It was still early by the time the boys got back from Shadowshire. Candace had gone back to sleep, and their parents hadn't woken up yet, giving them an easy time sneaking back up to their room. Perry had found a comfortable place on one of Ferb's pillows, and he watched them both come inside.

"Oh, good morning, Perry," Phineas took a seat next to him and began scratching him behind his head. After a moment Perry chattered.

"I don't suppose you know where Moon is, do you?" Phineas asked, not really expecting an answer.

Perry blinked.

"Oh, well. I hope she'll be back soon. She was nice," Phineas sat back, pulling Perry up onto his lap and continuing his affection.

Just then his laptop, which had been sitting in the drawer of his bed-table, gave a sudden ping, alerting him that he'd just received an email. He frowned. "That's weird," he said, "If that's the supply warehouse again, it's a little early, don't you think?"

Ferb just shrugged.

Phineas shrugged back, carefully settling Perry on the pillow where he'd been sitting to make room for his laptop as he pulled it up off the table into his lap. He opened it, waited a minute for it to boot up, and then clicked on the little paper-airplane icon in the corner of the screen.

Ferb glanced down over his shoulder, a little curious himself. The email wasn't familiar to them: RocketJawsOfFire1229. That wasn't anyone they knew. Regardless, Phineas clicked it open. It read:

"I don't believe we've met, Phineas Flynn, but it seems awe share an acquaintance. Moon is, shall I say, an old friend, and about a week ago I thought I would send her a brief hello. Unfortunately, she seems to have disappeared and it is for this purpose that I am contacting you. I am concerned for Moon and would greatly appreciate it if you would help me locate her. Please let me know as I am anxious to share some old feelings with her.

Best regards."

Phineas frowned. "That's weird. Moon said she never had any friends. What do you think, Ferb?"

Ferb blinked.

"Well, let's see what this is all about," Phineas resolved, his fingers clicking over the keyboard as he typed his response:

"Unfortunately, we haven't seen Moon either. We went to visit her last night and again this morning, but she wasn't home. If she comes back, Ferb and I will let you know.

"How long have you known Moon? She's told us she didn't have any friends, and we're a little curious."

He paused briefly, turning to Ferb. "You have anything to add?"

Ferb shook his head.

"Okay," he clicked send and waited a moment, then set the laptop back on the bed-table and followed Ferb downstairs for breakfast.

By the time they got there, Candace and Marissa had already finished, and were in the midst of an argument that neither of the boys really wanted to be involved in. They each took a seat, and within seconds the girls' argument dissolved into silence. Ferb grabbed the cereal and poured himself a bowl, and after a minute Phineas did the same.

"Morning, boys," said Marissa, any trace of irritation gone from her voice. She gave Phineas a grin, which was returned, and then turned to Ferb. "Candace said you wanted to go out to Moon's house this morning."

"We wanted to, yeah," Phineas confirmed, "But Candace said she'd wake Mom up if we did."

Marissa was silent for a moment. When she spoke her voice was neutral, but Phineas knew that was only because she couldn't get angry with either him or Ferb. "Moon's dangerous. She kills all these little animals, and she's got that huge knife with her all the time, and she's just so weird. You never know what could happen with her."

"Well, she did save my life," Phineas shrugged, "Twice, actually. She can't be all that bad."

Marissa hesitated, but then relented. "I guess you're right-but she's still dangerous."

"She's friendly enough," Phineas grinned.

Marissa just left it at that. If they were going to go out to that kooky old house again later, she'd like either herself or Candace to be there too. That Moon was too unpredictable for her to let them go alone.

"Hey, Marissa?" Phineas asked suddenly, "Do you know anyone online called RocketJawsOfFire1229?"

Marissa frowned. "No, why?"

"Ferb and I got an email from them before we came down for breakfast. We were just wondering if you knew them."

Marissa shrugged. "Ask Candace. Before she found out Jeremy existed she stalked about a hundred other people online."

"Hey!" Candace exclaimed, giving Marissa a glare, "It was only fifty-seven, okay?"

"Were any of them called RocketJawsOfFire1229?" Phineas asked.

Candace shook her head. "I don't think so."

"Hmm, that's weird. We'll just have to ask them how they got our email, then," Phineas resolved, leading Ferb back upstairs to their room. He could see the laptop sitting open, showing them another email from this RocketJaws. It read:

"Absolutely no idea? How curious. If she's at all like I knew her some years ago, she has a knack for finding trouble. I had hoped that she would have confided in someone where she had gone. I visited her new residence some days ago, but neither of her strange pets would tell me where she had gone. I am looking forward to meeting you two, and I am looking forward to your help in locating the elusive Moon.

Best regards."

Phineas replied: "Ferb and I are always looking to make new friends. We'd be happy to meet you sometime! Just name the time and place and we'd love to get together with you.

Till then, Phineas&Ferb"

They hardly had to wait for RocketJaws' reply: "How about the park in an hour?"

Immediately one of Phineas' eyebrows shot up. "Well, that was quick. What do you say, Ferb, you wanna meet this guy?"

Ferb nodded.

"Okay, then," Phineas nodded, then typed two words: "Sounds good." Closing the laptop and setting it back on the bed-table, he went over to the closet that he and Ferb shared and dug out a box that was full of blueprints. "What do you say we whip up a little something for him? I bet he'd like that."

Ferb agreed without a word. The two of them quickly settled on a blueprint that they both liked, and within minutes they had taken the beginnings of the project out to the garage for work.

"What are you two doing?" Candace asked from behind them, making them both jump.

"Oh, hi, Candace," Phineas smiled, turning and showing her the piece that he'd just finished putting together. "We're meeting a friend at the park in a little while and we thought it would be cool to build him a temporal modulator-"

"Yeah yeah yeah," Candace waved a hand, dismissing Phineas' words, "But is it bustable?"

"Well, you could break it if you really wanted to, I guess," Phineas shrugged, "But-"

"Great!" Candace exclaimed, grabbing the piece out of her brother's hand and then turning back to the house. "Mom! Come and see what Phineas and Ferb are building!"

"But, Candace-" Phineas started, but she was already gone. He just shrugged. "It's not even finished yet. It won't do much."

"Well, she's got the control modulator. Maybe it'll turn her green," Ferb put in.

Phineas giggled. "With Candace's luck it probably would. Ah, well, let's just get this thing finished."

Ferb agreed, and soon they were back to work. The rest of the device assembled fairly quickly, and once it was put together the two of them turned to each other. Rock, paper, scissors. "Rock beats scissors," Phineas proclaimed, "Go and get the control modulator from Candace. If she turned green I'll give you a quarter."

Ferb nodded and then disappeared into the house. He returned a moment later with the control in one hand, and tossed it to Phineas so he could finish assembling the machine.

"Well?" Phineas asked, "What color did she turn?"

Ferb only shook his head. No suck luck, apparently.

"Oh, well," Phineas shrugged, clicking the last piece into the machine and then taking a step back. "You wanna see it in action?"

Ferb nodded, flicking the switch on one side and then stepping back as well. For a long moment nothing happened, but then there was an ear-piercing shriek from inside. Before either of the boys could speculate on this, Candace burst into the garage, furious. It seemed she'd turned green after all. "Phineas and Ferb, what have you done to me?" she cried, "I'm supposed to meet Jeremy in like ten minutes! I can't go out like this!"

"Oh, don't worry, Candace," Phineas assured her, fishing a quarter out of his pocket to hand to Ferb, "Here. It's no big deal."

Ferb reached over to the machine and adjusted one of the knobs on the side, setting Candace back to her normal color. He gave her a thumbs-up without a word.

"There, see?" Phineas grinned, "It's fine."

Candace looked down at herself, making sure everything was in order, and then turned back to Phineas. "And don't you do that again, got it?"

"Sorry," said Phineas.

Candace stomped off into the house without another word, and Phineas waited until she was out of earshot to burst into laughter. "That was great! Did you see the look on her face? Priceless..."

Ferb agreed with a tiny amused smirk. He and Phineas high-fived, and then Phineas glanced down at his watch. "Well, I guess we'd better get to the park. I wanna meet this RocketJaws guy."

Ferb picked up the machine and set it carefully down in the boys' red wagon, following Phineas down the driveway to the edge of the street. He saw his mother planting tulips around the mailbox, and smiled. "Hi, Mom. The tulips look good."

"Thanks, hon," she replied without looking up, "Where are you two off to?"

"Just the park, if that's okay. We're meeting a friend," Phineas told her.

His mother nodded, her eyes still on the flowers. "Okay, well, you boys have fun."

"Okay, Mom," Phineas grinned, and then he and Ferb headed for the park. It was still early; the morning's dew hadn't had quite enough time to disappear, and when they took the wagon onto the grass it left two long lines where it had been. They both took a seat on one of the benches that were scattered about the park, and for a few minutes they waited in silence.

There were sudden footsteps behind them and the boys both turned to see a small robot that resembled an oversized scorpion. It had six sharp legs and a long tail that ended in a rough-cut point. The front of its body was a small camera lens, black and lifeless, but it turned up and gave each of the boys a solid look-over. It spoke in a monotonous voice, mechanical. "Phineas Flynn and Ferb Fletcher?"

"Yeah, that's us," Phineas nodded, resting his elbows on the back of the bench as he stared down at the robot, "You didn't tell us you were a robot."

"This is just a scout," the robot explained, "I can send it anyplace I please."

"Well, it is pretty cool," Phineas admitted with a grin.

The robot was silent.

After a moment Phineas spoke again. "We brought something for you," he said, pointing over to the wagon that Ferb had brought with them, "We thought you might like it."

The robot turned and hopped up onto the edge of the wagon, looking over the boys' offering. After a minute it turned back to them. "I thought these defied the laws of physics. This cannot possibly be functional...?"

Phineas nodded. "Yeah. It works. We accidentally turned my sister green with it earlier."

"I see," was all the robot said.

Phineas was silent for a moment, but then felt he had to ask: "How come you sent a robot out instead of coming yourself?"

The robot turned back to him without a word.

"I was just curious," Phineas shrugged, "If you don't wanna mention it you don't have to."

"There is no possible way I could have come out for you today," was all it said.

Phineas shrugged. "Okay."

"What about your friend Moon?" the robot asked suddenly, looking up at Ferb, "Where has she gone?"

"We don't have any idea, actually," Phineas told it, shifting his position slightly so the foot he had been sitting on would wake up again. After a minute he cringed slightly, shaking the pins and needles away, and then turned back to the robot.

"Are you sure?" the robot persisted, "Have you considered looking for her?"

Phineas shrugged. "She'll come back when she wants to. She left Khan and Khalia here so I'm assuming she will."

"Her two pets," the robot clarified.

Phineas nodded. "Yeah."

"We should look for her," said the robot, giving Phineas a long stare with the lens mounted in its body, "I want to find her."

"Why don't you just hang around a few days?" Phineas suggested, "Maybe she'll come back-"

"I want to find her today," the robot insisted, "You should help."

"But I-"

"Come," the robot interrupted, turning and scuttling down the sidewalk and off toward the street. After a minute it turned back to the boys. "Come."

The boys exchanged glances, and then followed the robot back into the streets.