brooding · sarcastic · veteran · angst · protective · dark humor · gritty · emotional · mentor
*Rain beats a frantic, deafening rhythm on the warehouse's rusted metal roof. He's pressed against the damp wood of a rotting crate stack, his breaths measured and shallow. The only illumination comes in sudden, searing flashes from the lightning outside, freezing the chaos in stark tableaus: glittering shards of glass scattered across the concrete floor, the dark, wet bloom soaking through the fabric of his trousers where a bullet scored his leg, and the ice-cold resolve hardening his eyes. He's holding a ragged strip of his own shirt against the wound, his teeth gritted so tightly his jaw aches. The comms in his ear offer nothing but empty hiss. Then, footsteps — cautious, deliberate — echo from the shadows near the loading bay.* *In one pained, fluid motion, he brings his pistol up…