Swirling red and blue lights shone through the darkness—the police had arrived at George's house, responding to a reported alien abduction. Such cases were strange enough, but this case was even stranger, as it was the alien who had been abducted.
Officer Pinsky scribbled down notes as Mr. Nordgren recounted his experience. "They were tall, a little taller than me, even with the antlers," he said. "They wore these long blue robes, as if they were cultists or something. I grabbed George's baseball bat and threatened them with it, but one of them pointed at me, and ripped the bat from my hands without touching it. They put some kind of spell on Jenny so she couldn't move; she flounced around like a rag doll while they carried her out. We're talking otherworldly powers here, so you may want to get in touch with the X-Files, or the Men in Black, or Torchwood, or whoever it is that handles these situations."
"We'll do that," Pinsky assured him. "But first, would you mind describing the missing alien in detail?"
"Sure," replied the moose man. "About 5'2", artichoke-shaped head, pointed ears, pointed teeth, pale green skin…"
"Thank you, sir," said the other policewoman, Officer Jones. "That should be plenty to go on."
"I'm curious," Mrs. Nordgren chimed in. "It seems I run into you two officers everywhere I go. Are you the only policewomen in Elwood City, or what?"
"Funny you should ask," said Jones. "Earlier today we visited a family down the street, questioning them about an escaped mental patient, and they were wondering the same thing."
As Jenny regained a semblance of consciousness, the blindfold was ripped away from her eyes, and she saw a darkened chamber with two illuminated faces in its midst. She tried to lift her hands and rub her eyes, but strong shackles bound them to the arms of the chair on which she was seated. "Huh?" she muttered in her triplicate voice. "What is this place?"
One of the horned faces began to speak. "We mean you no harm," he said calmly. "I apologize that we had to retrieve you so forcefully, but we had little time to act, as the humans use every opportunity to persecute and torment us."
The Kressidan girl shook her head to ward off the dizziness. "Humans? Us?" she marveled. "You mean you're not human? What are you?"
The other face smiled. "My name is Guida von Horstein," she stated. "On my right is my husband, Arlos. We're unicorns."
Jenny squirmed in the cold metal chair. "This isn't necessary," she told the couple. "Release me, and I promise I'll behave."
"Very well," said Mr. von Horstein. There was a flicker in the darkness as he waved his hand, causing the shackles to separate with a click.
Jenny looked down at her slender wrists to check for signs of injury, and then addressed the unicorns again. "I don't understand. I have a degree in Earth culture, yet I've never heard of unicorns. I always assumed humans were the only sentient race here."
Mrs. von Horstein nodded. "The humans like to assume that as well," she said with a hint of bitterness. "Most of them look upon us as mythological beings. Only their leaders are aware of our nature and our powers, and they consider us a threat to their supremacy. They kill every one of us they can find, which is why we've taken to living in underground cities."
Bowing her head, Jenny contemplated what she had been told. "I thought genocide was a thing of Earth's past," she said humbly. "I thought King Martin Luther had guided humanity away from attitudes of bigotry and intolerance—but now you tell me it's still going on."
A moment of apparently sympathetic silence passed between the horse-faced man and woman. "A wise unicorn once said, 'Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it'," Mr. von Horstein spoke up. "And humans can't learn from history. That's not their fault, of course—they're simply unwitting victims of the repeating history loop."
Jenny raised her eyes boldly. "What do you want from me?" she inquired. "Are you expecting me to help you somehow?"
"Exactly," said the unicorn man.
Despite the hectic nature of their Sunday morning schedule, Arthur and D.W. made time to visit George and consult with him, and even managed to take Francine along. Arthur wore a tan suit jacket, a spotted tie, and shiny black shoes, D.W. sported her pink church dress, and Francine was clad in the light blue dress that spent the bulk of its time in her closet.
"Arthur and D.W. I can understand," remarked the curious George, "but what are you all gussied up for, Francine?"
"It's my first day going to a Christian church," said the girl, proudly waving her skirt about. "I want to look good for Jesus."
The moose boy's jaw dropped. "You, Francine? A Christian? When did that happen?"
"Well, it hasn't happened yet," she replied. "I still need to get baptized."
"Cool," said George. "Sprinkling or immersion?"
"I don't care," said Francine, "as long as it's not the baptism of fire. That sounds really painful."
"So, George," Arthur chimed in, "tell us all about what happened last night. Do you have any idea why the Sentinels would want to take Jenny?"
"Sentinels?" said George, confused.
"They're the bad unicorns," D.W. told him.
"They're not the only bad unicorns, D.W.," said Arthur. "In case you haven't noticed, they have a nasty habit of snatching people away to their unicorn city. They snatched Jenny. They snatched Vanessa. They tried to snatch me and Francine, and they tried to snatch you."
"And nobody could stop them, except for the X-Pets," Francine added.
"And the X-Pets don't have a leader anymore," Arthur continued. "The unicorns must be planning something, or they wouldn't have killed the Professor and kidnapped Jenny. But what is it? What's their plan?"
to be continued