The robot led the boys back through the streets, and after a few minutes they reached the edge of the neighborhood. Phineas wasn't really sure where they were going, but he would follow nonetheless. He and Ferb exchanged glances every now and then, but nothing was said between them.

Eventually the robot stopped. It turned back to them, the camera mounted on its body betraying none of its thoughts, and spoke. "You will find Moon. You will find her, and you will return her here by this time tomorrow. That is all."

"What?" Phineas asked, "I thought we could be friends."

The robot paused, then replied: "Perhaps we will. But first you must find Moon and bring her back to me."

"How come?" Phineas asked, "Were you one of her friends?"

The robot was silent. It settled on the curb for a moment, and then finally looked up at the two of them. "I used to be."

"Moon told us she never had any friends," Phineas frowned, "Why would she ignore you like that?"

"You would have to ask her that when you find her," the robot told them matter-of-factly. After a short pause it asked, "How much of her do you know, exactly?"

"She hasn't told us a lot, really," Phineas admitted, "She's pretty secluded. But she's nice enough. She saved my life the first time we met, you know."

"Interesting," the robot said flatly.

Phineas nodded. "She says she doesn't want any friends, and that she's happy enough living on her own in that old house up on the hill, but I think she gets a little lonely up there sometimes. You know?"

"No," said the robot.

Phineas shrugged. "Well, that's okay too. How come you're looking for her, anyway? How long were you friends with her?"

The robot was silent. Apparently it didn't want to answer. It only stared with its dark black lens, unwavering. Just when Phineas was certain it wouldn't reply, it did: "About three months."

"Really?" Phineas cocked an eyebrow, "What happened after that?"

The robot just settled, clearly not wanting to talk much about the topic. If it had been offended or irritated at what Phineas had said, it didn't show.

"You don't have to tell us if you don't want to," Phineas said quickly, "Can you at least tell us your name?"

The robot didn't move. After a minute Phineas realized that it had shut off. It just sat silently at the edge of the road, inactive.

"Hmm," Phineas frowned, "That was unexpected."

Ferb just shrugged.

Phineas turned to him. "I guess we go home, then. I wonder if Moon will come back? I wish she would. I think she should meet her old friend again."

Ferb had no comment.

"Oh, well. Come on, Ferb. Let's go see if Moon came home," Phineas pulled him back through the streets, toward the end of Aspen Street, and within minutes they reached the front door of the old house. The place was empty; the same note hung on the front door: "Back in five."

Moon wasn't home.

Phineas sighed. "Oh, well. We'll try again later tonight. Let's go home."

Ferb agreed.

The two of them wound back through the streets, eventually finding their way back to the garage and from there up into their room. By the time they got there, the sun had come up over the top of the tree that stood in the backyard and the dew that had been there when they had come had gone. Perry had all but disappeared, same as usual, leaving the boys alone in the house since Phineas remembered Candace mentioning something about hanging out with Jeremy and Marissa sat reading in the backyard. He could see his mother still working with the tulips by the street, and since the garage had been empty when they'd come in, that meant that Lawrence was out running some errands.

Phineas sat back on the edge of his bed, pensive, and after a moment he turned back to Ferb. "D'you think she'd really just run away from us like that?" he asked, "Is it just me or does RocketJawsOfFire1229 seem a little weird to you?"

Ferb blinked.

"Yeah," Phineas agreed, "You're right. It's probably nothing. Oh, well. I guess we got done early, then. We've already built that temporal machine so I guess we're pretty much off the hook, unless you want to do anything in particular."

Ferb shrugged.

"Cool. A day off, then," Phineas resolved, flopping back onto the bed and stretching his hands out to the other side. He was about to say something else, but the sound of Isabella's voice floated in through the window and he paused. Jumping up off the bed, he opened the window further and spotted her standing in front of Marissa.

"Hi, Isabella!" he called with a grin, waving to her to get her attention.

"Phineas?" Isabella asked, her voice chipper, "Aren't you going to build anything today?"

"We already did," Phineas told her, "Come on inside and Ferb and I can tell you all about it."

A minute later he could hear Isabella's footsteps coming down the hall, and then the door opened and she poked her head inside.

"Come on in," Phineas invited, scooting over on the bed to make room for her to sit.

Isabella sat, giving Phineas a strange look. "How early were you up today?" she asked, "Usually you guys haven't even finished your project by the time I get here."

Phineas nodded. "We made a new friend today," he told her, "RocketJawsOfFire1229. He's pretty cool."

"So what did you build?" Isabella asked, frowning.

"A temporal machine," Phineas said proudly, "It can rip holes in space-time and a whole bunch of other stuff."

"Just earlier this morning it turned Candace green," Ferb put in.

Phineas giggled. "Yeah, that was pretty funny."

"So who's this RocketJaws guy?" Isabella inquired, "That sounds like a username for some weird website where you look at pictures of cats."

"It's his email," Phineas replied with a shrug, "He didn't tell us his real name."

"Well, what does he look like?" Isabella chirped, "You said you met him, didn't you? Or was it just an email chat?"

Phineas hesitated. "Well, when we talked to him earlier, he'd sent out a little scorpion-looking robot instead of coming on his own. It was pretty cool."

Isabella frowned. "That's weird. Do you think he might be hiding something?"

"Well, there's nothing wrong with that," Phineas shrugged, giving Isabella a neutral look, "We don't need to pry too far into that, do we?"

Isabella shook her head. "I guess not," she admitted. There was a pause, but then she added, "So what now? Are you going to see him again?"

"Well, he emailed us this morning looking for Moon," Phineas told her, "We found out last night that she'd skipped town, but-"

"Good riddance," Isabella huffed before she could stop herself.

Phineas didn't seem to notice. "-but he wants to see her anyway. He said we should find her so that he can meet her. He said he's an old friend of hers."

"That can't be right," Isabella protested, "Moon said she never had any friends-"

"Exactly," Phineas agreed. He gave Isabella a short glance and then continued. "Either he's not telling the truth or else Moon is hiding something."

"What's she hiding?" Isabella asked, "Probably something really bad."

Phineas just shrugged. "Beats me. But that's her business."

"What?" Isabella exclaimed, "Aren't you at least curious?"

"A little. But I'm not going to press it further than she's comfortable with."

"But-" she started.

Phineas shook his head. "It's not a problem. That's okay with us. Right, Ferb?"

Ferb nodded.

"See?"

Isabella didn't answer. Of course Phineas would think Moon was okay. He was too oblivious to see that Moon was weird. She wasn't just weird; she was dangerous. It was just as well that she'd run off.

Wasn't it?