Ever since the day Sky came back to the base with Rectify's sword, Void seemed less angry with him all the time, a little more tolerant.
    Sky started to notice an improvement in his skills. He had more endurance, he was faster, and obviously he was quite a lot more handy with a sword. He was starting to hang around with his friends more often, and they started to really get to know each other.
    Then a certain day came. Sky had been dreading it for weeks. He purposefully didn't set his alarm, because he didn't want to get up early. He didn't exactly expect the Commander to come knock on his door when he didn't show up for training.
    Sky sighed as he heard the knocking. "What..."
    "Rookie, you're late for training. Alarm broken?"
    "No..."
    "What, you just get lazy? C'mon, let's get going!"
    Sky sighed and sat up. He'd just have to push through the day. "Fine... I'll meet you there..."
    "Hurry up and I might not make you run too many extra laps." Sky heard footsteps leading away and he took a deep breath. He put on his uniform and grabbed his sword before heading down to the Training Hall.
    Void looked at him as he came in. "Alright, get running."
    Sky just sighed and did as he said after tossing his sword aside. Void raised an eyebrow as he watched him. "Wow, no snarky comment today? Feeling alright, Rookie?"
    "I'm fine..." Sky muttered.
    Void blinked, hesitating. "...Alright, that's enough running."
     Sky slowed to a stop and looked at the Commander in confusion.
     "How much sleep did you get last night?" Void asked.
     "...Not much..."
     "Why not?"
     "It's June twenty-first, CV."
     "So?"
     "It's Father's Day..." Sky looked away. "First one without my dad..."
     Void's gaze softened. "Oh..."
     Sky sighed and picked up his sword. "Anyways, let's just get this over with."
    Void shook his head and took Sky's sword. "Nah, let's take a day off."
    Sky blinked. "...Huh?"
    "Yeah, let's go somewhere, let's do something." Void headed out into the corridor. Sky followed him in confusion.
    "CV, I don't understand, I can train fine."
    Void shook his head. "Rookie, when you're Commander, you're gonna find days when something happens that puts you down, and when that happens, all you gotta do is just take a break. Unless you're in the middle of a battle, finish the battle first. But since we're not in the middle of a battle, we can take a day off."
    Sky hesitated, then nodded. "Okay..."
    "So what d'you wanna do? See a movie? Go out to eat? I dunno, go to a park or something?"
    Sky hesitated. "...I got an idea."
   
Father's Day was never much fun for Ty. Especially not this one. He's been expecting this one to be a lot better since his dad was miles away; but no, his old man just decided to show up.
    Ty had just left the lab, where he spent sometimes hours with Jason hanging out and helping the scientist with his experiments. He was now walking down the corridor with his hands in his pockets, listening to music in his headphones.
    They were turned up loud, so he didn't hear when someone said his name. He kept walking contentedly, when suddenly the headphones were yanked off his head. If you haven't had your headphones yanked off your head, or your earbuds pulled out of your ears, rest assured it is a very unpleasant occurrence that results in much frustration in the victim, and if said victim is having a bad day, the assailant could end up dead.
    Luckily for this assailant, Ty had been having quite a good day; up until now.
    "Hey!" He turned around in agitation and froze. Standing there was none other than his legal guardian.
    The man glared down at the headphones. "Tuh... Can't believe you still have this piece of junk..."
    Ty's eyes narrowed. "Zexy made it for me."
    "Exactly." The man tossed it aside carelessly. "It's junk."
    Ty took a step back. "What are you doing here?"
     "It's Father's Day." The man looked around him a bit tipsily. "And I am your father. So this is the little army you signed up for? I see why it can't win a single war..."
   Ty glared at him. "You're drunk." He observed.
    His father ignored him. "Look at you, little army man."
    "Where's Zexy? Did you leave him home all by himself?"
    His father ignored him again. "Hey, gimme a salute."
    Ty took a step back. "I'm never gonna salute to you, now just go home."
    "That was an order, soldier. Now salute me."
    "I said no!"
    Suddenly, the older man hit Ty across the face and he fell to the floor. Several passing recruits gasped and stopped walking.
    Ty's dad glared down at him in sudden fury. "Your mother may not have respected me but you sure as hell will, brat!"
    "Never!" Ty shouted defiantly.
    His father raised a hand to hit him again, but suddenly, someone grabbed his wrist.
    "What the-?!" Ty's father glanced behind him.
    Ty's eyes widened as he saw General Paxwell holding unto his arm tightly. "Why are you attacking Ellis?" Tom asked.
    Ty's father yanked his hand from his grip. "Listen, jackass, he's my son and my responsibility, this ain't none of your business!"
   Tom glanced past him at Ty, who was still on the floor, the General's expression unreadable. He looked back up at Ty's dad and stared at the taller man solidly. "This is my business. Know why? Because he joined my Division. The recruits in my Division are my kids. You just hit my kid. So I'm gonna give you one chance to leave."
    Ty's dad stared for a moment before he shoved Tom back. Tom stumbled, but didn't fall. He sighed. "Very well..." He cleared his throat. "So here's how this is gonna go down. I'm gonna take my left foot here, and I'm gonna kick you so hard across your face you'll be out for a week. Got it?"
    Ty's dad stared at him in confusion before Tom suddenly punched him in the throat, then kneed him between his legs. He choked and fell to one knee, grabbing his throat.
   "I th-thought you were gonna k-kick me in the face!" Ty's dad gasped.
    Tom glared at him. "You calling me a liar?" Before Ty's father could react, Tom kicked him hard across the face and the man fell to the ground, out cold.
    Ty stared at his limp body with wide eyes.
    Tom looked at him, and glanced around at the staring recruits. He cleared his throat awkwardly. "As you were." Then he walked away.
    No sooner had he turned his back on Ty than a brown and gray blue shot past him, whooping loudly. Tom watched as he nearly ran over Ty, narrowing avoiding him, and disappeared around the corner.
    "C'mon, CV, glide and push!" There was a familiar laugh.
    "It'll be fun, he said, haha hope you can keep up with me old man... I'm gonna make him run so many God damned laps you won't have any legs, see how fast you can skate then you little shit..." Tom looked towards the grumbling to see a very disgruntled Lawrence Void clinging to the wall, shakily inching his way down the hall after Sky on his own pair of rollerblades.
    Tom stared at him in disbelief. "Lawrence?!"
    "Shut up pip squeak, I'm trying to cheer up the kid..." Void growled.
    Ty grinned. The worst day ever had just become one he never wanted to forget. If Sky ever got married, this would so be in his best man speech.
    Sky zipped down the corridor skillfully. He and his siblings would go down to the roller rink every Sunday back in Stillwater Heights. Ty would come too, but since he was blind then, he'd just hang out, eat pizza, hit on people he thought were girls and often times get beat up when they weren't. One time he went on a whole date with a dude thinking he was a chick. Lloyd still won't let him forget that.
    Suddenly, as he was thinking, a flash of dark brownish-grey bolted out in front of him. He yelled and tried to brake quickly, which caused him to flip over and land hard on the floor. He laid on his back, groaning in pain as his senses returned to him, and then he felt something licking him.
    He opened his eyes in confusion and saw a brownish-grey pit bull looking down at him, panting. It looked him again and he sat up. "What the hell?! How are you in here buddy?"
    The dog just barked softly in answer and continued to pant.
    "Grab his collar! Hold him still, quick!"
    Sky didn't know who was shouting, but he assumed this was some recruit's escaped pet dog.
   He grabbed the dog's red collar quickly as he heard fast approaching footsteps.
   "Man, I've been chasing Rascal all day and he just goes right up to you!" Sky looked up, and his breath caught in his throat. There was a girl there. She had bright red hair, like fire, partially covering one of her green eyes. She had fair skin and a very gentle look you didn't see much in soldiers. He put a hand on her hip, looking at Sky. "Funny, he doesn't usually do that."
    Sky opened his mouth to speak, then shut it again, glad he had his sunglasses to hide his wide eyes. He cleared his throat to speak and climbed to his feet, then realized he was on wheels and fell clumsily back down. "Gah- shit... Damn it..." The girl watched with an amused smile as he got up more carefully and rolled over to her holding out the leash. "Here..."
    "Thanks." The girl took it and smiled up at him. "I'm glad you grabbed him. You have good reflexes."
    Sky shrugged. "Well, training with the Commander every day, you kinda have to..."
    "Oh, you're that Commander's apprentice aren't you? Sky, right?" The girl held out a hand. "Alesa."
    Sky grinned. "Call me Adam."
    "Adam. I like that better than Sky." Alesa smiled warmly.
    Sky stared at her a moment before he caught his bearings. "So, um, is that your dog?"
    "Oh, no, I work at the animal shelter in the base." Alesa said. "Void founded it like twenty years ago to house all the lost animals recruits found on missions. I do have a dog of my own though. Her name's Bailey. But this here is Rascal. I named him actually. Mostly because he's always causing so much trouble."
    "Can recruits adopt animals?" Sky asked.
    "If they're fifteen or older." Alesa said.
    "Nice, I'm fifteen! I think I might adopt Rascal."
    Alesa blinked. "Really? God, I'm dying to get him out of my hands. And he really does seem to like you."
    Sky smiled. "Yeah, I love dogs. I've been wanting one anyway."
    Alesa smiled at him. Neither noticed as Void finally managed to drag himself around the corner, leaning entirely on the wall for support. He stopped as he saw the two teens and smiled just barely.
    Sky rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "So... Would you maybe... Like to go out for coffee...?"
   Alesa blinked. "Oh! Um... Sure, why not? But you're buying."
    Sky grinned. "Of course."
    Alesa rifled through her satchel before she pulled out a pen and took Sky's hand, writing a series of seven numbers on his palm. "There's my number." She said. "Call me anytime after seven, and we can set up a date."
    Sky smiled. "Will do. I'll see you around, ma'am."
    "Oh please, it's just Alesa." Alesa smiled and waved at him, before she turned and walked back down the corridor, holding tightly into Rascal's leash.
    Sky watched her go, glancing down at the number on the palm of his left hand. Void leaned against the wall, smiling. "Didn't know you had a thing for red heads."
    Sky jumped and and glanced over at him. He rolled his eyes. "Oh whatever, CV."
    Void just smirked at him knowingly before his roller blade accidentally gave out and he fell on his back with a yelp.
    Sky snorted as he rolled over to help him up. "Uh oh, someone call life alert. A senior's citizen has fallen and can't get up."
    "FIFTY LAPS."