"B-b-but how is this possible?" she asks Talon utterly confused. "Well Uncle Claw sent me. He said something about infiltrating and learning about the enemy if I succeed and if not, I'm not a good enough agent to work for him. I only agreed to come because Uncle Claws mom broke her leg, and someone has to take care of her and that someone is definitely not me." Talon ends his monologue by brushing his fingers through his perfectly styled hair. Penny would never admit it but over the years he got even more handsome and now age 21 and close-up he was breathtaking. He wears his hair now in his natural color, black, his chest is broader, and he is wearing a three-day beard and even in loose fitting clothes Penny can see how muscular he is.

"What, are you going to stare at me for the next few hours or are we going to eat something?" he asks her teasingly. Penny quickly gets a plate and starts choosing food to hide her blush. When her plate is full she spots Ben and Kayla and walks over to them. "Are those seats taken?" she asks. "No Pen, sit down! By the way who is your partner?" "Me" Talon says sitting down next to Ben opposite Penny. Kayla drops her fork. "You got to be kidding!" "Yep, that's what I thought too." Penny mutters while eating her pasta. Ben looks confused. "That's Talon from M.A.D." Kayla explains to him. "He's Penny's archenemy." "Oh" Ben says his eyes round. "That's unlucky Penny." "Hey" Talon exclaims. "Sorry bro don't take it personal." Ben shrugs his shoulders apologetically and holds out his hand. "I'm Ben, nice to meet you." Talon shakes his hand.

"Ouch! Kayla why did you kick me?" Ben looks at her bewildered. "Well because he is our enemy of course." Kayla looks at him matter-of-factly. "Or do you usually greet your enemy with 'nice to meet you'?" Ben suppresses a laugh. "No, I don't but remember no one here is our enemy and he is Penny's partner so you two better get along too." Talon watches their bickering amused. "You know you two are a perfect fit. You both talk way too much." Kayla and Ben stop their conversation to look at him. Kayla furious, Ben smiling mildly. In the meantime, Penny has finished scooping down her food and gets up. "It was a long day. I'm going to my treehouse. See you tomorrow. Night." She dashes off without any of the others having time to reply. Talon looks after her. He slumps his shoulders "Does she hate it that much that I'm her partner?" he asked out loud without even noticing. Kayla and Ben exchange a glance. "Maybe you should go and see her in her treehouse, it's number…" Kayla stops Ben by covering his mouth with her hand. She glares at him. "Don't you dare tell our enemy her treehouse number." Talon gets up "Well whatever, I'm going too. See you." He lightly waves his hand and leaves the dining hall.

Penny sits on the sofa in her treehouse watching TV. It's already dark outside so she changed into her pajamas, a red hoodie and dark shorts. She gets up and takes out a mug and milk when there is a knock on the door. "Penny? I know you are in there. Please I'd like to talk to you." Talon's voice is muffled through the door. Penny signs, puts the cup down and opens the door. "Come in" she says stepping away from the door. Penny returns to her mug. "Would you like to have a hot chocolate too?" she asks him, holding up the milk. "Ahm yes please" Talon smiles at her shyly and sits down on the couch. Penny prepares the hot chocolate and puts the cups down on the table in front of the sofa. She turns off the TV and sits down opposite Talon. "So, Kayla told you my treehouse number?" "No, I found out all by myself." Talon says self-confident. Penny looks at him eyes round "But how? It's impossible to hack other treehouses." Talon looks at her with raised eyebrows. "Not that I've tried" Penny mutters into her mug. Talon smirks "Of course you didn't. But I'm just the better programmer, I was able to hack the treehouses." He adds casually. Penny looks at him with contracted brows. She realizes him wearing a leisure suit. She slowly starts speaking "You would never go out in a leisure suit and not perfectly styled." She points at his tousled hair. She gets up and walks to her window. In treehouse 133 is light and she sees a girl standing there, waving at her. Penny waves back. She then looks at treehouse 137. It's dark. "Bingo." She says to herself and turns around to look at Talon. "Are you admiring your amazing partner with the incredible hacking skills?" Talon wiggles his eyebrows. "You are definitely not better at programming than me and you live in treehouse 137." Talon's smile falters. "So, I'm right?" Talon stares at the mug in his hands, his ears slightly pink from embarrassment. "I'll take that as a yes."

Talon slowly looks up again. "By the way nice pajamas Penny." Now it's Penny's turn to blush, she glares at him. "So, Talon what do you want?" she asks slightly annoyed. Talon takes a sip of the hot chocolate. "Wow, it's delicious." He exclaims surprised. Penny takes the mug from his hands. "Talon why are you here?" she asks again now angry "Stop playing with me." "OK. OK. I'll tell you," Talon tries to appease Penny by raising his hands in a defensive manner. He hesitantly starts to speak "You, you just left earlier after dinner, without telling me anything. And I, I was wondering if you hate it that much to be my partner?" Penny looks at him with sad eyes.

"It's complicated. We are archenemies. You are supposed to know as little about me as possible or else you can use it to my disadvantage." Penny looks away from Talon and continues "You could ruin my entire career and Kayla's too."

Talon gets up, his insecure expression from earlier replaced by a teasing smirk. "And you actually think I would do that and spoil all the fun we are having?" Penny looks up due to his teasing tone just to back away because Talon's face is just inches away from hers. He stretches out his hand and takes his mug back from Penny. He empties it within a few gulps. "Goodness Penny, it's delicious." He puts the mug in the sink. "I glad you like me and are just too committed to HQ to actually tell me. See you tomorrow Penny." He flashes a smile, turns around and leaves the treehouse. Penny looks after him motionless with wide eyes and flushed cheeks.

The next day in the training hall

"Penny, Talon it's your turn. You need to hit all the targets before they hit you." an male instructor tells them. They stand in front of a separate room in the training hall. "Once you are in, I'll activate a random holographic environment with random targets." "Ha, that's too easy" Talon says while posing with his paintball gun. The instructor smiles. "If you think so, we'll make it more difficult."

Several minutes later Penny and Talon are tied back to back in the middle of the training room with their weapons out of reach. The holographic projection starts, and they are in the middle of a forest. "Are you happy now?" Penny hisses. "Well I'd rather like to be tied to you face to face but you can't have everything I guess." Talon teases. "Are you kidding me? Stop fooling around or else we won't complete this task successfully and then we are out of the camp." Penny closes her eyes, takes a few and opens them again. She then concentrates on her surroundings. "Penny what are you" "Shhh...I don't think our targets found us yet, so be quiet than we have more time." Penny looks around. "We could use this branch over there to cut the rope, then we can go get our weapons." "Whatever you say Penny" Talon says leaning forward, so Penny lands on his back. "Hey!" Penny shrieks. Talon snickers "I thought you told me to be quiet." "Yeah, but what are you doing?" Penny hisses. Talon starts walking. "Obviously getting to the tree, like you suggested." They arrive at the tree and he straightens so Penny is back on her own feet. "OK. Thank you" Penny says awkwardly. "Now we need to get the rope over that branch, the end is broken, so it should be sharp enough to cut the rope." "And we need to hurry" Talon says. Before Penny could ask why, he adds "Because our targets found us." Penny and Talon raise their hands behind their backs and forcefully push them down onto the broken branch. The rope gets caught and due to the force tears. "Duck!" Penny shouts and throws herself onto the floor. Talon does the same. "Where are our weapons?" she asks out of breath. Talon points behind him. "Somewhere over there." He ducks to avoid the next paint ball. "OK, I'll distract them, you get our paintball guns" Penny suggests cowering behind a tree. Talon shows her a thumbs up. "Hey over here!" Penny shouts while jumping out from behind the tree. Talon dashes off to grab their weapons. Penny runs through the trees, changing her direction as often as possible, so she won't get hit. Less and less targets seem to be after her, so she takes the risk and looks back. Talon looks at her smiling and blowing the gun barrel of his paintball gun, her gun hanging around his shoulder. "Seems like they disappear after you hit them." his eyes sparkling with amusement. Penny shakes her head smiling. "You sure like to show off but good work. I just wonder why the holographic projection is still on, if we've defeated all the targets it's supposed to end." Just after finishing the sentence Penny sees a target in a tree. "My turn" she shouts happily while running towards Talon. She takes her gun from his shoulder and shoots the target sitting high up between the leaves. Talon smiles at her excited expression. "Still not over" he mutters and looks around the forest. He spots a flying paint ball nearly on Penny's back. He jumps and knocks Penny over landing on top of her. The paint pall marking a nearby tree. "You OK?" Talon asks worried as he straightens up in order not to crush Penny. Penny looks past him then she suddenly pulls him on her again. "Stay still", she whispers aiming her weapon to the trees. She shoots, and the projection starts to dissolve. "Mission successfully completed." an automatic voice announces.

"Ahm Talon you can get off me now" Penny says. Suddenly realizing in what kind of position they are she starts to blush. Talon stumbles to his feet awkwardly, he is blushing too. "Sorry." He scratches his head. "Oh no my hair. It's ruined." he looks around panicking. Penny starts laughing. "I can lend you my jacket, it has a hood. Oh, and next time keep your mouth shut, I'd rather have some easy tasks to warm up. I'm sure they'll get harder after a while." She takes off her jacket and throws it to Talon. "See you at lunch" she says while opening the door and stepping out of the separate training room.