Continuing the scene from Snippets 38A when Fisher and Price went into their house and found Robert Parson waiting for them.

For a few long, lingering seconds after Robert Parson made his presence in their kitchen known, the Ministers Gray were silent, even in their internal communication. Price, the one who was out in the physical world at that moment, stood motionless in the open doorway. His small raccoon mouth hung open, sharp canine teeth visible. After those few seconds, his eyes closed, before a very soft sound of disbelief escaped him. Still, he said nothing. Fisher was just as silent in their private pocket universe. Neither of them said a word, either to the man himself, or to each other.

Finally, Price's eyes opened, as the small raccoon simply walked past the kitchen table where Robert was seated. He moved to the fridge in the corner, pressing the footpad there to make the door swing open. The bottom shelf was reserved for his stuff, and he perused the contents for only a second or two before snatching a small, eight ounce bottle of pale ale. After another thought, he reached up to take a second one. Then he turned, letting the fridge close behind him as he went straight to the plastic Fisher Price steps (from the actual toy company) that were set up against one of the chairs. Marching up them, he hopped onto the booster seat that was there so he could sit comfortably. Both bottles came down on the table, and he used his claws to pop the caps off. One of the bottles was sent sliding over to Robert, until the man used a finger to stop it.

Inhaling the scent of the ale from the small bottle, Price lifted it in both paws before taking a sip. He let the alcohol slide down his throat, appreciating the taste and sensation before lowering the bottle. Still, he said nothing, choosing to simply sit and stare silently and expectantly that way.

Robert understood, taking his own bottle and sipping from it. Just like the small, furry figure across from him, he also took a moment to allow the taste to linger, then set it back down.

Only once the human had taken that drink did Price finally speak, his voice adopting a mix of curiosity and caution. "You know Elena and Sterling will forgive you. They just want to talk."

Raising an eyebrow at that while letting his finger play along the side of the bottle, Robert asked, "Forgive me for which part, killing a man they wanted to interrogate and potentially use, or knowing that one of that man's creations is running around looking exactly like their child?"

"What, there's one of those Biolem things who looks like Simon?" Price demanded sharply.

"That bastard," Fisher finished while slamming one large fist down in his other paw. As soon as the heavy bear had switched places with his drastically lighter partner, the Touched-Tech scanner and object teleporter in the kitchen had instantly swapped out the raccoon's chair and booster seat with a much sturdier and larger seat meant for him. It was so quick, the chair didn't have time to break.

Half-turning in that larger seat, Fisher leaned over to open the fridge from right there, rooting in it to find a full forty ounce bottle of his own. This one was a good vodka, and he too used a claw to pop it open before guzzling a fair bit. Then he pointed with another claw. "Where's this imposter hiding out at, huh? If they think they're gonna screw with our family again just when they were--"

"Not Simon," Robert interrupted, holding up a hand for him to stop while squinting at the large bear on the other side of the table. "Wait, you really don't know what I'm talking about, do you?"

"If you don't mean-- wait." Fisher squinted, slowly taking another pull from his drink before giving a confused grunt. "You think there's a Biolem of Cassidy out there? Why would that be a, wait…"

"Before I say anything else, before any of us say anything, I need to know we can keep all of this between us," Robert immediately put in. "Just the three of us, at least for now. It's important for Cassidy. That's why I came to you two. Because I know you care about them as much as I do."

Fisher didn't reply at first. He just stared at Robert in silence, the shaggy bear's expression that of someone who was trying to figure out if he was being messed with. Slowly, he raised one paw to scratch his head, which transitioned smoothly into the much smaller form of Price on his own chair doing the exact same thing. "Uh, yes?" the raccoon finally managed. "I mean, yeah, of course we'll keep it between us, for Cassidy. But just what, err, secret are you talking about? What's this about a Biolem Cassidy? Are you sure about that, Robert? I mean, really sure? It isn't… something else?"

"I am," Robert confirmed. "As certain as I can be, anyway. Things are a little fuzzy from right when I was shot out there, which still isn't fun, let me tell you. But I do remember that much."

"Hold up, what?" Price gave him a confused look. "Are you saying you found out about this Cassidy Biolem while you were out in Utah? But you didn't say anything before, and-- wait, is the Cassidy Biolem the one who shot you? That's it, isn't it? I knew there had to be some other reason someone got the drop on you. They came after you as Cassidy." The small raccoon began making very threatening, dangerous motions with his paws, voice turning dark with a promise of violence. "Well that is it, I'm gonna find that bastard's corpse, dig him up again, and--"

"Wait, stop," Robert interrupted, shaking his head quickly before things could get out of hand. "No, she isn't the one who shot me. It--ah, it's more complicated than that. It's actually about Avant-Guard, Paintball's group. I know this might be a lot to take in, but I need you to trust me."

Price made a noise of disbelief, paws slapping down against the table as he leaned over. "Wait, a Biolem? Were we smelling a Biolem that whole time? You're telling me we got ourselves all worked up because we thought we smelled Cassidy, but it was really just a Biolem of the kid?"

It was Robert's turn to blink at them hesitantly. "I uh, I'm not sure, but if you're saying you thought you smelled Cassidy with Avant-Guard, then yeah, it was actually this rebel Biolem."

Fisher came out then, giving a heavy grunt as he absorbed that. "I don't believe it. We went over that so much. We agonized over whether we should say something or not, and how to say it. We were so scared for that kid when we thought they were the one running around out there getting into all this trouble. Now, after all that, you're saying that the entire time, Paintball has been--"

"-- going around with a Cassidy Biolem on his team, yes," Robert concluded. "Do you think he knows?"

"Wait-- what-- huh?" Price was back out, looking bewildered. "Do we think who knows what?"

Robert clearly wasn't sure where or how he'd lost them, and both raccoon and man stared at each other for a long moment in uncertain silence before he finally replied, "Paintball. Do we think he knows that Style is a Biolem of Cassidy? They must have seen each other unmasked."

"Style is a Cassidy Biolem?" Saying those words out loud, voice a bit dull with surprise, Price settled back in his chair. "That's… huh. And you're one hundred percent positive about that?"

Robert smiled faintly. "Do you think I'd bring it up here if I wasn't?" He took a moment, sipping from the beer once again before launching into his succinct explanation. While the raccoon and bear listened very intently, occasionally switching back and forth, the man told them exactly what had happened out there in Utah that day, and what he'd put together shortly before being shot.

If Fisher and Price could have looked at each other, they definitely would have been exchanging long stares in that moment. Instead, the two of them simply settled on giving each other several lingering seconds to stare at Robert himself, switching from one to the other. Finally, Fisher started with a slow, "You're saying the two who helped you, ah, Style and Poise, are actually Biolems themselves. Both of them?"

"Who have turned against their creator," Robert confirmed. "Quite thoroughly as well, I'd say. They were there to take that transportation machine of his, and we all saw how that went."

"Yes, we did," Price agreed, squinting that way. "We saw how you took him right off the board."

Robert's voice was even, the man not so much as shifting his weight. "Do you disagree with that choice?" It was clear that he didn't particularly care that much if they did, though he was curious.

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Price was the one who answered, rapping his small knuckles against the table decisively. "Well, considering I can't think of a single good reason for him to have a secret Cassidy Biolem, let alone one who thought he was bad enough to turn against him, I'd say he got off pretty easy. So in that sense, I kinda disagree with shooting him in the head and letting him get off that easy. But no, I guess I don't. Not really."

Fisher took over then, taking a long pull from his drink to finish it. "Okay, so you're saying two members of… of Paintball's team are really Biolems. One of whom is… is a Cassidy Biolem."

Just like that, Price was back, offering a helpless shrug. "We thought if we kept saying 'Cassidy Biolem' out loud it would help make it all less weird. It didn't work. Still sounds strange." Shaking that off, he carefully asked, "But wait, how, ah, certain are you about this, exactly? I mean really certain. There's no way you could have, err, been mistaken about who this Biolem actually is?"

"I might've been less sure before, back in Utah," Robert allowed. "But I've been busy since I made it back here." He lifted the cane that had been resting against the table, gesturing with it. "Might still be a bit slower than usual right now, but I can get along on my own well enough. I found another one of Pittman's labs, with some of his, uh, let's call them dumber creations. The ones who don't really think for themselves that much. It's gone now, along with everything that was left in it. But there was enough on the computers for me to say yeah, he had a Cassidy Biolem, and now it's been disconnected from the system. Putting that together with what I saw while I was in Utah, and a few videos of Avant-Guard floating around the internet, and yeah, I'm willing to put all my chips on Style and Poise being Biolems. Which means, going by size, the Cassidy one must be Style."

Fisher emerged, resting his chin in one paw with a thoughtful grunt. "If that's true then I don't know if we really…" His large head tilted, fur falling in his eyes as he considered that. "Huh. I suppose they are about the same size, now that I think about it." The bear had sat up by then and was holding his paws out in front of him as though mentally measuring. "Yeah, that could work out, especially if one of them wears shoes that give them a couple extra inches or so."

"What?" Robert tried to parse what he was doing, but now he was the one who was lost, and staring at the bear's paws didn't help. "Who are you talking about? Who's about the same size?"

Price was the one who popped out then, so he could point that way with a triumphant, "Hah! So you don't know everything after all. I was starting to think you were always ahead of the curve."

Fisher appeared, voice sounding thoughtful. "Wait, you don't think we could've been mixed up?"

Then Price was back, emphatically shaking his head. "Absolutely not, our noses don't lie. We were smelling that one, not the other one. You know as well as I do that we wouldn't make that sort of mistake. Uh, right?" He'd sounded completely confident at first, but then thought again.

Fisher came out, already giving a firm nod. "Of course not. We each picked up the smell. There's no way we could both make the same mistake, not like that. We know what the kid smells like. And we barely interacted with the other one. No, we definitely had it right. We just didn't know about the Style being a Biolem part. But if they're both on that team then, uh, wow."

Price was back, head bobbing up and down rapidly as his excitement and energy practically boiled over. It was clearly all he could do not to jump up on the table itself, but he still had some decorum. "Damn straight, wow. Come on, you know the kid had to have recruited her. That must be why the Biolem switched sides in the first place, and brought the other one along with her."

Before either of them could say anything else, Robert held out both hands and gave a low whistle for attention. "Hang on, wait. Go back. What are you two talking about? Who convinced the Biolems to switch sides? Do you mean Paintball? So you think he knows they're Biolems."

"Uhh," Fisher put in thoughtfully, "I'm pretty sure they'd be a bit confused if they didn't know that, considering-- wait." His shaggy head tilted sideways as he mused aloud, "We can tell him, yes?"

Robert's voice was dry. "I'd certainly appreciate not being left in the dark, if I get to have a vote."

Price popped out, and that time he couldn't stop himself from hopping up on the table after all. He'd just make sure to clean it later. This was too big, he needed to be able to pace back and forth properly without going all the way down to the floor. "Yeah, yeah, we can definitely tell him. If we were willing to keep it secret, he will be too. It's about Cassidy, he won't ruin that for them."

"About Cassidy?" Robert echoed, starting to question that before trailing off as realization started to sink in. "You're not just talking about the Biolem, are you? So what exactly are… wait."

"There you go, you made it," Price urged, making a 'keep going' gesture with his paw. "All this makes a lot more sense now, doesn't it? You had part of the puzzle, we had another part. And now we just have to put them together. You knew there was a Biolem of Cassidy out there, and we knew that Cassidy themself…" He leaned closer, unable or possibly just unwilling to keep the excitement that he had a big secret to share out of his voice. "Well, that's who Paintball really is."

He hopped off the table, switching places with his partner so Fisher could announce, "Cassidy was the kid at the motel that night. Obviously, they didn't hear everything that happened, just enough to figure out Simon isn't an innocent civilian. They've picked up more over time, but that night they didn't know much. They Touched with those paint powers, escaped our people, and started investigating their brother in between playing superhero. At some point early on they clearly worked out that Sterling and Elena are part of it, probably while spying on Simon. Either way, they made some friends and put this team together. One of whom is a Biolem of themself?" He drummed his claws thoughtfully on the table. "How do you think that happened?"

Even with his lingering injury, Robert couldn't stay seated then. He pushed himself up from the table, took that cane, and slowly limped around from one side of the kitchen to the other as the full weight of that settled in. They were right, the news really did fill in some holes. He had thought Cassidy might have some level of knowledge about what was going on, that the kid and Biolem could have switched places now and then or something. But this? He never considered they could have been this involved in everything. The Paintball disguise was a very good one. It hadn't even occurred to him to think that Cassidy could actually be in that costume, posing as a young boy, despite what he already knew about the Biolem. Which was clearly why they did it. They were hiding what they knew from their parents, and how better to do that than by making everyone think Paintball was a boy? Hell, the way Paintball threw himself-- themself off roofs and straight into danger was so obviously Cassidy, if there wasn't that layer of thinking they were a boy, Sterling and Elena probably would've realized the truth about them a long time ago.

He needed another drink. Stepping over to the fridge, Robert gestured to the row of vodka. "Do you mind?" After getting the go-ahead, the man took one out and took a long pull while memories of everything Paintball had been involved with ran through his head. Which, naturally, made him need to take another drink. Especially when his memories made it all the way to that Pencil fight.

"Wait a second," Fisher realized after giving the man a minute to process all that and start to come to terms with the news, "you said something about keeping a secret even before you found out about the Cassidy thing. Was that about the Biolem Cassidy, or was there more to it?"

Price popped out, landing easily on the floor before squinting that way. "Yeah, you had to come to us for a reason, and neither of us think it was just to share that. So what else is going on?"

Shaking off his lingering surprise (it was going to take awhile to actually get over that, but he could compartmentalize somewhat), Robert nodded. "Yeah, I did come over for something else, telling you about the Biolem was only part of it. The other part is… I suppose asking if you can keep even more secrets would be more than a little redundant and even insulting by this point, wouldn't it?"

"You're certainly in trouble if we can't," Fisher agreed with a small smile. He reached out a paw then, gently resting it on the men's shoulder. "You're our friend, Robert. You know that. So are Elena and Sterling. It's like we said before, they'll forgive you for the Pittman thing."

Price popped out then to add, "Pretty sure they already did, to be honest. They know why you did it, and to tell you the truth, I think they're grateful that you took the option of using that bastard out of their hands. They saw what he was capable of and the… pragmatic part of them couldn't help but want to at least get knowledge out of him, if nothing else. They thought killing him immediately was just them being emotional about their family. You took care of it. They didn't like that you did it without saying anything to them, but in the end it was the right thing."

"Which," Fisher noted after switching in, "is the long way of saying, of course you can trust us to keep secrets. We're already going to have to apologize to them for everything else, why not add one more to the list. What is it?"

Robert let out a long breath. "I said that I confirmed my suspicions about the Cassidy Biolem after finding a lab and destroying it. But I came out of there with more than knowledge and a few files. There was another Biolem in there, one of the intelligent ones, with an actual mind."

Price appeared, already cursing emphatically before staring that way. "If you tell us that piece of shit uploaded his brain into a Biolem of himself, I swear--"

Head shaking, Robert replied, "No, not that. This is a… good one, I just need a really safe, really secret place, and yours seems like the best choice." He raised his voice a little, calling toward the doorway leading out to the hall. "It's okay, you can come in now!"

Man and bear alike turned to look that way, one expectantly and one in confusion. Fisher and Price were both slightly taken aback that there had apparently been someone else in their house without them knowing. But on the other hand, if anyone could pull that off and get past all their security, it would obviously be the man who had helped install all of it.

Through that doorway came a small figure, a boy who looked like he couldn't have been older than eleven or twelve, with a wild bird's nest mess of light brown hair. He held a McDonalds bag in one hand and a blue backpack in the other. "Umm, hello, Mr…. Bear.

"My name is Anthony."

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