Disclaimer: I don't own OK K.O.! Let's be Heroes

Title: Duplicate Layouts

Summary: Rad takes Enid's ribbing a bit too seriously after she challenges him to figure out which one of her clones is her without attacking them.

...

"You ready, K.O.?"

"Ready, Enid!"

A circle of clones surrounded the small child. They each held a deadpan expression, hands at their sides, with an almost slumped posture. K.O. hummed to himself, tapping his chin. His tongue stuck out slightly in concentration. The sun beat down above them, making the asphalt parking lot hot on his bare feet. In the background he could just barely hear Rad, lounging in the shade of the Bodega's roof, slurping a milkshake in his lawn chair.

Inwardly, K.O. felt a little jealous, but he quickly shook it off. Rad was much more powerful than he was, and had therefore earned the right to rest and relaxation. Not K.O. Not until his lunch break, anyway.

K.O. slowly made his way around the circle, studying each clone carefully. He wondered how clones actually worked- were they like Jethro, give them an order and they went, or did they each have a mind and personality of their own? Only not. Since they're clones. The boy pushed the gray mortality of cloning into the corner of his brain he pushed all confusing things into- the 'things to forget' pile- and got back to squinting at them, letting out a continuous 'hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm' as he went.

"Pick the one where she was standing before!" Rad called. "It's, like, a reverse psychology thing. You think she's moved, but really she didn't."

That didn't quite sound like Enid to K.O., but he went with the advice anyway, making his way over to the possible clone from whence the circle started. He turned to the clone to the right of that one- it sounded more like her to be one away- and lunged, gently wrapping his arms around her midsection in a hug. It exploded into smoke almost instantly, leaving a hunk of wood at his feet. "Aw, man."

The one to the right of that- the real Enid- reached out to ruffle his hair, letting the others dissipate. "Good try, K.O."

"Found you!" he cheered, pulling her into a proper hug, with less smoke this time around. Enid laughed and accepted the affection.

Rad harrumphed, taking another obnoxious sip from his milkshake. "She cheated."

Enid sent him a scathing look. "I'm no cheater. I'm just good at what I do."

"Oh, yeah?" The alien stood up, sticking his chin out. "I bet I could figure it out like that." he snapped his fingers.

The teenager snorted. "No offense, Rad, but I'm pretty sure Brushhead over here is the best candidate for that. You'd just cheat and use your magic to poof them all."

"I would not!"

"You do it every time," she admonished. "Just admit you can't do it and move on with your life."

K.O. looked up at her. He was still hugging her, but that was pretty par for the course. He was just a huggy little dude, is all. "Does that mean Rad's done the circle test before? And he lost?"

"Well..." Enid trailed off. She looked a bit baffled. "Um. Actually, no. He hasn't."

"Don't need to." Rad confidentially crossed his arms. "I know I'd be able to get you in one go."

"A hypothesis isn't a theory, Rad," Enid returned calmly. "You need evidence to make a claim like that."

"Are you guys fighting again?" K.O. interjected, finally letting go. His arms were starting to get tired.

Enid shook her head. "Nope."

"Not fighting," Rad agreed, then pointed at her. "I'm challenging her!"

She squinted at his finger, then the sun. "Well, I suppose it would get me out of work for a bit longer. Alrighty then, Rad, I'll take you up on that."

"Can I watch?"

"Of course you can watch, K.O."

"Yay!"

Rad chose the spot to be the lawn chair, though he didn't sit down in it. The cramped quarters only offered Enid the chance to make half a circle, and, judging by the smug grin on his face, he knew it, too.

Enid gave him a look like he was a wad of gum on her shoe that had hardened overnight (and he would know; he'd helped her pry it off), but otherwise didn't complain. She, unlike Rad, sat down meditation-style, hands loosely placed on her lap, eyes lightly shut, and Enids of the same likeliness surrounded him. K.O. let out a tiny gasp at the sight, like he hadn't been subjected to it less than five minutes ago. He was holding onto Rad's milkshake for him, something he swore neither death nor heat would rip from his hands.

Rad cracked his knuckles, then his back, and finally his neck. He let out a content sigh. "Alright, K.O., here's your first lesson on clones. There's no such thing as a perfect one. It's like a photo- there's always that one weird shadowy figure in the corner that's not there in the actual shot." He paused thoughtfully. "At least, that's what movies have taught me."

"You got this, Rad!"

"I know I do, little buddy, but thanks." Rad leisurely strolled around the half-circle, arms behind his back like he was examining fine pieces at an art gallery. "There's gotta be somethin' off here somewhere. A different color or... actually, do clones blink? I don't think I've ever seen any of Enid's clones blink."

"Enid's eyes are closed."

"Crap. She thought that far ahead," Rad griped, the tiny tip of his canine peeking out from his upper lip. "That technically counts as cheating, right?"

K.O. shrugged.

"Rah!" Rad threw his arms up. "Whatever! I can totally figure this out."

And perhaps he would've picked one right then, but before he could a booming voice came from over the horizon. "RAD! ENID! K.O.! WHERE ARE MY EMPLOYEES?"

Rad and K.O. flinch. Enid and the other Enids do not. Mr. Gar's head thrusts forcefully through the door, shattering some glass along the way. "Get back to work! And clean this up!"

Rad looked to K.O. to gauge his expression, and found the boy to be steadfastly draining his milkshake, the little traitor. Before he could point it out, however, he popped the straw out of his mouth. "I'll watch the counter, Rad!" He got to the door, standing on his tippy-toes to avoid getting cut, and called over his shoulder: "Oh! And I'll put your drink in the fridge!"

"I'm not getting that shake back," he decided with a sigh, watching the boy scamper into the store, drink in hand.

"You can't hide forever, Enid," he sing-songed, not for the first time. As always, there was no reaction. "It's been three hours. Your butt must be numb by now."

Rad sunk into the lawn chair, legs aching. He propped his chin on his fist and squinted- not for the first time- at the Enids surrounding him. "Seriously, dude. You gotta be bored by now."

Enid didn't take that particular bait. Rad blew a raspberry. He still hadn't quite discerned her reasons for taking this so far- and there undoubtedly had to be something, right?- but that was only a matter of time.

Time slowed to a crawl as Rad pushed on. First, he made faces, but Enid's eyes were closed, and even his best exclamations of "I'm making fun of you, you know!" couldn't get her to open them. Name-calling creased their brow. Brows. All of them. It was a worthless venture, though Rad enjoyed being able to use his extensive vocabulary of mockeries without fear of damaging K.O.'s ears. Finally, after a long look around to make sure no one would notice, he did a stupid little dance, but even that didn't work.

"Wow, you're really going into this," he acknowledged. "Let's see if I can change that."

"Uh, Rad? Enid?" K.O. called uncertainly, as he poked his head out the hole in the door. "It's time to close."

"Close without us!" Rad called back, looking rather frazzled. "You know where the keys are."

"Well..." the boy hesitated, then shrugged to himself. This could be yet another test of his honesty and commitment. "Okay! If you're sure!"

The martian wiped the sweat from his face. "I just let a little kid close a place of business. Geez, am I competitive."

Nothing. Not even a chuckle. Rad let out a frustrated roar. "Seriously!? I just dissed myself! You love dissing me!"

In the distance, he could hear K.O.'s feet slapping against the ground as he went on his way. The oppressive weight and heat of anger pressed in on Rad's ribs. He sent out a ray of lazers just above Enids' heads, and even then she didn't twitch. The part of him not seething wondered if perhaps he should check her pulse. "I don't get it!" he cried. "How can K.O. get so close and I not have a clue? He's just a little kid! He's only known us for a couple of months! I've known you for years!" He kicked the lawn chair to channel his frustrations, watching it skid off to the side.

There was a distinct and familiar poof!, over and over again, as half of the Enids turned into logs. The half-circle had gone from all Enids to Enid, log, Enid, log, and so on by the time he finally looked at them.

"Are you serious?"

The Enids didn't reply. One of the logs, unbalanced by the hasty poofing, toppled over. The thud was the only sound for what felt like miles.

"Did you just give me a cheat code?" Rad asked. "For a challenge? Who does that?"

I do, she seemed to say into the silence.

Rad let out a long, barely controlled sigh, falling to his knees. Of all the ways he'd expected today to go, this was not one of them. "Why is it that a little kid can figure this sorta thing out, but not me? I literally fight next to you every day. We've been sparring with each other for years." Admittedly, not all of that had been sparring, some of it had been full-out fighting, but 'sparring' sounded better than 'trying to pulverize each other.' "I just don't get it, Enid. You're always one step ahead of me and a half-step in front of K.O. You don't even care about any of this, but you win anyway. How am I s'pposed to be a hero when I can't even beat those odds?"

He's not sure how long he sits there, trying to decide whether to give up and come back later, preferably with some sort of clone-see-through-goggles, when a finger pokes him in the head.

"Hey," Enid says.

"Hey," Rad says.

Enid withdraws her finger. She's half-crouched, relying on the tips of her feet for balance like all good ninjas do. "You, like, need a hug or something?"

Rad snorks back some snot. "No."

"'Kay."

"I didn't get to choose yet."

"You would've chosen wrong."

"How do you know?"

"I saw you eyeing the one to the right of the middle one," she admitted with a shrug. "I don't repeat the same trick in one day."

"I hate you."

"Thanks." Enid took in a breath through her teeth, creating a half-whistle, half sizzling grease sound. "You do know the reason I beat you every time is because of the way we fight, right?"

Rad looked at her. She didn't seem to be making fun of him, though the comment wasn't exactly nice. "What's that supposed to mean?"

She nodded to one of her logs. "Well, I'm a ninja. My whole thing is deception and hiding and stuff. And you need to see what you're looking at to get it with your fingers; upfront, all there, no shadows or clones. I pwn you because I've got the type advantage."

"So analytical," he commented, sitting up properly. One of his legs sprawled out next to her toes, but Enid didn't seem to mind. "You should be, like, a teacher."

Enid let out a long laugh, which she cut short with a blunt "No."

"Aww, come'on," Rad insisted, mostly just to irritate her. "You did a good job with K.O."

"K.O. is an innocent cinnamon roll that none of us deserve," Enid replied. "Normal children are those seeds in spices that are hotter than the actual spices, so the chef throws them into the garbage disposal."

"You've got a way with words."

"Thanks. I probably got it from writing all those fanfics in middle school." The teenager stood up with a small grunt, holding out a hand. "Feeling better, you big baby?"

"A little bit." Rad took the offered hand. He was a lot bigger than her, but Enid never failed to be just as strong, if not stronger, though she did struggle a bit on his dead weight. "You need to stop skipping arm day, dude."

"I do leg day, not arm day." Enid cast his thin ankles a scathing glance. "You need to do leg day. Like. Ever."

"Says the woman with twigs for hands."

"Ah, but I don't need to worry about my upper body strength. And you wanna know why? Because I do leg day."

They pester each other about their workout schedules while making sure K.O. closed up properly, knowing full well he did but not quite ready to head on home. Enid's arm slipped between one of his as they made their way down the street. They both pretended not to notice.

Author's Note: Eyy, look at me, writing some ambiguous stuff again. My fanfics usually tend to fall solely in the 'ship' or 'not ship' category, but this one kinda fits into either.

Writing these three dorks was a lot of fun! (Also, I finished this as three in the morning, though I will undoubtedly proofread it before it enters the archives)

-Mandaree1