Penny paced the hallway just outside of the dorm room area, Jordan and Astrid both leaning against the wall as they waited for Perry. Whatever had happened to Perry and Maxwell after the other three had left, it had really shaken them. She anxiously bounced up and down, desperate to get an update from her brother. They had actually worked together really well all day, considering, but this was probably about to ruin the progress they had made, knowing her luck.

"This is so weird," Jordan mumbled. "I don't know why they can't just tell us what happened."

"I-It must have been traumatic or something," Penny said quickly. "It's the only explanation I can think of."

Jordan rolled his eyes. "Yeah, because Perry would never keep a secret from us."

She couldn't argue against him. She wanted to insist he was wrong, that Perry would never keep anything from her, but she had felt more distanced from Perry recently than ever before, what with him getting closer to Maxwell.

"I'm just shocked at how concerned he's seemed about Maxwell," Astrid spoke up. "I don't know if they had ever even spoken before Monogram teamed us up."

Finally, there was movement down the hallway. Penny's gaze flicked over to see Perry walking down to the three of them. He had a grim expression on his face, and Penny felt her anxiety boost just watching him. As Perry reached the rest of the group, Penny glanced over at Jordan and Astrid; they were both watching him silently, their arms crossed.

"I guess it's finally time I update you guys." Perry sighed, closing his eyes and rubbing the bridge of his bill. "Maxwell is gonna be incapacitated for a while."

Jordan raised an eyebrow. "I thought he wasn't injured."

"He…wasn't, but he's not functional either."

Astrid shook her head. "Please stop talking in circles and just tell us what happened."

"Astrid, the DANGER agent that you saw approaching before you were knocked out…the human?"

"The one who attacked Maxwell in the camera room after I was taken out, right?"

Perry nodded. "Turns out, Maxwell and I…actually knew who she was."

Penny nervously clasped her paws behind her back and looked at Jordan, who spoke up next. "I presume that's not good, based on everything that's happened since we left."

"No, um…" Perry groaned, burying his head in his paws. "She was…. Esther Bridges. A member of DANGER…and a member of Maxwell's host family."

Of all the things Penny had mentally braced herself for, that was at the bottom of her list. "What?!" she gasped.

Jordan scowled. "Maxwell's lived with a member of DANGER this whole time?!"

"Don't act like he's been complicit in this!" Perry snapped back. "Why do you think Maxwell's been so shaken since then? He loved her the same way any of us love the people in our host families!"

"It's a lot to take in," Astrid said firmly. "Let's not get ourselves twisted up over this right now."

"I don't want to just stand there and watch Jordan act like Maxwell hasn't been a better OWCA agent than Jordan ever was," Perry said with a scowl.

"I didn't say anything bad about him!"

"You implied enough." Perry crossed his arms.

Penny bit the inside of her bill anxiously. "R-Remember, you two said you were going to have a truce until we defeat DANGER-"

"Penny, I'm not just gonna stand by and let Jordan imply that Maxwell's not trustworthy!"

"Jordan didn't do anything of the sort," Astrid interrupted. "And, quite frankly, I think it is perfectly reasonable to be skeptical of Maxwell now."

"I have spent the last hour sitting with Maxwell, and the entire time he had the energy to say one thing to me," Perry snarled. "You two do not have the right to say anything of the sort about him. Knowing what I do now, I'd still sooner trust him than either of you." With that, he stormed off.

Jordan scowled after him. "What an insufferable child. So cynical and yet still too naive to see how dangerous Maxwell could be."

Penny could barely keep up with the conversation; she was still having so much trouble processing what she had just learned. "You don't really think Maxwell could have been a spy…do you…?"

Jordan scoffed. "Right now? Who knows."

Astrid sighed. "It's our job to be skeptical of him. As far as I'm concerned, we'd be stupid to ignore the possibility."

"Let's see." Jordan began counting on his fingers. "He's always so quiet, we can never know what's on his mind. He's supposedly super emotionally distraught from this, which has conveniently given him an excuse to not have to talk about it. Oh, and isn't he the one who suggested we infiltrate DANGER this way in the first place yesterday? Strange."

Penny shook her head, desperately pressing her paws against her ears in the hopes that it would block out what he was saying. "I-I can't do this right now. I'm s-sorry." She felt her voice break with tears and ran blindly to the closest exit, hoping that maybe some fresh air would help her.

As soon as she made it outside, she sat down in the grass and sniffled, staring up at the sky. This felt like it had been such a long day, and yet the sun was still high in the sky. What was she supposed to do now? She had been so proud of herself for finally getting the team to function, and yet… It was like she just painted over cracks in the wall. If this was the state of their team after all the effort she had put in so far, maybe there really wasn't anything she could do.

She felt tears rolling down her cheeks and buried her head in her knees. What kind of agent was she? She hadn't even seen Maxwell crying at all since this news came out. She couldn't get a host family, she couldn't get her team to work together, she couldn't keep her emotions in check to prioritize her job, she couldn't get her brother to feel more comfortable around her than Maxwell, she couldn't…she couldn't do anything.

"Penny." She heard a soft voice speak up next to her and quickly looked up, rubbing her eyes and desperately hoping she didn't look too pathetic.

Jordan was sitting next to her in the grass, his black eyes reflecting his concerned expression. "I'm sorry if I sounded harsh."

"N-No, it's not your fault. This is the kind of thing I should get used to now that I'm an agent."

"It's not the kind of thing we should have to deal with, though." Jordan sighed, pulling his knees up to his chest. "This is hard for all of us."

"But the rest of you have thick enough skin that you handle it better than me." Penny buried her head in her knees again. "I was so excited that we were all finally getting along."

"I wish it was that simple." Jordan shook his head. "I don't think the Major really knew what he was doing when he teamed us up. Might've been a little too naive."

They were silent for a moment before Jordan broke it. "I can't believe Maxwell was living with a member of DANGER this whole time. How did he not know?"

"He…said something about not being sure what Esther's job was."

"Maybe." Jordan hopped to his feet. "I guess we'll see."

(…)

"Have you seen Perry?" Penny asked hopefully, staring at Peter.

The panda bear shook his head. "No, not all day."

"I think he's been with Agent M ever since you got back." Carl poked his head out of a cubicle. "You should check whatever room he was placed in first."

Right. With Maxwell. That would make sense.

Penny mustered a smile and nodded in thanks before wandering away towards the dormitory sector. She hated that her first reaction had to be bitterness; of course Perry had been around Maxwell all day, he was going through something so hard that she couldn't even comprehend it.

She made it to the room Maxwell had been moved to and waited awkwardly in the hall. She didn't wanna interrupt them, but she also didn't want to be alone. She got some weird looks as she stood in the hall, but things stayed fairly boring until her brother eventually left the room.

Perry blinked in surprise when he noticed her in the hall. "Penny! Is everything okay?"

"I…was just waiting for you."

"Oh." He gave her a small smile. "I guess we haven't been spending much time together since Monogram put us on the same team, huh?"

They started walking down the hall together. "How's Maxwell?" Penny asked hesitantly.

"Not great." Perry sighed. "For all the time I've been around him the last few hours, he's only spoken to me a couple times." He shook his head. "I…can't imagine the pain he's in right now."

"Has anything like this ever happened before?"

"In the history of OWCA? Probably. In recent enough history that anyone I know would remember it? Nope."

"So…. Maxwell's owner is also the one who attacked Astrid, then?"

"It doesn't seem like it, actually." Perry frowned. "Astrid said she felt like the person who hit her was behind her, about her height. Probably Dennis."

Penny tilted her head up at her big brother. "But you didn't see anyone else?"

"Not a soul. I saw Esther, Astrid, and Maxwell when I went upstairs. Whoever it was probably ducked into the kitchen, none of us took the time to check in there."

They fell silent until they reached the lobby area preceding the dormitory. "I….guess this is gonna put us on a bit of a hiatus, won't it?"

"Maxwell's certainly in no state to fight right now. And I…" Perry hesitated. "I don't really feel comfortable leaving him right now, honestly. But Monogram wants me to talk to him again soon and go into details about what happened, so I guess it'll depend on what he decides."

Penny sighed, anxiously bouncing on the balls of her feet. "I hate waiting."

"I know. I do too."

She glanced at her brother again; he looked more distressed than she had expected based on his tone of voice. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

"I…guess I should tell you." Perry glanced around. "Maxwell's not the only one who got his cover blown. Esther…knows me."

"What?!" Penny gasped.

"She met my host family just a couple days ago." Perry crossed his arms. "Esther and Linda were even becoming friends, same with Esther's daughters and Phineas and Ferb."

"Do you think Esther's gonna tell them?"

Perry shrugged helplessly. "I have no idea. But what I do know is my family will consent to the memory wipe again to keep me, so the three strikes rule applies to me. Wiping Esther's memory won't change the fact that she's a member of DANGER, even if she did consent to it to keep Maxwell."

Penny didn't really know how to respond to that, so… She didn't. As they stood there in silence, Penny heard a familiar voice slowly coming closer. "So then you really think Maxwell could be dangerous?" Was that… Astrid?

"I think there's no way for us to know for sure. The best case scenario is still that Esther has way more information about how OWCA functions now if she just learned Maxwell's an agent." The agents speaking rounded the corner; it was Astrid and Jordan. "Worst case scenario, Maxwell's been a spy for who knows how long." Jordan's eyes widened as he saw Perry and Penny standing in the room and quickly looked away.

Perry scowled, balling his paws into fists. "You can't be serious."