"A GRIMM!" The giant lowen monster roared and swung a crushing right hook straight at his face. It was on!

In an instant, the new Grimm ducked the monster's punch and was hammering his own punches into the monster one after another. Kelly had been fighting his whole life but had never felt anything like these new powers he was experiencing for the first time.

He pounded another flurry of vicious punches into the ribs of the lowen and watched the giant man wince and then slash razor sharp claws at him. The biggest shot of adrenaline he had ever experienced had crashed into Kelly's system and all of his instincts were screaming in overdrive.

The entire world had stopped moving as he watched the Lowen slowly throw another hard left at him. He was looking straight at a huge fist tipped with razor sharp claws and stepped inside the big man's jab. He felt a crunch as his own left uppercut slammed into the monster's jaw. He saw the man wobble the instant before his right hand crashed onto the big man's ear. The Lowen was slowly slumping down and he caught the big man with three hard knees into the ribs and smashed an overhand right into his eye. Like lightning The Grimm's old dagger flashed out instinctively in his left hand and was heading straight into the lowen's neck.

Now Kelly was pulling himself back as hard as he could. NO NO NO! Don't kill your best friend! He was hitting the brakes as hard as he could against the crushing tidal wave of adrenaline and his surging instincts.

Finally, in what seemed like an eternity, the knife in his hand jerked back and one tiny trickle of blood dribbled down his unconscious friend's neck as the monster slowly collapsed into a pile and transformed back into his team mate. Army special forces sergeant Eddie Jorgenson was now slumped against the brown wall in the narrow hallway.

He heard voices behind him. "A Grimm?" He instinctively whirled around into a low fighting stance and unconsciously shifted his knife in his hand. The old blade was now tip down in his left hand and he was already two steps closer to them. He saw ten Wesen monsters looking at him in their uniforms with their rifles in hand. They saw their reflections floating in the black abyss of his eyes and inched backwards - unsure of what was coming next.

There was nowhere to go in the tight hallway. He was the very best knife man they had ever seen - and he was coming for them. He was too close! He would be inside their group before they could get a shot off and they would all die shooting eachother. They had seen him do it to the enemy in the field dozens of times - but that was before he he was the Grimm eyeing them. They tried to inch backwards to put one more second between the Grimm holding "Betsy," the old brown WWII stiletto his mentor had passed him, and themselves.

Now the men heard the familiar voice "Everybody calm down! We gotta get Eddie back out of here." The Grimm was talking to them - but they were unsure. None of them had ever seen a real life Grimm before and they had been shocked by how effortlessly he had dealt with their tough Special Forces Lowen team mate.

He heard quiet talking among the group "Burkhart's a Grimm?" Their platoon mate still had his knife out and was intently focusing on them. They instinctively knew he had already picked who was first and would kill them all if they made the wrong move. He was watching them carefully.

He heard a familiar voice "He knocked Jorgenson out!" It was Alvarez. The lanky Coyotal transformed back into Alvarez and looked across at his fallen friend who was bleeding from his nose and mouth, and making mumbling noises. The big man was slumped against the wall near a hole where the team had blown a door into it's room.

Alvarez chuckled "Damn Burkhart, you knocked Jorgenson out cold!" The rest of the monsters transformed back into his platoon mates. The lowen was their hard punching army base heavyweight boxing champ with a jaw cast straight out of solid iron. He outweighed Kelly by seventy-five pounds. They had watched the Grimm manhandle him like a child. They had also seen how their friend had held himself back and didn't stab his own best friend to death when he had been attacked.

Now they saw their platoon sergeant relax and change his posture. He wiped off Betsy and slid her back into her old brown sheath. The danger was over. They all knew their friend had spared them.

He knelt down and pressed a handkerchief against his friend's neck to stop the trickle of blood. Kelly looked at his platoon mates "Hey Richardson, help me get Jorgenson up and back out to the medics. Alvarez, can you get his gear?" They carried their wobbly, incoherent, and heavy friend back out of the training exercise building and over to the Medic tent.

...

Later that night

He was at his girlfriend's apartment. They had just finished up a fantastic steak, grilled shrimp, and an ice cold bottle of White Zinfandel. She had cooked a special dinner for him on their six month dating anniversary.

The red haired bikini model had slipped into the bathroom to change into something more comfortable when her phone rang.

He was relaxing on the couch smiling about the coming festivities when he heard his girlfriend yell. "A WHAT?"

Suddenly a furious red haired female Lowen Monster in lacy lingerie came stomping out of the bathroom with claws and teeth bared. She looked straight into his eyes and snarled "So it's true! You're a damned Grimm! How could you do this to me?"

"Shelly, calm down! It's just me!" But it was too late. She was flying across the living room viciously slashing razor sharp claws at him, screaming "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, GRIMM!" and the world stopped moving.

He watched her slashing claws barely miss his nose and he whipped a rock hard left at her. He felt his left fist crunch into her jaw and then a stiff right pound into her ear. His foot kicked straight out into her chest and the petite female lowen's body caved in around it. She went flying backwards and crashed through the dinner table scattering candles, dinner, and pieces of broken wine glasses across the kitchen and he instinctively went flying at her. Her limp body slid to a stop against the cabinets in front of the sink and he had a kitchen knife on her throat.

The unconscious monster transformed back into his girlfriend, Shelly Jorgenson, his best friend's sister. He looked at the knife in his hand. He wanted to kill her and it took all he had to force himself to drop it.

He checked for pulse and breathing, picked her up, carried her over to the couch, and gently wiped the blood and dinner off of her. He held ice bags on her bleeding mouth and ear as he tried to wake her up.

He was apologizing to her and holding her hand. The first words out of her mouth were "I can't believe you, of all people, could be a Grimm! Get out of my house! I never want to see you again!" She never knew how close she had been to death and he would never tell her.

It was 8:30 PM on Friday night and he was driving away from his now-ex-girlfriend's place on their six-month dating anniversary all alone.

Kelly Burkhart was officially in a very bad mood and wanted to fight *everyone*.

...

Early that morning.

"No! No! No! Not today! Of all days, not today! You can't do this to me TODAY!"

He gritted his teeth and rubbed his hand in his black hair, then stared back into the mirror. Everybody had warned him about "The Day." He knew it was going to be a bad day. But it couldn't be today! Not today!

He was still looking in the mirror twenty minutes later. He was staring at his own reflection floating in the black abyss of two jet black orbs. His blue eyes had turned jet black just like his father's.

Happy Grimm Day, Kelly Burkhart.