Penny watched her brother and Maxwell slip cautiously down the hall and turned to her left, her attention shifting to Jordan. Even though she had sounded confident talking to the others... Her heart was pounding. This might have been DANGER's headquarters, and she was going alone with Jordan. And on top of that... Jordan had been acting weird. He...wasn't a traitor though, right? That was just Perry's paranoia, surely. He wasn't actually working with DANGER or against OWCA or anything. He was just...having a rough day?

But she just couldn't be sure, and that overwhelmed her with guilt. He was her leader, he deserved her trust. Right?

"Are you going to stand there in thought all day?" Penny was pulled out of her thoughts and noticed Jordan, now a couple feet away from her, staring at her expectantly. "We have an hour to find something. Please don't waste it."

Penny flinched and hurried over to him. "S-Sorry." That was harsh, though. He sounded more like Astrid, all of a sudden.

"Okay." Jordan paused at the top of the stairs and glanced down- Penny followed his lead. It looked like a pretty empty, albeit large, room was at the bottom. "Be quiet, okay? Let me lead, but investigate anything you think is interesting. Keep me informed."

Penny nodded back, and Jordan began to creep down the stairs. Penny inhaled deeply, attempting to still her beating heart. Here goes.

She followed him down the stairs, entering a large, empty room, with two glass doors at the very end- probably the main entrance. Propped up against the wall was a large pile of blue...mats?

Jordan seemed to notice her gaze at the wall. "Those are probably for people to lay on to sleep at night. It is used as a homeless shelter, after all."

Oh. Penny coughed awkwardly, feeling her cheeks heat up as blood rushed to her face. "That makes sense."

The red platypus glanced around the room. "Looks pretty safe in here. Let's split up and search separate sides of the room. I'll check on the left."

Penny nodded. "Got it." She made her way to the right wall, the side containing the mats. So she was looking for some kind of secret entrance, probably. Too bad she hadn't gotten any training specific to this mission the entire time she was a Trainee.

She began to run her paws along the wall, feeling for...something. Maybe a secret panel? There was a whole empty section of wall next to the stairs, so it wouldn't be that hard for someone to hide something. Maybe there was a hidden door she could open that was laid along the wall. Maybe just something?

The issue was this was a place where people came all the time. They probably would lean against this wall, it was too perfect not to lean on. So then maybe it wouldn't be quite the kind of entrance she was looking for, since DANGER wouldn't want just anyone to stumble across it. Maybe there wasn't anything there at all? Maybe DANGER was somewhere completely different and Dennis had just run through this building to throw everyone off his track. Heck, maybe Perry and Maxwell didn't even see proof of Dennis, but completely misunderstood their evidence in the first place.

"Penny, over here!"

The hiss pulled her out of her thoughts as she stared blankly at the white wall, her paws pressed against it. Her head whirled across the room, to where Jordan was standing in a similar position to her own. "Penny, I might have found something."

Penny raced across the room to him. "What? What was it?"

"Don't be too loud," he whispered as Penny reached him. "Look at the wall."

Penny followed his gaze and saw a...lock on the wall. It was painted white, and it seemed to be a lock to unlock a hidden compartment in the wall, like a storage compartment. The kind of thing no one would typically bat an eye at. "You think that's the entrance we're looking for?"

"It's worth a shot." Jordan pulled off his fedora and reached inside. Penny watched as he pulled out a safety pin, then another one. Was he going to pick the lock? That would be awesome to see! She had been taught how to in training, but she never really nailed the concept and never gained the confidence to try it in the field...yet, at least.

Penny watched as he carefully unpinned the two safety pins and placed them into the lock. She stood there, rocking on her feet and glancing around to make sure they weren't being watched, as she heard Jordan battle with the locking mechanism.

A few minutes of this later, she heard a click, and whirled around to see Jordan put the safety pins back in his fedora, returning the fedora to his head. "Okay, let's see where this takes us." He carefully grabbed the lock and pulled it toward them. Penny largely expected to see only a small storage compartment or some kind of electrical fuse box inside, but Jordan's suspicions were correct, because she found herself stepping aside to allow a full sized door the room to open all the way.

She grinned over at him. "Good job." Immediately she regretted what she said- why did she need to tell him that? From her, it sounded really patronizing.

Jordan must have not liked her response either, because instead of looking proud, he just looked...disappointed. Maybe he had issues with her, but the more she studied his facial expression, the more it seemed like he had barely even noticed what she said in the first place. He looked more like he hadn't...wanted to find this? The door opened up to a hidden stairway that went directly under the floor, but Penny couldn't see what was at the bottom. This must have been what they were looking for, but he didn't seem happy about it.

What Perry said before they split up flashed through her mind: "You've been acting shady for way too long now." He had been, ever since they found signs of Dennis in that alleyway. He must have just been having a bad day, though, right? There was no reason for her to distrust him.

They stood quietly on the edge of the stairs for what felt like hours as Penny thought about what to say next. "Should... Should we go and get the others?"

Jordan immediately shook his head. "I just got them off my back, I sure as hell don't want to call them back right now. We'll just explore by ourselves."

Well... Alrighty, then. He was the leader. Penny forced a nod back. "Sure... Okay."

With one more quick glance between the two of them, Jordan began to lead the way down the stairs. Penny inhaled deeply before following him, and they snuck down the staircase. When they reached the intermediate landing, the stairs turned, and Penny finally saw the hall beyond the stairs, at the bottom of the second set. This was it... That was DANGER's HQ. They must have found it.

Jordan put his finger to his bill- Penny assumed that was to signal for her to be quiet- and they carefully slipped down the rest of the stairs. As they began to make their way down the hallway, Penny suddenly heard voices from not far ahead.

"... You're sure they won't find you? OWCA has some rather talented agents."

She and Jordan pressed themselves against the wall of the hallway, and inched forward until Penny noticed the subtle crack of a door open. She caught a glimpse of people in white lab coats- not far from LOVEMUFFIN's appearance- sitting around a table, but Jordan rested his arm in front of her chest, quietly pushing her back against the wall and ruining her view into the meeting. Guess she'd just have to listen while Jordan got to look in the room.

"Relax, Rodrigo. It's fine. I gave them a red herring and even lured a rabid dog into the path. I don't think even Perry himself could work around both of those."

A rabid dog? Perry hadn't mentioned that. Neither had Maxwell, but that wasn't really a surprise.

"You seem awfully confident for someone who's been bested by him twice now." It was another voice she didn't recognize.

"What can I say?" That sounded like Dennis again. "Carson and Merinda knew what they were doing when they had him."

Penny froze while she heard someone else say something. Her parents. Now they were involved in the conversation?

Wait, Dennis was the one she was going to interrogate today! If he hadn't escaped, she would have learned the truth hours ago. Maybe she could learn something now?

He was already talking again. "Merinda especially. Carson got annoying most of the time, but I think Merinda's only fault was how naïve she was."

Chuckling. Then a somewhat familiar voice- the accent told her it was Rodrigo again- "I forgot. You and Merinda had...a lot of romantic drama, correct?"

What? What in the world? How could her mother have had "romantic drama" with Dennis? She had had a mate. Dennis had said Carson was annoying, though. Did he mean...something specific by that?

Yet another unidentifiable voice. "I don't think any affairs Dennis got himself involved in should be our concern right now."

Penny had no idea who that was, but glancing over at Jordan, she saw his eyes widen as his face briefly contorted in shock, but just as quickly, it morphed into an almost uncharacteristic anger. He leaned closer to Penny, to the point where his bill was rubbing against her fur, and whispered, "We need to get out of here."

What? But this was their chance to learn more about DANGER! Her chance to learn more about her parents! But one look at Jordan's facial expression proved that he fully meant what he said, so she forced herself to nod in response, and they pulled themselves away from the meeting and quietly back up the stairs.

Once back to the top of the staircase, Penny slipped through the doorway into the main building. Jordan was behind her, and she heard a lock click behind her. She turned to see Jordan closing the door quietly, resting his paws on his hips. "Just locked it to make sure they don't suspect anything."

Oh, that was smart. She hadn't even considered that. Penny opened her bill to reply, but before she could, she felt a buzzing in her fur. Was that...? That was her phone! She grabbed it and pulled it out, immediately seeing a text message onscreen to the whole group from Perry. "Meet Maxwell back in the hallway."

Penny and Jordan exchanged an incredibly brief look before racing back up the stairs into the main hallway- sure enough, Maxwell was waiting by the window they entered through. "Maxwell, what is it?"

The green platypus glanced between the duo before nodding to the back of the hallway with his bill. "That back room that Perry and I checked out, we wanted you back here to show you it." And with that, he led them down the hall to the room on the left.

When Penny cautiously stepped through the doorway, she blinked in shock as her eyes suddenly had to adapt to a thousand of lights from little monitors. After she had adjusted, she noticed the rest of her team- including her brother and Astrid- standing off to the side, as she stared at a wall of security monitors. "Wait... You found a room of security camera footage?"

She whirled to Perry, who smirked back at her before stepping forward. "Yep. And guess what? Do you see anything strange on any of those monitors?"

Penny turned back to the screens and let her gaze flicker over them until they rested on a very familiar looking hallway. "Wait a minute..." Sure enough, there was the cracked-open door, with the members of DANGER holding their meeting on the other side. From here, she could see a familiar white rabbit hunched over a table surprisingly well, almost directly in front of the door. Dennis.

"Unfortunately, the cameras only appear to pick up visual, not audio," a voice behind her said. Penny whirled to Astrid, who was staring at the monitors with her arms crossed. "But I presume you two know what they're talking about?"

How did she know- Penny turned to the hallway monitor again and felt her cheeks flush, even though she hadn't openly asked the question that popped into her mind. She and Jordan would have been completely visible from this camera.

"But all the staff in this building would have access to this room, right?" Penny turned to Jordan, who in turn was watching Astrid. "And surely the innocent civilians who just come to help with the homeless shelter would be confused by all these rooms that aren't even- presumably- in the floor plans for the building?"

So while Penny was thinking of the really stupid questions that she miraculously prevented herself from speaking aloud, Jordan was actually asking valid questions that applied to the mission. What a surprise. She really didn't provide anything to the team, did she?

Perry cleared his throat awkwardly. "Yeah, about that. When we came in, most of these monitors were turned off- specifically all the ones of DANGER. We...had to grab Astrid."

Astrid snorted. "Surprised you didn't choke on your own words there. Yeah, they got me. The room across the hall just ended up being a standard kitchen, so it wasn't that hard to pull me away from it. The monitors were actually set up in a pretty smart way- they could only be accessed by someone with the authority, and they'd just appear inactive to any typical staff member."

"So while Jordan and I investigated, you set up the cameras?"

Astrid nodded. "Exactly, I managed to hack into them. We saw you two as soon as the cameras were open, coming up those stairs." She nodded to a monitor with the stairs behind the wall.

"So I guess you two found their entrance." Penny's gaze turned to Perry, who was glancing between the two of them- his eyes typically resting on Jordan, caution clear. "Did you learn anything useful while eavesdropping on their meeting?"

Penny hesitated. Well, there was the stuff about avoiding their team, and then the information she had learned about Dennis' potential...relationship...with her parents. But nothing else, nothing she could share with the group. "Not really, we were only there a few minutes." She turned pointedly to Jordan. "He made sure we were out of there before they actually shared something useful."

Maybe she shouldn't have said that. Perry immediately turned to Jordan, suspicion written all over his face. "Oh, really?"

"I think I did so for a valid reason." Jordan glared back, immediately defensive. "We found their headquarters, but we weren't prepared to properly spy on them, because that wasn't our goal at all. I didn't want to risk getting caught when I was the only one who knew where they were."

Penny frowned. She was there, too. Maybe he was just getting caught up in the fight? Or maybe Perry was right, and Jordan was a bit more fake than he appeared.

Jordan, however, kept talking. "If you don't like it, then take it up with the Major all you'd like. I'm sure he'd love to hear any complaints you have about me."

Was he provoking Perry now? He kept talking about how much he wanted Perry off his back... Seriously, what was with Jordan today? Something seemed really wrong with him, but maybe Penny really just didn't know him like she thought she did. Not that she knew him well, but she had an idea of his personality...

Perry scoffed and shook his head. "Whatever. I've shared my thoughts with how I feel about you before. I don't feel like dealing with this now."

And Perry backed off from a fight? Penny resisted the urge to grin. Maybe he was finally adapting to the group, or at least getting tired of openly lashing out at everyone. Maybe she was doing something! Maybe she could prove to Major Monogram that she deserved to be on a team with these experienced agents, now that Perry was warming up to everyone. It might help the team have the last push they needed to work well together.

Then again... Now Jordan was acting weird. Maybe that was just her getting way too irrationally hopeful. They had only known each other as a team for...what? Four, five days now?

Astrid cleared her throat. "If you two are done," she began irritably, "we should get out of here. We have our information, and we know Dennis is working with DANGER. We couldn't catch him, but we have reasons why."

"She's right." Maxwell, who was standing right in the doorway, turned to look at Perry. "We should get going before anyone finds us here."

Astrid clicked a few buttons on the computer in front of the security monitors, and soon the ones allowing Penny to view into DANGER's headquarters clicked into static, like there wasn't any cameras even set up, like Perry had described. And with that, they carefully made their way out of the room, erasing any trace they had ever been there as they vanished back to OWCA's HQ.

(...)

As soon as Perry, Maxwell, and Jordan all vanished to do their own things- Perry reporting to Major Monogram, Jordan going to submit and sort out evidence they had gathered, and Maxwell to do…whatever Maxwell did- Penny ran after Astrid, who was walking off. "Astrid, wait!"

The white platypus stopped in her tracks and turned back to look at her. "What is it, Penny?" She sounded almost...frustrated, but maybe Penny was just imagining things.

"I..." Penny bit the inside of her bill. Maybe it wasn't actually that important... No, what was she saying? Of course it was! Astrid was in on this with her. "It's about the issue with my parents."

Astrid's eyes widened, and Penny felt her whole body relax as her teammate visibly began to appear to care more. "Did you learn something while you were with Jordan?"

"I... might have." Penny hesitated and thought back on everything she had collected.

"She's their kid, just like Perry. I can tell by the eyes."

"You and Merinda had...a lot of romantic drama, correct?"

"How did you see her all the time? Close enough to get to know her eyes, I mean?" "Quite frankly, I don't think it's any of your business. It was for no reason related to a crime, unlike what you may be thinking."

"I don't think any affairs Dennis got himself involved in should be our concern right now."

"I think I have a conclusion on why Dennis was involved, too."

Astrid smirked, crossing her arms. "Well, let's hear it."