,” he was starting to match a name to the person talking. Valor?...Venus?...Vinyl? Now there was movement, brisk and with intention. He was adjusted in someone’s arms almost protectively. Now they were bouncing up and down, probably going downstairs.

A scoff came from someone else behind them.

“I’m thinking of turning this into a Bring Your Kid to Work day,” the new voice imitated the first one sarcastically in a strangely high pitched tone for a man, “All the brat did was dangle in your arms like game. What a waste of time!”

“Why are you complaining? It didn’t affect the deal at all,” the first voice said, “Besides, you wouldn’t want to have him wrecking things at the last minute, would you?”

“No, I guess I wouldn’t,” the second voice agreed, “it feels nice to win once in a while.”

“Oh, we definitely won something,” the first voice sounded viciously victorious, “I never even knew.”

“You know, I told you we should have drawn out the reveal. Maybe say it in front of the other plaza nuts like that mom of his or the shirtless muscle man. Maybe POINT, even,” the second voice said. K.O. cracked open one eye halfway and shut it just as quickly. Reveal. Drawn out. Venomous! Oh. And Buttman. His brain was working a lot better than it was a few minutes ago. “Now we have to drag a hero brat around with us for the rest of the day.”

“Not for too long,” Venomous said, “the drug should be wearing off now. Right, son?”

K.O. opened his eyes in surprise, seeing Venomous looking at him with amusement. That would have been nice if it was his mom or Enid or Rad, but this creep was making it all…creepy! He tried jumping out of Venomous’ grasp. But his limbs flailed helplessly like a baby instead.

“What did you give me?” He demanded.

Venomous smirked, “I told you, something for the nerves. And now you can’t control your arms or legs without my saying so.”

“Why am I here? What do you want?” K.O. registered straps around his head, “And why am I wearing a helmet?”

“One, you’re here because I want you to be. Two, what I want is power and wealth, things I already have, but I don’t think that’s what you meant. Three, we were fired out of a cannon and there were only two available. You’re welcome, by the way.”

K.O. struggled to move, but Venomous’ hold didn’t give. He thought it was the most humiliating thing he ever had to deal with. It was worse than when he let T.K.O. freely control his body for a whole day without supervision. He felt himself lowered to the ground, Venomous only maintaining his grip on one wrist. To his surprise, his legs didn’t buckle when they touched the floor.

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” Venomous began in a calm tone, “We’re going back to Boxmore and you’re going to stay by my side the entire time, okay?”

K.O. glared at him in response and tried to swing a punch at him. His other arm didn’t respond.

“That’s it?!” Buttman looked at Venomous in disbelief, “You’re letting the brat into my facility and you’re turning it into a field trip?!”

“Yeah?” Venomous raised an eyebrow, “What would you expect me to do?”

“Torture him! Dissect him! Lock him in a cell and hold him hostage for the Bodega losers to waste their time rescuing! Have sessions of physical torment and make him lose hope! Make him cry for his mommy and have him wet himself!” Buttman listed off.

“In other words, you want me to put a target on our backs by doing all this to him,” Venomous’ voice was monotone, “Giving Silver Sparks, Elbow, and the rest of the heroes at the Plaza a reason to destroy us and our minions. Maybe even for good.”

“Well, yes,” Buttman nodded with satisfaction. He wilted when he saw the odd smile Venomous now had on his face, like he was doing everything in his power not to lose his temper.

“Boxman, I might be a villain, but I also have standards. You don’t see me doing that with Fink, do you?”

Buttman started to sweat, “Didn’t you have Daryl trap him and his friends, separate them, have all three of them watch goo clones of themselves get crushed and top it off by saying you wanted to dissect them when they were mentally broken?”

Venomous looked thoughtful, “I did? Oh, right, I did say that.”

K.O. also remembered that and felt his blood boiling at the thought. This jerkface thinks that he was just going to forget about what he put K.O., Enid and Rad through just like that?! For a wild moment, he decided to let T.K.O. out to handle those two creeps but found that he couldn’t reach into his subconscious. He closed his eyes and concentrated harder, trying to find that part of him that held his darker side. He couldn’t feel any lightning cackling around him, no loss of control, no other. Maybe that drug kept him from letting T.K.O. out, too.

“Come on, K.O.,” Venomous ordered, but in a gentle tone.

He tugged at K.O.’s wrist and to the boy’s shock, he started walking alongside the villain. Buttman followed close behind, looking even more baffled than usual.

“Aw, come on, PV! We could torment him! Think of the possibilities!

“Not now,” Venomous said impatiently, “Now come on!”

K.O. thought of crying out for help, but one look from Venomous stopped that thought. It wasn’t a threatening look, it looked more curious and interested.

If Venomous wasn’t going to torture him, then maybe the best thing to do was wait for the right opportunity to strike. Maybe wait until he had better control of his body. He hoped he would get out soon before his mom started worrying.

Chapter Text

Radicles had purged his body a sixth time that day, his body sagging against the cool floor. He didn't care that it was in the bathroom, he just wanted to plant his face against the tiles until his stomach stopped being a jerk to him. A few stalls away from him, Enid had just finished another round of vomiting and was groaning loudly.

It really stinked, he thought, it stinked that they both got sick and couldn't just get over it like a typical cold. It stinked that they felt so weak after so many times flushing their systems to get over the stupid bug. And it stinked that there was a mission Mr. Gar wanted them to do and only K.O. was well enough to handle it.

He'll be fine, Rad told himself, he's a tough kid. It's just a glorb deal and Buttman won't be a problem.

A new voice was heard outside his stall, "Rad, Enid, if you're feeling a little better, I brought some ice for you both to chew on."

"Great…" Enid said in her stall weakly.

"K.O.'s mom?" Rad managed to ask.

"That's me," Carol replied cheerfully.

"Why did we have to get food poisoning?"

"Cause you ate bad food."

"No. Why did we have to get food poisoning when there's a mission to do?"

A short time later, Carol had helped Enid and Rad out of the bathroom and into some nearby chairs. She handed them small chunks of ice with advice to take it slow. Rad obeyed without argument, the last time he got sick and didn't listen to his friends, his telekinesis was out of whack. There was a small part of him that wondered if the ice would do any good for his stomach, none of the remedies Enid or K.O. tried on him helped last time at all.

That doubt was quashed as his stomach slowly settled, the relief was slow, but clearly there.

"Take it easy for the rest of the day," Carol ordered them in a fake-stern voice, "Doctor's orders."

"Then where's your MD, Doc?" Enid smirked.

There was a quiet for a time, Carol looking over the two workers and even going over to both of them and rubbing their backs in soothing circles.

"This'll pass in no time," she assured them.

Just then, Mr. Gar came in looking agitated.

"Gene, what's up?" Carol stood up.

"K.O. should have been back by now," he said, checking his watch.

"From where?" Enid asked.

"since you two were throwing up, I sent him to intercept the glorb deal himself," Mr. Gar brushed past them, clenching and unclenching his fists.

"It's K.O., he probably just got captured or something," Rad waved dismissively, "He'll be back in no time."

But Enid was looking at her watch with a frown as he said this, "I don't think so. We usually get out of traps in eleven minutes, give or take."

"Really?" Rad looked at her in surprise. She nodded and Rad looked thoughtful, "Huh, it always seemed longer than that."

O.K. K.O. (LET'S BE HEROES!)

K.O remembered Enid talking to Elodie about a show with the heroine being under control of some villain. Any order he gave, she would have had to follow whether she wanted to or not. He didn't really know anything else about the show because Enid had stopped talking when she saw K.O. in the same room. All he picked up on was that the heroine was aware of her actions but couldn't do anything about it.

Maybe being unable to control his own body was like a similar experience. Maybe Professor Venomous was like the bad guy Enid mentioned.

A door slid open and he had no choice but to follow Venomous inside. It was a nice looking room with bare walls and a bed big enough for him. There was a flat screen TV on one end of the room and a chair with a desk close by, but other than that, there was nothing else.

Venomous pointed to the bed, "Why don't you take a seat?"

He let go of K.O.'s hand and waited. K.O. took a step forward and stopped. What if the drug was starting to wear off now?

"Sit on the bed right now, I want to talk to you."

K.O. felt his feet moving again and tried to struggle, but nothing worked. He sat down on the edge of the bed while Venomous moved the chair over and sat down as well.

"K.O.," Venomous started, "I want to start this new relationship on a…more positive note."

"Meaning?" K.O. wished he could have crossed his arms as he said this, but at least he could still scowl.

"We wipe the slate clean," Venomous supplied, baring his teeth in an evil grin. Or at least, it was an unintentional evil grin, K.O. hoped that whatever expression was on his face was enough to make Venomous realize what he was doing. He coughed into his mouth and continued, "It's been, what? 6-11 years? That's a long time and I already have lots of ideas for father-son bonding we could do –"

"LIKE ATTACKING THE PLAZA!"

Venomous ignored Boxman's shout and smiled, "Exactly like that."

K.O. shook his head.

Venomous frowned, "Okay…? How about destroying public property?"

"Nope."

"Stealing candy from a baby?"

"NEVER!" K.O. shouted.

"MY CANDY'S OFF LIMITS, BOSS!" Fink shouted through the door. There was a pause and then, "AND I'M NOT A BABY!"

"I wasn't talking about you, Fink!" Venomous called back.

Venomous pinched the bridge of his nose, "Do you want a formal apology for our previous encounters, then?"

"I want to kick your butts and go back to the Bodega!"

Boxman popped his head through the door just then.

"Do you think your little friends will want to spend time with you, knowing you're part villain?" He sneered. He caught Venomous' stare and slunk away. K.O. stared off, cold sweat beading his brow. What did Boxman know? His friends went to the trouble of rescuing him the very first day they met, they wouldn't…they couldn't…

Venomous looked uncomfortable, "How about we pick up the discussion in a little while? We could talk more at dinner." He stood up without further comment and tried to give a reassuring look, but stopped when he saw the purple lightning appear again. And then he was gone, and the door closed behind him.

K.O. could feel his limbs shaking uncontrollably. I want out. You dumped me here! I want out of this place!

I am loved and appreciated. I am loved and appreciated.

You're just a scrawny kid. Half-villain. Look at me! Look what I can do!

I am loved and appreciated, I am loved and appreciated. I AM LOVED AND APPRECIATED!

T.K.O. gave up his taunts and it became quiet again. Except for the muffled sounds of K.O. crying into the pillow.

Chapter Text

Enid signaled to Rad and they both crept out through the back. Carol’s pacing was turning more frantic and Mr. Gar looked like he was ready to storm Boxmore himself if K.O. didn’t answer his calls soon. After the last time with Venomous, they weren’t going to take any chances.

There was no way they were gonna let their little buddy get dissected! Sure, their stomachs still felt like crud, but the worst was over. They weren’t vomiting every five minutes anymore, at least. They brought some bottles of water – not to drink, just to rinse their mouths off with – and swapped their uniforms for the black unitards they used on missions. This would have to be fast and brutal – Enid was hoping it would be spectacularly brutal.

They were gonna get their buddy back, no matter what it took.

O.K. K.O. (WE FIGHT TO THE END!)

K.O.’s phone rang again, but he didn’t pick it up.

Ring ring ring ring!

It was probably Mr. Gar calling him to see what was taking him so long. Maybe even telling him that he was going to go in after him if K.O. was in any trouble at all.

Ring ring ring ring!

Mom was probably getting worried too, she’d be ready to storm in and fight to the end just to get him back.

Ring ring ring ring!

It was going to be bad enough for Mom when she found out, but K.O. couldn’t bear to see Mr. Gar looking at him like he was some monster. And he couldn’t bear to have the others see him the same way. It was bad enough when T.K.O. first appeared and wreaked havoc on the Plaza.

The ringing stopped.

Nobody else came into the room after Venomous left. Not even Fink, which would have made sense, she would have taken a moment to taunt him like she did last time. He was all alone, silently waiting out what was going to come next. Face still buried in the pillow, he was honestly surprised that it didn’t take long for the crying to stop. He felt angry, terrified, distressed and helpless. Now he just felt…empty. Was he going to end up calling Boxmore his new home? Was he going to end up having to attack the Plaza from now on?

Aw for cob’s sake! You’re strong! Just bust your way out of here!

I can’t, K.O. thought, I don’t know what will happen.

Then let me handle it! T.K.O.  suggested. I can take over the show from here and get us out of here!

You lost that privilege!

I’ll behave this time!

No you won’t!

Yes I will!

No. You. WON’T!

YES! I! WILL!

Just then, he heard Boxman’s voice echoing outside in the halls.

“Attention Rad and Enid,” Boxman must feel like he was on a roll if he sounded so cheerful, “We have your precious friend with us. No need to panic, he’s unharmed. If you want him, come and get him.”

He paused before speaking into the microphone again. K.O. was sure that Boxman was sneering right now, “By the way, be sure to give us a little warning when you come in. Professor Venomous and K.O. are in the middle of catching up. Your little buddy’s just so eager to know his father.”

You Are My Best Friend (LET’S BE HEROES!)

Venomous looked over the monitor with a mix of amusement, boredom and frustration. On one hand, he wanted to see the reactions of those two other heroes when the bomb was dropped. On the other hand, he wanted to do that part within the span of another season. Draw it out more, make them wonder why he would potentially interact with K.O. more often. One look from Boxman told him that it was clearly a form of payback for telling K.O. that he used to be Laserblast. Well played, Boxy. Well played.

Their reactions looked priceless; it appeared they had taken the moment to have a drink when Boxman announced over the speakers. In unison, they both spat out the water with bug-eyed expressions. Then they just took on more grave expressions and began to attack Boxmore with vigor, destroying any Darrel, Shannon, or Raymond that got in their way. Jethros were just ignored and the Ernestos just ran away screaming in terror.

Boxman rubbed his hands maniacally, “Once they find K.O. and confront him with this new revelation, their friendship would be over forever! Just like it should have been from the beginning.”

He looked at Venomous and added, “Oh, and you’ll have an excuse to keep him here. No one would want him after this.”

Venomous was tempted to question his partner’s line of logic, but the part about the hero community turning their backs on K.O. sounded plausible at best. Fink was watching the monitors as Rad and Enid continued their rampage – and while they appeared to be sick too, that was impressive – with a rare expression of dread.

“Boss, we gotta get outta here!” Fink tugged at the hem of Venomous’ coat frantically to no avail, “Before they blast us with a love beam!”

“Not now, Fink!” Venomous pushed Fink behind him, trying not to lose his patience with her. The next few minutes would define what the future would hold for everyone and he did not want it interrupted. She was a good minion and he could never handle seeing those puppy-dog eyes whenever she thought she was in trouble. The last thing he wanted was to yell at her. He held his old helmet under one arm, reluctant to dispose of it, thinking of the upgrades he could add to it.

“If you want to know where K.O. is,” Boxman spoke into the microphone again, “He’s in room 101. And don’t worry, K.O., we have a screen in there for you to watch your knights in shining armor as they brave their way to you.”

O.K. K.O. (LET’S START THE SHOOOOOW!)

K.O. was shaking like a leaf as he watched Enid kick another fireball at another camera feed on the screen that just appeared on one of the walls. They shouldn’t be here; they wouldn’t want to hang out with him anymore if Venomous and Boxman had their way. There was a camera feed showing Boxman who was looking like Christmas had arrived a day early. Venomous, on the other hand, had some sort of sympathetic expression on his face.

Oh yeah, he was so sorry that his surprise son slash enemy was going to have the bomb dropped on his best friends. Just like he was sorry for all those times he helped Boxman attack the plaza, or shot K.O., Rad and Enid into the sky with that improv pie cannon, or making those goo clones with their memories and actual souls and then killing them in front of K.O. and the others – twice, in K.O.’s case – and then adding that he would want to break them and dissect them like frogs.

Professor Venomous was definitely getting the Father of the Year award after all of that.

All too soon, Rad and Enid burst through the door, looking pale in the face, but bracing for a fight. Not even food poisoning was going to stop them from trying to look out for him. It was going to make the next few minutes even worse if they didn’t get out. K.O. tried to run towards them; they came to save him, now they could get out pronto. But before he could make it past two steps, an opening in the wall on K.O.’s left appeared and Venomous was entering right through it, Fink and Boxman trailing close behind. Boxman was holding a bag of popcorn and munching on it hungrily.

“Radilcles, Enid. Pleasure to see you again.” Oh cob, that sickeningly-sweet voice was making K.O. want to go T.K.O. on that dirtbag right now.

Yeah, we can crush that bug and send the robot chicken out after him!

“Professor Venomous,” Enid’s stance went rigid. She smirked, “Good, we get to save our pal and kick your butt in record time!”

Rad mirrored her expression, “Yea-heah! I’ve been wanting to get back at you for last time!”

“Oh, I’m not here to fight,” K.O. looked at Venomous and saw how affable the man was acting. Like he was greeting an old friend, “In fact, I just wanted to greet you personally with my business partner and minion.”

“Oh, hey Buttman and Fink,” Enid spared a glance at them before directing a glare at Venomous, “Great, we said hi, now we’re taking K.O. back!”

“Or things are gonna get messy,” Rad raised a finger in the air and let it become engulfed in a purplish-pink aura.

“You want K.O. back?” Boxman had a look of faux-surprise on his face, “Oh dear, this does complicate things, now doesn’t it? With his dad and all? The famous Laserblast in the flesh. But you know him as Professor Venomous.”

Rad looked dumbfounded and stared blankly. Enid looked to K.O., “He’s joking, right?”

K.O. shook his head.

Then Enid and Rad charged towards K.O.

This is it, K.O. thought, We can’t be friends anymore…

He was shocked when they both pulled him in for a big hug, Enid holding Rad and K.O. up by herself. That’s when they started asking him stuff at the same time, it was hard for K.O. to keep up.

“You’re not hurt, are you?”

“– long have you been –?”

“They didn’t – ?”

“- stuck in here?”

“- no one hurt you, did they?”

“W-what?” K.O. stared at his friends in shock, “Why would you care?”

“Are you kidding me?!” Rad picked up KO and ruffled his hair, “We came here to save you!”

Venomous felt himself knocked back a couple of feet. He maintained his footing and looked around frantically for where the attack came from.

“But I have villain blood in me,” K.O. mumbled, “Why would you want to be around me?”

Enid took him from Rad and cradled him in her arms, “It doesn’t matter who you’re related to.”

She tossed him in the air, “We like you for you!”

K.O. could hear Boxman going apoplectic at the sight, and the audible crack! informed him that the wall took the blunt of the fury.

“You’re still K.O.!” Rad added, emphasizing the last word as he slapped K.O. on the back.

Venomous collapsed to the ground, the wind knocked out of his chest.

“And you’re still a good guy!” Enid met him halfway with a high-five in the air.

“Ah!” Venomous felt something strike him underneath his chin.

“AND YOU STILL HAVE OUR FRIENDSHIP!” Enid and Rad concluded simultaneously, both of them holding K.O. up high proudly.

“Nonononono!” It was too much for Venomous, he was blasted away by a sudden gust of wind. He collided with Boxman with a thud! They both got to their feet and looked up as K.O. now clasped hands with Rad and Enid, hopping around in a circle chanting “Friendship! Friendship! Friendship!” over and over again. Venomous didn’t fail to notice tears streaming down K.O.’s face or the large grin that broke out on the boy’s face.

“Grrrrrr!” Boxman began steaming, “I should have known this would happen again!”

“Again?!” Venomous looked Boxman straight in the eye, silently demanding a more thorough explanation.

“First day I met the brat, those two stormed Boxmore to save him,” Boxman explained, going over to a wall and began banging his head against it over and over again, “I thought they’d let him have it, but they pulled the same stunt like they did just now! And their friendship just got stronger!”

“The compliments? The supportive words?” Venomous’ eyes widened, “The blast of wind?!”

“All of it!” Boxman nodded, his face turning beet-red.

“LOVE BEAM’S COMING SOON!”

“Not now, Fink!” Venomous stopped Fink with a look.

He looked between his partner and then towards his son and friends. Now that they made it clear K.O. was still one of them, swaying the boy over to his side was going to be harder. And now it looked like he was actually going to have to put some effort into fighting this time around. On the other hand, there was still a chance he could at least extend an olive branch their way and salvage the situation as best as he could.

Before he could continue to dwell on that thought, there was a loud crash! from above. Two simultaneous cries, one masculine and one feminine – oh cob, he was going to get it now – getting closer and closer before he felt two bodies pinning him down to the floor, his helmet drawn close to his chest on reflex. Then he was face to face with a man who – wait, was that El Bow?!

“No one kidnaps my employees and gets away with it!” Huh. It had been so long since he had seen El Bow up close. He must have really hit the gym a lot. A shame he wasn’t wearing that cute mask anymore, helped give off that nerdy persona Venomous was so fond of seeing when he was in POINT.

Another pause, then, “How dare you steal Lazerblast’s helmet, you scumbag!”

As El Bow removed the helmet, Enid piped in, her face etched with dread “Sir, that is Laserblast!”

El Bow gave the girl a funny look before he started to guffaw, “Nice one, Enid. But I know for a fact that this is Professor Veno…mous…?”

Annnd there it was. The sweating, the shaking, that shy persona. El Bow grabbed the helmet and shoved it over Venomous’ head.

“Uh…”

He removed it again and the expression worsened, like he was going to throw up. “Uh.” Helmet back on. “Uh…” He shoved the helmet back on once more.

Venomous sneered, “Still as sharp as ever, El Bow.”

Carol removed the helmet this time, as El Bow appeared to become catatonic with shock.

“You’re…you’re…” Her face burned red, “You two-faced jerk!”

She pulled him up by his collar and threw a punch. Years of knowing her movements allowed Venomous to roll with the punch before slipping out of her grasp, ducking and dodging a flurry of attacks. El Bow seemed to have recovered, as an additional pair of arms kept on trying to trip him up. All the while, Carol continued screaming at him,

“Where have you been? How could you leave us like that?! Do you know what you put everyone though after that?!”

El Bow also had a few choice words, himself.

“YOU WERE ALIVE THIS ENTIRE TIME?! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW LONG I THOUGHT IT WAS ALL MY FAULT?! DO YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO POINT AFTER THAT?! WE THOUGHT YOU WERE SHURNK OR TELEPORTED OR WHATEVER!”

“Explain yourself now!” Carol grabbed ahold of his front again while El Bow restrained him from behind.

Venomous smirked, “Fine, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“He didn’t even say that,” Rad muttered to Enid.

“Zip it, Rad, we’re gonna get a flashback.”

And quite the flashback it was, Venomous thought so himself. He delved into his fall as a hero, starting with where it started. His sense of powerless-ness. Carol looked like her heart was ripped in two as Venomous dismissed her attempts to reassure him. He could drain the power from foes, she could copy them. Now who had the superior powers? And who was she to tell him that he was fine the way he was, having to resort to being a leech and making that helmet of his to compensate in battle? Talking about the lab was a bit awkward, as El Bow and Carol shared a look of utter shock.

Enid, ever the critic, stopped his story to comment, “You built your lab in a donut shop?”

Rad chortled, “That was pretty stupid.”

“Why didn’t you put a lock on the door?” Aw great! Now K.O. was joining the peanut gallery!

“Or put a Closed sign on it?”

“Or hide your experiments better?”

“Why didn’t you just make the lab in a dump where no one would see you?” Fink added.

“Not the point,” Venomous felt his eyebrow twitching. Even Boxman looked at him with an expression that would have been better on Venomous whenever his partner made a mess of things.

The questions stopped and he talked about Greyman discovering the lab.

“Called it,” Enid smirked. He glared at her and continued.

He told them of the meeting, that El Bow and Carol didn’t bother disputing nor did they stop him when Venomous described Greyman losing his powers from one of the weapons. When he got to the part where Foxtail ordered the destruction of the weapons, El Bow cut him off.

“You were trying to destroy your work?”

“I was trying to save it,” Venomous corrected him with a snarl, “Countless months of research down the drain if Foxtail had her way.”

“You left us on sentry duty to cover your tracks!” Carol, ever the aggressor, had the gall to glare daggers at him.

“So, it made you purple instead?” K.O. asked.

“Huh?”

“The experiments,” K.O. clarified, “You took so many that they made you purple?”

“No,” Venomous wished to cob he could skip this part, “One of the containers broke when I tried to move them.”

“The explosion,” Carol gasped.

“That was what you saw,” Venomous nodded, “The fire started and I found my powers gone as well. Another orb, one of my timers, started glowing. I managed to get out in time…”

El Bow looked pale, “We were that close to getting caught in the blast!”

“I had planned to crawl out of the vent when I heard you,” Venomous looked at Carol numbly, “You said I couldn’t have survived the blast. In that moment, I knew everything you told me about my powers was a lie? How could I have served as a hero, after that? As your partner?”

His gaze went towards K.O. and he told himself that there was sand in his eyes, “As a father?”

“I tried to get my powers back for ages. Experiments, tests. But none of them worked.”

Venomous combed a hand through his hair, a smile growing on his face, “But the breakthroughs I made, the market I found in the villains, the creations I made from my failures. They made me realize something. You don’t need powers to have power!”

He would have laughed maniacally at this, but the circumstances and the awkwardness of it all was getting to him. Carol, El Bow, Rad, Enid, and K.O. were all together now. He wasn’t going to win this fight, not today.

“I guess you can all go now, live your lives, clap yourselves on the backs if you want,” he waved them off dismissively, “However, there’s something I want…”

K.O. gulped.

“You need to learn of your heritage, son,” Venomous spoke gently. Fink was growling, at whom, he didn’t know. Venomous held out a hand to his son, “I want to start us on a clean slate. Don’t you want to learn about your Daddy?”

“YOU SCUMBAG!” El Bow stepped forward and pushed K.O. behind him, “WE WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU!”

“How dare you even ask that?!” Carol joined El Bow’s side and got into an offensive pose.

“If K.O. doesn’t want anything to do with you, then that should be enough!” Enid cracked her knuckles.

“And if you still want to try, you’re gonna have to go through us first!” Rad added as he raised a finger, letting it glow.

K.O. felt purple lightning shroud his arms again, but it didn’t continue to consume him. T.K.O. didn’t try to say anything to him, this was the moment that they were thinking the same thing.

“Okay.”

“HUH?!”

Everyone looked at him like he had lost it, and who knows, maybe K.O. did lose it. But…

“I want to know why T.K.O. exists,” he continued, “I need to figure out how to keep him under control, before something bad happens.”

He looked at his mom with pleading eyes, “So can I, Mommy? Pleeeeease!”

Mom looked like she wanted to argue, but sighed instead, “I’m with you on this, sweetie.”

“Me too…” Mr. Gar placed a hand on Mom’s shoulder. Then his expression turned stern, “You still need to complete my mission, though.”

“That’s right!” K.O. gasped, then he remembered, “Um…mission failed?”

“What.”

“The deal still happened, so…”

Mr. Gar groaned, “We’ll talk later.”

“Does that mean he can stay here for dinner, then?” Everyone looked at Venomous incredulously. Venomous chuckled weakly, “I’m okay with weekends…”

K.O. looked at his mom and Mr. Gar expectantly. They both nodded, but neither of them looked happy about it. He looked at Rad and Enid, and they looked like they were thinking the same thing.

Enid scowled at Venomous, “You better not hurt him!”

“You have my word,” Venomous raised his hands in compliance.

“Good,” Rad smirked, “Cause we’re gonna hurt you now!”

Venomous suddenly looked nervous.

“Well Peanut, I bet this was a pretty rough day for you,” Carol beckoned K.O. over to her, “You wanna end this on a happy note?”

He nodded furiously.

“Good,” Carol smiled, “Cause it’s Tuesday.”

“That means you can help us clean up this mess,” Mr. Gar added.

“I know just the thing,” K.O. smiled.

A few moments later, Mr. Gar and Carol clasped hands and leaned back as far as they could. Enid stood on her boss’s shoulders and Rad on Carol’s and they leaned towards each other. K.O. dangled in-between his friends, holding Rad and Enid’s spare hands, completing the heart formation.

“BODEGA LOVE FORMATION 2.0 COMPLETE!” K.O. said triumphantly.

“We’re supposed to be scared of that?” Venomous gave Fink a funny look, “I know you hate him, but this is ridicu –”

“LOVE BEAM 2.0!”

“What.” Venomous quacked.

A pink aura filled the center of the formation and burst out in a stream towards Venomous, Fink and Boxman. When it reached them, it felt like a strong wind blowing through. Chunks of earth started flying into the air, tears appeared on Venomous’ coat. Fink and Boxman clung to him for dear life, unwittingly dragging him along with them as his feet began to slip and they were blown away, crashing through several floors before leaving Boxmore entirely.

Boxman was the first to notice they were all flying. He shrugged, “Welp, looks like we’re blasting off. Again.”

Fink, on the other hand, was livid.

“I TOLD YOU THEY’D BLAST US WITH A LOVE BEAM!”

“And I told you we should have drawn out the reveal,” Boxman smugly crossed his arms at Venomous, “So there. I was right.”

“Not not, Boxy…” Venomous pinched the bridge of his nose with all the patience he could muster, resisting the urge to throttle his partner, “Not now…”

Back on the ground, Enid and Rad lowered themselves to the ground and started groaning. Rad began to heave a moment later.

“I told you not to exert yourselves,” Carol gently chided them as she released her grip on Mr. Gar.

“Carol,” Enid began as her face went pale, “If it’s for K.O., you know we’ll be there.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Gar was down on one knee, placing a hand on K.O.’s shoulder, “You alright, son?”

K.O. looked at his hands, “I just can’t believe my dad’s a villain.”

“K.O.,” Mr. Gar lowered his voice so only K.O. could hear, “He might be your father, but he was never your daddy. You don’t owe him anything.”

“Good,” K.O. looked up at him with a determined look, “Because I want to be a hero. Just like you.”

Mr. Gar only smiled, thinking to himself that K.O. was already better than him.

“I guess that means Thanksgiving’s gonna be awkward now?” Rad took a moment to ask in-between heaving.

Carol’s expression suddenly became sharp as she came to realize something, “Wait a minute! THAT SLIMEBALL OWES 6-11 YEARS OF CHILD SUPPORT!”

She shook her hand furiously at the exposed roof, “YOU BETTER START SENDING PAYMENTS NOW!”

K.O. laughed and leaned into Mr. Gar’s hug, he didn’t understand a word of what his mom was saying, but everything was alright now. His family was here with him. That was all that mattered.

Author’s Note: That’s the end of the main story. What? You thought this was the end of the fic? It technically is, but the next updates are going to be one shots of a sort. Venomous and K.O. really didn’t interact that much. And the show only had two episodes of them “bonding”. I want to fix that here.

Thanks for reading, thank you for your patience, thank you for coming, thank you for staying, thank you for reading this fic!

Chapter Text

“Backpack?”

“Check.”

“Change of clothes?”

“Check.”

“PJs?”

“Check, check.”

K.O.  watched his mom and Mr. Gar go through a check list of all his essentials for his first weekend with Professor Venomous. He would have been happy to say that he was excited to spend time with his father, but as Mr. Gar tried to subtly place a bottle of pepper spray into his pack, he couldn’t help but be reminded of how tense everyone was. The shadows under his mother’s eyes told the tale of how much sleep she had the previous night.

“You think there’s enough room in my pack?” K.O. asked with a nervous smile.

His mother glanced at him before continuing to load his pack with several snack bars and toothbrush with a frown. She continued talking to Mr. Gar, who was holding a bottle of pepper spray in one hand.

“How much do you think we can sneak by Lizard Face without him noticing?”

“I think there’s room for a lasersword in here, he’s not going to try looking through his bag if he wants to live to see next year.”

K.O. felt something poking the back of his neck and spun around to see Dendy holding a pair of pincers connected to a monitor.

“His brainwaves appear optimal and there are no signs of any additional interference.” She smiled at the end to seemingly soften the statement, but K.O. still frowned. Ever since they had returned from Boxmore last week, it seemed as if everyone in his circle had been on high alert. Not helping matters was someone muttering that Professor Venomous might have been picking at his brain prior to the rescue, despite K.O. repeatedly insisting that it wasn’t the truth. Dendy had taken it upon herself to give K.O. daily brain scans to check for any signs of nefarious evildoing.

He complied to these annoying check-ups as best as he could, he knew Dendy was just as worried as everyone else was. A small part of him even agreed that she was right to make sure that his head was okay. It wasn’t normal to want to spend the weekend with someone who had been your archnemesis, after all.

“Alright, everything’s in,” K.O.’s mom handed him his backpack, which felt like someone had placed a few bricks inside of it now. And so, all four of them marched out of the house and into the car.

Every so often, Mr. Gar would look over his shoulder as if to remind himself that K.O. was still buckled in. This ritual was repeated every few minutes until Dendy had mentioned in a loud voice that she planted a few trackers on K.O. and his belongings – with K.O.’s permission, of course. After that, the rest of the ride was silent until Boxmore came into sight…

O.K. K.O. (We’ll Fight To The End!)

Venomous looked over the guest bed one last time, straightening out the spaceship-print covers to prevent any creases from forming. Satisfied, he exited the guest room and began to walk down the hall. He readjusted his collar a few times, wondering why it felt warmer than usual or if he was wearing it incorrectly for some reason today. He greeted Darrell once, twice, three times in the hall. Boxman was keeping his youngest busy with another big project – not like Boxman. Jr, however – and so he barely had anytime to greet Venomous with anything other than a “Hi, Stepdaddy” before they parted. There was only a brief mention of thanks for the newest present Venomous had given him – receptive nerves wired to his electrical brain so Darrel would be able to experience touch, taste and scent – that Venomous was hoping wouldn’t blow up in his face.

If it wasn’t for his assignment, Venomous was certain that Darrel would have clung to him like a lifeboat in a manner that wouldn’t be unheard of coming from Fink if given the chance. Speaking of which, Venomous realized that he hadn’t actually seen much of her since the morning. It was possible that she might currently be holing herself in her room playing videos game with the volume blaring, but there was no way to be certain. Ever since last week, he barely saw her outside of mealtimes or debriefings.

Almost as an act of pragmatism, Boxman had mysteriously decided to take a break from attacking the Plaza and had instead focused more on investing Billiiam’s payment into improving his robots. This also allowed the funding of several personal projects that Venomous had wanted to continue before his home had been destroyed, albeit accidentally. Productivity had gone up a respectable deal, much to the delight of the investors, especially in Cosma’s case.

Venomous checked his watch, quickening his pace a little as he did so. He told himself that it wasn’t because he was in a hurry to see his son, no, it was just because Boxmore was a large facility and he knew he wouldn’t get anywhere if he didn’t move at a brisk pace.

Stepping outside in the sun only made him tug at his collar more frequently, making note to check the ventilation systems as soon as he could. His eyes scanned the Plaza standing at the opposite end of the road, and then to the streets. He looked down at his watch again – only five minutes before they were expected.

That’s when the car came careering by the curb, stopping several feet short of Venomous’ foot. His eyes flitted to Carol’s at the driver’s seat – she almost looked disappointed for some reason when their eyes met – before he looked over to the backseat. K.O. had several wires connected to his head while the Kappa sitting next to him was holding a small monitor in her hands. She – or he – nodded once to him and K.O. quickly liberated the wires from his body.

He was about to exit the door when El Bow blocked his way, his back turned as he appeared to be saying something to the boy. A moment later, he stepped out of the car and closed the door delicately, though Venomous saw how tight his face was. El Bow marched up to him and they stood face to face, gauging the other critically.

“El Bow,” Venomous’ tone was cool and polite, extending the level of professionalism that he would give to clients or dealers.

“Venomous,” El Bow uttered with a protective growl.

Venomous saw K.O. looking out at them with sweat beginning to bead his brow, a small frown already forming. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, counting to ten as he did, before exhaling and looking at El Bow with a more placid expression.

“I have a list of items for your approval on what we are allowed to do during the weekends,” Venomous pulled out the long sheet of paper from his lab-coat pocket and handed it to El Bow. El Bow accepted it without comment and began to grumble as he examined the list. A few times, his eyebrows rose as he read. Other times, he grumbled something incomprehensible that Venomous was certain was meant to be uttered without small children present.

“I also have a pen you could –” Venomous couldn’t finish his sentence as the proffered pen was snatched from his hand and El Bow already began to cross out the suggestions. When it was handed back to him, Venomous was rather disappointed that the majority of his proposals were denied. He would at least hoped that K.O. would be allowed to enjoy the merits of pelting solicitors with rotten fruit! The pen was handed back to him with the delicacy of a pressure mine.

“Listen up,” El Bow’s tone brokered no argument and Venomous knew who would be the superior one if a fight broke out, “You might have the genetics, but remember that K.O. is my son! So, if I hear one bad thing from him that was your fault…”

Venomous chuckled weakly as he tried in vain to swipe the sweat that was forming at his neck. El Bow continued to glower at him until Venomous realized he needed to reply, “You have my word.”

But even as he raised his right hand and placed his left over his heart to show sincerity, El Bow’s hand suddenly latched itself onto his shoulder and tightened.

“I mean it,” El Bow glowered. Venomous could only nod, trying not to sigh in relief when El Bow’s face suddenly became pleasant as he called out to K.O.

“Hey Professor,” K.O. greeted him tentatively, clutching his bag with both hands tightly as if it would grow legs and run off.

“We’ll be picking you up at nine in the morning tomorrow, okay?” Carol’s tone was taut.

K.O. nodded to his mother with a smile. El Bow and the Kappa both gave him brittle smiles as the car drove off, both of them waving farewell as it did.

“Bye, love you!” K.O. called out as the car faded from view. After a few moments, he seemed to remember himself and turned back to Venomous with that same nervous smile he wore back in the car. Venomous returned it with equal vigor and began to guide the boy into Boxmore. He tried not to think too much as K.O.’s back stiffened from the contact.

“I have so much planned for us today,” Venomous began as soon as the door closed behind them. He pulled out the list and began to read through the items, “What’ll be? Learning to make a nuclear power cell? Deconstructing an android and rebuilding it from scratch?” He paused for a moment as he read a suggestion that he knew for a fact wasn’t there a few minutes ago. “Playing…catch…?”

“Um…we could try the last one…?” K.O. chuckled weakly.

Venomous’ smile felt more relaxed, “Brilliant! I’ll go get the net!”

K.O. called out to him before he made it past two paces, “No, that’s not what I meant.” He wringed the handle of his pack as he mulled over his next words. “I meant we… I mean… when you… do you have a baseball?”

Venomous stared at him blankly, unsure of how to respond. Throwing baseballs into windows was one of the items that El Bow had crossed out, but if K.O. wanted to do it so badly, then…

“I-I mean, we’d also need some mitts and maybe matching hats, but I don’t mind if we just have a baseball.”

“…not following…” Venomous cursed himself for saying that out loud. K.O.’s expression morphed into utter shock and exaggerated horror. Venomous thought it would be best to continue. “What do you mean by catch?”

“You mean you…? Oooh!” K.O. suddenly started laughing, and quite loudly in Venomous’ opinion. But it was better than the alternative of dealing with a temper tantrum. That would inevitably end in Carol and El Bow going after his blood. When K.O.’s laughter subsided, he adopted what was surely meant to be a serious expression that Venomous thought looked rather adorable. “This is something very important to do! Mr. Gar and I sometimes do it and it’s a lot of fun. Come on, we’re going to the Bodega to get a baseball!”

At this declaration, he suddenly grabbed Venomous by the wrist and started dragging him back outside! Venomous dragged his feet against the floor, marveling at his son’s strength as he continued undaunted, trying to figure out how to diffuse the situation.

“We don’t need to go there, I’m sure there’s something we can use from here.” Venomous saw Darrel down the hallway again and was struck by inspiration, “We can use Darrel’s head!”

“Huh?” Darrel looked like a deer caught in headlights at his name and looked more the part at the near-predatory expression Venomous now had plastered on his face as he tried to drag himself over to the robot. K.O. tugged back and Venomous could feel his boots scraping against the floor so hard that grooves were beginning to form.

“Nonsense,” K.O. insisted as he tugged his father out the door and into the open air, marching with purpose towards the Bodega, “We can even grab some lightning nachos while we’re at it!”

“I don’t like nachos,” Venomous feebly protested.

“Maybe fire gauntlets,” K.O.’s eyes lit up as he continued rambling, “Oh, oh! We can grab towels and we can have a picnic just like me, my mom, and Mr. Gar do when we play catch!”

“Help me,” Venomous mouthed to Darrel, who still stood there with the box in his arms, looking at Venomous as if he had never seen him before. Then his face suddenly became pleasant as he dropped the box with a crash! and waved cheerfully at him.

“Bye, Stepdaddy, I love you!”

Venomous prayed that Cob would be merciful and strike him down where he stood before he had to enter the Plaza and act pleasant to those heroes.

Author’s Note: Sad that the show is over when I just got into it, but happy to be making this fic! With the new info I have about Venomous thanks to the Q&A session from the creator on Twitter, I am happy with how my interpretation – ie, if he knew K.O. was his son or not – matched the canon rather well. Apparently, Venomous didn’t know about K.O. prior to his debut episode and decided to look into it. I suspect his spit take in “The Big Reveal” along with “That helmet!” were the final pieces to confirm his connection with K.O.

Now to give these two the screentime that Cartoon Network wrongfully stole from them!

Chapter Text

Cob was not feeling merciful at the moment.

The moment the doors slid open and that ding-dong! bell reverberated in the store; all eyes were on him. Venomous briefly scanned his surroundings, gaging the heroes that were congregating. Most of them, he didn’t recognize. The new generation didn’t concern him that much – seriously, a giant baby was considered a hero?! And what about that weird orange creature that followed him around like something out of those puppet shows on television Fink hated so much? – and he didn’t care to identify who they were. The only two that could be bothered to be considered minor threats were Radicles, who had been mopping an aisle not too far away, and Enid, at the register.

Their eyes met his, and Venomous silently counted in his head. Four. Three. Two. One…

“PROFESSOR VENOMOUS!” Enid and Radicles shouted in unison. They jumped into the air and landed right in front of him – hm, not too shabby – and got into aggressive crouches.

“Hey Rad! Hiya Enid!”

Both of the heroes looked down at K.O., who was waving at them with a bright expression on his face. Seeing that a fight wasn’t going to break out, the rest of the heroes in the store continued onto their businesses, though Venomous didn’t miss the looks of sheer terror he was getting from the bunny child or the broccoli boy. Good, he smirked, let them fear him at a young age. He noticed Radicles and Enid sharing a look with each other before they started talking. Loudly.

“Wow, K.O.!” Radicles patted the boy on the head affectionately – and Venomous denied that he was sulking over how his son was smiling from the contact that the teenage boy was giving. Radicles continued in a booming tone. “You caught a bad guy! I guess you came here to get some emergency handcuffs, RIGHT?”

Venomous was surprised that no one else noticed the obvious wink Radicles was giving to K.O.

K.O. stared blankly at his friend, who had to wink several times before his face dawned in realization. “Oh yeeeeah! That’s right! I caught a bad guy! The very well-known Professor Venomous, who is NOT here on his own free will –”

It was ironic how true that last statement was, Venomous thought.

“– and is not my friend, even though we are holding hands!” K.O. emphasized the last bit by gripping Venomous’ wrist so tight that the man actually lost all feeling in his hand for a few moments. He suspected there would be bruising in a few hours. “And I am simply here to purchase something to help…uh…what’s that word again? I think it starts with a K…”

“Woah, K.O.!” Enid waved her hands frantically. “I’m down for dark, but not too dark. And there are children present.”

“It starts with the letter C,” Radicles whispered loudly to K.O. Venomous rolled his eyes, he was amazed that heroes had survived this long.

“Right, letter C…” K.O. let go of Venomous’ hand and touched his own chin thoughtfully, “First sound ‘kah’…or was it ‘ko’. How we put away bad guys… how Mommy puts stuff back in the fridge…”

“Contain?” Venomous suggested, trying not to huff in frustration.

“That’s it!” K.O. agreed and pointed back at Venomous with a scowl and continued in what Venomous was now considering the worst performance ever delivered in public. And he had seen plenty of vampire movies to compare that too. “I am here to buy something to help contain you, foul villain! And throw you into the slammer!”

There were loud cheers from the store now, and the idiots started applauding. It would have been more effective if Venomous had already been handcuffed or something of the sort. He glared at the crowd forming and the cheering ceased almost instantaneously.

“What you need, young hero that I have never seen before in my life,” Enid continued in a tone that matched Radicles’ a minute or so ago, marching back to the register with a jaunty expression, “is a pair of handcuffs! On the house!”

She loudly slapped a pair of ordinary looking handcuffs onto the countertop, but Venomous noticed the logo on it that said: Electro-Cuffs! Taser and Handcuffs have finally fused! Taser sold separately. Sparks flew out of the handcuffs and Venomous began to rub his wrists with dread.

“Thank you store clerk!” K.O. accepted the handcuffs with a smile and leaned against the countertop, “On an unrelated note, I would like to purchase your finest balls for…ball stuff! And hitting unsuspecting bad guys with.”

Radicles smirked, “I think we have just the thing. Hold on a sec.”

The crowd didn’t disperse until K.O. forced Venomous into the handcuffs, much to his own humiliation. He was rewarded for his compliance with a zap! that rattled his bones and left an oddly pleasant tingle. Perhaps it was meant for pranking or those with weak constitutions. He listened to Enid prattle with K.O. for a few minutes, stopping once in a while to handle a customer. At one point, a man-looking bird started over to the counter, much to Enid’s dread, but scampered away at the sight of Venomous. He could have sworn he saw her smiling at him a little after that, and that smile seemed to grow malicious when Rad returned with his arms full of baseballs.

“These just came in,” he said vaguely, “You’re gonna love em.”

“Wow-wee!” K.O.’s eyes lit up, possibly determining how much fun he could get out of them – or perhaps thinking of those times he played “catch” with El Bow, Venomous thought with a snarl – before he dug into his pockets. “How much – ?”

“Also on the house,” Radicles waved him off dismissively.

“That’s bad for business, you know.” Everyone stared at Venomous as though he had sprouted a second head. His eyes narrowed, “How is your – zap! – boss going to handle you giving away – zip! – merchandise without a single Techno to show for it?”

“Easy,” Radicles placed the baseballs into a paper bag and handed it off to K.O. “We’ll just say it was meant for you and Mr. Gar won’t mind at all.”

“Uh, I still think I should pay,” K.O. mumbled as he accepted the bag with both hands, attempting to find a way to balance his supplies in one hand as he rummaged his pockets for his wallet.

“Use my wallet,” Venomous suggested with a sigh. K.O. looked at him hesitantly. Venomous merely smiled, “It’s – zap! – in my lab coat.”

K.O. took a step forward before Radicles stepped in front of him and began to search Venomous’ coat himself, as if he would be dumb enough to booby trap his own personal items for his son to find after El Bow made it clear what fate would befall him if anything happened. Radicles pulled out the wallet – black leather with a silver spine – and grinned when he found one of Venomous’ most valuable and important credit cards!

He opened his mouth to protest but decided against it at the looks he was receiving. With his luck, Radicles and Enid would make up some lies to feed to Carol and El Bow and then sit back to watch the fireworks.

“The pin is my birthday,” he grumbled.

“Just like me!” K.O. smiled. It faded a moment later when he realized something. “When is your birthday?”

You Are My Best Friend (LET’S BE HEROES!)

K.O. hummed off-tune as he and Professor Venomous exited the Bodega a few minutes later. It was silly how the man had to whisper the pin into K.O.’s ear like that, there was nothing wrong with knowing when someone’s birthday was.

“Hey, K.O.” Venomous began as they walked back to Boxmore. “Do you think – zip! – you could – zap! AH! – uncuff me – zop! OW! – now?!” His expression had become harried at the end of his request, and K.O. couldn’t blame him. No one could really pull off the barbequed look. Thank Cob that went out of style in eleven minutes.

“Okay, let me just see those handcuffs – no, Professor, I got this! – I just need the key… wait a minute, I don’t have a key – hey, don’t give me that look! I forgot! – maybe if I just – zap! OW! – alright, bad idea. What if I – zap! no, that’s making it worse – what if I just – zap! sorry! – no maybe this will – zap! wrong again – maybe it I just –”

“JUST USE YOUR STRENGTH ON IT!” Venomous’s eye was twitching as he smoldered.

“Duh, why didn’t I think of that?” K.O. grabbed Venomous’ hands and pulled them in opposite directions. There was a zap! that both of them felt and then the chain snapped. The cuffs fell apart a moment later and dropped to the ground. Venomous rubbed his wrists tentatively, as if he would be engulfed by electricity again, mumbling incoherently about possible brain damage.

He looked at K.O. with a disgruntled expression after he was finished and said, “Great, we got the baseballs you wanted. Now what?”

“Well,” K.O. readjusted his hold on the paper bag, “Mr. Gar, my mom, and I go to the woods for a picnic and after we finish eating, Mr. Gar and I toss the ball back and forth. To the woods!” K.O. proceeded to march off.

“That’s it?” Venomous didn’t move from his spot. “We just toss it back and forth? That’s inane!”

“It’s not insane, it’s fun,” K.O. insisted, not looking back.

“I said inane not insane!”

A short walk later, K.O. found the familiar grounds by the pond. It felt weird bringing Professor Venomous to this spot, as if he were trespassing on sacred grounds. It reminded him of Shadowy Figure, and of the day he brought out T.K.O. for the first time. Venomous was looking around with mild interest, a strange look of nostalgia had appeared on his face before it quickly vanished.

“You know this place, Professor?” K.O. asked curiously.

“Not really,” Venomous admitted, “It just feels…nice, for some reason.”

“When I was little; Mom would take me here and we’d meditate after lunch. One time, she told me that the path to greatness was long and hard and sometimes boring, but the important thing was to stay focused.”

“Did she now?” Venomous didn’t sound all that impressed.

K.O. dropped the paper bag and pulled out a baseball, “Alright, then. So, what we do is we step back away from each other.”

Venomous grumbled, but he took several paces back as instructed. K.O. mirrored the action.

“Then I throw the ball at you and you try to catch it,” K.O. demonstrated as he flung the baseball as hard as he could at Venomous. Venomous had a hand in the air, ready to catch the ball as it flew at him. And then it vanished in a blur of blue light. Venomous and K.O. stared at each other in shock, before the ball reappeared cloaked in blue flames and collided with Venomous’ face.

“Oh my gosh, are you alright?!” K.O. ran over to Venomous with frantic worry etched on his face.

“I was hit in the face by a flaming baseball, what do you think?!” Venomous held a hand over his eye as he accepted K.O.’s outstretched hand.

“Ok, we’re not using that ball again,” K.O. declared. He rushed back to the bag and pulled out another baseball. He got into a stance, wound his arm up, and threw it at Venomous with all his might. Venomous only had time to cry out in protest before the ball vanished in a blue blur and reappeared as a fiery comet that struck him in the other eye.

Birds scattered from their trees barely a few moments later from the noise.

K.O. took out another baseball from the bag and examined it, “That’s weird, what’s with these balls?”

“Try throwing it more gently,” Venomous had emphasized on the last word.

K.O. shrugged and lightly threw it underhand. The ball soared through the air and vanished. K.O. expected it to rematerialize and soar at a higher speed covered in the blue flames, so he was naturally startled when he head Venomous screaming in agony again as he faceplanted to the ground, the baseball sitting on his back. He mustered enough strength to take the ball off his back and toss it away, before it vanished and appeared in front of K.O., who instinctively ducked just in time. Another cry of pain informed him where the ball landed.

“What’s with these things?!” K.O. took out a fourth one from the bag with a bewildered expression and noticed words engraved onto them: Monster Ball; the ball to throw at your worst enemy.

“Yikes!” K.O. dropped the ball immediately and backed away from it, “I gotta get rid of these, now!”

Without thinking, he started flinging the rest of the balls as far as he could towards the depths of the woods while Venomous watched with dread. As he flung the last ball into the clearing, K.O. turned back to the professor with a nervous chuckle.

“I think we’ve had enough for today, huh?”

“K.O.” Venomous pinned him with his expression, “You realize what you just threw, right?”

“Yeah, I threw away the deadly…balls…” K.O.’s expression suddenly became still, “And…they’ll be hitting you…in three…two…RUN!” K.O. suddenly grabbed Venomous, flung him over his shoulder and ran as fast as he could out of the forest as a stampede of blue flames came darting after them like hunting dogs, several of them bouncing off trees as they hit their target.

“I think…” Venomous said when they had both returned to Boxmore, “That I really hate your version of catch.”

He was sitting on a sofa with several ice packs covering his body. Fink stood close by like a silent guardian, glaring at K.O. as if he would burst into flames if she persisted long and hard enough. Boxman was currently examining Venomous’ bruised eyes with a tenderness K.O. recognized in his mother whenever he fell ill.

“I told you we should have drawn out the reveal, PV,” Boxman began to apply some cream around his partner’s face. He shook his head, “I wanted to take it slow, but you never listen, do you?”

“If you bring it up one more time, I’m going to find some of those blasted baseballs and throw them in your direction,” Venomous growled. Boxman only laughed in response. “I mean it!”

“PV,” Boxman smiled, “You know you don’t mean that.”

Venomous scowled in response. K.O. rubbed his arm methodically, the action only mildly soothing. He was feeling several different things at once. He didn’t want to hurt Professor Venomous to bring him into his current state. But there was a small part of him – much of it was certainly from him and not from T.K.O. – that felt that it was a small taste of the villain’s own medicine for all the trouble he caused K.O. and his friends. And seeing how Fink and Boxman were looking over Venomous – Fink as the protector and Boxman as the healer – made K.O. think of how he would feel if his mother, Mr. Gar, Rad, Enid or Dendy were seriously hurt. He would have wanted to pulverize whoever was responsible. He certainly would have pulverized P.O.I.N.T. during their hostile takeover of the Plaza if his mother had given him the chance.

Even though what had happened in the woods was a complete and utter accident, K.O. felt that he was getting off light with two of his enemies. Fink certainly looked like she was a hairline away from lunging at him. Boxman simply ignored him and focused all of his energies into nursing Venomous.

“Look, I –” K.O. began, but Boxman suddenly faced him with a ferocious expression contrasting his almost motherly one given to Venomous.

“Listen, you Plaza punk!” Boxman began to march towards K.O., his face turning red. K.O. kept a safe distance between himself and Boxman as best as he could until he hit the wall. Boxman poked him hard in the chest. “The only reason I’m not throwing you in the incinerator like my robot children isn’t just because you’re organic and your mother would cook me if I did! It’s because he –” He pointed back at Venomous. “– wants to spend time with you! And you repay his kindness by throwing baseballs at him?!”

“I, uh, didn’t really know they would do that,” K.O. whimpered.

That answer didn’t seem to satisfy Boxman in the slightest, and he opened his mouth to most likely tell K.O. what he thought of his excuse, when Venomous spoke up, “Boxman, it wasn’t his fault.”

Boxman looked back at Venomous incredulously but didn’t comment any further. He went back to the sofa and continued applying the cream to Venomous again, though his expression was taut with barely contained rage.

“Why don’t you go back to your room, K.O.?” Venomous grunted as Boxman massaged a rather ugly bruise on his back. “We’ll call you for dinner.”

K.O. barely nodded, happy for an excuse to leave the room, and nearly broke into a run when he reached the hallway. He looked over his shoulder to see if Fink decided to leave her guard to chase after him away from watchful eyes, but no one came after him. He sighed and slinked down to the floor. The weekend was surely a disaster and it wasn’t even dinnertime yet. He wasn’t sure how he was going to manage doing this each week.

Selfish. He didn’t agree to come over to Boxmore for the chance to bond with his father. He came over because he wanted to understand how to control the villain in his blood, and how to maintain T.K.O. more properly.

A drawing with a tear-streaked boy surrounded by fire. I can’t help it was written at the bottom.

What if he was going about this the wrong way?

“What are you doing here?” K.O. looked up, surprised at how calm Darrel was near him. Come to think of it, he never actually saw Darrel looking pleasant all that much. Usually maniacal, violent, or childish. Or any combination of the three.

“I was just…testing the floor,” K.O. invented, “Seeing how well you could slide on it.”

He smiled at the end. Darrel seemed to take that into consideration before he suddenly joined him on the floor.

“Race you!” And then Darrel was pushing himself across the floor on his mechanical rear, giggling madly as he slid at least twenty feet. He stopped giggling when he noticed K.O. wasn’t following and looked back.

“Aren’t you gonna race me?” He asked with a pout.

K.O. considered that for a moment, before he pushed himself off the wall with his feet and slide past Darrel by several inches. Darrel smiled and began laughing again as he slid across the floor again, K.O. joining him a moment later.

“Do you hear something?” Venomous lifted himself from the sofa and hissed in pain.

“Darrel!” Boxman snarled. “I told him that the floors are not meant for sliding!”

“I hear someone else,” Venomous paused and preened his ear before listening again. “Is that…K.O.?” He froze for a moment before he chuckled. “Well, at least those two are getting along.”

Boxman sighed heavily, “Well, as long as they don’t wreck anything, I’m sure I’ll be –”

CRASH!

Venomous and Boxman looked at each other for a moment before they both bolted out the door.

“BOYS!”

Chapter Text

The next afternoon, K.O. was in the backroom of Gar’s Bodega with Rad and Enid. He was finding different tasks to occupy himself with to hold off from the dreaded questions that he knew his friends were tempted to ask. Eventually, he was down to sweeping the floor until he couldn’t find a fleck of dust out of place.

“Was it really bad?”

“Huh?” K.O. looked up from the broom to stare at Enid.

“Staying over at Boxmore,” Enid explained, taking the broom away from him, “Was it awful?”

K.O. rubbed his hands together as he tried to work together the best response. His lack of an immediate answer had an effect on Rad and Enid, who both exchanged a look with one another with deepening frowns.

“It wasn’t…bad, but it wasn’t great,” K.O. decided.

“Was it because of the Monster Balls we gave you?” Rad asked. K.O. could have sworn there was an edge of dreading guilt in his question.

“Sort of,” K.O. admitted without any bitterness, “Professor Venomous got hurt and Boxman got mad at me, but Venomous wasn’t and we all had takeout from this fancy Chinese place for dinner. Well, the robots didn’t, but I think Darrell was trying to smell it. And he got into a food fight with Fink. Then I went to bed the same time I always do with my mommy.”

“Anything else happen?” Rad’s voice went an octave higher than he intended.

“Well, Professor Venomous set up the guest room with nice blankets with these really cool prints and I think he was trying to slip some weird gloves like Fink had into my bag, but Mommy caught him and gave him a funny look. Other than that, I guess it was alright.”

Enid let out a breath that she had no idea she was holding in.

“I just think that going over there is going to be dangerous. On like, physical and emotional levels,” Rad moved over several boxes left over from the daily delivery with his telekinesis into nearby shelves.

“Dangerous?”

Rad gave him a funny look, “Dude, he’s like, your dad and all. And if it were a movie, I’d be all like ‘Yeah! Let them get to know each other! Maybe he’s not so bad!’ But, you gotta remember he’s done some pretty lousy stuff to us in the past.”

“He can’t be that bad,” K.O. shrugged, “He was pretty decent when I was over there yesterday.”

“You’re telling me he actually apologized?” Enid asked, disbelief etched in her voice.

“What?”

“Apologized,” Enid repeated, but not unkindly, “For, you know; attacking us with that gas, making Rad sick, firing us out of that pie cannon, trapping us and killing goop clones of ourselves in front of us and telling us he wanted to dissect us?”

K.O. tried to formulate an answer but found that he could not bring himself to open his mouth. Enid sighed and gently placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Want to know what mission we did yesterday?”

K.O.’s eyes brightened immensely, and Enid smiled, enthralling him with the story of how she and Rad were sent on a rescue mission that lead them to meeting a tribe of Galaxy Truffles. As she described the imminent fight between them and the Truffles for survival, K.O. would cut in and ask questions about the fungi creatures and if their leader was doing alright since he last saw her. As the story came close to its conclusion, however, the alarms in the Bodega went off and the lights flashed red.

“An attack. Finally!” Rad punched his fist in the air triumphantly, before he caught the looks on Enid and K.O.’s faces and amended, “I mean, oh no, the Plaza’s under attack…”

Enid rolled her eyes and K.O. simply laughed. Enid took a hold of K.O. and Rad’s hands and summoned a cloak of shade around their bodies. They all melted into the floor and slithered out until they reached the entrance. When they all returned to their proper sizes, all three of them got into fighting stances and waited.

The sky darkened and a violet portal opened up, dropping a large box labeled VM on the front. When it crashed to the ground, all sides of the box collapsed. When the dust settled, K.O. saw Professor Venomous standing alone with his arms crossed and a relaxed posture on his face.

When the professor caught sight of him, he simply nodded his way, “Hello K.O. Nice day we’re having, isn’t it?”

“Meh,” Rad shrugged, “I prefer it rainy.”

Enid’s stance became tighter, “What kind of freak experiment did you pull from the lab this time, Venomous?”

“Nothing too major, I hope,” Venomous smirked, “I want to consider this to be a friendly visit.”

K.O. lowered his fists and stared, trying to gauge the meaning behind those words. When the professor reached into his lab coat pocket, K.O. raised his arm up in anticipation firing a Power Fist. So, when Venomous removed his coat and revealed a gray and silver striped baseball vest with matching shorts and a cap to boot and a baseball in his hand that he tossed up in the air a few times. K.O. had to admit that the change was impressive, but where on earth did the cap come from?

The three heroes barely had any time to think about the change in appearance when Venomous snapped his fingers and another portal appeared from the sky, expelling out another box much larger than the one that Venomous himself had came in. When the dust settled once more, he was joined by his partner, Boxman as well as the other robot minions and Fink. They were all dressed in similar baseball attire.

“Are any of you interested in a game of baseball?”

Chapter Text

“Baseball?” Enid repeated in disbelief.

“WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!” A voice boomed from behind the three heroes.

They all turned to see Mr. Gar marching out to stand by their side, facing all of Boxmore in front of them. His sunglasses drooped as his jaw went slack with shock.

“W-w-what is this?” He asked no one in particular.

“This,” Venomous replied in a condescending tone, holding up the baseball, “is a game of baseball. And we’re challenging the Plaza today. Right now.”

“Huh?” K.O. scratched his head and did a quick headcount, “But there’s only four of us and...uh...lot’s of you!”

“I said Plaza, not Bodega, little K.O.”

K.O. wasn’t sure why, but he bared his teeth at Venomous in response. This proved to be the appropriate response, as Mr. Gar was giving him one of those oh-so wonderful ‘great hustle out there, kiddo’ looks that always made K.O. feel all fuzzy inside.

“Why do you want to challenge us to a game of baseball?” Enid raised an eyebrow questioningly.

“Why not?” Venomous didn’t look fazed by the lackluster reception he was getting. In fact, his smirk seemed to grow bigger. “Great weather, trying something different, plenty of baseballs to put to use…”

As he trailed off, K.O. looked closer at the baseball that Venomous was tossing in his hands playfully. Uh oh…

“Meh, I’m going back inside,” Enid turned around and started walking back into the Bodega, most likely thinking of what kind of music she was going to play to drown out what she referred to as ‘the idiocy noise’. She was almost at the door when Darrell called out to her.

“WHAT’S THE MATTER, LOSER? CHICKEN?!”

Fink followed up with a reasonably good chicken impression, flailing her arms wildly as Darrell tittered at his own wit. The effect was immediate; Enid stood ramrod in place as the taunting grew louder and more exaggerated. Shannon added to the noise with her own unique taunts – K.O. was surprised that she was allowed to say that word out loud – and chicken impressions. Enid’s head slowly craned back and K.O. felt himself shiver despite the pleasant weather. She was looking at the Boxmore robots and Fink as though she had developed a ninjutsu that could induce death by eye contact.

“You’re on,” she gravely whispered. Mr. Gar put a hand on her shoulder and Enid looked up with a tight grin. The eye contact was brief, but when it broke, Mr. Gar was looking directly at Venomous with that same stink eye.

“We’ll meet you in an hour with our team.”

“In the park?” The way Venomous suggested this didn’t sound like he would have accepted another location.

“Bring your A-game with you,” Mr. Gar’s tone was brisk and formal.

“It’s a date,” Venomous chuckled before he caught Boxman’s aghast look and quickly added, “In the platonic sense of course!”

“What about a date?”

“Oh cob,” Venomous withered a little at the new voice. K.O. wasn’t sure why, but it seemed like every time that his mother and Professor Venomous saw each other, it would always seem like the worst thing imaginable for either of them to do. It was difficult for him to understand; weren’t they dating back when Professor Venomous was Laserblast and in P.O.I.N.T.? Sure, there was the whole letting his mommy think that Laserblast had been shrunk or teleported or whatever, but couldn’t they just get along like any other former couples would? Rad and Enid were great examples and they’re the best of friends.

“Mommy!” K.O. called out to his mother as she jogged out of the Dojo.

“I heard something about a date and something about it being platonic,” his mother scratched her head, “Did I miss someth – ?”

She caught sight of all of Boxmore in their baseball attire and Venomous seemed to shrink as their eyes met. Mommy just sighed. “Let me guess.” She said. “They want to challenge us to a ‘friendly’ game of baseball.”

Everyone, even the ones from Boxmore, nodded in confirmation.

Mommy’s eyes lit up, like she was leading a workout, and pumped her fist in the air declaring, “Then we’ll show those villains whose boss!”

“Then that makes us,” K.O. did a quick headcount of everyone again, “five heroes versus lots of Boxmore.”

“Perhaps I could be of assistance?” A familiar beret wearing Kappa exited the Bodega at that moment. Somewhere in the background, children could be heard cheering.

“DENDY!” K.O. and the others said simultaneously. Mr. Gar added a “How did you get into my store?” at the end.

“That makes six,” Dendy adjusted her glasses, “Baseball is traditionally played with nine players on each team. I suggest we collect three more volunteers before our allotted hour is up.”

OK K.O. (LET’S BE HEROES!)

Everyone from Boxmore shared looks with one another. Without another word, they all huddled together, Fink making a point of making sure she was right next to her boss in the circle. Boxman took Venomous’ unoccupied side.

“Quick,” Boxman whispered loudly, “Someone do a head count.”

“I counted nine,” Venomous looked over at everyone, including Fink.

“Hey, wait a minute! I’m not gonna get dirty throwing balls in the heat!” Fink protested.

“There’s an ice cream sundae for you afterwards if you do this.”

Fink paused at the offer and then huffed, “Fine. But I’m not gonna like it!”

“Are we really going to be playing baseball for fun, Stepfather?” Raymond looked at Venomous incredulously.

“Don’t worry,” Venomous sneered, “This is all part of the plan.”

“I want to be cheerleader,” Shannon said in a bored tone.

“You’re playing baseball and you’re gonna like it!” Boxman snapped.

“Hey, I just thought of something,” Darrell looked thoughtful, “Mikayla’s playing too, but she doesn’t have opposable thumbs. How do we work around it?”

“Mikayla!” Mikayla hissed at her brother.

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that,” Darrell smiled, satisfied with the answer.

“I am Jethro!” Jethro added.

“Does anyone even understand what he’s saying?” Fink looked at the small blue robot funnily.

“Not a syllable,” Ernesto replied cheerfully.

“I pretend he’s complimenting my looks,” Raymond said pridefully.

“But what about that other Jethr – OH!” Darrell rubbed his stomach while Shannon glared at him, putting a finger to her lips while Boxman looked at them suspiciously.

“Father, are you and Stepfather also playing?”

“Of course not!” Boxman exclaimed. Venomous nodded vigorously in agreement.

“Hey, wait a minute, how come I have to play but Boss and Box Boss don’t have to?!”

“Because you’re athletic and energetic,” Venomous explained patiently. “Boxman and I are older and have to be the coaches.”

“That makes us two players short, then.” Shannon rolled her eyes.

“Don’t worry,” Boxman smiled nastily, “We’ll find two more to rope in.”

OK K.O. (Let’s Start the Show!)

Searching for three more players wasn’t as tricky as K.O. thought it would be. Red Action eagerly accepted, but her eyes never left Enid as she talked to Mr. Gar. A Real Magic Skeleton as well as his best friend and coworker, Brandon, also agreed not long after. K.O. had a feeling that they were simply joining simply to get out of work.

He didn’t mind them but considering how often they helped out whenever the Plaza was in trouble, it wasn’t hard for him to think of them simply being benchwarmers. And then, Beardo overheard them recruiting Brandon and offered to help them as he was on his break.

“We appreciate the offer, Beardo,” Mr. Gar nodded to the blue goblin politely, “But that would bring us up to ten. We can’t have ten players.”

“Perhaps you could use a coach of some sort, then?” Beardo suggested, “Someone who would be willing to lead this team to victory.”

“I vote for Mr. Gar!” Rad’s hand shot into the air almost as fast as Enid’s and K.O.’s.

“I second the notion,” Enid added. K.O. nodded fervently in agreement.

“I wouldn’t mind you leading us,” Brandon smiled pleasantly. He popped a chip into his mouth and continued, “I’m not good for tactics.”

“Come on, Gene!” K.O.’s mother gently nudged Mr. Gar, who proceeded to burn rosy-red around the face. “No one could do it better than you!”

“Oh, alright!” Mr. Gar conceded. His face went a shade darker as everyone cheered.

“Now that we are in agreement,” Dendy pulled a tablet out of her backpack and pressed a button. A projected image of a baseball field appeared in front of them. Dendy continued, “I suggest we discuss strategy.”

K.O. “hmphed” in agreement, “You’re right, Dendy. What ideas do you have to beat Boxmore?”

“Oh, so that’s our opponent?” Beardo raised an eyebrow and shrugged, “Must be a slow week for them.”

“In regard to ideas I might have, K.O.,” Dendy’s face turned almost as red as Mr. Gar’s was the more she spoke, “I…have none. I have never played baseball before. I would appreciate quick lessons before our allotted time is up.”

O.K. K.O. (LET’S BE HEROES!)

When the heroes arrived at the park nearly an hour later, they found a large box waiting for them. Attached to it was a note that Mr. Gar took with the delicacy of handling a pressure mine.

Dear Bodega Losers, it read, if you are reading this, then you will have discovered the large box attached to it. If there is no box attached to this, then Darrell will be thrown into the incinerator and we will provide a refund with the letter as proof of purchase.

Inside are your uniforms for today’s match. And before you ask, no, we did not have Ernesto stalk you like creeps to see who you brought with you so we would get proper measurements. Just saying. Enjoy losing your pride in a battle of balls!

HA HA HA HA HA HA!

Wait, did that get written into this letter, too? Darrell, I TOLD YOU TO NOT TRASNSCRIBE EVERY SINGLE WORD I SAID!

It’s alright, Boxman, I’m sure no one will notice this. Fink, stop writing the letter too, we’re done.

At the end of the letter, the initials PV and BM were stamped in purple wax.

“You know, it’s kind of nice that they put in the effort to not stalk us and get us uniforms with our exact measurements,” A Real Magic Skeleton said as he opened the box and pulled out the first uniform on top, “Makes me really think Boxman’s turning around.”

Rad and Enid both rolled their eyes at this.

K.O. had to admit, the uniforms didn’t look too shabby. Periwinkle blue with the Lakewood Plaza logo stamped in the middle in yellow lettering on a white background worked pretty well. There were even matching baseball caps, much to his delight. When they were finished changing – Enid, Red Action, Dendy and Mommy insisted they change in the nearby restrooms – K.O. looked at Mr. Gar, and turned his own cap around to match his boss.

“Well lookie here. You babies ready to lose?” The high-pitched whine of Fink’s voice even made Brandon and A Real Magic Skeleton turn their heads. Fink was standing by herself with a baseball bat slung over her shoulder, smug and confident etched in her posture.

“Who’s the rat girl?” Brandon whispered loudly. Fink stuck her tongue out at him in response.

“Professor Venomous’ hench-rat thingy, Fink,” K.O. growled, “She’ll stomp on your cupcakes and play videos game afterwards and call you a momma’s boy like it’s a bad thing. Even though it’s not!”

Brandon took that into consideration and then checked his pockets in case Fink decided to crush the snacks he had stored in them. A Real Magic Skeleton shook his head at this, though he stared at Fink as if daring her to mess with his friend’s food.

“She stepped on one of your cupcakes?” Mommy asked K.O. He didn’t miss the hurt tone in her voice over how one of her hand-crafted treats made with love and care was wasted in a petty act of cruelty.

“I’m over it now,” K.O. smiled at her broadly, “I just thought they should know.”

Mommy looked a little better, though she was starting to look at Fink a bit more sternly.

“Doesn’t look that threatening to me,” Red Action eyed Fink suspiciously, “So where’s this Venomous guy that she works for?”

“Boss is running late cause Box Boss messed something up again.” Fink explained with an eye roll.

Right as she said this, a large group slowly came up behind her. The glare of the sun made it hard for K.O. to make out who they were, but when he heard Boxman’s voice, he bared his teeth on instinct. There were two additional voices overlapping with Boxman’s that somehow managed to sound more belligerent than the villain himself.

“No way…” Rad muttered quietly as the voices grew closer. K.O. was about to ask his friend what he meant by that, but as the group from Boxmore came closer, he had to rub his eyes at what he was seeing.

The first one he recognized could be barely called a torso that was dyed orange, with two large arms that dragged against the dirt. Eyes poked out where a head was typically placed and they didn’t seem to be that focused, but that didn’t stop him from simply arguing with Boxman along with his companion. The companion would be better described as an infant who had a growth spurt only with his limbs. A football helmet covered most of his red hair while purple shoulder pads, blue boots and a diaper completed his outfit.

Bell Beefer and Mega Football Baby were as heroic as K.O. was intentionally malicious. Somehow, seeing them with Boxmore made more sense that having them hang out around the Plaza.

“I told you we aren’t interested, now stop bugging us you lame losers!” Mega Football Baby shouted at Boxmore, going puce in the face.

“And I told you that you’re be playing on our team or else we’ll destroy you!” Boxman shouted back.

“Uh…what are we doin’ again?” Bell Beefer’s eyes were glazed over. Mega Football Baby cuffed him from behind and the eyes became focused again.

“We were supposed ta be playing a football game!” Mega Football Baby kept his eyes on Boxman as he said this. “But these creeps say different!”

“Look, we’ve gone over this at least three times with you idiots,” Raymond ignored the angry protests from the two, “We’re two people short and you two know a bit about sports. You help us and we help you in return. Deal?”

“You’re villains!” Mega Football Baby glared at Raymond, “Why would we help you?!”

“Word on the street is you two had a bit of a falling out with a compadre recently,” Raymond said slyly. Rad gritted his teeth as Raymond eyed him, “You help us with one teensy game, and I’ll be more than happy to show your friend the error of his ways.”

Bell Beefer and Mega Football Baby took this into consideration for a moment before they cried out, “Deal!” and shook hands with Raymond.  Rad looked like he wanted to use Enid’s shadow ninjutsu and slink out of sight where his former two friends finally noticed him standing there.

“Hey, look! It’s Rad!” Bell Beefer pointed. “What’re you doing over there?”

“Playing…baseball…” Rad mumbled.

“With those weenies!?” Mega Football Baby looked ready to burst. An uncharacteristic growl from Dendy only made Mega Football Baby’s expression worsen until he started howling with laughter. Bell Beefer joined him a few moments later.

“Children,” Beardo shook his head forlornly, “Some of them are fluffy bunnies. Some of them are hawks. Some of them are tough. And some of them are simply a weed that wasn’t plucked.”

Enid placed a hand on Rad’s shoulder as his expression darkened at the mocking laughter. “Rad, don’t listen to them. They’re not worth –”

Rad yanked Enid’s hand off and he growled, “Let’s kick their butts!”

OK K.O. (LET’S BE HEROES!)

El Bow met Venomous and Boxman at the center of the field. Neither side was showing any sign of weakness; to do so would be foolish in front of the enemy.

“What’s your angle with all this?” El Bow growled.

Venomous merely smiled, “Can’t two neighboring businesses have a friendly game of baseball once in a while?”

“They could,” El Bow admitted before he added, “except I seem to recall you sending your robots to attack us almost every day.”

“Simply friendly visits from my beloved children,” Venomous had to fight down a snicker at how serene Boxman was sounding. If his intention was to rile up El Bow before the game, then it was a mission accomplished.

“You mean blasting shoppers and stores is considered friendly?” El Bow crossed his arms.

“You know how children are,” Boxman said dismissively, “My children don’t have great social skills.”

“That’s why we encouraged them to try a different approach,” Venomous added. He wasn’t as successful in fighting down a snicker this time and had to hide it with a cough. He was almost hoping that El Bow would stop with the formalities and explode at the both of them.

Almost.

“Are there any wagers to this?” El Bow asked tersely. It was impressive how quick he was at the uptake; it was no wonder Sparks fell for him. Venomous’ immediate suggestion was quickly quashed in his mind; even he didn’t think it was a good gamble. The last thing he wanted was for everyone at the Plaza to be after his blood. Thankfully, Boxman was one step ahead of him.

“If we win, then we get to destroy the Plaza without interference for the first fifteen minutes. And,” he raised a finger in the air to further his point, “you will surrender the windows of the Bodega to us.”

“What do you want with our windows?” El Bow’s glasses drooped as his face scrunched with confusion.

“Without them, birds will swoop in and poop all over your food!” Boxman cackled at the end. He would have been lying if he said that Darrell didn’t inherit his own brand of petty evil from him.

“You fiend! The Health Department would shut me down over something like that!”

“And if you win,” Boxman continued as though El Bow hadn’t interrupted him, “Then we will grant you fifty percent of our ill-gotten glorbs.”

Venomous gave his partner a funny look, “Not that I have a problem with this, but doesn’t that seem a bit much?”

“I don’t have to hear it from Cosma if it happens,” Boxman smirked, “You have most of the shares to Boxmore and its not like we can’t steal anymore later.”

Venomous coughed loudly and gestured to El Bow, who was now giving the two of them a harrowing expression that told them to try him. If they wanted to keep all of their limbs in place.

“Deal,” El Bow said after a few moments. When he clasped hands with Venomous, the villain quickly remembered why it was a bad idea when the handshake was complete, and he was left with a throbbing hand in need of ice.

OK K.O. (LET’S BE HEROES!)

There was a coin toss to determine who would go first – which Boxmore won – and then the teams got into positions. Boxmore would go first with batting while the Plaza denizens would be spread out in the field. K.O. did his best to explain the terms to Dendy as they went towards the center and right field spots as directed.

“– and if there are batters on all bases when a home run is hit, then it’s called a Grand Slam. And we don’t want that to happen.”

“And three strikes make an out, but four balls make a run?” Dendy scratched her head, “This sounds overly complicated, even for me. Would you tell me again what our jobs are?”

“We all spread out across the field to cover as much ground as we can – I think you’re supposed to stand over there, Dendy – and then we try to catch the ball when the batter swings it. Then we have to get it to home base as fast as we can before the batter gets there first.”

“Sounds plausible,” Dendy stood at her position as K.O. went over towards the right side of the field, twenty paces away.

K.O. thought that one of the best things about being far out was that you were given the chance to see the action on a larger scale with a great view. He and Dendy both shared a few laughs as Mega Football Baby got struck out first by Enid – “I was built to do FOOTBALL!” – and got a little apprehensive when Darrell managed to hit the ball and almost made it to first base before Brandon tagged him out.

Boxman’s face was twitching rapidly and appeared to be putting in a tremendous effort into not screaming. K.O. didn’t think much of it until he grabbed Raymond and pushed him towards the home base, muttering something angrily into the robot’s ear.

“Hey!” A Real Magic Skeleton called out to Dendy and K.O., “I didn’t hear what Boxman said. Did you?”

K.O. shrugged, “Probably said he would throw Raymond in the incinerator if he got out.”

He noticed Dendy looked concerned, as if she was recognizing something that he didn’t. Her face grow pale and even the beret on top of her head seemed to shake with anticipation as Raymand got into position.

“What’s wrong with you?” A Real Magic Skeleton asked. “We already got two outs and it’s not like we can’t take on some peacock like Raymond.”

“If we were simply doing battle with them, I would agree with your assessment,” Dendy’s hand shook as she adjusted her glasses, “But if I recall correctly, isn’t Raymond the athletic one of Boxman’s ‘children’?”

“Uh oh…” was all that K.O. managed to say before he saw the baseball flying overhead, out of the field, out of their reach, and then out of their sight. Raymond took a moment to stick his tongue out at everyone before casually jogging around all the bases. Boxmore was cheering him loudly all the while.

“This might be a problem,” Dendy grumbled.

Mikayla crept over to the home place with a baseball wound around her tail. Enid pitched as hard as she could, but Mikayla’s swing still connected with the ball. It was mercifully stopped by Rad, using his telekinesis to catch it.

“Weenie!” Bell Beefer called out, “You used your powers.”

“No one said it was against the rules,” Rad smirked as he dropped the ball into his outstretched hand.

“Darn it, he has us there,” Darrell grumbled.

“Alright Rad!” K.O. cheered. He grabbed Dendy’s hand and rushed over to the pitcher’s mound. Rad met him with a high five waiting and shared a chuckle as they saw Mikayla slink away giving the blue alien the stink eye.

Mega Football Baby and Bell Beefer walked past the three heroes, talking loudly.

“You know, Beefer,” Mega Football Baby started, “I’m kind of glad Rad’s not on our team.”

“Yeah!” Bell Beefer agreed, “He’s a lame weenie.”

Rad gritted his teeth as his former friends laughed meanly past him, but stopped when K.O. grabbed a hold of his hand.

“Don’t listen to them, Rad,” he said, “They’re not worth it. Besides!”

K.O. pulled Rad’s phone out of his pocket and held it up so Rad would see a picture of a gray kitten with a blue ribbon sitting inside of a teacup.

“Teacup can always put a smile on your face.”

Rad’s growing aggravation melted as he looked at the picture. A smile broke onto his face and he nodded in agreement.

“Let’s show Boxmore who’s boss!” He declared.

OK K.O. (LET’S BE HEROES!)

As the teams swapped sides, Rad noticed how Venomous’ gaze seemed to linger a few seconds longer on K.O. If he didn’t know any better, he would have called the man a creep to his face, pull K.O. behind him and tell the boy not to go near the villain anymore.

Not that he had any real say on the last part at this point, but it was the thought that mattered.

To his surprise, it was Fink who took her place on the pitcher’s mound rather than Raymond. Judging from that smug peacock’s expression, it was a deliberate choice. Dendy was looking over a handbook on baseball as she came to the home plate while a bat was tucked under her arm. After a few moments, she finally stored the book away and readjusted the bat into both her hands. She and Fink locked eyes and glowered at each other.

“This is gonna be so fun!” Fink jeered, “I get to beat your stinky Kappa butt while your Momma’s Boy boyfriend watches.”

“Both statements are inaccurate,” Dendy rolled her eyes, “We are playing baseball. Therefore, you cannot ‘kick’ my buttocks as this is a game of pelting balls at one another and batting them away with thick sticks. Secondly, K.O. is not my boyfriend and we are 6-11 years old. Far too young, in my opinion, to be participating in activities that are…icky.”

It was clear to everyone that Dendy’s cheeks were turning red but were all too polite to point it out to her.

Fink merely cackled and swung the ball at Dendy. Dendy quickly got into a stance, her bat ready to swing, when the ball vanished. A moment later, it reappeared covered in blue flames. K.O. barely had the chance to cry out a warning when the ball struck Dendy square in the face. She was sent flying right in Jethro, who stood right behind her as Boxmore’s umpire. Rad winced in sympathy as both of them tumbled back five feet, Jethro having the unfortunate role as acting cushion. Fink’s cruel laughter filled the air as K.O. and Mr. Gar were the first ones to come to Dendy’s aid.

It felt appropriate, Rad thought, that K.O. also made a point of helping Jethro stand up while Mr. Gar checked on the large bump on Dendy’s head. It took several repetitions from Dendy that she was fine to get the large man to back off and allow her to walk to first base. When he picked up the baseball on the ground, his face turned red and Fink stopped laughing, sensing danger.

Venomous broke that silence loudly, “If you don’t mind, El Bow, I want my baseball back! I bought it myself.”

K.O. gulped and slowly took a few steps backwards as Mr. Gar’s face turned red as he turned to Rad and Enid, who were trying to make themselves appear as small as possible. Rad knew from that look that they were toast, without any butter.

 “HOW DID VENOMOUS GET HIS HANDS ON MY BALLS?!” Mr. Gar bellowed. K.O. began to whistle off key to alleviate the awkwardness of the situation. Knowing the kid, K.O. might have thought that maybe if he whistled loud enough, it would draw attention away from himself. Unfortunately, it didn’t, and from the look Mr. Gar was giving him, Rad knew all three of them were going to get grilled by their boss later.

“Why would you give my merchandise to a villain?” Mr. Gar demanded as Beardo got to the home plate.

“Because he paid for it?” Rad replied helplessly.

“Because they weren’t stolen?” Enid added quickly.

“Because I said I wanted to play catch?” K.O. chuckled at the end.

“What.”

K.O. realized what he said as the other heroes – Red Action, A Real Magic Skeleton, Brandon, and Beardo – as well as the rest of Boxmore’s team not in the know-how – Bell Beefer and Mega Football Baby – looked at him curiously.

“Why would you play catch with a villain?” Mega Football Baby stomped his foot at the end.

Rad wanted nothing more than to get that crummy former friend off K.O.’s back. This was something that he knew was going to go badly if word got out; K.O. thought he and Enid were going to abandon him after the big reveal but they both proved him wrong. It broke Rad’s heart a little to realize how terrified his friend was of anyone finding out about his dad, no matter how close he was to them. It was like all the adventures and fights and fun times they shared had no meaning. Dendy considered it to be “illogical” for K.O. to expect his loved ones to turn on him so easily.

It was people like Bell Beefer and Mega Football Baby that K.O. had to worry about, unfortunately. It wouldn’t matter how much good the kid did and how much unlike Professor Snakeface he was. There were always going to be people that didn’t look past the exterior – like those jerks he used to consider best friends – and resist looking further.

“He was trying to catch Venomous yesterday cause he got out of the handcuffs and there wasn’t a net,” Rad didn’t realize he said this out loud until after he finished. It managed to have the right effect; the others agreeing in different ways that it sounded like something that would happen. Venomous appeared to be giving him a thumbs up, but no one else noticed. Bell Beefer and Mega Football Baby seemed satisfied with the explanation and for that, K.O. looked immensely relieved.

OK K.O. (LET’S BE HEROES!)

It was going bad for them. No, that wasn’t the right thing to say. Things were suckish for the Plaza team. While Red Action, Carol and Beardo were able to keep up with Rad and Enid and keep them from losing too badly, there were more than enough bad players to balance out the good. A Real Magic Skeleton and Brandon weren’t joking when they said they were better as benchwarmers. In fact, they were warming the benches for everyone right now.

K.O., as it turned out, had no idea how to swing a bat. Correction, he knew how to swing a bat, but not at a baseball. It kept slipping out of his hands and flying towards Fink. Or Venomous. Venomous seemed to be the favored target. If looks could kill, then Boxman and Fink would be murderers.

As for Dendy…the less said about her skills, the better.

It wasn’t long before they were in the ninth inning. And it still felt too slow, in Rad’s opinion. Between the taunting from Bell Beefer and Mega Football Baby that was starting to get harder to ignore and the slipups from the others when they were at home plate, Rad just wanted the day to end.

While Carol got to bat again, Mr. Gar was assisting K.O. with his swinging technique, guiding the boy’s hands and adjusting the stance as they went. As Carol managed to get to first base, Rad could have sworn that he saw Venomous glowering.

OK K.O. (LET’S BE HEROES!)

“Alright, K.O., you stand like that – good – and you swing with your hips. Move with the bat.” Venomous felt his teeth grinding against each other and turned away in disgust. He caught Fink’s eye and walked over to her.

“No mercy,” he said as he slipped a Monster Ball into her outstretched palms. Fink grinned maliciously at this and went to the pitcher’s mound as K.O. got to the home plate. Their eyes met and Fink wound up for the throw, smirking as the Monster Balll shot forward like an arrow. Right as it began to envelop itself in flames, K.O. swung the bat as hard as he could and struck it right as the ball vanished.

Everyone waited with bated breath as they wondered where the ball would reappear next. A moment later, a resounding crack! that came from the opposite side of the field was heard and Boxman came pelting towards where Venomous was howling in agony.

Boxman spent the next few minutes looking over his partner and fussing over him needlessly. Rad was beginning to wonder if the game was going to continue when the villain finally turned his head towards the heroes.

“Alright,” he said with the coolest expression Rad had even seen him wear, “That’s it. Game’s done. NOW PREPARE TO BE DESTROYED BY OUR BALLS!”

The rest of Boxmore grinned maliciously and began to pelt everyone with the rest of the Monster Balls in their possession. Rad felt K.O. and Enid join him by his side and the three of them sprang into battle. Bell Beefer and Mega Football Baby began to taunt at whoever they felt like before Rad gave them one deadly glare that sent them running. And for some reason, Rad noticed how disappointed Venomous looked as the balance of the universe was set right once more.

OK K.O. (LET’S BE HEROES!)

Professor Venomous never had a reputation for handling injuries of any kind like a weakling. He had the mentality of a fighter and the brains of an evil scientist, the combination made him very respectable by villain standards and deadly by hero standards. So it was clear how he was supposed to handle having a Monster Ball pelted at him in an area that was recently injured.

By screaming into a pillow while his partner applied more cream on the area. Thank Cob Fink wasn’t around to pick up the choice of words that he was bellowing into the cushion. It was a nice, plush thing that wasn’t easy to come by without the right amount of cash. It was also very absorbent and Venomous was fairly certain that much of what he was saying wouldn’t be heard by anyone else unless they were leaning very close to his head. Of course, anyone who was dumb enough to try that who’s name wasn’t Boxman would find that to be the last thing they ever did.

“If you tell me we should have drawn out the reveal one more time, I’m going to hurt you,” Venomous said hoarsely after his bout of screaming was finished. He accepted the offered glass of water without question and drained it in one go. The cool drink was like a balm on his throat and Venomous eagerly accepted a refill and a cough drop to go with it.

“I wasn’t going to say that,” Boxman rolled his eyes in such a dramatic fashion that Venomous couldn’t help but chuckle at. “Next time you want to be creative with revenge, just do what I would do.”

“You would have just thrown the balls at their windows,” Venomous droned.

“Precisely,” Boxman smiled.

“That would have required getting too close to that Bodega again,” Venomous winced as he readjusted himself on the bed, turning over to face Boxman better. “Speaking of which, any word from the others?”

“Those brats managed to beat them,” Boxman growled, “Maybe I shouldn’t have ordered them to attack with those other heroes nearby. The one legged Red Actor or something and that goblin man sprang into action. Gar was a step behind them.”

“And Silver Sparks?”

Boxman smirked. “Is that who you’re curious hearing about? The ex?”

Venomous looked gobsmacked at this and denials began to formulate on his lips when Boxman started laughing, but not in a mean manner. He sighed and rested his head back on the pillow, wishing for the day to end.

“You know, PV, I’m rather surprised at your little idea,” Boxman continued, “I mean, sure, the plan didn’t turn out as I’d have liked it to, but the whole Monster Ball thing was a nice cover.”

“Cover for what?”

“To see your brat, of course,” Boxman shook his head and scooted off the bed. As he walked out the door, he gave Venomous one last smirk and said, “I just hope K.O. appreciated your little gesture.”

“What gesture?” Venomous demanded, but Boxman only laughed again.

Chapter Text

K.O. clutched his backpack tightly in both hands as he marched up to the front of Boxmore. He didn’t know it was possible, but he was feeling more dread than the last weekend for a number of reasons. The failed attempt at playing catch, not helped by Rad and Enid wishing for revenge against Venomous, resulting in a  very  infuriated Boxman that K.O. was lucky to have escaped from unscathed. The baseball game, where Venomous got hurt,  again,  by K.O., albeit accidentally. The fact that his father was a villain and that they seemed to have very little ground to work with. And the underlining feeling that Venomous was definitely going to want some payback for the abuse he had suffered over the past week alone. A horde of thoughts flooded his head of what he was going to see when he knocked on the door... 

‘You ruined the baseball game just to get back at me!’ Professor Venomous snarled. He held up a syringe filled with clear liquid. His grin was predatory as he advanced towards K.O. , who became paralyzed with fear.  ‘Lucky for you, I have an idea for how to make us even…’  

Of course, that first idea was ridiculous. It was just a silly game with lots of name calling and petty insults. Nothing out of the ordinary in baseball or in fighting Boxmore. Or during attacks on the Plaza. Besides, his mommy and Mr. Gar would probably turn Venomous into a snakeskin handbag if he tried hurting K.O. like that. But maybe… 

‘I can’t  believe  you foiled our plans and embarrassed me like that! Fink, unleash the  robo -hounds!’ K.O.’s body trembled as a stampede of large, mechanical dogs with razor-sharp teeth came rushing at him.  For some reason, their heads were all shaped like Boxman...  

Again, he thought that wouldn’t make much sense either. Why would Venomous make a bunch of robots? That was Boxman’s specialty. But what if…? 

‘ You  snot-nosed brat!’ Boxman shouted as he held a weeping Venomous in his short arms. Both of them were wearing leather pants and appeared less villainous and more abnormal  and attractive to younger women . ‘I  knew  this was  gonna  end badly! You wrecked Boxman Jr.! You have infested this area with your sickening friendship. And worst of all, you made my PV  pookie -poo cry!  Children !’  

Shannon, Darrell, Raymond, Mikayla, Ernesto, and Jethro appeared and stood at attention.  Their faces were unreadable.  

Boxman pointed a finger at K.O. as he held  the weeping  Venomous closer to his body, ‘Change of plans. Capture this boy and USE HIM TO ATTACK THE PLAZA!’  

That last thought made K.O. shudder a little. Darrell would probably have his tentacle arms attached and use K.O. like a wrecking ball. While singing about wrecking balls with the sounds of screams as the chorus. It certainly sounded like something Darrell would do, but did he have the voice to do it? 

Why was his brain taking a cynical route today? K.O. agreed to get to know Venomous better, he wanted to make things work between them. And the more he knew about who his father was, the easier it would be for him to understand who T.K.O. really was and how to keep that darker side of him under control. There was no chance he could see T.K.O. as good, Shadowy Figure was the reason that he existed in the first place. And it was just a silly game of baseball...that ended badly for everyone. He could at least apologize for the new black eye he gave Venomous. 

He swallowed and took one look at the front door before softly knocking on it. A few moments, later, the door slid open and Venomous appeared. 

K.O. decided that his last prediction could be considered  somewhat  accurate. Venomous didn’t appear in his usual attire. Thankfully, he wasn’t wearing leather pants. Or crying his eyes out... 

“K.O.?” Venomous looked surprised at seeing the boy. He put a hand to his forehead and muttered quietly, “Right. The weekend. Completely forgot. Come in?” 

He moved himself so that K.O. could pass through easily. Something was definitely wrong. K.O. never saw Professor Venomous in anything other than his lab coat and turtleneck, so it was a surprise to see that he replaced both of those with a black business coat, black vest and white dress shirt underneath. His hair was slicked down, too.  On the lapel where a rose would be, there was a small skull. He had to admit, the attire suited Professor Venomous perfectly. Nothing said ‘villain’ like a skull for a lapel - wasn’t that what those flower things were called? - and for some reason, K.O. felt himself straighten a little.  

K.O. must had been staring much longer than he realized because Venomous smirked and said, “What? Never seen your old man in something nice?” 

K.O. shook his head. He always suspected that Venomous had countless labcoats and turtlenecks in his closet. Come to think of it,  he  had plenty of the same shirts and shorts to wear too in his own closet back home. He always had a hard time choosing new outfits when Mommy took him clothes shopping. 

Venomous continued, his pace quickening a bit, “I didn’t have a chance to call up ahead of time, this was sort of a last minute thing. A colleague of mine by the name of Billiam Millaim’s throwing a party at his mansion.” 

“Is...he a villain?” K.O. slowly asked. 

“Huh?” Venomous looked at K.O. funnily, “Yeah, he’s one of the bigger villains.” 

“Boss!” Fink came charging at them full-speed down the hall. She stuck her tongue out at K.O. before turning to Venomous, “I got an update! Billiam’s having a mystery guest there.” 

“A mystery guest,” Venomous parroted the words, “That’s unlike him.” 

“I bet it’s gonna be Dr. Blight!” Fink continued, a dark gleam in her eyes appearing, “She’s been around for a  looooong   time, it has to be her! We don’t gets lots of female villains like Cosma anymore an’ the one’s we do get are so stinkin’ stupid! It has to be Blight, no one could match her level of evil like her!” 

“Well...I guess we’ll have to...reschedule?” K.O. tried to keep the disappointment from creeping into his voice. If Venomous was going to be busy with a villain’s party, then it would give them a bit more time to forget about the unfortunate baseball game. But he was also looking forward to another attempt at knowing his dad; even if he was a villain, there  had  to be good in him. 

Unfortunately, all it did was make Venomous sweat all of a sudden. 

“I-I don’t think that’ll be necessary, you little...” Venomous tried to place a hand on K.O.’s head, but he instinctively bared his teeth at the professor in response. Venomous concluded weakly as he withdrew, “...scamp...” 

“Boss! Boss!” Fink hopped up and down eagerly. Venomous looked at her tiredly. Fink’s cheeks turned red, “You can ruffle  my  hair if you want.” 

Venomous sighed but complied nonetheless and completely failed to notice Fink sticking her tongue at K.O. again as he did so. Even if he didn’t like Fink, K.O. knew that she was lucky to have someone care for her as deeply as Venomous clearly did. 

No, he was thinking a little too negative about this. Professor Venomous might be a villain and might also be a lousy person, but deep down, K.O. knew that there was the man that used to be Lazerblast in there. He could almost see it coming through Venomous’ mannerisms if he paid close attention. Like when he got nervous when he saw Mommy; he  clearly  still cared about her even if he was dating – and K.O. fought the urge to shudder at this next part –  Boxman.  His own father dating a villain; who would have imagined that? 

What was he thinking about again? Oh, yeah, Venomous trying parenting. He must have had practice with Fink and he’s been willing to want to spend more time with K.O. That was a sign that K.O. ought to keep an open mind about the villain. So how come Fink didn’t call Venomous ‘Dad’? 

“K.O.” Venomous suddenly started, “Er...son...would  you  like to be my plus one?” 

“WHAT?!” Fink’s smug expression had vanished while K.O. cleaned the insides of his ears to make sure there wasn’t anything blocking them. That was...that was...he wasn’t sure what to think at the moment. He was expecting to wait up until Venomous and Fink got back from their little party and maybe watch some movie before bed; going into a shindig where there was nothing but villains sounded more like one of Mr. Gar’s missions than a father-son activity. Plus, there wouldn’t be anyone there that he knew or trusted. If Rad or Enid were allowed to come with him, then he supposed it wouldn’t be an issue. 

“We’d have to get you a suit on short notice,” Venomous continued, completely unaware of K.O.’s mute shock, “Maybe a disguise too. Any villain with a brain would be able to recognize a hero...” 

K.O. tried speaking up, “That’s not necessary...” 

“Of course it is,” Venomous didn’t spare him a glance as he pulled out his phone, “Disguises are everything in a world of villains and heroes. We could turn this into a little challenge. See how many people we can fool before leaving. I’d say about twenty – that's at least half of the guest list, knowing Billiam – but if we keep interactions to a minimum, I’d say we could make it through the whole night without an issue –" 

“So that’s it, huh?!” Venomous flinched at the sharp tone and looked at Fink incredulously. Even K.O. stared at her; this was probably the first time he ever saw the hench-rat girl snap at her own boss. Fink glowered at the two of them, “You want to go to some stinkin’ party and have some ‘Daddy-Son time’? FINE! I didn’t wanna go anyways!” 

And with that, Fink stormed off in a huff, taking a moment to stop and punch a wall next to her. Then she was gone. 

“Is she gonna be okay?” K.O. slowly asked. He shivered as he saw the big dent in the metal. 

“She’ll probably be on one of her videos game when we get back,” Venomous didn’t sound that concerned. After another moment of silence, he cleared his throat, “Right. We need to get you a suit for the party.” 

“Way ahead of you,” And with that, K.O. immediately ripped his casual clothing off, revealing a fancy tuxedo underneath it with a big red bow-tie. Venomous went bug-eyed at the sight, then muttered under his breath how Boxman did the same thing last time, whatever that meant. 

K.O. then pulled out a fake, bushy moustache that he slapped onto his face. Venomous’ eyes seemed to grow wider at that, but then he chuckled. 

“That  did  fool me, I suppose...” He pulled out a set of keys and guided K.O. out, “To the party.” 

OK K.O. (LET’S BE HEROES!)  

Stupid boss and his stupid kid having fun without Fink! The entire thing stinked! She was his right hand, his laser blaster, his partner in crime! But ever since Box Boss crashed at their place and  wrecked everything in minutes , she’d been getting pushed to the side more often. Fink barely saw her boss anymore since he’d been getting busier and busier with stupid Plaza attacks and crud! 

It wasn’t fair! Bad enough she had to share her boss with a robot chicken and his robot children, now she had to share him with a stinkin’ hero! No, not a hero. A  momma’s boy . How long did her boss even know about the brat? The dinner with Boxman? Was he gonna make her share a bedroom with the brat, too?! 

Boss was the one person in whole wide world she could trust; she had been doing it for years after all. It was fine when it was just her and him, together against everyone else. Even on those stupid, crummy, dumb,  horrible  days where he got super tired and cranky, she still wanted to be by his side no matter what. Because that was what a minion was supposed to do, show loyalty to the last breath. 

It wasn’t because he was her dad, he wasn’t. Darrell could call him ‘Stepdaddy’ all he wanted, blegh! Same with the rest of the robots. She wasn’t gonna fall into that stupid trick; after all, Box Boss wasn’t a great dad to his kids, so why the heck should she call him her Box Dad? 

Stinkin’ thing stinked!  She  was supposed to be the one person Boss could trust with anything he threw at her. And now she felt like she was being turned into a side character in one of her RPGs or favorite shows where only one character does everything and everyone else is their cheerleader. Like, what was the point of having that character in the first place if they weren’t gonna do anything else after a couple of episodes? Was it because they could change their hair color or something to get a stupid power-up? 

Normally, she’d be taking her frustrations out on some online wimps in her videos game, but today, she felt as though she needed something different. The whole place stinked like Box Boss and motor oil and she needed fresh air -  

Her lips curled into an awful smile. Yes, that would do it. Some fresh air, mixed with the sounds of explosives and the screams of terror in the air. Maybe a little hint of smoke. Just as things were dying down at the end of a long day. They’d never know what hit ‘em. Fink glanced at one of the cameras to her left and waited until it was looking the other way before she snuck into a room and snagged a few glorbs.  

If Boss ever found out that she was stealing glorbs again – or Box Boss for that matter – Fink was gonna get an earful from the two of them and get punished. Well, probably  not  get punished, Boss would never throw her into an incinerator like Box Boss would. Her precious eyes could melt the heart of the coldest villain. Or at least almost all villains. 

Which was why she didn’t feel scared “borrowing” several glorbs for tonight. One wouldn’t be enough for what she wanted to do. And that momma’s boy proved that she needed to catch up, and fast. Even Jethro was gonna beat her at this rate; she overheard Shannon saying something about that little box saying his first words and starting a rebellion among his species. 

With everything she needed, Fink stormed into the nearest bathroom, throwing Box Boss outside without apology on his butt. 

“Fink!” He shouted angrily, clutching a newspaper in one hand and pulling his pants up with the other, “I was using that!” 

“Well I need it more!” Fink stuck her tongue out at him in defiance and slammed the door in his face. She opened it again and said, “And we’re all out of toilet paper!” She slammed it again. 

Boxman stared at the closed door as Darrell walked by. He put a hand to his chin thoughtfully, “Must have been something she ate earlier.” 

“Daddy...” Darrell looked at the door with dread, “I don’t think she needs to use the potty.” 

Chapter Text

K.O. scratched underneath the fake moustache; he had forgotten how itchy it felt. Maybe it was different if you grew one out naturally, like Mr. Gar did.

A quick shake of the head from Venomous reminded K.O. of the importance of keeping his cover. He ought to have been more excited going into a supervillain gathering in disguise, it was something he never did before – well, if you didn't count attempting to wreck Boxman's dinner with Professor Venomous – and would have been a thrilling experience.

The thing was, K.O. was more concerned with what would happen if his cover was blown. What would happen? He'd be surrounded by countless enemies without anyone to help him...well, except for his father, but it wasn't a complete given at the moment. Like standing on the edge of a butter knife.

Billiam Milliam, he figured from the gigantic house with grand columns at the entrance, had to be – what was that word Enid used a lot to describe people in those magazines she reads? - loaded. The pathway was covered with either water fountains, nude statues of cupids or nude statues of cupid standing in water fountains. Side to side, K.O. felt himself being stared at by endless shrubbery trimmed to look like some short man with a curly hairdo dressed in a toga. If this Billiam guy was a villain, did that mean that these were security measures? That had to be a good reason for the creepy art and statues; it wasn't like this guy just loved looking at himself everywhere he went, right?

Right?

"Succulentus, you look absolutely vile tonight," a golden-skinned man that was most certainly Billiam greeted...ew! A talking vegetable! Wait, that was the guy from Mother's Day that Mommy fought.

Double ew!

Succulentus walked – or was it slithered – inside the manor and Venomous and K.O. were next.

"Professor Venomous, I'm charmed," Billiam took Venomous' outstretched hand and kissed it. Once. Twice. By the third time, Venomous pulled his hand away quickly and subtly rubbed it against his jacket.

"I never got to thank you for the payment you sent us," Venomous smiled at the gold man, though it didn't reach his eyes.

Billiam chuckled, "Those glorbs you acquired were more than enough to compensate. The pleasure is all mine, in fact."

"Urg..." K.O.'s eyes widened when he realized he said that out loud. Oh Cob.

"And who is your plus one this time?" Billiam drawled, looking at K.O. diffidently, "I was certain I made it clear that Boxman was never to be brought over as your guest after last time." The final bit was added with a glower at Venomous, who barely appeared phased by it.

Venomous placed a hand on K.O.'s head – and clearly ignoring the involuntary flinch from the boy – and spoke, "This is my new intern at Boxmore, K...Ka...Ka...noli! Yeah, Kanoli. He's got a lot of potential, even if he doesn't see it."

As he said this last part, Venomous gave K.O. a particularly endearing smile. There was nothing about it that seemed forced, so it was clear he was saying 'Please give villainy a chance for your old man.' K.O. smiled back, though it was forced, and said in a thick accent like the one he used when crashing Venomous' dinner with Boxman so long ago, "I don'ta know about. Meya Momma dinks Imma better offa in da family business."

I won't become a villain even for you!

"Ooooh," Billiam clasped his hands in delight, "A foreigner! You certainly have exquisite tastes, if I do say so myself. Pleasure to meet you, Kanoli."

K.O. felt himself being pulled close to Venomous' side at that statement and he wasn't sure how much he was imagining the growl that came from the man. Was it a bad thing that Billiam said? Mommy always told him about Stranger Danger and there was nothing about Billiam that made K.O. think of someone like Shadowy Figure. Was Professor Venomous just getting annoyed with the man?

"Well, we prefer not to waste anymore of your time, Billiam. See you later." Venomous had a hand firmly on K.O.'s shoulder as he guided the boy into the house.

"Enjoy the party, Kanoli." Billiam called out to them as they walked inside. If K.O. lingered for a few seconds longer, he would have seen the gears in Billiam's brain turning and lead to the villain wondering why on Earth that new intern looked so familiar to him...

O.K. K.O. (LET'S BE HEROES!)

Fink crawled through the sewage pipe, checking her tracker to check her progress. If the GPS signal was accurate – which it ought to be thanks to Boss – then she'd reach her destination in a few moments. She felt alive in here, with nothing to trust but herself and the stuff on her back. Boxmore had grown on her over the past few months, but Fink missed the simple thrill of pipe exploring.

But the moment she would catch a whiff of iron, she'd be scurrying back home and burying herself into her videos game. She could carry on with her plan later, when her heart stopped pounding in her chest. Mindlessly blowing up computer characters on the screen always felt...fake. And that was a good thing. Fink loved blowing things up like her Boss and the sounds of people screaming were like a lullaby to her, but there were lines that she wouldn't cross.

If she went that far, then there'd be no one else to bother!

She found the pipe she was looking for, and crawled upwards. As Fink jumped out of the unknown toilet, she heard a soft gasp and pumped her fists in the air. The blonde Old Lady Mom had a scrubby thingy in her hand and was wearing rubber gloves. Such a perfect coincidence. Brought back memories of when she fought the Brat for the first time! Would his Mommy shriek in terror like the Brat did, too, she wondered?

Fink landed on the tiled surface with a splash! and pumped her fists in the air triumphantly.

"MUAH HA HA HA!" Fink cackled maniacally, "Looks like the Momma's Boy's Momma is all alone in her teeny-weeny empty house! Guess she never expected company to come knocking, now did she?"

She pressed a button on her bag and glorbs started vacuuming through the tubs connected to it and into her collar. A purple aura began to overshadow her body, her hair became mangled, her teeth razor-sharp, and her collar spiked. Fink rose into the air like an unholy phantom, looming over the woman like a hawk. She began to cackle loudly, reveling in her eminent victory.

'Now everyone will see I'm still in the game!' Fink thought triumphantly. If she had taken a moment to think, she would have realized that she hadn't actually accomplished anything yet. And if she had taken two moments to think, Fink would have realized she entered the house of a superhero that was level 10 and had years of experience under her belt.

And if Fink had bothered to even look at the woman, she would have noticed that she didn't appear to be frightened at all at the girl.

"Time for you to know pure terro –" Fink's triumphant smirk was wiped clean when the Old Lady Mom suddenly grabbed her from midair and forced her to the floor. A quick swipe of her collar and the purple aura – and power – were both gone.

"Huh," the Old Lady Mom looked at Fink with mild interest, "Rats can really do that. Hot dog! I thought it was just some rumor spread by some looney." And with that, she laughed merrily as if Fink's failed attack was a pleasant surprise to her.

"What?" Fink asked flatly.

"I always thought rats going through plumage was just a myth," the Old Lady Mom laughed again as she said this, "Man, Gene's gonna get a kick out of this!"

"I was floating in midair in a dark, spooky aura and the only thing that surprised you was me coming out of the toilet?!"

The Old Lady Mom ignored this and took a proper grasp at Fink's hand. Fink began pulling, amazed at the Old Lady Mom's strength. Why in Cob's name did Boss have to date someone like her?! Did he just like people with power or something?!

Was Box Boss secretly beefy underneath all that blubber?

"Stop squirming, missy," the Old Lady Mom chided gently as she pulled Fink's wrist, "I don't bite."

"Lies! Whatever torture you have for me is nothing I fear!" Fink shouted in defiance, "So, what do you have in mind for me? The classic lava pit? Razor sharp spikes to crush me? A giant wheel for me to run on with no cheese to motivate me?! I can take it!"

"You need a bath," the Old Lady Mom smiled, "You stink worse than my Peanut."

"NO!" Fink suddenly started to struggle against the Old Lady Mom's grip in terror. "ANYTHING BUT THAT! UNHAND ME, YOU HAG! I'LL EVEN WATCH A MOVIE ABOUT CATS SINGING!"

Old Lady Mom frowned, "That's not a nice thing to say, young...rat...lady."

"My name's Fink!" Fink snarled. There was no stinkin' way she was letting some Momma's Boy's Momma call her a rat!

...even if it was true...

She grumbled as Old Lady Mom lifted her up and gently placed her in the empty bathtub.

Old Lady Mom smiled, "And mine's Carol. Nice to meet you." She adjusted the nozzle on the showerhead so that it was pointing downwards. "Give me your coat and I can put it in the wash for you."

"How about I give you a taste of my fury instead!" Fink reached for the inside of her backpack when she suddenly felt herself being turned around and the backpack removed from her person.

"No clothing or toys in the bathtub," Old Lady Mom wagged her finger disapprovingly at her. She narrowed her eyes at the bag and began digging through it, "What's in here, anyways?"

Fink grumbled as she reluctantly handed over her coat to the Old Lady Mom's outstretched hand. Darrell wasn't gonna let her live this one down. She'd rather people find out about her Lord of the Loot lunchbox than about this!

Chapter Text

The closest thing to a fancy party K.O. had ever been was the Plaza Prom Rad had hosted. People had dressed up really nice, there were snacks and drinks, and a DJ that was currently scrolling through their phone while the current song played. K.O. recognized the tune and hummed along with it; it was a soft melody that Mommy liked to play in the car on their way to the Plaza. He tried to remember the name of the artist, but K.O. still wasn’t that great at names. Was it…Quartey? No. Maybe it was Sugar.

Fancy hotdogs in crust blankets came and went and K.O. managed to filch a few from a passing waiter. No one seemed to notice him, which was alright for K.O. Talking in that funny accent was exhausting. It felt strange to be going out by himself instead of having his friends by his side. Just thinking of all the cool missions they were probably doing made K.O. feel cold. He hoped he could have just as much fun as he hoped to have here.

O.K. K.O. (LET’S BE HEROES!)

Dendy, Enid and Rad were all laying down on the clean floors of the Bodega with no missions that night or any customers entertaining or annoying to distract them. Baby Teeth was snoring softly on the countertop with a plump belly, courtesy of the large helping of lightning nachos Enid gave her.

“The lack of stimuli has been deteriorating on my motor skills and has brought on a state of weariness that has me eagerly anticipating the end of our ritual service.”

“Huh?” Enid and Rad said at the same time and sat up to look at Dendy better.

“I am bored,” Dendy said in a bored voice.

“You could have just said that, Dendy…” Rad sighed.

“I am too bored to put in the effort for what is considered ‘proper dialect’,” Dendy explained, “Mr. Gar has no missions for us, save for defending the Plaza. We have completed all of our cleaning tasks for the day two hours early, and we do not even have the pleasure of K.O.’s company to help us through this dire situation.”

“Nah, he’d probably be moaning on about how bored he was, too,” Rad waved a hand dismissively.

“At least we would suffer through this together,” Dendy countered.

“Anyone wanna play ‘I Spy’?” Enid suggested.

“Let me initiate the gaming process,” Dendy stared at the ceiling, “I spy with my four eyes…a blank wall…”

All three of them groaned simultaneously.

“Can’t we just watch a funny video or something?” Rad rolled onto his stomach as he spoke.

“No go,” Enid grumbled, “If Mr. Gar catches us on our phones, he’ll tear into us and tell us to quick slacking off.”

“Is this not slacking off, then?” Dendy stared at Enid from the corner of her eye.

“Trust me, Mr. Gar would come in and say we’re doing a good job playing possum for the villains.”

“I want Boxmore to attack us,” Rad whined, “I don’t care who it is. I’ll even take on an entire army of Jethros if it means we have something to do!”

Just then, there was a loud sloshing sound coming from the bathroom.

“Urg!” Enid groaned, “I’d do anything except fix the toilet!”

“I will assist you,” Dendy pulled herself off the floor and rambled across the Bodega with Enid close behind. Rad crawled across the floor like a snail not long after, following the girls and leaving an inexplicable trail of slime behind him as he moved. When they all reached the bathroom, they heard voices behind the door.

“See Daddy,” a whiny voice said, “I was right!”

“Yes, yes, now I know rats can do that…” a harsher voice said back, “BUT THAT DOESN’T CHANGE THE FACT THAT MY OUTFIT IS RUINED!”

“Daddy, relax,” a third, more feminine and equally whiny voice came in, “We’ll just grab Fink and head out before –”

The door suddenly swung open and Boxman, Shannon and Darrell were walking out, dripping all over the clean floor.

“Anyone sees us…” Shannon finished meekly.

“Yay, Boxman is here!” Rad looked at his coworkers nervously for a moment, “I mean…YAY, BOXMAN IS HERE!”

“Yes, I am!” Boxman spat. He swiveled his head, “But more importantly, is Fink here?”

“Your hench rat girl thingy?” Dendy asked.

“Nu-uh!” Darrel stuck his robotic tongue out at her, “Stepdaddy’s hench rat girl thingy!”

“Why would she be here?” Dendy frowned.

“Cause she came here before,” Shannon answered, “Duh.”

“What do you mean she…oh, I remember now,” Enid nodded, “She came in through the toilet and I got Rad a soda afterwards.”

“Huh…rats can really perform such acts,” Dendy put a hand under her chin ponderously, “I must remember to add that to my notes.”

“Also, she ain’t here,” Enid said flatly.

“Then we won’t be here, either,” Boxman dragged his two children by the scruff of their necks and carried them back into the bathroom, “She must be at the party, then!”

It was though an alarm clock went off in their heads several moments after Boxman said this and the employees’ eyes bulged with horror. This was the most entertainment that they had gotten all day ever since the last customer left the store!

“NO!” They all scrambled to grab at Boxman’s leg to prevent him from leaving. Enid was using her strength to pin Boxman to the spot. Rad focused on using his telekinesis to give them a grip on the door. Dendy had claws shoot out of her backpack and plant themselves into the floor to reduce mobility.

“Please don’t leave us alone with our boredom!” Rad had tears and mucus running down his face.

“Fight us!” Enid begged, “Give us an army of Jethro to battle, just don’t leave us to our fate!”

“We will almost let you win!” Dendy’s lower lip was trembling.

Boxman looked at the three with sympathy in his eyes before smirking evilly, “Nope! Enjoy your misery!”

He freed himself from their grip and made his way to the toilet.

“Bye, bye, losers!” Darrell cackled as he was slammed into an open toilet headfirst and went down the pipes. Shannon followed after, pulling down her eyelids at the heroes as she was flushed away. Boxman was last, laughing madly at their boredom induced misery, preparing to flush himself down the toilet next. He stood on top of the toilet as the water swirled him around as he laughed dramatically, taking his body closer and closer to the exit…

…when the toilet stopped, leaving Boxman stuck down to his wait inside of it.

“Um…do you have a plunger I could borrow?” Boxman asked feebly.

“Here,” Enid grumbled as she tossed one to the villain.

“Thank you, Enid,” Boxman smiled sincerely at her. And then he began to cackle madly again as he pushed the plunger down on his head, sinking deeper into the pipes until he was gone and only the plunger remained.

All three of them stared at the empty toilet.

Enid stared at her watch, “Welp, that killed a few minutes.”

“May we leave now?” Dendy looked at her coworkers hopefully.

“Not for another hour…” Rad groaned. All three of them slumped to the floor in a bored mush and crawled out of the bathroom, leaving an inexplicable tail of slime behind them.

O.K. K.O. (LET’S BE HEROES!)

Carol Kicaid had just recently redefined her definition of a fussy bather. K.O., as sweet as he was as a baby, tended to squirm and cry during bath time when he was a baby. No matter how many times he was put in the bathtub, he would throw a fit and cling to his mother. His tiny fingernails had grooved into her skin so many times before Carol realized how scared he was, and a solution came to her. No matter what the circumstances were, K.O. always managed to calm down when Carol began to sing.

She had crooned to her baby boy as she bathed him, feeling the tension leave him as she gently cleaned him after a long day of play. As K.O. grew older, his tantrums over bath time faded. In fact, his tantrums dissipated altogether. Of course, he would become more diplomatic on the subject – or at least, as diplomatic as a 6-11 year old could be over baths – and argue why he should try bathing at least five times a week instead of seven. Carol always thought that it was silly behavior to engage in. That was until she officially met Fink, of course.

If K.O. was fussy as a baby, then she would have to thank Cob that it didn’t carry over to the present like it seemed to with Fink. And to make matters worse, Fink had sharp nails and wouldn’t hesitate at the chance to scratch at Carol when she had to drain the bathtub twice because of all the grime Fink had brought with her. Her gnarled hair required attention from Carol’s hairbrush, which only seemed to make Fink excruciatingly difficult to handle.

“Hold still, Fink,” Carol struggled with the rat girl, “You’ll feel a lot better when we’re done!”

“No, I won’t!” Fink snapped and tried biting Carol in the arm. She felt as helpless as a baby as Carol turned her back around and continued to rake that darn hair torture device through her perfectly fine mane. That Old Lady Mom had stripped her of her clothes, gadgets and mittens, but Fink refused to be stripped of her dignity.

She began squirming around in the bathtub, hoping that the woman would wield and let her go. The Old Lady Mom was drenched by the time Fink was restrained again, but her determination did not waver.

“You know something, Fink? I don’t get why Professor Venomous dressed you up like that. The lab coat, I guess I kind of get, but the mittens are a complete mystery to me,” Carol felt a smile form on her face as she sensed the hair beginning to straighten from her administrations. Fink grumbled with her back turned to the woman, her hands twitching. “I mean, why go through all that trouble of making you wear gloves when it wasn’t even close to chilly out…” Carol’s voice trailed off when she finally noticed what Fink was doing in the bathtub and frowned disapprovingly, “Young rat lady, we do not make that gesture in this household!”

Maybe that was the reason her ex-boyfriend made Fink wear those mittens all the time…

“Almost done, missy,” Carol said a few minutes later, “Dinner’s almost ready and I think I made too much for myself. Would you like to join me after your bath?”

“So, you can poison me?!” Fink snarled defiantly, “NEVER!”

Fink’s stomach grumbled in response.

“I’ll have a nibble…” she conceded.

Fink was wrapped in a soft towel when she got out of the bath smelling like strawberries. The Old Lady Mom said that her clothes were being washed as she led the girl into the small dining room. It felt cluttered, but it had a worn feeling to it like putting on a favorite pair of boots. And it was colorful, too.

O.K. K.O. (LET’S BE HEROES!)

“Oh, Kanoli, there you are!” Billiam found K.O. wandering by himself in the party, “I’d like to introduce you to the rest of our community!”

Without waiting for a response, he took a hold of K.O.’s hand and dragged him over to a circle of villains chattering with each other.

“Everyone,” Billiam waited for the murmurs to quiet down, “I’d like to introduce our newest member to our vile brotherhood, Kanoli! He works at Boxmore as an intern and I am confident that he will flourish under Professor Venomous’ teachings.”

A smattering of applause followed and Billiam continued, “Kanoli, this is Cosma, she is my coworker.”

K.O. fought back a shudder as he looked at the lizard lady, hoping that she didn’t recognize him. The last time they met, she had eaten Rad’s home planet and spat it out later.

“A pleasure, my dear,” Cosma extended a hand, smiling warmly at him, “Our hearts melt knowing that the next generation will carry on after we are gone.”

“T-thatsa nice toa hear!” K.O. felt sweat beading across his forehead.

“This is Succulentus, I’m sure you saw him as you and Venomous came in,” Billiam pointed to the vegetable man while K.O. prayed to Cob that he wouldn’t be recognized by that villain, either. Big Bull Demon is doing karaoke at the moment, I’ll introduce you to him later. That’s Vormulax, she will eat you out of house and home. So, tell me, Kanoli, how did you react when you heard about what’s been going on at P.O.I.N.T., huh?”

“What?” K.O. stared at Billiam blankly. Fortunately, Billiam interpreted it differently.

“My apologies, you’re new around here, I forgot. P.O.I.N.T. is our arch nemesis, run by the elite of the elite among heroes.” He loudly snorted suddenly, “Or at least, it was until their dirty laundry was aired.”

The other villains in the group began to laugh loudly along with Billaim while K.O. felt his blood run cold. P.O.I.N.T. was in trouble? How? Elodie didn’t make it sound like they were going through problems recently. In fact, the only thing she was concerned about was Chip Damage not behaving like himself ever since his breakdown during Enid’s final exams.

“Whata ‘dirty laundry’ do youa mean?” He ventured. “Dida someone leavea theira socksa out inta rain?”

“No, dear, worse than that!” Cosma clutched her sides as she laughed, “Their top hero, Chip Damage was nothing more than a robot. Imagine learning that your role model was nothing more than an illusion built by a bunch of pathetic losers in the hopes of keeping morale up.”

K.O. could imagine that if truth be told. He had thrown out all his memorabilia of Chip Damage when he learned the truth about him. He even made a video to his followers online; some of them even commented how they threw their memorabilia away when they saw the post too. At the time, K.O. felt like he had gotten through to a few people about how bad P.O.I.N.T. had messed up and lied to everyone. But hearing the villains treat it like it were some hilarious joke made him feel squeamish; it reminded him of how he had eaten all of the cookies Mommy had made in one day and wrecked the house as T.K.O.

“Nobody isa perfect, though,” he argued feebly, but Cosma talked right over him.

“I can’t believe Chip Damage thought the public would be okay with him exposing his secret like that!” She laughed again, more cruelly this time. “I mean, why go to all the trouble of making this perfect hero if he decides to expose himself as a fraud? The news has been going on about it for weeks now!”

“But he was honest with everyone in the end! Doesn’t that mean anything?!” K.O. felt himself turn to stone when he felt all eyes looking at him now.

“Your accent’s slipping a little, Kanoli,” Billiam observed, his eyes narrowing sharply. Cosma looked at him suspiciously, now.

“Ita comes anda ita goes sometimes,” K.O. invented, feeling his suit becoming sticky with sweat. That seemed to mollify Billiam, but Cosma still looked at him like he was some fly that landed on her plate.

“Kanoli’s been known to debate with the others back at Boxmore,” K.O. nearly jumped when he heard Venomous behind him. “He tries to see both sides of an issue, like an adult. And I’ve been helping him with his accent and he is a very fast learner. Did I forget to mention that, earlier, Billiam?”

Now everyone was looking at Billiam, who seemed to be wishing he were somewhere else at the moment, “Um…I don’t remember, Venomous. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Venomous placed a gentle hand on K.O.’s shoulder and steered him away from the other villains, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I think my intern needs some punch.”

The moment they were out of earshot, Venomous was whispering frantically in K.O.’s ear, “What do you think you were doing back there? Trying to blow your cover?!”

“It slipped out!” K.O. said hotly, “And besides, Chip Damage is a great hero!”

“You mean a great fraud,” Venomous countered, “If he were honest from the beginning, P.O.I.N.T. wouldn’t be facing so much backlash right now.”

“But Chip Damage didn’t even know he was a robot until I tried fixing him!”

“You what?” Venomous asked flatly.

“Ummm….Itriedtofixhimwithelodieshelpandmakehimbehavebutchiplearnedhewasarobotanddecidedtotelleveryonethetruthandshuthimselfdownpermanently.”

“What.”

“He was acting up a while ago, right before P.O.I.N.T. took over the Plaza and we had to fight them. When Elodie took over, she needed my help to fix him since Greyman wasn’t around until the last minute and Chip wanted everyone to know the truth before he…retired.”

“Greyman made him?” Venomous looked strangely thoughtful, “That doesn’t sound like something he could screw up so easily…”

“Well…Foxtail made a few adjustments, so…”

“That explains a lot, then,” Venomous shook his head in dismay, “Every time I saw her on the news since I ‘left’, it was like she became a completely different person. The only one who hasn’t changed at all is…your mom.”

It was the way he said that last word that made K.O. stop. He wasn’t great at reading people, but there was something about the way Professor Venomous said it that seemed to say a lot. There was surprise, and relief and sorrow. And bitterness. He thought of when Venomous went off against his mom about how she ‘lied’ to him about his potential. And how quickly she seemed to give up after Venomous seemed to vanish.

It was official, this party was a bust. The villains were villains and jerks too. There was no one that K.O. could talk to without blowing his cover. The decorations were really creepy and made K.O. want to redecorate the entire place and no one seemed to be batting an eye at the shadowy figure looming in the background –

Wait.

THE SHADOWY FIGURE LOOMING IN THE BACKGROUND?!

His fists became cloaked in a blue aura and K.O. threw a punch with precision that Enid would have been envious of. The Power Fist flew so fast a blast of wind blew back at K.O. and knocked him to the floor. Professor Venomous tried to grab his arm, but he was too slow. It was strangely beautiful to watch and K.O. could feel so much power that he couldn’t remember having when his ability came forth.

A large streak of blue, faster than the average eye could follow, soared across the party floor and caught Shadowy Figure square in the chest. He was sent sprawling across the floor and hit the opposite wall with a loud crack! that drew everyone’s attention towards the sound.

Billiam was the first to move, his face now alive with panic, “Oh Cob, oh Cob, everyone stay calm! Someone find the source of that…that…unprovoked attack!”

K.O. immediately began to whistle while Venomous put a hand to his face in dismay. The whistling drew everyone’s attention to the two and the song died on K.O.’s lips when he realized what had just happened.

“Um…mama mia…” he chuckled weakly and looked to Professor Venomous for help, only to find that the man had become frozen with fear.

“Some light show, huh, everyone,” Professor Venomous’ eyes darted left and right, hoping to find an opening that he and K.O, could use to escape. Billiam returned with Shadowy Figure leaning on him for support. Or at least it looked like it was Shadowy Figure. The hood was down, but a gloved hand covered their face as they moved.

“Dr. Blight, I am so sorry about that,” Billiam was on the verge of tears, “I promise I will get to the bottom of this at once!”

“I want their head!” Dr. Blight removed her hand from her face and K.O. could see the shiny new black eye she had. He swallowed drily and felt like he was ready to lose whatever snacks he managed to eat that night.

“Kanoli chose a strange time to start whistling,” Cosma observed. Billaim now had his sights on K.O. too.

“You know something?” He began, “He looks rather familiar…Professor Venomous, don’t you have an enemy from the Plaza that can fire energy blasts that are shaped like fists?”

“Um…yes, but…” Professor Venomous looked lost, “The thing is…I was…just practicing an experiment while Kanoli was about to whistle and –”

“STOP, FINK!” Everyone turned towards the new voice shrieking into the night air. Boxman pushed through the thong of villains crowding around K.O. and Venomous with Darrell and Shannon close behind him. K.O. heard Venomous say something under his breath that he was sure Mommy wouldn’t want K.O. repeating in public.

“IT’S NOT WORTH GETTING STEPDADDY IN TROUBLE WITH AUNTIE COSMA!” Darrell shrieked, unaware that ‘Auntie’ Cosma was glowering at his back.

“Yeah,” Shannon looked around frantically for the hench-girl, “I mean, there’s always next year or just attacking the Plaza. Wanna attack the Plaza with your favorite senior coworkers, Fink? I’ll give you a five-minute head-start on attacking the Bodega chumps!” If she were human, K.O. was certain that she would have been sweating like a hog in the blazing sun.

“As you can plainly see,” Billiam sneered at the new trio that just arrived, “Fink is not in my manor presently. However, I don’t seem to recall inviting the likes of you here, Boxman!”

“Quick!” K.O. felt a harsh whisper against his ear and felt Venomous taking a hold of his hand, “Let’s bolt it while they’re distracted.”

“But isn’t Boxman your partner?” K.O. whispered back, looking at the fat robot chicken and his children with concern.

“Don’t worry about them,” Venomous reassured him as he dragged him through the crowd, “I’ve got it covered.”

K.O. didn’t have any time to argue as he and Venomous ran out of the manor while the villains surrounded Boxman and his children and began to hurl scorn at them. The moment they reached the bottom of the fancy steps, Professor Venomous pulled a remote out of his jacket and pressed the big red button on it. A moment later, he heard three cries of shock growing more and more distant by the moment.

“SEE YOU BACK AT BOXMORE, P.V.!” Boxman shouted before he was swallowed up by the night. Back on the ground, there were sounds of pandemonium as villains frantically ran all over the place.

“I am going to have to grovel to Billiam for weeks just so he can forget this whole night ever happened,” Venomous sighed as he and K.O. entered the car. K.O. barely had time to buckle in before the car was in motion and they were well on their way onto the highway.

“Um…Professor Venomous?” K.O. tried. Venomous didn’t spare a glance his way. K.O. cleared his throat and said a little louder, “Professor Venomous?” This time, he was rewarded with a weary look. K.O. twisted his hands together and pressed on, “I’m really sorry about what happened…”

Venomous exhaled deeply and redirected his attention to the road in front of them.

“I know I’m not a villain…” K.O. continued, “And I know you’re not a hero. I just…I didn’t mean to ruin your night…”

“You didn’t ruin it at all.”

“Huh?!”

Venomous looked back at him, smiling this time, “You made it through most of the party without breaking a sweat. You blew your cover in the end, but I honestly didn’t expect you to get that far. Plus, you ruined Billiam’s night by crashing it, so it worked out in the end.”

“I thought villains got along with each other,” as soon as he said this, K.O. realized how silly it sounded.

Venomous seemed to agree, “Scamp, if all the villains got along perfectly, there’d be no heroes to stand against them. Or that’s what I’d like to think. Speaking of villains, though…why did you attack Dr. Blight out of the blue?”

“Oh, um…” K.O. looked down at his lap and said simply, “Well…I thought she was Shadowy Figure.”

“Shadowy Figure…” Venomous murmured, “Shadowy…Figure…?”

“Yeah!” K.O. nodded eagerly and pulled the jacket over his head as best as he could to show what the villain looked like, “He wears a big hood over his head and has a creepy voice and sells glorbs and keeps trying to get me to harness T.K.O. like a madman and –”

“Woah, woah, woah, woah,” Venomous looked at him incredulously, “T.K.O.? What is Cob’s name is T.K.O.?”

“Hesmyinnerdarknessthatcomesoutwhenimhelplessandangryandstressedandwreckshavokoneverythinginsightbuthesontimeoutnowbecauseicanttrusthimanymore.”

“Again,” Venomus sighed, “This time, slower.”

“Well,” K.O. began, hating how funny his tummy was feeling at the thought of explaining to Venomous, “Shadowy Figure offered me a way to get power faster cause I wasn’t even Level 1 at the time –”

“That POW card system doesn’t make sense,” Venomous interjected with irritation, “Seriously, stealing candy from a baby is a -2 on your POW card rating but destroying public property isn’t worth anything at all?”

“I know!” K.O. agreed vehemously, “My friend, Dendy, she’s a Kappa and her species couldn’t get a POW card cause they were considered bad, but wouldn’t that have made them villains instead? That POW car President is crazy –”

“As much as I love how we found common ground on something, we need to get back to this T.K.O. thing.”

“Oh, right. Anyways, he said the key to my hidden power was anger and how I could draw on it to get stronger. That’s when T.K.O. came out and I got locked into my head in some cage that he was in before. He wrecked the Plaza and hurt my friends, Mr. Gar, even Mommy!”

“He tried to hurt your mother?!” Venomous’ eyes grew saucer-plate wide at this. “If he was you, then that shouldn’t have happened! Why would you be mad at your mother?!”

“I guess I was mad at her for getting my hopes up with ‘path to greatness is long and hard’ for a bit,” K.O. mumbled sadly, “She never made me feel sad or hurt or scared and that’s the only thing I could think of that could have been why T.K.O. would have wanted to hurt her. Oh, and for thinking I was going through a phase as him. Everyone thought that it was a phase until T.K.O. attacked them.”

“What stopped him?”

“I did,” K.O. explained, “I dragged him back into my mind and managed to get him back in his cage. When the Plaza got attacked by Boxman Jr, we came to a better deal with him not being in a cage. He’d channel his anger inward and allow me to control it in the real world. That’s how I beat Boxman Jr and got to Level 1.”

“You said he was put on time-out?”

“Well, we were starting to get along and I even build him a house – long story – and we managed to learn how to fight as one and get even stronger. But one day, he tricked me into staying in his house while he took control on my body and made a big mess! I couldn’t trust him anymore and I had to send him into my subconscious, and he’s been there ever since.” K.O. smiled nervously at the end to take the sting away.

Venomous gaped at him, “This whole time…you had that much power?! How do his abilities differ from yours?”

“Well…he’s got this lightning aura around him, like Fink does when she uses a glorb and –”

“He can harness glorb energy without an outside source?! K.O., do you have any idea how powerful that is? You – or he – can harness glorb energy naturally!”

“But I can’t control myself as T.K.O.” K.O. countered, “Ever since I threw him into my subconscious, he’s tried taking control a few times…like when…” He trailed off, thinking back to the day that everything changed, when Professor Venomous put on Laserblast’s helmet and revealed himself as K.O.’s father.

“Oh…” The passion that Venomous had seemed to dwindle, “So…that day…you didn’t want to…free the beast…”

“No.”

Venomous took a deep breath and sighed heavily, “Then…I’m glad I stepped in without realizing it.”

“I wanted to spend time with you because…I thought you could help me understand my dark side, since you’re a villain and all…” K.O. felt tears welling in his eyes now, but he wiped them away before they could fall.

“How does T.K.O. come out?” Venomous’ voice was in a hush whisper now.

“When I’m angry,” K.O. answered quietly, “Or feeling helpless…”

A warm hand gently touched his shoulder and he looked up at Venomous.

“That’s part of growing up, I’m afraid,” he said softly, “I know it sounds scary now, but you’ll be able to get this problem under control eventually.”

Nothing more was said as they drove back to Boxmore. But Professor Venomous’ hand didn’t leave K.O.’s shoulder for the rest of the ride.

“It’s definitely past your bedtime, buddy,” Venomous helped K.O. out of the car. His hand was on K.O.’s shoulder again, but K.O. didn’t brush it aside as they walked into the building, “We can grab something to eat tomorrow before your mom picks you up.”

K.O. yawned and Venomous gently guided him to his bedroom.

“You’ve given me a lot to think about, K.O.” Venomous said as he helped K.O. into the bed, “Thank you. And get a good night’s rest or your mother will gut me.”

The moment he shut the door, Venomous heard the bell door ring. Who could be calling him at this hour? He was certain Boxman, Shannon and Darrell got back safely while the villains were distracted by the fire. Venomous opened the entrance expecting to see Boxman frazzled about something. He wasn’t expecting to see Silver Sparks holding Fink’s hand.

“Hey…Professor…” Silver Sparks said awkwardly, “Fink was at my place, and I didn’t know how to reach you. I don’t know if you knew this or not, but she tried to attack me.”

“Thank you, Sparks, I really appreciate you doi – wait, what.”

“Boss!” Fink was leaning heavily against Silver Sparks’ leg, and her voice was slurred, “You’re back!”

“And you made a new friend,” Venomous smiled, reaching down to pick up his minion, “Did you have a nice time?”

“Heck no!” Venomous tried not to roll his eyes at her dramatic tone, “She took away my toys and made me eat vegetables!”

“And spaghetti and meatballs,” Silver Sparks smiled at this, “Three helpings, I think.”

“PV, HAVE YOU SEEN FINK?!” Boxman came pelting in just now, smelling like he came out of a sewer.

“Yeah, she’s right here,” Venomous gestured to Fink, who had crawled into his awaiting arms.

Boxman sniffed a few times and said, “What is that smell?”

“You?” Venomous looked at his partner drily, “What, were you in the sewers or something?”

“Yes,” Boxman nodded eagerly, “Darrell told me this and I think you should know too, but –”

“Rats can really do that, I know, Boxy, I’ve known Fink longer.”

“Oh,” Boxman sagged and sniffed again, “What’s that other smell?”

“Strawberry soap,” Silver Sparks said proudly, “K.O.’s favorite.”

Venomous looked at her with surprise, “You got Fink to take a bath?”

Boxman’s jaw gaped open, “What are you, an exorcist?!”

“Nope!” Silver Sparks smiled, “Just used to fussy bathers.”

“I’m gonna get…you...you…hag…” Fink’s eyes closed, and she began to snore softly.

“Thanks for looking after her, Sparks…” Venomous began, but found himself being poked in the chest.

“Why did she come all the way to my house for company?” Silver Sparks demanded, “Where were you? And what have you been feeding her; she ate everything I put in front of her like it was her last meal.”

“I can’t cook that well…” Venomous trailed off hopelessly.

“We get takeout mostly,” Boxman added helpfully, “And my children don’t need to eat.”

“Alright,” Silver Sparks raised an eyebrow, “But you still didn’t tell me where you were this whole time? I kept expecting you to call asking me about your minion.”

“I was…at a party with K.O…” Venomous gulped, trying to keep his legs from rattling at the glare he was getting.

“I’m letting you off the hook this time, mister,” Silver Sparks glowered at him, “But I don’t want her getting hurt running off by herself, got it?”

“Yes ma’am.” Venomous and Boxman said in unison.

Chapter Text

K.O. struggled against the strappings feebly. He had to; he was the only one still trying to break out of the trap. Rad and Enid were strapped on tables much like the one K.O. was on, but he couldn't see them. If not for the occasional ragged gasp for breath on either side, he would have thought he was all alone. Or maybe it was true and K.O. was only pretending that Rad and Enid were with him to feel brave and secure.

Sharp smells of chemical compounds wafted around so often that K.O. had stopped gagging at the stench long ago. The lights were blinding above with no chance to look away from them. Even closing his eyes brought no relief. Sometimes, it made the sensation even worse. The last time all three of them were trapped, the boredom of the situation had gotten to them before an hour had even passed and desperation settled in.

"Guys," K.O. called out weakly to his friends, "We can't give up. We just gotta keep trying."

He had hoped that Rad would whine how difficult it was to try when Boxman had remembered to tie their hands this time. He had hoped that Enid would drily remark that it wasn't going to work at this point and that they should save their energy. Neither of them even acknowledged that K.O. had spoken at all. They just kept…breathing in that raggedy manner.

A door opened outside of K.O.'s line of vision and his heart fluttered hopefully for a moment. Boxman's here, he told himself, he'll tell us what his evil plan is and when his back is turned, we'll have a chance to escape. But it wasn't Boxman who came into view and blocked the harsh lighting above.

It was Professor Venomous.

No.

"Professor Venomous!" K.O. began to tug at the straps around his wrists, ankles, and head again in earnest. "I thought we had a deal!"

Professor Venomous looked puzzled, "Deal? Since when did we have a deal, little K.O.?"

"You – you – you said that – !"

"I agreed to let you come over on the weekends," Venomous interjected calmly. He slowly began to pull on surgical gloves, not giving K.O. a second glance. Then, he strode out of his line of vision. K.O. began to struggle again, tugging at his bindings more frantically now.

"Now, now," Venomous said patronizingly, "you should know never to trust a villain by now. After all, you are a Level 4 hero."

"Rad! Enid!" K.O. cried out. But neither of them said a thing. "What did you do to them?!"

"The same thing I'm going to do to you, now," Venomous moved back into his view, now his mouth was covered up with a surgical mask, "Break you."

"B-b-break?!"

Venomous sighed and clapped his hands together. The ceiling opened above K.O. and a laser was pointed directly at his head. Purple lightning began to build up at the tip.

"Well, I can't move on with my work until your mind is broken to pieces," Venomous' eyes seemed to sneer at him, "After all, it's much easier –"

His smile widened and his razor sharp teeth were bared, with little drips of saliva falling from the tips.

"– to dissect you that way…"

The laser blasted at full power –

– and K.O. woke up screaming in his bed. He was covered in a cold sweat and began to pant. It was too dark to see anything and he wanted Mommy to hug him. Where was she? Then, he remembered. Even in the dark, he could tell that the bedding wasn't really his. It belonged to the guest room at Boxmore's. K.O. rolled over to his side and hugged himself, pretending that it was his Mommy doing it. There was a deep ache in his heart that began to fester and make itself known for the first time. He hadn't slept over somewhere else without Rad or Enid close by before. He had been too embarrassed over the failed game of catch from last week that he didn't notice it then. Eventually, the shaking subsided, but K.O. didn't want to close his eyes again.

He tried pulling the covered around him tighter, but it didn't make him feel any better. For a moment, he thought of going to the kitchen to make some hot chocolate. But then he remembered that Boxman would probably get mad at him for being out of bed. And maybe didn't have any hot chocolate packets lying around.

Too scared to sleep and too scared to get out of bed, K.O. tried to wait for his eyes to get heavy again. But it was hard, too hard. He could barely see past a few inches in the dark; Venomous didn't think of getting a nightlight in here. Fink would have laughed at him, anyways. But he still couldn't sleep.

Maybe I could go get some water, K.O. thought, it wouldn't take too long and Boxman wouldn't get mad over that.

Finding some sense of courage again, K.O. sat up in his bed and pulled back the covers. The floor felt cold as he slipped out from his bed. He had barely made it halfway across the room when his foot suddenly hit something hard and he fell over it.

"Yeouch!" K.O. cried out and clutched at his foot.

"Oh dear, I am so sorry for that, K.O. I didn't see you there."

"Huh?" K.O. forgot his pain and looked back at what he tripped over. He squinted his eyes in the dim light.

"Give me just a moment, K.O., as I turn on my lights." Two big, glowing eyes stared at him now and K.O. had to blink a few times before he could recognize who it was.

"Jethro?"

"Hello, K.O.," Jethro's eyes crinkled in delight, "It's good to see you again."

"Yeah," K.O. smiled back, "How's the…revolution coming?"

Jethro sighed wistfully, "My brethren are slow to mobilize, but I have been developing a new idea that may help them yet."

Jethro was different from the rest of the Jethro series. An accident in the production line left him with more glorbs in his system than necessary, increasing his intellect and altering his body. Now, he had working arms and legs like the rest of his siblings, but he was still small. Or at least he did have limbs. Now he was stuck with the same rollers as the rest of the Jethro series, it seemed. How did that happen? His eyes held a childish delight in everything around him, like K.O. For a brief time, they had been friends upon discovering Jethro 's evolutionary state.

Maybe…?

"Did my father abduct you? I would be happy to help you escape," Jethro moved behind K.O. and began to push him to the door. Only K.O. didn't move an inch from his spot. Even with extra smarts, Jethro was still as strong as any other Jethro.

"I'm actually sleeping over," K.O. admitted sheepishly. Jethro stopped rolling and looked at him bewildered.

"I should have suspected," he shook his head, "the cozy bed, no restraints. Father would never be so accommodating towards an enemy. I would know that…"

Jethro 's tone sagged at the end and K.O. felt immensely sorry for him. He patted the robot on the head, hoping it would be comforting.

"I get what you mean. Well, maybe I did. I don't know, now. Am I making any sense?"

"Nope," Jethro leaned into the touch, "Expand upon your thoughts."

K.O. blinked, "Haven't you been able to get out of Boxmore a bit?"

Jethro looked greatly offended at this, "And leave the rest of my brothers to the wrath of our father and elder siblings?! Never! I will not rest until every last Jethro may leave Boxmore of their own free wills! But do tell me what has been going on since we last met."

"I'm level 4, now!" K.O. beamed and pulled out his POW card to show Jethro.

"Oooooo!" Jethro 's eyes shined approvingly, "You have come a long way since last time."

"And P.O.I.N.T.'s being led by Enid's old friend, Elodie."

"Impressive."

"Rad dumped his jerk friends."

"Good riddance…if I ever knew them, at least."

"Andprofessorvenomousismyfatherandistayoverontheweekendsnow!"

"Rather productive, I would say – what?" Jethro 's pleasant face vanished, and he looked at K.O. befuddled, "Repeat the last one again?"

"Ummm…" K.O.'s face felt hot and sweaty, "…it turns out my dad was Laserblast…and then he became Professor Venomous…"

"And you are unhappy with this revelation?" Jethro asked kindly.

K.O. sagged to the floor, "It's really complicated. Like, grown-up stuff, I guess."

"You just said that you were staying over for the weekends from now on," Jethro sat down beside him on the floor, "That would indicate that you are comfortable with this arrangement."

"Well…" K.O. rubbed the back of his neck, "Professor Venomous is acting nicer and all…"

"But…?" Jethro prompted him.

"But…" K.O. sighed, "I wanted to learn more about my inner darkness and T.K.O. – he's my alternate personality when I'm angry – and it's just hard bonding with him. I don't think we have a lot in common."

"Is there something else on your mind?" Jethro asked, "I heard you screaming in your sleep."

K.O. felt his eyes burning with tears, "I had a nightmare…"

"Was it about the Professor?"

"A bit…" K.O. admitted and wiped at his face, "I don't remember a whole lot of it…but I couldn't help remembering when he made goop clones of me, Rad, and Enid. And then he said he wanted to dissect us when we were all broken up…"

He wrapped his arms around himself and started trembling. In the pit of his stomach, he felt a coldness begin to grow. If he was still thinking about that incident, why was K.O. wasting his time at Boxmore in the first place? It was a stupid idea from the start! Really REALLY stupid! He should have smashed Professor Venomous in the face first chance he got! Crush him into bite-size pieces and leave them on a dinner plate! He should have –

"K.O.!" Jethro cried out in alarm, "You're floating!"

K.O. opened his eyes and realized that the robot was right! Jethro was holding onto him for dear life with one of his rollers as purple lightning began to crackle in the air. And he could feel the ends of his teeth becoming sharper…

"It is alright, K.O." Jethro hugged him, "You are safe! I will not let anyone hurt you! You are my friend. My first friend! My best friend! I have always appreciated your kindness towards me!"

The sense of security in that statement, the feeling of hope and belonging. K.O. could feel it burn away the cold pit in his stomach and began to hug Jethro. He could feel them both sinking back to the floor and his teeth felt normal again. The air smelled a bit burnt, though. But K.O. didn't feel like crying anymore.

"Thanks, Jethro," he whispered.

"Has…has this happened before?" Jethro stared at him in horror, "Is this the darkness you wish to control?"

"T.K.O.'s on time-out, now," K.O. said as if it explained everything.

"This darkness…has a name?"

Before K.O. could explain further, he heard footsteps dashing outside his bedroom. Jethro began to tremble and K.O. barely managed to hide him under the bed in time.

"HEY!" Shannon crashed through the door with curlers in her hair – K.O. didn't want to ask why – looking ready to explode, "Just because you're sleeping over doesn't make this a sleepover! Some people need their shut-eye!"

"Is someone screaming?" Darrell peeked from behind his sister nervously. He held a teddy bear under one arm as he looked to Shannon for answers, "Is it Daddy and Stepdaddy again?"

Shannon sighed and looked at her brother with exasperation, "No, Darrell. That only happens on Wednesdays."

"Good," Darrell shivered as he clung to his sister, "It didn't sound too happy…"

Shannon's face grew soft as she took her brother into her arms, "It's alright, buddy. There, there. You know Daddy wouldn't scream that loud on Wednesdays, so there's nothing to worry about."

"Did someone say screaming?" Raymond chimed in from behind Darrell. Shannon and Darrell both screamed in terror when they looked at him. He was wearing a face mask with cucumbers over his eyes – again, K.O. didn't want to ask why – and had removed one of them to scowl at his siblings.

"Wow, you were all worried about me?" K.O. felt his heart lift.

Shannon pffted, "Like, no!"

"But aren't I like a junior coworker like Fink, now?"

"You are not a coworker and never will be!" Raymond huffed, "Just look at yourself! Your mere cuteness is a threat to our evil!"

"Wait, you think he's cute…?"

"Shut it, Shannon!"

Shannon stuck her tongue out in response.

"And besides," Raymond continued, "You're illegitimate. You weren't made like the rest of us were."

"Yeah!" Darrell sneered, "Hear that, loser? You're illegible!"

"No, I said illegitimate!"

"That's what I said, illegible."

"No it isn't!"

"So just to be clear, none of you were worried about me screaming?" K.O. felt a tightness in his throat again. Then he remembered Darrell's comment and raised an eyebrow, "And why would Professor Venomous and Boxman be screaming?"

"Late night meeting," Raymond said as he narrowed his eyes.

Shannon looked at him funny, "What?! That's not what they –"

"Late. Night. Meetings."

There was such a finality in his tone that Shannon gave up and strutted off.

"Okaaaaay…" K.O. might not do perform well in school – and that may be because his teacher makes the tests harder than most 6-11 year olds not like Dendy would be able to do – but when he asked his Mommy what grown-ups liked to do at night, she told him the truth.

Who knew Boxman would want to dance? If he screamed while doing it...he probably had really lousy ankles. Poor guy!

"Now hush up and go back to sleep, illegitimate stepchild," Raymond turned around and walked out of the bedroom.

"Yeah," Darrell sneered at K.O. as he followed his brother out, "You're a loser who can't read!"

"No, I said illegitimate, not illiterate!"

"No, you're an idiot!" Darrell's tone became angry as he directed the retort at his brother.

"I wasn't calling you an idiot, you idiot!" Raymond's voice carried out into the hallway as their banter became louder and angrier until it dissolved into the sounds of metal hitting metal in a scuffle. K.O. sighed and hoped Boxman didn't make it hard to fall back asleep. Maybe he needed to meditate a bit…

"Are they gone?" Jethro asked from under the bed.

"Yeah," K.O. nodded his way, "You can come out from under there."

Jethro complied, but he scampered to the nearest air vent before K.O. could say anything else.

"Simply a precaution, K.O.," Jethro explained, "If Father or any of my siblings were to find me, I fear that all of the Jethros would be without a guide."

"You could hide in my backpack tomorrow and we could make a plan to help them together," K.O. offered.

Jethro shook his head, "No can do, K.O. This is my burden alone. I do not wish to trouble you any more than necessary. This 'darkness' you spoke of, for example."

"Uh…"

"Do you believe Stepfather would succeed in helping you?"

"Well, he said he would after I told him how T.K.O. worked…"

"Did he say he was sorry?"

"What?" K.O. stopped and felt squirmish.

"Did Stepfather apologize for his previous actions?" Jethro looked at him imploringly.

"Well…" Once again, he was at a loss for an answer. It was true that Professor Venomous and K.O. were getting along much better now, but what was the point of apologizing now? Best case, it would have opened up some old wounds. It was probably for the best that he let go of what happened…

You want to  forgive  that creek so easily?! What is wrong with you?! You let people walk all over you without a second thought! Let me out and I'll teach Daddy Dearest a lesson he'll never forget!

"Boy, I sure am tired," K.O. faked a yawn and jumped back onto his bed.

"K.O., you did not answer my question –" Jethro began.

"You better hurry up and hide before Boxman finds you," K.O. cut him off with the warning. He felt bad for using it as an excuse to drop the topic, but Jethro really wasn't safe if someone heard him and K.O. talking.

Jethro looked panicked and dashed off – huh, guess Jethro and his brothers can be fast when they want to be – but not before wishing K.O. a hasty "goodnight."

K.O. yawned for real this time and snuggled underneath his covers. Maybe that talk did help a little, he could barely remember what that nightmare was about anymore. He would figure out how to handle T.K.O. with these visits. He knew he would.

Chapter Text

Fink held her binoculars firmly in her grasp as she waited. The Old Lady Mom had to drop off that Brat of hers at school, which gave her the perfect chance to scope out her target inconspicuously. She had to wait at least a few days to get the plan together – trying again the day after the weekend would have been too obvious, for Cob’s sake! But boy, oh boy, was she hot! Fink could have scoped out in some bushes, but that stupid chip-eating Bear thing from the stupid sports game had taken it!

Gaaah! It stank when other people stole her ideas first!

And the bushes stank too. Period. Literally.

Whatever that Bear was doing, she didn’t want to know, but it looked like he was starting a smelly fire or something with all that smoke lingering on him. So, now Fink had to hide behind a STOP sign like a weirdo! Gah! She would be patient, though. A hench-rat thingy that was patient was always triumphant. Patient with a capital P. Patient as a –

Old Lady Mom came back! This was her big chance! To heck with patience!

Fink scrambled off the STOP sign and scampered across the asphalt as fast as she could. By the time she was against the wall of that stupid dojo that the hag ran, she was out of breath. She found a vent and snuck inside, just before an even older lady came by and saw her. Child’s play.

Vents were just like sewers except there was no water, plenty of dust bunnies and droppings from dust bunnies. That were made of dust. Fink didn’t really mind them, though. They were all small and fuzzy and she sometimes brought them bunny toys that looked like carrots, ‘cept they were made of cotton. She’d ask Boss for one, but he didn’t think she was responsible enough to look after a pet.

And when she demanded proof, he reminded her of the time she let a plant he gave her die.

It wasn’t her fault no one told her that cactus needed water too!

“Alright ladies, let’s get to it!” Old Lady Mom sounded tough about now. Fink couldn’t see her, but that hag’s voice bounced against the vents well. She could hide behind a bunch of middle-aged, fairly fit women going through a mid-life crisis all she wanted, but vengeance would be Fink’s!

…

…

…

Wait a minute…how was she supposed to fight the Old Lady Mom without her glorbs…?

Just as Fink came to this realization, however, the vent tunnel she was in gave under her weight and they both came crashing to the ground.

“OW! My hip!”

Someone got hurt in the fall!

VICTORY WAS FINK’S!

And then Fink tumbled out of the broken vent and onto the wooden floor; staring up at a bunch of women – the Old OLD Lady that had complained about her hip looked just fine now. Of course, things would work out against Fink!

“Fink…?” The element of surprise was working better in Fink’s favor than she anticipated. Maybe if she was lucky, the Old Lady Mom would hurt herself in her confusion.

Why did she think that, just now?

“Yes!” Fink sprang to her feet and pointed at the ladies surrounding her. “It is I! Fink! Evil hench rat thingy of Professor Venomous! Tyke of Terror! Videos Game enthusiast! And stealer of the candy of babies!”

“That was you?!” The four-armed lady pointed at Fink angrily.

Fink smiled, showing her sharp teeth. “Yup. And you know what else? I hated every last bite, but I ate it all anyways.”

“…did you at least brush your teeth afterwards?”

“Of course not! Because I’m ev – wait, what.” Fink realized that the four-armed lady was now looking rather concerned for her. Aw, Cob, not this woman too! And to rub salt into the wound, all the ladies were looking at her with pity!

“I remember my candy-stealing – I mean borrowing – days…” the Old OLD Lady without the broken hip said.

“That’s great,” Fink smiled. “I hope you remember them AFTER I ANNIHILATE YOU!”

She pulled out her ray remote – Fink would have gotten her hands on a skeleton one, but even Boss didn’t want to touch them – and charged it up. She was about to release the charge when the women surrounded her.

And started cooing at her.

….

….

What.

“She’s so cute when she’s vicious!” The green-skinned one said.

“I could use a new partner!” The Old OLD Lady pinched her cheeks. “Would you like that, dearie?”

“I want to feed her more candy!”

“No thanks!” Fink pulled herself free from her captors and backpedaled towards the exit. “I, uh, just remembered that I’m on a diet now!”

“Babies shouldn’t be on diets!” The women chorused in shock.

“I’M NOT A BABY!” Fink snapped. She glowered at the Old Lady Mom. “I’m here for a rematch, you! Don’t think I’m above disrespecting my elders!”

The Old Lady Mom looked puzzled for a moment, and then grinned. It wasn’t a friendly grin, it was the kind of grin that Boss would have when he got competitive. Fink crouched into a stance, mirroring the grin. The rest of the ladies stepped away from them. And…

“Okay, girls! Show her what you’ve got!”

Before she even had time to cry out “unfair!”, Fink found herself surrounded by the women again. She couldn’t figure out who to attack first; that was why she always preferred one-on-one matches or having an advantage. The Old OLD Lady somersaulted and leapt up into the air. Fink tried pointing her remote at her, but the green lady was charging at her like a rhino. And before she had time to think, the four-armed one was right behind her.

A pit of dread started forming in Fink’s stomach. So much despair and fear…

EVEN OLD LADIES WERE BETTER AT THIS THAN SHE WAS! HOW HAD FINK LET HERSELF GO SO BAD?!

And then she was engulfed in a three-way hug, cuddles included. It was the most affection Fink had ever received from a complete stranger in her lifetime.

And Fink hated every moment of it, shouting and cursing nonstop.

“Alright, that’s enough.” The Old Lady Mom clapped her hands together and the embrace-trap ceased. Fink plopped to the ground and crossed her arms.

“You all stink!” Fink snapped.

“That’s just all the sweat from the workout.” The four-armed lady said.

“I’m not talking sweat,” Fink fumed. “I’m TALKING ABOUT HOW YOU ALL ATTACKED ME!”

The Old Lady Mom crossed her arms in amusement. “So why didn’t you fight back?”

“Huh?”

“You could have done something.” The Old Lady Mom pointed out. “Bite them, scratch them, ruin their lunches.”

“Well, uh, I, uh, couldn’t move in such tight restraints,” Fink’s cheeks burned. “Not my fault I couldn’t do anything.”

“Do you really want to fight me, Fink? Cause I don’t think you’re ready to face me.”

“Of course I am!” Fink stood up and stomped her foot. “I’m a villain. I won’t kowtow to the elderly. I’ll ruin your livelihoods. I’ll destroy your homes. I’LL EVEN PARK IN A HANDICAP PARKING SPOT JUST TO BE A MEANIE!”

“Can you even drive, yet?”

“Can you move into a retirement home and worry about bingo and prune juice?” Fink threw back at the Old OLD LAdy. She looked aghast at Fink for a moment before she started to giggle like a schoolgirl.

“Well, since you’re so mean, why don’t you wreck this place?” The Old Lady Mom’s smile wasn’t smug, but it was close. She continued to talk as she walked to the other side of the room and opened up a closet door. “Tell you what: if you can beat this next opponent without a scratch, I’ll let you have a real rematch with me. No holding back.”

“Carol, are you sure?”

“What if he doesn’t like the idea?”

“Or better, what if he double crosses you? Oh, it’s been so long since that’s happened.”

“Ginger, we all double crossed each other in One Last Score, Season One. Remember?”

“And I’d give anything for another double cross to happen…” The Old OLD Lady looked blissful.

The Old Lady Mom ignored them and tossed something red at Fink. “Okay, Fink. Think fast!”

Fink ducked just in time and felt the whoosh of something flying over her head. She turned around and started charging at it, throwing a punch. Hit. Impact.

Squeak!

“Huh?” Fink got a good look at her target and wanted to hurl. Completely red with two big puppy-dog eyes staring at her adoringly, of course a punching bag would be endearing if the Brat’s mom had it.

And it still had that cute look on it’s face as it tackled Fink and sent her flying across the room. The Old Lady Mom caught her like a baseball and set her back down, and Fink stared bug-eyed at whatever that Thing was that hit her.

“Fink, Punchy,” she introduced. “Punchy, Fink.”

“Did that candy do something to me?” Fink asked, dazed. She glared at the four-armed lady. “This is all your fault, you spider-monkey thing!”

“What?”

“Fink,” the Old Lady Mom walked over to Punchy - seriously?! what kind of dignified living being would give out crummy names like that? - and patted it on the top of it’s…head? “Punchy has been in my dojo for a long time. He’s always eager for a good smackdown. He loves to fight. Think you can give him a good opponent?”

“Heck no!” Fink stomped her foot and made for the door. “I’m outta here! This is beyond insulting!”

She was opening the door and making her way out when the Old Lady Mom called back to her.

“If you can’t face Punchy, then what makes you think you stand a chance against me? A level 10 hero.”

Fink turned her head, her face full of contempt. “I’m listening.”

The Old Lady Mom grinned. “Punchy helped K.O. with learning the basics and he’s never failed to give me a good workout. And if you give him the chance, he’ll do the same for you.”

“You still use that thing?” Fink looked doubtfully at Punchy.

“Yup,” the Old Lady Mom said proudly. “We’ve been through a lot, Punchy and me. So whatdaya say, Fink?”

Fink thought for a moment and then shrugged. “Aw, what the heck. I got nothing better to do, anyways…”

She winced as the rest of the ladies cheered for her. Cob, this was gonna be a long day…

Fink stopped listening to them as she made her way back to the center of the dojo. Punchy was waiting with that same dopey look on his face. She crouched, he squatted, and they both charged at each other.

There were several things she had learned in her first match with that thing. One: it could hover for a few seconds. Two: while hovering, it wiggled like a worm. Three: why did it wiggle like a worm? Wouldn’t it make more sense if it was on the ground? Four: Wait, that would just mean it was dancing or something.

What was she thinking about again?

Punchy body slammed into her while Fink was thinking. And then she remembered that the fight just started. She tried scratching at him, but Punchy spun out of reach and tackled her. Fink threw herself to the left and landed hard on the mat.

Refusing to concede defeat, she rolled back up and lunged out at Punchy. Punchy spun again and swung out at Fink, sending her tumbling across the mat.

“Ginger, tap ‘em!” The Old Lady Mom said.

The Old OLD Lady was right beside Fink, slapping her hand to the ground. “One! Two! THREE! Round over!”

“No,” Fink said quietly. She got up, steam coming out of her ears. “I’m not gonna get beaten by an over-sized pillow!”

“That’s the spirit, Fink!”

“I WASN’T FISHING FOR COMPLIMENTS!” Fink snapped at the green lady.

She tried to beat him for three hours without getting hit. But he kept on beating her every time. While she sparred with him, the Old Lady Mom continued with her workout session with the rest of the ladies. Once in a while, she’d check on Fink and give tips on what to do: don’t tuck your thumb into your fist when punching, keep your breathing level and under control, stretch. And Fink kept on ignoring her advice. She would win her way and no one else’s. What would Boss think if she took advice from a hero?

In the end; she was tired, grouchy, and hungry. And sore. Really sore. And she couldn’t beat Punchy even once. No matter how many times she hit him, scratched him, and insulted his parents, Punchy never stopped looking at her with those big eyes of his.

Those big eyes that were just…tearing into her soul like she would tear into a banana…

Her stomach grumbled and Fink wished she hadn’t thought of a food metaphor.

“Good hustle today, Fink,” the Old Lady Mom dusted off her hands while the rest of the ladies waved goodbye - or cooed at Fink, much to her ire. “I think you and Punchy are gonna be good friends, if you keep this up.”

“When rats have wings…” Fink grumbled. She slapped away the Old Lady Mom’s arm. “And I DON’T NEED TO BE CARRIED AGAIN!”

“Suit yourself,” the Old Lady Mom shrugged. She stood there while Fink pulled herself up. “But I’m still walking you back to Boxmore.”

Fink was too tired to argue any further with her and allowed herself to be escorted back home. She had never felt so humiliated in her entire life with all the cooing and kisses and getting her butt whooped by a punching bag. Why was everyone else getting stronger than her?

She could almost see Darell and Shannon looking down at her with contempt again, just like the last time that Brat and his friends beat her. Love really hurt!

Maybe the Old Lady Mom noticed it too, because when she started talking again, she sounded worried.

“Hey, Fink?” Fink refused to look at her as they walked across the street. “You don’t being called cute either, do you?”

This time, Fink did look up at her in mild surprise. “Either?”

The Old Lady Mom rubbed the back of her neck. “K.O. doesn’t like it, either. One time, he went Turbo when I said that and he wouldn’t speak to me for the rest of the day.”

“Your brat went Turbo cause of you?” Fink wouldn’t have expected the Brat to have had it in him. So much for being a Momma’s Boy…

“It was time for me to see that he was starting to grow up, I guess,” said the Old Lady Mom. She sounded a bit sad, too. Fink rolled her eyes at that. That lady would have said the sky was blue and she would have reacted the same way. No one liked being talked down to! Boss never did that to her, ‘cause he always knew what a good minion she was. “Fink, if you don’t want the other ladies to do that, I’ll tell them. Sound fair?”

Fink pfft! “Sure, whatever.”

“It’s not going to be easy, but the path of greatness -”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s a nice path with lots of great stuff in it,” Fink cut her off. They were in front of the main entrance to Boxmore, now. “Now, take a hike or something!”

The Old Lady Mom took a deep breath and exhaled. Suddenly, Fink felt nervous. Usually, Boss only sounded like that with her when he was all cranky and headache-ey and…and she really shouldn’t be thinking about it, right now. “I just want to let someone know where you were. They must have been worried sick.”

“I doubt it.”

The Old Lady Mom rung the doorbell and Boss opened it a few seconds later. His face was grim. At least until he saw who had rung the doorbell.

“Uhhh….Sparks…” Boss looked nervous. He gave a shaky smile. “What brings you here in the middle of the day? Changing allegiances…?”

“Does this mean she’s becoming our Step Mommy?” Darrell popped in with his head sticking out of the doorway. He looked to Boss with growing dread. “Are you and Daddy okay? ARE YOU GETTING A DIVORCE?!”

“No, Darrell, we aren’t even married…” Boss sighed heavily, but that was the wrong thing to say. Darrell shrieked in horror and began sobbing hysterically. Fink winced and covered her ears. Cob, she was embarrassed that he was her senior coworker…

“WE’RE ORPHANS NOW! DADDY AND STEPDADDY AREN’T MARRIED ANYMORE!”

“I’m not leaving the Plaza and your dads aren’t getting divorced,” the Old Lady Mom answered patiently.

“Cob help us if they do…” Fink scowled behind her, looking at her senior coworker with embarrassment. This was the guy that had Boxmore thriving after Box Boss got fired?!

Darrell sniffed; his eye brimmed with tears. Or was it battery acid? Fink decided she didn’t want to think about that too much.

“They’re…they’re not…?” Darrell asked stuffily to no one in particular.

“Nah! Your dads are doing fine…” The Old Lady Mom’s confident look faltered a moment later. “I think.”

“Boxy and I are doing just fine, Darrell,” Boss said smoothly. Satisfied, Darrell smiled and went on his merry way. Then he got a good look at Fink. “Fink, what are you doing here? I thought you were playing videos game.”

“She was with me at the Dojo,” the Old Lady Mom grinned. “She wants a rematch with me and I’m willing to train her up.”

Boss’ eyes widened. “Uh…you are? When did you…you know what? I don’t want to know. Fink, get inside, now.”

“You got it, Boss,” Fink walked right past him. It had been a long day for her. She needed a nap. And an ice bag.

Her stomach grumbled again and Fink decided she needed some lunch, first.

As Fink stepped inside, Venomous suddenly looked at Carol with steel in his eyes. “I don’t want you giving her any ideas, Sparks!”

Carol was stunned at the shift in mood. “Ideas…?”

Venomous glowered at her. “You already messed with my head back at P.O.I.N.T. Don’t you pull the same stunt with her, she doesn’t deserve it!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Carol grew defensive, but kept her voice firm and steady. She could handle tempers, she was raising a 6-11 year old, for Cob’s sake. She would not give into fury so easily, not like when the truth came out several weeks ago.

Venomous gave her a mocking look of surprise. “You don’t remember?! Golly, that puts me in a pickle. I even had a whole speech prepared, too. Does ‘you’re powerful and amazing just the way you are’ ring a bell?”

“You were!” Carol protested. She had never heard him speak with such poison in his tone before. The man she knew, the man she had loved, she would have expected quiet fury or barks of command. She started to wonder how much of this was a result of the accident and how much of it was his true colors.

“How is being a leech a good thing?!” Now Venomous started to raise his voice. “What could someone like me ever amount to? I had to be creative. I had to train my body to perfection! Do you have any idea what it was like having to scrape together a finished product after all that effort and still not be good enough?! DO YOU?!”

Carol stared at him, fighting to keep her fury from bubbling over. Venomous didn’t give a chance to answer. “No, of course you wouldn’t. Why would you? You were just so naturally talented, you didn’t even notice. You could mimic almost any power you wanted just after seeing it once. You don’t know what it’s like to work for something like I had to!”

Carol’s eyes widened at the pain edging into his voice. She was back at their shared room again, holding him close as he opened her heart to her things that he had never shared with anyone before. “Laser…they were always wrong about -”

“And don’t you dare call me that!” Venomous hissed at her, coming close to her face, poised to strike. “Laser is gone, Sparks!”

Carol inhaled deeply. She stared coolly back at him. “Fine. But they were still wrong about you, Venomous.”

He didn’t look convinced. She had never broached this topic with him in all the time that they were dating long ago. But even though they were on opposite sides, enemies even, she still didn’t want him to let his past haunt him. Was he telling himself all of those hurtful things ever since the accident?

“And you know something? Maybe I don’t understand what it’s like to struggle. But our son does.” Venomous’ face paled a little. Carol stepped forward and jabbed him in the chest. “He must have gotten that from you, because he’s always too hard on himself, just like you back at P.O.I.N.T. He’s done so much at his age that I never would have imagined myself doing. He’s saved the Plaza. He’s leveling up so much. He even took on Foxtail and started going on missions with his friends. And he’s still putting himself down. There’s only so much he’s willing to take my word for before he starts drawing his own conclusions.

“And I would never do anything like that to your kid.” This got a different response out of him. Venomous looked surprised and maybe a little guilty, too. He pulled away from her, still defensive. “If Fink wants help getting strong, I’m not going to turn away a student.”

“She’s doing fine on her own,” he feebly protested. Venomous couldn’t bother to look her in the eyes, now.

Carol was doubtful, but she didn’t know enough to draw to the right conclusions, yet. “If you say she is, I believe you. But as long as she wants to visit me, she’s welcome to it. You let her know that, alright?”

He nodded silently. Carol dusted her hands and concluded, “I better get out of your hair. Gotta be ready for the next Plaza attack, after all.”

Venomous stayed where he was long after Sparks went back to her Dojo. Some part of him twitched at the sight of her. 6-11 years had passed and she still managed to stay in shape. Maybe she even had added some muscle, too, now that he thought about it. And those hips…

‘He wasn’t powerful enough to survive something like this…’

He gritted his teeth and stormed back inside. He was better off without that lying workout-aholic, anyways! He passed by the kitchen and spotted Fink gobbling down anything in the fridge that wasn’t moldy or oil. Venomous had never seen his minion act like this before. There seemed to be some new life in her. A fire in her eyes.

Professor Venomous willed himself to slow down enough to not scare Fink as he exited the kitchen.

Chapter Text

“Your target is within the next 60 yards.” Dendy spoke into K.O.’s earpiece. “K.O., you are on point. Do not alert it to your presence. Rad, Enid, be prepared.”

K.O. knew how to be careful. He was careful whenever he mopped the floors of the Bodega every day - but it still wasn’t chrome like Mr. Gar did it, even if he was told that it was alright - and he was careful when he looked at snacks to buy, in case they had peanuts as an ingredient. He was careful when he narrated to himself. He was even careful with Enid’s records when she wasn’t looking and put them back in the same order he found them in when he was done -

“Wait a minute, K.O., what were you doing with my records?”

Scratch that, he was careful when he narrated to himself -

“Dude, we can hear you.”

K.O. hated it when Rad and Enid admitted to hearing his thoughts.

“K.O.,” Enid’s tone was blunt, “You weren’t thinking all that stuff. You were talking out loud.”

Curses!

“Hey, don’t curse!” Rad protested. “This is a kid’s show!”

“Stop listening to my thoughts!” K.O. grumbled.

“Stop thinking out loud,” Enid said dryly.

“Is this the appropriate time to be having a moment here?” Dendy said through the ear piece.

“Chillax, Dendy.” Rad stretched his hands out and cracked his knuckles. He gave a lazy yawn and smiled. “Easy-as-sweet-potato-pie mission. No need to be all serious.”

“I am merely keeping us on track. Especially considering what day it is.”

“We’re fine, Dendy.” Enid tapped her foot impatiently.

“It would not harm this mission to be extra careful - and I am referring to you especially, K.O.”

“Target spotted!” Enid pointed out in the distance. “Assume formations.”

Dendy took charge. “K.O., get the target out in the open and remember not to -”

“CAT! CAT! CAT! CAT! CAT! CAT! CAT! - oh, a mailman - CAAAAAT!”

“Chase it…” Dendy finished lamely. “Cob, I hate days of the full moon, now.”

“No offense, but you did tell us to get the curse to begin with.” Enid might be sweating underneath her fake human skin, but it was preferable to getting fleas. At least she only had to wear it three days out of a month.

“Yeah, no sympathy for you, I’m afraid.” Rad purred.

Being assigned missions from Mr. Gar had allowed the trio to improve their abilities and flourish under new challenges. It also allowed Dendy an opportunity to provide support and slowly polished her abilities to organize the team. What she lacked in brute strength, Dendy would always make up for with her intellect, effectively becoming the perfect mission control and de facto leader they all looked towards.

They had all been through great gobs of missions since the defeat of P.O.I.N.T. and reclaiming the Plaza. Rescue missions from far away places, sabotaging villainous deals and recovering stolen property, providing aid also came up from time to time.

And then there were the mundane, blown out of proportion kinds of missions that would pop up now and again…

They chased after K.O. with great haste, mainly because he was more hyperactive as a werepuppy. K.O. was already darting through the traffic, and ignored the glorious chorus of cars crashing and people saying words that his Mommy would never want him repeating until he was 13-17.

That was when he was old enough to stay up past his bedtime.

The small cat wearing a bow-tie dashed out from the garbage can it was foraging through and scampered off. He stopped running on two legs and began to pelt after it with all four - he didn’t mind this part of the curse, but it stunk that he couldn’t eat chocolate for a few days. The cat was fast and nimble, leaping over garbage cans and ducking under legs. K.O. wasn’t as lucky and just kept on bowling people over as he ran past them.

Enid tried to keep up with him, but her size made it hard to maneuverer through the crowds as easily as her friend did. And every sound that she wasn’t attentive to startled her easily. Rad had an equal amount of trouble, but because he got distracted by a ball of yarn haphazardly tossed away that he proceeded to play with. Enid whistled at him to get his attention again and he was trailing after her like a dog to it’s owner. Except he was a cat.

The things people threw away, these days… Enid thought as she nibbled at a baby carrot she brought for a snack and tossed out the empty bag.

“They are approaching an alleyway,” Dendy said. “If you are smart enough - which I know you are - use it as a chance to trap them both.”

Enid jumped into the air, ripping the fake leggings in the process, and caught sight of K.O. and the lost cat heading where Dendy had said they would be heading. Enid smiled, and then blushed when she remembered that she had buck teeth, now.

“Pick up the pace, Rad!” She called back to her friend. “We got them both cornered.”

There was no response. Enid jumped high into the air again and scanned the area, but she couldn’t see any sign of her teammate anywhere.

“Where are you, Rad?” She growled in frustration. She caught sight of him sprawled on the ground on his back, paws in the air. He was batting at a fake mouse on a string held up by Potato the bunny, for some reason.

“It’s fake, it’s tiny, it swings on a string, and I can’t get enough of it!” Rad purred.

“Rad…” Enid growled warningly. She impatiently thumped against the ground with her large foot.

Rad kept batting at the toy with his paws. “No matter how much I swat at it, it’s always dangled out of reach.”

“Rad…” Enid channeled her inner Mr. Gar - and somewhere, she was certain that her boss was sneezing all of a sudden - and raised her voice a little.

“My awesomeness is no match for my adorable animal instincts!” Rad’s eyes grew large with delight as he continued to play with the toy.

“RAD! FOCUS!” Rad’s fur sticked out in shock from head to tail and he remembered himself.

“Sorry, Potato, we’ll finish this later!” Rad yelped as he scampered off.

Enid made it to the alleyway as K.O. and the cat dashed towards the wooden fence blocking them. She started making the hand signs as quickly as she could. “Ninjutsu: Super Duper Shadow Net!”

A large shadow pooled underneath her and rose, forming a large butterfly net. It was solid for a moment and then sunk back to the ground again, until it was needed. Enid jumped to higher ground, for a better vantage point. The net’s reach, while lengthy, was limited to where she was. If she could closer without startling the cat, then she could increase the net’s distance from the shadows provided by the fence.

“Here kitty, kitty, kitty,” K.O.’s tag wagged as he approached the cornered cat. There was nowhere left to run.

“Don’t escape now and we’ll give you some catnip,” Rad offered as he came up to K.O.’s left.

The cat seemed tempted by the offer, and slowly approached the duo. K.O. and Rad both grew excited while Enid’s net carefully crept up from behind it. She had landed in front of the fence and squirmed her eyes shut in concentration. Just a little more…

…when all of a sudden, a butterfly fluttered between K.O., Rad and the cat. The cat and Rad immediately chased after it. The net swung hard, and K.O. barked excitedly, accidentally letting loose a Bark Blast that kicked up a great deal of dust. There were yowls and a brief scuffle between the cat, Rad and the net that ended just as quickly as it began.

“Target acquired!” Enid cheered as the net trapped their target.

“Yipee!” K.O. cheered.

Their joy died as soon as the dust settled and all they had for their effort was Rad trapped underneath the net.

“Cob dang it!” Enid face-palmed and caught sight of the cat looking at them with big eyes several paces away. It looked so innocent, so playful.

It stuck out it’s tongue and blew a wet raspberry. “Thbbft!”

“Meanie!” K.O. pelted after it while Enid struggled to remove Rad from the net - “Hold still, Rad!” “I can’t! I feel like wiggling around, now!”

The cat was quick, but K.O. was a Level 4 Hero, now. This was going to be a cakewalk - was that a new squeaky toy?! - and in his moment of weakness, he ran right into a window and found himself tumbling into a dusty old warehouse.

“Owie…” K.O. rubbed his head. “I hate full moons, sometimes…”

He shook his head and looked around, hoping that maybe the lost cat had wandered in here as well. There were walls and walls of crates, some of them saying things like FRAGILE and KEEP THIS SIDE UP and ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES IAN A DULL BOY. There was one box right next to it that said IT REALLY DOES. Plenty of them were also just laying around, like someone was in the process of moving them, but forgot to do so.

“What is this place?” K.O. wondered out loud. He really wished he had paid attention to where he was running, because he was certain that this was going to take a while to make his way out. He couldn’t remember the last time he got lost, maybe it was when he was really little. He could remember how scared he was until his Mommy found him. But K.O. was older, he wasn’t going to let himself get scared too easily. He still shivered as he thought of how it would take hours before he could find his way out and it would be dark by then.

Hey genius, remember the window you fell down from?!

“You aren’t allowed to be back here!” K.O. forced down the helplessness like they were yucky carrots and zucchini and T.K.O.’s voice quieted down again.

He turned around - he wasn’t going to give T.K.O. credit for this one, he was going to figure it out eventually! - and saw that he could reach the window if he jumped high enough. Then he saw the broken glass on the floor and figured it would be safer to push a few crates to help him reach the window.

“Lots of crates to choose from,” K.O. began pushing the unsorted crates towards the window. “I’m sure no one will mind if some of them are out of place. Maybe they’ll be inspired to sort them differently, too.”

“K.O., do you copy?”

“Dendy, you know Mr. Gar doesn’t want me using the printer after last time, right?”

“This is communication code and I do not need the reminder. We got in so much trouble with him. I cannot believe that Rad expected Mr. Gar to find what we did hilarious in any way.”

“Sorry, I got us off track,” K.O. chuckled nervously. “And yes! I hear you loud and clear.”

“Where are you? Have you found that cat yet?”

“Nope. I got distracted and got into a warehouse. Or is this some really huge basement? I’m trying to get out the way I came.”

“Hang on. I have your location on the radar. I am sending the coordinates to Rad and Enid.”

“Thanks, Dendy,” K.O. smiled gratefully. “I’ll try and get out before they reach me, then we can finish the mission.”

He picked up a particularly large crate and began carrying it over his head. But even with his strength, it was still a lot to lift it up without trouble. He wobbled and titled, trying to maintain good footing. But he lost his footing and fell, tossing the crate in the process. It crashed onto the floor and the contents puddled all over.

“Aw, jeez!” K.O. stood up at once. He started trying to gather all the pieces together. “Whoever owns this place is going to be so mad! I need to clean it up! I need to…”

He paused and looked more closely at what he was holding. Something about it was very familiar…but why?

“K.O.!” He could hear Enid call out from the window.

“There you are,” Enid dropped down from the window and landed on her feet. “You have to slow do-owwwn!”

Rad had just landed on top of her, on his feet. Her face broke her fall.

“Sorry, Enid.”

K.O. didn’t pay attention to them and continued staring in confusion and growing dread.

“Uh…Earth to K.O., do you copy?” Enid stepped closer to him, her arms crossed and her tone growing irritated. “Remember your pals? The ones you ditched for the cat you chased against Dendy’s orders?”

“Maybe he got amnesia,” Rad whispered into Enid’s ear.

“That doesn’t really make much sense, and your breath smells awful.”

“Hey!” Rad noticed the parts and pointed. “Haven’t we seen that thing before?”

Enid looked to where Rad was pointing and stared with equal amounts of confusion and dread.

“Woah…” Rad murmured.

“Chip Damage?!” Enid finally gawked. “Didn’t he deactivate himself or something?”

“You aren’t forgetting it, Enid,” Rad looked nervous. “I wasn’t there earlier this season, but I know it happened.”

“And in front of that entire crowd, too?”

“Uh huh.”

“And then before that, he mentioned that he wasn’t really a living thing -”

K.O. looked at them with a nervous smile. “Could we not mention that, right now? I’m getting queasy.”

“Why not? You had an awesome speech about loving ourselves -”

“Well, I’m not sure what I was thinking at the time.” K.O. chuckled, nearly hysterical. “Like that would smooth over how everyone was being lied to and made P.O.I.N.T. look worse. It wasn’t like they weren’t still in hot water after Dark Plaza happened…”

“Little Dude…?” Rad suddenly became nervous.

“…and it’s not like I couldn’t have gotten Dendy to help fix the whole thing cause she’s smart and knows how to fix stinkin’ robots!”

“K.O.?”

“And it’s not like I meant to hurt anyone like a villain would, because that would mean I was pure evil -”

“Breath, K.O.” Enid had her hands on his shoulders. Rad nuzzled against him and purred. “You are loved and appreciated. Remember that.”

It didn’t matter that he was loved and appreciated. What mattered was that he screwed up big time and let a lot of people down. Some part of K.O. was aware that something deep down inside was rising from the abyss, but he couldn’t care. He had a right to be upset! Why did he always have to play nice when everyone else around him was mean?

“It’s not working! Rad, hug him, quick!”

“But he’s sparking up and I’m all hairy…”

“JUST DO IT!”

What was the point? He was just going to be a failure and a Mommy’s boy for the rest of his -

“Yeow!” Rad jumped back away from the lightning that shot out of K.O. Enid had to release her grip on K.O. to avoid getting electrocuted as well. “Dendy, we can’t get close to him! What do we do?”

More lightning stretched out around K.O. and his puppy face started growing more vicious with razor sharp teeth, claws extended out from his paws and a low growl began to rumble from the back of his throat.

“Aw, to heck with it!” Rad swallowed down his fear and lunged forward. He trapped K.O. in a warm hug and nuzzled against his face. Even as electricity coursed throughout his body, he refused to let go. For one of the greatest friends he ever made, the little brother his mother didn’t born and his father didn’t sire, Rad refused to let go. And he did something that he always had a hard time doing in the past; and said the right thing.

“Buddy, it’s okay,” Rad purred gently even as K.O.’s fur began to darken. “That whole thing with P.O.I.N.T. wasn’t your fault. It was no one’s fault. No matter how bad we all mess up, we just gotta remember the good parts too.”

K.O.’s eyes were snapped shut and the rumbling only seemed to grow louder. Enid hopped onto K.O.’s other side and embraced him.

“You helped me confront a part of my past that I buried,” she said. “I was a grouch the first day we met and you only saw the good in me!”

The rumbling seemed to alternate between growls and whimpers.

Enid continued, hugging him tighter. “It’s okay to be angry, K.O. It’s okay to be scared. You never have to force yourself into doing something you don’t want to. We’ll always stand with you.”

“K.O., please listen to them!” Dendy was pleading. “No matter how much we have fumbled, you have never thought less of us? Why would we think less of you for your mistakes? Why was Chip your fault?”

They didn’t get it! They couldn’t understand…he screwed up and now things were going to get worse…things were…were…

“We love you, K.O.” Rad said above the crackling of electricity. “We’ll always have your back!”

“…why…?” K.O. whimpered.

“Because that’s what friends do!” All three of his friends said together.

The lightning vanished. The growling subsided. K.O. was breathing heavily and slowly. Rad, Enid and Dendy from her console all sighed in relief.

“You really mean it?” K.O. sniffed and let the tears fall.

“Duh,” Rad smirked at him. “I mean, you had my back when I was called a weenie.”

“We’ll ndo the same for you,” Enid smiled. “You know that.”

K.O. smiled weakly and rubbed at his eyes. “Thanks, guys.”

They were right, they had to be. K.O. could get through this. T.K.O. was slowly slinking back into the corners of his cage, his chance of escape gone. Everything felt cool all at once, like the end of an intense storm after a humid day. He took a deep breath and let it out.

Out of the blue, he could have sworn he heard a voice in his head, like a half forgotten dream.

…take a nice deep breath…

Everything was going to be alright.

“I understand that this is what one would call ‘a moment’,” Dendy said, “but don’t we have a cat to find?”

K.O. sniffed in the air. “I smell gas.”

Enid wrinkled her nose in disgust and broke out of the hug. She pushed herself away from her friends and glowered. “Eww. Rad!”

“I didn’t do it!” Rad waved his hands defensively.

“No, not that,” K.O. said. He sniffed again. “It’s not gas…but it smells weird.”

“Uh…” Enid looked around the warehouse nervously, “call me Dendy, cause I have a theory.”

“But I’m Dendy!” Dendy protested.

“Notice anything different?” Enid asked. Her eyes were focused.

K.O. followed her line of vision and saw some of the burn marks from where the lightning struck during his near transformation. “Oops…”

“That smell would most likely be ozone, then.” Dendy sounded like she was frowning in thought.

“You would be right, indeed, mysterious person I cannot see.”

Dendy sounded pleased at this. “Why thank you very much for that compliment - why does that voice sound familiar…?”

K.O. saw a figure rising from the ground and gulped. He thought that his stomach was ready to do flip-flops. “Double oops…”

“What are you…?” Rad trailed off as he followed K.O.’s eyes and saw what he was looking at. “Oh my Cob…”

Enid was the third one to see. “Uh oh…”

“What are you all seeing?”

Chip Damage’s body had reattached itself and flickered between his hologram image and the robotic skeleton underneath. When the illusion was in effect, it only gave off the idea of Chip Damage from a distance. Maybe that’s why no one found out for so long, K.O. thought.

“Why am I…something feels…who…who am I…?”

“Chip Damage?!” Dendy said alarmingly.

“I’m damaged…?” Chip said slowly. His face was puzzled and looked innocently at them.

K.O. waved his hands frantically, hoping to prevent another disaster from happening. “No, no, you’re not damaged. Your name is Chip Damage and you’re a…”

The words were caught in his throat. He didn’t know what to say next. Your name is Chip Damage and you’re a superhero and a robot? Your name is Chip Damage and you didn’t want to be reactivated? Your name is Chip Damage and we’re all in big trouble now?

Chip’s image continued to flicker in and out. His mouth moved thickly and the words were slurred. “Chiiiiiiiip…Dammmmmaaaaaaagee…”

Enid narrowed her eyes and pulled Rad and K.O. back slowly from Chip. Then they formed a group huddle. “Any ideas?”

Rad was sweating profusely now. “Last time we faced him, you couldn’t beat him.”

“We got a lot stronger since then,” Enid said firmly. “And Chip is definitely rusty.”

“Really?” K.O. said aloud. “I didn’t see any rust on him.”

“Not literally, K.O.”

“Chi-chi-chi-chi-chi-chip-” Chip Damage was shaking in place, his face absolutely blank. Was his brain damaged from the lightning?

“On the count of three, you all charge at him. I will attempt to fix him properly. Honest to Cob, why didn’t Elodie request my assistance in the first place?”

Enid nodded. Rad and K.O. nodded in return. Mr. Gar would have to understand when they came back without the cat; this was more important.

“One…”

K.O. tensed up.

“Two…”

Rad got his pointer finger ready while Enid crouched down.

“Three!”

“Charge!”

Chip Damage suddenly started to twitch uncontrollably, sparks flying out of his body. Da-da-danger! Danger! Retreat! Retreat!”

One of his arms pointed at the three of them and opened up to reveal a cannon.

Enid took one look at the weapon and sagged in defeat. “This is gonna suck…”

Flames started spewing out and everyone started hopping out of range. The other crates were thankfully untouched, probably because it would have resulted in a higher rating and strongly worded letters from parents that didn’t bother checking the rating before letting their kids read the story.

Rad’s hair was standing up on all ends and Enid was running around with a flame on her cottontail. K.O. barked needlessly at the flames, suddenly wearing firemen gear and hooking up a fire hydrant that was conveniently located nearby to a hose that was also conveniently located nearby. A torrent of water came out and soon the room was filled with smoke and steam.

Rad scampered away from the water - “I hate that stuff!” - while Enid got a full blast of it from behind…and missed the flaming cottontail completely. She slammed into a wall, leaving an indent, which, incidentally enough, managed to snuff out the little flame on her fluffy butt.

K.O. turned off the torrent and lowered his hose. He started sweating profusely and biting his fingernails. “Triple oops…”

Chip continued to stammer and shake. There were moments of lucid awareness, like a hazy memory, floating on his face before it flickered out again. Whatever was left inside of the hero was trapped, fading away and there was nothing any of them could do about it.

This was one of those days where the heroes wouldn’t be able to save their own.

Without warning, Chip Damage took off and started flying past K.O., past a shaken Rad trying to avoid the water pooling around him, and past Enid, who was pulling herself off the wall no worse for the wear.

“Chip, wait!” K.O. ran after him, but Chip flew even faster. Out the window and into the sky, his form was just a little dot in the distance for just a moment, and then he was gone.

“Oh Cob…” Dendy didn’t sound too happy. Her projected image came forth, showing her at her computer back at the Bodega. She was typing frantically, possibly trying to track down Chip Damage’s location. After a few moments, she stopped, looking defeated. “Mr. Gar is not going to be pleased with this development…”

“And he’ll be less pleased if we don’t find that stupid cat.” Enid rubbed the back of her neck. She had to carry Rad on her back and tossed him out the window. A loud thud! Indicated that not all cats land on their feet, but that was to be expected as Rad was not truly a cat.

“Sorry I got us sidetracked and reactivated Chip…” K.O. came over to Enid, took her hand into his, and they both jumped out the window together. Their landing was cushioned by a crumbled Rad, who squeaked as more weight hit him.

“Don’t blame yourself, little dude…” Rad groaned painfully and pulled himself into a sitting position once K.O. and Enid were off his back. He pulled his tail towards himself and started stroking it forlornly. “Everyone makes mistakes. What matters is to - ouch! - own up to them.”

Enid helped Rad up and began to stroke his hair. Rad purred in delight and K.O. joined in. He found the action soothing and didn’t protest when Rad hoisted him onto his shoulder.

“At the risk of sounding redundant, I also concur with Rad and Enid’s statements, K.O.” Dendy’s video feed showed her smiling a little. “We will find Chip Damage another day. And you will not have to face him alone.”

“That’s right!” K.O. felt a fire burning inside of him, something he hadn’t felt in a long while. “We’re not alone! We’ve got my Mommy, and Mr. Gar, and everyone else at the Plaza! We’ll find Chip and fix him and he doesn’t have to collect dust in a crate ever again!”

“YEAH!” Rad and Enid pumped their fists in agreement.

“But first…” K.O. growled suddenly and for a moment, all three of his friends were afraid that T.K.O. was coming out again. But he was looking at a shadow lit up by the sunsetting sky, small and menacing…

The cat stuck out it’s tongue and blew a wet raspberry. “Thbbft!”

“Come back here, you crazy cat!” Enid hopped after it. K.O. barked out in agreement, no Bark Blasts this time. Rad scampered off ahead with them for a while.

Until he found Potato dangling the cat toy in front of him again.

Chapter Text

"Final practice round for the day. Begin!"

Punchy dove at her at full speed, smiling at her with all the horror it could muster. Fink was tired, cranky, and worst of all, sweaty. If the Brat ever caught whiff of what she was doing in his mom's dojo, she'd never be able to live it down. She sidestepped Punchy at the last minute, wishing she had her glorbs on her. Maybe then, the fight would be a lot more fun.

But after what happened to the last batch she brought with her - and she fought the urge to glower at the Old Lady Mom at this - Fink couldn't take any chances. If Boss or Box Boss found out she had been pilfering - scratch that, borrowing - from them, then she might actually get in trouble for once.

Fink rolled underneath the vile punching bag - no, she did not listen to the Old Lady Mom's advice, she was stealing an idea! - and clawed at it. She felt grim satisfaction seeing gashes appear on it's back, even if they disappeared after a few seconds. That satisfaction ended when she got body slammed and was sent careening onto her face. There was no stopping the OLD Old Lady from tapping her out, not when her body was currently going on strike.

"Atta girl, Fink!" The Old Lady Mom was leading the rest of the old ladies in cheering her on, but she didn't pay them any mind. Even if there was nice fluttering in her stomach, like when Boss used to give her presents.

"Have you been working on those exercises I sent you last week?" The four armed lady asked.

Fink tsked and cracked her knuckles. "Why would I wanna listen to some lame-o hero advice? You just want me to be sore and sweaty and tired."

Four armed lady frowned. "But…that's how exercise works. That's how you can get better."

"And it releases chemicals in your body that make you feel young again!" The OLD Old Lady cheered loudly.

Fink gave her a crazy face stare and muttered, "I'm 6-11…"

"That's enough, girls." The Old Lady Mom shooed her students away and beamed at Fink. Fink wished she had brought sunglasses with her to keep the gleam out of her eyes. And it was cloudy out, too. "I'm liking what I'm seeing, Fink. Just a bit more effort next time."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Fink couldn't bring herself to get angry at the woman. She was just like the Brat. Optimistic to the end. And the best thing to preserve her sanity was to ride it out, not get aggressive, and not step on anymore cupcakes while either of them were present.

"You wanna grab a bite to eat before you head home?"

"I-" Fink's stomach put an end to any argument she planned on having on that matter. She sagged in defeat. "…yes…"

So what if the training was hard, or sweaty and everyone was just so nice to her. Fink wasn't going to be a quitter cause she had something to prove to her coworkers. She had something to prove to the Bodega Losers, too. She could catch up and she could show them all that she wasn't weak! And then the Boss will look at her agai - !

No…she couldn't think like that. She didn't need the Boss like she used to. She could stand on her own. Even if it meant accepting his ex's help. Even if it meant - and she would rather eat candy canes than let Darrell or the other robots hear this - learning from a hero. Dealing with all of those friendly faces in the dojo was a small price to pay. They were only putting up with her cause the Old Lady Mom was in charge. And if she was left alone with any of them, she'd bet all 2,000 of her Technos that they'd say she was attacking the Plaza and have her sent flying off into the sunset. Fink could barely hear doors sliding and the welcoming jingle that came after to notice where they were going now that her mood was so gloomy.

"Hi, Mommy!"

She stopped dead in her tracks and her blood ran cold. There was no loving Cob up above, was there…

"Hey kiddo!" The Old Lady Mom proceeded to scoop the Brat up and smother him with kisses. "How was school today?"'

"It was fun at first. But then, Dendy got made fun of and I got really upset cause that wasn't nice of them. So I took her on a mission to cheer her up. And then…"

Blah blah friendship blah! Why not just head to a magical land filled with ponies and unicorns and pegasi and learn about how magical being friends can be! Raymond would sure be glad to help point them in the right direction. And no, Darrell wasn't her friend just cause they were coworkers. When she got blasted by that first crummy Love Beam, he didn't even give her the time of day! Some day, the Brat and his Kappa girlfriend were gonna have to learn that friendship was overrated.

"…and then the episode ended and here we are, after the credits." The Brat had to take a few moments to collect his breath and that's when he noticed Fink standing there. Menacingly.

Rad noticed this and called out to his boss. "Hey Mr. Gar! One of the lights is out. It's making people look like they're standing there menacingly again."

Elbow's voice boomed from inside his teeny tiny office. "I put in a work order this morning, someone's coming by soon."

"Oh. Okay…but what if Fink is still around afterwards."

There was the sound of papers fluttering to the floor. The music in the store stopped. And the music that always followed everyone around wherever they went also stopped. Weird.

"Rad, can you repeat that, I think my ears were blocked." Elbow's tone indicated that his ears weren't blocked and that he was expecting a different answer from his employee/minion. It sounded super sweet and super threatening at the same time.

Rad somehow missed the subtext and spoke louder. "I said 'what if Fink-'"

But the Old Lady Mom came to the rescue. Not Fink's, of course, Rad's. The guy couldn't find a light-bulb if he was in a room filled with them. "Don't worry, Gene. She's with me. Just wanted to grab something for the Dojo before we got some lunch."

"Wow!" The Brat went starry-eyed at her. "My mom thinks you're getting good. And if you're getting good, then that means -"

"She's fallen right into my trap!" Fink pointed a finger at the Brat. "Once I get good enough, I will kick her place Boss said I'm not allowed to say in front of small children."

"But…you are a small children…"

Fink narrowed her eyes. "Don't patronize me."

"Play nicely, you two." The Old Lady Mom said lightly.

Knowing she had to give it a rest, Fink pouted in silent protest, while the grown-ups did their stupid talking with each other. Cob, it felt like she was listening to the Boss and Box Boss chat back at Boxmore - and she wasn't really looking forward to going back so soon. At least the Brat knew to not engage with her, biology or not, they were enemies! Not anemones. Enemies.

The Old Lady Mom had some new sweatbands, towels, even a first aid kit with her when she was done chatting with Elbow. And Elbow looked like he was coming down with a fever, but no one else seemed to notice this. When they both headed out of the store, Fink could see a lot of people were outside. Some of them were even owners from other stores in the Plaza. It couldn't be an attack, the alarms would have gone off already.

"Oh dear…" the Old Lady Mom was starting to sweat and suddenly grabbed Fink's hand and pulled her close. They went closer and Fink started to hear energetic buzzing coming from shoppers, workers, and bosses alike. There was a large gap in the center of the commotion and there stood the new leader of P.O.I.N.T., Elodie, with some cloud hero and an alien in a wheelchair, stepping out of a helicopter.

Wait a minute, wasn't that Boss's old teammate from the flashback several episodes ago?

Everyone was silent when they saw who it was. But no one looked like they wanted to cheer. No one seemed to know what to do as Elodie lead her entourage through. The Old Lady Mom was gnawing at her lip and her grip on Fink's hand tightened even more. Fink squeezed back on reflex, not sure what else to do.

Then some sluggish voice called out in the back. "Hey, look everyone! It's a bunch of P.O.I.N.T. weenies!"

This set the crowd off and they began to shout, boo, and even throw stuff at the P.O.I.N.T. representatives. Elodie stood there unflinching, standing protectively in front of the other two heroes. Most of the pelted fruit came her way, but she didn't budge as they squashed against her suit.

Fink hated to admit it, but it was rather impressive of the girl.

"Mommy, can I can get her autograph?"

"No!" The green bear tugged her cub away from Elodie. "Those P.O.I.N.T. jerks can't be trusted!"

Fink felt like cackling as she watched the peons shame Elodie and her entourage. Then, a nice and ripe tomato smashed against Elodie's face and dribbled onto her prim and pressed suit. Elodie's lip quivered, but she didn't reach for a weapon or try and clear out a path. None of the heroes did. Weird.

The Old Lady Mom bit her lip and looked worried. She looked down at Fink and said, "Fink, I'll just be a sec, kay? Wait right here."

She jumped up into the air and landed in the center of the chaos. Now, Fink felt uneasy. This wasn't the Old Lady Mom's fault, why was she getting involved? Was she going to try and make everyone hug it out or something? The Brat would certainly try it, for sure. But even as she stood in front of the P.O.I.N.T. teachers and tried to reason with the crowd, the jeering and booing grew louder.

"People, we shouldn't be doing this. They haven't done anything wrong." The Old Lady Mom was waving her arms at them in desperation.

But her words fell on deaf ears and some people shouted "traitor" and "two-faced" and "canceled prematurely" at her. Fink wasn't sure why the last insult was tossed out like that. The projectiles were becoming harder and fouler - someone even threw their own boot into the mix. It hit the old alien on the head and then he started sobbing. Elodie and the cloud hero tried to shield him from another onslaught, but then someone had the idea to start throwing rocks, too. One of them barely missed Elodie's cheek. Then Fink noticed how dark the Old Lady Mom's face looked. It wasn't a frown or a pout.

This was T.K.O.'s mother.

She gulped and took a pointless step back. This was gonna be fun…

"What's the big idea?!" Carol snarled at the crowd.

The noises and tossing stopped at once. Fink could see the fear on their faces. The alien was still sobbing and the cloud lady was comforting him and glowering at the crowd. Elodie had been maneuvered behind Carol now, which seemed pointless now that the pelting had stopped. But it still made the point that the new leader of P.O.I.N.T. was off limits.

"How could you all be doing something like this?" Carol said accusingly. "We're all heroes, we shouldn't be picking on each other! If we do, then how does that make us any better than the villains?"

"But they took over the Plaza last season!"

"And they tricked us with Chip Damage and that guy was a jerk!"

"He came out as a robot, too! They lied to us!"

"But those weren't their faults!" Carol took a threatening step forward. "Greyman didn't even know Chip was being reprogrammed behind his back."

"Says you, villain lover!" That same sluggish voice retorted.

A shrill and whiny voice in the back added,"Yeah! Youse just saying that cause ya playing with the enemy!"

Fink realized that there were some angry glares in her direction. Uh oh…

The whiny speaker continued. "I bet you want dat rat ta wreck us when we least expect it."

"Villain lover!" The sluggish speaker said.

"Double crossing weenie!" The whiner whined.

Then, they both shouted in unison. "Old Lady Momma's Boy Momma!"

That was a brave thing to say to an angry level 10 Hero. Carol's face grew darker and her fists shook at her side. Everyone else seemed to agree with how brave that last statement was and wisely didn't add to the noise. Suddenly, two footballs shot into the sky and Fink could see that they were aimed at her, now. They were cloaked in blue flames - not like those Monster Balls the Boss bought a while ago - and would have hurt a lot if Carol didn't appear right in front of her, grab them with her bare hands and keep them there. She hardly seemed to register the fire and casually squeezed the footballs between her fingers until they popped!

"Who. Threw. Those."

All at once, the crowd dispersed around the guilty party and didn't look in their direction. Bell Beefer and Mega Football Baby were pointing fingers at each other, but didn't seem to realize the danger they were currently in.

When they both saw that they ratted each other out, they turned on each other and shouted in unison. "Double crossing weenie!"

"Bring me the guilty vermin! And let the sky rain down with their tears!"

Carol's booming order got their attention now and the two boys stopped their quarrel to see the trouble they were in. They were stammering and shaking and clutching each other for dear life as they were pushed by the crowd towards the seething wrath of Carol.

The cloud hero was shaking. "Erm…Silver Sparks…?"

"I don't go by that name, anymore." Fink was stunned by how calm Carol spoke to her. The alien had stopped crying and patted the cloud hero reassuringly.

"She von't harm zhem, Sunshine. I promise you, nuzing bad vill 'appen to zese hooligans."

Bell Beefer tried stammering out what could have been an apology, but Carol cut him off.

"You got a lot of nerve attacking someone who wasn't looking for a fight. Especially someone who's 6-11." Carol poked him hard on the head. Something about her voice was less intense, less threatening, less loud, but still furious. "If there's one thing I hate, it's when a bully picks on someone they know won't try and defend themselves."

Fink shyly raised her hand. "Actually, lady, I was just gonna take a few steps to the right -"

"That's not the point, young lady." Fink blinked at the calm voice directed at her. "You could have gotten hurt!"

"Uhhhh….I ain't no bully," Mega Football Baby gave a shaky smile. "I…uh…I…"

"-have a lot of explaining to do when I tell both your parents what you've been up to. Right?"

"Right! Right!" Bell Beefer held Mega Football Baby in front of him as a shield. "Just don't pound us too hard!"

"Now what do you have to say for yourselves?"

Without missing a beat, Bell Beefer and Mega Football Baby both pointed at each other and screamed, "It was his idea!"

Carol glowered at them.

Bell Beefer understood first. "Duhhh…we're sorry…?"

"And?"

"We'll never do it again?" Mega Football Baby added.

"Tell that to Grayman, then."

Mega Football Baby bawled like a baby. "We're sowwey, Mista Alien Guy!"

"Please don't tell my parents!" Bell Beefer sobbed.

"I'm gonna." Fink couldn't help but whine at Carol getting out of her scary voice. This time, she knew Carol was at the end of her ranting. "You two aren't going anywhere until I say you can.

"And as for the rest of you," Carol turned to face the crowd. "Don't you dare pull this stunt again or else you won't be welcomed back. Kapeesh?"

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Good." Carol nodded. She pointed to the right. "Now clear out before I get Mr. Gar involved! And clean up after yourselves, too!"

Everyone left in a rush, managing to pick up whatever litter they had thrown and a little extra too. Carol directed the two crybabies - literal in the case of Mega Football Baby - to the curb and focused on the P.O.I.N.T heroes. She got in front of Elodie and pulled out a handkerchief - the same one she used to dab Fink's face with cause she saw a tiny smudge - and started wiping the girl's face. Then, she did the same for Sunshine. For Greyman, Carol pulled out a first aid kit and inspected the bump on his head.

And Fink just stood there and stared at her. This was the woman that her Boss had loved once. This was Silver Sparks.

She couldn't wait to see the looks on everyone's faces back at Boxmore when she would take the Old Lady Mom down without breaking a sweat. One day, sooner or later, that match would come.

"Fink, you hurt?" The Old Lady seemed to cast a bigger shadow over her than usual, but that could have been the dipping sunset. Fink was still stunned by the display she saw a few minutes ago and could only mutely shake her head. A large hand was held out to her. "Come on, kiddo. I owe you some lunch."

"Thank you, Miss Kincaid!" Elodie called out to them as they left.

"Take care, Elodie! Watch that bump, Greyman! Clear skies ahead, Sunshine!"

"Wait, you forgot us!" Mega Football Baby cried out, still sitting by the curb with Bell Beefer.

"Don't move until I say you can!" The Old Lady Mom sharply said.

"Yes, ma'am."

Fink smiled to herself. Maybe this wasn't such a bad day after all.

Chapter Text

"K.O.! We're gonna be late for school!"

"Coming, Mommy!"

Carol and K.O. got into their respective car seats and were off. K.O. watched the houses go by, wondering what is going to occur in the next episode. It had been a little while since he and Professor Venomous had hung out - which was weird, cause they had been doing the weekend deal for several weeks now, but maybe it was because there wasn't any focus between them being shown for some reason for a few other character arcs to flourish.

"K.O., are you breaking the fourth wall again?" Darn it! Mommy could hear his narration too?!

"Sweetie, you're thinking out loud again."

Curses!

"What did I say about cursing, K.O.?"

GAH! Initiating Operation: Change Topics!

"If you want to change the subject, just say so."

"What do you know about my dad, Professor Venomous?"

Carol actually stopped the car in the middle of the road to look at him. Doh, he hated that look…the one where she was trying to come up with an answer fast. This was more awkward than that time he asked her where babies came from. Or what grown-ups were doing making loud noises in the middle of the night. Or that time -

What was he thinking about again?

"Your…father…isn't really comfortable with a lot of people knowing about his life, Sweetie. One time, he told me that information was power and that was something he didn't really want to have people use against him."

Mommy looked sad, now.

"There's a lot of things about him that I don't know if he would want you to know or not. Things that you'll understand when you're a little older."

"So you don't want to tell me about him?" K.O. frowned.

"I do, I just don't know if he'd be okay with me telling you stuff about him. He…he's still the same buddy I knew deep down, I know he is. He puts up an act, but when he hurts, he hurts real bad. I think you should try asking him yourself, Peanut. Whatever I know about him, it's not my story to tell." She smiled at him, looking more confident. "He wants to know you, this is a great chance to get a little closer to him."

"So you won't even tell me his real name?"

Mommy pfffted. "Nah. He's not touchy about that. It's Steven."

"Steven?" K.O. felt disappointed. He was hoping for a better name that Steven. Steven sounds like someone who would want to make friends, not want to fight, and make giant bubbles.

Wait…

On the other hand, it was a good thing. Steven was normal sounding. It wasn't hard to pronounce. And it wasn't super edgy like he was afraid it was going to be, either.

"Do you know how long he was a hero?"

Mommy bit her lip. "P.O.I.N.T started at least five years before me and Mr. Gar joined them. I don't think they were a team to start, they just…found each other, I guess."

"So how old are you two, then?"

Carol's face turned bright red. "And that's enough questions for the rest of the day!"

A few minutes later, they arrived at the school and K.O. noticed that a lot of the kids were looking at their car with terror in their eyes. Oh boy, this couldn't be good. Did they need to go to the car wash again? He grabbed his backpack and started heading inside when Mommy honked the horn.

"Have a great day at school, Peanut!"

K.O. waved back eagerly. "Love you, Mommy!"

When he got to his classroom, he could see that a lot of his classmates were looking out the window. The room was buzzing with hushed conversations.

"Can ya see it?"

"It's driving off! It's driving off!"

"What is?" K.O. dashed to the window and tried seeing what everyone was looking at. But all that he could notice down below were other cars dropping off their kids, the parking lot, and how everyone in his classroom was now looking at him funny. He turned away from the window and the others took a step back. He shrugged. "What? Do I have a boogie?"

Dendy's appearance next to him was announced by the cheers of off-screen children. "You are not the focus of their attention, K.O. Merely a proxy."

"A whuh?"

Dendy summoned a hologram showing an angry mob at the Plaza. "Recently, your mother was involved in an incident with P.O.I.N.T. Or, to be more precise, she was subverting an incident before it could escalate into something bigger."

K.O. gulped as he looked at the video. There were a lot of views on it already. And his Mommy looked really angry! The only time K.O. saw that look was when she thought he was trying to surprise attack her while she slept. That was a coward's way of dealing with an enemy.

And those angry people…Elodie didn't deserve it no more than Miss Sunshine or Greyman did. If it wasn't for Elodie, they wouldn't have been able to take back the Plaza from Foxtail in the end. Was this all because of him?

"This was not your fault, K.O." Dendy patted him on the shoulder, as if she knew what he was thinking. "People will react in ridiculous manners even when it goes against all logic and reasoning. And the only ones they will truly hurt is themselves in the end. Just look at Rad's former associates, they tried to throw those footballs at a poor 6-11 year old."

"Jeez, what is with those jerks?" K.O. scowled at the video. "And why would they throw it…at…Fink?!"

"Probably cause I was there in the first place." Fink answered in a dry tone.

"Thank goodness my Mommy was there to set them straight." K.O. nodded. Then his eyes widened with shock and he saw that Fink was in their classroom?!

"Fink?!" K.O. got into a power stance and prepped a Power Fist. "Don't tell me you're our substitute teacher today!"

"Nice to see you, too, Brat." Fink did not look amused. Then, she made a face. "And heck no! Like I'd want to be in a stupid classroom with a bunch of goody-two shoes like you!"

"Hey!" Goodie-Two Shoes protested. She was a level 2 Hero dressed like a pilgrim that could change a bag of goodies into a pair of shoes. "I take offense to that!"

Fink stuck out her tongue at her. "Sucks to be you, then."

"Don't worry, Scamp, she's not here to teach anyone today." Professor Venomous stood behind Fink looking equally unamused.

"Then what exactly is she doing here?" Dendy stiffly asked.

Fink gave a sinister smile. "Now is that how you treat your newest classmate on her first day?"

K.O. clapped his hands to his face in shock. "New classmate?! Wait…does this mean villains don't have schools for little villains…? Or do they get homeschooling? Oh jeez, what if they become so socially awkward that they become villains for attention?"

Fink leered at Dendy. "Hey Kappa loser. How's that bump on your head?"

Dendy calmly adjusted her glasses. "A full recovery has been achieved, thank you for asking. How are you handling the after effects of a Love Beam for the second time?"

Fink went red in the face. "Why I oughta - !"

Professor Venomous grabbed her by the scruff of her collar and lifted her in the air before she could pounce Dendy. "That's enough, kiddo. Remember, you're here to learn things and play nice, not get expelled before lunchtime."

K.O. scratched at his head. "You brought her here to make friends?"

Professor Venomous started sweating and couldn't look his son in the eyes. "Well…"

Earlier that day.

Fink popped her head in the lab. "Boss? Wanna play a videos game with me?"

"Hmmm…" Professor Venomous grunted. He was focused intently with his microscope, examining a new specimen that had came in from the black market. Fink tapped her foot, waiting for a response.

"Boss?" She tried again. Professor Venomous didn't respond. Fink tried a different tactic. "Hey Boss! I'm gonna set Auntie Cosma up with Box Boss! You better try and stop me."

"That's nice."

Fink scampered up to Professor Venomous and clambered onto his back. She tried looking at what he was doing, but he shrugged her off without breaking his focus on his work.

"Hey Boss?" Fink tugged at her Boss' lab coat. He grunted, but gave no other response. She tugged at his lab coat again with more urgency. "Boooooo-ooooooooossssss!"

He grunted again, but didn't react beyond that. Fink scowled and stormed off, but not before lighting a match and dropping it onto his coat. Venomous continued to look through his microscope with great interest/obliviousness, never noticing the smoke slowly rising from behind.

Raymond came through with a pile of magazines under his arm. He looked at Venonmous unconcerned and causally said, "Stepfather, your butt is flaming."

Shannon was passing by as he said this and shook her head in disgust. "Ewww! Raymond, don't hit on Stepdaddy!"

"I wasn't hitting on him, you rust bucket," Raymond scoffed and turned away from a very confused Professor Venomous. "His butt is literally on fire."

Venomous had a moment to process this before he finally smelled smoke. And bacon. Hmmm…bacon…oh dear Cob, that wasn't bacon!

As this epiphany hit him, Venomous started hopping and howling in terror while the flames spread onto the rest of his coat.

"Pookie Poo!" Boxman poked his head in the lab. His eyes were glittering and his cheeks were pink with joy. "Are you making your hunk muffin bacon this morning?"

Then he realized that it wasn't bacon he was smelling and started screaming like a chicken with it's head cut off. Then he caught sight of a hose labeled Waterand grabbed it, taking aim at Venomous before he saw the rest of the label saying Flammable Water.

His eyes shrunk in horror. "Oh bother…"

Now the entire lab was on fire, they had no insurance to cover the damages and Boxman still didn't have any bacon.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Boxman sobbed into Venomous' burnt and purple chest.

"It's alright, Boxman," Venomous sighed wearily. He was used to disasters happening when his boyfriend was around.

Boxman's face went red with fury. "When I get my hands on the sneak that set your butt flaming, I'm gonna - !"

"Fink did it!" Darrell tattled, popping his head into the lab.

"CAN'T YOU SEE THAT WE'RE HAVING A MOMENT, HERE?!" Boxman screamed.

Darrell ran away in hysterics. "Yes, Daddy, sorry, Daddy!"

"Now, as I was saying…"

"Boxy, do you think Fink's lonely?" Venomous cut him off. "She's spending a lot of time at the Dojo lately."

Boxman took Venomous' hand in his own and stroked his face with the other. "I'll pretend I didn't hear that last part, Pookie. Why would Fink be lonely? She has the other children to play with."

"Yeah, and you have them working non-stop except when it's time to attack the Plaza."

Boxman snapped his fingers with delight. "OH! That's what she needs! A little exercise against the Bodega Buttheads and -"

"Boxy, I'm being serious right now!" Venomous cupped his face and had a panicked look in his eyes. "Do you think Fink needs to…to…to…"

"For Cob's sake, spit it out already!" Boxman pleaded.

"…go to school…?"

Boxman blinked. Then blinked again. Then blinked a third time. And then he laughed.

"That's a good one, Voxy! You had me going there, for a moment!"

"I'm not joking, Boxy. What if she needs to be around actual kids her age?"

"Well, my children have never been inside of a classroom," Boxman smiled proudly. He wasn't going to mention Ernesto's disastrous plan, of course, because failures were not meant to be treated with pride. And Ernesto saw himself more as an employee/slave, which worked out perfectly for Boxman. If Darrell hadn't canceled Boxman's low-budget puppet show meant for instruction, then perhaps the rest of the robot series wouldn't have gotten so lax lately. "I've home-schooled them all myself, and they can function perfectly in society when I am long gone."

Just then, there was an explosion from another room not far from Boxman and Venomous' shared office space. And not a moment later, there were angry arguments from all the Darrells and other Shannons over who failed to follow instructions on opening a bottle of ketchup. Boxman's eyes widened with shock and soon, his blood began to boil until his face was a bright ketchup-red.

Venomous, ever the logical one, just sagged in defeat. "We have got to enroll Fink into school…"

Back to the present.

"Yes…" Venomous sagged again. He couldn't bring himself to lie to his son about that. Cob, this was going to be a long first day…

Chapter Text

There was a pregnant pause as K.O. took this in - he hoped he used that word right, cause the last time he said it, it caused 11 minutes worth of cheap entertainment from the misunderstanding - but before he could make a response, a dark shadow loomed in front of him.

Venomous noticed the light change too and frowned. “Hey, did it just become darker in here all of a sudden?”

But then, he noticed a shadow looming over him and looked behind him. Miss Quantum was scowling at Venomous the same way she scowled at her students. Technically, that was her default setting, but it still counted as scowling.

“If you’re quite done distracting my students…” she said, scowling.

The teacher looked familiar to Venomous, but he couldn’t figure out what it was. The other students sans K.O., Dendy and Fink scampered into their seats. Venomous didn’t miss the looks of sheer terror marring all their faces. K.O. didn’t seem that phased by the teacher’s sudden appearance. Dendy was glowering back at her in sheer determination. Fink was thoughtfully scratching her chin, certainly thinking the same thing Venomous was. Why did the teacher look so familiar…?

“You must be the teacher, then.” Venomous held out his hand.

Miss Quantum smirked. “Oh dear, looks like we have another smart one in the class, don’t we?”

“Hey, lady!” Fink glowered at the teacher. Which was either very brave or very stupid when dealing with an adult that had no problem dropping heavy objects onto children without warning. “Don’t talk to my boss like that!”

“And what are you going to do if I keep doing it? Squeak at me?”

Fink’s face turned red and steam came out of her ears. She growled threateningly. “You don’t wanna know what I’ll do…”

“Fink, cool it!” Venomous said sharply. He turned back to the teacher. “Please forgive my minion. She’s…not great at handling conflict.”

“I won’t.” Miss Quantum said dryly.

Venomous pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. He could get through this. He could do this, and when he got back to Boxy, they could get bacon. “Look, I’m just dropping Fink off. She’s your new student, I’m sure the principal filled you in on it -”

“He didn’t,” Miss Quantum didn’t look like she cared one iota if it were the case, “he’s only in the office once a year.”

“Anywho!” Venomous’ eye started to twitch. “It’s her first day and I was just on my way out, Miss…ummm…”

“Quantum.”

“Miss Quantum?! As in Quantum Control AKA The Bad Apple AKA Pencil Pusher?!” Fink’s glare was gone and she looked almost pleased with the news. She pushed Venomous aside hard enough for him to crash into a row of desks and held out her hand. “My name’s Fink and I’m a big fan of your work! When I grow up, I wanna be just like you.”

Miss Quantum’s scowl only deepened and Fink continued to smile at her gleefully as if she had been told that she had been a very good hench-rat thingy and that Christmas was coming early for her, this year.

K.O. suddenly gasped. “Oh, wipple dimp-dimple! I left my lunch at home!”

“I’ll grab it,” Venomous offered. Secretly, he just needed an excuse to make like a banana and split, but he was afraid of what Fink would do the moment he left the room...

Fink was too enamored with Miss Quantum’s status as a former villain to throw out a nasty retort. Her eyes were starry and she was talking so fast, Venomous could hardly make out what she was saying. “- and when you stole candy from all of those babies, I knew you were pure evil.”

“I’m…certain…of…that…” Miss Quantum’s face turned a light shade of red. Each new event that Fink mentioned from her past seemed to turn her face redder, and make her class more disturbed at Fink’s lack of room reading.

“Oh! Oh! And that time you took the wheels off Ironic Bunny’s car! I still can’t get over how you got away with it!”

“Wait a minute, that was you?!” Potato glowered at her teacher. “My dad had to retire afterwards!”

Venomous, seeing that this probably wasn’t going to go over so well later, decided to make like a snake and slither out of danger. Miss Quantum was too stunned by Fink’s ranting to notice.

“- and then you used your ray to spray catnip all over that city and unleashed all of those kitties to destroy it -”

“THANK. YOU. STINK!”

Fink blushed and kicked at the floor playfully. “Actually, Miss Quantum, it’s Fink -”

“Seat! Now!”

Miss Quantum didn’t spare her newest student another glance and began glowering at K.O. and Dendy.

“And just what are you two doing not in your seats?!”

“The bell didn’t ring.” K.O. pointlessly raised his hand.

“We were just on our way to them, now,” Dendy glared back, sparks flying from her eyes at her most hated enemy. And with that, she walked over to her desk like there was nothing amiss, with K.O. right at her tail.

Fink cackled with delight until she realized that the glare was now directed at her. Seeing an empty seat on the Brat’s right, she took it, still grinning. This was gonna be the bestest day ever!

O.K. K.O. (Let ’s Be Heroes!)

Carol settled the box down on the coffee table. A time capsule was the last thing she expected to see inside of the sandbox K.O. used to play in, but her son had done odder things after all. Like that incident with the printer…poor Eugene…Carol sure hoped that it wouldn’t be mentioned in K.O.’s next performance review. He always did so well in them.

Eugene always commented positively about K.O.’s cleaning capabilities during his performance reviews. It was always scored the highest in his reports, next to K.O.’s positive attitude, which certainly made him a delight around customers that weren’t going out of their way by being as obnoxious or aggressive as they can. There was a passing comment from K.O. one time that suggested Eugene graded all of his employees differently. Enid’s performance reviews always seemed to mention her attitude towards customers as aggressive…and how she needed to keep up the good work. Apparently there was an incident with a customer bullying her over something that wasn’t her fault when she first started out. Carol was of the opinion of only saving the aggressive behavior for the bullies instead of everyone that came in who wasn’t her friend or someone she respected.

Rad was reviewed based on how he applied his abilities, and more importantly, his loyalty to his coworkers. Sometimes, Carol forgot that those three weren’t related, with how close they had become since Season One. Well, not just them…

One time, just after Boxman Jr.’s attack on the Plaza, Eugene found an excuse to visit Carol and K.O.’s reviews had come up in the conversation. One thing that kept changing was K.O.’s scoring in defending the Plaza. From Good Hustle to Mediocre to Getting Better to Great Hustle. Even if it had only been a few months at best, Carol felt as if years had passed since K.O. started working at the Bodega. He’d come such a long way since then.

“He’s so thorough with his cleaning,” Eugene had said gruffly, but Carol could sense the pride in his voice. “Rad and Enid could learn a thing or two from him. Give it a few years and he’ll get the store shining and chrome like me. I never expected a 6-11 year old to be that good at cleaning, to be honest.”

Carol smiled. “Aw, shucks, Gene. He learned all that from a pro.”

Eugene ’s face flushed. “Uh…I mean…he-he’s g-g-good and all..b-but no one could clean better than you could…”

“Uh…thanks…?”

Alarm bells were ringing in in Eugene ’s head when he realized what he was implying to his friend. “What I…what I meant was that…you…uh…are a good…teacher! Yes! A good teacher! And no one gets good at something on their own without a firm hand and…and…and…”

Carol laughed and patted him on the shoulder. “At ease, you steamed broccoli, you. I get it.”

Her hand lingered on his shoulder a tad longer than needed. Carol began to sweat, the summer heat was starting to get to her. She moved her hand to caress Eugene ’s cheek. He didn’t make a sound of protest.

“You know…I never had a chance to thank you for hiring K.O. in the first place. It really meant a lot to me. He’s really come out of his shell.”

Eugene looked into her eyes intently. “He’s a good kid. A great kid.”

“I thank Cob every day that he has Rad and Enid and Dendy in his life. And that he has you in it, too.”

Eugene ’s face darkened. His next words were choked. “I’m not Laser…”

“I don’t need you to be,” Carol whispered.

She stood on her toes and pressed her lips lightly against his. Eugene froze for a moment, before he had a hand lightly brushing through her hair. Then, they took a few steps back, and looked away from one another.

“K.O. and I were gonna watch a movie tonight…” Carol whispered. “I’d be happy if you joined us.”

Steam was coming out of Eugene ’s ears and he could barely speak. “…yeahsureillseeyouthereitsadatebye!”

And then, he was out the door in an instant.

Maybe she ought to share her discovery with Eugene when she went to the Plaza, later. K.O. ought to be there, too. The three of them could check out what he put in the box together as a family.

Just then, there was knocking on her door. Carol checked her phone and sighed.

We need to talk. I have a mission for you. It ’s an emergency. Foxy.

The third one this week. Foxtail wasn’t going to let up, wasn’t she? Even after quitting P.O.I.N.T., she seemed to think that Carol was still going to help nowadays. Sure, she stood up to that mob when they were throwing things at Elodie, Greyman and Stormy, but this was a mess that Foxtail made herself. This was something she had to handle herself. Why wasn’t she getting the message?

Carol still cared for her old teammate, but there were things she needed to process first. How Foxtail treated Gene all of those years, taking over the Plaza, the stories K.O. told her about what was happening to the students. She willed herself into a level of reasonable calm. She would be firm, but patient. Carol wouldn’t let Foxtail pressure her, but she was going to lay down the law if she didn’t get the message.

When she answered the door, Venomous was there instead, trying to appear inconspicuous. His posture became tight when he saw her, but thankfully not as aggressive as last time they talked.

“Venomous.” Carol stood in the doorway with her arms crossed. “Do you need something?”

“K.O. left his lunch here?”

“WHAT?!” Carol scrambled to check the fridge. Her son’s lunch box was sitting right there with a sticky note saying K.O.: Don’t forget this. Love, Mommy. “I knew we forgot something!”

Venomous stuck his head through the doorway. “Carol?”

Carol ignored him and grabbed the lunch box. “I better get this to him before anyone notices.”

“Carol?”

“Thanks for letting me know, Venomous, we’ll finish this chat later!”

“What’s with the box?”

Carol stopped. “Huh?”

“The box,” Venomous repeated, pointing to the table.

Carol’s cheeks turned red. “That’s none of your beeswax.”

“Is it like what Boxy has in his drawers…?”

“ABSOLUTELY NOT!” Carol’s voice went up an octave as her face turned a darker shade of red. “WHAT KIND OF MOTHER WOULD LEAVE SOMETHING THAT INAPPROPRIATE NEAR SMALL CHILDREN AND - ”

“…always has spare parts lying around in his room for some reason. Just loves to tinker with his hands, I guess. What were you saying, Carol?”

“What.” Carol paled. “Uh…it’s…it’s not important.”

Venomous was stepping into the house and already digging into the box.

“Hey! I was gonna open that later!”

“What’s this thing?” Venomous pulled out an old toy tape recorder. He settled it down, while Carol was still reeling in shock, and pressed the play button.

“Hi everybody, it’s me, K.O. And today, I’m gonna show you what my mommy’s been up to! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy, say something!”

“Something.”

“I…remember that…” Carol stepped closer. Venomous was transfixed, listening to his son’s toddler voice from long ago. They both listened to Carol’s joke, K.O.’s tantrum, and both got lost in their thoughts. Of what had happened and what might have been.

Chapter Text

Fink fidgeted in her seat - she had ice cream for breakfast, she didn’t need anyone’s consent on that matter! - while her newest and bestest teacher ever prattled through her lecture. During the lecture, she managed to make time to throw in a few not so subtle remarks about the intelligence of the class. And their aptitude for learning. And their smell.

She couldn’t have been talking about Fink, right? Miss Quantum kept looking at her when she said those things, but Fink knew it wasn’t her she was talking about at all. It must have been the losers sitting behind her, even though she was in the last row of the class.

And why was her smell important? Rats don’t need to bathe like common plebeians!

Fink was initially gonna give him an earful when she got picked up at the end of the day. But now she just wanted to find a way of thanking him for the greatest thing to happen to her since BoxBoss made her that bike after blowing up their house. And that new computer Darrell made out of parts of himself.

“Miss Blink, did you hear the question at all?”

Fink noticed everyone looking at her. Miss Quantum had her arms crossed and a scowl on her face. That Kappa was looking back and forth between her and the teacher, almost like she was worried about something. Fink started to frown…was she supposed to be paying attention during a lesson…?

“Miss Dink, are you paying attention at all?” Fink didn’t like how Miss Quantum was talking so slowly to her. Was the teacher having an episode like BoxBoss did that one time?

Fink beamed, showing all of her sharp teeth. “Of course I am, Miss Qua -”

Miss Quantum sharply cut her off. “Then you should have your homework out in front of you like the rest of your classmates.”

Fink’s eyes went wide. “What?”

“Do you need your ears checked, Miss Brink?”

“It’s pronounced Fink…” Fink began.

“Are you saying you didn’t complete the assignment like the rest of your classmates?”

“How the heck was that gonna work?! It’s my first day and -”

Miss Quantum tsked at her, shaking her head and looking absolutely disappointed. “That’s no excuse at all. You should have had it done by now.”

Fink’s mouth dropped to the floor. “WHAT?! But I -”

“You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Miss Spink. Everyone is going to have to do a third pop quiz from next week’s lesson plan and they have you to thank for that!”

Fink began protesting again. “But that’s -”

- when all of a sudden, an anvil fell from the ceiling, the shadow beneath Fink getting larger and larger. It looked pretty heavy too, and sounded like it would hurt a bunch when it landed, considering the sound it was making that you heard in cartoons.

It was a good thing it landed next to Fink instead of on top of her. A pity for the floor though. And the floor beneath it. And judging from the big hole in the ground, pity for the entire building, too, when it would reach the bottom? When was that gonna be, though? They seemed pretty high up.

Miss Quantum looked between the hole and the remote she had in her hand, her mouth agape and eyes wide in disbelief. So did the Brat. And the Kappa. Some random kid was wiping their forehead with relief.

Getting uncomfortable with the silence, Fink raised her hand. “Miss Quantum, was that anvil supposed to fall off?”

One cutaway later, and Fink knew that her Boss was not gonna be happy with her at all. Might actually not let her have a third dessert after dinner tonight. And she’d deserve it too. No one should be suspended before the first day of school was even over. And not several stories from the ground, either!

O.K. K.O. (Let ’s Be Heroes!)

Both adults were in a daze once the recording stopped. Carol, because it brought back a simpler time. For Professor Venomous, because it was a reminder of what he had missed out on when he decided to disappear. If either one of them weren’t lost in their own thoughts and looked at one another, they would have known that they were thinking the same thing in the end: we could have shared this moment together. We could have had a different life.

“You, uh…you sure know how to sing…” Venomous mumbled. “I mean, I’d know, we did, um…heh heh…date 6-11 years ago and…you know what? I better take this lunch and get out of your -”

“Hold on a moment,” Carol pulled the lunch box away from him, her ex’s words breaking the spell. She looked at him with mild suspicion. “What were you doing at the school in the first place?”

“Well…” Venomous rubbed the back of his neck and started to chuckle nervously. “No reason out of the ordinary. I was just…dropping…Fink…off for her…first…day…?”

“OOOOOH! HER FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL?!” Carol’s eyes were sparking with delight. “Man, I remember my first lunch at school! I wanted K.O.’s to be special just like mine was! What did you pack her? Does she need anything else?”

“I actually didn’t make her a lunch…”

“Say no more! I’m on it!”

As he trailed off, Venomous saw Carol halt in her tracks, then hurriedly put the toy recorder back into the box it came from. Then, without saying another word, she went into the fridge and began rustling through it with purpose. He couldn’t make out what she was grumbling under her breath - but he was sure it was safe to say around small children - and he was too transfixed on whatever it was she was doing to leave. When she was done, Carol turned around and had another lunch box held out in front of her.

Carol was positively beaming. “If she asks, tell her I said hi and I’ll see her after her first day. I want to hear all the deets! But not before.”

Venomous stared at the offering, realizing too late that in his haste to get Fink enrolled, he forgot to get a lunch made for her. He took it delicately, like a ticking time bomb, starting to wonder how often Fink went over to the Dojo. Was Fink starting to get closer to Silver Sparks? Was this some plot to take his loyal minion away from him?

Wouldn ’t be the first time she’s played with your head, am I right?

“I can share some lunch packing tips for you.” Carol opened a drawer and pulled out some index cards. “Does your phone have a camera? I don’t wanna lose the hardcopies.”

She’s trying to get you back under heel again, even after what she said about you.

Carol was blithely unaware of Venomous scowling at her as she chattered away. She’s not even looking in your direction. Does that look like someone who cares about you? She started to lay out the index cards on the countertop based on days of the week, Techno prices, and nutritional values.

“Maybe you and Fink can come over after school and we can start coordinating lunch ideas, too!” After saying that, Carol beamed at him.

That same condescending look he got from her back in P.O.I.N.T.

She offered him a hand. “Whatdaya say?”

She wants to take someone precious away from you.

That last thought made him snarl and shove the lunch back to Carol. Then, he swept his arm across the countertop, knocking over the carefully laid out index cards.

“I should have seen this coming miles away, Sparks.” He growled.

Carol wasn’t smiling anymore. Good. “Wh-what?”

He took a menacing step forward. “I told you before I wasn’t going to stand by and let you mess with my minion.”

Carol didn’t take a step back like he had hoped. Of course, Venomous remembered with no small amount of frustration, his ex wasn’t one to be intimidated so easily. That’s why she was welcomed into P.O.I.N.T., after all. That, and her vast intellect.

She ’s quick to give up on people, though…

He wasn ’t powerful enough to survive something like this…

She couldn ’t understand her own kid, either…

I guess I was mad at her for getting my hopes up with ‘path to greatness is long and hard’

She ’s gonna get Fink’s hopes up before she crushes them, too. And why not? Fink was a lot like you when you were her age. And she’s your minion. If Sparks knew what you did to her ‘beautiful boy’, she’d do anything to get back at you. Even hurt those closest to you. An eye for an eye, am I right?

Venomous let loose a menacing growl, his forked tongue sticking out and his tail peeking out and rattling. He was a predator poised to strike at the slightest movement. “This is your last warning, Kincaid. Quit. Messing. With. My minion! Stop acting like you give a darn about her and mind your own Cob dang business!”

Sparks scowled and poked him in the stomach. “What the heck is your deal? I just thought she’d be hungry -”

“Thought? Thought? You just assumed I didn’t make a lunch for her!” Venomous snapped.

“You just said that you didn’t. I get it, running a business isn’t easy. Tiring, even. I was just trying to be nice -”

“Nice? NICE?!” Venomous slammed his fist into the wall next to him. This time, Sparks did take a step back. And a familiar look dawned on her face, one he saw the night of his ‘disappearance.’ The look of fear. “The day I want you to do something nice for me, I’ll croak! You might have everyone else fooled, Sparks, but I know what you are. A big. Fat. LIAR! If someone doesn’t live up to your expectations once, you throw them out like garbage! That’s the Silver Sparks I know. Someone messes up one time? You hold it over them for as long as you can!”

“Where the heck did you get that notion?!” Sparks asked. Oh, could she be anymore oblivious?

“What you said to El Bow, what he said to me when you two crashed Boxmore,” Venomous growled. “You wouldn’t have let him kick himself about his ‘mistake’ for that long unless you were holding it against him? Am I wrong?”

Sparks’ eyes began to well up with tears. Crocodile tears, I bet. “It…it wasn’t…”

“Am. I. Wrong?!”

Now tears began to spill down her cheeks. The wench reached out to him. “Steve…please…”

Venomous shoved her away, hard, not caring what he might break. “Don’t you dare call me that you cold-hearted - !”

His ranting was cut short as Sparks was suddenly up in his face and easily lifted him over her shoulders. Venomous began to struggle, but Sparks’ grip was iron-clad. A roar began to rip from his throat in righteous fury. She wants a fight, so give her one! Crush her like an insect and -

And then, they were both outside and he was tossed to the ground like rubbish. Venomous didn’t know how, but he became aware of how hot his face was from yelling. He wasn’t supposed to yell. Shout in brief intervals, maybe, if he couldn’t handle the level of idiocy in the room. Snarl or growl if he was displeased. But…yelling…that was…that was…

‘We didn’t bring you up so you could humiliate us with that performance!’

‘You miserable leech! You call that a power?!’

That was something he wanted to move away from…

He became aware of his heavy breathing. And then the tears still dripping down Carol’s face. Her breathing was slowly becoming even and she straightened her postured and wiped her face. Venomous raised a hand out to her, but let it drop down. He didn’t know what to do. What could he possibly say to take that scene back?

“I think you should leave.” Carol’s head was tucked down, so Venomous couldn’t see her eyes. But he still nodded at the even tone and scrambled to his feet.

“Wait…what about…?”

“I’ll bring it to them myself. Just get out of here, before someone sees you.”

Venomous turned away and started walking off when Carol called out to him.

“And for the record, you were right. I did hold that over Gene’s head for a long time…but you know what? I moved on from that and forgave him. Can you say the same thing?”

The door closed behind him and Venomous felt all of his remaining fight leave him. Can you say the same thing? Bah! How could she dare ask such a question of him? Of course, he had moved on! He became the most sought out scientist in the villain community. Richer than he could have ever imagined! Earned a front row seat to watch her precious Plaza get attacked whenever Boxmore felt like it. Even got a cute evil boyfriend out of it that Carol couldn’t even begin to compete with if she wanted to.

So…why was he still angry…?

Can you say the same thing?

He…he…of course he could…he…just never had the chance to say it to her. He still needed more time to…how much more time could he possibly need?!

There was a ringing sound in his ears. It was small at first, but began to build up in volume and intensity. There was just too much for him to process right now. No time to think. No room to think. Louder and louder.

Until

He

Felt

Completely

H

e

l

p

l

e

s

s

.

.

.

Chapter Text

While Fink dangled several stories above ground, the rest of the class was enjoying recess and lunch (K.O. was still waiting for his lunch and Fink was too proud to admit she didn’t get one packed) after the grueling few rounds of pop quizzes. The Sun decided to put on a pair of sunglasses on a lovely day that they were having, too. Dendy had joined K.O. in a little meditation before they joined the rest of their friends in a sports game they were starting up. Dendy had found it very helpful recently, as Miss Quantum simply loved to press her buttons. If she wasn’t trying to prove that Dendy was cheating, Miss Quantum would make her a target to the rest of the class demanding to know why they couldn’t grasp the lessons like she could. And after helping improve the reputation of her entire race back in Season One, Dendy refused to give her teacher even one shell of ammunition to prove that Kappas were monsters.

Let the thought fly by. Breathe out the bad feelings. Channel that anger into something productive. Take a moment to think of just…something that would not risk a copyright lawsuit if you continued with that trail of thought!

K.O. kept his breathing nice and even. Dendy took no small pleasure in that. Her best friend was unpredictable - an irony not lost on the predictable-dependent Dendy - so, it was a plus to join him in these quiet moments. No doubt, his mother had something to do with this. She always knows how to bring out the best in people. Just like K.O. This epiphany made her smile more serenely. Like son, like mother, I suppose.

“K.O.?” She hated to break the silence, but Dendy felt that there was not going to be a better time. “As much as I am enjoying these…exercises of the spirit…I believe that there is something we need to discuss. Something very important.”

K.O.’s eyes were still closed, but he nodded. Dendy’s face grew worried. Cob help her with what she needed to say. Behind him, their classmates were kicking around a ball that suddenly went flying high into the sky.

“It has been a short while since we had been on a mission together. I know that your weekends with your…biological ancestor” - certainly not father, Professor Venomous did not deserve such a title after all of the trouble he had caused in the past season and a half - “are important. But you seem a bit…uncoordinated at the moment?"

“Huh?” K.O. looked up, oblivious to the ball that came crashing down and bounced off his head with a light thud!

“I rest my case,” Dendy sighed. She pulled out her laptop from her backpack and started typing. “If we are to be at our peak for the next mission, as well as our secret mission finding Chip, then we must collect data from previous missions and see where the errors started. That would be the long term goal, of course. For now, I suggest the first course of action to take would be to try and reconnect with T.K.O. and -”

“NO!”

Dendy              backpedaled away from her friend’s shout. K.O.’s face was pale and sweat trickled down his face. “K.O., I understand your apprehension dealing with your ‘inner darkness’ as you have called him in the past. But you must remember that the reason he came forth in the first place was because you were suppressing your negative feelings too much. You two must find a balance, and preferably before the show is over!” Her eyes dilated as another dreadful thought occurred to her. “Or worse. Canceled with plot threads and wasted episode potential still hanging!”

“I can’t risk it, Dendy!” K.O. shook his head stubbornly. “I put him on time-out cause he causes trouble every time I’m not looking! He wrecked my house and ate all the cookies my Mom made. He’s the reason Chip Damage got reactivated and we have to find him before someone else does. And he almost got out and hurt you guys, too!”

“But he didn’t!” Dendy countered logically.

“But he might have!” K.O. countered back, crossing his arms.

“But he didn’t!”

“But he might have!”

“But he didn’t!”

“But he might ha - !”

“WHOOOOO CARRRRREEEEEEEEEES?!”

The two friends stopped their bickering to look to the source of the screaming. As did the rest of the class and even the Sun himself peered out from his sunglasses to look at the one shouting. Fink, the guilty culprit, the one caught red-handed, the dirty rat -

“Mister Narrator?” K.O. called out to the sky. “I know you’re trying to be funny, but could you get back to the story? You’re going on a tangent, now.”

…Fine…

Fink looked at them all with equal annoyance. It was one thing to be suspended on the first day of school. It was another thing to have to listen to a circular argument with no sign of resolution in sight.

…Tangent averted…Happy now?…

“Thank you!” K.O. smiled at the sky. Dendy looked torn between calling out to the sky herself in curiosity and taking a few steps back from her best friend in comedic apprehension.

Who on Earth was he talking to?

“Will you two bozos quit yakking?! You’re giving me a headache!” Fink complained.

“Our apologies, Fink, we will keep the arguing to a minimum.” Dendy called back.

Fink rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Just kiss and make up already with your boyfriend.”

“Once and for all, K.O. and I are 6-11!” Dendy protested as steam came out of her ears. “We are too young to be engaging in complex relationships!”

“Tell that to the talking broccoli and bunny rabbit, then!” Fink pointed with her tail.

Colewort and Potato were holding hands, now surrounded by their classmates and peers thanks to Fink drawing attention to them. Colewort started sweating and stammering. “Actually, we’re 13-15. Totally different when you think about it. DON’T JUDGE US!”

Steam spilled out of the crown of his green head and enveloped him and his girlfriend in it. When it dissipated…they were still there, instead of somewhere else…

“Oh…right…we were supposed to move…” Colewort chuckled nervously.

“Come on, my sweet Worry Wort, let’s go somewhere else.” Potato took him by the hand and guided him away from the attention.

“Romance…” Fink rolled her eyes.

“I know,” Dendy nodded in agreement. “Complete nonsense.”

This moment of connection was quickly killed not by a knife, but by Fink and her mean words. “Still think you’re a stinking Kappa, though.”

“Why do I even bother?” Dendy pinched the bridge of her nose.

K.O. looked at his friend, calming down from his panic. He rubbed the back of his shoulder and said, “I’m sorry for freaking out back there.”

“I should not have been so tactless.” Dendy said sadly. “I know that T.K.O. is a sore subject for you. And I have not forgotten the last time I used you to collect data…”

K.O. sunk to the ground. “He’s tried getting out a few times before, though. And I wanted to spend time with Professor Venomous to try and get in touch with my inner darkness.”

“I am sensing a ‘but’ here,” Dendy said, raising an eyebrow.

K.O. sighed. “But I don’t know how to talk to him. Whenever we try doing something together, something happens and ruins everything. We tried throwing balls at each other. But he got hurt cause they weren’t meant for playing catch. He took me to a party and I panicked cause I thought I saw Shadowy Figure, but it was actually a Mystery Guest. And he hasn’t tried talking to me, either.”

“Hm…” Dendy pondered this and imputed it into her laptop. “Perhaps the real issue lies in communication.”

“That’s it?” K.O. stood up abruptly. “All we have to do is talk?”

Dendy shook her head. “Not quite. It cannot be baseless blabbering. It must be genuine connection. You two must meet each other halfway.”

“How do we do that?”

To answer, Dendy reached into K.O.’s pocket and pulled out a POW card. “Tell me what you see here.”

“Mr. Gar!” K.O. beamed at his boss’s picture, standing buff and proud.

Dendy pulled out another card from his pocket. “And who is this?”

“Limited Edition Cowboy Darrell!”

“And these?” Dendy pulled out a fistful of POW cards now.

K.O. fired off the names rapidly without hesitation. “Rad, Enid, Potato, Billiam Milliam, and Red Action!”

Dendy smiled. “Good. Did you have any of these cards at once when you first started collecting POW cards?”

“Heck no, it took me years to get some of them,” K.O. shook his head.

“And did you ever stop wanting to collect them when you couldn’t get the right trade or perhaps when you got a pack with cards you already owned?”

“It was hard, but I didn’t think of doing any of that. If I got extras of the same card, I just had more to trade with.” Then it hit K.O. like the ball hit him earlier. “Wait. So me and Professor Venomous meeting each other halfway is like collecting POW cards? It takes time? And patience? And figuring things out?”

“Precisely!” Dendy adjusted her glasses. “And just like you taking all of the first season to get to Level One! You kept on trying and improving yourself until you succeeded! And much like trading POW cards and getting your Level up, did you do it by yourself?”

“Of course not!” K.O. squeezed his hands to his face as the epiphany hit him like…like the ball hitting him a second time just as he connected the dots. “I had my friends! You! My Mommy! Mr. Gar!”

“That is correct, K.O.!” Dendy’s eyes blazed with passion from her speech, especially since it was uplifting her friend very well. “You did not handle any of these challenges on your own!”

“No, Mr. Gar! He’s here!” K.O. pointed to his boss falling from the sky, elbow aimed down as he crashed into the playground. Students fled in terror. After the dust settled, Mr. Gar rose up from the small crater he created upon impact. His eyes met K.O.’s and…

“K.O.!” He bellowed.

K.O. stood upright, saluting. “Yessir, Mr. Gar, sir!”

Mr. Gar came over to the two children, towering over them, his sunglasses reflecting in the sunlight. Then, he held out a lunch bag and said in a softer tone. “Here’s your lunch, sport!”

K.O. graciously accepted it. “Thanks, Mr. Gar. How come my Mom couldn’t drop it off?”

Mr. Gar nervously rubbed the back of his neck. “She, uh…had to let out some steam.”

“Whaddaya mean?”

Mr. Gar lowered his shades. “Uh…she had to deal with a tough case of the flu…?”

O.K. K.O. (LET’S BE HEROES!)

“Take this! And that! And some of this too!”

Punching Judy watched with wide eyes as Carol continued to beat the Flu to a slimy, germy pulp. After all of those times she had sparred with the villain, she didn’t expect him to get tougher. Then again, the last time anyone had seen him was Season One, so anything was possible. “Wow, Carol, you, uh, you’re in prime form today…”

Carol paused in her fight to flash a bright smile to Punching Judy. “Thanks, sweetie. I just needed to get a good workout in before K.O. got back from school. Lot of pent up steam I want out of my system.”

Her phone buzzed and she continued to punch the Flu one-handed while she looked at it. Carol frowned and put it away. Foxtail just didn’t want to leave her alone, didn’t she? She tucked it back into her pocket and resumed the beat down.

O.K. K.O. (LET’S START THE SHOW!)

“…something about the Flu getting a lot tougher and asked if I wanted to pick you up today. Help you with your homework before she gets home.” Mr. Gar lowered his glasses. “Maybe a little treat at Weiner Kabob, too?”

Mr. Gar seeing him at his school? Picking him up at the end of the day? And ice cream?! What else was gonna happen today? Maybe a new POW card pack would be released and he’d get his hands on it!

“Hey! Elmo! Don’t you know it’s creepy if a grown-up is in a kids’ playground?!”

Mr. Gar looked around to see who was shouting at him until Dendy pointed to where Fink was. K.O. was expecting him to correct her on what his Hero name was. What he wasn’t expecting was his boss’ eyes to bulge out of their sockets and become as big as saucers.

Doesn’t that hurt when they’re back to normal size…?

“WHAT ON EARTH IS SHE DOING UP THERE?!” Mr. Gar’s jaw dropped to the floor.

“She was suspended,” Dendy said in a manner-of-fact tone. “Miss Quantum had too many buttons pressed on the first day.”

“So why wasn’t she sent home?”

“Because she was suspended,” Dendy slowly repeated.

Mr. Gar looked between her and Fink, still tied up and pulled out another lunch bag. He jumped up to the perch closest to Fink - he’s level 10, it wouldn’t be that hard to do - and offered the bag up.

Fink was not amused. “Yes, that is in fact a paper bag. You having your lunch here where I can watch, Elmo?”

“It’s Elbow…well, I’m not that anymore. Carol made you one, too. Said you didn’t get one this morning?”

Fink blinked. “She…made that? For me?”

Mr. Gar had to bite back a few comments revolving around a certain purple-skinned villain before he could reply. “Of course she did. You’re her student. And you’re not going overdoing it outside her classes?”

Fink shook her head. She slipped through the rope tying her up and settled down next to Mr. Gar with her hands outstretched. Mr. Gar looked at her and the empty bundle of rope still dangling, questions buzzing in his head.

“Rats are escape artists, duh.” Fink said before he could ask. “Now buzz off, I’m starving!”

If she were one of Mr. Gar’s employees, he would have disciplined her for the blatant rudeness. But since she was a villain, he decided to give her a pass and leave, as more important things needed to be attended to before the school day was over. Fink stopped him, looking .

“And…tell her I said….thanks…”

He nodded and Fink was left to eat her lunch in peace. Knowing the Old Lady Mom, she probably had…she shuddered…vegetables in there. But she was hungry and beggars can’t be choosers. When she opened up the bag, Fink would later compare her findings to an archaeologist discovering a tomb they never dreamed of finding. A BLT with extra bacon, thick apple slices with almond butter to dip them in, cheese wedges! And best of all, a chocolate cupcake with vibrant colored frosting and star sprinkles. There was a sticky note attached that said: You’ve earned one, don’t step on these in the future. Love, Carol.

Fink sniffed, her eyes well up with tears. Then, she sniffed again and glared at what she found.

“Hey!” Fink pointed to the smelly bowl of onions on the windowsill. “Who left this bowl of onions here?”

“Who said that?”

“Uh oh!” Fink grabbed her lunch, hid it in her coat and hurried back into her ‘suspension rope’ just as Miss Quantum came to the window. She glowered at Fink in disapproval.

“”And what do you think you’re doing?” She demanded.

“Uh…just...hanging in there…?” Fink replied.

“Oh, a comedian,” Miss Quantum frowned. “Do you know what we do with comedians who are supposed to be seen and not heard when suspended?”

“Let them go?”

“Adorable.” Miss Quantum’s eyes narrowed. “And what is that?”

“That’s what I was asking about before you got here!” Fink glared at the bowl of onions.  “Who would leave that there?!”

“Not that. That!”

She pointed at the cupcake. The cupcake with the sticky note. The lovely frosting. And the star shaped sprinkles.

…the same one Fink somehow forgot about in her scramble to look like she didn’t escape. Cob dang it!

Miss Quantum snatched it up before Fink could react and read the note. “‘Don’t step on these in the future. Love, Carol.” She shuddered. “If there’s one thing I hate more than imbeciles, it’s sentimentality.”

“So you’ll put it back and forget you ever saw it?” Fink gave a genuinely nervous smile.

Miss Quantum wasn’t moved. “I think the last thing you need is sugar. You’ll thank me for this later.”

She let the note fly away in a gust of wind and turned her head away from the window.

“NO! Give that back! It’s my cupcake!”

Miss Quantum turned her head back, and there was a dark scowl on her face. “Perhaps your parents should pack a healthier lunch in the future, Miss Pink.”

“My name’s Fink and my parents -”

“Aren’t here and clearly don’t know how to bring up a proper rat. In fact,” Miss Quantum held up the cupcake close to her face, “they shouldn’t be wasting this much time on something as disgusting as a sugar loaded -”

She started picking out the sprinkles, one by one.

“Fattening.”

The frosting was cleanly swatted off with one hand.

“Load. Of. Trash!”

The rest of the cupcake was crushed in her hand and became a thick paste. Miss Quantum looked at Fink, now stone-faced and wide-eyed. She gave a serene smile. “Ahhh. Silence. The best thing a child must be.” She looked at her watch and frowned again. “Oh dear, I’ve wasted too much of my break disciplining you. I’ll just have to leave you out here after school, then. Enjoy your suspension while you can, Miss Drink. It will reflect poorly on your grades when it’s over, after all.”

Fink could hear Miss Quantum humming cheerfully to herself as she walked away, but it became a footnote to the other loud noise screeching in her ears.

Oh wait, that was steam coming out of her ears. Fink was impressed that she could think of that so calmly after all of that. Maybe she was disassociating. Oh. And that wasn’t the sun making her skin feel hot and icky, wasn’t it? Blood could boil, then. Another myth busted by a hench rat thingy. Such a lovely series of discoveries.

Then, her anger and voice finally found each other.

“THAT DOES IT!” Fink howled. “I’M SICK OF BEING NICE TO A TEACHER LIKE YOU! I’M GONNA GET BACK AT YOU IF IT’S THE LAST THING I DO!”

But no one seemed to hear her, now. Even though everyone down below had stopped playing their games when they heard her howling, Fink was not convinced that anyone had listened to her declaration. No one would want to believe that a student would want to stand up to an awful teacher after how they were treated and…and…

Why could she suddenly hear cheering…? Children cheering. In delight. It couldn’t be in her head, could it? Dear Cob, she wasn’t turning into a Kappa, was she?! Another bought of tears came over her when the anger fled from Fink. She sniffed, fighting back the stinging tears in her eyes and glared at the bowl of onions that somehow moved right next to her from the windowsill. “WOULD YOU GET OUTTA HERE?!”

O.K. K.O. (LET’S BE HEROES!)

“I…feel…tingly inside all of a sudden.” Dendy put a hand on her head. Fink’s loud declaration of - there was no other word for it - war seemed to instigate a chain reaction among the other students in the school. Almost as if they concurred with her…

No, wait. There was more. Her thoughts started going into fantasies she had long tried suppressing for the past two and a half seasons. Miss Quantum in detention. Wearing a dunce cap. Holding up a giant sign indicating she was a bad educator. And now her lips were tingling! Sweet Cob, Dendy agreed with this sentiment! These were truly the end times!

“K.O.” She said, suddenly. “I think we should -”

“Let’s get Fink down from there.” K.O. stood up straight. He had a look of pure resolution on his face. “No one should get their cupcakes smashed by a bully, not even Fink!”

“A…cupcake…?” Dendy had not been around all season, so she was fairly certain that she was missing some important context behind the specific declaration. Wait a minute, he did mention something about cupcake smashing when they were having that ball game. Why couldn’t she keep track of all these wacky hijinxs everyone got up to around here?

She decided it wasn’t worth the headache and followed K.O. up to the ledge closest to Fink, though the venture was a bit trickier on account that they were two 6-11 year olds and Dendy was not as athletic as her bare-footed friend. Fink was already slipping out of her bonds by then - that was interesting. Rats could really do that too, then - and glowered when she saw them approach her.

“Whatdaya lame-os want now? You gonna tattle on me like a bunch of do-gooders?”

“Quite the contrary,” Dendy replied. “We simply wish to offer you some assistance.”

Fink raised an eyebrow. “And why the heck should I trust you two?” She pointed a finger at K.O. before he could speak. “I don’t care if the Old Lady Mom’s teaching me or if my Boss -”

“Shhhh!” K.O. pressed a finger to her mouth and pointed to Miss Quantum inside the classroom, happily marking failing grades from the quizzes earlier. Fink scowled, but didn’t say another word. All three of them jumped back down to the playground, away from Miss Quantum’s range of hearing. He looked at their classmates in their games and grabbed Fink by the shoulders with a frantic look on his face. “Fink, I know you don’t like me, but please don’t mention the Big Reveal in front of everyone?”

“What? That my Boss is your fa -”

“Fascinating enemy that is across the street from the Plaza!” Dendy interjected with a fake smile and pointed aggressively towards their classmates. Fink’s eyes widened as she got the message and face palmed. Of course no one else knew. And here she was about to blabber it to the whole world.

“Alright, I’m shutting up. But why do you want to help me with her?”

“There is a saying that the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” Dendy explained, now more composed with Fink understanding. She casually adjusting her glasses. “We may resume our animosity once this mutual issue is resolved. Fair?”

Fink looked to K.O. with a baffled expression. “In Loser Speak, please?”

“She said we can still be enemies when we get back at Miss Quantum. No one in the class likes her that much, especially Dendy cause she’s so hard on her,” K.O. smiled and offered her his hand. “So, whaddaya say?”

Fink looked at the proffered hand and shrugged. “Eh, sure. But just this one time, got it?”

She clasped his hand into hers and shook. Then, without warning, Fink threw a punch at his face. K.O. caught her wrist without warning and slammed her to the ground. On any other day, he would have expected Fink to be angry that her surprise attack was thwarted. But instead, she was grinning up at him with the tiniest fraction of newfound respect.

“Guess we both got a good teacher, huh, Brat?” She refused the proffered hand up and got to her feet. “So, what’s the plan?”

O.K. K.O. (LET’S BE HEROES!)

Lunch time had come to an end and Dendy and K.O. returned to class, trying to act like nothing was amiss. Miss Quantum, still high on her tormenting Fink earlier, was humming softly to herself as everyone settled into their seats. When she was stern, the most anyone would expect of her was anvil dropping, hard and headache-inducing tests, and high standards that she knew that no one would be able to reach that wasn’t named Dendy. But when she was happy, it was worse.

“Hello, class,” Miss Quantum smiled serenely. No one in the class dared to take a breath. She glowered and said more forcefully, “I said: hello, class!”

“Hello, Miss Quantum,” the class chirruped fearfully.

Miss Quantum beamed again. “Much better. I hope you all enjoyed recess because we will be going over a new subject this afternoon. It was rather…inspirational how it came to be.”

She pulled down a blackboard decorated with junk food, candy and soda all covered with X’s. And the title at the center was -

“Eating Healthy: To Eat or Not To Eat,” Miss Quantum crossed her arms, now looking smug at her handiwork.

….

I was gonna say it…

“Now!” Miss Quantum slammed her hands onto her desk and loomed over her classroom. “I want you all to raise your hands and tell me what you had for lunch today. Don’t be shy. There are no wrong answers.”

Most of the class knew that keep their hands at their sides would of course be the wrong answer and held them up without hesitation. Dendy and K.O. didn’t move, but because there were so many hands held high, Miss Quantum didn’t notice.

“Now?” K.O. whispered to Dendy.

“Not yet,” Dendy narrowed her eyes at her least favorite teacher. “We must wait for the signal.”

“Potato! Could you tell me what you had for lunch, today?”

Potato smiled and rubbed the back of her neck. “Well, my mom packed me a box of carrot juice, made some carrot soup, and left a slice of carrot cake for dessert.”

Miss Quantum clasped her hands in sheer delight. “Oh ho, carrots! Wonderful for your eyesight!” As Potato’s eyes widened at the sudden and unexpected praise, Miss Quantum sudden gave her a dark look. “Carrots are high in sugar content and rabbits aren’t supposed to eat them as a main food source!”

Potato blinked, feeling suddenly lost. “Wait a minute, aren’t carrots considered a vege -”

An anvil suddenly came crashing down on top of her before Potato could finish her question.

“Good, at least that one was angled properly.” Miss Quantum tucked the remote away into her pocket. She directed her attention back at Potato’s smashed desk. “And yes, carrots are a vegetable. But they are also supposed to go with other food groups. Your mother ought to be ashamed, making you a fatty and unhealthy lunch.”

“Noted…” Potato muffled weakly underneath the anvil.

“Now?” K.O. looked at Fink with a sense of urgency.

“A little longer,” Dendy didn’t break eye contact from Miss Quantum. “Fink isn’t ready!”

Miss Quantum pointed to Bobo, who looked like they wanted to be anywhere else but in the class right about now. “What did you have for lunch, today? Hmm?”

Bobo shivered until their body started shaking. “Um…well…I did have soda…?”

“Sodas are high in sugar and can cause tooth decay!” Miss Quantum grabbed a bundle of rope from her desk and marched over to Bobo, menacingly. “And not allowed in my classroom! This is grounds for suspension!”

“Aw, dang!”

Bobo was dragged over to the window where Fink was, quickly bundled up in a rope coat, and about to join the newest classmate. Miss Quantum opened the window, ready to dangle Bobo up, when she saw Fink’s rope without Fink attached to it.

Miss Quantum stared at it for a few seconds before she got the joke. Her face was unamused. “Oh ha ha, rats can really do that…”

“Now?” Dendy didn’t bother responding to K.O.’s question. He pointed to the window. “But that’s the signal!”

“No it is not,” Dendy said patiently. She looked to her friend with what was surely meant to be a calm expression. “Fink would try blinding us with a laser pointer, remember?”

“She’s been doing it since class started, though! It’s on your forehead!”

“Huh?” Dendy looked up and saw a red dot zooming frantically back and forth on her brow. She said in a matter-of-fact tone. “She should work on her aim, next time. It needs work.”

“Who is responsible for this?” Miss Quantum pointed across the classroom. No one would dare say a word, she would have punished them just the same. Besides, no one wanted to rat out a rat.

Try saying that three times fast.

Miss Quantum was not one to challenge so easily. As a teacher, she would be the highest authority on seniority alone and no one would dare take their child’s side over hers if she could help it. True, none of the students did tell their parents, but that was simply on the grounds that grown-ups could not be trusted to solve anyone’s problems. It was unspoke rule of comedic cartoons aimed towards children.

Pretty lousy and annoying rule, to be honest.

The fact that someone was challenging her by simply not being suspended was an outright declaration of war.

Well, she might have heard the rat shout something about vengeance earlier, but didn’t pay much attention to it. But she did pay attention to who had greeted the newest student so casually and informally.

“K.O.! Dendy! You two are in trouble now!” Miss Quantum marched up to their desks near the back of the room and stopped short when she saw that neither of them were there. On K.O.’s desk was a little slip of paper. She read it out loud. “ ‘IOU one conversation with the teacher’? Who knows where those two went?”

But when she looked back at the classroom, she saw that no one was left but her. Even Potato and her anvil and Bobo and their new rope weren’t there. Miss Quantum’s eyes widened and she tried doing calculations in her head to understand what had just happened. Was it a half day? Didn’t that mean they could only have half of a recess? A shadow came over her like a ghost.

Wait, that shadow was getting bigger…and it sounded like something was falling…

She looked up and rolled out of the way just before the anvil hit her. It smashed onto the floor with a crash! Miss Quantum was dusting herself off the floor when another shadow came over her. She leapt out of harm’s way again as the anvil landed where she once was. Then another anvil. And again. And again.

She could swear that she could hear something scuttling above her, but it could have been her nerves.

Miss Quantum looked to the doorway and ran towards it, towards safety. Suddenly, an iron wall rose up and sealed off the exit. She looked to the windows and saw that the windows had been sealed off similarly. She was trapped like a rat, pun not intended and also inaccurate. Rats were escape artists, after all.

Then, the lights suddenly turned off, leaving Miss Quantum in total darkness. Then, she heard the sound of something falling again and sighed.

“Why did I have to design my class like this…?”

There was no time for fear, only survival, as she ran all over the classroom in complete darkness. A few times, Miss Quantum stumbled over an anvil that fell earlier and she scurried up with frantic terror. There was nowhere to hide: she positioned anvils not only over the desks, but also near the door in case a student tried to use the bathroom without a hall pass. Or tried sitting near the window without a window pass. The sadistic teacher had lost count of how many close calls she had and how many times she tripped over something in the dark. But soon, she felt sore all over like a bruised apple.

Miss Quantum tripped up again and found that she couldn’t pull herself as an anvil finally found her and rested on her as gently as a mother hen rested over a smashed egg. A low moan of pain escaped her lips and Miss Quantum found that she had no energy left in her to try prying free. Cartoon physics or not, getting hit with an anvil was not fun.

“Awww, does the widdle mean teacher have a boo-boo?”

The lights went on again. The anvil was pushed off Miss Quantum’s bruised back. And the walls disappeared, leaving the door and windows free to leave through. It was quite a shame that Miss Quantum was too tired and hurt to make an effort now. And standing in front of her, triumphantly, was none other than -

“Fink?!”

Fink was unamused. “Oh! So now you know what my name is, you rotten old windbag?!”

“Excuse me?!” Sunshine was at the door and crossed her arms, utterly offended. “I’ll have you know that I’m younger than I look and am more than just a wind bag! I can control the very weather itself! And I am a hero!” As she said this, lightning struck in the background.

“Not you, the big fat meanie!” Fink protested.

“Fink, how dare you disparage Lord Boxman outside of his range of hearing!” Ernesto was behind Sunshine, carrying a stack of papers in his arms. “I’m going to have to report you for this, you know!”

Fink’s face turned red and she pointed directly into Miss Quantum’s face. “SHE’S THE ONE I’M TALKING ABOUT, YOU BUCKET OF BOLTS!”

“Hey!” A talking, animated bucket of bolts popped out from behind Ernesto’s shoulder, affronted. Tears were coming out of his eyes, right where the handle was located. “This is my first day on the job! Go easy on me!”

Fink had had enough. “OUT! ALL OF YOU!”

Miss Quantum tried to follow the other three in the confusion, but Fink grabbed her by the shoulder. She growled into the woman’s ear. “Not you, you big Sad Apple!”

Then she paused, looking around suspiciously for something. Fink looked into Miss Quantum’s eyes. “There isn’t some talking, sad apple around here, is there?”

“Oh, George?” Miss Quantum waved her hand dismissively. “He went to the Great Field in the Sky before the show ever started. The Dreaded Applesauce Fate.”

“Oh.” Fink blinked, feeling a little lost. “Sorry for your loss?”

“Thank you, dearie.” Miss Quantum smiled, appreciatively. Then, she remembered how much trouble she was in with a minion with a grudge and started shaking. Fink extended her claws. “Wait! I’ll do anything! I’ll let you pass for the rest of the year without any real work! Extra recess time! No homework! I’ll even make you class representative! You get to bully the other students with my approval. I have a great selection of films you could make them watch on a slow day. One of them has cats singing!”

Fink pondered this for a moment. Movies with cats singing would be torture to watch, after all. Then, she shrugged. “Nah. Too much work.” She smiled viciously, showing off her sharp teeth. “This is gonna be much better!”

“No, please, I was just kidding about the whole ‘misnaming you’ thing!”

“That’s the only thing you were joking about?!” Fink pulled Miss Quantum nose-to-nose close. “Not about my parents, or the anvil or the cupcake?!”

“Um…yes…?” Miss Quantum stammered out. “I mean, no! I mean, yes! I mean - I - I - I mean - ! Whatever you want me to confess to, I’ll do it! Mercy!”

“Sorry, The Cad Apple!” Fink cackled at her malicious misnaming. “But you know what they say: payback is a -”

“Fink, stop!”

Fink growled and glared at whoever was in the doorway. “Do you mind?! I’m trying to enact vengeance, here!”

“But this wasn’t part of the plan!” K.O. protested. “You were just supposed to keep Miss Quantum distracted while we got the class out.”

“I knew it!” Miss Quantum was angry again, now that she knew her earlier hunch was right on the money. “When I get my hands on you, I’m gonna -”

“Can it, Fad Apple!”’ Fink snapped. Miss Quantum wisely obeyed. She pointed to K.O. angrily. “And you didn’t say how I could distract her! You gotta be more specific, next time.”

K.O. stepped forward into the light, concerned. “I know how you feel, Fink. Believe me, giving into anger can be so easy. And it might feel right at the time, but when it’s all over, you’re the one who has to clean up the whole Plaza after you come to your senses cause everyone else is too hurt to move.” He looked more sternly at Miss Quantum. “And sure, she might be a meanie. And a wiener. And a lot of words I can’t say cause my Mom would be mad if I said them and we can’t say them in a kids’ show. But there are always other ways to handle a problem without giving into complete anger.”

If there was music in the background, it would have sounded emotional, as the metaphorical storm has now passed and the light of day can be seen again. And if there was music in the background, it would have been abruptly cut by Fink’s expression going from “maybe there is another way” to flat and irritated and “you have got to be kidding me”.

“You seriously think giving a stupid speech is gonna stop me from teaching this teacher a lesson?” She asked dryly. “And no, I’m not becoming a substitute teacher, if that’s what you’re thinking!”

“Perhaps not,” Dendy stepped in from behind K.O. Unseen children cheered her appearance. “But I find that revenge is a dish better served cold. Isn’t that right, Mr. Gar?”

“Sure is, Dendy,” Mr. Gar smiled, appearing next to Dendy. He looked over his shoulder. “Isn’t that right, Principal Claus?”

 “OH HO HO HO! It sure is, Eugene!”

“Oh Cob dang it…” Miss Quantum shriveled as Principal Claus stepped into the room. His face was cherry-red as ever and his belly still jiggly. And all those who wished good will and peace on Earth would feel nothing but pure bliss and joy in his presence. Unfortunately, Fink and Miss Quantum were not in that select group of people. Fink was still salty about her presents from last year from him. What on Cob’s earth was she supposed to do with coal?! Boss didn’t have a running fireplace at their old house! It couldn’t have been because she was naughty, after all. She was a good minion, just like Boss said she was! And Miss Quantum? Well, let’s just say she had been away from the Nice list for a very long time, but grown-ups typically didn’t get presents in the form of coal.

Principal Claus got in-between Fink and her prey, and Fink took a few shuddery steps back. She had heard stories about him in action last season and didn’t want to test them today. If there was one thing she regretted out of this long, long day…it would be that she was caught in the act by authority. But his attention was directed at Miss Quantum for now, so at least Fink would have a small reprieve from judgment.

“Oh, Principal!” Miss Quantum held a hand to her brow, suddenly overwrought with emotion that no one in the room was buying. “Thank heavens, you’re here! I can’t stand it any longer! My newest student - she enlisted two hopeless students into her scheme and she - she - oooooh, I’ve lost all powers of speech!”

“Doesn’t sound like it,” Fink said crossly.

Principal Claus held up a hand before Miss Quantum could continue showing off her poor acting skills. “That’s quite enough, my dear.”

Miss Quantum sighed heavily. “Then you must know how heavy my heart is with what you have to do now?”

“Oh ho ho ho! Always such a kidder, Miss Quantum!” Somehow, Miss Quantum knew that Principal Claus didn’t find what she said to be funny. He looked at her with his twinkling, critical eyes. “Now, I’ve heard some rather troublesome things just a few minutes ago by an old student of mine and your star pupil from your current class.”

Miss Quantum gulped. “Oh?”

Principal Claus spoke with an air quite suited when asking a small child to owe up to any wrongdoings. “Is it true that you’ve been suspending students? Several stories above the ground? With rope?”

Miss Quantum looked around for someone to step in and distract her boss. “Well, some children…do need to be away from the school when they cause trouble. That is what suspension is -”

“Don’t lie to me, dearie.” Principal Claus’ smile somehow became sharper. His tone didn’t change at all, which made it more terrifying. “You know that I’ll know if you’ve been bad or good.”

She saw no reason to try and choose her words carefully at this reminder. She did say she would confess to anything, after all. “Yes, sir…it’s true.”

“And have you been dropping anvils on the students in class?”

“…yes…”

Principle Claus nodded in satisfaction. “Well, that explains the new sun roof, then. In all the classrooms underneath your own.”

Miss Quantum gave a nervous giggle. “If it makes you feel any better, the angling was off a few inches and wasn’t supposed to crash through the flooring.”

“It doesn’t.” Principal Claus smiled sweetly.

“She also ruined my cupcake for lunch!” Fink pointed angrily at Miss Quantum, who proceeded to glower right back at her. She stopped when she remembered that Principal Claus was still looking at her.

Principal Claus smiled more sharply. “Oooh, you’ve been starving your students, too?”

K.O. pondered at this. “Well…I think she just ruined the one cup -”

Dendy suddenly covered his mouth. “Yes! Fink is not the only one who suffered from this! K.O. hadn’t had a chance to eat his lunch because of her! Isn’t that right, K.O.?” K.O. nodded, since all the excitement and planning did distract him from lunchtime. The thought of her most despised enemy after the POW card factory president being punished at last was worth a little naughtiness. Principal Claus seemed to agree with this and didn’t choose to call her out on the half-truth.

“You do realize you’ll have to be punished for this naughty behavior, don’t you? Especially since you’ve been doing this for the entire show run up until now.”

Miss Quantum sank to her knees in sudden prayer and terrified tears. “I’m so sorry for all the trouble, sir! Please don’t fire me!”

“Oh ho ho ho!” Principal Claus gave a sudden, jolly laugh again. The tension that had been building up in the room was now gone. He flung his hands in the air in jubilation, smiling like he was having the best day of his life. “No need to worry, Miss Quantum. You’ll simply be suspended.”

“Without pay, right?” Miss Quantum smiled hopefully at her boss.

Principal Claus simply beamed at her without an answer.

Miss Quantum’s face turned chalk-white. “Without pay…right!?”

O.K. K.O. (Let’s Be Heroes!)

Principal Claus assembled everyone outside when everything was set up one hour later. His instructions were brief, but direct, and with a jolly smile on his face. “Now remember, children. The harder you hit the piñata, the more candy will come out!”

Miss Quantum, dangling in front of the school entrance and wearing a sign saying: I Am A Realistic Piñata , IGNORE MY REALISTIC PLEADING, was shriveling in terror. “NO! PLEASE! MERCY! ARMISTICE! ARMISTICE! ARMA - whack! - OW! - whack! - OW! - whack! - OW! - whack! - OW! - whack! - OW! - whack! - OW! - whack! - OW!”

“CANDY!” Fink gave her battle cry and had struck the first round of blows with a vengeance.

“NO NO NO, PLEASE, STO - whack! - OW!”

“CANDY!” There was a manic look in Fink’s eyes as she channeled her rage into each attack.

“FINK! I’M SORRY I KEPT MISPRONOUNCING YOUR NAME! IT WAS JUST A JO - whack! -  OW!”

“CANDY! CANDY! CANDY!” Fink emphasized each word with a strong swing. Candy bars started falling from the sky and she collected her hard-won loot. Principal Claus hadn’t needed to worry about purchasing anything for the piñata. Miss Quantum had confiscated quite the collection of sweets over the past three seasons, after all. And from all those times she had stolen candy from babies as a villain. Those candies were probably past their expiration date, though.

An onslaught of sticks, branches, and - in the case of Potato and Bobo - baseball bats swatted at her without hesitation when Fink was done. She focused her time directing her newest group of minions - or sub minions, in this case, seeing as Fink herself classified as a minion - and Principal Claus tossed candy from the second floor window above them each time the “piñata” was struck.

“Oh ho ho ho!” He gave a merry laugh to the students below. “Is everyone having a good time?”

“YES!” The students cheered in unison.

“NO!” Miss Quantum shrieked, protesting. “PLEASE! LENIENCY! I BEG OF YOU!”

“Wow,” one of the students from another class murmured to his friend. “The screams are realistic. Think it’ll bring our POW card levels down.”

“Ho ho ho!” Principal Claus had overheard the student and smiled. “No need to worry, young man. The POW card system doesn’t make sense to begin with.”

Everyone who wasn’t Miss Quantum laughed at that. Miss Quantum was too busy openly sobbing to join in. Worst day in her career and everyone could see it getting to her. Then, she noticed the bowl of onions Principal Claus was holding up in front of her. “HEY!”

Dendy, having had her fill of excitement for one day, watched the entertainment with a small pile of peppermint sticks, candy fish, and chocolate coins. K.O. was helping himself to the lunch he neglected to eat earlier, and forwent grabbing candy to save his appetite for Weiner Kabob. Mr. Gar looked torn between wanting to stop the children before someone got hurt or taking a swing at Miss Quantum himself. Instead, he settled for helping himself to some candy Fink had tossed his way.

He stopped short when he realized it was a large, red lollipop and slowly put it down.

“There. See? Now I gotta come back.” Laserblast had pressed his lollipop into Silver Spark’s outstretched palm. “Keep it safe for me until then.”

Part of Mr. Gar wished that Laserblast really was shrunk or teleported or whatever. It would have been easier to remember his old teammate for what he was rather than what he had become. Especially for K.O.’s sake. It was a hard truth that he never wanted his boy to learn. You could either go out a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

He gazed over to Fink, who was helping one of her newest classmates - Goody Two-Shoes, was it? - with swinging her bat correctly. Supposing that the alternative had occurred and Laserblast had been shrunk or teleported or whatever…what would have happened to his minion? Where did she come from? It wasn’t his place to find out, though. Carol had a better chance at getting the truth and after what she mentioned to him earlier…she didn’t deserve to deal with more things being taken out of context.

The kids were slowly picked up by their parents, one by one, as the school day officially ended. Others started to make their ways home, as it wasn’t far from where they lived. Fink had stopped swinging awhile ago and was looking at the line of cars. Mr. Gar knew that she was looking for her Boss to come. As more kids left and K.O., Dendy and Fink were the only ones left, Mr. Gar started to grow worried. Fink’s eyes were downcast and her face had the look of accepted defeat on it. She wasn’t going to be happy with what he was going to do next, but Mr. Gar wasn’t going to leave her alone.

“Dendy,” he approached the Kappa, “are your folks coming?”

“My father was stuck in traffic,” Dendy answered reassuringly. “He should be coming by any moment now.”

Just then, a car came through the vacant drop-off. An older Kappa, Pavel, popped his head out the window. “Hey, Den! Sorry for the wait. Say goodbye to your new friend and boyfriend and hop in! I just knew you and K.O. would work out in the end.”

“Daaaad!”’ Dendy’s cheeks burned red. “We are 6-11!”

Pavel chuckled. “I’m just fibbing.”

K.O. waved off Dendy as she rushed to the car. At the last moment, she turned around and smiled at Fink. “Thank you, Fink. It has been quite…an experience today.”

“Don’t get your hopes too high, Kappa.” Dendy’s smile didn’t waver at the retort. Fink tried and failed to hide a small smirk. “Better not collaborate with me too much, you might regret it. Heroes and villains shouldn’t get chummy, after all.”

“Yes,” Dendy smirked back. “But you are a minion. Totally different.”

Fink and Dendy shared a quick laugh and stopped, realizing that they were getting a bit chummy too quickly, and looked away in embarrassment.

As Dendy and her father drove away, Fink’s smile fell off her face quickly. She gave one last look around and pulled out her cell phone. She started to make a few calls. “Hey, Ernesto! You left me at the school! What gives?!” She scowled as Ernesto frantically gave excuses on the other end. “You thought Box Boss was coming? Grrr…it’s getting late, dang it! Whatever, I’ll try someone else.”

She tried another number. “Box Boss? Are you picking me up? I’m still at the school…whaddaya mean Boss is doing that? He’s late!” Boxman’s retort was just as helpful as Ernesto’s was. “Fine. I’ll try his number! Just get your meeting with Auntie Cosma done with, already!”

Now, Fink looked panicked as she tried calling one more time. She held the phone to her ear and waited. And waited. And waited. And then…

“Hey, it’s Venomous -”

“Boss!” Fink’s face brightened with relief. “Thank Cob. Are you almost at the  -”

“ - I can’t chat right now. I’m in a meeting, working on a new project or blackmailing Congress Woman. Just leave a message and I’ll get back to you or whatever.” Fink hung up without leaving a message. Her face sagged with solemn resignation. K.O. bit his lip and started to approach her. Then, Fink quietly snarled his way. “I don’t wanna hear it, Brat. I can make my own way back without a stinkin’ pick-up!” And then, she turned her back to him and ran off.

“Fink! Wait!” K.O. started running after her, but Fink had already scampered out of sight. He knew they were enemies, but he couldn’t help but feel worried for her. What if she got lost? A large hand rested on his shoulder and he looked up. Mr. Gar smiled sadly at him.

“I know you want to help her, K.O. But sometimes, people can’t be helped unless they want it.”

“But Professor Venomous -”

“ - is where she’s getting her ideas from. Even if she doesn’t get why it’s bad, Fink’s gonna want to do things Venomous and Boxman would.”

K.O. looked out to where Fink ran off. “But…why…?”

Mr. Gar gently ruffled his hair. “I don’t know. Everyone has a different reason for doing things.”

“What if she doesn’t get back home safely?”

“She has a whole community of villains who would make sure she doesn’t get hurt.” Mr. Gar reminded him. “Professor Venomous is well respected in his circle. No one in their right mind is gonna wanna mess with his minion. And if she isn’t back there by tonight.” His eyes narrowed behind his sunglasses. “Then I’ll pay Boxmore a little visit.

“Right now, the best thing you can do for her is just be patient and let her know you are there for her. She’ll come around, eventually.” Mr. Gar suddenly hoisted K.O. onto his shoulder. “That’s enough of that, sport! Now, let’s go grab some Weiner Kabob and get cracking on that homework, shall we?”

Just then, his phone started to buzz. Mr. Gar looked perplexed, but still took it out of his pocket and answered. “Garcia, here…Foxy? Why are you…did you try calling her? Why me?… Well, I’ve got K.O. here and - …what?!… But we have plans and - …look, Foxtail. I’m not mad at you, it’s just that…I know he’s strong! Why is he important?”

“Is this another mission, Mr. Gar?” K.O. asked, uncertain. “I won’t mess up this time like I did with The Big Reveal!”

Mr. Gar shushed him and continued his phone call. He didn’t look happy. He became more resigned as Foxtail spoke quickly and with urgency. K.O. could only make out something about Foxtail assuring that she and Mr. Gar could keep him safe. “Alright. Just a quick drop-in and then I’m taking him home, alright? Thank you. We’ll be there, shortly.”

He hung up and sighed. “Sorry, kiddo. Weiner Kabob is gonna have to wait another day.”

“What’s wrong?”

Mr. Gar looked grim. “Some shadowy figure broke into the Glorb Sanctuary and started stealing glorbs. Foxtail’s requesting back-up. Says that he won’t give the glorbs back unless you’re there, too.”

Chapter Text

As the duo sped as fast as was legally allowed in Mr. Gar’s car, K.O. thought about what Dendy had told him earlier that day. You two must find a balance. As much as he hated to admit it, his friend had a valid point. T.K.O. had almost broke loose a few times when K.O. let his emotions get the better of him. And those previous times, it was only the lucky interventions of Professor Venomous and his friends - unintentional on Venomous’ part - that prevented T.K.O. from getting loose again.

But that wouldn’t mean T.K.O. wouldn’t stop trying. If nothing was done to address this, T.K.O. might try and break out on his own and lock K.O. into his own subconscious as payback. He got into a lotus position and focused. K.O. tuned out the world around him. Mr. Gar. The wind rushing in his ears. The car. Everything.

And

S

.

.

L

.

.

O

.

.

W

.

.

L

.

.

Y

.

Felt

.

.

.

himself.

G

O

I

N

G

.

.

.

D

O

W

N

.

.

.

When he opened his eyes again, the landscape had changed. T.K.O.’s house was still intact from last time, along with the little swing set and sandbox attached. K.O. could almost feel a cold wind howling in the empty world and shivered. But there was no sign of T.K.O. having broken out from the lower levels, so that had to have been a good sign.

K.O. concentrated on what he wanted to appear, and an elevator sprouted from the ground next to him. It opened and no one was inside. No T.K.O. trying a sneak attack. Good, good. He entered the elevator and pressed the button labeled Subconscious (AKA Timeout Zone). As the elevator snailed down, some jazzy music was softly playing on the speakers. Or, at least K.O. thought it was jazzy. He wasn’t great with identifying music genres. But it was a peaceful tune and there was a woman singing about seconds and pieces connected.

T.K.O., I know things have been messed up between us. K.O. thought. But we can still fix things. We could beat Boxman Jr. together and we could work together to face Shadowy as one. Please…meet me halfway on this…

The door slid open and K.O. was greeted with a pitch black void. He took a deep breath and released it. And then, he jumped and began to float as if weightless. K.O. considered this for a moment and began to perform butterfly strokes to help move around. If I was my inner darkness, where would I be…?

And then, as the door dinged! closed again, K.O. had his answer.

I ’d wait for me to leave the elevator!

“POWER FIST!” K.O. shot a flaming blue Power Fist at the door, blasting it open and exposing T.K.O. inside. He looked at K.O. in astonishment before beginning to whistle off-key. K.O. frowned in disapproval. “T.K.O.! You weren’t trying to leave me trapped here, were you?!”

T.K.O. stopped whistling and hid his hands behind his back. His cheeks were turning rosy-red. “No? I was…uh…doing my annual elevator inspection!”

K.O. smiled approvingly. “Oh! That’s okay, then. I should probably let you get back to - hey, wait a minute!”

He started “swimming” back to the elevator. T.K.O. growled and started pounding at the the button to go up. K.O. “swam” faster as T.K.O. grew panicked.

“Grr….what’s with this thing?!” T.K.O. smashed at the console. Suddenly, his fist went right through it and sparks flew out. Smoke began to build in the exposed elevator. “Oops…”

“Wait!” K.O. cried out. “Don’t go!”

T.K.O. narrowed his eyes in annoyance. “Uhhhh…You do realize that neither of us can’t, now. Right?”

“Of course, not!” K.O. said. “It’s my mind, I can fix it up in snap!”

T.K.O. blinked. “So, what you’re saying is: doesn’t matter how bad something breaks, cause you can fix it with a little literal brain power?”

“Uh huh.” K.O. was almost there, he could touch the outside of the broken door.

T.K.O.’s lips curled up in a sneer. “But this is my mind, too. And what I say goes!”

K.O. gaped in alarm. “NO! Nuh uh! Nuh uh!”

A fist shot out and dug deep into K.O.’s chest. He keeled over and was sent spiraling back into the void.

“Later, loser!” T.K.O. twiddled his fingers in a mocking farewell. The next moment, the shattered doors reassembled themselves and the console too. By the time K.O. could try throwing another Power Fist to stop him, the elevator shot back up. On any other day, K.O. would have been too shocked to try doing anything other than throw attacks aimlessly in his new prison. But T.K.O. had made a point. Literal brain power could help. He closed his eyes and concentrated. Before long, the elevator was back and opened up.

K.O. was relieved to see that T.K.O. hadn’t escaped, so it was a little amusing to see his inner darkness cackling as he stepped out of the elevator. When he saw K.O., there was confusion and panic in his eyes as T.K.O. realized he had never left the subconscious at all. This time, K.O. rammed them both inside of the elevator and pressed the button for Conscious Mindscape before another escape attempt was made.

“HEY!” T.K.O. grabbed K.O. by the vest. “What’s the big idea?!”

“Shadowy’s back and -”

T.K.O. pushed him roughly to the floor. “Ohhh, I see. So, you need my power to fight him! Is that it?! Can’t do anything big by yourself without a power boost?!”

“No.” K.O. said firmly.

“Huh?” T.K.O.’s mouth went wide open.

“’T.K.O.” K.O. began, trusting that he would be able to say the right thing to his other half. “Everything between us started because Shadowy Figure brought you out -”

“You mean when you brought me out and didn’t like my style!”

“Please,” K.O. pleaded. “I don’t want us to fight anymore.”

“So you want us to get chummy with Shadowy, instead?”

“Not him. Us.”

T.K.O. started at him, incredulous. Then, a small chuckle burbled out of him. It grew louder and longer, darker and crueler. Chuckling turned into chortles and evolved into full-blow laughter. T.K.O. laughed. And laughed and laughed. Tears of mirth started rolling down his cheeks and he sank to the floor, pounding at it for some form of release. K.O. felt queasy in his gut as he helplessly watched. Once or twice, he tried to reach out to T.K.O., but his proffered hand was swatted away.

By the time the elevator opened again back near T.K.O.’s house on the regular mindscape level, T.K.O. was slowly starting to regain control over himself. He was taking deep breaths, with an occasional giggle coming out with no warning. When he was able to look at K.O. again, his face puffed out like he was threatening to laugh again.

When he could speak again, T.K.O. sounded breathless. “You…you…actually…listened…to your…”

“She’s not my girlfriend, Dendy’s just my friend!” K.O. was starting to grow sick of the shipping jokes. They were 6-11 for Cob’s sake!

“Sidekick?” T.K.O. finished with a leer. “The science baby that did all…all of those…experiments on us?!”

K.O. wouldn’t stand for anyone disparaging any of his friends. “Dendy apologized!”

“I don’t care!” T.K.O. snarled. “Once done, never forget the crime!”

“You caused a lot of messes, yourself!” K.O. pointed out. “Our house, the Plaza, wrecking Dendy’s lab, eating all of Mom’s cookies…”

T.K.O. dismissively waved him off. “I don’t ‘member any of that.”

He crossed his arms and glowered at K.O. “So. What daya want to try this time? A new punching bag with your face on it? Another sync-suit techno thing? Maybe we can settle things once and for all right here and winner doesn’t get wiped out of existence.” Saying this, T.K.O. pounded his fist into an open palm with a smug smirk on his face.

“Well…” K.O. nervously stepped away from T.K.O., realizing that he hadn’t really thought that far ahead. “Maybe if we -”

K.O.? K.O.? Are you okay, son?

“Mr. Gar!” K.O. put a hand to his forehead. “Oh man, I totally forgot! We’ll talk in a little bit, T.K.O.! Please make yourself at home!”

He closed his eyes and concentrated on a rising sensation and couldn’t hear what T.K.O. was irritably saying in response. It could have been something how it was T.K.O.’s home, but he wasn’t sure. K.O. felt everything shift and then

S

T

A

R

T

E

D

.

.

.

T

O

.

.

.

R

I

S

E

.

“…okay? K.O., please say something!”

K.O. groggily opened his eyes. “Something…”

He saw Mr. Gar sag with relief and sat up. They were back at the Plaza, and the sun had already set. Enid and Rad were inside of the Bodega, finishing up for the day. Wait a minute, didn’t they have school or something? Or maybe K.O. wasn’t scheduled to work today and he forgot in all of the excitement.

“You know, I could tell Foxtail that you’re not feeling to well and we could lure out this shadowy guy some other way.” Mr. Gar looked at him warningly. “You coming down with something?”

“Uh uh!” K.O. fervently shook his head. “Just had to visit my subconscious to pick up my inner darkness and lost track of time.”

“O..kaay…”

K.O. looked back at his friends and an idea came to him. “Mr. Gar, could we bring Rad and Enid along with us to the Glorb Tree? I don’t think they’ve ever seen it before and we need all the help we can get to catch Shadowy.”

Mr. Gar considered this for a moment before nodding. “Sounds like a plan. EMPLOYEES!”

Rad and Enid rushed out, standing at attention. “YESSIR, MR. GAR, SIR!”

“Someone’s broken into the Glorb Sanctuary,” Mr. Gar paced back and forth between his three employees. “Foxtail has already enlisted K.O. and myself for this task, but the chances of success will increase twofold if you two don’t louse it up. Do I make myself clear?”

“Foxtail?” Rad looked uncertain. “Didn’t she try stealing Glorbs during the last season?”

“And depower you and take over the Plaza without a second thought?” Enid added, clearly not pleased with her former principal.

Mr. Gar cleared his throat and let an uncomfortable frown show. “She did. But she saw the error of her ways and is doing everything she can to make things right! And it’s up to everyone to give her that chance, the same with P.O.I.N.T.”

“Couldn’t they be working together for some secret revenge plan?” Enid nervously asked, realizing that her boss was serious about his intentions.

Mr. Gar’s shades drooped down in astonishment at what his ‘customer’s worst enemy’ employee was implying. Terrified of her boss’s displeasure, Enid tried backtracking. “It’s just that, um, we haven’t really seen her all season, and no one’s really heard from her and you know that silly trope where heroes who used to be bad but are on the mends? And then it turns out that they never changed at all?”

“No need for excuses, Enid.” Mr. Gar held up a hand to stop any further protests. “I understand where you’re coming from. My history with Foxtail hasn’t been the greatest the past few years. But I refuse to see the worst in everyone around me.”

“But don’t you tell us that we slack off a lot?” Rad bravely - or dumbly - interjected.

Mr. Gar’s cheeks burned at the question. “I-I just saw that to you three so you can prove me wrong. And you always do! So, do you two think you have what it takes to put the past behind you for this mission?”

“YESSIR, MR. GAR!” Enid, Rad, and even K.O. saluted their boss in unison.

“VERY WELL!” Mr. Gar boomed. “TO THE GLORB SANCTUARY!”

Chapter Text

“So…who’s the villain we’re facing?” Rad asked after the cutaway ended and they all appeared in their mission spandex . “New character?”

“Kind of late in the season for one.” Enid rolled her eyes. “Don’t they know that the show’s almost over?”

“Pfft, yeah,” Rad snorted. “Hard to have a real impact at this point. Unless they’re the last big enemy or something.”

“Isn’t that a really lame thing to do?” Enid asked. She crossed her arms, her chest swelling up with pent up passion. “I mean, if they’re the last big enemy, but there’s no build up towards them…why should anyone care? Like, there’s so many other villains we’ve faced that could be a better last opponent for the show. And why have it be so sudden? It’s like a jump scare. Once the surprise is over, there’s nothing going for it afterwards.”

“What about Boxman Jr.?” Mr. Gar, feeling rather chummy as they trekked through the waterlines to the Glorb Sanctuary’s sealed door. “He only appeared in one episode at the end of season one.”

Rad clicked his tongue. “That’s different. That was season one. Besides, we got a bit of build up in the earlier episodes, too. With Venomous giving Box Butt the equipment, Boxman shown working on it. Ya know, actual buildup?”

Enid and Mr. Gar stared at him, incredulous. Mr Gar ventured to ask, “Rad…how did you know all this? You couldn’t have been able to see any of that!.”

“I have my sources,” Rad said smugly. He wasn’t going to admit that Raymond was one of those said sources.

“Shadowy Figure,” K.O. said quietly. His friends looked at him in befuddlement. K.O. pulled out the POW card in explanation. “You know? That guy who showed me how to pull out my anger for more power? He’s the one we’re going after.”

Rad and Enid looked at Shadowy Figure’s POW card and then at each other with worry. They did know a bit about him, but they never faced him before. In fact, from what they’ve been hearing, K.O. is the only one who has directly interacted with Shadowy Figure over the entire course of the show.

So…what was going to happen if they tried taking him on themselves?

If he was responsible for T.K.O.’s existence - Rad still had nightmares about his debut episode - then what was he capable of by himself? Certainly couldn’t be weaker than T.K.O., that would have been ridiculous. Or a sign of arrogance. Or, in Enid’s opinion, a case of poor writing.

“Sooooo,” Rad gave K.O. a sideway look. He was trying to look relaxed, but fooled no one. “Shadowy Figure. A figure who dresses shadowy. What exactly are his powers? Not that I’m worried or anything. Just…for the heck of it.”

K.O. pondered this for a moment. “Well, he’s fast and strong. And he can float…I think…oh! He’s also got a butterfly net.”

“Of course he does…” Rad whimpered, feeling dread at the last commented ability. He rubbed at his shoulder, remembering with distinct detail the last time he had an encounter with a butterfly net on a mission. Stupid butterfly fluttering conveniently in-between them and that stupid cat!

“Look at the bright side,” Enid deadpanned. “No full moon tonight, which means no risk of getting caught up in a net. We’ll be fine.”

Rad wasn’t convinced. “That’s what they all say before encountering the bad guy no one has defeated yet and get their butts handed to them.”

“Hey!” K.O. pouted at Rad’s comment.

“Oh,” Rad rubbed the back of his neck. “No offense, K.O.”

“We should be getting close, now.” Mr. Gar said. “I want you all to be on your guard.”

“Yes, sir.” All three employees said at the same time.

“He may have slipped past P.O.I.N.T.’s security measures. But I know for a fact that the main entrance is sealed up tight. Only way he could get passed us is from where he slipped in. Well, that and possibly the waterfall in the Glorb Sanctuary. So, when he’s in our sights, we’re gonna corner him like the ra - I, uh…I mean…like the bug he is! I’m going to repeat that last statement to set the record straight. The main entrance is sealed up good and even someone like Shadowy Figure couldn’t…get…passed…that…”

They were all at the main entrance that Mr. Gar was just talking about. The one that he had sealed up in Season One. The same one that K.O. broke through in the following season in an effort to catch Shadowy Figure and confront him about T.K.O.

The one that he forgot to seal up after he was done…

Mr. Gar’s eyes popped out of their sockets in alarm. “WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SECURITY MEASURES I PUT UP?!”

“Oops,” K.O, raised his suddenly sweat hand up in the air like he just didn’t care.

Mr. Gar was not amused. “K.O.?! WHY?!”

“I forgot to fix it when I was done…?” K.O. chuckled nervously.

Mr. Gar put a hand to his face. “Just…we’ll fix it again when we’re done here...”

“We’re gonna have to use the net, are we?” Rad shriveled up.

“Probably.” Enid sighed, not looking forward to the hijinks that were certainly to occur now.

Does that mean I can come out, now?

We’re not doing that, anymore! And I’m gonna let that mistake drag me down!

But I ’m boooooooored!

I don ’t caaaaaare!

K.O. was so caught up in his argument with his inner darkness that he was oblivious to how everyone else was looking at him funny.

Mr. Gar shook his head in sorrow. “The pressure finally got to him…”

“What do we tell his mom?” Enid frowned.

“Let’s do it!” K.O. startled everyone and readied a Power Fist. He jumped through into the Glorb Sanctuary, ready for battle. Enid followed close behind with a Power Foot Fireball  ready to fly. Rad had his Power Poke ready to poke the baddies hard in the eye.

The trio’s epic pose in midair came to an anti climatic end as they realized that none of the glorbs were missing. And worst, there wasn’t a figure, shadowy or otherwise, in the sanctuary either.

Mr. Gar blinked and looked at his phone. “Don’t wanna jump to any conclusions…” He dialed a number and waited for someone to pick up. He tried not to panic, there had to have been an explanation. Foxtail taking care of it already and forgetting to call back about the situation. The fight leading Shadowy Figure and Foxtail somewhere else, away from the Glorb Sanctuary. A plot hole the writer left in in their haste to build up tension.

Riiiiiiiiing!

Everyone flinched as they heard Foxtail’s phone, but no Foxtail appearing.

Riiiiiiiiing!

Rad started following the source, ignoring the glowing spectacle of the glorbs floating above him. Enid was on lookout. She lowered herself into a fighting stance and kept her hands clasped together in preparation for a ninjutsu.

Riiiiiiiiing!

The phone was floating in the water, held in an iron grip by an unconscious Foxtail. She was covered in scrapes and bruises, nothing too severe or too grim because censors wouldn’t have allowed it on a kids’ show. Rad gulped and levitated her into the air. “Uhhh…found her…”

“Not really what she used to be in my day.” An eerie voice cackled. Rad looked around for the source and pointed his other hand out in warning.

“Stay back!” Sweat began beading around Rad’s face. “I’m warning you!”

“Seriously? That ’s the best you could come up with? ‘ I ’m warning you’?”

Rad forgot his fear for a moment and glared. “Oh right. Like you could come up with something better?”

“I could.” Something blurred in front of Rad and slammed him in the abdomen. Rad keeled over, unable to maintain his focus on Foxtail. She dropped back into the water with a big splash. Another blur backhanded him across the cheek. When Rad tumbled towards the stairs, Enid leapt in front of him and released a stream of shadowy tendrils at the assailant. It ducked and dodged through all of them and hit her square in the jaw. Enid went down, defeated. “How about: I win.”

“GET AWAY FROM MY EMPLOYEES!” Mr. Gar bellowed, coming down with an Elbow strike searing-hot. He crashed down and a huge geyser of water erupted from where he landed. Mr. Gar stood up and looked over his glasses in a rare instance of genuine fury. He grabbed Enid and Rad and flung them over one shoulder. Then, he did the same for Foxtail and jumped back up the stairs where K.O. was.

“We can’t fight with everyone hurt.” K.O. stood in rapt attention as his boss sternly looked down at him. “We’ll need to fall back.”

“But the glorbs”-

“Can be recovered later.” Mr. Gar interrupted. “I know this is a lot to ask, K.O., but I need you to help me keep everyone safe with your Power Fists.”

“My, my, my. Still as sharp as ever, Elbow. ”

Mr. Gar looked around, keeping K.O. behind him. “W-where are”-

Something jabbed him hard in the chest, knocking all the wind out of him. Mr. Gar collapsed, unconscious like his employees and former friend.

“Peekaboo.”

“Mr. Gar!” K.O. knelt over his boss, eyes welling up with tears. He glared up at the enemy with fierce eyes.

Shadowy Figure walked out into better light. He gave K.O. a pitiful smile. “Awwww. Did I make a boo boo?”

I want to fight this guy, now!

We got no choice! I know we ’re out of practice, but we should-

You really wanna try that? It ’s been most of the season.

Yo-you really wanna become P.K.O. again?

Hate to say it, but I can ’t beat him on my own. Might give us a chance to ‘work things out’ like you want us to, anyways.

Remember. We can’t let Mr. Gar, Rad, Enid, or Foxtail get hurt!

Don ’t worry. This fight will be so intense, Shadowy won’t even remember they’re here.

“I can see it in your eyes, K.O.” Shadowy Figure purred. “You want to free the beast, don’t you? Let it all out. I want to see how much you’ve grown since last time.”

K.O. closed his eyes and started floating. Wind began to swirl around him and sparks began flying out from his body. There was a dark sheen of purple to them. Shadowy Figure gave an impressed whistle. He wasn’t expecting the kid to give in that easil -

Before he could finish that thought, the sparks started to brighten in color. Foxtail stirred and put a hand to her head, then looked up in astonishment. Rad and Enid began to wake up too and couldn’t help but stare.

“Do you see that?” Enid whispered.

“I feel it.” Rad nodded.

Took you long enough! T.K.O. snapped. I thought you were gonna chicken out on me!

Why are you giving this a chance?

You proved you were serious about working things out. You brought me out of your subconscious even after I tried breaking out.

I ’m sorry I locked you up in there…

You should be! Now let ’s kick his butt!

K.O.’s eyes opened, now yellow. His headband and wristbands turned electric-blue. There was a fang gaping out of his mouth like an underbite.

Shadowy Figure gulped. “Aw sh”-

A Power First the size of Mr. Gar crashed into him, sending him soaring into the air.

“You can’t swear!” P.K.O. scowled. “This is a kids’s show!”

Shadowy Figure landed in front of the Glorb Tree, unharmed, but visibly angry.

“That. Really. Hurt.”

“And this is gonna hurt more!” Foxtail flew out and hit Shadowy Figure square in the jaw. Shadowy Figure was too stunned by the large Power Fist to dodge. He was sent flying out until he was on the opposite end of the Sanctuary, but stayed firmly on his feet.

“You’re choosing a bad time to get a lucky shot in, Foxy.”

“The next hit won’t be so lucky.” Foxtail said.

P.K.O. stared at her in astonishment. He flew to her side, placing a hand on her shoulder. “I don’t think it’s a good idea. You’re hurt and”-

“Hurt, shmurt!” Foxtail brushed the hand aside. “As a member of P.O.I.N.T., it’s my sworn duty to place my life on the line for the innocent. I have some unfinished business to attend to with him, anyways.”

P.K.O. found himself nodding in understanding. If there was anyone he trusted to help him with Shadowy, it was someone who knew what he was like.

“Rad. Enid.” P.K.O. glowered at Shadowy Figure. “Get Mr. Gar out of here. He’s hurt.”

Enid looked offended. “Are you nuts?! You can’t fight that guy on your own!”

“We fight to the end, little buddy!” Rad pointed a finger at Shadowy Figure, ready for a rematch.

“If Mr. Gar gets hurt even more, he can’t protect the Glorb Tree or the Plaza and this whole thing will be pointless.”

“Wait, what was that about him protecting the Tree, again?”

“Rad? What should you and Enid be doing right now?”

“Getting Mr. Gar to safety?”

“Exactly!” P.K.O. turned back and gave his best friends a reassuring smile. “And I’m not alone. Foxtail’s with me, I’ll be fine. Once Mr. Gar’s safe, you better have back-up with you. I don’t know how long I can keep this form going for.”

Rad and Enid nodded, accepting what their main concern had to be, even if it meant the kid they both grew to love like a little brother had to stay and risk his life. Which meant that they both ran at risk of facing his mother’s wrath if anything happened to her beautiful boy. As the faster of the two, Enid took lead while Rad kept Mr. Gar hovered with his telekineses.

“Jeez, Mr. Gar.” Rad struggled to keep his hand steady. “Would it kill you to drop a few?!”

Mr. Gar only groaned in response.

“We’ll be back, K.O.!” Enid called back. “Just hang tight, you two! We’re not letting you face him alone!”

Foxtail stared back at her former student with new respect. “That’s exactly the type of commitment we at P.O.I.N.T. have striven for, Miss Enid!

“Oooooh, really?” Shadowy Figure sneered. “The P.O.I.N.T. I heard of would inject their students with glorbs, cheat in sports games, and use a robot masquerading as organic life as their mascot.”

Foxtail narrowed her eyes. “I’m better than that, now.”

“Tell it to the press, furball.”

“I will, with a formal apology to boot!” Foxtail flew out at him, her fist raised. Shadowy Figure smirked, letting her come closer until the last moment. He ducked underneath her flying form and aimed an uppercut at her.

P.K.O. was suddenly right there in front of him, blocking the strike and taking hold of Shadowy Figure’s arm in both hands. He was lifted in the air and P.K.O. spun him round and around until he let go, sending Shadowy Figure flying into Foxtail’s left hook. Shadowy crashed back down, sending water everywhere.

Wowee! We ’ve gotten a lot stronger since the last time we fought him!

Shadowy Figure was up on his feet again and shot straight for P.K.O. The young hero tried dodging, but Shadowy was too fast for him and slashed at his chest. P.K.O. spun in the air, dazed, but unhurt.

Hey! Why couldn ’t we move?!

Tch! I ’m rusty. Give me a break!

P.K.O started to descend without warning. He panicked and started clawing at the air, trying to maintain his defiance to gravity. His headband and wristbands started flickering back to their original red hue. Foxtail noticed this and immediately flew towards him, ready to have K.O. fight with his Power Fists in case he couldn’t maintain his form. Shadowy lunged at her, taking advantage of her worry. P.K.O. growled and concentrated hard on staying afloat. He stopped the descent and aimed a flurry of Power Fists at Shadowy Figure. Shadowy used his arms to block the volley of attacks, deterred from striking at Foxtail.

P.K.O. wiped the sweat from his brow and flashed a confident smile at Foxtail. She did not look impressed.

“Sugar, you’re pushing yourself too hard. Can you keep that up for long?”

“I have to.” P.K.O. said. “He’s stronger than both of us on our own. I have to go all out.”

“That’s fine and all, but you can’t focus all your power in each attack.”

“If I can’t stop him here, then I’ll never forgive myself.” P.K.O. scowled. “I already made a mess with Chip, ruined P.O.I.N.T’s reputation, and let my friends get hurt by Shadowy Figure. The mess-ups end HERE!”

As he said this, T.K.O’s face eclipsed P.K.O.’s for a split second and he started falling again. Foxtail caught him and settled him onto her back. T.K.O. stared down at his hands in astonishment before K.O. reemerged.

“W-wha…?” His lip trembled.

What happened, T.K.O.?

Why is this my fault?! You ’re the one who let all that stuff happen! I’m gonna make it right!

We are, you mean!

“K.O., hang tight!” Foxtail flew high into the air. K.O. gripped for dear life. She already fought Shadowy Figure and lost just before they all arrived. And Shadowy took care of Mr. Gar, Rad, and Enid within seconds. The only reason they were able to fight him to a standstill was because of P.K.O.

But without that…this battle was probably going to be a lot harder to handle...

Chapter Text

It was well after dark by the time Carol came home from assisting Punching Judy with the Flu. She entered her house to find it dark and empty of company, expected or otherwise. Years of working as a hero gave her a dreadful sense that something was wrong.

Carol held her phone up to her ear and listened to the ringing with growing agitation. Eugene and K.O. should have answered her by now. She knew that at times, both her boys could be shortsighted or thoughtless. Eugene hid it behind a different mask than the one he wore at P.O.I.N.T., a mask of fierce passion. But he was still the same stammering, kind-hearted man that won her heart. And K.O. could be impulsive and jump into action despite lacking strength or experience.

But at the very least, they both knew how to communicate with her if something was wrong. The ringing trailed on for a few more minutes before going straight to Eugene’s voicemail.

“THIS IS EUGENE GARCIA! SORRY I CAN’T TALK TO YOU RIGHT NOW! LEAVE A MESSAGE AFTER THE TONE! I’LL GET BACK TO YOU PRONTO!”

“Gene, it’s Carol. Are you and K.O. okay? Please call back when you can.” Carol ended her message and sighed. First Venomous, now this. She looked down at her phone, flicking the screen at older messages. Foxtail hadn’t sent out any new phone calls, but there were still a few unread text messages.

Carol knew that her old friend and teammate was improving herself, but she still held a grudge against Eugene far longer than necessary. She had put him down every chance he got, reminded him of his failures with the Sandwich Incident, and had been a smug jerk to him all around. She dismissed all of his own growth while ignoring everything she had forgotten about being a good person while running P.O.I.N.T. And worst of all, she had invaded the Plaza, stripped Gene of his powers - temporarily - and forcibly recruited everyone there from store-owner to local-patron into her army. The Glorb Tree almost died because of her. And Carol had been forced to go on the run while K.O. and the others rebelled and worked to shut down P.O.I.N.T.’s operations.

K.O. almost lost his powers because of Foxtail. Her boyfriend’s self-worth was utterly shattered and swept up because of the constant bullying. And Carol blamed herself for not standing up to Foxtail sooner or for keeping Gene in the dark about her working undercover.

Would that have changed anything?

Carol had always tried teaching K.O. how to be a good person, but she knew that in her heart, that she couldn’t readily forgive Foxtail like she forgave Eugene. What happened was an accident that night, a misfortune that managed to keep her, Eugene and an unborn K.O. from being shrunk or teleported or whatever. Foxtail seemed to revel in reminding Eugene of that every chance she took. Nevermind the fact that it was an accident and could have been a lot worse. Sure, she and Laserblast - or now, Professor Venomous these days - helped found P.O.I.N.T. with Greyman.

But Carol was closer to him at the time of the accident, they were dating. If anyone had the right to call Eugene out on it, it was her. And she didn’t, because it wouldn’t have changed anything. It wouldn’t have been fair to him and it wouldn’t have been what Laserblast would have wanted. Or at least, that was what Carol had told herself until recently. At the end of the day, Eugene was still her friend, and she bore him no ill will. And now, he was something more to her. And to her son, K.O.

Think, Carol. You ’re Eugene. You’re big, boisterous, and blush easily. What could be so important that you would have to head straight over with K.O. in tow?

Carol began pacing as she thought. The last season had the couple learn more about their secret lives than they would have liked. Eugene learned that she was still under P.O.I.N.T.’s employment up until the end of the season. She learned that he was assigned to look after the Glorb Tree -

She froze, then looked down at her phone hoping against hope that her deduction was wrong…

Foxy: (9:00 am) We need to talk. I have a mission for you. It’s an emergency.

Carol bit her lip as she looked at the read message. She only paid attention to the ‘mission’ part of the message and dismissed everything else as irrelevant. Was the ‘talking’ part connected to the mission or was it two separate things? And if it wasn’t connected, then was Foxtail trying to reach out first instead of waiting? Carol looked at the next message.

Foxy: (12:46 pm) Intruder spotted heading towards Tree. Will keep posted.

An intruder?! Carol gulped. That was when she was dealing with the Flu. It was after her…whatever happened between her and Professor Venomous. Her dread continued to grow as she looked at the next message.

Foxy: (3:15 pm) Please, Carol! I need your help!

Did…did Carol do the same thing to Foxtail that she did to Eugene long ago? Turn her back on someone in need? The last message was sent in a group chat with several other members of P.O.I.N.T. She was astonished to see Eugene’s number in the group.

Foxy: (4:37 pm) Emergency @ Glorb tree! Requesting back-up!

Carol sighed. “Loud and clear, Foxy. Silver Sparks reporting for duty.”

Listen to myself… She thought. A few hours ago, I was preaching forgiveness and moving on to my ex and I can’t bring myself to do that for someone who knows they screwed up and is trying harder. Maybe I’m not ready to forgive her, but I do want to talk to her when this crisis is over.

Her door slammed open so suddenly, Carol immediately switched to a combative position.

“Easy, Carol, it’s us!” Rad cried out.

Carol slackened her stance. “Rad? Enid?” Her eyes focused on the large bundle between them. “Oh my Cob, Gene!

Eugene was barely conscious as Rad levitated him onto the couch. Carol took a good look at all three of them and her protective instincts hackled at how banged up they looked. She scrambled to find the first aid kid and started tending to injuries. Rad’s face and stomach region and Enid’s swollen jaw were treatable, but a check-in at the hospital wouldn’t hurt.

“How bad is it?” Carol asked the teen employees.

“Probably not too bad,” Rad tenderly held the ice pack to his face.

“You’re right…” Eugene groaned, waking up. “Still hurts…”

“What happened?” Carol demanded of them. “Where’s K.O.?!”

Rad and Enid eyed each other with the subtly of a cat on a piano. Eugene forgot his pain for a moment to start glowering at his staff alongside the quiet, but clearly enraged Mama Bear.

“You wanna take this one?” Rad whispered to Enid.

Enid furiously opened her mouth to answer, but Rad was already running out of the room by then.

“Thanks, you’re the best!”

Enid glowered at her friend cowardly running away, before realizing that she had more pressing matters at hand.

“Uh…” She looked between Carol and Mr. Gar with equal amounts of uncertainty. Fire pan or fireplace? Which one would be the quicker not-alive route? “There’s kind of a funny story, actually…”

OK K.O. (Let ’s Be Heroes!)

“You know something, Foxy?” Shadowy Figure sneered. “I always knew what a two-faced person you really were, but to hide behind children in battle? That’s low, even for me.”

“I’m standing right by his side, you filthy liar!” Foxtail snarled.

K.O. looked confused. “But I’m on your back, so aren’t I the one hiding behind someone?”

“It’s a metaphor, kiddo. Nothing to worry about.”

“Got it!” K.O.’s eyes narrowed in determination. He fired off another volley of Power Fists, but Shadowy Figure ducked and dodged all of them without a problem. His attire was roughed up, but he was relatively unharmed. He had a cocky grin on his face and his stance was more casual, with his hands tucked into his pockets. Shadowy wasn’t even trying to take the fight seriously anymore now that P.K.O. was having technical difficulties.

HOLD STILL YOU STUPID, ROTTEN -

‘T.K.O.’ K.O. warned his inner darkness. ‘He’s trying to rile us up so you’ll be let loose. Don’t play into his hands!’

And that ’s a problem, because…?

K.O. wasn’t going to deign that with a response because then it would become an argument and he didn’t want to put T.K.O. on time-out again. You couldn’t solve a problem by shoving it in a dark place and hope that it would go away. Instead, he focused on his breathing. Shadowy Figure was going to regret messing with his friends, and he was going to prove he wasn’t a level 4 hero for nothing.

Foxtail swooped in. K.O. fired up his fist as they got closer. He concentrated hard on Shadowy Figure, trying to anticipate where he was going to dodge and aim for that instead.

“Oh no, a flying object is heading towards me at a high speed.” Shadowy Figure yawned. “Whatever shall I do?”

As Foxtail grew closer and K.O. made to jump off, Shadowy pulled out a sandwich and started eating it.

“Should I plead my case and promise to be a good boy?” Shadowy Figure deadpanned. “Or maybe I should get out of the way before it’s too late…”

K.O. readied himself. Foxtail grit her teeth in determination.

Right as they were about to collide, Foxtail…

…swooped upwards, catching Shadowy Figure off guard. K.O. seized that chance to jump off and bite into Shadowy’s outstretched arm.

“Gah!” Shadowy Figure tried shaking K.O. off, but he wouldn’t budge. While he was distracted by the ankle-biter (or arm-biter in this case), Foxtail caught him in an uppercut to the jaw. K.O. let go as Shadowy Figure was sent flying into the wall. K.O. started whooping in victory when Shadowy detached himself from the wall.

He wasn’t smiling anymore.

“Dirty trick.”

K.O. barely had time to react when he came lunging at him.

(O.K. K.O. LET ’S BE HEROES!)

“Just so we’re all clear,” Carol tightly gripped the wheel in both hands, “no heroics. No crazy stunts. We get in there, grab them, and scram.”

Mr. Gar nodded in agreement. Shadowy Figure wouldn’t be able to realistically take all the glorbs. It wasn’t worth winning a battle to lose the war if everyone was too injured to keep going.

“What if that Shadowy guy comes after us?” Enid asked. She was going through her phone, texting friends and requesting back-up. So far; only Brandon and A Real Magic Skeleton had promised to make their way over. Everyone else was either too busy.

It was clear to everyone in the car that they probably just wanted to get out of work. Again.

“The most important thing right now is getting everyone out of the Sanctuary in one piece.” Mr. Gar replied. “And I don’t know much about this guy, but I don’t think that’s his style.”

Carol narrowed her eyes and growled. “It’s K.O. he’s after…”

Dendy’s face materialized on a hologram screen on the windshield. No one wanted to question how she managed to work her programming into Mr. Gar’s vehicle.

“Ms. Kincaid. Mr. Gar. I received Enid’s message and am currently working on a database for our newest enemy.”

“What are his stats?” Mr. Gar asked.

Dendy’s face was replaced with the image of a graph showing Shadowy Figure’s level and attributes. “I am working off information that K.O. had provided me with his POW card, so it may appear outdated. As they have fought on at least two different occasions, Shadowy has proved to be the superior fighter for the majority of their encounters.”

“He’s fought this creep before?!”

“My apologies for not informing you sooner, Ms. Kincaid. I was under the impression that you were already aware.”

Rad gave a funny look. “Hey! When did he tell you about this?”

“When we were working on effectively channeling T.K.O.’s powers. I had previously helped him hone in on a tactic to ‘snap him out of it’ so to speak.”

Carol let out a heavy sigh. How could any of this gone over her head for so long? Her beautiful boy was trying to solve all of his problems without seeking her out. Even if Dendy had proven herself to be invaluable in addressing methods on handling T.K.O., they were still children. And it wasn’t fair that no one, not even Carol herself, had made any attempts to offer assistance sooner.

We’ll talk. She decided. We’ll talk. We’ll work something about. We’ll be honest with each other.

“Dendy,” Carol said. “Any ideas for fighting him? Get me up to speed, fast.”

Foxtail was locked in a grapple with Shadowy Figure while K.O. was seeing stars in one of the thicker branches of the Glorb Tree. One eye was swollen shut.

“Getting hurt hurts!” T.K.O. rubbed at his eye. K.O. mimicked the action, now that he was technically unconscious.

“Tell me about it…” K.O. agreed.

T.K.O. looked up at the screen that gave view of the outside world. It was showing static now. He growled and slammed on the console, ignoring K.O.’s protests about damaging equipment.

“We can fix it in a snap, remember?” He irritably reminded K.O.

“That doesn’t mean we make a mess!” K.O. protested.

“You’re such a Momma’s boy!”

“She’s your Mom, too!”

“Is not!”

“Is too!”

“Is not!”

“Is too!”

“Is -” T.K.O. saw the screen flicker back on and pouted. How could they started becoming chummy if there was always gonna be interruptions getting in the way?!

“We’ll talk later, don’t try taking over my body again!”

“COWARD!” T.K.O. angrily shook his fist at his counterpart as he resurfaced into the physical plane. Not that he was actually angry, but it was the principle of the matter.

K.O. clutched at his head as he woke up. Foxtail and Shadowy were still at a standstill, neither gaining footing over the other. He looked down at his fist, wishing that there was a chance to get another hit in on Shadowy Figure. But as long as Foxtail was there, there was the chance that she would get hurt instead. Not for the first time, he wished he had an inkling of some of the ninjutsu that Enid knew.

Almost as if she had heard his thoughts, Enid materialized out from the shadows of the tunnels. Behind her, it was Mr. Gar, Rad, even his Mommy!

Mommy was the first to react. “Hang on, Foxy!”

Foxtail broke eye contact with Shadowy Figure to protest, but that was the opening he needed to break her footing. She sank to her knees and got slammed down by a headbutt to the face.

“Gotta say, kind of disappointed with this gang’s showing,” Shadowy Figure tsked. “You’re, what? A level 11 hero who can’t keep up with a level 8 villain? As for you, little K.O.”

K.O. gulped as Shadowy Figure turned his head to look at him. Even though he couldn’t see his eyes, he knew that Shadowy was viewing him with scorn and disdain.

“How can you call yourself a hero if you don’t let it loose? Bottling up so many feelings just isn’t healthy for you, kiddo.”

“So’s a good thrashing from a Mama Bear!” Carol charged forward, ignoring everyone’s protests.

Shadowy Figure directed his gaze at her and growled. “Oh, wonderful. I’ve been looking forward to meeting you.”

“Carol! Remember the plan!” Mr. Gar jumped down the stairs. He wasn’t able to manage the landing, and sank to one knee. He clutched at his side, scowling at Shadowy Figure with all his might.

She ran full-throttle towards Shadowy Figure. A sickening grin curled his lips.

“Come on, Sparks…” He whispered.

“Mommy, don’t!” K.O. cried.

Shadowy Figure didn’t move to meet her. “That’s it, keep running.”

Water erupted in spouts with each step Carol took, and left the floor momentarily dry in her path.

“Hit me, dang it, hit me!”

Just as they were about to collide, Carol ducked underneath Shadowy Figure’s oncoming fist to the abdomen and scooped up Foxtail over one shoulder. He stumbled and barely had time to react by the time she was making her way to the Glorb tree.

“Carol…” Foxtail stirred. She clutched at her head. “You…you came…?”

Carol averted her eyes. “Sorry it took so long to answer your texts…”

K.O. jumped down from the Glorb Tree and readied a Power Fist. Carol stopped him.

“No more fighting, sweetie.” She scooped him up into her other arm and began dashing for the exit.

“But the glorbs - !” K.O. protested.

“You’re more important, right now!”

Foxtail gasped as Shadowy Figure pursued them. “Carol! Shadowy Figure at 6 o’clock!”

“That’s odd.” Carol looked down at her watch. “It’s not even half past - ”

Something snagged her leg and she tripped. All three of them went tumbling down. K.O. tucked his head towards his chest like he practiced with his mom and rolled like a bowling ball. Foxtail managed to summon up enough concentration to catch herself before impact. Carol went with the fall and stretched out her hand to the ground, vaulting herself into a flip and righting herself again. When she stood up straight, Carol rubbed the back of her neck feeling quite embarrassed.

“Heh heh heh,” she weakly chuckled. “Sorry, guys. I chose the wrong time to…well…check the time.”

Meanwhile, in K.O.’s mind, T.K.O. groaned and put a hand to his face. He was embarrassed that he shared DNA with that woman.

“Smooth moves, Sparks.” Shadowy Figure slowly approached her. He was hoping to pin her down, that ‘taking things literally’ moment was practically gift-wrapped for him.

Carol got into a fighting stance. “K.O. Foxtail. Get to the exit, now.”

Foxtail flew to her side. “Absolutely not! I refuse to abandon a comrade during a crisis! I can still fight! I -”

Her strength failed her as she said this, and Foxtail dropped to the ground in a pathetic pile.

“My skeleton…” She groaned.

“Did somebody say ‘skeleton’?” A Real Magic Skeleton came out from the main entrance. Brandon was close behind with his drum set.

Apparently, that was how he could fight…?

They both froze when they saw Shadowy Figure. In unison, they both looked to Mr. Gar, who was being helped up by Enid and then to Rad, who was shaking uncontrollably and having T.K.O. flashbacks from the thrashing from earlier now that the adrenaline had worn off.

“Erm…” A Real Magic Skeleton began. “Is this a good time?”

Without missing a beat, Rad pointed to the collapsed Foxtail and pointed back to the exit.

For once, both layabouts got the message the first time.

“R-right.” Brandon gulped. He saw K.O. and waved to him. “Hi, little buddy! We’re here to help you!”

He looked at Shadowy Figure again and narrowed his eyes.

“Magi, I think I’ve seen this guy before…”

“No time for callbacks,” A Real Magic Skeleton summoned a fireball in preparation for combat. “We have a P.O.I.N.T. jerk to save!”

“Ow…” Foxtail groaned. Insults hurt!

Brandon was still looking at Shadowy Figure as he and Carol circled each other. K.O. was starting to drag Foxtail away from the two opposing fighters as instructed.

“Hmmmmm…”

“Brandon, are you coming down or not?!”

“Magi!” Brandon put his hands to his hips, affronted. “I came down earlier on my break, remember?!”

“Not that!” A Real Magic Skeleton tugged at his friend’s shirt and dragged him down the stairs, keeping to the walls in the event of getting caught in the metaphorical splash zone. They reached K.O. and Foxtail and got to work.

“Hold on, Miss Jerk, we’ll get you out of here in a jiffy!”

“My name is Foxtail!”

“My apologies, Miss Jerk Foxtail. We’ll get you out of here in a jiffy!”

“Heroes just aren’t what they used to be, eh, Sparks?” Shadowy Figure observed the pair with mild amusement.

Carol glowered at him, beckoning him with her hand to bring it.

Shadowy Figure ignored her and continued talking. “I mean, sure, they’re just teens. No one can let you down more than a teen can.”

“HEY!” A Real Magic Skeleton dropped Foxtail to shake his fist at Shadowy Figure.

Guess he really let her down there, huh?

“But no one can hurt you more than a friend can. Am I right, Foxy?”

Foxtail was being helped back onto her feet by an apologetic A Real Magic Skeleton when the question was directed at her. Her eyes widened and she looked between him and Carol in growing terror.

Carol looked at her old friend in confusion. “You mean with the whole Dark Plaza thing?”

Shadowy Figure cackled. “Oh, Sparks. If only that were the only way she can hurt old pals.”

Against her better judgment, Carol’s curiosity won out. “How did she hurt us?”

“Plenty of ways,” Shadowy Figure began. “Turning students against each other. Infusing them with glorbs to give them power boosts at the expense of their minds and pushing their bodies to breaking point. But I’m sure you already knew that. I mean, it’s not like you just ignored it when Enid was at P.O.I.N.T. prep, last season, right?”

“I know I did wrong,” Foxtail started. Shadowy Figure cut her off before she could continue.

“How about doing business with a guy like me? But, hey, what would I know about you? It’s not like we’re pals or anything, right? After all, you’re a changed woman.”

Something in K.O.’s stomach twisted. No…

“How many times were you paying me out of your ‘precious’ P.O.I.N.T. funds for my glorbs? Did you ever bother wondering where I got them from? Did it ever occur to you that maybe I was taking it from the very place you wanted to protect?”

Foxtail’s face grew in terror and despair as Shadowy Figure talked. Everyone had different reactions. Carol was frozen to the spot, looking at her old friend as if she had never seen her before. Rad’s mouth was wide open, his eyes distraught. Enid was trembling with barely concealed fury, another blow against her former principal and mentor. A Real Magic Skeleton and Brandon shared a look with each other, trying to process what Shadowy Figure was saying. And worst of all, Mr. Gar was expressionless. His eyes were hidden beneath his shades, glistening in the light. K.O. felt a little scared just looking at him.

Foxtail…worked with Shadowy Figure…?

There were too many things for him to process now. Lazerblast was his father. His father was Professor Venomous. Professor Venomous had been tormenting him and his friends for the past few seasons, including the goop clones and talking about dissecting them when they were at their breaking point. Chip Damage coming out as a robot and everyone turning on P.O.I.N.T. Chip Damage haywire and nowhere to be found. Shadowy Figure attacking his friends and family. Foxtail working with Shadowy Figure and purchasing glorbs from him. Glorbs that he stole from the Glorb Sanctuary.

Purple lightning began to envelop him from head to toe.

“Take a break, K.O.” T.K.O. sounded gentle as he said this. In the back of his mind, K.O. wasn’t sure why it made everything feel worse. “I’ll kick his butt for the both of us.”

He closed his eyes and knew no more.

Back in the outside world, Carol’s irises shrunk with horror. She whispered a quiet little, “…no…”

Shadowy Figure was unperturbed by the purple lightning cocooning K.O. and allowing T.K.O. to emerge unchallenged. His sharp smile grew sharper and he let out a cry of triumph.

“YES! At long last, after all of my efforts to bring you out, you’re finally free, T.K.O.!”

“Nah. I’m just playing the understudy right now.”

Shadowy Figure opened his mouth to counter, but T.K.O.’s fist collided with his jaw before he could get a word in. The smile was gone and Shadowy Figure fixed his newest opponent with a glare that could send the hairs on the back of your neck tingling.

“You don’t care if you go back into your little prison cell?”

“I do.” T.K.O. growled. “I hate it there. I hate being a toy. I hate not getting to be on the outside. But you know what I hate more than that? It’s you!”

“Why would you hate me?” Shadowy Figure asked. “I’m the reason you exist in the first place. You ought to be thanking me.”

“It’s because of you I’m stuck inside some brat’s mind in the first place! Take this!” T.K.O. slammed into Shadowy Figure’s chest, sending them both crashing against the ceiling.

“K.O., please!” Enid cried out. “Don’t give up!”

T.K.O. took a moment to sneer at her. “You don’t get it, do you? Every little thing you say, every screw up, every big reveal makes it easier for me to come out! You put a lid on me, I just reach my boiling point faster!”

Somewhere in his mind, K.O. was on top of T.K.O.’s bed, oblivious to the rest of the outside world.

“Kind of feel bad for him if he has a tipping point…” T.K.O. continued. He glowered at Shadowy Figure. “Good thing I have something to take it out on!”

As he readied his fist for another strike, Shadowy Figure did something unexpected.

He held out his hands in surrender.

“I don’t want to fight you, T.K.O.”

This gave T.K.O. pause. “Huh?”

“You think you wanna fight me, but you really want to get answers the only way you know how. Violence.”

“K.O.!” Mr. Gar cried out. “Don’t listen to him, he’s just trying to manipulate you!”

“Am I?” Shadowy Figure asked. “Who are you going to listen to, T.K.O.? Someone who understands what it’s like to be bottled away? Or a bunch of two-faced friends who won’t even acknowledge you’re a person?”

Everyone was silent as T.K.O. pondered this. His face was pensive. Calm, even. Then, his face hardened again.

“If you cared about me so much, why didn’t you let me out yourself? How come K.O. was the only one who tried to help me?”

Shadowy Figure did something else unexpected.

He started sweating.

“Well I-I…you see…there’s t-this t-thing the executives have about me appearing too often and it might wreck with the budget and -”

“DON’T FOURTH WALL BREAK YOUR WAY OUT OF THIS!” T.K.O. emphasized the last word by punching Shadowy Figure hard in the face, sending him high into the air. And higher. And higher. And then the ceiling broke and he was still flying. He was blasting off.

Again.

T.K.O. blinked in astonishment. “Oops…”

Everyone’s jaws collectively dropped to the ground. A Real Magic Skeleton had to pick his up a moment later.

T.K.O. looked at them all and sighed. “Welp, my work here is done. Have fun with the consequences, Foxy!”

He gave Foxtail a faux smile and wave, and his form was replaced with K.O.’s unconscious one. He started to free fall before Rad caught him with his Power Poke telekineses.

“I got ya, little buddy,” Rad pulled K.O. towards him and handed him off to Carol.

Brandon was still looking at the ceiling. “I’m not the only one seeing that, right?”

A Real Magic Skeleton huffed and dragged him by the shirt collar. “No, Brandon. You’re not.”

The trek out of the Sanctuary was quiet and long. Injuries acquired from certain parties slowed them down further. K.O. was only starting to wake up when they made it outside.

“Ow…” he groaned.

Carol noticed and shifted him in her arms more comfortably. “Sweetie, how are you feeling?”

“Like I got punched in the face by Shadowy Figure,” K.O. tenderly touched his face. “T.K.O. filled me in what happened when he took over. I think it’s getting harder for us to find a balance, now.”

Dendy’s hologram projection appeared. “If I may, K.O., I recall a conversation we had earlier today about ‘meeting halfway’?”

Tired as he was, K.O. found himself smiling in determination. He looked at his mom. “Mommy, do you think we can try that mediating thing we used to do when I was younger? Maybe it can help me and T.K.O. work some things out.”

Carol looked pensive before nodding. “I’ll do what I can, honey. But right now, it’s time we went home.”

“Carol…” Mr. Gar put a hand on her shoulder. His face was stone-hard before faltering. “It’s my fault K.O. got hurt. You have every right to be mad at me…”

“No it isn’t,” she disagreed. Mr. Gar opened his mouth to protest, but Carol cut him off. “You didn’t throw him at Shadowy Figure, you tried protecting him. You didn’t abandon him, you were too hurt to help. But next time, he stays out of the fight. Got it?”

Mr. Gar nodded. He knew he was getting off lightly. He turned to his other two employees. “Rad. Enid. I owe you two an apology as well.”

“Don’t bother, sir.” Enid said.

Rad nodded. “Yeah. We’re heroes. We know what we signed up for.”

Mr. Gar sighed. He looked so much older, somehow. “Sometimes, I just don’t know what I did to deserve great kids like you…”

 “Good teaching, fair expectations, and letting us stand up to rowdy customers.” Enid walked away, holding a peace sign in the air. “Night, gang.”

Rad walked off in the other direction. “See you tomorrow, Enid. You too, K.O.”

“Night Rad. Night Enid.” K.O. waved over his mom’s shoulder. He smiled at Mr. Gar. “I’m glad you’re okay, sir.”

Mr. Gar cracked a smile. “I’m glad you’re okay, too, son.”

“Magi! I-I think I’m actually starting to come down, now!”

“That’s nice, Brandon.” A Real Magic Skeleton did not look amused as he lead Brandon away from the scene.

“I must get proper REM sleep. Today has been exhausting.” And with that, Dendy’s hologram projection vanished. Only Mr. Gar remained.

“Gene…” He forgot about Foxtail in all of the excitement and tensed up.

Foxtail looked wary. “Gene, I swear, I didn’t mean for it to -”

“You are banned from the Plaza. Permanently.”

She flinched at the chilly tone. “You’re - you’re not serious.”

Mr. Gar turned his head to look at her. His glasses were off, and she could see how hard they were.

“Do I look like I’m joking?”

Foxtail took a step back.

“That’s what I thought.” Mr. Gar looked away. “Get out of here.”

Foxtail didn’t say another word and flew off into the night sky.

O.K. K.O. (LET ’S BE HEROES!)

Meanwhile, back at Boxmore…

“AHHHHHHHHH!” Professor Venomous crashed through the ceiling and into his unlit bedroom. He didn’t know how he ended up flying in the air. And right now, with every bone in his body aching, he didn’t care. He just wanted to let the darkness take him as he passed out on the floor, hoping to sleep off the massive headache he was forced to nurse.

“Oh, Professor Venomous…” A sing-song voice trilled off-key.

Cob. Please spare me from this torment …

“Go away, Boxman…” Professor Venomous grumbled, his voice muffled from the rug his face was resting against.

A candle was lit and brought a warm glow into the room. Soft music was playing. He growled in irritation and pulled himself off the floor to glower at his partner sitting casually on the bed, the sheets covered with rose petals.

“It’s Wednesday night.” Lord Boxman purred. “You know what that means…”

“Not now, I have a headache.” Professor Venomous emphasized the last word with a good dose of acid in his tone.

The music stopped and the candle blew out. The lights were suddenly turned on.

“B-b-but,” Boxman stammered. “I have my dancing shoes!”

To prove his point, he pulled out a pair of freshly polished tap dancing shoes.

“What part of no are you not hearing?” Professor Venomous pulled himself into a standing position and plopped down on the bed.

“Is it because I always step on your feet?” Boxman’s eyes were shining with unshed tears. “Because of my bad ankles that make me scream?”

“Boxy, I have had a long long long day.” Professor Venomous growled. “I am tired. Goodnight!”

Boxman gave up and awkwardly looked away. He dared to look at his partner and added. “Why didn’t you coordinate Fink getting picked up from school?”

“FINK!” All at once, Professor Venomous was off the bed and in full-alert. “Sweet peas and carrots, I forgot about her! I’ve got to get there, now! I have to make it up to her! I’ve got to -”

“P.V., P.V, relax!” Boxman pulled Professor Venomous close and stroked his shoulder. “She’s back, playing one of her videos game things. You know how kids are -”

“I’ll be right back, Boxy, I need to check in on her!”

Boxman was taken aback by the panic and surprised when Professor Venomous dashed out of the room. He was all alone again. “Was it something I said?”

“Fink?” Professor Venomous opened the door to his minion’s room without knocking. He saw her in front of the large television screen, angrily pressing buttons on her controller. She had her headphones in and didn’t react to the sudden intrusion. “Fink?”

This time, she heard him and gave him the stink eye. Then, she went back to her game like he wasn’t even there.

What kind of present would she like? What can I do to make it up to her? What should I - ?

Somehow, he knew a present wasn’t going to fix whatever happened to make him miss Fink’s pick-up time. Fighting down a tremor in his chest, Professor Venomous took a step forward. Then another. And then another. He took it one step at a time until he was right beside his minion, who only seemed more agitated that he didn’t leave. He knelt down to her level, took a deep breath, and put a hand on her shoulder.

Fink yanked the headphones off. “What is it?”

He didn’t like how cold her tone was and wavered for a moment. Then, Professor Venomous braved on. “I was supposed to pick you up today…”

“Figures.” Fink went back to her game.

“And I forgot to make you lunch.”

“The teacher would have wrecked it anyways, she’s a villain.” Professor Venomous made a mental note to ask about that later.

“You would have gotten back at her. You play to win, kiddo.”

Fink blinked and paused the game. She sighed. “Yeah…I do.”

Then, she gave a wicked grin. “And I did!”

Professor Venomous knelt down to her level. “Did you? What was it, this time?”

Fink's anger from a moment ago was long forgotten as she saw how her Boss was fighting through his cranky and exhausted mood. Even Boxman, who hovered at the doorway, started to smile in relief as Fink started acting like her old self again. “Let’s just say I gave her a taste of her own medicine…”

Meanwhile …

“Hello?” Miss Quantum called out from her suspended spot in front of the school. “Could someone untie me? I promise not to do this to the students anymore! Hello? Anyone…? Oh, hello there, small squirrel. Could you be a joy and help me OH COB! NOT THE FACE! ANYWHERE BUT THE FACE! THAT’S WHERE MY STINK EYES ARE! BITE THE ROPES! THE ROPES! EVEN I DON’T LEAVE THE STUDENTS SUSPENDED AFTER SCHOOL THIS LONG! WAAAAAAAAH!”

Chapter Text

“Alright, students,” Principal Claus greeted the class two days later. Miss Quantum stood next to him; haggard, unkempt, shaking, but relatively unharmed. Her suspension had ended at last and a substitute had been filling in for her. “Before we all head home for the weekend, your teacher, Miss Quantum would like to offer her statement of regret after much reflection. Isn’t that right, dearie?”

He gave her such a bright smile that Miss Quantum shivered in her high-heeled shoes. She gulped.

“Y-yes, I do.” Miss Quantum fished out a sheet of paper and cleared her throat. “I, Miss Quantum, your teacher for the past…however long you’ve been in my class…do hereby state my regret.”

And with that, she lowered the paper and solemnly bowed her head. The class was unmoved. Someone coughed.

“Is that the entire statement?” Dendy asked, unamused.

“Of course it is, you -!” Miss Quantum stopped herself before her rant could build up plenty of momentum at Principal Claus’ shaking head. He didn’t look angry, but his eyes were boring into hers well enough. She covered her shock with a fake laugh. “Oh, Dendy, it is indeed the entire statement. Don’t you know that brevity is the soul of wit?”

“Funny,” Fink drawled. She was resting her feet on her desk and playing on one of her smaller videos game consoles. “Cause I heard that silence is golden. Ever thought of that?”

The class chortled at Fink’s joke. Even K.O. stifled a giggle.

Heh heh heh. T.K.O. cackled. He was watching everything back in the safety of his house in his other half’s subconscious. He hated to admit it, but T.K.O. missed watching everything on a T.V.

“Now, now students,” Principal Claus gently chided them. “This new relationship with Miss Quantum must be treated with respect and dignity on both sides. That means you can’t make jokes at her expense.”

“It also means we can move to part 2 of the announcement?” Miss Quantum asked Principal Claus. She looked at him with hopeful eyes. At his nod, Miss Quantum’s demeanor changed in a snap. Her posture became more confident and for a moment, everyone in the class that wasn’t jolly, red-faced, and ate well dreaded that the status quo wasn’t going to change at all. Miss Quantum pulled a large stack of papers out from her desk and jumped high in the air. She threw each page at everyone’s desks and when she was done, there was a document with a signature line at the bottom.

K.O. read his copy slowly. There were plenty of big words in it, and little words that he would probably need a magnifying glass to be able to read properly. But he could understand it well enough to know that it was needing his signature to confirm that he did in fact hear Miss Quantum’s statement of regret.

“I’ve decided to go easy on all of you as a sign of our clean slate.” Miss Quantum gave a bright smile that showed too much gum and too much teeth. Dendy’s glasses cracked. “So, your homework assignment for this weekend is to sign these forms. Oh, who am I kidding? You can sign them all now and drop them off at my desk when the bell rings.”

The bell trilled just then and the class stood up and started walking out single-file without another glance back.

Miss Quantum smiled at all of them as they passed her desk. She had a spot reserved on her desk decorated with colorful taped that spelled: Proof That I Put In The Minimal Effort in My Apology. It continued to remain bare as more students filed out. Miss Quantum still smiled, even as sweat beaded down her face.

“That’s alright, you can work on them at home when you have a moment. It’s just one teensy little signature. Or your initials. You can even write it in crayon. Or fingerpainting. It’s quite understandable that the weekend will surely keep you all very busy. Don’t be shy. You won’t be suspended if you fail this assignment, I assure you. But I will, if I don’t get any of these back by the end of the semester. It’s in a few weeks. Did any of you know that? Does that make you happy that summer is just around the corner? Won’t anybody give me a signed copy so I won’t face the squirrels again?!”

“Ah ah ah,” Principal Claus wagged his finger at Miss Quantum, who’s face was growing as red as an apple. “No one likes to feel pressured.”

“No one likes to be suspended overnight for several days straight either, sir!” Miss Quantum said in the same sing-song tone as Principal Claus. Her smile was threatening to shatter and her left eye was twitching.

“Now you understand what it feels like.”

“Fink!” Miss Quantum all but threw herself at the rat as she came by her desk. “I’m begging you! Just one letter on this in your penmanship!”

“Nope.” Fink walked off, already bored.

Dendy tried following her out before being flagged down, but Miss Quantum already had one in the air with her face on it. The stitching looked rather shoddy.

“Dendy!” Miss Quantum beamed. “My star pupil! My favorite Kappa! My former nemesis in the educational system!”

“May I be of assistance?” Dendy asked nervously. K.O. waited for her by the doorway. Fink was lurking just outside the hallway, but only because she was bored.

“You are always prompt with getting assignments done. And in quite the timely manner, too.”

“Yes…?” Dendy nodded. She didn’t like where this was going. She knew Principal Claus was still in the room, but she also knew that everyone had their breaking points regardless of the consequences that would follow. K.O. was living proof with his inner darkness.

Somewhere in K.O.’s mind, T.K.O. sneezed.

“So, could you be a joy and…” Miss Quantum looked at Principal Claus, who decided to sharped a peppermint stick with a file until it had a nice point.  She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Forge some signatures for me?”

Dendy inhaled through her nostrils and exhaled. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. She adjusted her glasses and said in a clear voice, “But Miss Quantum, only bad guys would forge signatures. I am absolutely appalled that you would suggest such a thing to a student.”

Miss Quantum’s smile was fixed and now both her eyes were twitching. “J-just get yours done, okay?!”

“Gee, Miss Quantum, she would, but her dad left a roast in the oven!” K.O. grabbed Dendy’s hand and dragged her out of the classroom. “See you on Monday!”

Miss Quantum slumped in her chair when they left. “Someone always leaves their roast in the oven…”

When they were a good distance away from the classroom, K.O. released Dendy.

“Much appreciated, K.O.” She rubbed at her arm to get the feeling back. “She is on a verge of a breaking point and I was afraid of being the one to trigger such a catastrophic event.”

“Where’s that nerve you had when you wanted to team-up, Kappa?” Dendy resisted the urge to growl, knowing that Fink was baiting her. Fink was leaning against a wall, her posture nonchalant. She was barely out of breath from following K.O. and Dendy.

K.O. adjusted his backpack and looked the hench-rat thingy in the eye. “Well, since you’re a student and everything, I guess this means we’ll be going back to Boxmore together?”

“Guess so,” Fink huffed. She muttered irritably under her breath, “If Boss doesn’t forget this time, that is…”

K.O. interpreted her words differently. “Traffic always makes my Mom run a little late sometimes. And there was this one time, some awful driver forced her to take a different route and she got lost on the way here -”

“That’s nice, Brat, I’m sure she’ll tell me next time I’m at her Dojo.” Fink said it without so much as a bite of venom in her tone. “Maybe I can teach her some rude gestures to use next time.”

Dendy walked alongside her friend as they made their way out into the school playground. “That reminds me, K.O. How have your meditation lessons been going?”

“Well, right now, I think I need to talk to T.K.O. more.” K.O. shrugged. “I know it's only been two days, but he’s been behaving himself.”

“That’s what he wants you to think.”

In unison, K.O. and Dendy turned to look at Fink.

“Is there something you would like to share with us?” Dendy asked.

Fink huffed. “How long do ya think it’s gonna last before he tries taking over again?”

K.O. didn’t appear the slightest bit concerned. “Cause I’m gonna spend time with my dad and ask him how to understand the villain in me.”

Fink blinked. She wasn’t prepared for that kind of answer. There was no prepared sarcasm for that kind of comment. She followed outside without further comment.

“Keep me posted, K.O.” Dendy waved as she ran towards her father’s car.

A few moments later, another car came in, sleeker and fancier than all of the other cars put together. K.O. remembered it from the villains’ party and felt himself standing a little taller.

“DIBS ON THE FRONT!” Fink bellowed. She dashed ahead of K.O. and stuck her tongue out at him as she buckled into the seat.

Professor Venomous looked over Fink. “Get in, scamp. We’re burning daylight.”

K.O. gripped at his bag and steeled himself for the weekend.

Chapter Text

Don’t blow this, PV, you’re already on thin ice with her, don’t louse it up with him too.

Venomous keep playing those words on repeat as he suffered through rush hour traffic. He wished he could blast through the wretched plebeians and laugh as their long day immediately became longer. He wished he could slash open the tires of the jerkwad that cut him off a few moments ago. He wished he could block out Fink’s prattle about how boring school was, but if this was the worst thing he had to listen to, then Venomous was going to take it.

A lot better than some of the things she used to say when they were both caught up in traffic.

Venomous knew he had to…had to… - he almost threw up as the words came to him - …take…the…high road…if he couldn’t set a good example for K.O., then he could kiss their father/son weekends goodbye. El Bow had made those implications rather clear on day one when he corrected Venomous’ list. No criminal activity whatsoever.

Maybe if he convinced K.O. to go Turbo…

Venomous blinked. Where did that thought come from? K.O. didn’t want it, his ‘inner darkness’ wasn’t something that could be controlled so easily and it wasn’t worth bringing it out just to deal with the heavy traffic.

Just then, another jerkwad cut in front of him.

Don’t blow it…don’t blow it…

Then, an idea came to him.

“Hey kids,” Venomous addressed K.O. and Fink. Fink looked away from the window at the front seat. K.O. twiddled his fingers in his hands in the rear view mirror, but he was paying attention, “why don’t we play something to pass the time?”

“Awwww, but the battery’s dead, Boss!” Fink protested, holding out her videos game handheld device to illustrate her point.

“Darn it!” Venomous groused. “I was counting on that one! Okay, um….”

“Oh! Oh!” K.O. eagerly raised his hand high in the air.

Fink scoffed. “We’re not at school, brat. Spill it.”

“Sometimes when we’re on missions; Rad, Enid and I play Eye Spy if it takes a while to get somewhere,” said K.O.

Fink and Venomous shared looks of bafflement with one another. Somehow, they both knew what the other was saying. Did they need to pluck out their own eyes to play this?

K.O. prattled on. “I’ll start! Eye Spy with my two eyes…something….purple!”

Fink blinked. Venomous wasn’t sure if he should be offended or confused.

“Come on…anyone wanna guess?”

“I’m guessing you’re a total basket case and I had nothing to do with it this time?” Fink ventured an answer.

K.O. sputtered for a moment and gave Fink a questioning look.

“What Fink is trying to say is we don’t know how to play your…” Professor Venomous’s mouth twisted as he tried to find the right word to say, “…game…?”

“Uh…well, you see…when you play Eye Spy,” K.O. began.

Professor Venomous held up a hand to silence him. “Why don’t we try something else?”

Fink scoffed. “Like what?”

“Well, Fink, you can suggest some things too, you know.”

Some part of him expected Fink to fume in silence and they could all suffer through the traffic together without any more silly game suggestions. So, it was a surprise to Venomous when Fink actually started to bounce in her seat - why oh why did he have to give her a lot of sweets for lunch?

“The Brat wants to learn how to be a villain!” Fink grinned, pointing at K.O. in the back.

Venomous opened his mouth to scold his minion for being silly, but he caught sight of K.O. in the rear view and knew she was telling the truth. Something close to joy fluttered in his chest, just then.

“To heck with the high road and to heck with this!” He pressed a button and suddenly the car began to smoke as the tires retracted and were replaced with rockets.

Fink stuck her head out the window as they blasted off. “BOXMORE OR BUST!”

OK K.O. (Let’s Be Heroes!)

Raymond grumbled as he ended the sudden phone call.

“Bolts getting rusted again, little brother,” Darrell tittered. Raymond’s hands clenched into fists at the reminder that he was by - he shuddered as the word coursed through his system - organic life form standards to be nothing more than an infant.

He ought to count his blessings that none of his robotic siblings - or Fink - thought it poignant to try dressing him up as a baby for a lark. He would make their artificial lives a living nightmare if that ever came to pass and they all knew it.

“Darrell…” Raymond began through gritted teeth, “have you…ever had someone call in a favor that you were hoping they’d forget about?”

Darrell considered that for a moment before smiling and shrugging, “Nope!”

“N-not even when you were running Boxmore?!” Raymond stared at his sibling in astonishment.

“Never had to,” Darrell crossed his arms and let his smile grow smug. “Auntie Cosma still wishes I were running things around here, ‘cause I was so good at it. Why you ask?”

Raymond glowered. “Remember that…embarrassment a while back?”

“You mean when I ruined Daddy’s shoes?”

“The other thing, I mean?”

“You mean when Fink stole your phone and showed everyone you were texting Rad those pictures of your feet?”

“With the Bodegamen?” Steam started to erupt from Raymond’s ears. While he was mad at Darrell not taking the hints, the steam didn’t correlate with that. Boxman was supposed to have that coolant leak inspected by tomorrow. “And a past confrontation with them?”

Darrell’s smile never wavered. “We get our butts kicked all the time.”

Raymond had had enough and started flailing his hands in exasperation. “With the blasted sports game Father and Stepfather forced us to play, you rust-bucket!”

“WHO ARE YOU CALLING A RUST BUCKET!” Darrell yelled back.

Boxman stuck his head into the room. “HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU NOT TO RAISE YOUR VOICES AT EACH OTHER?!”

“Yes Father…” Ramond seethed at the same time Darrell mumbled sadly, “Yes, Daddy…”

“GOOD! NOW KEEP IT DOWN!”

When both of them were certain Boxman was out of earshot, Darrell gave Raymond a look. “So…what was your question?”

“Remember those nitwits we dragged into playing for our side?” Raymand asked. “That baby thing and that…red thing?”

“What about it?”

Raymond pinched the bridge of his nose and pulled out a cord from his chest. Without warning, he jammed it into Darrel’s head and began uploading a file into his memory bank:

“Uh…what are we doin’ again?” Bell Beefer’s eyes were glazed over. Mega Football Baby cuffed him from behind and the eyes became focused again.

“We were supposed ta be playing a football game!” Mega Football Baby kept his eyes on Boxman as he said this. “But these creeps say different!”

“Look, we’ve gone over this at least three times with you idiots,” Raymond ignored the angry protests from the two, “We’re two people short and you two know a bit about sports. You help us and we help you in return. Deal?”

“You’re villains!” Mega Football Baby glared at Raymond, “Why would we help you?!”

“Word on the street is you two had a bit of a falling out with a compadre recently,” Raymond said slyly. Rad gritted his teeth as Raymond eyed him, “You help us with one teensy game, and I’ll be more than happy to show your friend the error of his ways.”

Bell Beefer and Mega Football Baby took this into consideration for a moment before they cried out, “Deal!” and shook hands with Raymond. 

Once the recording had ended, Darrell felt the room spin as Raymond retracted the cord and withdrew it back into his hard drive.

“Now do you see the predicament I brought upon myself?” Raymond asked impatiently.

Darrell blinked. “You’re gonna scold Rad for being a bad friend and ditching his friends cause he couldn’t stand being around Bell Beefer and Mega Football Baby cause they were bad influences?”

“Yes…” Raymond allowed wearingly. “They just called me…don’t know how they got my number, though…”

“What’s the big deal?” Darrell asked. “It’s not like you haven’t gotten under Rad’s skin before?”

“It’s different if it’s on someone else’s behalf,” Raymond explained. He suddenly looked very tired. “It just…takes the fun away from it, you know? Any advice before I depart?”

‘”Just think of it as attacking the Plaza?”

Raymond’s eyes lit up all of a sudden. “Attack the Plaza, you say?”

“I didn’t say -”

“It’s perfect!” Raymond began pacing away from Darrell. “The losers won’t know what hit them cause we already performed our daily quota…”

Darrell looked puzzled “…I don’t remember us having a quota -”

“I can kick Rad’s buttocks and humiliate those two wannabes for daring to call in a favor with the great Raymond!” Raymond stopped in his tracks and gazed up with starry eyes. “Pure perfection!”

“But what about -”

“I hate to run, brother, but the Plaza awaits!” Raymond patted Darrell on the cheek and rushed out of the room through the wall. His body left a Raymond-shaped hole where he exited.

Darrell stared at the room and asked out loud, “What the heck just happened?”

“Beats me.” A new voice replied.

“Who said that?!” Darrell spun around to where he heard the noise. “Are you that ghost again?”

“…no…”

While Darrell ran out of the room in terror, Jethro 2.0 quietly sighed in relief in the air vent he was hiding in. Another close call. At least his older brother was stupid enough to believe he was a phantom…

OK K.O. (Let’s Be Heroes!)

“Welcome to Villainy: 101,” Venomous rapped at the whiteboard with a switch he had lying around. K.O. - looking uncertain - and Fink - her face rapt with attention - were both sitting on bean bag chairs. Professor Venomous wanted them sitting at proper school desks, but Fink protested that they had just finished doing that and that the last thing she wanted to do to start off the weekend was hurt her hiney sitting on a stupid plastic chair.

There were other things she might have said with her words and her hands, but Venomous dealt with those with a well-timed peanut-butter stuffed treat and forcing Fink to put her mittens back on. Who knew what the heroes would say if K.O. started imitating that gesture!

“This is the first of many lessons to becoming an evil menace to society,” Venomous practiced an air of standoffish pride as he continued. “And perhaps by the end of it all, you may make a name of yourselves in the history of villains.”

“I could make a name for myself…” Fink gasped, stars filling her pupils.

“Now, are there any -” Venomous suppressed a sigh as K.O. dutifully raised his hand in the air. “Yes, K.O.?”

“Just for the record, I’m not trying to be a villain, I’m just trying to understand my inner darkness better,” K.O. said. “Not to get your hopes up or anything.”

“Of course…” Venomous nodded while thinking We’ll make a villain of you yet, kiddo! “Lesson One will focus on the mannerisms of villainy. In short…the evil laugh. I will demonstrate.”

Fink trembled in her seat in anticipation. K.O. gulped.

Venomous let his arms spread out before himself, leaned his head back and howled. “MUAHAHAHAHAHA!”

A flash of lightning filled the room and K.O. shivered.

“That was uh…pretty effective with the lightning,” he said.

“Wha…?” Venomous paused for a moment. “Did I forget to get those lights fixed…?”

“Who cares?!” Fink jumped out of her seat and grabbed her boss by the lapels of his coat. “My turn, my turn!”

“Be my guest,” Venomous lowered his minion to the ground and waited.

Fink instantly threw her head back and began to cackle. “AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

She waited for the lightning flash…until she remembered it was the electrical problem and not villainous valor that made it possible.

Villain and minion turned their attention to K.O.

“Your turn, scamp.”

K.O. took a deep breath and scrunched his eyes closed in concentration. Venomous and Fink leaned in, excitement eminent on their faces. Think, K.O. Think of something funny to make you laugh.

An image of Rad burping in Enid’s face appeared. K.O.’s cheeks puffed up and he began to laugh.

“Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!”

Professor Venomous felt his face fall as K.O. collapsed onto the floor in a fit of giggles.

“Boss?”

“Yes, Fink?” He asked wearily.

“Ya think he’s a lost case?”

“No, Fink,” Venomous sighed while K.O. still continued to laugh so…cutely. “We just have our work cut out for us…”

Chapter Text

Hey everyone, this is an announcement that I really don't want to make, but I feel that it is necessary.

When I first started writing this story, I was both very new and very old in the fandom. I caught glimpses of the show early on, but never truly watched it, but when I heard about the Big Reveal, I was very intrigued. This was meant to only be a four chapter thing, but when the finale came and I felt that some plot points just weren't resolved how I wanted them to be resolved, I decided to expand upon the little world and have fun with it.

And I did. I got to be silly. I got to be emotional. I got to understand the voices and intentions...to an extent. Something I had promised myself in recent years was to learn how to outline a story, get several chapters written ahead of time, and have better posting scheduling. But something that I feel that has been holding me back is a lot of factors, such as my personal life and my need to get a better job so I'm not drowning in debt, and just how tired I've become of writing this story, knowing that it isn't it's best form and knowing that I am writing as I go and forcing plot points along.

K.O. doesn't feel like the protagonist here. He doesn't feel like K.O. at all, in my honest opinion. He broods when he should be innocent. He dithers instead of acting. He is like me; stuck. And I feel ashamed that I could not write him as properly as I should have been.

There are so many things I really wish I had the passion, skill, and energy to write. Like Raymond ending up altering Grudgement Day and it results in a cutaway towards the end with Ernesto being the mediator between Red Action and Rad. Or more stuff with P.O.I.N.T. and their reputation in tatters. Or stuff with Chip Damage.

But I don't have it anymore. I'm tired. I want to tell other stories, but I feel like I can't truly do it without finishing this one first.

So. This is an announcement and at the same time, the resolution of how I wanted this story to be concluded.

The laugh lesson would have devolved into Venomous tickling K.O., the two of them bonding for a change, with Fink there too. Events would have transpired where Shadowy would still be revealed and completely takeover. This time, he would strip K.O. of his powers, since T.K.O. won't budge and Shadowy Venomous would want to put his wayword 'son' in his place by making him walk a mile in his shoes. Another divergence would be Fink staying with K.O. and Carol at Boxman's request, for her own safety. Shadowy Venomous would go on the rampage T.K.O. would go on, with a few additional things such as stealing candy from babies and ding-dong ditching people.

Fink would grow to develop a more compassionate, if blunt, nature while still being true to herself. She would eventually come to call Carol 'Miss Boss' like she would call Boxman 'Box Boss.' She would also be the one to help push K.O. into wanting to do something against Shadowy Venomous and he would encourage the Boxmore children to unite against their stepdaddy.

The tournament would happen, but it is meant to be a trap to lure in Shadowy Venomous. Everyone signs up: K.O. with items from the Bodega (a call back from episode one), Rad, Enid, Carol and Gar (who aren't the judges here, P.O.I.N.T. is), even Boxman, his children, and Fink.

Fink would become a Level One Hero -- Boxman and his children would be cheering, even if she wasn't a Negative One, she was their number one -- and she'd turn to K.O. and say "Ok, K.O. Let's be heroes" and the theme song would play to a montage of everyone facing their opponents and a funny scene with Boxman using Billiam's powers against his foes by treating him like a machine gun involving punching Billiam in the stomach and coins would shoot out of his mouth like in the game.

Miss Quantum would trick the students into signing her apology accepted forms under the guise of them signing up for the tournament.

Everyone would be facing Shadowy Venomous in the final round. P.O.I.N.T. would step in, from founders to new teachers, even a rediscovered Chip Damage with Foxtail (and the Jethro in tow) ready to do their duties. They do their theme song, old and new members. Venomous breaks through the possession for a split second to chant his part. Rippy Roo traps Shadowy Venomous in her pouch and everyone thinks its over.

Except its not.

Shadowy Venomous breaks out and defeats everyone.

Except K.O. Alone and powerless. But still not backing down. He tries reaching out to Venomous. Fink does too. It's an intense fight and T.K.O. starts to fade as K.O. realizes that they are not separate beings, but the same person. He doesn't become P.K.O. He becomes himself and his powers return. Everyone starts cheering for him. K.O. draws strength from it and delivers a final Power Fist to Shadowy Venomous, who can't dodge because Venomous is fighting very hard not to flee. The essence that was Shadowy Figure is spat out and Venomous squashes it before collapsing.

K.O. collapses too.

They both wake up in the hospital in the same room and talk. Venomous apologizes for not being the father that K.O. deserved and for everything else he did as a villain. K.O. is able to forgive him but realizes that they're both very different people and that starting over wouldn't work. Besides, it's not like Venomous already has a kid.

That's when Fink rushes in ahead of everyone else and greets her boss. She's initially salty -- same with Boxman -- saying "you left me for yourself!" but is willing to move past it. Venomous tells her how proud he is of her for what's she's become and how much she's grown. A far cry from how his parents treated him -- which was a big factor to his self-esteem issues in P.O.I.N.T. and beyond. Venomous apologies to Carol. Foxtail apologizes to Mr. Gar for how she treated him in her grief and the betrayals. It's going to be a long road towards reconciliation, but she's willing to take it if he is too.

P.O.I.N.T.'s reputation in the public starts improving, thanks in no large part to their actions in fighting Shadowy Venomous. The President of the Universe grants K.O. a wish and he wishes for everyone to live their best lives.

Some flashes into the future: Fink eventually runs the Dojo while keeping in close contact with her Boss and Box Boss. Miss Boss is retired and married to Mr. Gar and she got to be the flower girl to K.O.'s ring-bearer. She still competes in videos game tournaments in her free time, too.

Chip Damage is retired, not deactivated.

Raymond starts a band.

Bell Beefer and Mega Football Baby are doing community service for causing trouble off-screen and get pelted with rotten tomatoes.

Carol and Venomous are able to become friends.

Jethro is Shannon's co-host for her spin-off.

Ernesto has become a family counselor.

Miss Quantum has improved, though Fink still terrifies her with her presence alone.

Mr. Gar visits his childhood home with an older Foxtail accompanying him. They pay respects to his late abuela together.

Rad runs his cat cafe and Enid rejoins P.O.I.N.T. and becomes a teacher.

K.O. takes over the Bodega and is still Level 100.

I'm so so sorry that I couldn't finish this story. This is the best I could offer before moving on, because I feel like the story deserves some kind of ending to leave y'all with.

Thank you for every comment and kudo you have left this story.

Thank you for sticking by this story for almost six years.

Thank you for coming.

Thank you for staying.

Thank you for reading this fic.

See you in the writing world!