Operation: Moonfall | Jimmy Crystal Revenge & Redemption

The Domino

The cast the Out of This World took a bow to thunderous applause, and that was Buster's cue to go. He vacated the VIP box with haste, navigating his way through the halls of the Majestic Theater until he was backstage to meet his theater family. All throughout the performances his phone chirped and buzzed in his pocket with notifications, and even now he could feel the occasional vibration. Social media buzz was expected after every show, but this amount of activity was unusual. As much as Buster loved to scroll through the comments and drink in the exuberant reactions online to his show, today's little moment of self-indulgence would have to wait. His family needed him.

Buster's face lit up as he ran into the first two members of his crew.

"Johnny! Nooshy!" he called out, leaping up to give the gorilla and lynx simultaneous fist bumps. "Great moves out there."

"Nice one Moon-man," Nooshy said.

"Darius! Magnificent hair, as usual."

The yak shook his head to give his blonde hair extra swivel. "It's won awards, you know," he said.

"Yes, you may have mentioned that... a few dozen times," Buster murmured. "Meena! Your voice gave me chills."

"T-thanks," the bashful elephant managed, short but appreciative.

"Porsha!" he called out, but a frown was burrowed into the wolf girl's face. She hadn't bothered changing out of her alien costume before retrieving her phone, and her eyes were glued to whatever she was reading.

"Is anyone else getting tagged, like, a ton on social media?" she asked.

"Now that you mention it," Johnny said, looking through his own phone, "been getting some weird, angry stuff today."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that," Buster said, patting the gorilla's thigh. "It's probably just Jerry. He's been sending me not-so-nice messages for weeks."

"Wait, you too? He's been sending me mean tweets ever since Crystal got arrested. Said my head looked like a sad scoop of ice cream," Johnny recalled with a puzzled frown. "What's that even mean? I was gonna block him, but I just started feeling bad for the bloke, yeah?"

"I blocked him ASAP," Ash said, thumbing through her own phone. "And at least ten of his alts."

Johnny blinked in disbelief. "He's got ten other accounts?"

The porcupine shrugged. "I stopped counting."

"I don't think this is Jerry," Porsha said. "He's only sent me nice messages asking if I've been okay ever since daddy got locked up. The stuff I'm seeing... uh oh..."

"What is it?" Buster asked.

Porsha bit her lower lip before saying, "I... I think daddy's finally retaliating." The Moon Troupe found a private corner to themselves as the rest of the stage crew departed for the night. They all huddled around Porsha's phone as she played the video that set social media ablaze. Clay hovered close enough to take in the commotion but remained silent.

"Get ready for the most explosive interview of the year!" a voice announced over dramatic music and quick flashes of Jimmy Crystal and the interviewer, Walter Kilborn. Kilborn was a bespectacled capybara with a stiff posture and shrewd gaze.

"Kilborn! Crystal! Mr. Redshore City himself gives his first interview since his arrest, and he's spilling it all to Walter Kilborn."

"Out of This World. Calloway. Everything," Jimmy said. "Buster Moon is a fraud and a conman. You can't trust him. I did and... he ruined my life."

"Watch all the shocking revelations tomorrow night on The Real Deal with Walter Kilborn!"

"There are some other clips out there like that one," Porsha said once it was over. "You don't need to see them."