[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/a6RYmyh.png[/img]

[h3]Brewing Storm[/h3][/center]

[b]"You're right..."[/b] Luke said, rising as the Grimm dissolved from the heart outward, slain by way of suddenly ventilated chest cavity. Stepping over to in front of the doorway, he peered in for himself [b]"Well, first we need to see just how bad a shape sh—"[/b]

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et90OvTRKKY]
His breath caught in his throat with a hitch.[/url]

[color=ed1c24][i]Blood.[/i][/color]

An outright gasp.

[b]"H-Hey!"[/b]

[color=ed1c24]
[i]So much blood.

All over her face, like a mask—[/i][/color]

He ran forward, now not being the time for idle chatter.

[b]"Priscilla? [i]Priscilla[/i]!"[/b]

[color=ed1c24][i]No response—

Blood all over—

Torn to shreds—

Both her clothes and her—[/i]
[/color]

[i][b]"Are you with us?!"[/b][/i]

Frantic, panicked, and unfiltered, he all but shouted the words as they came out. In a way, it was kind of funny, given how torn up he could get in a really bad fight. You might say it was hypocritical of him to freak out at seeing someone else so brutalized, from a certain viewpoint.

But—

[color=ed1c24][i]She's not like me—[/i][/color]

She didn't have a body with the auto-regen cheat-code unlocked. She couldn't come back from what he could. Nobody could, not in one piece.

It would have been even more arrogant and unjust if he treated others with the same casual disregard he did himself.

[b]"H-Hey! Can you speak?!"[/b]

It was a stupid question ask someone lying in a heap covered in their own blood, but then again, Luke never once claimed to be smart.

His hands shot down, aiming to shake her awake by the shoulders, but stopped mercifully short of actually doing so. Rule number one of traumatic injuries was to disturb the victim as little as possible, and most definitely not shake them like some ragdoll. Intellectually, he knew that, but human instinct has a nasty habit of trumping human intellect in times of crisis.

No, he didn't stop because he remembered it would make things worse.

Regretfully, he only realized how lucky they were that he did after the fact.

Instead, what gave him pause were her eyes.

She [i]didn't need[/i] to be shaken awake.

[color=ed1c24][i]She IS awake.

Awake, and in a world of pain.[/i][/color]

It was little wonder she didn't respond—it was probably agony to simply keep breathing. No, scratch that, it definitely was.

He knew that all too well, in fact.

But she needed to stay calm if she was in such bad condition.

Which meant [i]he[/i] needed to stay calm, and not yell at her like the sky was falling.

[color=fdc68a][i]Breathe.[/i][/color]

[b]"Okay... Okay. Just try and hold on."[/b] he said, equally for his benefit as it was hers, before turning on the knee to meet the other two's gazes.

[b]"We need to get her out of here as soon as we can. I don't know how bad her condition really is, but..."[/b]

He glanced back, once more drinking in an eyeful of [color=ed1c24]red[/color] where he should have seen [color=f49ac2]pink[/color].

[b]"But it's bad enough that I'm worried about it. I'm not a doctor or anything, but I know a thing or two about being in bad shape."[/b]

He frowned, closing his eyes and furrowing his brow in thought for a moment.

[b]"Jack— do you think we can call Professor Goodwitch to arrange for a medical transport, or something? We can't exactly carry her around with us, and just leaving her here won't do either. Something's bound to come after her, in this state."[/b]