"Ok, just take it easy now and it should heal in a couple days," Vella said after finishing treating and bandaging a person's wound.
"Thank you for doing this," the patient said, holding out a pouch of coins. "Here is the payment."
Taking the purse and placing it into her bag, she left the small house, turning back only once to say, "Take care now." She smiled. Another life treated with kindness and respect. If only everyone could be treated like that. Alas, the world is not that kind. Oh well. Placing her hood over her head, she walked along the path to wherever it would go.
As she walked, she came across a bit of a commotion. She turned to look, and found that it involved a map of some kind. Grand adventures and riches were promised, but Vella learned long ago not to trust such foolish children's tales. Still, she wondered who would be dumb enough to go for such a thing. Plus, that ridiculously outrageous price...
Only a fool would consider it. Now that she thought about it, though, perhaps that fool might need help. She had sworn to help those who are deserving of need, and perhaps this might be one of those occasions.
On November 24, 19XX, two teams were sent into the town of Fortunion after several disturbing cases of civilians attacking each other. Upon arrival, the two teams were continuously attacked by civilians. All of them had expressions of fear, and were bleeding tears from their eyes. All attempts at nonviolent negotiations failed, and they were forced to fight for their lives while trying not to kill any of the civilians. Fighting their way through the city, they eventually took refuge in a building and waited for extraction. In the building, however, they found seven audio recordings that revealed some very informative news. After extraction, both teams and all personnel that had been in contact with the teams were placed into quarantine.
This is Flyjack Stimp, um, April 13, 19XX. I've decided to keep some recordings of this, don't want any of it to be lost, after all. *chuckling sound* This may be my greatest discovery since, well, ever. While examining the corpse of a simple felis domesticus, I found one of the most unusual species of Grimm. You see, one might think that the bigger a Grimm is, the more dangerous it is to the general public. Of course, that's not to say that that's not true, but they clearly haven't seen this Grimm before. It's incredible, simply marveloous, why, I have no idea why people haven't even thought of this before. Well, they probably have and I- *frustrated sigh* dammit I'm rambling again. *throat clear* Anyway, these Grimm are incredibly tiny. One of these little things can't be seen without the aid of a simple microscope. I originally thought it was just some odd-looking bacteria, but no, these things have that unmistakable white mask on them. That's right, these are microscopic Grimm. What these things have been doing on this cat I have no idea, maybe it was a means to spread it around or something. This needs further examination.
Flyjack Stimp, April 17, 19XX. Well, I've got my hands on a few more cats, and put the Grimm on some of them. Not an easy task, trying to keep them off you. The infected ones don't really seem to be any different from the ones not infected. Well, apart from my observation that the infected ones seem to scratch themselves more often, as if they have fleas or something. Hmm... further examination required.
Flyjack Stimp, April 20, 19XX. I was right. The infected cats do act as a means to spread these Grimm around. Funnily enough, they only seem to use cats as a means to do this. I've tried rats, and the Grimm didn't take. Very peculiar. This is so exciting. Of course, these are definitely Grimm, which means they must affect us in some way, right? By "us", of course, I mean humans and Faunus. Most likely, these things will probably destroy us from the inside or something. Now that I think about it, that's not really a pleasant thought. Oh well.
Flyjack Stimp, May 15, 19XX. Oh my goodness, I have been slacking off on this so much. I've just been so preoccupied with these things. Still haven't thought up of a name for these things. Maybe "Stimp." Nah, too presumptuous. Anyway, these findings have been so exciting. I couldn't really do much else by myself, so I presented what findings I had to that Hunting school, uh what was it called? Uhh.... *repetitive finger snapping sound* ehh, it'll come to me eventually. Anyway, they were very interested to see what I had, and wanted me to work with them to learn just what this thing could do. *chuckle* With pleasure.
So, I gathered a few volunteers from... somewhere, gave them some... warnings, and so far it was been.... interesting, to say the least. The Grimm don't really seem to show any signs or symptoms within the first week of infection. It's the second week that shows anything. The infected victims really scratch the back of their heads. And I mean A LOT. Not all that interesting, to be honest. Then the third week. Oh my my, these poor fellows have a serious migraine, and they seem to be losing fine motor skills too. When I examined their brains, well, that's the fun part. It turns out that these Grimm are attacking the brain, especially in areas involving motor control, like the cerebellum. We're just about to go into the 4th week of this. I can't wait to see what's going to happen.
Flyjack Stimp, May 24, 19XX. My, oh my. These Grimm just take over the brain. I mean, these poor fellows can't move their bodies anymore. Okay, that's not entirely accurate. Perhaps it's better to say that they can't control their movements anymore. It's the Grimm that are in control now. Incredible. The Grimm don't seem to have very fine control, at least not yet, but they have it all the same. Unless I'm mistaken, these poor fellows are so scared, seeing their limbs move out of their control. They can't speak anymore, but the expression is evident in their eyes. No wonder why these Grimm do this. If I remember correctly, Grimm feed on negative emotions, and these Grimm take advantage of that. They use their fear as their food source. At least, that's what I think is happening. Then again, I can hardly believe that it could be anything else.
One other interesting thing is that the victims will produce tears of blood. Very interesting.
Flyjack Stimp, June 30, 19XX. After presenting my findings to that school, they said that it was imperative that no one else know about this, then they asked me to hand over all of my research notes and all the samples of the Grimm I have to them. I was shocked. Of course people should know! This is my greatest discovery! How DARE they try to keep it silent! To stay in their good books, I handed over the stuff on paper, but they haven't found these audio recordings yet. I tried to get my discovery out, but no one wanted to accept my findings. No one! I tried so many sources, and every time it was rejected! It's almost like- Shit! They put a D-notice on this! There's no other explanation! They certainly took precautions oh this. Well, I'll show them.
*loud banging in the distance* Shit. Shit shit shit. They must've known I still had some things on me. They're trying to break into my home now. I've barricaded the door, but there's no telling how long it will last. *chuckling* Know what? I thought up of a name for these things. I've decided to call them the Blood Betrayal. Yes, that's it. *banging intensifies* Well, guess this'll be the last. Now that I think about it, I wonder why I haven't been affected by the Grimm. Maybe I'm immune, who knows? Oh well, I still have one sample of these Grimm. Might as well release it. Let the world know now. *gunshot* *wood breaking after a particularly strong bang*
"Clear!"
*footsteps* "Team NOVA in position. No sign of Flyjack."
*more footsteps*
"Woah." "Stop staring and start sanitizing. There's no telling how many of these Grimm are out now." "Right right."
*Unidentifiable noise*
"Good thing they gave us these suits, huh? Do I look like a badass or what?" "Yeah yeah, now shut up." "Fine, Captain Buzzkill." "What was that?" "Nothing!"
As Crosscut and the others appeared, Michelle came to the conclusion that their mission was complete, albeit not without losses of their own. One dead and several injured. One might think that it wasn't that big of a loss, but still... someone died. Death was, and still is, never a fun thing to comprehend.
As she followed Crosscut out of the facility, she glared at the civilians as well. Not because she was mad at them like Crosscut was, but because she was mad at herself. She did next to nothing in the fight, and that didn't deserve cheers or applauses. All she could do was watch as her teammates did most of the work and took the hits. It was all Michelle could do to maintain discipline and not shout at them to go away and shut the f*ck up.
Returning back to base, Michelle walked away after being dismissed. She took a moment to think about where to go, then decided to head to the gym. Her first instinct had been to go to the shooting range, but there was no need for that. Her aim was still as good as ever. That she was definitely sure of. Entering the gym, Michelle found a punching bag as well as a pair of gloves. Without a second thought, she put the gloves on and started punching, hammering away at it, venting her stress on it.