What a fucking surprise. He's faster. He rips the zookeeper off of Kyle and is held back by the oath from doing this with quite as much force as feels warranted -

"Can you be extremely not predatory about that please I don't want you possessed by hyenas -"

"Right." He lets the zookeeper fall to the ground. " - am I possessed by hyenas -"

"I don't think so," says the ritualist. "But maybe just sit on him and sing."

He does that.

The steak doesn't do it but the rabbits do; the hyenas eyes flash with the return of whatever-the-fuck-it-is. Then Tyelcormo punches the zookeeper in the face. Gently. He's only human.

Macalaure raises an eyebrow at him. "I asked if it seemed like the kind of thing I'd want to do regardless," Tyelcormo says reassuringly. "Telvo thinks so."

"I guess now we call the police," Macalaurë says. "I am not delighted to be in the middle of all these mysterious shenanigans but better me than you, I think."

Their ritualist nods fervently. 

"I'll drop you off back at your car," he says. 

And he calls some number and makes a dry police report that the zookeeper at the Sunnydale Zoo seems to have been engineering the hyena exhibit to get himself possessed by hyenas, instead got some bystanders possessed by hyenas, and then tried to murder one. 

Whoever he called doesn't seem particularly disconcerted by this.

The kids wake up in the hospital an hour later. They are told that they collapsed at school.

Sure they did.

" - what happened to - the Principal called us in - "

A nurse breaks to her, very gently, that Principle Flutie was killed by wild dogs today. They seem to have entered through the window.

Well. At least she knows that no one else expects her to remember what happened.

Mercy totally remembers what happened.

When she's released from the hospital, she corners Karen the next day after school. Pins her to her locker, actually.

"You're the one who shot us. You must know what happened after."

"You remember that, huh?"

"What happened."

"I, uh, dunno how many specifics I'm at liberty to give? My understanding is that you were possessed by some kind of animal spirit for a while. It should be fixed now."

Paaaging Alex, the animal possession does not in fact come with memory loss.

- I can handle the thing if you don't want to do stuff right now. Just. So you know.

- poor kids. You can send them to me for a breakdown of everything that happened.

"The gym teacher says you can go to him for a summary. He, uh, knows about stuff like this. And was there and stuff. - do you want me to go with you?"

"Fine. I expect answers."

So she and Karen head to Alex. The other kids haven't said anything to anyone about their experiences, so it's just Mercy, at least unless they track the others down tomorrow.

"Hey, Mercy. How're you doing?"

"I've been better."

"We got the guy who caused it. He's in jail. I'm sorry we weren't quicker about it."

"What was it?"

"There is apparently a ritual which can cause possession by the spirits of hyenas. A zookeeper developed the burning ambition to become possessed by hyenas, and arranged the conditions for this ritual. The students who entered the exhibit triggered the ritual and became possessed by hyenas. The hyenas attacked Herbert and Flutie. Karen tranquilized you, we went and reversed the ritual, we arrested the zookeeper on manslaughter and attempted murder charges, and we took you to the hospital."

" - you I understand. Why was Karen involved?"

"As I understand it, she was investigating Herbert's murder for the school paper." You can tell people if you'd like, he adds to Karen, but I'm not going to.

Thanks.

"Also I'm a superpowered demon hunter," she says, at Mercy's very skeptical look. "In training."

"...ah."

"Working on getting better at stopping things like this."