Raven
Richard drags me back over to the stage and we stand in front. The announcer eventually gets on stage again and announces the start of the talent show. There are twenty-five kids who get to perform. Almost every kid at Sunny Oaks, besides Richard and I submitted something, but a panel of judges for the ball could only select twenty-five performances out of all the kids from all the different places to perform. Garfield said he probably only got a slot because of his appearance, but he was happy it was useful for once.
The first couple kids sing, one plays the guitar, a group of five do a dance performance, there's a solo break-dancer and then finally Garfield. When Garfield gets on the stage people start to whisper. I can see him sweating a bit and getting nervous, so I wave a hand to get his attention. He looks at Richard and I, then smiles.
"Hello Gotham," he says a little too loudly into the mic. "How's everyone doing tonight?" There's an awkward pause and he looks at us again before continuing. "My names Garfield Logan and tonight I'll be making you laugh. "What do you call a PeanutButter sandwich with no Jelly?" there's silence. "Not PB&J." No one laughs.
"Shit..." Richard whispers under his breath.
"Okay, tough crowd." As usual, Garfield doesn't know when to give up. "Knock-knock."
"Who's there." Richard yells, which is good, because no one else says anything.
"Banana," Garfield says.
"Banana who?" Richard yells back.
"Ba-nanan-nanana-aren't you disappointed it's not Batman?" Again, there's silence. And then something worse than silence.
"What's green and stinks?" A man yells from somewhere in the audience.
"Shit?" Someone else yells.
"That kid," the man yells back. People start to laugh and make more jokes. The announcer pushes Garfield off the stage and starts to quiet everyone down, sending on a kid with a puppet. Richard and I push through the crowd to get to the stage steps. Garfield is mortified.
"Hey... You did your best." I won't tell him that his jokes didn't suck, but I can tell him that at least he had the guts to try.
"Yeah, you should be proud," Richard says. "Everyone starts somewhere. You have to climb to get to the top, right?"
"Nothing worth doing is easy," I add. "And at least you might have gotten some attention." Garfield sighs. We take turns patting him on the back and head away from the stage so he can't hear the applause for the other kids. We're halfway across the room when Garfield starts running. Ugh... I'm never going anywhere with these two again.
I catch up to them and Garfield's run up to an angel. She's tall with red hair, sharp green eyes and a pair of beautiful white wings curled up behind the back of her pink dress. She's giving Garfield an amused half-smile.
"I love your wings," he says. "They're so beautiful. I can have wings too, but I can't show you right now."
"Probably for the best," she says. What does he mean?
"You're HawkGirl." Richard says.
"And you are?" she replies. She crosses her arms over her chest, clearly unimpressed with his declaration.
"Yes, do tell." A man approaches behind us, we turn to face him. He's old with an eyepatch over one eye and graying hair. Despite his age, he looks anything, but frail. He eyes us the way a cat might look at a mouse.
"I'm Richard, this is Garfield and Raven." Richard answers.
"Such interesting children. It's hard to believe you haven't already found new homes." He surprises me by bending down and lifting my chin up with his hand. Ugh... Something about him... is awful. It's like that other man from before. Something about him is like him. Are all the rich people like that? Is there something wrong with all of them? I give him the nastiest glare I can muster and take a step back.
"How old are you?" He's still looking at me, but he's talking to all of us. "Which home did you come from?"
"None of your business." Richard says.
"Perhaps I can see now, why you're still lingering there." He smiles as he says it, not bothered at all by Richard's response. "It was nice meeting you. Perhaps I'll have to pay you all a visit." He walks away before we can respond.
"Who was that guy?" Garfield asks. He glares at the man's back.
"Someone you should stay away from," HawkGirl says.
"Are the other Justice League members here too?" Richard asks.
"Yeah! Where's Batman? Or Superman?" Garfield turns around and starts trying to find them in the crowd.
"Maybe," she smiles. "Have fun, kids." We watch her walk away and the boys keep looking through the crowd, hoping to see more superheroes.
"Heroes have to eat, right? Should we go get more snacks?" Garfield asks.
"That's not a bad idea." Richard agrees. I follow them back to the buffet. I'll give them a few minutes and then we're going to go find somewhere quiet for the rest of the night. I'm done.
As we approach the buffet tables there's a loud noise that penetrates the crowd. Something hits me hard and I crash to the ground, hitting my head. Richard is on top of me and Garfield is next to me. There's more loud noises and the screams are deafening.
"Silence!" I can't see him, but it sounds like a man is using the microphone from the stage. There are more big sounds and then it quiets down. I catch Garfield moving in the corner of my eye. There's a man next to us who's bleeding. Garfield moves over to him and puts pressure on his wound. I look at Richard, but he's frozen with fear.
"Listen up. My friends here are going to be walking around with these pretty bags. I want any jewelry, wallets, whatever you have, put it in the bag. I don't think I have to explain to you what will happen if I don't. You're all highly educated right? Isn't that the kind of shit you like to throw your money at?" I can't see, because Richard is still pushing me on the ground. I nudge him off me, but he doesn't want to move. Does he think he needs to protect me? "I know we got some heroes in the house, but don't think about trying anything or these kids are gonna get it." I hear gasps and screams, but I can't see why.
"It's okay," I whisper, but the panic in his face says he doesn't believe me. Still, he moves and we stay low. Garfield is still helping the man. A gunman comes by with a bag. Richard surprises me by pulling my hair over my face. The man bends down in front of the man Garfield is helping and digs in his suit pockets and takes a ring off his finger.
"You kids got anything?" He asks, after he's done. We shake our heads.
"Nothing?" he asks. I keep my face low so that he doesn't see the gem on my forehead. The last thing I want his dirty hands thinking they can dig it out.
"We're orphans. This is a charity event," Richard says with a surprising amount of strength for how scared he is.
"Don't be smart with me." The man points his gun at Richard for a second, but then decides to keep walking. Another man comes around and in front of him is a familiar face. Jessica. The man is holding a gun to the back of her head and she's got some kind of device strapped to her chest. She's sobbing, tears stream down her cheeks.
"They're gonna blow us up," Richard whispers. I thought he was scared before, I thought everyone was scared before, but now the fear is immeasurable.
"You stay here and if you touch that, it's gonna go boom," The man says. "Be a good girl." He starts walking away. "Number two in position." Number two? How many kids did they do that to? Shit...
I know what Mrs. Huntington said. I know what Azar's rules are, but I have to... If I don't, we're all going to die. I've never done this before, but if I don't try...
"Azerath... Metrion..." I take a deep breath and try to tune out the fear as best I can, even though it's impossible. I concentrate on what I need to have happen. I need to protect everyone. "Zinthos." I raise a shield to protect the people around me, everyone except Jessica. She looks at me and I can see the panic setting in, the last of any hope disappearing from her. She walks over to the shield and bangs on it. If I let her in, we'll all die. There's nothing anyone can do to help her. I wish I could protect everyone from the blasts, but I can only protect the people I can see.
"What the fuck is this!" One of the gun men yells. He tries to shoot it, but only gets one shot in before getting knocked down by the man who was with Zatanna. He takes off his glasses and puts them in his pocket before grabbing the guy by his neck and carrying him off. There's more fighting and a skinny guy in a red suit is suddenly in front of Jessica. He moves to touch her, but I hear a big noise. The bombs are going off. Without even thinking I try to shield him too.
There are big noises everywhere and smoke makes it impossible to see. I hold the shield up as long as I can, but the fear... Everything is too much. When I let it go smoke fills in and we all cough. Water falls from the ceiling. People get up and run, but my friends stay down. Richard goes to help Garfield with the injured man. He's still conscious, which means he hasn't died. The place where Jessica was standing is black. The man in the red suit is only a foot in front of the mark, but he's fine. He looks at the spot and his grief is overwhelming. Then he turns towards us. He goes to Richard and Garfield, taking the man from them so fast it's almost like he disappears into thin air.
The room is chaos. People are still screaming; the sprinklers are going off. We don't move. A man with dark hair and blood on his suit approaches us.
"Are you three alright?" he asks this, but something about him makes me think he already knows we're fine. Richard walks a few feet away and pukes. Garfield suddenly disappears and in his place is a green kitten. The man picks him up, like it's totally normal that my friend just turned into a cat.
"Are you okay?" A woman with long dark hair asks Richard. She's wearing a dress that was probably beautiful, but is now torn to shreds at the hem and stained with blood. She's patting him on the back. He nods and turns back to us.
"I've got them," The man holding Garfield says.
"Thanks. Superman needs my help rounding up a few more of them." She leads Richard over to us and then runs off.
"Let's get you three out of here." We follow the man out. We have to walk around a lot of debris, a few small fires are still going despite the sprinklers. The worst thing is the bodies... or even worse than the bodies, the black spots on the floor that used to be kids.
"Don't look," The man tells us as we pass a few more. Finally, we make it outside, but it's not a relief. There are ambulances, fire trucks, people standing around with cameras and tons of other victims. We follow him to the side of the building. More sirens wail and more and more people are showing up. The man hands Garfield to Richard and takes off his jacket. He throws it over my head like a hood to cover my hair and keep part of my face hidden.
"Thanks," Richard says for me.
"Let me flag a police officer and I'll get you out of here," he says. "Which facility are you from?"
"Sunny Oaks," Richard answers. The man pulls out his phone and walks away from us for a minute. We stay put, because honestly, I don't even know what else we would do. I have no idea how to get back and I don't see Mrs. Huntington, Ms. Kinders or any of the other kids. I hope they're alright. Jessica isn't...
The man comes back with a police officer.
"Let me get your statements and you can get out of here. I'll find one of their teachers and let them know you took them," the officer says. He asks Richard a bunch of questions about what happened and writes down his answers, then the man. The man was by us, so he was protected by my shield. The officer asks who put the shield up and thankfully the man says he didn't see. The officer doesn't know Garfield isn't really a cat, so he ignores him and looks at me.
"She won't answer your questions," Richard says. "She doesn't talk to anyone." Thank Azar for Richard. I couldn't talk to him even if I wanted to... I've already broken so many rules.
"She was with him anyway; they probably saw the same thing," The man says.
"You get them out of here. It's turning into a circus." The officer seems exhausted and he's only just started. We follow the man around the side of the building farther down the road. A black car is waiting. An older gentleman gets out. He opens the front and back door for us. We get in the back and the man joins his driver in the front.
"This is the address." The man shows his driver, his phone.
"Thank heavens you're alright, sir." The driver really is relieved.
"I had some good luck being on the right side of the room." The man looks at us in the rearview mirror and meets my eyes. Shit... Does he know? Did he lie to the police man?