Underneath the Stars

Lucas had gained speed rather quickly, running on adrenaline and fear; feelings that made his eyes flicker bright blue lightnings and had his inner leopard growl of anger and excitement. This was the most action he had gotten in years, and though his leopard seemed somewhat excited at this prospect, Luke felt the heaviness in his heart. All that blood and misery and pain had his head spin, but he stayed focused on Raf and Vic that had gathered in the middle of the clearing.
He didn’t see the hand until it had gotten a good grasp on his ankle. With a loud, surprised grunt he stumbled forwards, reaching both arms out to take the hit of the hard ground beneath him. Years of training had him turn lightly sideways mid fall, sparing his torn shoulder and taking the hit on the other side of his body.
With a loud snarl he kicked out at the hand.
Crack!
The wolf screamed as the entire hand splintered. Frozen? Luke looked up, knowing exactly what this meant. Jack had arrived. He barely had time to sigh in relief or greet the Cyrobird, before being met by two more wolves.
Luke couldn’t control the anger anymore. There was so much pain around them and this bloody pack didn’t seem to care at all. He pushed himself back up.
“You better back the fuck off!” Luke roared as a warning, his entire body flickering with bright electricity. For once the last few wolves seemed to understand that they were losing the battle, the two in front of him taking a couple of steps back by his angry voice.

Look out!
Jack’s voice had Luke’s head perk up, scanning the clearing to figure out who the warning was meant for, just in time to see Vic getting pushed back forcefully and violently. The world went quiet for a second as heat shot through his cheeks. Fear overpowered his anger.
“Vic!?” He screamed hoarsely. Back on his feet, he stumbled forwards running to reach her. “Jesus Christ!” The fire seemed to be everywhere now. He dodged a burning, fallen branch. “Jack! Get the fires!” He shouted, not for a second taking his eyes off Victoria. “And get to Cole! Vic! Vic, don’t move!”
Luke finally reached her, stumbling lightly as he had to come to a full stop. “Hey, hey! Vic, look at me. We’ll fix you up nicely, mh?”
His electricity had died down, leaving him with his worried eyes looking down at his fellow shapeshifter. He knew that Jack would be able to heal her, but his powers were needed elsewhere and Luke would have to at least stop the bleeding until she could get proper help. He gently touched her side, feeling the sticky wet blood where she had been cut rather deeply. In a rushed movement he tore at her shirt, ripping a large rigged piece of fabric from it, not really caring about exposing her body but solely focusing on her bleeding ribs.

Jack's voice echoed in her ears as she looked into his ice- blue eyes, then just as she was about to turn around - everything went black for a second. She felt the push, and the next thing she registered was how heavy her body felt as she was on the ground. Everything around her seemed so distant, like an echo she barely picked up on anything, till she saw the dark crimson color that seemed to spread from her side. It was about then she felt the burning sensation of pain and her face turned to horror. She sat up on her elbow, only to whimper from the pain, her eyes wanting to get a look on the damage. Then she realized the golden like color from the flames around her, making her feel even more dizzy. The snow leopard wanted to get away.


The cyrobird looked around seeing how extreme the fires turned, Rafael had lost control and if they had to act quickly. But seeing Victoria hurt on the ground took his breath away for a solid second, till Lucas got through to him. Jack took a deeper breath in; he was thankful for it still being the winter months and the cold naturally hang in the air. Jack launched his ice into the air, freezing the air particles around them, cooling down the entire area giving the fire a harder time to live. Jack knew he could do this faster if he transformed, his powers would be even more powerful in that shape, but he didn't have time to transform, not now, but his ability to change the weather around him - letting the snow starting to fall around them, as he turned to focus on the burning flames towards Victoria and Lucas, stopping them first. Then he pulled out the other flames if he hadn't changed the weather he wouldn't have had the same luck. Then as he breathed out he turned to Cole and let himself fall beside the young werewolf and could only hope he wasn't too late.

Victoria kept her eyes at Lucas as he had reached her, didn't speak, she just looked at him. The more grey-green snow leopard eyes showed how close she was to just transform and flee, it was her snow leopard that always protected her when she was injured or that had been till Lucas had helped her back then, and ever since. The snow leopard trusted the leopard, just like Victoria trusted Lucas. Hissing a bit feeling the contact with her side, her body was so tense and aware of everything. She had given up a long time ago on holding herself up on her elbow. Victoria didn't realize she was sobbing, but she started feel the snow as it drizzled down around them ending the forest fires around them. *We will be okay right?* A worried thought was sent to Lucas, as she couldn't find her words to speak, here she was thankful for their mind connection. She gasped to the pain, but her eyes remained on him, moving slowly to his bleeding shoulder for a short moment. It wasn't a fatal wound, but bleeding for too long wasn't a good thing for anyone. The black spots slowly began consuming her sight, making her frown a bit as she gasped from the pain. Victoria forced eyes to remain locked on Lucas, despite their wish for just a short break. She needed to tap into her own mind to try push herself to stay awake.

"Rafael," Jack raised his voice, as he looked over at the werewolf alpha out of control. The cyrobird held the young werewolf's hand, as he started his healing. They all shared this, being shifters and sometimes the animal instincts took over. Jack had always had the theory that shapeshifters lived in more harmony with their animals than werewolves and his own kind. Even now, the eagle in him just wanted to break free and bath in the blood of the enemies - it was hungry for the terror and chaos. "I need you over here," the cyrobird demanded a bit, hopefully enough to get the disturbed alpha's attention. If he didn't he didn't see much other choice than to make sure, a heavier cloud of snow would hang over the werewolf, at least in hope of cooling him a bit more down. A howl sounded from afar, making a few of the werewolves from the pack look back as they started to move away from the scene. Then there was others who sat down on their knees, as they had picked the stronger alpha's side. Jack breathed out by the fight being over, now they just needed to recover from it. Jack let his ice healing take over, knowing the icy and cold healing wasn't pleasant for most people."Luke was is status?" He turned his worried eyes over to Lucas and Victoria a few meters from him. As much as he wanted to fully heal Cole and make sure he was alright for Rafael, Victoria had a higher priority for him - but he trusted Lucas had the bleeding under control. For now, at least. Jack looked at Rafael, "I need you to take some of his pain while I heal, it will speed it up. - And save me enough energy to heal her."

Lucas pushed away all the noise around him, focusing only on the bleeding wound in front of him. With his good arm he gently held her down whilst examining the nail-cuts. Luckily they were neat cuts, not rigged or obviously dirty and he grumbled to himself, considering how to go about stitching her up to make Jacks life a little easier when he could come to help heal her. Touching her bared hip, he closed his eyes to examine if any nerves had been damaged.
Flashes of light lit up his inner eyes, flickering with electric pulses and nervous wiring, showing him the transmissive signals running through her body. He focused in on her side, following the flickering neurons through their routines; despite the light cluster of nerves having been grazed with the werewolf-claws, nothing seemed ripped.
We will be okay, right?
Luke opened his eyes, regarding his old friend softly. Her eyes changed rapidly between her leopard and her usual colour, and he nodded reassuringly, knowing exactly what went through her mind. Her animal wanted to take over. He nodded again. We will be alright, he assured her. We always do. Luke needed to take some of her pain away, before he could cover up her wound and before it would numb her and make her doze off. “Stay with me, Vic,” he growled at her, as her eyes glazed over.

Luke lifted his head by the sound of Jack’s voice, locating him only a few meters away with Raf, both hovering over Cole. The snow had covered large areas of the clearing already, and fell heavily around Jack and Raf.
“No internal bleeding; no cut nerves,” he replied. He squeezed Vic’s hip gently, to keep her awake and aware of the rest of her body. “Want me to stitch her up?” He knew that Jack was aware of how he could make the electricity kind of zap the edges of the cuts together a bit like glue - it hurt a lot, but if he paralyzed her nerves while he did it it should be fairly easy. “I can do the shallow ones but there are two deep cuts that are bleeding quite a lot.”
Without really knowing Jack’s answer, he ripped his own shirt open, ripping out a piece of fabric that, although a little dirty, could be pressed down on the bloody cuts. He turned back to Victoria, still paying attention to anything Jack would suggest and locked his eyes with hers. “I’m going to take away some of the pain, Vic. It’s really best if you don’t move and I need you to stay awake okay? Talk to me properly this time, mh? Tell me about what noodle dish you're gonna cook me when we get home,” He guided her softly, urging her to use her voice and not their mind connection, smiling through his slight panic. Talking would take a bit more effort than thinking, and would help her from drifting off once the pain would turn dull. “Okay?” He repeated, and allowed his leopard eyes to flash shortly at her, before he gently touched her rip, between two of the cuts; closed his eyes and very, very carefully, paralyzed the delicate nerves around the skin to take away some of the sharp pain in her side.

Victoria could feel how heavy and slow her heart was beating, how every single beat seemed to hit her ribcage. It made her nervous and not knowing how this was going made her slowly go out of her mind - it was almost like she had been here before. As his voice reached her mind she nodded a bit. If there was anything she trusted it was for him to make sure they would be alright. It took even more energy from her to keep her own mind from letting her doze off. The thought of dozing off and not deal with the pain seemed tempting by now, but she couldn't just do that to her boys. Victoria heard Jack's voice like a distant echo, not having focused on his words but just the sound of his voice. She couldn't even focus on what they were talking about, and she took a sharper breath in trying not to move around.

The cyrobird listened as Luke replied to his question, it was good, somewhat good news. They could at least do something. Jack took a sharper breath in looking at Cole healing faster, at least it helped that the boy was a werewolf, so triggering his natural healing system wasn't too bad. Want me to stitch her up? The cyrobird took a deeper breath in looking shortly at Rafael, "Yeah, do that," he replied quite simple. Jack could already feel himself being tabbed from energy, then again looking around. Covering fire with ice wasn't always easy, not if you didn't want the ice to melt. And then covering the entire landscape around them in snow, along with the fight and healing Cole - it was already a lot on him, not that he cared if it meant saving Victoria. But if Lucas could take part of it, it would make it easier to heal parts of it now and the rest later. Jack turned his attention to Rafael shortly seeing his friend blaming himself and he took a deeper breath in and followed his friend's eyes towards Victoria for a second. "No one is blaming you, " he said in a lower voice. Animal instinct were hard to control, even with the best intentions - you could end up causing more harm than good, it was always a risk they lived with. "She will be fine, we will make sure off that." Jack gave Rafael an assuring nod.

"Just do it Luke," she took a sharper and longer breath in. Victoria was exhausted. She grunted as she felt the fabric pressed down on her side. Victoria's eyes locked on his again, and she gave him a small nod to confirm she was listening to him. Her lips shivering a bit, not much for having to use her words to speak out, even though the last comment made her chuckle a bit, a chuckle she regretted a bit as the pain just seemed to hit her slightly harder. "You mean the only dish you will actually let me cook in your kitchen?" She took a sharper breath in clenching her teeth, feeling her entire body tense up with panic, even though she really tried to remain calm the best she could. But she managed to nod a little, as the worry shortly faded a bit from her system as he allowed the leopard eyes to show for a short moment. "Okay." A short moment was enough to convince her snow leopard to stay put. She breathed out in almost a relief as some of the pain was numbed.

Jack moved from Rafael's side, barely even standing up, but more moving like a gorilla to the side. He placed him self on the ground next to Lucas, looking at the wounds. Jack took a slightly sharper breath in letting his hands inspect the deepest cuts. He could heal them. Once again his brown eyes turned ice blue as he placed his just above the wound. Victoria hissing a bit by the extreme coldness that was spread through her entire system. "I can get most of it now, and the rest tomorrow. I have a few minutes before its time to eagle out," he sighed a bit, pushing through enough to make sure none of the wounds were fatal, and a mix with Luke's powers she would live. Jack let go and fell a bit back. Victoria took a sharper breath in. "Jesus Christ it's cold," she mumbled a bit to herself in a small laugh looking over at Jack then at Lucas. Her head moved to the side to try locate Rafael. In her own clouded head, she hadn't even seen if he was alright. She didn't even hesitate to move up on her elbow challeging fate till she got her eyes on him.