Aquila paused, finally slowing down from her run. There wasn't anyone following, no one even knew she was gone. She looked around to finally take in where she was, fiddling with the strap of her bag.

A large roof overhead, various stands and walls filled with different knickknacks, darkners begging and pleading for anyone passing to buy. Bright lights were turned on all over to keep the place running, even in the dead of night, actual buildings choosing more neon colors. It was also loud, and Aquila was feeling herself getting overwhelmed.

On one wing, she was excited to finally be gone from the mansion. On the other, she could've picked a less crowded place to hide out in. What was it called again, the night bazaar?

She felt someone grab her shoulder and jumped, turning to face them. It was just a popup, shouting at her about...something? She couldn't make out the words among all the noise.

Apologizing, lun walked away and through the crowd with ears covered, brushing shoulders with various strangers who either murmured sorry or shouted for lun to watch it. Aquila couldn't tell if lun was walking further in or back to the surface web.

Finally she spotted somewhere more quiet. Not empty, but there were only a couple patrons loitering outside. "The Cyber Star Casino and Bar." Well, she wouldn't go in but maybe once the crowd let up she could find somewhere else.

Nov made novas way to one of the gray walls, slumping against it. This was supposed to be an exciting and cool adventure, but now all the stress was starting to get to nova.

A crackle of electricity had her looking up. A werewire stood very close to her face, to where she could smell the alcohol on its breath. Another crackle.

"I don't understand."

It grabbed her face and banged it on the wall, causing the loudest crack Aquila had ever heard. It still rang in her ears as the werewire picked her up by her suit collar, holding her to eye height. She just kept staring at the ground. Her eye stung. Then, suddenly, she was dropped. Lun squinted as lightning crackled and was shot, but it didn't last long because the werewire ran off whimpering.

Someone knelt in front of lun. She brushed away tears that she had been too scared to notice, squinting with her right eye, trying to make out the figure in the dark. He reached out a hand to try and help, causing lun to flinch away.

"Please don't."

"Sorry! Sorry!" The figure backed away, sounding worried, "can you stand on your own?"

Aquila didn't reply, grabbing her bag from the floor and pushing spilled contents back in.

The figure stood, but Aquila kept novas gaze down.

"You should get that checked out."

"The ambyu-lances will just return me to the mansion."

The figure grimaced, "Ew, no don't go to those pesky," he waved his hand in thought, "ah nevermind. They suck that's the point."

Aquila looked up. Her eyes finally focused enough to make out the outline of an addison in harsh, neon green light. Dark green, with white hair, right eye yellow and left eye blue.

He held out his hand to her, "Edible, he/drum. You can just call me Eddy."

"Dumb name," Aquila grumbled. "What are you doing?"

Eddy took back his hand, scratching his neck instead, "Well, I was gonna get you the first aid kit-"

"I'm fine."

Eddy chuckled, "Uh, alright if you say so. Where are you going?"

"Ever heard of stranger danger?" Aquila growled as she stood up. A headache pierced through the left side of her face, making her wince.

"Well, yeah. But a child just got beat up outside my casino so-"

"Leave me alone."

"Do you have somewhere to go?"

"You sound creepy."

"Oh, well that's a- a good point, actually."

Aquila huffed, turning to leave before pausing, "If I didn't have anywhere to go would there be someplace willing to take me in?"

"Nope."

"No shelter or anything?"

"Nope, surface web thing only."

"Would you have someplace I could go, hypothetically?" Aquila turned back around to face Eddy.

"I could call my friend who took in an addison recently."

"Could you do that...anyway?"

"Sure. Are you gonna come inside or-?"

"No, I'll wait here."

"You need to get that scratch cleaned."

Aquila thought for a second, and then held out her hand. "Aquila Volans, lun/nova/she. Aquila's fine."

Eddy took it and started to walk her inside the building covered with the lights, "Like the constellations?"

Aquila was about to reply but entering the building her headache grew worse. It was so noisy. She pulled her wings away to cover her ears.

"Shit, sorry, I should've warned you. Can I hold your shoulder to guide you?" Aquila nodded and Eddy lightly held her shoulder, leading her through the yelling customers. He stopped behind a bar and grabbed a first aid kit, turning to open the employees only door to find it locked. Drum groaned and stomped drums foot somewhat childishly.

"Myosotis, if you locked away to drink our supply I'm throwing you through the window."

The door clicked and opened a crack. A maroon colored addison giggled tipsily, "No, no, 'course not boss." She kicked at something behind her.

"If Brittle and Zap are in there too I'm throwing all you out the window."

"They're not!"

Another drunken voice called out from inside, "Yes we are!?"

Eddy rubbed his eyes, then forced her out the way, opening the door. A blue addison sat inside behind Myosotis, holding onto a sleeping yellow addison. The blue addison stood up as Eddy entered, continuing to hold the yellow addison bridal style. Eddy kicked at a couple scattered bottles, entering further in with Aquila following behind.

Myosotis leaned down and booped Aquila, "Aw, whose this?"

Eddy sent a small cursor arrow to poke at her, causing her to jump back. "Get out, get out!"

"Alright, lights!" Myosotis grabbed the blue addisons hand and the two slinked out annoyed with the yellow one.

"Sorry, sorry," Eddy apologized again and again, cleaning up the space as Aquila sat down behind a desk.

"I shouldn't be trusting a stranger so easily."

"No, probably not," Eddy looked up, "do you know how to use a first aid kit?"

Aquila shook her head. Eddy sighed, not annoyed, but worriedly. He walked over to her, "Is it okay if I do it?"

"Yeah, sure."

Eddy hopped onto the desk, crisscrossed, and turned to face her. Drum cleaned up the cut and brushed away feathers to bandage it. "Can you open your eye?"

"It hurts."

"Well it's not swollen, so can you open it?" Aquila winced, but opened her eye up. Eddy stared for a second before nodding and closing the kit, "Looks like it'll be fine. So you don't have anywhere to go?"

Aquila looked at the ground again, shaking novas head.

"The mansion?"

Nov shook novas head more furiously. "I...ran away from the mansion." Saying it out loud nov realized how stupid it sounded.

Eddy hopped off the desk and reached for the door, pausing he asked, "Are you alright on your own? I'll have to make a call."

Aquila spun in the chair, "Yeah."

"Be back in a minute or two," and with that drum left the room.

Aquila spun a couple more times, before opening luna bag. Lun pulled out an envelope and pulled out the letter inside. Chimera and Oliver Lemon probably expected the letter to be this profound thing, that all their whining would convince lun to come home. However lun looked over it twice, then dropped it into the trash. She slumped onto the desk in wait, drawing imaginary outlines in the wood with her feather.

Eddy returned soon after, leaving the door open and gesturing to Aquila to get up, "Road trip. Still loud out there, so I grabbed these," he held up some headphones. Aquila stood and grabbed them, murmuring a thanks as she put them on.

Even after they were outside the casino, Aquila left the headphones on. It was a long walk, but she didn't mind the silence. Eddy luckily got the memo, until they reached their destination, where he made her take them off.

He rang a doorbell, and an older purple addison with darker blue hair at the bottom opened the door. She had an apron on, like she'd been baking. Gazing down at Aquila with pink eyes she smiled softly.

"Hiya Raisin!" Eddy greeted, shaking her hand, "mind if we come in?"

"You're always welcome! Mango's still a bit shy, aren't you?" Raisin asked someone, but there was no response. Eddy and Aquila stepped inside, which revealed who she was talking about. A smaller, lighter purple addison hiding behind her. He must've spawned recently, as his eyes were still white, and his hair still long.

The older addison leaned down to Aquila's eye height "I'm Raisin, she/they/it, you?"

"Aquila, lun/nova/she."

Raisin looked back to the smaller addison, who grumbled, "Mango, he/him." He continued softer, "M-maybe she."

Raisin patted Mango's head, standing up and addressing Eddy, "You sticking around?"

"Looks like you're baking something, so sure!"

The two continued chatting as they headed into the kitchen, leaving Aquila and Mango alone.

Mango dug his foot into the carpet as Aquila sat on the couch. Aquila didn't mind the silence, but Mango didn't seem quite as comfortable with it.

"Your...suit looks cool."

"Thanks."

"What's that?" Mango pointed to one of the pins on her suit.

Aquila looked down, adjusting it real quick before replying, "Saturn. Obviously."

"Saturn...?"

"Sixth planet from the sun, second biggest just behind Jupiter?"

"Saturn."

Aquila huffed, rummaging around her bag and pulling out a book, flipping to a specific page. She waved Mango over.

When he was near enough, lun held up the book, showing the picture on the inside. "See, Saturn! It's easy to tell because of the ring."

Mango squinted for a second before pushing the book a bit away, "Oh, I see. And that's only the...sixth planet?"

"Sixth planet from the sun! There's eight in all, or nine if you're counting pluto." Aquila started to flip through the book again. Lun seemed to be enjoying lunarself.

Mango sat herself onto the couch, "Pluto sounds like a dog's name."

"It was named by an 11-year-old girl in England, Venetia Burney. It's from a Roman god, I think. God of the underworld or something."

"You know a lot."

"Not about lightner mythology, but space, yes!" Nov stopped on another picture, one of the solar system. Nov leaned over to show it to Mango, "See here's Saturn, and there's Pluto."

Mango pointed to the fiery ball of yellow, "What's that?"

"That's the sun! It's how the lightners get their light."

"Really?"

"Uh-huh! It's really hot, twenty-seven million degrees Fahrenheit or fifteen million degrees Celsius in the core, ten thousand million degrees Fahrenheit or five thousand five hundred degrees Celsius on the surface."

"Do you have that memorized?"

"Yes! Anyway, there's also a lot of pressure and it causes this thing called nuclear fusion, which causes all the hydrogen inside the sun to become helium. And that fusion makes lots of heat and light."

Mango squinted again, this time out of confusion.

"I'm just boring you, sorry-"

"Oh, no, no, no!" Mango shook his head, "there's just a lot of words I don't know."

Aquila started to close the book, "It's okay if-"

"No!" Mango tugged the book out of Aquila's hand, "No I promise! You're all good!" Mango blinked and looked down at his hands like he just realized and sheepishly handed it back, "Shit sorry, this is yours."

Aquila took the book, "You alright?"

Mango started fiddling with a loose couch string, "Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to. You were all excited. We were having a nice conversation."

"That's all?"

"Sure."

Aquila decided to drop it, "You wanna talk more?"

"Yes! Uh, you were saying something about the sun?"

Aquila flipped to another page, Mango leaning over her shoulder to get a better look.