Penny heard her alarm go off and slammed her paw against it, reluctantly beginning to sit up.

Suddenly, everything from the day before hit her, and she sighed, flopping back onto the bed. Had she really done that?

She rested her paw on her pillow. It was slightly stiff. Penny sighed again. So it was true; she really had yelled at Perry. And... shoved him. She shivered as a chill suddenly ran down her spine and hugged herself tightly. She might have done worse if Maxwell hadn't been there, because she certainly wouldn't have listened to anything Perry said in that moment.

It was a small miracle that her pillow wasn't still slightly damp from all the tears she had shed after it all the day before. Once she realized what she did, Penny had run straight back to her room and cried, probably until she fell asleep. Her memory of what happened after was fuzzy, so she almost certainly did cry to that point.

How was he doing? Was he angry at her? She sat up, pulled her knees up to her chest, and bit the inside of her beak. Probably. He had already been in a rotten mood- he had just had that argument with Jordan, for crying out loud, Why wouldn't he be angry with her? She deserved it.

Penny sighed and pulled out her phone. Do we have to meet today? she asked the group chat.

Before she even put her phone down, it pinged. Penny pulled it up to see a notification from Jordan.

No. We're not.

She exhaled and leaned back onto her bed. Thank goodness. If she had needed to work with any of them today she probably would have burst into tears right in front of everyone. Not the best way to prove herself capable and worth everyone's time.

Jordan probably felt the same, honestly- and Perry. Both of them were most likely quite emotionally exhausted. Especially since Perry had claimed that Jordan had a murderous family...

Penny frowned. Where had that come from? Jordan's snap back about Perry being an orphan was true- clearly she knew that, she was his sister- but she had never heard anything about that kind of reputation among Jordan's family. They had a clean slate, as far as she could tell, but Jordan hadn't acted like Perry was pulling a random insult out of the air.

She picked up her phone again, leaving the group chat and starting a conversation with a specific individual. Hopefully she wouldn't be as sick of everyone as Penny- and apparently Jordan- felt.

Hey, Astrid? Can we meet up?

Sure. Just not at OWCA, I don't feel like dealing with any bastard there today.

No problem. Penny hesitated. Unfortunately, she didn't know Danville well enough to recommend many places, unless they met up at the Flynn-Fletcher's house. Where?

Park. You know how to get there?

Nope. Yeah, I'll meet you in...

An hour.

Penny glanced at the clock. 8:32. Got it.

Penny exhaled and forced herself out of bed. rubbing her eyes. Hopefully any sign she had been crying for so long the day before would be gone. Astrid hadn't even seen anything that happened the day before, so having her nag about why Penny was crying wouldn't be preferable. Then they could meet up at the park, which... Penny just had to find. Thank goodness for GPS.

(...)

An hour later, she was padding down the sidewalks of Danville on all fours. She didn't have an owner, so it would probably be fine if she walked on two feet, but she really didn't feel like drawing attention to herself anyway. Besides, she didn't have any cool hovercars or motorcycles like her brother; she hadn't even been an agent for 48 hours yet. Plus it was good practice for if she ever did get a host family, although that ship had probably sailed years ago.

Soon she found the park, and in the distance she could see a glossy white shape lying on the grass, relaxing in the sunlight. Astrid! She was resting on all fours, her eyes closed. She almost looked completely different not wearing her fedora or standing on two feet. The sun bounced off of her clean white pelt, almost making it seem like she was glowing.

Penny bounded up to her. "Astrid! Sorry, am I late?"

The white platypus stirred and stretched, yawning and glancing briefly at Penny before looking at her watch. "I don't think so. I just got here early." She sat up, remaining on all fours. Penny copied her, sitting in a similar position. "This place in the early morning is probably my favorite spot to relax."

"I can see why," Penny cocked her head curiously. "Is it hard leaving your family just to come relax here?"

Astrid waved her paw nonchalantly. "I leave every day. Honestly, I think my family is more weirded out on days when I stay home. Besides, all three of them have work outside of the house anyway."

Penny frowned. "But today's Saturday?"

"Well, Opal's a chef, so she doesn't follow the standard Monday-Friday work schedule. And Mabel works on the weekends." Astrid paused and mirrored Penny's frown. "Is that why you texted me? To learn about my family life?"

"I... No... I just wanted to get to know you a bit better."

Astrid relaxed. "Did you really?"

"Yeah!." Penny bit the inside of her beak. "Is that okay?"

"I suppose so." Astrid stared into space, cocking her head thoughtfully. "I'm just not used to meeting up with agents outside of work. Not really a social butterfly."

"Well..." Penny hesitated. "I wanted to ask you about something that happened after you left yesterday."

"After I left? I don't know how I'm supposed to help, then."

Penny held her paw up. "Hear me out. A few minutes after you left, Perry and Jordan... They got in a really bad argument."

Astrid scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Of course they did, what else is new? I can't believe they're about the same age as me- they're such children."

Penny hesitated. "Perry's really not that bad, he's just..." She sighed, shaking her head. "Never mind. But this fight was, like, really bad. Like, they weren't just taking turns sassing the other." Penny's gaze fell down to the grass beneath her paws. "It ended with Jordan implying that he was mocking that Perry's an orphan and storming out."

Astrid's exasperated look of frustration morphed into what seemed a bit more concerned. "Really? Wow... And you're his sister, so I guess unintentionally it was aimed at you, too. Are you handling it alright?"

"Yeah." Penny shook her head. "No, that honestly didn't bug me that much. My parents died when I was only a few months old, so... It probably hit Perry harder." Penny cleared her throat. "But he said that because of something Perry had said to him. It didn't make any sense to me, so I wanted to see if you understood."

Astrid frowned. "What did Perry say?"

"It was something about how...Jordan has a murderous family?"

Astrid stared at her for what felt like ages, and Penny coughed awkwardly. "Astrid?"

"No wonder Jordan retorted the way he did," Astrid mumbled, shaking her head and snapping out of her apparent trance. "That really was a bad argument, wasn't it? Even I know Perry wouldn't normally go that far."

"So what did he mean by that?" Penny leaned forward, feeling her heart begin to race. "Do you understand?"

"Were those his exact words? 'Murderous family?'"

"I'm pretty sure, yeah."

"Wow..." Astrid's gaze fell to the grass as she frowned. "Well, yes, I do understand what he meant. Are you sure you want me to explain it to you? Jordan or Perry might be better bets."

Penny inhaled sharply. "I...think they're both still cooling off after yesterday," she said quickly. "I mean, it seemed to affect Jordan pretty badly, and Perry... He..." I don't want to talk to him right now.

Astrid sighed. "Never mind. So you understand how we all ended up in OWCA, right? I mean, platypuses?"

"Yeah, totally. Wasn't it the result of an experiment a few decades ago that OWCA needed to take responsibility for? So they just brought us here?"

"Basically." Astrid shrugged. "I guess that summarizes it well enough. So all our relatives have experience in OWCA."

Penny nodded. "I know all that, Astrid."

"I know, I know, I just wanted to remind you. Just in case." Astrid paused, staring into the sky. Penny hesitated, wondering if she got lost in thought. It might be good to pull Astrid out of her thoughts-

"So," the white platypus continued, shifting on the ground. Never mind. "That means Jordan's family was part of OWCA, as well. Not just his parents, though."

Penny cocked her head curiously. "He had relatives other than his family?"

Astrid laughed. "Most people do."

Penny rolled her eyes, feeling her cheeks heat up. "I meant in OWCA. We all probably have family back in Australia, right?"

"Probably. But no, Jordan's father had a twin brother- Archer." Astrid hesitated. "I don't know the story as well as others, which is why it would probably still be good for you to try and squeeze some more information out of Perry or Jordan. But a couple years after Archer- and Jordan's parents- became agents, other OWCA agents started to go missing. Later other agents would find their dead bodies scattered randomly around town."

"That's horrible!" Penny frowned. "Was it traced back to Archer?"

"Eventually." Astrid paused again and laid back on the grass, resting her head on her paws. The movement caused her white fur to shimmer, still caught in the beam of sunlight. "Although, again, I don't know all the details, so I'm not sure exactly how it got traced to him. Either way, it did. About the same time, Archer vanished, completely slipping off of OWCA's radar. No one's seen him since."

"So people just...accept that Archer was responsible?" Penny bit the inside of her beak. "Though it was never properly proven?"

Astrid nodded. "Even though no one can be certain that the murderer was Archer, for the most part it's become common knowledge at OWCA. A lot of agents have accepted that Archer was responsible, including his own family."

"Were Jordan's parents inquired about him?"

"Absolutely," Astrid said. "Although nothing got tied back to them. They did start getting treated with a lot of suspicion and dislike, however, so a few months after Archer vanished, they retired from OWCA. Since then, Jordan's the only member of his family to appear in OWCA."

"Wow." Penny frowned. "I guess Perry's one of the people who believes that. But... His anger yesterday seemed even more passionate than that. My brother's hot-headed, cynical, and stubborn, but he's not unfair. Even he'd understand that Jordan doesn't deserve to take the blame, unless something is clouding his judgement about it. Do you know why that might be the case?"

Astrid shrugged. "I don't understand why Perry does anything. He's your brother- you ask him."

Penny sighed. "I doubt he'd tell me anything. He hasn't even told me what happened to our parents."

"What?" Astrid's blue eyes narrowed as anger filled her face, and she instantly sat up again. "Seriously? He hasn't even bothered to tell you why your own parents are dead?"

Penny shook her head. "Nope. Every time I ask him, he changes the topic or says he doesn't feel like talking about it right then. I think it's still a pretty painful topic for him, so I don't push it."

Astrid rolled her eyes. "No matter the reasoning, that's just completely ridiculous. They were your parents, too. I thought you said Perry wasn't unfair?"

"I said that he wasn't unless his emotions were clouding his judgement," Penny replied, feeling a flash of passion to defend her brother. The same brother she had just tried to hurt the day before... Penny flinched and let her gaze fall to the ground. "No matter the reason, I really don't want to try and talk to him about it again, and definitely not right now, while he's still cooling off from his argument with Jordan yesterday." She glanced at Astrid. "Do...you happen to know what happened to my parents? You're about the same age as Perry, so you were around then."

"No, I'm afraid not. I'd tell you if I did know, though."

"Alright." Penny focused on the blades of grass below her paws. So Astrid didn't know, Jordan and Maxwell probably didn't want to talk to her, and there was no way she was going to try and have that conversation with Perry right now. But at this rate, she knew more about Jordan's family history and drama than her own. Maybe Major Monogram would know, but if Perry was trying to protect her from the truth for some reason, Major Monogram probably wouldn't tell her either. Perry was his best agent, after all- Major Monogram would likely respect some of his easier wishes. Besides, Penny was still kind of scared of him; no matter how much she wanted to learn the truth about her parents' deaths, asking him would be her last resort, especially if he wasn't even going to answer her.

"Penny?" Astrid's voice echoed in her mind, and Penny shook her head, getting pulled out of her thoughts. "You alright? I think you got a bit lost in thought there."

"I did." Penny couldn't resist the grin that came to her face. "I have a plan. If no one else knows or will tell me what happened to my parents, I'm gonna figure it out myself. Just..." She hesitated. "I don't know if I can do it alone. Astrid... Could you help me figure out why my parents are dead, and why my brother refuses to talk about it with me?"

"I-" Astrid blinked. "Really? You want me to help?"

Penny nodded. "To be honest, right now you're the agent I feel most comfortable around who I think will actually be helpful. Plus you're right here right now."

Astrid chuckled. "I am, aren't I?"

"So?" Penny leaned forward, hope filling her body.

'Alright, sure." Astrid smiled. "I suppose I can help you. I don't have anything better to do with my time, anyway. Do you have any idea where to start?"

"Yeah, I have a couple pieces of information that might be helpful." Penny paused. "Do you think my parents' names might help?"

Astrid rolled her eyes, and Penny frowned, feeling dread fill her chest. Did she just screw up her chance of friendship with her teammate? "Yes, I think that is rather pertinent information. We can use their names to search the OWCA database through the mainframe computer and see what comes up." Astrid stood up and stretched. "Who knows, maybe the reason behind your parents' deaths has been right at your paw-tips the whole time and you just couldn't access it because you were in training."

"You're right!" Penny hopped to her feet, her dread pushed aside by a new mixture of excitement and anticipation. "I mean, they were two of OWCA's agents, and they died while still being a part of OWCA. It wouldn't really make sense for OWCA to have no information on their deaths whatsoever."

"Exactly." Astrid began to walk out of the park, and Penny quickly followed behind her. "So what are...were your parents' names?"

Penny hesitated, somehow managing to almost briefly forget. How could she nearly forget her own parents' names? "Carson and Merinda."

"Got it. Let's go find out what happened to them."