Chapter Text
K.O. stood, one hand clasped in the other, next to the pond. He had his eyes closed, but he could hear the water gently lapping at it’s edges. He allowed it to be his white noise to focus.
Dendy sat close by on a tree stump with her paper notepad out, detailing all of her findings so far. The pages were also littered with a couple doodles not of her own. They did get in the way of her method of recording data, but chose not to rub them away. She instead drew a box around them to keep them safe in their little corner.
They hadn’t made any breakthroughs in a while. This was the fourth time Dendy, K.O. and T.K.O. were having these sessions. The transformation into P.K.O. had improved somewhat with them now being able to do it while standing instead of only sitting, but it was still slow.
Dendy had a feeling however that there might be a significant improvement today. No one else was in the surrounding area, so it removed many possible distractions.
Though Dendy would have preferred to work in her lab due to there being no outside elements being involved so control variables could remain constant, she completely understood that the K.O.s did not. She asked where they would prefer to practise, and it did not take K.O. long to think of their current location.
It was a small clearing in the forest, not too far from the Plaza. It was a regular spot for the people of Lakewood it seemed, and she could understand why. It was such a contrast to the zaniness of the Plaza and it’s inhabitants. Here you couldn’t even hear the motorway, only the rustling of trees in the wind and the occasional birdsong.
A large log, belonging to the stump Dendy was sitting on, rested beside her, and surrounding that was dense brush which surrounded all the trees nearby. Hidden in it all were a few nondescript ruins, worn down with time beyond recognition. K.O. had mentioned on their first time coming here that the big tree used to be intact. It was so tall he thought that it never had a top. Dendy told him that was impossible, and he just giggled.
To keep the experiments feeling more casual, they had planned for them to be like a picnic, with every time coming to this spot K.O. and Dendy would bring a blanket and food, and rest it in front of the pond. The pond was small, but pretty. Small rocks were dotted around the edge, along with many weeds and reeds. On the surface sat some lily pads. The water was calm, but if you focused enough, you could see ripples in the water from the small fish inhabitants. It felt calming to look at. Maybe that is why K.O. picked it, Dendy thought.
K.O. took a deep breath in. though he wasn’t often focusing on the environment he was in, he was grateful he was outdoors. It was much more freeing, instead of the feeling of being caged up in a lab. The feeling of warm sunlight on his skin was soothing, and the rays a lot more pleasant than the bright sterile lights from before. Dendy’s lab was cool, K.O. could easily admit that, but not when he was the “lab rat” or “guinea pig”.
He was losing focus.
K.O. scrunched his eyes harder as he attempted to slip back into his headspace, while still keeping a little control on the outside to remain standing.
Each time they attempted to transform, they started from scratch, so K.O. had to build the whole system in his mind. It was admittedly difficult to recreate each time, but felt like he was getting the hang of it.
Dendy watched as K.O. seemed to relax a little, but remain concentrated, the corner of his mouth upturned. She recognised this from his previous P.K.O. transformation attempts. The aura seemed to begin to appear, though faintly, and his bands began shifting in tone to be more blue-
Then there was a spark, a mix of gold and purple, with the sound of an electricity crackle. The kid opened his eyes, startled, and ended up falling back on the blanket.
He was dazed for a second, eyes adjusting to his location then using them to look at his raised hand and the band on his wrist. At what he saw, he growled with his teeth bared, then kicked his feet around and slammed his fists on the ground and yelled in frustration.
After letting out his small tantrum, the boy continued laying flat with his limbs spread out, eyes closed and a frown plastered on his face.
Dendy carefully slid off the stump and headed over to the basket. She opened it, pulled out a small juicebox, pierced it and headed over to the boy. She crouched down. He hadn’t bothered opening his eyes at the sound of her coming, so Dendy spoke to get his attention.
“T.K.O.”
T.K.O. cracked an eye open to look over at Dendy. He noticed what she was offering, and swiped it.
“It seems that your progress has halted somewhat.” Dendy stated.
T.K.O. looked a little annoyed at the obvious claim, but was feeling noticeably better with the refreshment. He just grunted and kept drinking from the juicebox.
Dendy tapped her notepad while in thought. “May you remind me how you and K.O. form P.K.O.?” Dendy had asked before, but it was difficult to grasp due to having little scientific basis.
T.K.O. groaned, but he ended up explaining it again. As he did, Dendy followed along with her notepad. On other pages, both K.O. and T.K.O. had drawn their own interpretations of how they do it, and despite the different styles the two had (T.K.O.’s was much rougher) it was still easy to tell that they were drawing the same process. From what Dendy could understand, the entirety of it seemed needlessly complicated.
“Can I suggest an alternative method?”
T.K.O. raised an eyebrow, sitting up. He had one knee by his chest where he rested his arm holding the juice.
Dendy showed K.O. and T.K.O.’s pages depicting the process. “Each time you two are attempting to form P.K.O, you are doing it from scratch, correct? And it is difficult and time-consuming for K.O. to envision the control panel, the machine, the suits and cables every time and then both of you syncing.’
“How you and K.O. form P.K.O. is only an idea.” Dendy stated. “It is only based off of a movie K.O. watched. Therefore, there must be other methods on tackling this. If you and K.O. could envision a method with less steps, there is a high likelihood that your combined transformation will be faster.”
She scrawled down some quick notes, and showed T.K.O. to make it clearer. Machines, and suits, and wires, and plugs, and buttons. SIMPLIFY IT.
T.K.O. squinted at it all, as if it would make any more sense, then flopped back on the grass, hands pressed over his eyes and groaned again. He was exhausted. The last thing he wanted to do was try something new.
Dendy stood up to lean over T.K.O. this time. She had been monitoring him, so she knew he was fine. She went to remind him. “Remember that the strain is only-”
“Mental. Not physical.” T.K.O. parroted, gripping the juicebox again. “I know.”
Dendy leaned back out of view. “We can stop if you have had enough for the day.” Dendy offered. She was always regularly checking she was pushing the boys to the limits they were comfortable with.
T.K.O. spat at the slightest insinuation that he was showing weakness. “Nah, I’m not a baby.”
“And K.O.?”
T.K.O. went quiet and closed his eyes for a moment, before responding. “He wants to keep going too.”
“Then shall we attempt my idea?”
“Whatever.”
T.K.O. rolled back to sitting upright and getting into position. If they were trying something new, then they didn’t want to risk falling over again. That’d be embarrassing. T.K.O. had his hands cupped in his lap, eyes closed, and tried to control his breathing. Dendy shuffled back onto the tree stump.
Despite the serene location however, T.K.O. could not keep still. Thoughts were racing. He was extra aware of how that sunlight felt on his skin, and the small sounds around him. He decided to let at least one of his thoughts out.
Keeping his position but tilting his head back to address Dendy, he said “K.O. wanted to tell you, the Glorb Sanctuary was broken into again recently.”
Dendy looked up. “Oh?”
“And before you ask, it wasn’t either of us this time. Heh heh.” He paused a moment. “Kind of.” He let his head fall down, then bob around as he told the story. “K.O. didn’t know how, but a Mecha Maw got in and was stealing glorbs. K.O., Mom, Ms Mummy and Girdy was there so they all took care of it. I could have squashed that thing in an instant though.”
Dendy hummed. “So others do show interest in the glorb tree after all. Perhaps… you both could be it’s protector.”
T.K.O. exhaled at that. It could be fun to bust up any villains that come to claim the glorbs, but having any kind of responsibility was not T.K.O.’s style.
Dendy realised now they were both losing focus. She brushed away that conversation for now. “Anyway, keep concentrating.”
“It’s hard to!” T.K.O. complained, but he didn’t get a response. So he scrunched his face harder, trying to imagine something like Dendy suggested.
Think think think. Something simple. Just a bright void. That’s simple. There is nothing else there, nothing else to see or imagine beside the familiar blue and purple chains, linking them together. The chains between the two got magically shorter, pulling them closer together, until they overlap into one.
P.K.O. opened his eyes.
“How was that?” P.K.O. asked with an air of confidence, as he swung himself onto his feet and placed his hands on his hips.
Dendy looked at the stopwatch timer she had set after going quiet. “Still slow. You would have been defeated in battle before landing a hit.”
P.K.O.’s aura flickered as his expression muddled. His shoulders drooped.
“However.” Dendy continued, hopping off the stump to be face to face with P.K.O. and presenting her notes. “It seems to be the fastest transformation you have had so far. Repeated practice of this method would be beneficial to you and would be useful to study.”
P.K.O. was practically beaming. Half of him wanted to hug her for reaching this milestone, while the other completely refused. The best he could do was place a hand on her shoulder and present a thumbs up in the other. “Thanks Dendy! I couldn’t have done it without you.”
Dendy had a little smile. She adjusted her goggle glasses. “I recommend it would be best to retain your form for now, instead of practicing the transformation again, as we should investigate if there are any different effects from maintaining it like this. So in the meantime…” Dendy wandered over to the basket again, setting her notepad aside, and pulling out other items, including burritos, chips and fizzy drinks. “Shall we finish this picnic?”
P.K.O.’s eyes lit up, not in the literal sense this time, and he joined Dendy on the floor. As he enjoyed the variety of food, his form didn’t waver.