Later that night, Alvin woke up Simon. They were making a deal to observe this monster stuff closer, they didn't know about Atticus and Theodore's bites quite yet, but they were going to spy on Mr. Talbot to prove he really is a werewolf, even if Simon didn't believe them. When they snuck out at night, they were surprised to see Cherry coming.
"Cherry, are you out here late at night?" Simon asked.
"Against my will," Cherry narrowed her eyes, then looked surprised. "Wait, what are you boys doing out here? I know for a fact that chipmunks aren't nocturnal."
"I blame Alvin for doing this." Simon said, pointing to the oldest chipmunk.
"I'd suspect him too." Cherry scoffed with a smirk.
"Come on, we better go looking." Alvin said.
"At least he isn't here making sure I do what he says..." Cherry murmured about Forte before she went to follow Alvin and Simon.
They began to look for proof. When not searching, at school, Theodore and Atticus really weren't themselves. It was really worrying to everybody. Eleanor was disgusted with Theodore now and didn't want anything to do with him.
Mo was taking the puppies for a walk while James would walk Lady and Tramp. To their surprise, Atticus jumped by Mo with the puppies, startling them.
"Don't scare me like that, I lived on the streets, if you mug me, I will fight back." Mo warned the boy sharply as she kept a firm hold on Annette, Colette, Danielle, Scamp, and Angel's conjoined leash.
"Whoa, protective much?" Atticus asked, acting cocky.
"I lived on the streets, if I didn't protect myself, I'd my stabbed or mugged for money I didn't have." Mo glanced at him.
"Atticus, are you okay?" Angel asked. "You don't seem like yourself."
Annette rolled her eyes with a scoff. "He looks fine to me."
"Absolutely fine to me." Colette added, nearly repeating her sister as always.
"I think he seems odd." Scamp commented.
"Yeah." Danielle agreed with her brother.
"I'm just fine," Atticus said and then turns to Mo. "So, Mo, what do you say about you and me go out on a date?" He now began to flex his muscles.
Mo looked a little disgusted with the way he was trying to court her as she walked her puppies. "Maybe some other time."
Angel kept close between Mo and Scamp as they walked, even she could tell something was wrong with Atticus.
"You sure? Well, alright, but your loss." Atticus said, walking back to the house, looking cool.
Mo rolled her eyes as she kept walking the puppies. "Dad, I don't understand Atticus anymore..."
"It's okay, Monique, you don't have to be his friend anymore if you don't want to." James soothed his adoptive daughter.
Mo sighed. "I'm not sure what to do..."
When Atticus entered inside, Jessica looked at Patch, thinking he would go to him but, he didn't, he just kept his distance from the boy. Darla played with her hair a bit, glancing to Atticus, but said nothing. Atticus just ignored them and grabbed a can of soda and drank it without thinking who's it was.
"That was my soda!" Darla narrowed her eyes at him.
"*burps* Well, not anymore." Atticus said, after finishing off the soda and then crushes with his hands, making it flat.
Darla gasped and looked angry. "That was rude!"
Atticus then let's the flattened can of soda fall to the ground. "And do I care? No, no, I don't." he said before he went up to the bedroom.
Darla gaped at him, then tried to run after him, but Jessica held her back.
"What's gotten into him?" Emily frowned.
"I don't know, but he's been acting very strange." Patrick said.
Jessica decided that maybe Cherry would know.
Cherry came back to Forte, sitting with him on the family couch. "Haven't found your wolf... Can I go to bed now?"
"Did you look hard enough?" Forte asked her.
"Yes." Cherry answered in annoyance.
They then heard a knocking at the door.
Cherry hopped on her feet and saw who it was. "Jessica, what a surprise." she sounded surprised in her voice, she didn't really talk with the girl as much as she did with Atticus or Darla.
"Can I come in?" Jessica asked.
"Uh, sure..." Cherry let the girl inside. She never had much of a relationship with Jessica, they knew each other, but they were more of acquaintances.
After she entered, Jessica saw Forte.
"Hello, dear..." Forte greeted her. She seemed familiar to him, he had to admit, but didn't actually say anything.
"Ignore him." Cherry whispered.
"Cherry, I need help, Atticus has been acting rather strange ever since the day after that night when he and Theodore got attacked by a big, scary dog." Jessica said.
"He has been odd lately," Cherry could relate. "I actually know why..." she looked back to the ancient music man. "That is... If I can tell her..."
"You may as well." Forte allowed it to happen.
"Well, that actually wasn't a dog, it was a wolfman." Cherry said to the older girl.
"Oh, no, I thought Atticus's description of that big dog's eyes sounded familiar," Jessica said and then looked to Forte. "And who are you, sir?"
"I am Maestro Forte," the man introduced himself. "Court composer, but current music and lingual instructor to one anti-social, former sweet little girl."
Cherry rolled her eyes, she always got annoyed when he'd annoy her about how she used to be sweet and innocent as a little girl, but was now rather doomy and gloomy. Just like him.
"Wait, me, Atticus, Darla and our parents met you when we went back in time." Jessica said, after realizing he looked familiar.
Forte looked curious. "Is that so?"
"What?" Cherry sounded lost.
Jessica told them everything that happened on the vacation/adventure in Atlantica.
"Oh, yes... I thought you all had drowned," Forte remembered now with a smile. "I was asked to be a caregiver for young Prince Eric... His father was ill at the time before he eventually died."
"What happened to Eric's mother?" Cherry asked.
Forte sighed a little. "She died in childbirth."
"Oh, my..." Jessica said.
"Anyway, we need to destroy the werewolf curse... Unfortunately, the only way is to shoot them with a silver bullet or knock them in the head with something silver, killing them." Forte explained.
"Is there anyway to keep the werewolf alive?" Cherry asked.
"No, because all of the ones I knew were wanted dead," Forte said, then sighed as he held his chest, looking in the distance. "Including Lucinda Talbot..."
"Who?" Cherry and Jessica asked.
"Lawrence's mother." Forte explained to them.
"The she-wolf." Cherry concluded.
"Wait, so Mr. Talbot is a werewolf?!" Jessica asked out of shock.
"Yes, he is, his mother was a she-wolf, though I nothing about his father," Forte explained. "That cane he has was handed down to generations in the Talbot family from his grandfather. I was in love with his mother..." he looked dreamy then. "I thought she would be the one to break me from my eternal torment..." he then looked angry. "Then someone shot her..."
"That's terrible," Jessica said. "Wait, if he's a werewolf, then he must have bitten Atticus and Theodore that night and now are going to turn into werewolves themselves."
"That might explain their odd behavior." Cherry concluded.
"I heard an urban legend of this other cure, but I don't know if it actually works," Forte looked to them. "It involves a fight with the one who bit the victims and the victims bite back, turning them back to normal... But you better do it before the next full moon, or it'll be permanent... It's the night after tomorrow."
Cherry's eyes widened. "That's the same night as the elementary school play!"
"Oh, no," Jessica said. "I have to warn Alvin and Simon."
"I feel they may already know." Forte shrugged.
Alvin and Simon went to see Madame Raya herself to talk to her about the same topic. Oddly enough, they saw Darla's best friend going into the trailer and knocked on the door. The door opened and she went inside, shutting the door behind her.
"What's Amber doing here?" Simon wondered.
"I don't know, but we've gotta find a cure for Theodore and Atticus and Madame Raya is the only one that can give us the answers." Alvin said.
The two chipmunks then went to the door and Alvin knocked on it. A woman with strawberry blonde hair in a rolled up teal jacket with a lavender shirt, pink short pants, and white shoes who looked like Amber a little answered the door.
"Excuse me, but we need to speak with Madame Raya this instant." Alvin said to the woman.
"Well, you're lucky you caught me." the woman replied.
"You?" Alvin's eyes widened. "You're Madame Raya?"
"Yeah, what?" Madame Raya asked. "You got a problem with how I look?"
"We just weren't expecting someone so..." Alvin looked unsure.
"Uh, we have a problem." Simon changed the subject.
"Yeah, it's about our friend and brother!"
Simon nudged him, that might be bad to discuss.
"I mean... Our uncle... And his friend..." Alvin chuckled nervously.
Raya was hesitant to do this, but she allowed them into her trailer to talk about this, even if she was off the clock. Amber was eating some Chinese food out of a container, then looked over and saw two of the chipmunk brothers. They also felt odd to see her. Especially in a place like this on a school night.
"Hello." Amber said, feeling odd meeting them like this.
"Scoot over a little, Amber, Mama needs to work with her crystal ball." Raya gently said.
"Okay." Amber smiled, standing up out of the way.
"Madame Raya's your mom?" Alvin asked.
"Yeah, everybody knows that." Amber looked back at him.
"Yeah, we didn't..." Alvin glanced at her.
Amber merely shrugged at them, rolling her eyes slightly.
"Now, what's this problem that you are having with your uncle and his friend?" Madame Raya asked before sitting down.
Simon and Alvin got straight to the point about being a werewolf. Raya told them about the cures that Forte told Jessica and Cherry and how to get Theodore and Atticus back to normal before the next full moon or Atticus and Theodore would be beyond their help. Alvin and Simon knew they couldn't shoot Theodore or Atticus, so they decided to use Mr. Talbot's cane as a way to knock it out of them to get them back to normal.