Poor potted plant. Jamie pats it on the least crumbly-looking leaf as he passes. Robin pauses to poke at the soil and then shakes his head and moves on.

Erin takes the map, copying the red circles' positions on her scanner's map. Then she joins Caine in looking through the papers on the table. Jamie and Robin each take a filing cabinet. 

The files seem to pertain about the purchase of various chemical supplies. They might be typical for this kind of factory, though common household sugar stands out as particularly weird when compared to the other things...

Also, there are files on various individuals from around twenty years ago, thus very outdated. But the positions are recognizable.

Caine lifts one of the files up and nudges Erin, drawing her attention. 

She frowns, "Wasn't he the mayor?" She asks of the file. 

He nods at another file on the desk, "That one's on the old police chief. He invites my dad and I to dinner once in a while."

"Hey, guys," Robin calls, "Is it just me or is some of the stuff this factory ordered really weird?" 

The others glance at him, and then Jamie waves the file he was reading, "There's more people here," he adds, "The Hospital Director, the Superintendent; it's like the who's who of the city circa 20 years ago." 

"So," Robin reasons, "This happened before. The shapeshifters. Or maybe they've been here all along, just laying low?" 

"What about all the other things that have been happening today, though," Erin asks, dissatisfied. "I'm an alien, apparently, and Robin has psyhic powers, and Caine's dad is some kind of secret agent? And we found out about it all on the same day as we found out about the secret shapeshifter invasion?"

The others exchange looks and then shrug; they can't explain it either.

"We should keep looking for Mr Atten," Robin suggests after a moment. 

Erin lifts the scanner, "I still can't get a lock on him," she says, frustrated. 

"What do we do then?" Jamie asks, glancing at Caine, whose brow is furrowed in equal frustration. 

He huffs, "If we can't find him, we don't have much choice but to head back to the apartment," he says reluctantly. 

Agreed, they gather what files they can carry and then head for the exit, Erin checking the scanner one more time. 

Scanner is increasingly less confident in its results, it will sometimes point at Caine, simply because it is using him as the template.

She shakes her head at Caine when she sees him watching. 

Jamie locks the gate behind them as they leave, heading back to the apartment. The walk back is quiet. Caine walks ahead of the other three, leaving them to watch his back with concern. When they get back to the apartment, they beeline straight for the office. 

Robin pokes around the desk, looking for a switch of some kind. Caine searches the bookshelf. Jamie leaves for the kitchen after a few moments, scraping the food from Mr Atten's abandoned plate and sticking it in the washer, and then starting on lunch. Erin pulls out her phone and brings up google maps to compare with the scanner map's new markers. 

Jamie turns to regard Erin as he sets the timer for the mac and cheese, "You're no where near as all right about this as you've been acting," he observes. 

She tenses, "No," she says, tightly, "But my breakdown can wait until we have time for it." She keeps her attention on the screen, avoiding eye contact.

Shaking his head, he crosses the room to stand next to her and leans back against the table, nudging her, "We have time now," he argues lightly, "Since we couldn't find him, we should really sit tight until he gets back." 

Not that he plans to wait more than a day before going to check out those spots on the map, but the idea is to get Erin to open up, not worry herself into shutting down more. 

Their conversation is interrupted by a loud dragging noise. Caine pulls away from the bookshelf and glances back at Robin, noting the position of his hand under the desk: a hidden switch, as expected. 

Robin comes to hover behind his shoulder as the bookshelf slides out of the way, revealing the room they'd caught a glimpse of before. 

There is a vast variety of what looks like high-tech weaponry. Most are obviously ranged weapons in the vague shapes of fire-arms. There are other kinds of equipment, like bits of body armor, high-tech gloves, discs and many other things.

Caine moves to the center of the room, turning slowly to take everything in. 

Meanwhile, Robin heads straight for the phaser-alikes, practically hovering in front of the shelf with delight. Jamie, having left the kitchen along with Erin as soon as they heard the bookshelf moving, eyes a shelf full of little kits and doodads, poking at one of them and jumping back when it sparks. Erin shakes her head and pokes at her scanner. She's not sure whether to expect any help identifying anything in here with it - it is a medical scanner after all. 

Her scanner detects some weapon-components that are potentially dangerous but labeled "safely contained, but handle carefully". She also recognizes lesser versions of her equipment, mostly meant to set bones and close wounds.

She hums, and wanders over to look at the medical equipment, pausing to stop Robin from touching one of the more dangerous weapons. He grins sheepishly, then gestures at a blank spot on the racks, "He took a bunch of stuff," he offers. She nods, turning to look at Caine. 

The younger teen is studying the far wall, where the discs and other gadgets are located. He picks up one of the discs and lifts it up to the light, hoping to get a clearer view of the words written on it. Jamie steps up beside him with a pen-shaped gadget in hand, pressing buttons to alter the bit into various key-shapes. 

"Guess I won't be needing that lockpick set after all," he muses. He looks up as Caine puts the disc back and picks something else up in its place, "What've you got there, Kay?" He asks. 

It looks a lot like a smartwatch, the design is even evocative of "clean", "monochrome", "simplistic" and other Apple-related buzzwords.

It comes to life in Kay's hands with a holographic interface in alien script.

Caine eyes it, then glances at Erin and waves her over, gesturing at the screen, "Can you read it?" He asks.

She and Jamie both lean in for a better look, while behind them Robin picks up one of the weapons next to the largest gap in the rack, looking for some identifier. 

None of them can, the script is different from all alphabets they have been exposed to so far.

The weapons are labelled, but it isn't obvious how to divine meaning from the symbols.

Erin shakes her head, "Sorry, it's not the same as my scanner," she says. 

"Damn," Caine bites out. He sets the watch back down and whirls around, stalking out of the room in possibly the most emotional display any of them gave ever seen from him. The others trade worried looks and follow, Robin settling the weapon back into its spot. 

Caine leans his forehead up against the floor-to-ceiling window in the living room, focusing on the fog his breath makes on the glass, trying to clear his head. He's just being impatient, he tells himself, if he were thinking clearly he'd have stood with Erin and convinced the others to wait for his dad to get back in the first place. There's no reason for him to be so worried - Samuel Atten is the precinct's best detective and apparently also a secret agent of some kind. 

It's not like him to hide something like this from his son, though. He'd only have done so if he believed the danger in him knowing outweighed the danger in not knowing, and Caine can't see how that would be the case. Unless something had proven otherwise. 

He has so many questions; his dad had better be prepared for a real inquisition when he gets back.

Having regained some measure of calm, he turns to his friends, settled on the various soft surfaces in the condo's living room. Erin has curled up with her chin on her knees, looking at her reflection. Robin is laying half-on, half-off the loveseat, squinting at Jamie and rubbing at his nose, thankfully not spewing blood. Jamie is sprawled over the couch, watching Caine watch him with concern. He smiles when Caine nods, beckoning him over. He goes, nudging the other boy over and squeezing onto the couch. 

Jamie immediately flops down on his lap once he's comfortable, patting his bicep, "Better?" He asks. Caine nods, so he turns to Erin, "So about that breakdown?" He asks, getting back to the topic from before. 

"Have I always been a lizard person?" She asks blankly, poking at her face and then tugging at the wig. It, and the illusion, remain stubbornly in place. She's actually not sure how to remove it now that she has it on. 

"Weeell," Jamie says, dragging the word out like taffy, voice cracking in the middle. He clears his throat, "I'm pretty sure Sam hasn't always been six feet long and waist high," he offers after a moment. 

"Yeah, there's definitely more going on here than meets the eye," Robin agrees. 

After a momeny of silence, he starts humming the Transformers theme, causing Caine to snort. Jamie shakes his head, "Sentient Robots are the last thing we need at this point," he declares. 

Robin shrugs, "I dunno, I think we could use some Autobot help. I'm sure they'd be helpful for dealing with aliens." He pauses, "Or maybe someone from Marvelverse. They deal with skrulls all the time, I bet they could help us with Erin's scaly alter-ego."

"Guys," Erin says sharply, "Could we just... not right now?" 

Robin coughs, "Sorry," he says. 

She sighs. 

"Let's just... eat lunch. Wait for Mr Atten to get back."

They do so, Jamie wandering back to the kitchen to finish making the pasta, and then bringing out bowls for himself and the others. 

They eat in silence; at some point, Robin flicks on the tv, turning it to the comedy network, which is showing some old specials. 

The day passes in this way, Erin ignoring any attempt to talk about her problems, Caine watching out the window despite his father's invisibility gadget, Jamie playing with his new lockpick, and Robin falling asleep as soon as he finishes eating, the psychic backlash having left him more exhausted than he'd realised.

The eat a late dinner of fish and chips and then clear the furniture from the center of the living room, pulling the futon out of the couch and settling down to wait restlessly for Mr Atten to return. They fall asleep one by one, Caine lasting longest, playing a game on his phone to keep him up, until he too falls asleep in the early morning. 

They are woken by sounds coming from the kitchen the next day. They don't sound like someone is cooking.

Normally Caine would be the first one woken up by strange sounds in the kitchen. However, since he was awake until the wee hours of the morning, it's Jamie who wakes first instead. 

Lifting his head just an inch from Erin's stomach, he squints in the direction of the hall for a moment, and then lets it fall back down. It's probably just Caine's dad, is his first thought. He stares blearily up at the ceiling for a long moment, waiting for his brain to wake up, and then sits up so fast he wakes all three of the others. 

"Wha-" Robin groans. Jamie pats him apologetically as he gets to his feet. Caine follows after a moment, looking more alert than should be possible considering his late night, and rushes towards the kitchen without delay. Jamie follows close behind him, while Robin curls into Erin's side, accepting her hair pets with a tired sigh. 

"Dad?" Caine asks, as he passes through the door to the kitchen, with Jamie just a step behind.