Sam has somehow managed to open the fridge's door and inspect its contents. He half turns towards Caine. <Our names are similar, but you should be able to tell that I am far more handsome.>

Caine is briefly startled, but his expression doesn't show it. Meanwhile, Jamie sucks in a breath in shock and starts coughing on spit. 

Checking that he's alright from the corner of his eye, Caine nods at Sam in apology. "Have you seen him?" He asks. 

Back in the livingroom Erin coaxes Robin out of bed with the promise of waffles, which Mr Atten always has around for the four of them. Robin goes reluctantly, shuffling into the bathroom to take one of the pills he keeps at Caine's place in case he forgets to bring one. 

<No. Do you have olive pits? I am hungry>

He frowns lightly, preoccupied by his dad's continued absence, but answers, negatively, "We get them without pits."

Jamie nudges the lizard a bit as he reaches into the back of the fridge to grab the screwed shut container of olives, opening it up to show him, incidentally offering him the pit-less olives if he'll take them instead. 

Sam gives a lizardly shrug and takes the olives. <Lacks the crunch, but still have the flavor.>

Erin comes in and immediately slides down next to Sam to pet his frills. Jamie hands her the canister of olives so he can go looking for waffles in the freezer. She shakes out a handful and offers them to her newly embiggened lizard, getting the grease all over her hand. 

Robin shuffles in and looks at her imploringly, leaning against Caine's shoulder, "Waffles?" He asks. Caine shakes him off and stalks down the hall, checking his dad's room, as well as the office and its hidden room, and then his own room just to be thorough.  

Erin watches him leave before posing a mostly rhetorical question to the room, "So are we skipping school today, then?"

Sam noms the olives and licks the grease with his surprisingly prehensilve tongue.

"Guess so," Jamie states in answer to Erin's question. 

Ignored, Robin makes a pathetic face as he slumps into the room to take a seat at the breakfast table. He perks up again when Jamie waves a packet of instant waffles at him from across the kitchen. 

Caine comes back in just as Jamie sets the toaster toasting the first four waffles. "He's not here," he says, hovering over Erin, all controlled restlessness. 

"So we're going looking for him, then," she nods, having been expecting this. She shakes out another handful of olives. 

The toaster pops; Jamie puts another load in. He grabs four plates and plops a waffle on each, and then hands them out, pouring a dollop of syrup onto his own from the toppings on the table. The others make their own topping choices and then dig in. Erin shakes the remaining olives into the lid of the canister and sets it down where Sam can get at it easily.

Once they've eaten their fill, the dishes are left in the sink as they gather around Erin's scanner to get a look at the map and the markers she'd copied from the factory. Caine fiddles with the space-apple watch, which he'd picked up earlier from the secret room. Erin absentmindedly offers Sam a leftover raspberry as she brings up the map. There's a lot of points, but there has to be some way of narrowing them down...

Sam noms at the olives and then climbs up the sink to drink some water straight from the tap.

There are several metrics that they could narrow down, including the alien language in it. They can't read the words, but they can notice the repetition of about four "words" around the map.

"Four types of places," Caine says, pointing out the repeated sets of symbols. Erin follows his fingers and nods, zooming in the map to get a closer look at the area around a few of the first category, trying to see if they have anything in common aside from the symbols. 

One of the words appears to be focused largely in the residential areas. Two of the other words appears to be in non-residential areas. The fourth common word shows up all over the place.

Hm. The homes of people replaced by shifters, some unknown category, the workplaces of shifter imposters, and... Bases, maybe? All from the invasion 20 years ago, he guesses, based on the information they collected last night. 

Is there a symbol corresponding to that factory they were at last night? That seems like the likeliest place to start looking. 

The warehouse they visited falls into one of two non-residental word categories. There are four like it around the city, it is the smallest category.

So the last one is probably something to do with supplies, considering the list of weird orders Robin found there. 

He offers his thoughts to the group, who all agree this seems reasonable. 

"So which one should we look at first?" Robin asks. 

"Are there any locations near the factory? We should start there, since that's where we lost track of Mr. Atten," Jamie suggests.

There a couple. One is the residential-area-related-word (it is located in the edge of the industrial zone) and the other is the word that shows up regardless of area.

"That one," Robin says, pointing at the latter marker. "If you're right, that should be a base. All the stuff about where the shifter copies were living and working probably isn't up to date, since this is from twenty years ago, but the bases might still be used by the ones around now." 

Caine nods, agreeing with the logic. He turns to Jamie, "You know anything about the area?" He asks.

Jamie frowns, "I, uh. Normally I'd say yeah, but... I didn't actually recognise that factory last night, so maybe not as well as I thought?" He takes a long look at the map, "The maybe-Base is on one of the side streets, so it's probably not a warehouse like the others around there. It'd be hard to get trucks in there." 

Robin stands, stretching a bit, and then gestures towards the office, "Should we take something from your dad's lair, you think?" He asks Caine. 

Caine hums, then glances at Erin, "Can your scanner tell us anything about the weapons?" He asks. 

She shakes her head, "I tried last night," she explains, "All it could say was that some of them contained dangerous substances, but that they were stored safely." 

"But it might be dangerous to go looking into shapeshifter bases. We should take some of the small ones at least," Robin argues. 

Caine snorts, "Would you even know how to use one?" He asks, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair to give the standing teen a Look. "No, they'd be more dangerous to us than anyone else." 

Robin huffs, but gives in. Mostly. "You know how to shoot though, right?" 

Caine shakes his head, exasperated, "Yeah, I can use some firearms safely, but I have no idea what those weapons even fire, let alone how to use them safely."

"Come onnn," Robin wheedles, "Just bring one, just in case. What if we run into a shifter with a blaster and we don't have one? Never bring a sword to a gunfight!" 

Caine frowns lightly, then sighs and heads into the office, nodding to Erin and then the scanner in a silent request that she follow. Jamie and Robin do as well. 

Is there anything on the weapons racks that looks small, easily concealed, and which Erin's scanner isn't worried about? 

There are a couple of ray guns and a thing that looks like a wand with a trigger. Some other objects also fit in the category, but it is harder to divine how to use them, they could explosives or ammunition.

Caine goes over the weapons Erin pointed out, and ends up picking up one of the ray guns. He's still not sure firing it is a good idea - he has no idea how it handles, if there's any recoil, if whatever it shoots is likely to go through walls... It's just a bad idea in general. But Robin's not entirely wrong that it could be useful, just in case. He tucks it into his jacket's inside pocket and checks to make sure there's no obvious bulge.

This done, he joins Jamie in looking over the various tools and kits. Is the purpose of any of them obvious? Caine has the watch in his pocket, and Jamie still has the lockpick, but there might be something else they could use. 

Some kits in Samuel's wall seen to contain the chemicals found in the supply list. They notice that the possible-residential-place is in route to the other non-residential place near the warehouse.

Also, some places in the map appears to be locations dedicated to produce or store the chemicals in the supply list.

"Hey, Erin, any idea what these chemicals could be for?" Jamie asks. 

Erin turns her scanner on them, pulling out of the map function and switching to the treatment function. 

Robin glances over thoughtfully from where he was poking at one of the larger ray guns, "Hey, that one home marker that was near the factory, that's on the way from here to the base, right?" He directs his question at Caine, since Jamie and Erin are busy bent over the scanner. 

Caine nods, "We could stop there on the way. It wouldn't cut into our time." 

Agreed, they moved to join the other two around the scanner. 

After poking a bit on the scanner the chemicals appears to be... shapeshifter food. Or rather, they are the basic elements that compose the shapeshifter bodies and thus required for their growth.

The side of Erin's mind that knows Sudden Bizarre Alien Medicine feels that makes complete sense, but the other half has sufficient knowledge about chemistry to be completely surprised that even half of those elements are meant to go into a living being without killing it afterwards. Even shapeshifting alien goo.

Once the sugar is identified, Jamie licks a finger and sticks it into one of the bags, pulling it out and sucking it off. Erin makes a face; Caine sighs heavily.

"Yep," Jamie announces, going back for another, "Definitely sugar." 

Robin shakes his head, grinning, then glances down as Erin pokes back to the map. He frowns, "Hang on," he says, leaning in to get a better look. He swipes the map over to one of the markers, pointing it out to Caine, "Isn't that..." he trails off, uncertain. 

Caine stares at it for a long moment. Then he nods, "Mom worked there," he murmurs.  

After a long moment of tense silence, Jamie clears his throat. "Come on, guys, let's get going," he motions towards the door, "We should try to get to the industrial district before school starts, or we'll have to deal with people asking what we're doing out." 

Jackets are grabbed, to combat the early morning chill, and waterbottles and granola bars are packed for later. Before they leave, Erin kneels down in front of Sam. 

"Are you coming with us again?" She asks, "I'll pack you some food if you tell me what you want."

<I will come. I might not be around all the time.> He transmits what he wants for food.

Jamie packs it up for him, and then they all head out of the apartment. 

 As discussed, they make their way to the spot on the edge of the residential district near the warehouse first. They slow to a stop half a block away on the other side of the street, trying to get a good look at the place. Erin brings her scanner to bear, as has become her habit, searching for anything unusual in the area. Robin tries to pay attention to the minds around them. 

It is pretty easy to identify the place. It appears to be a half-ruined candy shop, what makes it really strange is the fact that it appears to be covered and sheets of some kind of white substance. Or at least it was at some point, then weathering and defacement peeled away some of it, leaving a weird ruin.

Looking at it, Jamie finds himself thinking about the attack on the artist... but also about candy, the vivid taste of glucose mixed with artificial flavorings.