Coming upon the scene, Jamie is almost instantly overwhelmed by the scent, and taste, of sugar. He's always had a sweet tooth, enjoyed maybe a bit more candy and other sweets than was healthy. He's never felt so surrounded by it as he does now, though, despite the fact that the deterioration obvious here should mean there would be less sugar than in any of the candy shops he'd visited before. There's just something about this place...

He blinks.

 The sign reads Gem's Bakery and Confectionary. They beam up at it proudly, taking in the streams of eager customers and the busy hive of employees. Slipping through the crowd, they beam at the boy manning the confectionary counter, coming to a stop before--

--A shadowy figure tips their face up, taking in their features with a keen eye. "Acceptable," the figure says after a long moment, releasing them with a thin, pleased smile, "The target will find you quite pleasing, I am sure." They feel a rush of pleasure and nervous anticipation and--

 --Terror, as the stream of molten plastic chases them through the alley, herding them towards a dead end. They try to dodge away from the trap, screaming as a few drops strike them and they feel--

--Large, soft hands on their face, fingers in their hair, on their back, trailing down--

--Curling up on an old couch, shivering beneath the blankets, the lights on full blast to keep the figures in the shadows from reaching them, knowing--

--I won't be what they want me to be.

And his eyes open.

He gasps for breath, staggering back from the dilapidated building. Behind him Robin's hand flies up to stem his suddenly gushing nose as he half-lunges towards Jamie.

"Robin?" Erin exclaims in concern, tugging out her medtech as she prepares to make another vial. Caine reaches for Jamie, drawing back with quickly-hidden hurt when the other boy lurches away from him, falling to his knees, his hands cradling his skull. 

Squinting, Jamie cranes his head up at the building, searching for something. He has no idea what that was, but while the- the vision, or whatever it was, is fading, he remembers a sign, and the weapons - the plastic guns, he remembers those. 

The building stands there, oddly ominous for a building covered half in white plastic in the light of the day. Looking closer, the plastic does not quite look like glued on strips, but something tighter fitting and unnatural. Easy to miss, if you don't know what to look for.

Jamie knows what to look for. 

That... person, he saw, they weren't hurting anyone. They were afraid, hiding from someone, or maybe everyone. Those people with the plastic weapons... the gear they were wearing looked an awful lot like what Caine's dad was wearing when he left. 

Jamie doesn't know what to make of that 'vision,' but he does know how to spot the stuff those weapons left behind. 

He staggers to his feet and reaches out to Caine, who offers him a shoulder to get his balace on, the stiffness in the other boy's shoulders relaxing when Jamie leans against him. Jamie knows he won't be able to play off his brief rejection as anything but what it was. He can only hope Caine knows it wasn't about him. He probably does. Caine's good at noticing things, though social queues, particularly ones about him, sometimes fly over his head.

Erin holds out another vial of nosebleed-begone  out to Robin, whose nose is in fact still gushing. He necks it and hands the vial back, then turns to Jamie, nostrils pinched between two fingers.

"What was that about?" He asks, nasally, gesturing at the dilapidated building. 

 Having regained his balance, Jamie steps closer to the ruin, reaching up one hand to hover over a long ropy strand of plastic, twisted together from the decades it spent wasting away in the ice and sun. He doesn't touch it; if he'd noticed he might wonder why, but it's an instinctive wariness, so he doesn't. 

"I think I saw the person who owned this place?" Jamie half-asks, half-answers. He pauses for a long moment, then continues, "I think the organisation your dad belongs to killed them," he adds, glancing at Caine. 

As a continuation on her theme of late - Erin turns her scanner on the plastic. 

The scanner helpfully informs what kind of plastic that is and how it's harmless to most creatures.

But with the notorious exemption of being harmful to the shapeshifters, particularly ones in their transitive liquid state.

Erin frowns down at the scanner, lifting it to show it to the others before remembering that they can't read it.

"So Jamie's psychic too, now?" Robin asks rhetorically. 

 "Psychometric," Caine corrects absently, "Like Quinlan Vos."

Robin noticeably stills, turning to stare at Caine, taken aback by the sudden show of nerdiness. He has enough control not to make anything of it right now, but any other time...

Erin steps forward, gesturing at the bearest strand of plastic with the scanner, "It's some kind of plastic compound. It's harmless to just about everyone, except..."

"Shapeshifters," Jamie finishes for her. He steps back from the plastic, glancing around at the others. At their looks, he shrugs, "Some of the things I saw... I think they were some kind of... Seduction specialist or something? Except. Not a specialist. Just told to go seduce someone. Then... I don't know what happened, but I think they were just... minding their own business, living a normal life, when those agents came for them..." 

He frowns up at the faded sign, dangling from one corner. 

Robin coughs, awkward, "That... really sucks," he offers. "At least we know what those guns Mr Atten took were, now?" 

Jamie shrugs, "Guess so," he mutters. Robin pokes at a strip of plastic as they all pause in silence for a long moment.

Giving Jamie's shoulder a gentle squeeze, Caine takes a step back from the building, and then turns away. "Come on," he urges the others, "We have somewhere to be." 

At their own pace, the other three turn away and follow. 

They find themselves approaching another dilapidated factory space, though this one is a solid block of building with a few chimneys rising from the top. It covers half of the city block and bears the faded logo and words "Mercury Synthesis" that they saw in the factory last night.

Eyes sharp as ever, Caine takes in the factory, looking for any sign of movement. He glances over at Erin; scanner out, she pans over the factory, from one side to the other. She stares at the results for a long moment, and then looks up at him.

"Well, there's definitely shifters around. It can't tell anything else, but the scanner can tell me that much." 

Arms crossed, Jamie leans against the wall of the building they've taken shelter behind, across the street from the factory and protected by the thick shadow produced in the early morning light. He hums, "So," he starts, "How are we gonna do this?" 

Robin frowns, glancing back at Erin, "We need better information on what we're walking into," he says. He waves at Erin's scanner, "Do you think you could get better readings somehow? Is there a setting you missed, or maybe if we get closer?" 

Erin looks down at the scanner, taking a closer look at the home screen. 

There are indeed some setting she can fiddle with, though they take a few moments to readjust or require rebooting the system.

She reboots it, then. No time like the present.

Caine, meanwhile, turns back to the factory to keep watch. 

Someone clears his throat behind them. 

When they whirl around to look, Samuel raises an eyebrow at them, "Hello, kids," he states neutrally. He really doesn't need to say anything else to get across the message of 'what are you doing here' and 'you're in big trouble'. 

Caine shifts guiltily, taking in his dad's unimpressed face. He looks down, avoiding eye contact, then glances at the others. 

Robin clears his throat, "Heyyy, Mr. Atten," he says with a strained grin, "Fancy meeting you here." Jamie snorts, nudging him hard enough to shift him over a bit, "Hey!" He mutters loudly, scowling and rubbing his arm. 

Erin hugs herself around the middle, "Sorry, Mr. Atten," she says, about half-honestly, "We were worried."

He raises his other eyebrow, "About me?" He asks, rhetorical. He shakes his head, "You should know better, kids." He gestures across the street, "I'm finished here," he says, eyeing them sternly, "But if you'd snuck in while I was in the middle of the operation you could have gotten hurt." 

"Sorry, sir," Robin mutters, eyes everywhere but his face. Caine and Erin echo him, though Caine addresses him as 'dad'. 

Jamie frowns, rubbing his hands over his arms. Something feels... weird. 

Yeah, it's hard to put a finger on what's off.

Erin's scanner produces a chime informing it has startup. It's oddly familiar.

More importantly gives off a detection alert.

Erin glances down at it, startled. Then she reads the alert, which looks familiar for another reason. She looks up at 'Samuel', wide-eyed.

"We can talk about this more when we get home," the imposter says. He half turns, waving them ahead of him.

The others begin to move towards him. When Caine passes beside her, Erin grabs the gun from his jacket pocket and aims it at Samuel.

"Guys," she says, finger hovering over the trigger, "That's not Caine's dad." 

He gives her a puzzled look, and then notices the scanner. He huffs out a sigh, "Cursed Allurians," he mutters. 

Quickly, he pulls one of his own weapons, aiming it at Jamie. 

"Now," he says, "Why don't we calm down before someone gets hurt?"

Jamie tenses, recognising one of the plastic guns from the memory. Caine, meanwhile, frowns, remembering that most of what was missing from the shelves was from the same section, the weapons that were good against shapeshifters. The one that wasn't was bigger than this one is. 

Robin steps to the side, trying to put himself between Jamie and the gun. Erin's hand shakes, before she takes a deep breath and steadies it. If it looks like he's going to fire she needs to do her best to get him first. 

"Uhp," he says pointing at Robin with his other hand, "Now now, don't move, you wouldn't want to startle me, would you?" 

Robin stills, and the imposter smiles, "That's better," he says. He looks over at Erin, "Now, how about you put the weapon down and we can talk about this like civilised beings?" He suggests, like some strange, villainous version of Caine's dad. 

Okay, he has watched this for long enough and the angle is just right for a sneaky attack.

The four teenagers will spot what appears to be a section of the wall peeling away. It's like someone painted themselves to camouflage perfectly against the brick, then they extend an arm and the paint washes away...

"Deep Hibernation." Says the pointy-eared young man holding a leaf-decorated staff.

There is a surge of green dust that surrounds not-Samuel and the impostor falls asleep.

With the gun out of play, Jamie relaxes. The others don't, or at least not all the way: Erin lowers her weapon, not willing to aim it at a seemingly helpful stranger, but raises the scanner at the same time; Robin steps fully in front of Jamie, completing his intended action automatically, even with the threat out of play; Caine relaxes only the slightest amout, turning all of his deductive skills on the pointy-eared stranger. 

Elves, now? He wonders, What is this, crossover fanfiction? 

Robin snorts despite the tense situation. His own tension broken, he clears his throat, "Um," he says, "Hi?" 

Very nice, he thinks, Very smooth. Good job. 

He turns an inquisitive look at them. Then he asks. "Serious question. What do you guys think about the fact that elves can be naked in public?"

He sounds completely serious.

Robin freezes at this unexpected question, suddenly imagining... things. 

Jamie leans out from behind him, "I support your life choices?" He offers.