The Knights of Grimm - Act 3 - Shattered Memory

Chapter 47 - Rats in a Trap

Penny

Blood has been smudged over the floor around where Penny has ripped the swords she launched into Brawnz's head. She and Glynda both stand above the corpse of the young man who mutated into that feral monster, almost glowing metallic red blood everywhere at their feet. They both share the same look of horror on their faces for what they have just seen, the spines that protrude from his spine and the metre long claw arm that protrudes from where his fingers once were.

They are almost lost for words, as are the patients inside who witnessed the horrors first hand, Yang is completely frozen with fear. Back pressed to the wall, sat on the floor with her arms hugging her knees with wide eyes and a slightly open mouth. They are all shaking with terror from what happened, not just because it was horrifying and the terrible fate that became of May...but the realisation.

They all carry that plague.

That will happen to all of them if they do not find a way to cure this thing.

Glynda crouches down beside the body of Brawnz to start her analysis of his wounds, and where the mutations began. The torn flesh and skin where his right arm mutated, it is horrific and almost putrid already. The muscle ripped open and already beginning to blacken, and the sight of the bones in his arm mutating in horrific ways is...startling. Especially for a Professor who has known how the Human and Faunus bodies work, but Horridus Morbus has taken all of those years of work and thrown it out the window.

Penny's expression has not changed, still holding one of her blades in her hand, slightly shaking as she stands there. The door bursts open, and Ren and Nora stumble inside, their eyes widen when they see the corpses of Brawnz and May...or at least...what is left of them. "What the hell happened?" Nora questions with consternation plaguing her vocal tones, looking at the Professor and the Android.

"I...I don't know..." Penny stammers, but the Professor continues to examine the corpse of Brawnz, seeing the damage that has been done during that transformation.

"His shoulder blade ruptured in the mutation, chunks of bone sticking out from the skin...this is horrible." Glynda shakily describes to herself as she looks over the arm that is covered with blood. She follows the mutation up and then sees the curved spines that look almost reptilian in nature that protrude through the flesh and skin on the back of his neck. The spines that suddenly grew outwards and stabbed May's fingers, making her shriek.

Sticky blood covers the back of his neck where the skin has been broken open in places where these bony spines have grown from each vertebra. Almost like it developed inside his body, like some sort of foetus. Glynda turns the body of Brawnz over, to look at his face and she is shocked by what she sees. Still carrying chunks and shreds of flesh and skin, even bits of jugular hang from his teeth and blood staining his jaws.

The canines have extended and she can even see more razors pushing down his teeth in general, eventually the old ones would break away and the jaws would be replaced with those canines. But what is more horrifying is what has happened to his eyes, the irises and scleras, even the pupils have faded away into blackness, that would have a red glow like the Grimm otherwise. Glynda astutely identifies something else on his body that could be a sign of what happened to trigger this violent and sudden transformation.

Nora looks at Ren and they are both lost for answers, but when they see the fear in Glynda's eyes they know that this is more serious than they could have possibly realised. "His veins..." Glynda stammers.

"What? What is it?" Nora asks with fear.

"They have turned black, completely discoloured, and they have all fed into his head." Glynda explains, then she looks at Penny as a rather dark idea comes to her mind. But desperate times call for desperate measures at the end of the day. She reaches out to Penny, looking up at the nervous Android girl. "Penny, I need to borrow your sword." Glynda requests.