Alicia and Marie use the old cliche about criminals returning to the scene of the crime. The protagonist deeply regrets having Kyle instead of Hal along.

Alicia and Marie were not expecting to see Lappy sitting on the sofa when they opened the door to the safehouse. Both women stopped, stared, then closed the door before any cats got out. "Lappy! Alicia, look, it's a miracle! Oh no, he's all smudged."

Alicia, being more skeptical of the situation, activated her Iris. She held back Marie until after they looked around. No intruder here at the moment and no explosives, probably. "Let's look for clues. I'll start checking the door for signs of forced entry, you look for tracks..." Alicia squinted at the door's keypad. That looked like there wasn't any damage there. However something else was bothering her. She looked up the the massive dent on the upper part of the frame. "Was that always there?"

Kyle had set the screen on his drone to show a number and Akane was not thrilled about this. The fact that normal cameras could not pick up Akane-the-Legion-thing made things slightly less nerve-wracking. This was fortunate because Kyle was already having a blast getting on her last nerves. The jabs at her career were something she could handle. It was something cops got used to. Then as the two stole through the alleys and buildings, he decided to further incentivize stealth.

The screen showed a fifteen.

Akane, drawing back quickly as she saw movement down a hallway, banged her shoulder on an air conditioner unit.

The screen clicked to a sixteen.

"That was just a piece of paper. Told you, the coast is clear." Kyle said cheerfully. Akane grumbled back as she followed the drone into the holographic wall. Hitting her foot against a step changed the counter to seventeen. Hal was way better as a guide and she resolved to see if she could find Hal a gift of some kind as a 'thank you for not being Kyle' type thing. Really show her appreciation. Kyle sat in the concealed room amid some signal jammers, computers, and boxes. Kyle set down his giant taser stick as a show of nonviolence. Akane settled on the ground opposite the Hermit leader. Then she stared back at him.

"Okay. So, you kind of saved my life, now I've returned the favor. Hal's on his way here, then you'll be his problem." Kyle pointed to a screen. "Guess what, 'Tall Lappy' is trending on social media! You created a meme!"

Akane buried her face in her hands.

Mike, unlike Alicia and Marie, was officially posted in Maison forest as his new precinct. He sat next to the kid to keep him company as they waited for the child's father to arrive. The paramedics gave the all clear on redshift at least, which was weird because the kid gave an exact description of the Astral Plane experience. The bruises and scrapes were still there, but it could have been so much worse. "...And then this big blue police monster showed up!"

"Uh, big blue police monster?"

"Yeah. He had the word on his arm. It was so cool! He just shredded the monster that caught me with his claws!"

"Was... was there anyone with the monster?" The green shirt kid shook his head no. Mike did a quick search on his phone for a specific picture. Kid shook his head. Mike showed the kid the picture of a sloth. "Did it have claws like this?"

"Nah, they were much bigger. The blue monster had fire hair too!"

Akira glanced at the call from Alicia as he was leaving the corrupted areas of Zone 30. Alicia knew Akira was in the middle of a mission and she wouldn't interrupt for something stupid. Akira picked up.

Alicia said, "Akira, hey, listen. I went to help Marie look for Lappy in Maison and-"

"Thanks for helping Marie out, but we kind of got in trouble with the commander alrea-"

"No, it's a possible lead on your twin!"

Akira screeched to a halt. "Really?!"

Alicia quickly explained her findings. There was a dented doorframe, a torn open cat food can, a vending machine with an odd story, and a tearful confession from two kids with a soccer ball. "...So Marie's talking to those kids, they were pretty traumatized. It's a logical stretch, but something tampered with the cameras around that area. I'm contacting the precinct for this area to see if anything else weird happened that could be related." Commander Calvert might disagree but honestly, Akira and Alicia felt like this felt like the right kind of weird to be his sister's fault.

Akira was already marching back towards Maison Forest. "Thank you, Alicia. I'll be right over. Don't do anything rash?"

"Kid, that's my line."