Emil marched out of Space Paisanos with purpose. Carving through crowds, he and Leon had no time to spend on street performers, not until they saw Daphne's face. His eye caught lime green hair up a block and across the street, right where he last saw her band.

He held out a hand. "We should slow down now. Gotta act casual." It took someone else bumping into it to realize Leon wasn't there. "Lunar? Where'd'ja go?"

"You! No phone guy!" A familiar redhead waved him down with Leon in tow.

"I'm the one with no phone." corrected Leon.

"He doesn't have accounts, so it's basically the same thing." The wanna-be ViewTuber from earlier met up with Emil by the curb. "I have got a proposition for you!"

In the gaps between pedestrians, Emil saw Cosmic Royale playing another set. It's not like he could talk to Daphne now. He leaned his shoulder on the wall of a tattoo parlor. "Hit us with it."

"Okay. So. My #RoofJumpChallenge," why did he pronounce the hashtag, "didn't end well. You'd think the Moon having zero gravity meant something!"

"Th… The Moon doesn't have zero gravity."

"I had to step away from stunts for a little while." Aaron continued as if Leon hadn't said anything. "But in the meantime, how do I give my subs the craveable content they deserve? All the other cool stuff requires a bajillion dollars! I can't compete with that! So I came here. And then it hit me."

Emil tapped his foot to the song across the street. "What hit you?"

"Stage magic." Aaron spread his hands out. "One of my brothers got into it, and then our mom had us all pick it up thinking we would get famous. She's my OG subscriber."

"Aww." Emil and Leon reacted at almost the same time.

"And this is where you come in!" He pumped his camera in the air. "I can't do magic one-handed. Normally, my sis would be behind the camera, but" his face hardened, "she's gone now."

The other two shared the same concern. Finally, Emil decided to break the ice. "Like gone gone?"

"No, she's off stacking cash her own way," Aaron waved it off, brightening up, "which gets her out of my hair!" Emil barely caught him grumbling, "Already hogged my OG subscriber. Can't have her stealing any more." He thrusted his camera into Leon's hand. "Here. You can film me while I try to steal your buddy's wallet."

"I don't have my wallet." Emil lifted his hands.

Aaron managed to fit confusion, disgust, and concern into one face. "Then you film us." Concern took over when he placed the camera in Emil's hand. "You do know how to work a camera, right?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"Just checking. Let me know when we're on."

Admittedly, it took Emil a little longer than he'd have liked to figure out how to get him and Leon into focus. "You're on."

"What is up, Awesomesauce Nation?" Aaron's hands struck a different pose each second. "Long time, no see! It's your boy, _aaronawesomesauce, and I'm back with my new buddies Summer Solstice–"

"Lunar E-Clipse." corrected Leon.

"Lunar E-Clipse! We'll fix that in post. Tell Awesomesauce Nation who you are."

"Hi, I'm Lunar!" he waved.

"And my man E-Clipssse…?" Aaron needed a thumbs up from Emil to keep going, "is behind the camera. Hope you guys liked my last video! I'm up and walkin' again, but the doc says I gotta take it easy for a while, so no jumps, no parkour, none of that. Instead," he stuck a thumb into Leon's chest, "I'm gonna rob this guy!!"

A few passers-by looked their way, but he didn't care. Emil had to admit he had a strong presence.

"Where's your wallet?"

"It's right–" Leon caught himself. "Wait, should I tell you if you're robbing me?"

"This is part of the trick. Trust the process."

He patted his left jacket pocket. "It's right here."

"Cool, cool. Now take it out and hold it in your hands like this." Aaron pressed Leon's hands over the wallet. Then he froze. "Uhhh, actually, put it back in your pocket."

"Okay?"

"Now look over there!" He pointed toward the tattoo parlor.

Leon looked in the window. "I can see you trying to open my pocket."

"Wait, wait, wait. I think I start with this one first." Aaron took something out of Leon's other pocket. "...The heck is this??"

Leon started to answer, only to be just as confused. "What is that thing?"

"It's mine." Emil recognized the head on a spring. "Got no clue what it's called."

Aaron let it wobble. "So this is what you do for fun?"

"I have hobbies! I play guitar!"

"Yeah, that's what I tell people, too." His eyes widened. "I mean–Shoot! I-I'll cut that in post." He handed the toy back to Leon. "Hold onto this so E-Clipse has something in his life. Now let's get back to doing some crime!"

A young, passing cop slowed down and raised an eyebrow at their group.

"It's okay, I agreed to get robbed." Leon reassured him.

With a nod, he kept walking and let Aaron get back to crime. No crime happened though, unless poking and prodding Leon counted as harassment. His victim took it like a champ, chit chatting while getting his pockets dug through. Sometimes Aaron took something out. Then, sputtering, he put it back after getting caught.

He almost got away with stealing the toy until he dropped it.

Leon pocketed it while Aaron swore under his breath. "Hey, you almost had me that time!"

"Yeah, you're getting closer." Emil hoped to cool down the blood that boiled more with each failed theft.

"I-It's coming back to me, I swear!" Aaron spat. Admittedly, Emil believed him less and less each other time he said it. His faith came back this time, if only a little. "Let's try this again."

"That's the spirit!" Leon's cheering might've been pushing it with the way Aaron grit his teeth into a smile.

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"So," Aaron recited his opening line with a sigh, "what do you have in this pocket?"

"This is where E-Clipse keeps his spring toy." Leon delivered his line with the energy of someone who hadn't done so seven times.

"Wow. Look at that. What about your other pocket?"

Emil kept his camera focused on them, but his eyes glazed over. A duo of jugglers further down the street rescued his attention span. Soon his foot tapping synced with the rhythm of their baton tosses instead of the song that no longer played.

When did it end, anyway? He stole a quick look across the street and saw Daphne standing with Ozzy, her guitar case slung over her back. Goosebumps prickled Emil's skin watching them watch Amir pack up his keyboard.

"Psst, Aaron?"

Aaron bit back anger as he dropped something. "Yeah??"

"Sorry to interrupt, but we gotta take care of somethin' real quick." Emil mouthed to Leon, 'They're leaving.'

Anger melted into something more pained. "What?" Aaron cracked a smile to save face. It didn't work on Emil. "We had a good thing going here. C'mon, think about the exposure!"

Emil handed over the camera. His feet itched to get going. "Hey, hey, we're not gonna disappear, okay? In the meantime, try to cool off."

"Yeah, we'll be right back." Leon followed after him.

"Wait!"

Aaron's shout wasn't enough to get Emil to turn back, but it tugged at his heart strings. He shot him a wave and a wink hoping to ease his mind. Whether it did or not, the crowd soon drowned Aaron out.

Emil and Leon joined a trickle of people crossing the street before being swept into the next wave of pedestrians. So long as they went with the flow, they'd be taken right to Daphne's band.

That was the thought process, anyway. In reality, it took them reaching the electronic Astro Bitz sign from earlier to realize they passed the band's spot. They bumbled their way into the crowd going the opposite way until they reached where Cosmic Royale was, or more accurately, where they weren't.

Emil sucked air through his teeth. "Aww man."

"Do you think we passed them on the way back?"

He stood on his tip-toes to headhunt for Daphne, but it was no use telling one green-haired spacepunk from the next. Also, platform boots didn't provide the best stability. His ankles wobbled, sending him stumbling into the nearby tree. His head drooped in shame. "I think we missed them."

"Oh well." Leon leaned into his eyeline. "You tried your best."

"You're really taking this in stride. I feel like I should be comforting you."

He rocked back and forth on his feet. "Sure, getting a date with Daphne would've been nice, but I'm on the Moon. I'm already having a great day! Add in great sights, great pizza, and a great guy to share it all with, and I can't really ask for much more." He looked toward the sun. "And it's only, what, 3:00? There's so much time for things to get even better."

Emil checked his phone. "Actually, it's almost 5:30."

"Wha?? But the sun's so high up!"

"Yeah, you gotta be careful in Lunaria. The sun takes two weeks to set. It's kinda uncanny."

Leon's jaw dropped. "I never knew that! See? That just brightened up my day even more." He nearly patted Emil on the back before stopping his hand. "Don't beat yourself up over Daphne."

Having seen Amir and Omar, Emil wondered if his no contact rule was a little silly. "Heh. Good thing you're easy to please. With that kinda attitude, maybe the single life won't bring you down too badly."

"And if it does, I can talk to Ángie. He'll give me a whole speech about how I'm too good for anyone. That doesn't actually help, it's just funny seeing him get fired up."

"Really?" Emil chuckled. "I can't even imagine."

"Maybe you'll get to see it someday." Leon looked toward the crowd flowing around them. "We probably keep Aaron waiting, hm?"

"You're right." Emil pushed himself off the tree, following Leon back into the frenzy. "Hungry for exposure?"

"Not really. To be honest, I don't understand why he's so antsy about his magic trick. Making videos is more fun when you're not taking things seriously."

"Rookie! How's a channel supposed to get off the ground if you're not on the grindset? He's tryin' to make it big, get that ad revenue." He rubbed imaginary dollar bills between his fingers, then dropped the act. "Not to get too personal, but I think he's lonely."

Leon lowered his head. "Having so few subscribers probably doesn't help. Especially when most of them are bots."

"Exactly. Nothin' worse than performing to a crowd that won't even look at you. Can't help but want to cheer him up a little."

"Is there anyone you won't cheer up?" His eyes wandered up to Emil as a tender smile broke out. It stopped abruptly. "Wait, wasn't he supposed to be looking for his little br–?"

Unable to move his mouth or hands fast enough to stop him in time, Emil watched helplessly as Leon collided with a woman on his way off the crosswalk. At least he saved Leon from falling in the street. The same couldn't be said about the woman's purse.

Leon took care of that. "Here's your purse back. Gosh, I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"

"A little shaken up, but I'm fine." The lady, dressed to the nines, readjusted her boxy blue hat. The way she drawled out 'fine' reminded him of Texas, even though her accent wasn't quite the same.

Her face reminded him of something else. He snapped his hands a few times, hoping to place it. "Hey, did you go to IFPA within the last coupla years?"

She cocked her head. "IFPA?"

Well, that answered that question. He might as well answer hers. "Interstellar Forces Preparatory Academy."

"Oh no, I–" Something jogged her memory, but it clearly wasn't a pleasant one. Her eyes darted between him and Leon. "I haven't."

"Weird, I feel like I've seen you around before."

She plastered on an awkward smile. "Sorry, but I'm in a bit of a hurry."

"No problem, we didn't mean to hold'ja u…" Flipping through his mental photobook, Emil finally landed on face that matched, one he saw pretty recently. And as he did, Yvette Hook sped off the way she came.

"Hm. Guess she wasn't kidding. Emil, are you alright?"

"I think that was–" Someone barged between him and Leon before the words fully left his mouth. "That girl was–" A rental car bumped into him from behind. "Hey, you coulda ran me over!" They needed a better place to talk. Where Aaron stood would've been great if not for Aaron. Thankfully, a convenient spot awaited them in the other direction. "Follow me."

Hook's eyes met his as she stared back, trapped at the next crosswalk. Emil looked away, toward his destination, the building with the Astro Bitz sign. This time, he and Leon stood under its awning instead of across from it.

In the shadows and stillness, he finally got a word in edgewise. "That was her."

"Who?"

"The girl we're supposed to look for."

Leon did a double-take to where she was currently booking it. "You think so?"

"I'm 99% sure." Emil took out his phone, bringing him up to 100%. "Why else do you think she freaked out?"

"Do we go after her?"

"And chase her down??"

"Okay, yeah, that sounds bad."

"I guess we could text where we saw her and where she's headed." His skin crawled saying that out loud. "Wish Lorie went over what to do when we found her."

"Telling him anything is bound to make him happy. Texting sounds good to me."

"It doesn't to me." Out from the shadows stepped the cop from earlier. Built like a heavyweight wrestler, he'd be kind of cute without the terrifying glare. "Would you two mind explaining yourselves?"

Nothing but uhs and ums sputtered out of Emil's mouth. Leon had the opposite reaction of blurting everything out. "We're with the IF, and we're supposed to be looking for a star ranger who hasn't been reporting to duty for a while. We have official files and stuff about it if you wanna see."

"I think those are s'posed to be classified, my man." Emil strained.

"Before we get into that, I'd like to see some ID." The cop folded his arms.

Emil felt his stomach drop. "Heh. Heh. Funnyyy story, I left my wallet with my brother. B-But he has his!"

"Yeah, I can vouch for him! Here you g–" Leon's hand came out of his pocket just as it went in: empty. He stared at Emil with haunted eyes. "I think Aaron pulled off his trick."

"You've gotta be kidding me. Sorry about all this, Aaron's the boy we were with earlier. He should still be waiting for us up a block." Emil pointed a jittery hand behind the cop, back from where they came. "See?"

Instead of turning, he took the long way around Emil and Leon. "I don't see him."

It's hard enough to tip-toe in platform shoes, let alone on bouncing legs, but Emil saw enough to realize Aaron was gone.

"You got a way of contacting him?"

"We don't have his number." answered Leon.

"He did give us his ViewTube handle!" Emil remembered. "But I don't have an account."

"I can log into mine and send him a message. What was his handle again?"

"Underscore Aaron…" Admittedly, the underscore took up most of his attention. "Didn't he give you a card?"

"Yeah, it's in my backpack!" Leon looked toward the cop. "Do you mind if I check it?"

"Yes."

"…Do you mind if you check it?"

Big and Burly shook his head, his patience wearing thin. "Here's a better idea. If you don't have your IDs, we can call your commanding officer at the station and figure things out from there." His eyebrows rose. "Unless you're impersonating a service member."

"I have his number if you wanna call." offered Emil.

"No need. We'll find it."

Leon's hands plunged in and out of his pockets. "Maybe I just misplaced my wallet."

Emil felt his organs fold into themselves with each pocket that came up empty. Not able to look anymore, he covered his eyes, kicking himself for bringing Hook up. What did he care about the mission? It only got in the way of his and Leon' good time. The best he could hope for now was having a funny story to tell later, but he knew Lorenzo wouldn't be laughing.

"Aha!" Covered in cold sweat and a desperate smile, Leon's voice pulled Emil out of a funk. He reached into his other jacket pocket and pulled out…

The smiley face spring toy.

Needless to say, the cop wasn't amused, but he did lift up a couple toys of his own: two sets of handcuffs.

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