The Future Will Change

With Aoife serving as a distraction to help them escape, Aidon, Luna, and Pinkie would manage a narrow getaway in his vehicle. Along the way, they’d explain to her exactly what had been going on down to the finest detail of a Masked Menace causing problems for everyone with their curse that was coming through a movie. Eventually, they’d drop Pinkie off at her home in Vanhoover.

“...thanks for bringing me home, professor,” Pinkie expressed her gratitude as she left the vehicle, “You guys were a big help. And…I’m sorry for freaking out back there.”

“It’s alright,” Aidon consoled her, “I just wish I could’ve done more for those who had been corrupted, but your co-workers should make it out okay at least.”

“And that oni girl is here to help us too, right?” Pinkie asked for confirmation, “I hope so. Because I don’t know how long I can stay home before my business tanks…”

“Don’t worry,” Luna added as her tail wagged, “We’ll try to figure out some sort of cure for this before long. For now, you’d do best to stay out of harm’s way until we have a definitive answer. And be sure to tell your friends to do the same.”

Pinkie nodded as she walked up to her house. “...I will. Thanks.” And with that, she went inside with a sad snort.

Luna then turned her attention to Aidon who had rested his forehead on the steering wheel. Her fox ears wriggled as she tilted her head.

“...are you alright, dear?”

“I’ve had better days,” the hellhound-man admitted with a tired exhale.

“...you were brave to put yourself in such a dangerous situation,” Luna went on, trying to comfort him with a paw-hand on his shoulder, “Pinkie is…an unpredictable one. I don’t think I would’ve been able to do such a thing.”

Her words put him at ease at least somewhat. “Thanks, Luna,” he replied with a small smile across his canine face. “But still…that bastard managed to get the better of us this time. Can’t let that happen again.”

Luna’s tail started to wriggle some more as she sat back against the seat of the car and put some heavy thought into the situation with her arms folded. “Hrm…not quite. We now know that they can induce the curse anywhere they please. It’s entirely likely that they may try to do the same thing again.”

“Hm…good point,” Aidon replied, “But still, we don’t exactly know where they plan to activate the curse next. If only we had some sort of an inkling of an idea, we could prevent the next major incident before it occurs.”

“Well we could waste our time thinking about how and when it’ll happen, or we could go home and rest…in our new forms,” Luna suggested with a small yip, “I think Aoife can handle the cleanup part.”

“Fair enough…let’s hope she can throw the police off of our trail.”

With that, Aidon drove on home with Luna…

Back at the site of the incident…

Aoife was able to pull off a rather convincing human appearance given the technicolor skin tones of the general population. All she had to do was wear a fedora to hide her horns as she spoke to the female captain of the police.

“...so you’re saying this incident was a result of a social media stunt?”

“That’s right, love,” the oni replied, “What you saw here was nothin’ more than one’a them social experiments.”

“...right,” the female officer rolled her eyes at such a tale. She wasn’t buying it for a second. “...quite wasting my time, kid.”

Just then, one of the other officers called out to her. “Chief Eris. We’ve found some hairs that forensics might be able to take advantage of.”

“Finally,” Eris rolled her eyes and put her notepad away before patting Aoife on the shoulder. “Listen, kid. I got some business I need to go do. So if you’ll excuse me…”

“Oh yeah, no problem, mate.” Aoife nodded and walked away from the scene of the incident. Her part in the mission had been accomplished by allowing the others to get free before the police showed up. However, there was just something she couldn’t shake from her mind as she hopped onto the nearest building.

“Eris…Eris…” she muttered as she observed the police officers continuing to work. “Where in the bloody hell have I heard that name before? It’s on the tip of my tongue…”