“Jenny’s in trouble,” Colin said as he looked down at the two humanoids he was locking down with his mental commands. The other two creatures converged on the car Jenny was in and Colin heard a scream. Killing the alligator type he had was one thing, but the two he currently held back were once people and might have a chance to recover, but his daughter was in trouble. There was no way he could keep these two alive and still keep Kristy and Jenny safe.

  Colin steeled himself for the choice he was about to make. It was either them or his family.

  A gun shot rang out, then another, followed by several more. The two creatures near Jenny had their life pulse fade out of existence before Colin even needed to act.

  At first he was confused until he felt the life pulse of officer Higgins awake and standing outside of the car.

  Colin let out a breath of relief. He was almost forced to make a tough choice. When he searched his feelings, he knew what choice he would make, he was just unsure he was as capable of doing it as he thought. That was a problem since not acting could lead to his family being hurt.

  “Can you help or are you stuck while locking them down?” Holly asked Colin and snapped him out of his thoughts. She was dragging the fish-headed person towards the open garage door.

  “I can move,” Colin said and shifted himself to incorporate more alligator in his form so his muscles would be more bulky. He bit onto the shirt of the pig-headed person and dragged her to the garage.

  Once inside, Kristy looked between Holly and Colin and said, “What happened? Is Jenny okay?”

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  Colin spit the shirt out and said, “She’s okay. Officer Higgins kept her safe.”

  Kristy deflated with relief.

  After closing the garage door and drawing her gun, Holly said, "Are you two ready? All you need to do is tell me to shoot and I won’t hesitate to stop them.”

  “Ready,” Kristy said.

  “I think we need to tie one of them down. I can’t hold both and connect to Kristy.” Colin suggested, focusing on locking the two down. They fought against him still, but for now, he was in control.

  Holly put her gun away and grabbed tarps and rope she found in the garage. “I should have thought of that. I don’t need to kill them if they can’t physically move.”

  Kristy and Holly rolled the two changed people into their own tarp and then tied them tightly into it with corduroy rope they found in the garage. They tied both of them to tool hooks on the garage wall so they were awkwardly suspended with their faces pressed against the wall. Kristy was adamant about not wanting to accidentally get bitten.

  By this time, Higgins and Jenny had joined them and after getting Higgins caught up on recent events while he was unconscious, he jumped in to help them.

  Everyone decided that keeping Jenny nearby was a much better choice, given the alternative had nearly ended in disaster. Jenny seemed slightly spooked but Colin was surprised by how well she was handling things.

  When given the go ahead, Colin let the fishheaded man go as a test and after some screeching from him and some tweaking to the ropes, they secured him down so he had no chance of breaking free.

  They did the same with the pigheaded woman and then closed the garage door to keep from any other creatures unexpectedly interfering.

  Colin locked both creatures down to keep them from screeching and squealing.

  “I’m ready,” Colin confirmed and then looked to Kristy for her word, she had a look of deep worry on her face and seemed to not have heard him, “Hey Kris, if it’s not possible to save them, that’s not your fault.”

  Kristy blinked and then smiled at Colin. She still looked worried, but a little less as she met his eyes and said, “Thanks. I’m ready.”