"...And I lost him eleven years ago." She smiled sadly. "My son."

Carol seemed to forget that her students/ friends were just behind her. She hadn't told them she lost her kid eleven years ago! That was about the same time that she showed up, right? Perhaps there was a lot more Carol hid from them than they thought. They listened in, stopping their own conversation.

"...How'd you lose him?" T K.O growled, a bit of a challenge in his voice. He suspected something was up, not caring if she flinched from the intensity in his voice.

"I-I don't think I should. Besides, you're just a kid. One that I've never met before, and don't need to share personal things with." She stuttered, looking away with a frown.

"Then let's get to know eachother." The child suggested, shrugging. "I've been wantin' to know your name so I can just leave when you're done whining about how you lost your kid."

"Excuse you!" She gasped in suprise. "Don't you know how horrible it is for a mom to lose her son?!"

"I'd never know. My mom died after she gave birth."

The Dojo became quiet, and Carol looked away, frowning. Seconds ticked by, a small clock above their head seeming to grow louder and louder.

"...Carol." She finally sighed, giving in. "My name is Carol."

"Finally, we've gotten somewhere." Though something about her name clicked somewhere in his head, but he didn't know what for. "My name's Turbo K.O. T K.O for short." T K.O smirked, not noticing her sudden ghastly face. Though, when Carol stayed quiet for a bit, T K.O finally looked back at her, his eyes widening.

Her eyes were full of tears, almost tipping over her eyelids. And she tried wiping them away, only to smear a bit of her eyeliner onto her face. It couldn't be possible, but it was worth a shot.

"Does... The name Kaio ring a bell to you, by any chance...?" She asked, her voice breaking from the supressed sobbing. T K.O flinched, his breathing picking up. Nobody knew that name but him. He never told his dad about his alternate personality, alter ego, for fears of him being experimented on to see why such a thing would happen. He never told Boxman, seeing as he would go straight to Venemous anyway to get confirmation nothing was wrong. And he couldn't trust any of the stupid robots he's built either. And now he couldn't escape.

Or could he?

With a burst of purple energy, he blasted Carol away, floating off of the chair. He was scared, confused, and kind of regretted coming here.

"You ever say that damn name around me again, I'll kill you faster than you could ever think." T K.O snarled, before bursting out of the dojo.

Carol only stood up shakily, tears still in her eyes. That kid... What had been done to him to hate her little Kaio? Was he still alive? Had he made T K.O angry? Her burnt out hope seemed to reignite, and she just knew Kaio had to be out there.

Suddenly, Mr. Gar, or to Carol, Eugene, burst in through the doors of the Dojo, looking worried.

"C-Carol?! Are you all safe?! I-I saw a small explosion go off in here so I rushed over to check in-"

"Gene, it's alright!" Carol tried to calm him down, giving a small smile. "Well, it's alright, now that you're here. I have some great news!"

"W-what?"

"I think I have a lead on my son."

~~~

Meanwhile, over at Boxmore, a certain spiky haired eleven year old was scaling up the wall with his powers as he tried to get in without being noticed. He looked around his room, and then behind him outside, before opening his window and slipping in. He was in the clear-

Before his door slammed open to a furious looking Professor Venemous, T K.O's dad. And he only looked angrier when he set his sights on the child halfway in his window.

The teen gave him a guilty grimace, slowly falling onto his bed as he came in fully through the window.

"Hey... Dad..." He chuckled slightly, causing the adult's eyes to narrow further. T K.O shrunk back a bit, looking away with a glare.

"I'm very disappointed in you, T K.O." It was simply spoken, but there was definetly some restrained anger in his tone.

"Yeah, I know. You say that all the time." T K.O responded sourly.

"You should know better than to sneak out." Venemous snarled. "So I'm taking some precautions. Boxman?"

The hefty engineer suddenly appeared beside the purple skinned male, leering at T K.O.

"Darrell! You know what to do." Boxman ordered, the red robot rushing in to put locks on his window, and installing a lock soon after on the outside of his door.

T K.O watched in mild concern, before he put the dots together.

"What?! No, dad, don't lock me in here!" T K.O got up off his bed, ready to run out the door if he could, however, it was impossible since the door was slammed shut in his his face, the lock being turned audible. "Dad, please!! I don't want to be in here!!"

"You're being grounded to your room, and you'll only be allowed to eat when I say you are, and use the bathroom, when I say you are, and your videos game when I say you are. This is the consequence of your actions." Venemous sounded deathly calm, though T K.O knew better. Tears flowed from his eyes, as he listened to his dad. "If you touch the locks on your windows, it'll give you a deadly shock, and if you manage to open the window, this whole place will go into lockdown."

A small chuckle came from Venemous.

"Oh, and don't even attempt to use your Turbonic powers here. These locks are laced with power sapping abilities, which would help you understand why there's a very deadly shock with the locks."

T K.O looked down at the floor, kneeling on his hands and knees as tears fell from his eyes. He was so close to breaking, and sobbing, and letting his father hear his dispair. But he wouldn't get to, seeing as they probably already walked away.

However, he let his body fall the small bit of the way to the floor, as he let out soft cries. He wanted to scream. Make everyone afraid. Make someone sympathetic. He wanted company. Then, an idea hit. He already had company. Maybe his body wouldn't wither away, as he plans to spend the rest of his grounding in the mindscape with K.O. It wouldn't be so bad.

His teary eyes closed for possibly the last time in a while, as he went to his mind.

His eyes opened once more, to the neon colored house. He felt utterly grateful that K.O was in his head. If he wasn't here, well...

T K.O shook his head, and went into the house, not bothering to knock. K.O had heard his coming into the house, and he looked out of his kitchen to see the door wide open, and a depressed looking T K.O flop facedown on his bed. What had happened when he was preoccupied in his kitchen?

"T K.O?"

A dissatisfied grunt was his answer.

"C'mon, T K.O. You know I can't understand you when you mumble into the bed." K.O frowned worriedly, as he sat down next to his look-a-like. T K.O lifted his head briefly to speak.

"I fucked up."

"T K.O..."

"I screwed up. There, happy?" The angsty teen growled, before smashing his face back into the bed.

"Not really..." K.O. sighed, but patted T K.O's back. "I wanna know what happened. I stepped away for a few hours, and you're suddenly depressed."

"Y'know that woman who took us to her Dojo thing?"

"Yeah, I had to save your behind and form Halfsies."

"Well..." T K.O paused, looking up at him. "She said your name." K.O froze, his already pale white face in the neon mindscape turning bleach white.

"...What...?"

"Kaio."

"I-I asked you not to call me that!"

"Exactly. Thankfully I told her not to say it around me ever again if she valued living."

"T K.O! You don't just threaten to kill someone!!" K.O frantically shook his head.

"But she said your name wrong! I wanted her to know that!" T K.O responded, hissing. The two brother-like twins turned away from one another, arms crossed, and looking troubled. Indeed, a lot was on their minds.

Who knew about K.O like that? Obviously, only T K.O did, but hearing it from an unknown source, a hero of all things, made their skin crawl. And this hero, Carol, sounded familiar. Sure, not enough to trust, but enough to feel like they knew her.

T K.O felt uncomfortable just thinking about her, and how she reacted. She looked so hopeful, and sad, and scared, and so many other emotions he couldn't name off the top of his head.

"Do you think...?" K.O started, but stopped before the whole thought could come out.

"What? Of course I think. Why would I have you in my head if I didn't?" T K.O hissed, just barely looking over.

"N-no, that's not..." He sighed, turning back to face T K.O. "You've never told anyone about me. Not our dad, Boxman, the robots, anyone!" T K.O's arms closed around himself a bit more tightly. "So how would she know my name! A hero!"

"Yes, I know! I'm freaking worried, okay?!" T K.O suddenly burst. "She said it like she knew more about you than I thought, and it was after just saying my name!! She looked so sad, and hopeful, and- GRAHHH! I can't believe all that happened today!!" He screeched at the top of his lungs.

"First, Carol says your damn name, then I come back home at the wrong time, and I get locked in my room! This is such a shitty day!! I'm gonna die by the time I'm un-grounded! I just want to go back to Carol! I can't believe I'm saying that either!" He screamed, before falling back onto the bed, tears welling up in his eyes.

"I-I want our mom back..."

K.O watched with concern deep in his eyes, before he took T K.O's hand, and squeezed it.

"I-I know... I know that. But, guess we won't get her back no matter what..." K.O's own eyes teared up as he uttered words that he hated terribly. "Because she's dead. Dad said so..."

T K.O let his tears go, as they rolled down the sides of his face. He sat up and pulled K.O into a hug, starting to sob. K.O hugged back automatically, trying to hold in his own tears.

"It'll be okay, T K.O... We can always go back to the Dojo place tomorrow-"

"We can't! You idiot! Dad locked us in our room! I'm so cob-damn scared, K.O." He shuddered, furiously wiping away his tears as he stayed in the hug. "We're locked in here and we'll never get out..."

"Maybe I can try...?"

"No, you can't. The stupid locks are all energy zappers, and it'll take away my turbonic energy if I try to escape."

"But it's only taking away turbonic energy, right?"

"Yeah... But..."

The two stayed in a hug for a moment longer, before T K.O pulled out of the hug, mascara marks down on his cheeks. "Don't hurt yourself too much then. But, not yet, okay? I still don't know what it could do to you."

"I'll be okay, Grumpo." K.O smiled sadly, teasing the spiky haired teen. T K.O glared at him, before huffing out a small laugh.

"Want to take over for the night? I think your headband is still in my dresser if you want to." T K.O offered, laying back on the bed.

"Oh! Sure! I haven't gotten decent sleep in a while. But, I think I'll keep up your look for as long as possible, you know?" K.O smiled, and the edgy teen nodded, sighing.

"Good luck. You're gonna need it."

"Thanks... Bro." K.O hummed, liking the thought of calling his look-a-like his... Brother.

"See ya' bro." Especially when T K.O would chime in with it.

With that, K.O teleported out of the mindscape, waking up on his side next to the locked door. He carefully got up, and looked out the window, seeing it was dark outside. He now understood why T K.O told him not to attempt to get out now, since nobody would actually be awake there.

The more cheery teen pulled off the pentagram shirt, and shuffled around in one of the dresser drawers, pulling out his wristbands, headband, and a plain white tanktop. He pulled on the tanktop and the wristbands, leaving the headband on the top of the dresser for later. He took off the shorts and pulled on a new pair of sweats, sighing as he finally got into bed. Almost as soon as his eyes closed, he was out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dun dun dun~

How're they gonna get out? :) Hueheueheuheeu