The Time from Before (ON HIATUS)

Bonds

"Hup!"

*Bam*

The punching bag whizzed past Mel, narrowly missing her, and slammed into the wall with a resounding thud, sending a shower of sand cascading onto the floor.

"Yo, Allen, what the hell?!" Mel exclaimed, still clutching Allen's PDA, her eyes wide with shock.

Allen, breathing heavily from the exertion, wiped the sweat from his brow. He glanced at the now deflated punching bag, watching the sand pour out of the tear. His mind probably wandered to the storage rooms, contemplating where he could find a replacement.

"Sorry." Allen said, stretching his arms. "It's just so... punchable."

"My man, you broke your wrist like, yesterday." Mel said, pushing off the wall and walking towards him. "And by the way, I got your PDA working. Turns out the bootloader just needed a little love. Flashing it wasn't too hard."

"Ah, I thought it was a hardware thing. Appreciate it." Allen grabbed the device, watched it boot properly, and load up the home screen.

"Hol' up, let's go back to your wrist." Mel sighed, placing her hands on her hips. "How's it holding up?"

"Just fine, really." Allen said, rotating his hand in a circle. "Doesn't hurt at all."

"You and your damn tuned nanites." Mel muttered, a hint of envy in her voice. "Makes me jealous of Marina, even. Can't you share?"

"We still don't know why the nanites in Marina's system integrated so well." Allen replied, poking her side playfully. "Any nanites you get by accident just shut down like they're supposed to."

"I got my own theories." Mel chuckled, eyes twinkling with mischief.

"Is it–"

"No! Ew, gross!" Mel interrupted, smirking. "What did you think I meant?"

"In that case, do you think it's something with her getting partially sanitized?" He asked her, arms crossed.

"That's one of them." Mel said, giving him a knowing look. "Oh, and the other one was cum."

"You–" Allen rubbed her tentacles, messing up the hairstyle she had going on.

"H-Hey! Don't touch my tentacles! They're sensitive!" Mel skipped back, holding her tentacles protectively. "I'm gonna teach them to hold knives if you keep messing with 'em!"

"Ooh, having your tentacles be able to fight too is an interesting idea..." Allen mused, stroking his chin. "Might have to add that to the Inkling/Octoling training regime."

"And speaking of training, when's Agent 8 coming in?" Mel asked, pulling a hair tie from her pocket and securing her tentacles into a ponytail.

"With how fucked scheduling is right about now, I'm just going to have her come in for basic when we get the time." Allen said, tossing the PDA back to her.

She caught it just in time, clicking her tongue in frustration.

Mel caught it with a frustrated click of her tongue. "Ugh, I just fixed this. Don't go breaking it now." She scolded, cradling the PDA like it was her child.

Allen took a deep breath, stretching his muscles some more.

"And sir, are you gonna schedule any of our annual training things?" Mel asked him.

"Annual... Oh, right. We'll get there eventually. Preferably when we have more people." Allen replied, half lost in thought.

"And speaking of people, what about the war?" Mel pressed.