As Greg finished dealing with his fourth feral of the night, his tail digging deep into its chest, he looked up at the sky, noticing the sun beginning to rise. He clicked his tongue, snipping the tip of his tail off as he collected this latest feral's form. "I have to go." He explained, looking back in the direction of the bunker, shifting into the form of a cheetahman, the third feral he'd dealt with and a pain in the ass as he'd had to chase the fucker down for an entire goddamn half an hour until he got too tired to go on. If it weren't for the fact that his sharkman form could track him by the heat of his footprints, he would have lost him, and that would have really pissed him off, particularly since that feral seemed to target particularly young humans and ferals.

"What? Why?" The cat girl asked in confusion. "You are powerful enough to not fear the unformed, and you even have their form! There are so many others who prey on the weak to deal with!"

Greg shook his head. "I have responsibilities during the day. Don't worry, I'll return tonight and we'll deal with more then. I'll find you where we first met, okay? Do you remember where that is?" The cat girl nodded. "Good. Take care. Stay safe while I'm gone." He bid her farewell, before dashing off at a rapid speed.

The cat girl watched him go, crossing her arms with a slight pout. "I'd be safest with you." She grumbled to herself, before slinking off to find a safe place to hide for the day.

Greg returned to the bunker a little after the sun had fully risen, slipping through the door as quietly as possible and pulling his pants back on, before taking a seat and waiting for Sarah to wake up. He fell into thought as he considered his actions over the previous night, frowning as he realized how much he actually depended on his healing factor. If it weren't for the fact that he wouldn't, couldn't go down, all the ferals he'd killed should have won. They actually did things like dodge and defend, while he just stood there, swiping randomly until they died… he needed to develop some actual combat skills. Well, technically he didn't need to, but… it'd be a good idea, right?

The other thing he had to consider was what to do with the rest of the ferals… it had become obvious as he'd seen more and more that a lot of them were just people, trying to survive in this messed up world just like the rest of humanity. If that was the case… Why should they fight? Greg didn't care what people looked like. Cat person, lizard person, fish person, whatever, as long as you weren't an asshole, he'd be cool with you. So he started thinking that maybe, just maybe, everyone could just… talk, you know? The humans didn't need to kill ferals, they just wanted food and supplies. Ferals didn't need to kill humans, they just wanted to be safe. Admittedly, there were a few assholes in both groups that made things more difficult… plus the ferals weren't really organized enough. They barely trusted each other at this point, let alone the humans who'd been killing them the entire time.

Greg sighed wearily as he considered the monumental task that solving this issue would be. Just getting the ferals organized would take an act of God! They all had different levels of intelligence, from the more beastial, to the hyena brothers more at the ten or eleven year old level, to the cat girl, who didn't seem to be any different from a normal human. How could you get someone who only knew how to hiss and growl at you to realize the things that have been attacking them this entire time aren't actually that bad and you should be friends? He'd have a hard enough time convincing the cat girl, let alone them! Years of fear and violence were hard to just smooth over, even for regular people.

Greg mulled everything over, before coming to a conclusion. He needed to start small. The first thing he had to do was create an area where ferals felt safe, even during the day. Somewhere they could live without worrying about being attacked by humans or those crazy assholes like the scorpocroc. Thankfully the ferals didn't really need food, which made things easier, but… they did need protection, both externally and internally. He needed to find ferals who were both strong and intelligent to police the others and protect them. The hyena brothers were a start, but they could only protect, not police. They didn't have the intelligence to handle internal conflict, and they'd probably just end up making the situation worse.

Unfortunately, the combination of strength and intelligence seemed to be rare among the ferals, not that it was exactly common among the humans… they tended to either develop mentally, like the cat girl, or physically, like the hyena brothers or the sharkman. Maybe if he could find a group of those humans that had supposedly embraced the mutation Tessa had mentioned… but then again, they might be crazy too. They had decided to just up and abandon their human forms. Not the best indication of a stable mind.

Greg was still trying to work through the problem, when Sarah emerged from the back with a yawn, frowning as she saw him lost in thought. "Are you okay?" She asked, sounding a bit concerned. Every time she'd left Greg alone before, she'd come back to find him doing something weird to entertain himself. To see him just sitting there staring off into space was… disconcerting.

"Hm? Yeah, I'm fine." Greg replied, shaking himself out of the endlessly repeating loop of thoughts he'd fallen into. He really just needed more information before he could actually do anything. "How'd you sleep?"

"Fine…" Sarah answered tentatively, giving him a weird look. "How about you? What did you do?"

Greg shrugged. "Nothing. Just hung around."

Sarah blinked at him. "Nothing. Really."

"Yeah?" Greg replied, not sure why she was being so weird about this.

Sarah looked around, as if trying to find evidence of some misconduct. "Okay, no, seriously, what did you do?" She asked sternly, squinting her eyes at him.

"Nothing! Really!" Greg protested. "Why does it matter anyways?"

Sarah narrowed her eyes at him. Something just felt off. A Greg who was content just sitting around doing nothing? That just didn't make sense! There was something going on here, she just couldn't figure out what. Her first reaction was to think it had something to do with her ability, but she quickly dismissed the idea. Greg didn't need to hide it if he wanted to do something to her. If he had any thoughts, she was completely at his mercy. But what else could it be? It wasn't like the bunker was some sprawling series of tunnels he could hide his misdeeds in. It was only a few rooms, just the living room and two small bedrooms in the back. That was it!

She eyed the cabinets warily, wondering if he'd booby trapped them or something as a prank. "Could you get me a can of tuna?" She asked Greg, glancing at him suspiciously.

Greg frowned at her, looking at the cabinet literally across the room from him, then at her, standing practically right next to it. "Why?" He asked slowly, confused. It wasn't like the cabinets were high up or anything. She was more than tall enough to get her own can of food.

"No reason. I just thought it'd be nice if you did it for me." She replied innocently, batting her eyes slightly. "You don't mind doing things for me, do you?"

Greg stared at her with a wary, distrustful gaze. "Is-is this flirting? Are you trying to flirt with me?!?"

Sarah immediately flushed in embarrassment. "N-no! Gross! I just want to know what you did to the cabinets!"

Greg paused, stunned for a moment. "I didn't do anything to the cabinets!"

"Then why won't you get me a can of tuna!" Sarah yelled back.

"Because you're literally standing right next to the damn thing! You don't even need to walk!" Greg explained.

"Why should that matter!?!" Sarah huffed, crossing her arms. "You just want me to open the cabinet so everything will fall on me, don't you!"

"Oh for the love of- fine!" Greg threw up his hands in exasperation, before striding over to the cabinet, opening the door, grabbing a can of tuna, and shoving it into Sarah's hand. "There! Happy?!?"

Sarah looked between him and the cabinet, slightly stunned, before looking down at the can of tuna, a new suspicion forming in her mind. "Could you open it?"

Greg glared at her, raising a finger. "I warn you, I am not afraid to smack a little girl upside the head. There is absolutely nothing wrong with anything in this kitchen, you understand me?" Sarah opened her mouth to protest. "No! No more! You just sit there and eat your damn tuna!" Greg shut her down, before stomping back to his chair.

Sarah glared at him for a moment, before giving up and carefully opening the can of tuna, which of course, had nothing wrong with it. She then began to eat it with another suspicious expression, but again, found nothing wrong. It went on like this for the next hour or so. Every time Sarah went to do something, she'd glance suspiciously at Greg, before carefully going through with it, as if she expected something to pop out at her at every turn. Finally, she let out a groan of frustration, stomping up in front of Greg. "I give up! What did you do?!?"

"I didn't do anything!" Greg protested in exasperation. "Zip, zilch, nadda, nothing!"

"You don't do nothing!" Sarah retorted. "You play chess with cards, or make card houses, or- or something! You don't just spend an entire night doing nothing!"

Greg paused, before shrugging. "Fine. I went outside to fight ferals. Happy?"

Sarah's eyes widened. "W-what?"

"I took my pants off, walked out the door, transformed into a sharkman, and went off to find ferals to fight. It was fun. I got my head snipped off by a scorpocroc before I shoved my claws into its chest." Greg explained slowly for her.

"B-but that- but you- is-is that okay?" Sarah asked tentatively.

"Why would it not be?" Greg asked, raising an eyebrow. "I'm just going out and doing what ferals do. If anything, I'm making things safer out there."

"B-but what- what if someone came to the bunker?!?" Sarah asked nervously. "What if- what if they tried to-"

Greg shook his head. "No one travels after dark. It's too dangerous. As long as I leave after it gets dark, and return before the sun rises, it's fine."

Sarah's eyes widened. "Y-you're going to do it again?!?"

"Yeah? As I said, it's perfectly safe. Why would I not? Better than being cooped up in here doing something weird, right?" Greg replied with a shrug.

"But- but-" Sarah stuttered, trying to find a reason he shouldn't go.

Greg stood up, patting her on the head. "Listen, you'll be fine. Just don't worry about it, alright? Come on, let's play cards."

The rest of the day passed normally, the two of them simply chatting and playing cards. Greg thought Sarah had accepted that he was going out, until it began to get later and later, and she still wasn't going to bed. He frowned, checking the time through the peephole, noticing it was starting to get dark, but Sarah didn't show any indication she was going to sleep any time soon.

"Uh, Sarah? Shouldn't you be getting to bed soon?" Greg asked.

Sarah shook her head. "Nope. I'm good." She answered shortly, before a yawn betrayed her.

Greg frowned at her, before shaking his head. "Sarah, forcing yourself to stay up late isn't going to keep me from going out."

Sarah slapped her cards down on the table. "Why not!?! You leave cause you're bored right? If you aren't bored, you don't have to leave! I can stay up! Let's just- just keep playing cards!"

Greg shook his head. "Sarah, you're going to sleep, either now, or later. You have to. Go on, just go to bed, I promise you'll be safe, alright? I'll never be that far away, so I'll always know if there's anyone around, alright?"

"No!" She exclaimed, reaching out to grab Greg's arm. "Just- please, I- I'll do anything! Just don't- don't leave me alone…" She ended in a whisper, eyes begging desperately for him to stay.

Greg looked at her with a conflicted expression, before letting out a groan of frustration and shaking his head. "No, I just… I have to go out now. Sarah, there's… there's ferals out there, like the sharkman. They take people and do cruel and evil things to them, leaving them broken, dying, just like Gabrielle… I can't… I can't just ignore that. I have to go out and stop them. Every one I kill is one that isn't out there hurting people anymore. You understand, right?"

As he talked, Sarah had slowly let go of his arm, curling up into herself, eyes going dead. She nodded as he finished. "I understand." She whispered. "I'll go to bed now." She stood to her feet, shuffling into the back room.

Greg watched her go with a pained expression, but he didn't know what else to say. He had to go out. He just wished he could do it without hurting Sarah. Greg sat in thought for a bit, wondering just how he could make this better, but he just couldn't think of anything. Eventually, he had to give up, sighing as he took off his pants and slipped out the door, changing into the cheetahman form and dashing off. Sarah watched him go through the peephole with a heavy heart, hoping he was right, hoping he'd be fine, hoping… hoping he could help others like he'd helped her.