Bang

Against my own will, my body tenses. The scent of blood and gunpowder is...

I can smell it. That, alone, I don't like.

I don't sense him. I can sense traces of his presense, but...

Am...

Am I shaking?

Alright...maybe I'm shaking...but a moment's focus and I stop.

In all our fights with super powered villains, the fatalities have been shocking few and far between. But one lone, all-too-human young man with a light calibur gun or two has already killed ten people that we know of.

Maybe later I'll appreciate the irony of this.

There's a member of the faculty collapsed in front of the door I'm about to head into. All too late to I notice him take his last breath.

Eleven...

I open the door...

And I dart out of a portal adjent to it, to throw off the gunman if he's there. Which he isn't.

Why does that fill me with any measure of relief?

I quietly, cautiously walk down the halls. If I'm so concerned with staying quiet, I should float, but...I don't know. Something is just...

I silently curse as I hear the communicator go off. Why haven't we installed vibrator functions in these things yet?

"Status check." says Robin.

There's something...off...about his voice. There's a sense of urgency, of course, but...

"Only traces of his presense." I say, "He's most likely moved on."

There's a short pause before he continues.

"Starfire?"

"I-I...I am afraid I have nothing to report."

Starfire is in shock. Part of me wonders if she's ever seen this sort of carnage before, but that thought will have to wait.

"Cyborg?"

"Nothing here. Both bodies and brass are cold."

Cyborg's mindset is all business. Maybe it's because his brain is have digital, but...

Stop it, Raven. Your mind's wandering.

"Beast Boy?"

A second passes.

Another.

Another.

"Hold on! Just lemme get this, okay?"

I almost sigh when I finally see his image. He's outside the school, reassuring someone offscreen.

"Dude...I...got a survivor...okay, there's the paramedics, cutie. Okay, look, I can't find the guy, and...I have a sensative nose...can I check outside?"

"Beast Boy!" barks Robin, "We can't-"

"THERE'S BLOOD EVERYWHERE!" Beast Boy snaps back, "I can't take it! It's...messing with my sense of smell! I can't get his scent! I need some...fresh air or something..."

Another second passes.

"Alright. Patrol the outside. Robin out."

And now I go about the grim take of searching the halls...

And counting the dead...

I check in one classroom.

Sixteen.

I check another.

Twenty two.

Back out in the hallway...

Twenty six.

...Azur above, why am I counting?! I shouldn't...I know I shouldn't, but I can't...

Why is this getting to me? Shouldn't dark, morbid little me not be affected by the sort of thing? I've certainly read of worse things than mere gunshot wounds, I've dreamt of even worse...and yet...

Azur...

Mother...

I'm scared...

Just in front of the girl's restroom is a stick-thin blonde girl, lying on her back. On her abdomain, a blossom of red slowly blooms from the virginal white clothe of her uniform. And through the outpouring of tears, she's looking up at me in hopeful desperation.

I should teleport her out to the paramedics, but...I need to heal her myself.

No, that's not...

No. I need to.

I didn't know I was capable of it, but ever-so-softly, ever-so-gently, I comfort the poor thing. I'm not sure if she's trying to say something. She's sobbing so hard. Not just the pain of her wound...maybe more than the pain...it was shock. Horror. This shouldn't have happened. Why did this happen?

I don't know. I wish I did.

But honestly, a tiny part of me never wants to know.

The bullet inside her complicates things a little, but I successfully remove it and her wound closes. That does precious little to stop her sobbing. She manages to calm down enough to gesture to the restroom.

I teleport her to safety and check the restroom.

Twenty nine.

I can delve into the darkest literature. I can dream of nothing but a macabre parade of dismembered and disfigured corpses, all burning brightly with flesh-seering Hellfire. I can even tell myself again and again that I'm going to trigger the Apocalypse, but...

I don't want to be here.

Not in this place.

Not in this world.

I want to be in the sanctity of Azurath. My old home was calm and quiet. The occassional cool breeze would carry with the scent of flowers and herbs unique to the gardens there, and it would gently wind it's way around the smooth stone buildings. And from my room, I could watch the sun set in the amber sky. And I would be safe and secure...

I really wish I was anywhere but here right now.

...A gunshot.

I race around the corner to see number thirty and...

"Jesus Christ?! Why-"

BANG!

Another student falls.

Thirty one.

If I had only acted a moment sooner, I...

I take a good look at the monster we've been hunting, and...I almost want to laugh. A trenchcoat? Sunglasses? Camoflague fatigues? Are you kidding me?

Are you kidding me?!

The sheer aburdity of it...this stereotypically angst ridden youth...

A teacher whose knowledge will never be passed down...

A student will never go on to try and change the world...

A fourteen year old girl that's never going to reach fifteen...

Thirty one lives ended...

And why?

What...conceivable...reason...

He's a little surprised to see me. A little amused, even. But his stony face doesn't betray that. Without a word, he lifts his gun and fires.

It takes about five or six shots before he realizes the futility of his actions. At least I was able to act in time to throw up a shield, which is more than enough to defend me. And when he realizes that someone capable of defending themselves is more than a match for him, he calmly places the gun to his temple.

Only to have it ripped out of his hand.

I'm shaking again, but I'm not afraid.

This...thing...this arrogant, self centered little man...

Can you give me any justifable reason why anyone had to suffer because of your personal problems?

I stare at him...into him...

And I start seeing red...

There was no grand scheme here. No schemes to carry out a heist or plots take over the city. No...it was all...

Pointless...

Just a petty little man with petty little problems who couldn't stand the fact that the world would continue without him...

It...makes me sick...

...I...

...Something in me snaps...and a terrible urge wells up inside me...

...And everything is red...

...I smile as he realizes he's the inferior monster...as he realizes he doesn't know anything of true suffering...

To my surprise, he has a second gun. But little good it will do against me.

Except...

BANG!

...It wasn't for me...

...Thirty two.

I've counted thirty two lives lost for no reason.

The monster is slain, but that doesn't comfort me.

It's a long drive home. An unnatural silence is a passenger with us.

Then Beast Boy smiles a little as he holds up a piece of paper.

"Scored the number of that girl I rescued."

"That's not right." Cyborg solemnly says.

Beast Boy's smile quickly dies.

But then Cyborg points at the bloodstain on his uniform.

"Got red on you."

Beast Boy looks down, and...

A second passes...

"DUDE! So wrong! That is so beyond wrong!"

...To my surprise, Robin covers...what appeared to be a growing grin...

"Hey, you got the digits of a girl who nearly died. It's just karma, little man."

"Dude! Just...EW!"

"Relax. I know how to get blood out."

"No way! No freakin' way! I am burning this thing when we get home!"

"It's just a little blood, BB."

"No it's not! It's...oh man...w-why aren't the windows rolling down?! Cy, I swear, I'm gonna blow chunks in here if you don't lemme roll down the freakin' window!"

...Things return to their state of semi-normalcy.

For most of us.

Starfire just stares down at her lap, hands neatly folded. She's still trying to understand what happened.

...I'm not. Innocence isn't a luxury I have.

"Starfire?"

Starfire does, though.

I place my hand on hers and make a silent promise to myself.

"We'll get through this together."