Roses & Ferns (An OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Love Story)

Chapter 28: Ho' Do You Feel, Love?

   "Well, my Rose told me that you and your son are trustworthy enough to keep us a secret." Raymond flashed a small smile at Carol, one belonging in the "sincere" category. "I can see that she was right." Carol smiled back, watching as Raymond finally finished tying his signature rose knot. Once done, Raymond to descend to the floor, turning off his rocket boosters in time so that he didn't set the creaky, wooden floor on fire.

   "So," Raymond began leaning against the wall. "How exactly do these "temporal blasters" work? Do they work like regular blasters but with time being a factor in how it works?"

   Carol shrugged, finishing setting up the last of the snares. "Somethin' like that." Carol stood up, walking up to lean next to Raymond on his right. "I don't really understand the science behind it, but it creates some type of energy that slows down whoever gets hit by the blast. Takes about an hour just for the effects to stop affectin' someone."

   Raymond made a small nod, acknowledging the explanation given by Carol. "I wonder how the inventor came to the idea of creating them in the first place?" Raymond wondered out loud.

   "Eh, the inventor's a mysterious man," Carol said, crossing her arms over her chest. "The last thing anyone ever spoke about him is that he was testin' a new invention he made before gettin' lost in time. I think his invention was some kinda time travel machine or somethin'. I-I'm not sure i-it was a long time ago."

   "Huh, sounds like he was just a tad obsessed with time." Carol nodded in response.

   "Definitely. Say," Carol commented, changing the subject. "I've been meaning to ask this, but I wasn't sure if the time was right, but..." Carol paused, trying to think of a way to phrase her question in a way that wouldn't sound offensive.

   "...yes?" Raymond asked, the silence becoming a little awkward.

   "Well, ever since K.O. told me about the whole "Shannon and Rad" thing that happened a while back, I've been wonderin' somethin'." Carol looked to the ground, before looking towards Raymond. "How...exactly Shannon fall for Rad in the first place?"

   Now it was Raymond's turn to look at the floor, not expecting the question to be asked. "Well," Raymond began, trying to explain as best as he could. "To make a long story short, we were all fighting in a thunderstorm that day, and during the battle, Shannon got struck by lightning and that caused her circuits to be fried and it caused her to love -- "Rad", you said his name was? -- until she rebooted."

   "Oh..." Carol said, nodding her head. "How...does that work? T-The whole "emotions and fried circuits" thing, I mean?" Raymond shrugged.

   "Eh, I'm not entirely sure, only Father knows how our emotions work. But I've caught snippets of some conversations with Coach and Ernesto about him, Darrell, Shannon, and Jethro having a different AI than other robots have."

   Carol raised an eyebrow, interested. "Whaddaya mean?" "Well...like I said, I'm not entirely sure, but I have heard a few things about how he, Darrell, Shannon, and Jethro weren't programmed like myself and Mikayla. They were built at young ages, around the age of toddlers, so that Coach could raise them. That way, he could shape them as obedient as they are today, and snuff out any sense of rebellion that may have been in them when they were first created."

   Carol nodded, taking in the new information she was given. "Okay, so, Shannon's AI got messed up when she got struck by lightning?" Carol then added. "How?"

   Again, Raymond began explaining. "Well, since their AI is different than mine and Mikayla's, that means their emotions work differently than ours. Say Shannon's feeling happy and Mikayla's feeling happy, while they both feel the same emotion, the way they experience it is different. Mikayla's only programmed to feel that way, while Shannon can actually experience it. So, when Shannon got struck by lightning, it didn't just fry her circuits, it also tampered with her AI; so it made her feel like she truly was in love. But since it wasn't something her AI was programmed with, it only took a simple reboot to make those feelings go away."