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"Jamal?"

The tiger caught the query despite the noises the damaged jeep was making behind him, the noise of slowly kindling wood of the duplex, and the chatter of all the others that had come over. He snapped his head around and saw Amaya sitting with a weird fish...thing. The tiger stared at her but said nothing at first. It was a calculating sort of stare that almost seemed to bore into her skull. She was the only person here he vaguely recognized.

He heaved himself upwards suddenly, as though spurred to motion by the lizard's recognition, and headed in her direction. He didn't look friendly.

"Don' like tha sounda that..." Anatoli said as he heard the growl, chewing on his bottom lip. He raised his voice in the hopes that Rachel and Amaya could hear him. "Listen, ladies, he looks like needs moah help than you can give in moah ways than one. Nobody who drives a cah into a buildin's not gonna be sane!"

One trembling hand was on the knife handle just in case, the other held out anxiously. His eyes catch the tiger man lunging forward, and seeming to make a beeline for the lizard.

"Get outta heeah! NOW!" His eyes widened as he held the knife out, calling for the lizard woman.

He was shaking so hard. Another seizure?

Rachel's gaze was drawn back to Jamal as well, when Amaya turned to look at him. Some of the color drained from her face when she saw him approaching and the way he was looking at the iguana girl. Part of her instinctually wanted to say "nice kitty....." or something along those lines, but she kept her mouth shut, knowing how stupid it would be to say something like that at this point.

"We only want to help..." she found herself saying, in a rather scared voice, just before the person in the wheelchair suddenly went rolling past, right towards Jamal. Rachel gasped in fear, not knowing what was going to happen.

The two-legged walking posture must have been either too painful or too out of use for Jamal to keep it, for he soon slunk into an all four posture as he approached, eyes moving from Alec to Amaya to the barking dog. If Amaya had been attentive, she'd have seen the end of a gun jutting out at the waistband of his pants before Alec wheeled in front of her. The tiger snarled and pushed back onto a two-footed stance and grabbed said gun, leveling it at Alec, lips pulling back into a snarl.

"Move o' I WILL kill ya both," he said slowly, slightly drawled with a lisp, as he stared Alec down. "I want ta talk ta 'er 'n' if I gotta go through ya ta do it, then FINE."

Anatoli's blather wasn't helping either. Jamal saw the knife and for a moment, turned the gun in his direction. "Bullets beat blades...so shut da ******** UP." God, people were full of stupid today.

Freddie's eyes widened at the sight of the gun. How could she have missed it before? Blame the smoke maybe, or all the people and the confusion. "********' hell," she hissed under her breath. She didn't want to think of how the freak had gotten the gun, but some gruesome ideas sprung to mine. She wouldn't want him to think he had that much of an edge, not after what he'd inadvertently put her through before.

"He ain't got s**t!" she yelled at the people clustered around Jamal. "They're just loaded with tranqs, fer Chrissakes!"

Alec's marble-like eyes widened as the light struck the metal weapon held at point-blank range by Jamal, as if the sunlight was excentuating his point. He had no time to react however, as Donner was thrust into his care and Amaya took hold of the situation. Helpless yet again, all he could do was watch and pray that the crazy b*****d didn't lash out at anyone in a violent stupor.

Freddie's voice made him jump at first, his words moreso when they finally sunk in. He was packing tranquilizers?

Eyes shot back to Jamal and Amaya, twitchily thrashing his head back and forth between the two in expectation of something very bad.

Jamal had started to lower the weapon but Freddie's declaration made him pause in mid-motion, the islander's words ringing almost in a mocking manner in his ears. Tranqs?...WHAT?

He snarled and threw the chamber open, finding that lo and behold, Freddie was right...there were no bullets in this gun. That very sight made his blood boil and he roared angrily, snapped the chamber shut, and jammed it under the waistband again. He was pissed that he had been held at bay before by something as innocent as a tranq gun.

The tiger turned his focus back on Amaya and suddenly grabbed her by the neck, pulling her forward into his warm, sickly rotting meat smelling breath, eyes narrowed furiously. Oddly enough, perhaps, he didn't dig a single claw into her. He just tugged her forward.

"You betta tell e'vryone I ain't dead, ya hear me," he whispered slowly, his voice edged with a very commanding tone as he stared her down. "Tell 'em all. 'n' ya tell 'em if they ain't wit' me, then they're gonna die like these guards are dyin'. I ain't lyin'. I ain't holdin' no favorites eitha'. Dat goes fer ev'ryone....you tell 'em dat, ya hear me? Lab lovers are goin' first."

Tran-AH! Amaya gave a screech as his hand trust out and grabbed around her thick neck, although with her voice it was mostly just a hissing squeak. She blinked and stared ahead, unable to see his face but able to smell his breath and hear his commands. She wasn't about to tilt her head in an attempt to see him head-on.

... Guards? He was killing guards? She was stunned for a moment as his words sunk in. Then she nodded rapidly. "I will. I will."

Then the reality was actually starting to sink in. Somehow Jamal was able to kill guards and get away with things without being put to sleep? ... He was their only key. "Focus on Moreau." She finally spit out. "If he's dead, everything will follow." It was then that her head tilted to look at him in the eyes.

She then looked to Alec as if telling him to be quiet. She might not have known Jamal very well, but if he was slowly killing off the labs then it was best to stay on his good side. Maybe he would be their salvation. Donner was going ballistic now, barking and yanking at his leash to try and get at Jamal for touching his master.