Chapter 10 – The Stakeout

Buster could feel himself hyperventilating. Suddenly his bedroom was looking a lot like that closet in Crystal's office. How did he get trapped in here again?

No, no... he was fine, and free. It was Crystal that was trapped, locked away behind bars. It was strange having seen and heard from his would-be killer on TV in the aftermath and never having this reaction. But something about his voice, here and now, invoked a visceral reaction within the koala.

A derisive laugh hissed through the phone. "Didn't faint on me, did ya?"

Buster controlled his breathing and, with shaky hands, raised the phone to his ear.

"W-why are you calling me?" he asked.

"Can't I check in on my least favorite koala?" He could practically hear the smile in Crystal's voice.

"Don't you have better things to do with your time?"

"That's the funny thing about jail," Jimmy said. "You get a lot of free time. I've read a few books, caught up on some trashy TV, and still have time to plot your downfall."

"Why are you doing this to me? What's the point?"

"Everyone's got their own story, Moon. You're the villain of mine."

Buster paused. "I... I'm not a villain."

"That's not what I saw in the Kilborn interview. Now the whole world sees you the way I do."

"Only because you bought Kilborn!"

"What? You think I...?"

Jimmy burst into hysterical laughter that Buster swore lasted a minute straight, possibly accompanied with knee-slapping. He caught his breath and laughed again before finally saying, "That's rich! I almost wish I did. As if I knew you would do something stupid like try to refute the truth right after I told it. Kilborn saw right through you, that's all that was."

The only thing helping Buster through the wave of humiliation was the small comfort knowing that he chose not to accuse Kilborn of being Crystal's stooge.

"Jimmy, I don't want to rush you," an unfamiliar voice said from Jimmy's side, "but this is breaking a ton of rules."

"Gimme another minute, okay?" Jimmy said, his voice tinged with annoyance. "Yeah, I learned something over the months, Moon. People feel sorry for losers. They identify with them 'cause there's a lot of losers out there. But nobody likes a liar. Nobody wants to get hoodwinked. I was taking the wrong approach when exposing you, but I get it now."

Hang up. You can hang up at any time, Buster thought. But knowing Crystal, even that would be taken as a slight, and there would likely be consequences.

"Crystal, where does this end?" Buster asked. He had to know where this was going. "When will you be satisfied?"

"I want you to feel what I feel. I want you to bleed the way I'm bleeding. I want you to sink to where I am."

"You almost killed me! Twice! Isn't that enough? I have nightmares... I have ever since that day. I haven't really known a good night's sleep in months. You're always tormenting me."

"You think you're the only one that has nightmares?" Jimmy snarled. "In my nightmares, I have the power to make people's dreams come true, I elevate their lives from mediocrity and obscurity. Then this little imp infiltrates my life, he tricks me with promises he knows he won't keep. The imp exploits and humiliates me in front of the whole city, over and over again. He snatches away everything I've ever worked for and cared about: My company, my reputation. My daughter. Do you know what happens to the imp? The world stands up and applauds him. It celebrates him. He's rewarded and thrives at my expense, while I'm shoved into a box to be forgotten. Oh, wait, that's my living nightmare."

Something about the way Jimmy's voice cracked when he mentioned his daughter instilled just the tiniest bit of hope in Buster. In that storm of rage was a light... if he could just appeal to that light...

"Porsha's opened up a bit since she came with us. She reminisces about happier days with you and her mom. She talks about how you used to be... Jimmy, you don't have to do these things, you don't have to be this guy. How would your wife feel if she saw the man you've become?"

Jimmy fell into a silence so intense Buster could hear his furious, barely restrained breathing on the other end.

"You keep her out of your mouth!" Jimmy spat. "You're walking on thin ice."

"Just consider—"

Jimmy let out a sharp laugh. "You're such a pathetic little hypocrite. You want to talk about my family? Let's talk about yours. How would Bruce Moon feel if he saw the little con artist you are now, huh?"

Buster's heart skipped a beat. "What do you even know about my dad?"

"Admittedly, not much," Jimmy said. "I'm just assuming he's spinning in his grave like a propeller after seeing what became of his loser son. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you learned all your lying and scheming from him. Maybe you're just making daddy proud."

"I could seriously get fired for this," the other person with Jimmy whined.

"Yeah, yeah, alright. Just one more minute."

Buster wasn't sure if he was getting used to Jimmy's insults or if Suki's words about his optimism were still lingering in his heart, but he felt a sudden renewed defiance. "If any of this was meant to intimidate me, it's not working. You won't keep me down, because I stan optimism!"

"...Are you threatening me?" Jimmy growled. "You just made a big mistake!"

"W-what? How did you get a threat out of that?"

"I don't know what you said, but I didn't like it."

"But—"

"Shut up! I wasn't gonna say anything, but now I want you to sweat it out. You're gonna love what's coming next. My only regret is I won't be there to see your face when it happens. Sweet dreams, Moon." Jimmy finished with a dark chuckle, but the call continued.

"Next time I'm gonna need you to whine a little less like a bitch when I'm on the phone, thanks," he heard Jimmy say in the distance.

"But I'm the one doing you a solid!" the other guy complained, much closer to the speaker now.

"Yeah, I appreciate that, but—"

Click.

The line was dead.

As unpleasant as that call was, Buster learned something incredibly valuable from it: Suki was absolutely right. That was Classic Crystal—plenty of insults, a threat or two, flashes of hostility—but nothing quite cunning. He was anything but the mastermind behind the sullying of the Moon name.

It must be Cleo Keller.

Buster knew what to do next. Trying to mitigate the damage as it came in simply wasn't working, and he didn't want to wait for whatever this next move Jimmy was teasing to go through. It was time to go to the source.

Jumping into the seat at his desk, Buster started up his laptop and began a long and thorough search of the internet on Redshore City's top fixer, the woman known as Cleo Keller.

For the first time in weeks, Buster felt like he had purpose again. His search went late into the night and bore no fruit, yet he laid his head on his pillow with thoughts full of potential rather than nightmares. There was so much potential, in fact, that he woke up early the next morning and immediately pulled his theater troupe into the operation. The den looked like an improvised data center with its menagerie of laptops, tablets and phones scattered about, all dedicated to a search that was escalating into a full-blown investigation.

"You weren't kidding, Moon," Ash said, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "This lady is a ghost. I've only done a little digging, but I haven't found proof that she even exists."

"And that's why we're expanding our efforts," the koala replied.

Buster went into director mode and dished out orders to each member in the house, as well as Alfonso, who'd come over to lend a hand on his day off.

"Ash, Johnny, I want you on social media duty. See if you can find discourse around scandals involving Redshore bigwigs, especially the scandals that seemed to go away quickly and quietly. You'd be surprised what people will dish out in the comments."

"You got any specific sites?" Ash asked.

"All of them," Buster said. Ash pursed her lips, causing him to add on, "But start with the largest ones, all right? Meena, Rosita, you focus on search engines and try to find Cleo Keller or any variation of her name."

"What do you need me to do?" Alfonso asked.

"You and Gunter can focus on the celebrity gossip sites. Crystal dated this woman a few years ago, one of these sites must've picked up on it and had something to say. Anything to give us a lead."

"You can be counting on me, jah!" Gunter said with a salute.

"Ms. Crawly," Buster started, and nearly jumped out of his fur when she suddenly appeared next to him. She passed a hot mug of coffee to him. "Keep the coffee coming," he said before taking a sip.

"I can do that," Ms. Crawly said before retreating to the kitchen.

Buster watched with hope and pride as his team went to work, then hopped on his own laptop to do a bit of digging. He looked up fixers in Redshore with the idea that if he couldn't find Keller, he could find another fixer and maybe get them to spill the beans on her. It was a longshot admittedly, and he wasn't even sure if fixers made their services available through the conventional web. After around thirty minutes, he looked up from his screen and realized a member of the household was missing.

"Porsha?"

As if on cue, Porsha walked into the den, deeply engrossed in her phone.

"Give me one sec," she said. "I'm on to something."

"No rush, we're going to do this all day if we hav—"

"Aha!" Porsha shouted triumphantly, startling the whole room. "I found it! I was looking through my pictures but couldn't find it at first because the album only had the pictures on just this phone, and the one I was looking for had to be like four phones ago. No, five! I had that one foldable phone... can you believe that thing broke the fifth time I folded it? Why even make a foldable phone if...!"

"Honey, focus," Rosita said, patting Porsha's side. "What did you find for us?"

Porsha gave an embarrassed grin. "Okay, so, I had to go into one of my ancient photo albums in the cloud and... I found a picture I took of Cleo with my dad at the Christmas gala years ago." She held her phone out and suddenly found herself surrounded as eyes poured over the image. Jimmy, dressed in a sharp red suit with a Santa hat perched on one of his ears, had his arm around the waist of a snow leopard with dark hair and a dazzling dress to match his suit.

"They made a cute couple, and she had plenty of style," Porsha said. "She taught me my shades game! Of course, daddy had to go and mess that up. I haven't been in touch with her since they fell out."

"Can... can I see that?" Alfonso asked. Gently, he lifted the phone with his trunk and held it up to his face. The elephant's eyes glimmered with familiarity. "I recognize her!"

Buster looked on in disbelief. "You know Cleo Keller?"

"'Know' is a strong word. I've seen her out and about when selling ice cream around Crystal Plaza and even around the strip."

"Alfonso, are you sure this is the same woman?" Meena asked.

"Oh, it's hard to forget a woman like that," he said with a broad grin plastered across his face. He felt the heat from Meena's gaze before he saw it. "I mean... you know... there aren't a lot of snow leopards in Redshore. Heh heh..."

"Right..."

Buster clapped his hands and rubbed them together in anticipation. "This is amazing news! With Alfonso's help, I think we're going to take a much more direct approach with Cleo Keller. If we bring up a map, do you think you can point out all the places you've seen her?"

Alfonso nodded. "I think so."

"I think I have zip ties in my room," Ash said.

"Wait, what?" Buster blinked, not quite sure if his large ears heard that right. "We're not going to kidnap her!"

"You aren't being very clear on what exactly we're going to do with her. When you said a direct approach..."

"Talk. Just a nice friendly chat if we can track her down."

Ash shrugged. "All right, but zip ties can help with that."

Buster gave one of his rare parental glares that told Ash to drop it. "We'll come up with a strategy to approach her and then we'll talk this thing out like adults. I'm sure we can reach an understanding or offer some sort of appeal that'll convince her to stop helping Crystal."

"Um, Mr. Moon, could I make a suggestion?" Johnny asked. "If you need a strategy, I know a guy that could help out with that. We all know him, actually. He's really good at this kind of stuff, I swear!"

"Sure, Johnny. Who did you have in mind?"

"I've taught illiterate ogres literacy so they could read their enemies' correspondence and ambush them, winning them the war. I've conquered star systems with a small fleet of starfighters. And most recently, I led and completed an ultimate-level raid in a record amount of time."

Ryan puffed his chest out with pride as he recounted each of his recent conquests.

Ash narrowed her eyes. "That just sounds like a bunch of video games."

"You got that right!" the tiger replied. "You can check my Twitch channel for proof. That raid has over fifty thousand views."

"I'll take your word for it," Buster said. "Johnny's really vouching for you, Ryan. Show me this master strategist he was boasting about."

"He boasts about me...?" Ryan's attempt to hold back his smile completely failed once Johnny gave him a thumbs up. "Don't worry, I won't let you guys down. Anything to get the show up and running again."

Buster felt a bit hollow after hearing that. He found no proof online that what Ernie Boyd said about them being replaced at The Majestic Palace Theater was true, but so much of these past few weeks was essentially Murphy's law put into action. It was only a matter of time. "The floor is yours," he said.

Ryan went into the den and arranged the mass of devices into an order only he understood, then lifted a tablet with a map Alfonso marked off with sightings of Cleo Keller. He studied the image before moving to one of the laptops and bringing up precise locations on Google Street.

"First things first," Ryan said, punching up his voice to exude an air of authority. "Before we go out on this mission, we need to consider three things: Location, positioning, and numbers.

"Location: the strip. This section in particular." He flipped the tablet so everyone could see where he was pointing. "We're focusing on this spot because the tourists make it easy to blend in. Strategy: I've picked out strategic positions on Google Street so you can see them in detail. We'll see Keller coming, but it'll be a lot harder for her to see us. And finally, numbers: Always manage your numbers. Not everybody gets to go on this mission."

"That's fine," Rosita said. "Recon isn't really my scene."

Ryan circled what was left of the Moon troupe in a stringent stride not unlike a drill sergeant, looking over them with intense scrutiny. "I'm gonna divide you up into pairs," he announced. "Ash! Johnny!"

Johnny stood rigid and at attention, the sudden barking of his name reminding him of the early days with Klaus Kickenklober. Ryan placed a hand on his shoulder, easing him out of those memories.

"Hey man, I'm just pairing you and Ash up, okay?" Ryan's voice was smooth and assuring. Johnny nodded. "Now, where was I? Ash and Johnny are the first pair. Mr. Moon, I want you and Gunter together. Meena and Alfonso can make the last pair. And make sure you bring your ice cream truck, Alfonso."

The pachyderm perked up. "Hm? Why?"

"It's good to have a mobile unit. Also, everybody likes ice cream."

Porsha looked around at her friends and found herself feeling a strange level of neglect and isolation she imagined but never actually experienced back in grade school: being the last kid picked to be on a team. "What about me?" she asked. "I'm the only one here that actually knew Cleo. Wouldn't that give us some advantage?"

"Sorry, Porsha, but I think that makes you vulnerable," Ryan explained. "Keller seems pretty cunning, she might manipulate your prior relationship to get you on her side, or at least make you doubt yourself."

"Oh. I guess that makes sense. I don't want to make things worse." Porsha tried to mask the disappointment in her voice, but she couldn't help but feel like a liability. Early on, her fears were of not being accepted as part of this family, but ever since her father started retaliating, she was feeling more and more like the biggest threat to it.

Before her thoughts could spiral further, she felt something hug her legs together, and she looked down to find a certain koala beaming up at her.

"You've done a great job already, Porsha," Buster said. "If you hadn't found that picture, we wouldn't have made it this far. As far as I'm concerned, you've already played your role. Now it's our turn."

"He's right; you're the MVP here," Ryan added.

And that was enough to melt her fears away, for now. "Thanks, guys."

Ryan swapped the tablet he was holding for a laptop. "Okay, guys. Let me show you your battle stations so we can start this mission."

On the seventh level of a parking garage on the strip, Supreme Commander Ryan (which everyone refused to call him) sat against the hood of the silver SUV dubbed the Moon Mobile, even if Buster rarely found himself driving it. He fought the urge to flee the heat and humidity of the day by diving inside the vehicle and blasting the crisp A/C. But the mission had barely gone on for an hour, he couldn't quit now. Johnny had vouched for him. Letting him down would be unforgivable.

Pushing off the SUV, Ryan moved to lean over the concrete barrier with a set of binoculars and used the sweeping view to survey the area. In his left hand was a brightly colored red and yellow walkie talkie that, like the binoculars, were raided from the trunk of abandoned toys Rosita organized for whenever the piglets visited. Three more walkies were distributed among the teams before Ryan sent them to their "battle stations."

"Team One, report in," Ryan said.

"Still no sign of her," Ash responded. She and Johnny were stationed at a restaurant with outdoor seating that spilled out onto the strip, giving them a clear view of the intersection where most foot traffic would funnel onto the boulevard.

"I don't know how long we can keep this up," Johnny said. "The waitress seems like she's gettin' pretty annoyed that we're only ordering drinks."

Ryan's snicker carried over the walkie. "All you gotta do is keep being you and you'll win her over."

"What about me?" Ash asked.

"Uh, yeah... maybe let Johnny handle that."

Ash rolled her eyes. This tiger wasn't even being subtle. "Thanks for the vote of confidence," she said, every word soaked in sarcasm.

Ryan responded with a wry grin. "Team Two, report."

"Nothing yet," Buster said. "But Gunter's getting restless."

The pair was stationed not far from the famous dancing fountains in front of the Big Kahuna resort. Mist from the water show occasionally drizzled over them, giving much needed relief under the unrelenting sun.

After a few stretches and warmups, Gunter, dressed in a silver jumpsuit, sucked in his gut and pressed his body against a palm tree in an ill-advised attempt to vanish behind it.

Buster wasn't sure why he was bothering, but still felt the need to ask, "What are you doing?"

"Practicing my piggy stealth powers!"

"You'd be a lot stealthier if you weren't dressed like a disco ball."

"Strategic outfitting! Under ze right light, I am hard to be seen!" Gunter turned his body at an angle to capture the sunlight and lit up like a miniature sun.

Buster shielded his eyes. "You made your point!"

Ryan saw Gunter's sparkling form in the distance and chuckled. "Team Three, report."

Stationed in the parking lot of a shopping center off the strip, Alfonso and Meena waited inside the ice cream truck for further orders. Despite the truck being decommissioned at the moment, they had to wave off several families with children looking for a cold treat since they didn't know when they'd have to suddenly move. It hurt Alfonso to let business slip away like that, but he reminded himself it was a for a good cause. If they could get to Cleo Keller and convince her to call off Crystal's revenge plot, they could start a path toward getting Out of This World up and running again. He'd do anything to see Meena smile once more like she did under the praise and applause of an audience receptive of the shy elephant's talents.

Alfonso came in over the walkie. "All good here, right Mimi?"

"Right, Alfie," Meena replied. "Just waiting on the word to go."

"Alfie? Mimi?" Johnny stuck his finger in his mouth and pretended to vomit. "Bleugh!"

Ash pulled the straw out of her glass and flicked the remnants of cola onto the side of the gorilla's face. "Hush! Leave the lovebirds alone."

"A bit mushy, innit?"

"What's the matter, Jonjon?" Ryan teased.

Johnny clenched his jaw. "That better not catch on!"

"Too late, Jonjon," Ash said with a wicked grin. All Johnny could do was groan under the ensuing laughter.

"Alright guys, it's time to get serious," Ryan said. "I've got this gut feeling... I think it's time to move, Team Three. Start making a loop around the strip."

"Got it!" Alfonso replied. He started the truck up and pulled out of the shopping center, eventually weaving himself into the fierce traffic of the Redshore strip.

Buster's phone suddenly quaked in his pocket. He had half a mind to ignore it, but since the mission was a bust so far, there wasn't much else to do. Buster handed the walkie over to Gunter so he could attend to the call and immediately regretted; the sight of one of the few names besides Jimmy Crystal that could make his blood run cold: Nana Noodleman.

Nana had called and left several terse and unpleasant messages over the past week after likely losing her patience waiting for Buster to fill her in on the current Crystal situation. Whatever she really wanted to say, she was saving for a direct conversation, and Buster just didn't have the fortitude to deal with that right now. But she deserved to know he was alive and well, at least.

And thus, the koala closed his eyes and flinched as he answered the phone.

"MISTER Moon!" Nana's voice struck like an elegant bolt of lightning.

"SorrynanaSUPERBUSYcallyoulaterwhenIhavetimebye!"

Click.

An eerie silence blanketed the area, deafening the tourists, traffic, and music accompanying the fountain. Buster saw Gunter's stunned face, the pig taking a few steps back in disbelief.

"You... hung up on Nana Noodleman?"

"He WHAT!?" several voices screeched through the walkie talkie.

Buster slapped his palm over his face. "Gunter! Did you have to let everyone hear you?"

"My finger slipped?" Gunter shrugged with an embarrassed smile.

"Moon! Have you lost your mind?" Ash said in a harsh whisper, as if Nana was listening in on every word. "Jimmy Crystal will be the least of your problems if you tick her off!"

"It was nice knowing you," Johnny said.

"I've only met her once and even I know better," Ryan added on.

Buster groaned. "I just... I can't deal with her right now, okay?" He wished something, anything, would take the attention away from him.

His wish was granted.

"Ze purple mistress has been spotted!" Gunter cried into the walkie. "I am repeating, purple mistress has been spotted! Approaching from ze west!"

Ash and Johnny traded alarmed glances. "West? That's no where near us," the gorilla said.

Ryan scrambled for the binoculars and frantically scanned the western end of the strip until he saw what Gunter meant. Jogging down the strip, navigating the mobs of tourists, was a snow leopard in a violet-colored velour tracksuit. The tiger was left deeply puzzled; there were much better places in the city to go for a run, why do it on the tourist-clogged strip? He followed her trajectory and realized she was heading right for Buster and Gunter.

"Team Two, she's heading straight toward you! Get ready!"

"What luck!" Gunter exclaimed, bouncing on his feet.

Buster had a dozen different things he wanted to say to Cleo Keller, but now that she was almost here, his brain was a jumbled mess. Even worse, as they watched her distinct violet getup grow closer, she suddenly vanished in the sea of bodies. Ryan cursed over the walkie.

"She's on the crosswalk! She's crossing the street with the crowd!"

Once Cleo reached the other side, Ryan scanned ahead of her path and finally realized what was happening. Up ahead was Gunpowder Gulch, a Wild West themed resort with plenty of open space and attractions. One could easily get a workout just running the perimeter of the resort, but complications arose from the number of nooks, crannies, entrances and exits there were on the premises.

"She's headed for Gunpowder Gulch!" Ryan said. "There's so many ways in and out, we could easily lose her once she's there! Someone's got to get to her before she gets there!"

"We will cross ze street, too!" Gunter declared.

Buster blinked. "Wait, what? Gunter, there's no crosswalk here, we can't cross safely."

"I will make ze crosswalk!"

Before Buster could protest any further, Gunter grabbed his arm and pulled him into an open pocket of traffic. The pig's clothes lit up like a solar flare rolling across the street, causing several cars to slam on the breaks. Buster screamed, not that he could hear it over the screeching of tires.

"Get out of the road, maniacs!"

"So sorry!" Buster apologized to the angry motorists. "It's a life-or-death situation, mostly in regard to my career, but I think that counts!"

"No time for small talking!" Gunter said, pulling Buster along again until they crossed several more lanes and hit the median strip. Buster hugged one of the palm trees on the median, to catch his breath and prevent Gunter from endangering him further. They needed to cross another set of lanes with traffic running the opposite direction before they reached the other side of the strip.

"Holy moly! Gunter, what was that?"

"We've done risky maneuvers before, jah?"

"Yeah, but... I was the one calling the shots then!" Was this what everyone else felt when he told them to jump out of the window of the Crystal Tower Hotel?

"Guys, she's almost there," Ryan's voice crackled over the walkie. "You're running out of time!"

"Zere is only one way left to go, and zat's across!" With herculean strength, Gunter peeled a screaming Buster away from the palm tree and dove into another round of traffic.

Meanwhile, Cleo Keller, none the wiser, felt a small rush of relief as the signage of Gunpowder Gulch drew closer, then yelped in surprise when a truck skidded to a halt in front of her. Normally she'd chew out the person responsible, but she was left speechless from the absurdity. It's not every day you see an ice cream truck jump a curb like that.

A tan elephant in an apron shuffled out, and another elephant opened the side window of the truck and handed him a tray of ice cream.

"Um, ah... h-hello ma'am," Alfonso greeted. "It's a scorcher today, isn't it? W-would you like some ice cream?"

Cleo regarded him with silent scrutiny.

The elephants traded nervous glances.

"It's just... uh, you see... today is 'free ice cream for all queens' day."

"Queen?"

"Absolutely, Your Majesty," he said, putting on a bright smile. "Purple is the color of royalty."

"That it is," Cleo said, as if noticing what she was wearing for the first time. Her body language loosened up, as did the elephants'. "Aren't you charming? I can always go for the peanut butter swirl."

Gingerly, Alfonso lifted the waffle cone with his trunk and handed it over to Cleo. "I make it all myself."

"You're quite talented," Cleo said after having a taste. Meena wasn't quite as taken with Alfonso's improvisation, but kept quiet as she watched the scene unfold.

Buster, having survived another brush with traffic, slowly approached Cleo from behind. He took the walkie back from Gunter and said, "I'm making my move."

"Be careful, Moon," Ash whispered over the walkie. "This woman dated Jimmy Crystal and lived to tell the tale. Don't underestimate her."

Buster knew his fur was a mess, and there was nothing much he could do about it now, but he adjusted his bow tie before clearing his throat. "Uh, Cleo Keller? I'm Buster Moon."

Cleo turned around to find Buster giving a bow. In her eyes, it seemed what the koala lacked in morals he made up for in politeness.

"Indeed, you are," she said, her voice flat. "Hello, Mr. Moon. I guess this little sting was for me?"

Buster chuckled. "You're a hard woman to pin down, you know."

"By design."

"Right, so..." Buster twiddled his thumbs as he looked up at the snow leopard. Why was this so hard? Sure, she was a bit intimidating, but it had to be said. "I think you and I have a lot to talk about regarding Jimmy Crystal and his, uh... revenge plot. Just a nice, civil, adult conversation, no?"

Cleo licked the peanut butter swirl without taking her eyes off Buster. "I'm mildly impressed that you put that all together and tracked me down. But yes, I agree, we should have a chat."

Could it be that easy? "Thank you for agreeing to this. I think we shou—"

"Excuse me," a zebra suddenly interjected, looking over the koala. "Aren't you Buster Moon?"

"Yes, I am!"

Her eyes became enflamed. "I knew that was you!"

"Always happy to meet a fan. What can I do for you?"

"I just wanted to let you know you're a big fat jerk."

Buster's jaw dropped. "Uh, what?"

"All my sister ever wanted to do was audition for Jimmy Crystal," she said. "Then you had to jump the line and fake your way to the top. They don't even have auditions at Crystal Entertainment anymore! What's she supposed to do now?"

That had more to do with Crystal being arrested and the company going through a crisis, Buster felt, but he knew better than to say that. "Believe me, if the other audition sessions were anything like the one I saw, she wasn't getting through."

The zebra recoiled in physical shock. She lifted a water bottle out of her purse, popped the cap, and dumped the contents all over Buster's head.

"Okay, I can see how that sounded," Buster murmured through drenched fur. "What I meant was, Crystal has impossibly high standards."

"And my sister isn't good enough!?" Nostrils flaring, the zebra looked around for something else to wield, and settled on snatching the waffle cone right out of Cleo's hands. She smashed the ice cream down on Buster's head and twisted it for good measure before storming off. As embarrassing as the incident was for Buster, at least it provided some respite from the heat.

"That was rude," Cleo said, eying her ruined ice cream.

"Believe it or not Ms. Keller, I have a precarious relationship with water." Buster accepted a handful of napkins from Meena. "The ice cream is new, though."

"I imagine you want to have this conversation in a more private location."

"That would certainly be ideal. I'm currently renting a villa on—"

"Macalester Road," Cleo finished. "I know where you live."

"Oh, that's only slightly creepy," Buster said with a chuckle. "Uh, could you come around 4? Need some time to make myself presentable."

"Fine with me," Cleo said, and turned back to Alfonso with her wallet in hand. "I'd like another cone. I'll pay for this one."

"Sure..." Alfonso replied, seemingly dazed by the bizarre set of preceding events.

Gunter ran his finger through the ice cream still plopped atop Buster's head and tasted it. "Mmmm, peanut butter swirl!"

A/N

There was a reveal in the phone conversation, and it was that Walter Kilborn was not working for Jimmy Crystal.

Why did I decide Kilborn was not bought or influenced by Jimmy? For the purpose of this saga, I wanted to expand the Singverse in a way that made it feel larger and more organic to support the premise of this story. Within the movies, characters are frequently defined by their support of Buster and his goals. Characters that support him are nice, characters that don't support him are mean. Characters that change their tune also see their personalities switch: Nana, Suki, and Porsha all become nicer over time, while Jimmy, who was initially just domineering, grows increasingly cruel and violent in proportion to his intolerance of Buster. Characters that do not explicitly support Buster by the end of the movies are punished by the narrative (Mike with the bears, Jimmy getting arrested).

It makes what Jimmy is doing more dangerous if characters that are outsiders looking in can independently reach their own conclusions without being influenced by their willingness to support Buster and can legitimately end up "siding" with Crystal. Kilborn can look at the situation, not necessarily think Buster is telling the truth or should have his behavior handwaved, and he won't be punished by the narrative for having that stance. He is a neutral party reacting to what's being presented to him. And if he were to change his stance somewhere down the line, he wouldn't see a rapid shift in his personality or fortunes.